IT IS DONE!

Yes, you read right. Shawn wants to hang a few under-the-cab lights but otherwise, the Warren Kitchen adventure is over!! The long awaited cabinet doors (which were not even here for the party we had this past Sat.) arrived...yesterday, of course. But hey, they're here and that's what matters. I'm sure the Customer Service Rep. at the cabinet place will be happy not to hear from that annoying Julie Warren person anymore.

To those of you who joined us in celebrating the new kitchen...thank you for being there! For those who were enjoying some sunny spot elsewhere on their spring break, we missed you. We had a most excellent evening (and some parts of the following morning.) Shout out to Tony Pepe and the apple-tinis...although I'm pretty sure Shawn was cursing you on Sunday morning.

We didn't crack a bottle of champagne over the counter to christen the room or anything. I would consider it more of a swearing-in...swearing that we'll never do this again. Ha, ha. In a 90 year old house there are always more home improvements to be done.

As for our "wall words" contest...we have a spot on the wall on the header that we are considering equipping with a stencil-like quote made out of vinyl letters. We thought we would have a contest at the party to see what kind of Kitchen Quotes our guests could come with. While we loved, "Eat Me" and "No Soup For You," we were thinking of something a little more philosophical. Shawn did love the supposed Klingon Proverb of "Revenge is a dish best served cold." I thought we could still do better. A little less violent perhaps. So check out the poll and tell us which one you like and we'll let you know the winner! Or send us your submission. We're open to new material.

Thanks again for your interest in our little project. It's been fun sharing.

Encountering the New Counters

The counters are in and the kitchen as they say in Star Wars is "fully operational". Hurray! Unfortunately the photos I have so far, don't show the counters just yet. Next round...I promise. You'll get the idea of how things are anyway. We still have to put the pulls on all the doors, finish the tile backsplash, and all kinds of other odds and ends. Most of our food is still waiting in boxes for the arrival of the pantry. But...the girls and I spent a lovely snow day yesterday enjoying sitting at our new breakfast bar. Which, as we found out, is great for lunch, hot chocolate after playing in the snow AND for writing Valentines.

Cabinets are hung in the kitchen with care

Yes indeed, the cabinets we have are hung and put in place. The microwave is operational (fewer trips to the basement now)and it's really starting to look like a kitchen. To quote an ol' Grouch..."Oh, I love trash!" especially when I have a double unit pull out drawer (and a thing which tells time) now! I think I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Pickle in the Middle

OK, so we tried to steal third and got sent back to second. Today ended up not being quite as fruitful as we had hoped. Our pantry has missing pieces, one cabinet is 36" tall and it's supposed to be 36" wide, a drawer bumps into the handle of the oven so it won't open all the way AND some of drawer fronts are missing. Well, YOU wanted to hear about the kitchen so I guess that means the bad with the good. The best part of today was Audrey and Lindy making the biggest cardboard box from the cabinets into a clubhouse (Audrey even napped in it this afternoon!) Let's just hope it doesn't take another 4-6 weeks to get replacements! Stay tuned.

Rounding Third and Heading for Home

Yes, friends, we are in the home stretch. Don't ya just love baseball analogies?! You would even think that a baseball analogy was intended with the title of our blog..."Catch Our Kitchen Story." But in reality it was Shawn's idea to pay homage to my father (who would have simultaneously loved and been completely frustrated by our project) who used to say when he would come home from work, "what's for dinner...'kitchy, katchy, korri'?" This apparently was how I used to pronounce "chicken cacciatore" when I was little and it stuck with our family. Just a little Wang-Warren family history there for you. Not sure why I thought that important but it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to.

The additional cabinets arrived today from Kraftmaid! For those of you who don't know, back in November Shawn and I had a very interesting and worthwhile experience at the Kraftmaid outlet in Lordstown, Ohio. Something we definitely recommend if you have time and patience. We were able to get all but 5 of our cabinets. So...the ones we had to order came today! Many thanks go out to my cousin, Tony, who was generous in sharing his employee discount with us. (See you in May after your zoo trip. We're counting on you for dinner, Castinas!)

The sink base is installed so we should have a working sink within a day or two! Hurray! Over the course of this week, we should have the upper cabinets and microwave installed as well. The stove is hooked up and I did cook on Saturday although it's going to take a little getting used to...this cooking thing, once again. One day last week, Audrey asked what we were having for dinner and my reply was, "whatever number you want Mommy to call."

Our family room area is essentially complete but not yet accessorized (see photos of before and after)and just waiting for us to move in the table and chairs for every day eating. The breakfast bar is not complete yet as the counters will be one of the last things put in place. We'll keep you posted! Thanks to everyone for their interest in our project. Can't wait to have you over to see it!

Nothing To See Here

You know how on all of the decorating HGTV shows they always start out showing the designers tearing out the old, painting the walls, re-doing floors, etc? Then, fast forward to the reveal and the happy homeowners? TV rarely shows all the detail work. Cutting the minute trim pieces, putting the outlet covers on, hanging the crown molding, returning the refrigerator that has stopped working....oh, did I forget to mention that?!?

Yes, the little slice of heaven turned out to have a freon leak from hell. We had the appliance for a couple of days before we actually had time to hook it up for water/ice. When we did, we heard these odd gurgling noises for a day or two. We called the service dept. and had a visit scheduled, but lo and behold, the gurgling noise stopped, so we canceled. The next day Shawn went to grab some ice and found nothing but a puddle. We had no cold whatsoever. Thankfully we were too busy to transfer food to the new fridge so we didn't lose anything. But now as I write I am watching the two poor saps from Sears who have to move out the old and bring in the new. I guess, as my father used to say, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

So we don't have any exciting pictures to show you at this point. You'll just have to wait for the big reveal!! The last of our cabinets are coming next week so hopefully things will fall together once those arrive. We are anxious to get things put away and get the house/cooking back to normal. We were having a conversation a few days ago of how many days the girls have actually eaten vegetables. "Well, there was that one day when we had lettuce on our hamburgers" OR "when we were at so and so's house, they ate broccoli!" Ha, ha. Not much longer now.

Sanding and Priming and Painting...oh my!

We were able to get a lot done this weekend with the extra day off thanks to MLK Day. As the title indicates we sanded, primed and painted ceiling and walls. "Tennessee Haze" proved to be a most satisfying color choice. We are pleased. Since the bathroom was also dismantled due to the replacement of the floor in there we decided to repaint (see the photo of my assistant painter who loved every minute of getting to help!) a slightly bolder color than what had been in there previously.

But...the piece de resistance pour la weekend was...the arrival of the new refrigerator. (Cue angels singing in the background.) It's a beautiful thing. Par usual there was a dent that this author didn't see because it was up high and not in my line of vision (and not very substantial quite frankly) but the 6' something person who resides in our household DID notice it and was quite irked! However, I think he is calmed by the fact that compensation for said dent will most likely cover the cost of the over-the-range microwave so thank heavens for small blessings. We'll live with the dent.

Plumbing is roughed in, additional lighting is up, and the bathroom is put back together complete with new toilet. Another major glitch over the holiday was that the first corner cabinet (the crux from which all future cabinets will be set in place) would NOT fit in any of the doors in our house! So the back had to be cut off and then put together once it was placed in the kitchen. C'est la vie!