Basement Kitchen

There is a strong possibility that we will have family coming to stay with us for maybe 3 months next summer.  So what do you do when you have 5 more people living in your house with your family of six?  Plus we have 3 dogs.  Well you add a small kitchen and half bath. We had plans to do this "eventually" for our boys.  Sometimes your kids move out then move back in or if they have families and come to stay with us for a visit.  It would be nice to have an area for them that would feel like their own space.

So the cleaning, donating and organizing has begun.  It was a DISASTER down there.  To much stuff!

Here's the before-

What I kept I moved to this corner near the whole house air cleaner-

This corner was piled almost to the ceiling with hubby's work stuff.  We took that out to the shop & barn.

This corner still needs to be worked on -

Here's where the kitchen and half bath will go -

 Here's the before again-

And now-

Dozer thought he was helping me.  Loves his shadows!!

This little guy fell on my head while I was taking stuff outside.  Then the next day I spotted him on the door but he stayed put!

Fridge Cabinet Progress

Over the Memorial holiday weekend we were busy taking care of house and yard stuff.  We were able to check a lot of long awaited things off our to do list!  One of those items being 3 cabinets for around the fridge.

The cabinet that has the interior stained was a cabinet we built for a client that they didn't want and needed something a little different due to some last minute changes.  It just needed face frames and then we built 2 more cabinets and installed them.  They still need scribe moulding, shelves & doors.  The whole kitchen still needs all the trim, drawers and a small bookcase. All in all though it's nearing the end finally!

The fridge was here.

Then we moved it over a space and  temporarily put the tall shelf cabinet in it's place. The reason for that was you couldn't walk between the fridge and the dishwasher if you had either the dishwasher open or the fridge open.  Galley kitchen problems!! lol

That cabinet wasn't wide enough to stay there though.  We built another cabinet to go there and then one for the top of the fridge.  After some leveling and shimming we got the cabinets installed.

Now they just need to be finished.  I am totally out of the stain so I need to go buy some more.  For now though I am just excited to have them built and installed!

Once we do the crown, the crown will run along the top of the tall cabinets and the ceiling.

Now we have plenty of food storage space!  Nice big pantry cabinets.........in love!

Kitchen Doors & Trim

In September we put the doors on the cabinets and then put the end panels on in December I think.

We still have a list of things to do.
-build cabinets around the fridge and small bookcase
-toe kicks under the cabinets
-kitchen trim (baseboards, door & window casing and crown mouldings)
-make the drawers for the cabinets


Here's where we are now with what it looks like.

The cabinets are stained with General Finish Java gel.  Here's how it look before and in progress.

Before & after trim

Open Cabinets

I like the look of open cabinets but I'm never sure if I can keep them clean and organized all the time.   After looking at several pictures online I stained the inside of the 2 cabinets by the window.  Now I can display all my white dishes.  

All the other cabinets will eventually get doors and drawers.  And since we've been working on and off on this kitchen for 6 years now it gives you to much time to keep changing your mind!!

 Here's the other side that will get doors.  That's the crown we made for the cabinets sitting on top of there.

Here is what the white basket looked like........

 Some super glue and spray paint and now it looks like this:

Cheap Kitchen Art

I honestly can't make up my mind what I want to do with this spot.  If I had thought it out better before hubby built the cabinets I would have had that cabinet made larger to fit the space.  Then I thought ok well we could make a small cabinet to go there like one to hold wine or something.  But we don't drink wine so I think for us it would be silly.  Then I tried some hanging metal baskets that I put together and didn't like that either.  Hmmmm

So for now I put up some EAT art that I made from pictures I printed from HERE.  There is a whole collection of different letters and even more stuff in other albums.  I printed them out on card stock and then cut out the letters.  I taped the letters to some brown card stock.  If I had glue I would have glued them but I was out of glue and doing this the cheap way!

As for the picture frame it was an old one I had floating around.  I spray painted the frame with with a dark walnut spray paint and then spray painted the matte with an off white color.  Then I put it all back together.

Here's the spot I can't make my mind up with:

Here's how it looks now:

Still to do:
Trim (crown & baseboards)
Cabinet doors, drawers & shelves
Cabinet end panels & trim

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Kitchen Christmas Tree

After tons of begging from Jacob & Nathan I let them put the tree up in the kitchen. They said it didn't feel the same without it. awww. I told them then when the time comes they'll have to help put it all away since I don't know how much I'll be able to help. I just sat in my chair and watched as they brought it all upstairs, put it together and decorated!

A few of our favorite ornaments:

 

Here are the other trees we put up this year:

Family Room Tree

Living  Room Tree

Front Porch Tree

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