This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their solid wood kitchen cabinets, and I'm taking care of the rest.

If you'd like to be brought up to date, check out the archive in the sidebar for previous posts. I posted recently about the arrival of the cabinets, and now for the arrival of the appliances and some other odds and ends that have been completed.

Since my last post things have been moving along in my kitchen. The end is near and I could not be happier with the way the space has turned out, and I am dying to cook my first meal in probably 6 weeks. This post is going to be a bit random, of different projects that have progressed, and next time I'll show you details of the lighting.

Let me start with the arrival of the appliances. I was so stoked to see them in the kitchen. To finally have a fridge that has a freezer in it...to be able to have ice in my drinks without having to go down to the chest freezer in the basement and bash a bag of ice on the ground. It was a scary sight to see them being moved into the house though, let me tell you. The movers removed all the packaging and then carried them into the house, through my narrow front door in the pouring rain up my rickety steps. I held my breath. The stove, I was told, weighs about 500 lbs. Amazingly, it survived the trip into the house. It was left in the middle of the floor while it awaited the gas guy's visit for the hook up.



The uppers were installed, in about 15 minutes, while I was upstairs locked in my bedroom with the cats. LOVE EM.


Here is a photo of the kitchen with the uppers in place and, well, at least the fridge in place.


Unfortunately, when there's plumbing involved, there's some cutting of cabinets involved. Made me almost want to cry to be honest. The cuts turned out to be not too bad in the end.




Here is a photo of the corner where the plumber made use of the empty space.


The window was finally installed above where the sink will be. I LOVE it - the view isn't the greatest, but I'll have to do something to the side of my shed to make it a bit more appealing. The best part is the contractor said he could install it so there is a nice 8" or so ledge where I could put a plant or the cats could perch. He did such a great job on the framing. It's already cat tested and approved.



The hatch has been made and installed over the basement stairs. I haven't had a chance to paint it out yet, and we're having a hard time finding a shock or something that will make it stay open (and avoid loss of fingers or tails), but it's looking really good. Imagine it gray.


One last minor item - I found the coolest vent covers at Home Depot that work perfectly so I don't have to attempt to paint any the floor colour.

Labels: appliances, cabinets, hatch, plumbing, window

This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their solid wood kitchen cabinets, and I'm taking care of the rest.

If you'd like to be brought up to date, check out the archive in the sidebar for previous posts. I posted recently about the flooring, and now.....the cabinets have arrived!!!

I was sooooooooo excited for the day the cabinets were to arrive. Since Greentea Design is based in Toronto, I had only seen the cabinets on their website, and got a tiny sample (about 3 inches) sent to me in the mail to help with my countertop selection. Friday was the day....and it turned out to be bright and early. There was a bit of chaos early that morning as I scrambled to get some extra hands out to my house ASAP to help me unload the truck, but was quickly forgotten once I got a glimpse of the cabinets. The unloading only took about 20 minutes (once they got a system going it was easy peasy). I wasn't able to take photos of them being unloaded because it was raining that day. The first photo I managed to take was of all the cabinets stacked in the living room.


The cabinets were left there for the majority of the day because I wanted to get the walls and ceiling painted before getting the cabinets in place (turns out the walls weren't ready and needed more sanding - but we found this out after 3 coats of paint and after the electrician got the potlights working). For several hours the cats had a ball climbing all over them.


WOW - they were packed so carefully. I worked for moving companies for a few summers during my university years and I have never seen anything packed like that. For each cabinet there was styrofoam on the corners, then a box that wrapped all the way around, then moving blankets wrapped and taped (with perfect corners, like how us women wrap presents), and then shrink-wrapped. It was like Christmas morning unwrapping each piece. And not a scratch or mark on any piece. What a relief!


All of the cabinets were ready to go once unwrapped - the base cabinets had their sliding doors wrapped in foam and were placed inside along with the shelves, and the uppers had their shelves wrapped and placed inside also. So all we had to do carry them into the kitchen, place them against the wall and VOILA! Instant kitchen! It was literally that easy. Well, the uppers needed installing of course but because Greentea's cabinets are freestanding, there is really no installation required. My boyfriend and I had no problems moving each piece into place. While the cabinets are not made from extremely dense wood, they were not as heavy as we expected them to be. On that note, they are VERY sturdy and their sturdiness made them very easy to handle.

Here are the first pieces we unwrapped, the pantry. Sorry the lighting is poor but it was into the evening before we were able to get to this stage.


Then we unwrapped the base cabinets and put them in their new homes. (I would typically ensure the drawers were closed before snapping photos but Phoebe had climbed into a drawer and I gave up trying to get her out).





There are the uppers - I considered glass doors but I'm REALLY happy I went with this style to match the lowers. And I can put anything in them and not worry about it having to look nice.


And this is the beginnings of my new kitchen. *huge smile*



There has been some progress since that last photo - but I'll save that for next time.

Labels: cabinets