Thankful for a Kitchen

We've been working away on getting the kitchen installed and most of it is now done - with the notable exception of the stove hood and fridge, which are backordered - and with a lot of items that have been reused (like our old fridge, which is living in a hallway), old countertops plus plywood, and old sink, and therefore will be swapped out for shiny new items over the next month or so.  But in the meantime, it's all up and running, just in time to make Thanksgiving dinner on the first floor and not in the basement, a fact for which I am very thankful!  I still need to get some photos of the kitchen with our plywood countertops on but right now everything is covered with pie fixings so it'll have to wait.

Before we got the kitchen finished, Brian also tackled the installation of hallway lights over the big open staircase.  He was working on the wiring when I left to meet some girlfriends for dinner and, midway through, I got a text - "I could've died.  But the lights are up."  I didn't appreciate how true this statement was until I got home and saw the makeshift scaffolding he had rigged up.  I would caution readers not to do this at home but, well, obviously he did do this at home.  And, fortunately, survived.  But this was definitely not OSHA-approved.

First up - the kitchen in progress:

Cabinets installed!  We will have an overhang on the open side of the island with bar stools so we didn't put cabinets in the middle (since there would be no good way to reach them other than crawling under the overhang).  To keep the island secure and square, Brian built a frame where the cabinets would have otherwise gone.  One advantage - it's much easier to reach the supply and drains for the sink and dishwasher with the back open like this!  Eventually a skin will go over the frame so it'll look like one solid island.

Just another angle

And from the other side

Even though our real fridge is backordered, our wine fridge turned up so we installed it in the pantry.  As much wine as we drink and keep on hand, I'm not sure even we can fill this up!

From the doorway of the pantry - just need some cabinet pulls, trim, and open shelves on the walls and we're done here!

Step one to building the makeshift scaffolding

Um...I guess this will work?

Okay, that is a looong way down if this system fails

But here's the payoff - new light fixture in place!