Weekend 124: In Which The Progressive Kitchen Progresses a Little More

We can hear you asking, "Wait, what happened to Weekend 123?  They promised us non-stop weekend action!"

True, we did.  But we didn't promise prompt updates. 

Here's what happened last weekend:

We held a grilling party and Michael built a fire pit for atmosphere.

Sadly, the wind picked up too much to use it.  But we are prepared for the next one!

And we turned a $3 thrift shop purchase into a baby entertainment unit.

She doesn't mind the wind.  It helps keep the black flies off.

And that was our weekend.  Okay then.  You're up to speed.

Weekend 124 arrived and we started to look around for what could become our next major accomplishment.   We haven't been able to dip more shingles because the weather has been a little rainy, so shingling was out.  We had pretty much used up all of the materials we had on hand, so major projects were out.  What could we do?  What could we do? What could we do?

Suddenly Michael said, "If I go and buy a sheet of plywood, I bet I can do something cool in the corner of the kitchen."

More specifically, he was talking about this part:

That right there is a $40 Ikea bookshelf that Cherie has owned since about 1998.  Since we moved into the house it has been a critical, yet unattractive and marginally functional, part of our kitchen, holding bowls, pans, cookbooks, baking supplies, and approximately 752 different kinds of tea.  It has always been a placeholder for the multi-purpose cabinet we had planned for the space.  Since this is a small house, we try to utilize space wisely, which is why when we say "multi-purpose" we really mean that this little three foot area was planned out as a message center/bookshelf/baking cabinet/wine rack.  Got all that?

Anyway, Michael went and purchased the plywood and we ripped it down.  Then Cherie and Annabel went on with weekend business and tried to ignore the banging and sawing and nailing happening in the kitchen.  And then–bada-bim, bada-boom–this was sitting where the Ikea bookcase used to be:

One slab of plywood as a countertop later we had our multi-multi-multi-multi-purpose built-in.

It holds cookie sheets, bowls, tea, small appliances, and wine.  A pitifully small collection of wine, by the looks of it.

And Michael even had enough plywood left over to make an upper cabinet to give all the cookbooks a good home.

We hadn't originally planned on an upper cabinet here, which explains why the phone jack is so high.  We may move it down someday, but until then we'll just try to not bash our knuckles when we answer.

And if we do injure ourselves…well.  That's why the wine is right there.