Cabinets

Well folks,the house just keeps moving right along. The builder had intended to blog the build process on our house for their website. But it didn't happen. They did however have someone taking pictures of the house for the blog and they sent me a link to the album last week.

Our regular spies haven't been sending pictures lately, so I'm emailing the photographer to get her permission to repost some of her photos here. I would repost the link, but I don't know if there's information about us or the build site on her website (like names or street address) or embedded in her images (like gps coordinates). Anyhow, it was exciting to see that recessed cans for some of the lighting have been installed and the fireplaces are in. They should have done the insulation either this past week or next.

I'm heading back to North Carolina June 5–June 11. Just me this time, though. We really can't afford for both of us to go, but there's still so much left to do, especially since several of our appointments on our last trip were canceled due to the tornadoes. The builders have offered their basement as a place for me to stay, which is generous.

The friends we've been staying with have been so generous as well, but I know it's stressful to have guests in your home and we've stayed with them several times already for a week at a time each trip and I really don't want to impose on them further. (Especially since we'd like to keep them as friends.) I've been trying to come up with an appropriate thank you for them—treating them to a nice dinner just doesn't even begin to scratch the surface or how grateful we are.

I got the email from the builder this morning that we're at the point where we need to make a final decision on our cabinetry and order it. We were debating whether or not we should downgrade the cabinetry in the kitchen to try to save some money. In the end though, we decided not to—the kitchen will be one of the most heavily used spaces in the house so durability won out over frugal instincts.

Here are the most recent drawings we received from the cabinetry vendor for the kitchen and laundry room. I've asked for one last change to the butler-type area to remove the wine storage area in the upper cabinets, we really just don't drink that much wine, and neither one of us really likes the way it looks. The pantry will be plenty big enough if we decide we need to store wine.

Here's a frontal view of the kitchen cabinetry.

Well, this isn't quite a full frontal view. This is how you would see the kitchen if viewing it from the keeping room fireplace area. The sink on the back wall still isn't positioned quite right in these drawings, and the butler area is on the right. Just to the right of the butler area is the stairwell and if you were to continue to the right you'd be in the dining room.

Here's the top-down schematic view of the kitchen.
I may rearrange the elements on the outer wall, but this is pretty close to final.

Here's the frontal view as you walk into the laundry area from the kitchen.

In the kitchen view, you can just barely make out a doorway to the left of the refrigerator. That doorway goes into this laundry area. The walk-in pantry would be immediately behind you as you're looking at the laundry cabinets. We have the trim guy making a mudroom-type space that will fit into the open area on the right of the laundry cabinets. The washer/dryer are directly opposite that.

I chose to put the microwave just on the other side of the kitchen-laundry doorway to help keep the counter tops uncluttered. I'll most likely keep the coffee maker and toaster oven here as well. The open space under the cabinets is where we plan to keep the litter box for the kitties.

Here's the top-down schematic view.