Cabinet Meeting

The cabinets arrived Thursday and have now been mostly installed. I like them. Still to do: countertops, hardware, complete island, and then install stuff like the double oven, cooktop, sink, downdraft vent. I have to finish my research on the beverage cooler for the wetbar; never could make up my mind what I'd like best and what best suited my needs. Here are some pics; I'll be glad when we get the lighting hooked up in the addition so that I can feel better about pictures of stuff in there.



It felt very surreal to me to stand in that space with the cabinets installed. This makes it much more real now, after all these months of enjoying the possibility of the kitchen complex... It is going to be such an amazing place to cook and entertain and to just enjoy this great house in a new way.

Choosing cabinets is another one of those things that I'm glad I'm done devoting brain-power to. I'm glad I stumbled onto Kitchen Vision, thanks to a dinner out at Tumeric Indian restaurant next door to it, and that Tim Stevenson was on duty when I first ventured out there. My early investigations led me to a downtown cabinet business, because I do like to work with neighbors and support downtown as much as I can. But they were the pricey folks, for sure! Way out of my league. Tim's been great to work with.

My memory of the cabinets from when I ordered them was that they would be a bit more red, and I'm very glad that they are not. It's a great finish, and the added touches like the light rail underneath and the crown molding on top make them look very, very stylish. We might even say they're classy. They should hold up well over time, too, and not begin to look dated. I splurged and decided to go with both under- and over-cabinet lighting. After five years of working in a dark kitchen with only a standard flush-mount overhead fixture, I can't wait to be able to see what I'm doing no matter where I'm working in there.

It's very cool that my architect thought to suggest outlets above the cabinets, which I've mentioned before. I'm also glad I added in a desk area next to the fireplace, instead of a second door to the courtyard. It just makes sense to have some workspace in there.

Mid-Day Update: Y'know, I got to looking at the placement of the island in relation to the double-oven this morning, and now I'm getting fairly nervous. We wanted to push the island out away from the fridge enough to give good workspace at the cooktop, and now I'm looking at where that brings it into potential conflict with the ovens. This first picture just shows you the island from its "front" side, where I'll stand when I'm cooking viddles.

Now, from the other side, you'll see where the installer built the kneewall that will serve as primary support for the raised bar for seating on the fireplace side of the island. (Raised bar or sunken cooktop...whichever you prefer.) It seems to come mighty close to the ovens, and I'm trying to imagine what it will be like to stand with my back to the island and open the oven doors to peer at the good things baking inside. Not much clearance, I'd say!