All I Want for Christmas is a Finished Kitchen

Of course, I also want world peace and to win the lottery, but right now I would be happy as pie to have a finished kitchen. My kitchen contractor stopped by last week and we discussed the details: staggered subway tile, black granite, lower cabinet locations, upper shelves. The plan was to be fully operational by Christmas. Yet, here we are on Christmas eve, with everything in boxes.

Good, Cheap and Fast - Pick Two

Traveling and house hunting (not for me) has put a kink in my new kitchen's construction schedule. The plan was to have my kitchen in before the holidays, but my kitchen contractor is backed up with another job. So I had to make do with a temporary IKEA table top on top of the cabinet boxes and make multiple trips to the garage to find miscellaneous mixer parts, during a prime holiday baking weekend. This is where my new motto, "Good, Cheap and Fast - Pick Two" reminds me that I'm waiting for the good contractor and saving lots of bucks. Fast will just have to wait.

I did go ahead and install one of the corner cabinets and lazy susans so that I could unpack the boxes. Living in the midst of boxes is never fun and the exact opposite of calming.

Nesting Phase

I can't seem to avoid it. At last week's designer meeting, I was stuffing hay in tins for Elena's bird nest necklaces. The main character of my favorite show, 30 Rock, had a monologue on a necklace that attracted birds. Just the other morning, I watched a squirrel jump from branch to branch. Yesterday, while standing outside, I saw it. Right outside my bedroom window, is this lovely nest.

Kitchen - My work here is done.

The boxes are assembled and where possible, sitting in their rightful place. I'm leaving the leveling and screwing of cabinets to the wall to the kitchen guy. That way I'm not at fault if the countertop is not level.

I'd say that I spent probably 12 man-hours assembling the boxes. That averages out to about 2 hours a cabinet. Some took longer, especially those with drawers. Again, you save money with IKEA cabinets, but you definitely need to budget and plan for the time it takes to put them together.

Let the Door Speak

I love my entrance doors, but after living in the house for a few days I felt uncomfortable with their transparency at night. I picked up some Gila Window Film because I knew it would let in light, while providing me with some additional privacy.

After a successful installation on the first door, I decided to experiment with the next one. The door to the garage also includes the house number! I briefly considered using the words, "house" and "garage" but didn't want to have to work too many curved lines with my xacto knife. The final product is pretty darn good.

On my way to work, I walk by a few windows with cutouts in their frosting. The quality of my DIY version is just as good, if not better.

Rack up the Garage

I have two friends who are house hunting, so during the weekends I often tag along as they go house hunting. Last weekend, we stopped by a townhouse that must be going into foreclosure. The guy was selling everything, from light fixtures to appliances.

A shelving system is one of the things on my list, so when I spied some shelves in his garage I was ecstatic. Its commercial grade, not those flimsy plastic things. Fifty dollars later, we were loading them up in my wagon. After a quick trip to the hardware store for a masonry drill bit, I drilled the racks into the wall.

What an improvement! I still need to get rid of more stuff, but it is so nice to have a semi-organized garage.

Building a Kitchen on a Budget - Part 1

My wagon continues to earn its stripes. I got the call Friday evening that my IKEA shipment had arrived. By picking up my cabinets from the airport, I saved the $80 delivery fee. I did have to call in the troops to help me get a few boxes upstairs. Anything less than 42 lbs, I can carry by myself. The lazy susans were in the 80 lb range. Thanks again, Gordon!

Assembling the boxes with football games playing in the background is fun. Putting together the first box took me a little over a quarter of a game. By the time we got to the 3:30 PM game, I could assemble two boxes in one quarter. I made a few rookie mistakes, but nothing worth sweating over. I nailed the interior white panel facing the outside and switched out two of the pull outs. If I hadn't told you, no one would have known.

Lesson Learned: Assemble the simplest cabinet first.