My kingdom for a furniture finisher!

Its been over 2 weeks since I took possession of the (naked) kitchen island and it is still sitting under plastic sheeting in the garage. Unfortunately, finding a skilled furniture finisher is not as easy I had assumed. To make things more difficult, the island was made of maple, which is a particularly difficult wood to stain without blotching. I learned this from my brother in law (Allen), who is in the furniture finishing supply business.

I spoke to several painters who "claim" to be able to do high quality finishes on maple. However, when I asked them specific questions (after coaching from Allen), they seemed more like just "painters", not "furniture finishers". So the search went on.

Finally, Allen recommended a colleague of his who lives in the DFW area and is a master at finishing cabinets and furniture. The catch - he does it on weekends in his spare time, so I will have to be patient and wait my turn.

So I wait....

Hedge Devastation (aka major pruning)

Note - the "before" pics are not really true before pics. I had already taken a first pass at trimming the hedges before I remembered to take pictures

Left Side - before and after


Right Side - Before and After

View from Den (Before and After):

New Arrival - the Island

Today I took possession of a brand spanking new custom kitchen island - naked (unfinished).

After living with the temp island for a few months and researching carefully, I designed an island and had a woodworking shop build it.

Now all I have to do is clothe the baby. Seems simple enough - stain and varnish it, then put on a top. Yeah, right.....

Here it is...

Room with a view

The den offers a great view of the deck/creek area. It also offers a lot of large windows to be cleaned! ;-)
Also, since the room (all of the ground floor) is tiled, it needed a rug to soften the sound. Boy, shopping for a rug sure was difficult (did I mention I HATE shopping and decorating).

Many thanks to all the friends I bugged to get opinions on "decorating" the room.

More views of the den.....

No man is an island, be every kitchen needs one!

After a few days in the house and traversing the huge space in the middle of the kitchen, I decided I needed an island in the middle to fill in the gaping space. Also, when accessorized with a couple of small stools, it would serve as a convenient counter for qiuck meals.

So... as a trial, I fabricated a few versions of a temporary island so that I could ascertain the usefullness and also the ideal dimensions.

Here are some incarnations...
Trying out styles of granite:

The current one - still in use today!

A man's place is in the ... kitchen????

This place has a HUGE kitchen area with a great view out onto the deck. Pretty much wasted on someone like me, although I am more inclined to cook these days.
Some pictures of the kitchen and breakfast room area.