I am way behind in posting about the bathroom remodel, and so much has happened! It's really looking good and functioning well for us. So, I will try to roll out a few updates over the next week or two. First off, we have a new hall closet!

Here it is in process with drywall installed and the doorway cut out. This closet was previously a shower opening into the bathroom (obviously). As I have mentioned before, we decided it was silly to have a separate bath and shower in a very small house with minimal closet space. Plus, the shower stall had old tile and very poor ventilation, which meant that it was always disgusting and mildewy, no matter how hard I scrubbed it.

Dakota demolished the interior of the shower, disposed of all the gross tile and cleared out a space for the closet. Then, he very carefully cut a new doorway into the hall. This was all very dirty and sweaty work. I contributed by getting our son out of the house for several weekends. He is completely enthralled by Dakota using power tools, and it would have been impossible to do anything with him at home laughing, grabbing and getting covered in plaster dust.

Here is the shower door with one side covered in drywall. The other side was closed in shortly after, and we inset a little box-shelf for displaying artwork and knick-knacks. (I'll share an image of that soon.)

Dakota redid the plumbing in the bathtub, and installed a shower head so that we now have a nice bath/shower combo. This is much better for our needs, and the new white tile around the bathtub is much easier to keep clean.

We had some oak flooring left over from the kitchen remodel, so we were able to continue the wood floor into the closet.

As of today, the closet is still under construction. It has a door, but both the closet and door need paint and we're still deciding on the best shelving configuration. Still, I am already so delighted to have a place to store vacuum cleaners, strollers, extra paper towels and all the other bulky items one would like to have close at hand. Pretty soon, we'll even have a bar up so we can hang up our jackets instead of draping them across the nearest chair.

It's the little things...

Dakota has been working on the bathroom floor for the last several weeks, and it's almost done. Pouring a cement floor is not an easy process, and there were some ups and downs, but I think it's going to end up looking great.

Here's the radiant floor heating that was laid down on top of the subfloor and covered with the first layer of cement. It has a thermostat with a timer attached, so, once it's all hooked up, we'll be able to set the timer for just before bath time or when we wake up in the morning, and then walk into an already-toasty room. This will be a nice change from our old, drafty, freezing one.

Dakota made the first cement layer fairly thick and added some pea gravel to make each bag of cement go a little farther (cement is expensive). Because he was mixing using a drill and a special mixing attachment, it was a bit difficult to get the consistency just right.

For a moment there, he thought he'd added too much water and that the first layer would never dry--especially since it was also cold and rainy outside. If cement doesn't set properly, the only solution is to break it up and start again. This was a scary thought considering we had a fairly expensive heating element hiding underneath that cement. Happily, it eventually dried.

Notice the toilet in the bathtub in the photo above. That was a little tricky since we only have one bathroom. Happily, we have some friends who live close by and, well, I don't mind peeing in the bushes in a pinch.

Next came two more thin layers. For the last layer, Dakota rented a better, stronger drill to mix the cement. This helped the consistency immensely, and I know if he did it again he'd have gotten the right mixing tools from the start.

Here's the last layer going down.

Now, the floor is dry and cured, and Dakota will do a little patching and add a seal and then it's done. There are already a few cracks and water spots on the floor, but we like it that way. It adds a nice patina to the surface. Perfect is boring.

This weekend, Dakota will hang the rest of the drywall and then start work on the cabinets. The floor was the most difficult part of the remodel--well, besides tile, which we're hiring professionals to do--so hopefully the rest of the work will go fairly quickly. I can't wait for the cabinets. Right now, all our bath products and cleaners are in boxes in the bedroom. It's a bit cramped.

The bathroom remodel continues to progress, although I don't think it will be done by Christmas. I'm guessing the finish date will be sometime in late January. Still, much work has been done.

Dakota finished demolishing the floor and added several layers of subfloor, plus insulation. We have an open crawl space/basement below the bathroom, so quite a bit of cold air seeps in from below.

Then, he ripped down all the bathroom walls and added denim insulation in between the studs on the exterior wall. Unlike the last time we insulated the walls, I did not have to drive down to Los Alamitos to get a roll of eco-friendly UltraTouch denim insulation. These days, you can pick some up at your local Home Depot.

And, he removed the ugly metal window and installed the attractive wood one with a little transom at the top. Made by Dakota, of course.

As with everything, there are a lot of steps and small details that will make everything take more time than we'd like. Plus, all the work has to be done on weekends. But, overall, the remodel is progressing nicely. Next up, cement floor!

It's official. The bathroom remodel has begun!

For a little back story, let me just say that I really hate our current bathroom. It's a decent size, but there are many problems. My main issue is that it's got a separate shower and bathtub. Our house is very small (945 ft2), and we have barely any closet space, so to waste even a little space on a shower stall seems silly. Plus, the stall is badly vented so it gets mildewy and gross very easily. Then there's the cracked tile floor, shoddy cabinets and grubby, poorly caulked sink. Oh, and we haven't had knobs on the bathtub for about a year, which means we use vice grips instead. Classy! When you add it all up, it means that our bathroom never really looks clean, even after a good scrubbing.

We've been wanting to redo the whole thing for ages, and now that the deck is complete, Dakota is tackling the bathroom in earnest. Here's a "before"-ish picture. He's already removed the sink fixtures, drawers and cabinet doors, trim and part of the wall.


The wall has actually been out for months after Dakota pulled a chunk down to see what he was up against. Here's the accursed shower stall.

And the area around the toilet.

The plan is...

• New cabinets and cement counter top/sink
• Remove the shower and make it into a hall closet
• Tile around tub and make into shower/tub combo
• Add radiant floor heating
• Put in cement floors
• New light and quiet vent fan
• New window
• New dual-flush toilet

We're keeping the tub and using inexpensive white hexagonal tile from Home Depot, so it shouldn't be too expensive when all is said and done (I hope).

Dakota took out the cabinets and floor yesterday. I guess the masonry underneath the tile was pretty weak and crumbly, so he took it all the way down to the subfloor.



The hope is to have it all completed in a little over a month. Since we only have the one bathroom, we need to have access to at least the bathtub and toilet most of the time. Hopefully that remains possible. At least one of us is in diapers and can be bathed in the sink in a pinch.

I am really excited about the prospect of a clean, well-organized bathroom and a hall closet. If it's done by Christmas, I won't need to ask Santa for a single thing.

It was a lot of hard work and heavy lifting (by Dakota), but our family now has a great-looking, comfortable deck. We've actually had it for a couple of months, but, as you may have noticed, I'm having a hard time juggling working motherhood and blogging these days. In my completely unbiased opinion, it's one of the nicest decks I've ever seen.

Here's the Ipe decking going down. It looks really great, and I'm excited that it doesn't need any stain or seal. Dakota used this installation system that means all the screws go in on the underside of the boards. So there are no nails or screws on the deck surface. As he says, it's like an interior floor.


Here's the fencing clamped and ready to be screwed in. We had custom galvanized panels made with 2x2 inch wire squares. They let light and cool breezes through, but keep little ones safe.


Dakota installed a corrugated metal roof over about 2/3 of the deck to provide shade and shelter from rain. I think it looks really great, and it's kept the deck dry through some recent storms.


We don't have a table out there yet, but we will soon. For the moment, we just have a couple of chairs and a lot of open space. It makes a great outdoor play area for our son.

Summer is here, and Dakota decided we were not going to go another month without our deck. Our house is small and we don't have central air conditioning, so it makes life so much better to have that extra outdoor space. The French doors in our kitchen/dining room open onto the deck, and when it was warm enough, we'd eat meals out there. I'm looking forward to doing that again, especially now that our son will be joining us.

Three weekends ago, Dakota got the structural part of the deck all built. Impressively, he did it all by himself, aided only by scaffolding and clamps. That dude is tough. The structure is made of treated lumber, but the actual deck itself will be built using Ipe.

Ipe is a tropical hardwood that is so hard and dense that it's both rot and bug resistant. It also won't need to be sealed or painted. So, that means less work to install and maintain. Of course, it's also more expensive that traditional deck woods like cedar, but since our deck is fairly small, we think it's worth it. This Ipe is FSC certified, so it's supposed to be sustainably harvested. There's some argument on the Internet as to whether this is really possible when you're talking about wood cut down in the Amazon basin. Like many products marketed as sustainable, it's difficult for the consumer to know what to believe.

Dakota got a lot of the Ipe decking down last weekend, and should finish up this weekend.

The wood starts out red, but will eventually fade to a grayish color, much like the unsealed cedar on the chicken coop.

After the deck is down, we're adding galvanized wire "fence" panels between the railing posts to keep all dogs and babies from falling. The hope is to eventually grow vines on panels for privacy and prettiness. There will also be a slanted roof over part of the deck, where we'll put a small dining table for the previously-mentioned outdoor dining.

I can't wait to enjoy cool summer evenings as a family.

Long-time readers of this blog know that our kitchen remodeling project was an epic undertaking. Dakota took everything down to the bare bones and then slowly and carefully rebuilt the entire space. It took a looooooong time, mostly because Dakota was building the kitchen on nights and weekends, but the project was completed several months ago. If you're wondering, it functions beautifully and looks amazing.

Click here, here and here for some "before" photos.

We've made some more progress on the kitchen lately, and I really mean "we" this time, since I was able to help paint the walls.



Dakota, who knows way more about paint than I do, thought we should use Benjamin Moore Natura Paint. It's a zero VOC paint, so it basically has no scent, and is presumably better for your indoor air quality. Benjamin Moore has a lot of great color choices, and we finally decided on "Seedling," which is a light green. The idea was to paint the walls a lighter, but very similar, color green to the cabinets. Dakota got this idea from an architect he really admires who did a gray-on-gray kitchen. While the idea of an all-gray kitchen didn't sound so good to me, the green on green looks really nice.




The Natura Paint went on very smoothly, and I was able to get two coats on the walls before Christmas. Dakota then added a simple, white trim around the French doors and along the base of the walls. The overall effect is really nice and bright, and having the walls painted makes the kitchen seem so much closer to completion.

Another exciting kitchen improvement was the removal of the ugly, aluminum windows over the sink and the installation of new wood windows. For this endeavor, Dakota built a scaffolding on the back corner of the house.



There was a lot of discussion over what type of windows we should install, and whether we should buy them or Dakota should make them. As you may know, windows are extremely expensive. So, we ended up going with the significantly cheaper Dakota-made variety. Let me assure you, though, they do not look cheap. Dakota decided on a simple casement style, which I think was a great idea because the single pane allows us to fully admire the view. The view from the sink, which looks Northeast towards the San Rafael and San Gabriel Mountains, may actually be the best view in our house.



We also spent some time discussing whether we should use regular glass or double-glazed with a layer of argon/krypton gas in between. This second variety, also known as insulated windows, are more expensive but also more energy-efficient because they prevent heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. Initially, we thought the insulated windows would be a good idea for our "green" remodel, but after thinking it over, we realized that the benefits in our kitchen would be pretty minimal. We don't have central heat or air, and since we already insulated the kitchen walls and the attic, we're in pretty good shape when it comes to heat gain and loss. So, we went with plain old glass.



To help with energy efficiency, Dakota added a small awning over one of the windows, which will shade it during the summer and also keep rain off the sill. It's invisible from inside, but did a good job keeping the window relatively dry in our most recent rain storm.

There is still work to be done on the kitchen, although, at this point, it's mostly details. Dakota is adding more trim, touching up some paint, refurbishing a small window and finishing up the new door. Then we just have to get the tile installed, and we'll be done! Hopefully all that work can take place in the next couple of months.

Now that we're almost done with the kitchen remodel (a year later), Dakota and I have started planning the next step in our DIY effort to make our home nicer, and, more importantly, more space-efficient. Phase 2 involves remodeling the bathroom.

Our bathroom is in decent shape at the moment, if you ignore the cracked tile floor, mildewed grout, lack of knobs for the bathtub and damp, unventilated shower. We do ignore these things, but we don't particularly like them. Plus, it seems crazy to have a separate bathtub and shower stall in a 945 ft2 house.

The current plan is to take out the shower and turn it into a closet that will open onto the hall. This will provide a much-needed place to store the vacuum, mop, ironing board and other bulky items that are currently propped in various corners. We're also going to replace the floor, make new cabinets, install a new countertop and convert the tub to a tub/shower combo. AND, we're getting a new sink. Well, new to us.

In fact, we already got the sink. Our design plan is to go with the vintage/modern look that worked so well in the kitchen. So, we have been on the lookout for a nice vintage sink to go with the tub we've already got. For the last few months, we've been poking around architectural salvage stores, including Pasadena Architectural Salvage and even Hippo Hardware in Portland. Both places had nice old sinks, priced between $125 and $175. That's an okay price, but not great.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to stop by the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Pasadena, just to see what they had available. When we pulled up, I was delighted to find a huge selection of vintage sinks stacked in the parking lot. They had about 20 or 30 different models of various ages and conditions. After poking around for a while, we picked our favorite: a white, porcelain sink that kind of matches our tub. The price tag for this lovely vintage sink? $15!



Not only do we get the environmental benefit of buying a salvaged product instead of new, but the sink was a crazy bargain. And, the money we did pay goes to Habitat for Humanity, a great organization. It's a win-win-win. I am thrilled.

Hopefully, our luck will hold out, and we'll find some other bargains for the rest of the bathroom project. Right now, we're thinking of using cork for the floor and Dakota's going to make concrete countertops. We're still contemplating the material for the tub/shower walls, although we might go with Corian, because Dakota is becoming a certified fabricator. Plus, no tile means no scrubbing grout.

The bathroom remodel won't begin until the kitchen is completely done, which will probably be another month or so. But, hopefully, it'll go relatively quickly. It's a smaller room and the plan is less ambitious than a floor to ceiling kitchen remodel. I'll let you know when the work begins.

There have been some nice additions to the kitchen lately, including two walnut and glass cabinets. Dakota brought them home a couple of weeks ago, and they're now installed on either side of the sink. I think they look beautiful. One of the cabinets will hold our Heath plates and bowls, and the other will hold prettier glassware, including a cool vintage set my sister found for me at a thrift store.

I like how these cabinets are both decorative and functional. They sit near the sink and dishwasher, so it will be easy to put clean dishes away. And the glass fronts allow guests to find a glass or plate without having to open every cabinet door.

Walnut is used as an accent throughout the kitchen. There's a walnut shelf above the stove, and a few little walnut drawer faces around the kitchen. The one below is on the pantry drawer which separates the upper and lower shelved areas. It holds tea. I think the rich, dark color of the walnut looks great with our green cabinets. Like most things in the kitchen, the accents were Dakota's idea. He's a pretty great designer in my unbiased opinion.



On another note, I am so happy to finally have a pantry. Considering that we used to keep all our pasta and canned goods on a open, messy shelf below a tabletop, it's a relief to have everything organized and safe from bugs.

More kitchen improvements will happen soon. I think we'll be getting paint this weekend, since we've decided not to use Milk Paint on the walls. (More on that in another post.)

This month has been a productive and exciting one in our ongoing kitchen project. The most exciting improvement, so far, has been the addition of much-needed countertops.

A couple of weeks ago, Dakota brought home the lovely, hand-made butcher block top pictured below. It's smooth and square and perfectly sealed, and I love it. Plus, the butcher block is a re-use, so the materials cost nothing. Dakota cut and glued together strips from a hard maple tool* left over from a custom table he made for a designer client.



The butcher block top sits on our kitchen island. It sticks out farther on one side, so that we can pull up a stool and eat, or just hang out in the kitchen while someone else is cooking.

Last weekend, Dakota cut the Richlite counter tops that we're using in the rest of the kitchen. Richlite is a sustainable building material that looks and works in a way similar to slate. Here's the description from the company website:

Richlite® is primarily paper treated with phenolic resin and baked to create a solid sheet. During the production cycle the layers of paper are gradually crossed-linked with each other to create solid, durable sheets... Richlite® paper comes from pulp that is derived from trees, which is produced from paper purchased from FSC-Certified sources and/or recycled paper.

In addition, if you're concerned about such things, Richlite doesn't off-gas and they create no hazardous waste during the production process. It comes in a variety of nice colors, it's scratch and stain resistant, and you can put hot pots on Richlite without damaging it. In the shot below, the countertop hasn't been sealed yet. In it's final form, it will be a bit shinier.



Dakota took great care in cutting our one sheet of Richlite because, besides being green, it's kind of expensive. Although, I believe it's pretty comparable, price-wise, with many other common countertop materials. My parents actually gave me this particular sheet of black Richlite for my 30th birthday. Great gift, huh?



Tomorrow, the painted cabinets are getting a layer of sealant. Once that's done, we'll be able to attach the countertops permanently. I am pretty psyched to have them installed. It's been okay working with cutting boards on top of raw plywood cabinet tops, but having the real surfaces will make cooking so much nicer. And, our green kitchen will be that much closer to completion.

* A "tool" in this context is a sort of mold around which a metal table top was spun and bent.

We've been lucky in Southern California this summer. So far, the temperatures have been relatively mild. But, the last week or so, it's been hot enough to weigh in on the effectiveness of our cellulose attic insulation. And my decision is... it's great!

During the day, the house is noticeably cooler than the outdoors. I haven't found myself sweating while doing light cleaning on a weekend afternoon. And when I come into the house after working in the garden, it's feels nice and cool--not stuffy.

That's all great, but the true benefit of the insulation comes at night. Previously, the house would feel warm and stuffy in the evenings. Now, it's just as cool as it is outdoors. On previous summer evenings, we would sit in the living room with as few items of clothing on as possible, trying not to sweat. Now, I wear thin sweatpants when relaxing after work. It's that much cooler!

My final piece of evidence is this: We have yet to dig out window air conditioner out of the garage. The insulation is working so well that our bedroom is cool enough to sleep in with just a few open windows and a ceiling fan. The cheapskate in me is delighted by how much we're saving on our energy bills.

So, with all this evidence, I can definitely recommend that everyone upgrade their attic insulation to R-30. The insulation, along with the solar attic fan and our indoor ceiling fans, has really made living in Los Angeles without central air conditioning easy. And even if you do have central air, I'm sure your energy bills will go way down with the new insulation.

Last weekend, we started painting the kitchen cabinets. As I mentioned before, we're using SafePaint, which is a variety of milk paint made by The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company. Milk Paint is formulated from three, non-toxic ingredients: milk protein, lime and natural pigments. Regular milk paint tends to give a thinner, streakier finish, which would work in a room with a more "old fashioned" style. But since ours is a more modern kitchen (with Shaker influences), we went with SafePaint, which goes on thicker for more even coverage.

Milk paint can be a bit tricky, as we learned, because it comes as a powder that you mix with water. Our first batch was a little lumpy, possibly because we didn't use the right utensils to stir it. To smooth out the lumps, Dakota added more water. This didn't change the color at all, but the paint went on a little thin, as you can see on the cabinet doors above. Happily, that was just the first of two coats--after a coat of Dunn-Edwards Eco-Shield Primer--so it didn't matter too much.

He's Nigel helping Dakota paint the pantry.



Eventually, we found that mixing the paint using a whisk works well. The second batch of paint was thicker, had fewer blobs and went on in a more uniform manner. In addition, we found that SafePaint goes on much better with a brush than with a foam roller. I don't mind using a brush on the cabinets, but painting the walls or ceiling that way will be rough. So, I think we're going to try a different roller--perhaps a fluffier one--on the walls and see how that goes.

SafePaint has absolutely no odor, and drips wipe up easily with a wet rag. And I suspect that if your overly-curious dog should happen to accidentally lick some of it up, he'd be fine. So far, despite the minor lumpiness issue, we're pretty happy with the product.

After two coats, I think the cabinets look really great. As Dakota pointed out, we picked a very "masculine" green--like something you'd see on the wall of a British pub. (The color itself is called Lexington Green, which fits.) I am having a hard time imagining how things will look once the cabinet doors are on and everything else is installed and painted. But right now, the painted cabinets go nicely with the oak floors, so that's a good start.

Last weekend was all about putting finish on the new wood floor. At this moment, it's bright, shiny and clean... and almost done.

Four coats of finish were smoothed on over the course of the weekend, and I believe there are two coats left to apply. (Dakota decided to do extra coats since the kitchen is such a high-traffic area.) We ended up going with AFM Safecoat PolyureSeal BP, which I purchased at Architectural Coatings + Design Center in Tarzana. I found them to be very helpful and accommodating in terms of the finishes and amounts I needed.

After doing some online research, I decided that AFM Safecoat was the right choice for us. It's a water-based clear finish with very low VOC. It's also LEED qualified and contains no formaldehyde. I got a gallon of gloss and a quart of satin. Safecoat isn't cheap; the gallon ran me about $100 and the quart was about $30, but I think it's worth it to have a less toxic floor.



According to the directions, for a satin finish, you apply several coats of gloss first, followed by the satin. Here's an image of the first coat going down, after a thorough floor sanding by Dakota.



The smell from the Safecoat PolyureSeal BP was fairly strong, but dissipated after about an hour. I've never refinished a floor before, so I can't really speak to how the odor compares to other polyurethane finishes. I do appreciate that the odor doesn't linger after the finish dries.

So far, the new floor looks great. The finish is shiny and smooth, and the transition between the old floor and new floor is noticeable but not distracting. Predictably, I now want to refinish the floors in the whole house. But I think for now we'll have to focus on the kitchen. (One project at a time!)

Check that out! That is new flooring going down in the kitchen. New, beautiful, oak flooring--although, part of it isn't "new" at all. More on that later.

Dakota started laying the floor last weekend, after spending the previous weekend sanding down the subfloor. He rented a big belt sander from the hardware store, and spent a day scraping and sanding the subfloor until it was smooth, clean and ready for the next step. Here's Nigel enjoying the sanded subfloor.



Last weekend, the real floor started going down. It's red oak, to match the floors in the rest of our house. Most of the flooring was actually made from the old oak cabinet doors that were in our previous kitchen. Dakota had this brainstorm a while back, and I got really excited about it because reusing the old doors is both money-saving and environmentally friendly.

Cutting and milling down the cabinet doors and then adding a tongue and groove was quite an elaborate and labor-intensive process. (It's possible Dakota regretted his brilliant idea once he actually put it into action.) But, the result is really lovely. Dakota was able to make enough floorboards to cover most of the area, but we did have to purchase some new boards to complete the floor.

He's hoping to get all the floor down before next weekend, when my parents come to visit. One thing we still need to do is decide on an eco-friendly floor finish. I'm current searching the web for a low-VOC and as non-toxic as possible polyurethane finish. Suggestions are welcome.

Yesterday I had to work from home, so I decided to take advantage of that fact and have the attic insulated. This is something we've been planning for a while, and I wanted to get it done before the weather became too hot. So, I called up Everguard Home Insulation and made an appointment to have cellulose insulation blown into the attic.

Everguard was great. They showed up as scheduled, after calling to let me know they were on the way, and communicated clearly about what they were planning to do. They worked quickly and cleanly and got our 950 ft2 attic filled in about 45 minutes. Impressive.

The fluff blob above is a small chunk of the cellulose insulation that escaped from a roof vent. As you can see, it's basically fluffy, ground-up newspaper and cardboard fibers. To make it fire retardant, the cellulose is treated with boric acid. Unlike fiberglass, cellulose is recycled, environmentally friendly and non-toxic. So, it's perfect for green-living homeowners, like us.

And for frugal homeowners, the Southern California Gas Company offers a rebate of 15 cents per ft2. So we'll actually get a check for $142.50 after we submit our paperwork. Plus, there's a 2009 federal energy efficiency tax credit for 30% of the cost. So, we'll get even more money back when we file our tax returns. With all those incentives, I can't imagine not insulating the attic.

The new insulation, combined with some old, compressed and ratty fiberglass that was already up there, brings our attic insulation level up to R-38. This should hopefully make a big difference in how hot it gets inside the house this summer, especially when combined with new wall insulation, new ceiling fans and our solar attic fan.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Who needs air conditioning! (Check back with me in July for the verdict on that one.)

There's been a lot of activity in the kitchen since my last post about the remodel. Dakota has been working very hard on the sink, cabinets, dishwasher and some very cool details.

Here's the sink corner in progress. We acquired this beautiful sink from Dakota's dad, who got it in some kind of flood sale in Iowa. It's big, deep and I love the apron front. Dakota put in all new copper plumbing and installed the garbage disposal in this special way he learned from his dad. It's working out wonderfully.



As a design element, Dakota made beadboard out of the old Douglas fir cabinet cases. He milled down the wood, cut it and added a tongue and groove. The beadboard covers the divider between the refrigerator and cabinets, and one side of the pantry on the other side of the kitchen. Eventually, it'll be painted green like the cabinets. I think it's a really smart reuse of wood from the old kitchen.



On the other side of the fridge is this awesome detail, a spice cabinet. It's a shallow cabinet built into the wall that will hold all our spice, vinegar and oil bottles. Dakota has big plans for this little nook, but I don't want to ruin the surprise.



Also installed is our Fisher & Paykel double drawer dishwasher. Dakota made the custom fronts and added simple chrome pulls, which will eventually go on all the drawers and cabinet doors. So, this is kind of a preview of what the rest of the cabinets will look like (minus the green paint). The dishwasher is working well so far, although we had some problems with the drawers closing initially. I think we've worked it out, though.



Just a couple of nights ago, Dakota brought home the shelves he made for the pantry and upper cabinets. The main part of the shelf is birch with a front edge of walnut. It's a small detail that will only be noticeable when the cabinet doors are open. It'll also match some other walnut details in the kitchen that are still to come.



Things are really coming along on the remodel. In a few weeks, the floor will probably be installed. That should make a big difference in how "done" it looks. I'll be sure to post about it.