Kitchen counter

Tiling is done! Martin grouted it and added a maple trim piece in the front.

Martin decided that the small stretch of counter between the kitchen sink and the stove should be butcher block. Here it is in the "being built" stage.

And here it is installed

Counter is progressing slowly and steadily

Martin and I agree on a lot of things. It seems that when we don't agree, we are at polar opposites.

I have been researching countertops and looking for ones I liked. Martin has simply stuck to his guns. The only counter he wanted was tile (we had left over tile from the kitchen floor)

I bowed to his wishes (probably not very gracefully) and he has started installing the tile counter.

Kitchen in working order

I may not have countertop yet, but I definitely am able to put meals on the table and dishes can be washed afterwards.

A bit closer to the move in date, we will even bring the dining room table and chairs instead of using the folding wooden chairs and one of Martin's work tables.

Kitchen/dining room.

 Ceiling is painted. It will take me a long time to get all of the paint speckles off of my glasses.

And the walls are painted. 

The wall color is a light green. Again the CFL bulbs add a very yellow tinge to the color.

Stove is in place

My nephew helped Martin move our antique gas range to Cornish. I am very thankful for that since it is very heavy and I am not up to the task of lifting my half of it.

Here it is in place and ready to go. The gas is hooked up. We lit the pilot light and the oven to make sure everything was working.

The pilot light was too high (that's why the cooktop lid is propped open). We have decided to cap the pilot light and just light burners as we need them.

We also filled the house with smoke while the beeswax mineral oil coating that we put in the oven burned off. We expected some smoke, but this beat our expectations! It took nearly an hour to stop smoking.

Range hood

 There is always something. Just when things seem to be going smoothly.

Martin picked up a range hood and thought it would be a simple installation. Of course when he cut the hole in the drywall to vent it outside, he discovered that there was a stud in the way of the vent.

With a bit of extra work, Martin got it working.

Kitchen/dinging room

Martin has the area above the upper cupboards sheetrocked, taped, mudded, and primed.

We are ready to paint.

vintage cook range

It all started when my brother, sister-in-law, and mother visited an tigin. I mentioned I wanted a vintage stove like my sister-in-law's. She knew someone who had one for sale.

When my family went home, my brother and sister-in-law got the stove and put it in my mother's garage. That Thanksgiving, Martin and I picked it up

We stored it in the living room in the house where we live. Then it found a new home, our bedroom. It sat for a few years, while other work went on at Cornish.

Finally with the kitchen nearly finished (tiled and cupboards in), it was time to refurbish it.

I spent a day scrubbing and sanding it.

Then part of another day sanding some more.

Then I had a day off from work due to a "noreast'r". Martin stayed home that day and the two of us spent the day sanding and sanding and sanding.

We finally got the stove to the point where we could start putting high heat paint on areas (not the oven or broiler).

We used beeswax and mineral oil on the sanded areas where we couldn't paint.

So after 2 plus days of both of us working on the stove and my initial day+ of cleaning and sanding,

the stove is ready to be tested.

It is painted, waxed, shiny and upright.

Next we move it to Cornish and hook it up to the propane to see if any parts need to be replaced.

I've found a couple of suppliers that have Oriole parts, if we need them.

I am looking forward to having it in place and using it.

boxing in above the kitchen cabinets

 The kitchen cabinets in our current house are open above. That makes them great for displaying some items, like vases, cast iron muffin tin, and baskets. However, I hate having to climb onto my countertop several times a year to haul all of the stuff down and scrub the greasy dust that covers them. Then I have to scrub the tops of the cabinets.

Martin kindly agreed that it would be best to frame in and sheetrock above the cabinets at an tigin. 

They will be nice and neat compared to what I am dealing with now.

the beginnings of a real kitchen

 Just this past weekend, I had the pleasure of helping Martin start putting kitchen cabinets in.

 Luckily he is talented enough to do the job by himself. 

We needed to exchange a damaged upper cabinet before we could move forward.

Martin ended up finishing the job without me.

 He also started the vintage kitchen sink installation. 

Next he needs to refurbish the vintage gas cook range before it can go in.