What [Kitchen] Dreams Are Made Of

Dad has always said: Renovating a house is like eating an elephant. The only way to stay focused and calm is to take it "one bite at a time." And he's right - but sometimes it helps when you have a village eating.

So when cabinets were scheduled to arrive the first week in October while Todd was out touring Europe, we invited my generous and fun uncle Howard up for a visit and some serious cabinet hanging.

I think I've probably told you this a million times, but despite the lure of prebuilt, fully finished kitchen cabinets, we went the route of custom breakdown cabinets in order to get a custom kitchen for a price that did eat up our entire budget. If you have not done a kitchen overhaul before, I will just tell you that our total kitchen expenses were more expensive than every car I've ever owned...combined. And that's the DIY version. Was it worth it? Well, it's pretty obvious that I cannot bake a pie and cook a fancy dinner in my car, so, yes.

Being the not-so-precise and error-prone person that I am, I was banned from helping with cabinet-building, but hey, I'm not complaining. Howard, unlike the Trom clan, has patience, and that goes a long way when you're setting inset doors and installing complicated stove hoods. In just a week, he and Dad were able to set all the cabinets and prepare for counter installation and gas hookup the following week.

The cabinets look gorgeous. And the counters? Divine. It's one hundred percent my dream kitchen, and I'd bet some money that it might be the dream kitchen of quite a few folks that have seen it.

Cabinets after delivery - 11 pallets full!

Pendants going up above the island

Microwave drawer installed into the island

All the cabinets in place and set.

Watching the granite folks bring in the marble slab our 10.5ft by 5ft island (or continent as it has also been called) was one of the more nerve-racking experiences of this whole process. There were five workers bringing in approximately 1000 pounds of marble over a muddy yard and into our house, and according to them, it took longer to bring the slab inside our house than it did to fabricate it.

But - doesn't it look fantastic?

ArabescatoVagli marble slab with a sink cutout for the island

A job well done!

After getting the cabinets and counters installed, it was back to the punch list for the rest of us. Hanging trim is a seemingly continuous process that luckily Todd took on with pride - and frustration. Mom and I followed closely behind the caulk and paint while Dad took on the more complicated finishing touches throughout. 

Someone told me recently that the punch list - the nearly endless list of the little and unrelated tasks that collect towards the tail end of a big project like this - is always deceiving, and that person was right. But  (!) we've finally passed the point of equilibrium with our personal punch lists, and finally, finally, the list of the things to do is growing at a slower rate than the list of things we have done. 

The days are getting shorter, winter is nipping at our toes again, Mom and Dad's eminent departure is just around the corner, and we've scheduled a housewarming party to celebrate the future completion. I've been waiting 17 months to say this. Bittersweet though it may be, the end is near!