This weekend I did toekicks and light rail. IKEA toekicks are a piece of melamine-covered MDF, with a groove along the back to accept a clip. The clip clicks onto the cabinet legs, and there’s your toekick. The light rail goes along the bottom edge of the upper cabinets, to hide the undercabinet light fixtures, and is a nice little decorative finishing piece.
I fear I have fallen behind – but here, have an update! I’ve been working much less steadily on the kitchen, ignoring it for entire evenings – it’s amazing how much less urgent it all feels when you’ve got a working stove.
Today my floor guys came back to put on the final coat of poly. I’m not posting new pictures, because it looks just like before, only maybe very slightly shinier. But a conversation today reminded me that I never actually showed what the bottom layer of lineoleum looked like. Way back in this post I showed all the layers of floor I had to go through to get to the hardwood.
But I hadn’t discovered the extent of the awesomeness of the bottom layer of flooring, yet. That happened a week or so later, as I got to the middle of the floor on the “eating” side of the room, and discovered a medallion. A star, made of different colors of linoleum, in the sorta-middle of the floor. I say sorta-middle because it wasn’t actually centered – to the room, to the window, to the cabinets, to anything. And the existence of this medallion concerned me, because it implied that maybe there was another one in the middle of the “kitchen” side of the room. Turns out, I was right to be concerned, because not only was there another one, it was also not centered. To anything, including the other medallion. I… there are just not words for the randomness.
So I wasn’t entirely certain about my backsplash during this whole process – I had a really strong vision about a lot of things (red, moving everything to the other side of the kitchen, the half wall…), but for the backsplash, my first and only thought was “white subway tile.” And then I second-guessed myself for several weeks, while all the other pieces were happening – is it too trendy? It is, right now, but it’s also so neutral it’s hard to claim it’s not classic. And I knew I didn’t want to commit any major color to tile – it’s so very permanent. So despite not having any other ideas, I wasn’t certain about the tile. But the image of my kitchen in my head has always had white subway tile – so I gave in to the obvious solution, and today went out and bought nearly $100 worth of tile (for those of you who like budgets and numbers – stay tuned for an eventual “costs” post, to be made once all the details are done/paid for!).
Well, I’m now into that last 10% that’ll take as long as the first 90% did to complete. Thursday, my mom stopped by IKEA for me and acquired some extra toekick, deco strip, those missing knobs, and a few drawer organizers. Friday, my contractor came back for the last time, to finish the molding that makes the cabinets meet the ceiling, and to get his last payment. He was truly awesome throughout this job, and I totally recommend him to anyone in the area.
Over the past couple days, I painted all the trim, did touch-ups on the walls where they got dinged during the install, and re-assembled the living room. I also went and checked out white subway tile at the two big box stores near me – bought one piece from each place to bring home, and it turns out, well, they’re both white subway tile. The Home Depot one looks just a tiny bit grey in the light in my kitchen, though, so I’m going with the Lowe’s one – it’s a whole cent more expensive per tile… which’ll cost me an extra 3 bucks, total. I think it’s worth it.
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I just moved everything back into my kitchen – 8 boxes worth of various pots and pans and glasses and plates and such. And yet, I have 3 entirely empty cabinets. And an empty 36″ drawer. There’s just… too much room! This is amazing and astounding and some other a-word that I’m not coming up with right this moment. My kitchen has too much room. There’s nothing to put in those cabinets. It’s the awesomest thing ever. Ah, there’s the third a-word, awesome. Nothing’s changed visually since yesterday, it’s just that the cabinets and drawers have stuff in them now. I love it!
Well, today I finished putting on doors for the cabinets, added knobs, and moved my fridge back – my kitchen is officially a kitchen again. The doors went smoothly, and I don’t have any extras, so they must all be right. The knobs, unfortunately, I need 2 more packs of – when I changed my sink and the cabinet to its left, I gained 4 drawers where there had been only one, and yet did not buy any more knobs. For now, my biggest drawer and my under-sink cabinet are knobless – they both have good edges to grab so you can still open them. Ah well – I have to go to IKEA for deco strip to hide the undercabinet lights anyhow, so I’ll just add knobs to the list.
Today my parents came over and helped me work on drawers and door installation – we got most of the way done, but there’s still shelving to put in and a few more upper doors to go, which’ll happen tomorrow, I hope. I dropped something heavy on my toe yesterday, so I’m walking pretty gingerly, and ladders are not really my friends right now.
Today my stove moved back into the room! This happened a bit early, actually, since my floor guys are busy for the next two weeks, so the final coat of poly on the floor won’t go on ’til two Wednesdays from now, and so I decided that the stove doesn’t really need that final coat underneath it – I’d rather have my kitchen back.
Today the electricians came, and so instead of square holes with wires sticking out of them, I have switches and outlets! And they actually function! My microwave works – you can even go outside and watch the vent flap blow open as it vents to the outdoors, and the clock on it tells time like clocks should. I’ve got a temporary light fixture over the table area (currently a big open space) because the real fixture that goes there hangs low enough that we’d all be hitting our heads, so I’ll put it in only right before the table goes back in. And I have yet to find a fixture I like for over the sink, so that’s got a hole with wires instead of an actual light, too (anyone with ideas for cool fixtures, I’m taking suggestions. This is one thing I have no vision for, yet). But everything else is there and working!