Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Kitchen Complete

First , a brief milk update. No letter from Company A to cease and desist the selling of raw milk, no contract to review (requiring we do not sell raw milk if we sign with them ) from Company B. The milk truck from Company A continues to pick up our milk every other day and direct to the farm consumers are still coming on those days the milk truck does not come. We wait with raw milk infused breath. Its not "baited breath" because we don't sell fish.


 Now , on the lighter side. The remodel/facelift of the kitchen in our 120 year old farmhouse is complete and I could not be happier. The cabinets are the same as they were when custom built around the 1940's. Deep, wide, solid and with new paint. The old cabinets were white and the new are chocolate brown. New hardware from Menards. Cheap but stylin'. The backsplash is Italian tile bought at clearance price from BJ's liquidation in Kankakee. Since it was a closeout deal it did not come with any bullnose tile so trim was done with simple quarter round painted the same shade of brown.

The wall words above the sink came originally from Jethro Tull and were put into vinyl by a talented woman I found on EBAY at about 1/2 the price I would have paid elsewhere. That particular phrase had been running around in my head for the last 35 years. Finally it has found a home , leaving room in my crooked cranium for other really important song lyrics like "Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy " (too late) from the Eagles 1972.

To the right is a new work table I bought from IKEA who by the way also provided the most excellent butcher block counter top. IKEA is fabulous for so many things. You have to install, and or assemble their items yourself but one can save a ton of money. The wood countertops were 25% less than those I found online of the same size and quality.


The floor was my big splurge. The old floor was just a plywood sub floor painted green to match the green ivy wallpaper. It was always chipping and needing touch ups. The new floor is by Armstrong and is super strong vinyl. Everything from filthy dirty men to filthy dirty steers end up walking on my kitchen floor. It had to be durable, washable and mildly attractive, much like me.

7 comments:

  1. wow! sounds like your hard work paid off to a newly remodeled kitchen (I happen to love the tiles used for the backsplash).

    I'm wondering how much it costs to repaint your cabinets - you might be surprised but it's probably not that much more to install RTA (ready to assemble)kitchen cabinets. Check out Wood Cabinets to view some beautiful, solid wood cabinets.

    Enjoy your new kitchen! :)

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  2. We redid our kitchen last year and it too had a plywood floor for years. In fact two bedrooms still have plywood floors painted. They too are chipping right now. Our cabinets are beautiful but the fit and finish just isn't what you found in the 1940's. A new kitchen makes the cleaning so much more satifying. Congradulations!!

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  3. Beauty Reno! We've been watching the home reno channel and it's amazing what you can do in half an hour. Obviously you took a little longer. I am a big fan of the toughest linoleum you can get for a country kitchen. We've been considering rubber checker plate..

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  4. BTW, can't wait to see how the Milk Wars turn out. It's just nuts. If you sell raw milk around here you would run the risk of going to jail. Mind you it's the same environment that says bake sales are illegal. Can't recall the last time some one got sick from eating Auntie Mable's huckleberry pie. However listeria outbreaks from major "packaged meat" procucers here have killed a half a dozen people..

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  5. Not to "MIlk" an issue, check out this article about our local milk woes:

    http://www.theprovince.com/health/Home+Range+heard+discouraging+word/2921410/story.html

    Were actually not allowed to drink raw milk from our own cows

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  6. I love the warm, rich colors in your kitchen!

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