The Kitchen Remodel: Phase 20

And then there was a backsplash.  Almost.

My parents had some packs of tongue and groove cedar planks they weren't going to use, so they passed them on to us.  The Dad got them cut and installed over the weekend.  He found some tiny trim at Home Depot that he used at the base, and where we ended it on the peninsula wall.  I wanted it to be flush with the cabinet, rather than the counter, so the trim was just to finish off that edge.

You can see the strip of trim up against the counter here.

Some more in-progress shots.

He pulled the stove out to do the wall behind it.

You would not BELIEVE the crap that was back there.

Marbles, hot wheels, a toy phone, magnets, a plate, all kinds of stuff.

Here's the whole wall, finished for the night.

I moved all my stuff back over to make dinner.

Does everyone have this much crap on their counters?!

I blame it on a small space.

I went into this 100% certain I would paint the cedar the same white as all our trim.  

Now, I'm kinda undecided.

Kinda.

It's SO pretty.

The cedar is gorgeous.

But it's a lot of wood with the back of the peninsula and the floors.

So today I started priming the small section to the left of the window.

And it proceeded to suck up primer like crazy.

I put a total of four coats on, then got my first coat of semi-gloss trim paint on it tonight.

Sorry, it's dark, no pictures yet.

I put the coffee makin' stuff back over there, and will check it out in the morning to see what I think.

Until then, I took a bunch of pictures of the other side with the natural wood.

Feel free to voice your opinion.

Just ignore all the junk piled on the counters.

It looks really busy to me in photos, but I wonder if, once the ceiling is finished, and if I painted the soffit the same color as the cabinets, if it would still be too busy.

Yes, I know there's a lot of "stuff", but this is real life and it's stayin'.

The blue glass might blend in better up against white, though.

Or should I just suck it up, get over the destruction of the beautiful cedar, and do what I was originally planning - paint, paint, baby.

Your two cents - GO.....

The Kitchen Remodel: Phase 19

You guys forgot all about the kitchen remodel, didn't ya?  Well, it isn't done yet, ahem, but I did finally commit to a finish for the back of the peninsula.

I wavered back and forth between doing some sort of faux board and batten, painted wide planks like the ceiling, and different colored stained wide planks.

I even looked into the contact and wallpapers that look like planked wood.

Then, one day, I remembered the stack of lath from tearing out all the lath and plaster walls.

I ran out to the shed and grabbed a couple pieces, had The Dad hold them up while I stood back to look, and 15 minutes later he had the nail gun out.

They already had some variation in color, so I didn't even have to stain them.

We just went over them with the sander real quick, to knock the biggest slivers off.

You like our helper?

The Dad made vertical lines to mark the studs, adjusted the outlet box so that the lath would sit behind it, and that was pretty much it for prep.

We left the baseboard up because the lath is just barely thicker.

If we had mounted it on top of the lath, it wouldn't have wrapped and met up properly with the piece of baseboard on the end of the peninsula.

You can see here how the reveal is just barely different.

To finish the edge, The Dad dug out a piece of trim that had come off of the original kitchen cabinets.

He just sanded the paint off and cut it to size.

This is one piece shy of being done.

I can't remember why, but he didn't get that last piece cut until the next day.

I didn't take any fancy "after" photos because the trim wasn't finished yet.

But it is now!

All the baseboards and quarter round are officially nailed up, caulked, and painted.

In the dining room AND the kitchen.

Woot, woot.

Plus, he got the trim up around the ceiling in the dining room.

Ya know, 'cause we only planked the ceiling in there two years ago.

Ha!

The trim made a huuuuge difference, though, and really finished it up.

I'll get some pictures of everything for another post.

So now, the only things left to do, before a FINISHED kitchen, are backsplash, outlet and switch cover plates, plank the ceiling, ceiling trim, and install the lights over the peninsula.

Sooooo close I can taste it.

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