Kitchen changes
So a few weeks ago we had a mysterious puddle form in our kitchen. At first I thought the dogs spilt their water bowl, so I cleaned it up and went about my business, then the next morning it was there again, so I cleaned it up again and moved the water bowl away. When I walked by a few hours later the puddle was back! It was raining outside, so I decided it must be coming in from outside somehow (it had been raining for 3 straight days, and not an unreasonable conclusion). I went and got Aba, he investigated on the outside and crawl space , and said, nope. Not from that! Great. we began to explore. (This is the same day by the way one of our freezers went out, and the repairman deemed it un-fixable).
We got an appliance dolly and started to dewedge the fridge. The brilliant people who owned the house before us wedged the fridge between the cabinets like a church key in an arch. It was the most interesting kitchen construction idea I have ever witnessed, but with our house, you never know what you are going to find!!! Anyways I digress, Aba got he fridge out and discovered the waterline to the ice-maker was literally spraying everywhere! When they had jacked up the kitchen floor (to install new support beams in the cellar) it had somehow gotten caught on something and broke.
“Turn off the water” Aba yelled, I went to the kitchen sink, pulled everything out and proceeded to cut off the water to the sink only to find they had attached the ice line on the wrong side of the cut off valve! Water was still flowing. I ran down to the cellar and cut off the water to the whole house. We then went about fixing it. Which involved a trip to Lowes. 3 trips (and several hours) later, we finally fixed the break in the iceline with a little plastic connector that works like a Chinese finger trap. At this point Aba figured since we finally got this *&%# fridge” out, lets put ours in (the one we bought when Navi was a baby, hauled from CA to CO and then over here to NY) my beloved maytag with climate control crisper’s and a locking water dispenser.
We went to retrieve said fridge from the barn, and brought it over, only to discover that it was 1/2 inch too tall! Not only that, but neither side counter, nor the counter tops on top of them were attached to anything. Aba called his good friend Bob, and together they redid the kitchen in that corner. They raised the upper cabinets to fit the fridge in ( and to the same height as the rest of the upper cabinets in the kitchen, these were hung lower for some reason???) moved the bottom cabinets, secured them to the wall, and worked over many counter options, from piecing the old ones together, getting a new one made, using marble, granite, pouring a concrete counter, etc. What did they come up with??? A fabulous maple butcher block! It is beautiful, and now I have a dedicated baking station for rolling out breads, baking cookies, frosting cakes, etc. Lots of hard work went into this corner, and it looks like it!
What do you think?
before
after
My beautiful new counter top is by Catskill Craftsmen . And I have been instructed by Aba and Bob to keep it dry and oil it regularly with Butcher Block Oil
Simply gorgeous!!!!