I've mentioned him occasionally in my posts, but never introduced him.  Howie is the name I use for one of the early owners of our house.  When he bought it in the 50s, the house was on nearly 40 acres, and there wasn't much in the way of development nearby.  Howard D. was a builder by trade, and the room above the garage was his office.  There is a long, narrow closet that he stored blueprints in.  He partitioned the property of the house off into parcels and built houses on all of them.  He had two new streets put in along the edges of the property and named the streets after himself; apparently he had a bit of an ego, too.

Howie was also a craftsman.  He built the cabinets in the kitchen, as well as the vanity in the bathroom and a hundred other things.  I see his handwriting all over things all the time.  The bottom of drawers, the innards of the cabinets, the inside of walls; they contain his measurements or hastily scrawled notes to himself.  I've also found a tool or two of his in the crawlspace when I was spending way too much time in there working on the radiant floor.  The previous owners of this house never used the barn for more than storage, and there is a lot of lumber in there from him that has now found its way into various projects of mine.  Working in this house is like stepping in the footsteps of a man I never knew, but I'm getting to know.  It adds some level of sacredness to projects that makes me more careful.  I want to respect his legacy, as I hope someone someday respects mine.

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Dad framed out the new entryway today.  Recall that this used to be a narrow, short hallway with a closet.  He used about half of the lumber that Howie left me... there is a LOT of wood in this thing.  I can't wait to see it drywalled.

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Well, it's almost time to start the big one.  The kitchen.

Let's start with some honesty.  I'm not a home-improvement novice, but I'm probably pretty close.  The wife and I moved to this house from a townhouse, and it's needs were few.  The biggest job we did there was the kitchen renovation.  We refinished the cabinets, installed Hardwood Laminate, new laminate countertops, appliances, and paint.  I had to do some minor drywall repair on the backsplash when we removed the tile.  My home improvement budget was minimal, and so was my tool repertoire.  Happily, that little townhouse ignited within me the spark of DIY, and the desire to find a house that wasn't perfect already.

So, back to the kitchen.  This one is going to be huge.  The biggest DIY I've yet attempted.  Onto the pictures.
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That small open area between the oven and the upper cabinets is where the women were to put the food for the men, I guess?



The view from the small area between the counter and the cabinets

Note the baseboard heat, here.  The house is on a oil-fired boiler.  The heat produced is just awesome.  It doesn't dry you out, like our heat pump did.  I dont like the look of the baseboard radiators, though.  We'll be taking them out and exploring...other options.  [wink]

The space between the fridge and the peninsula is not made for fatties.

This oven is too narrow for a 9x13.  Eek.

These cabinets were hand made by the 2nd owner in the 1950s.

Note the grooves in the doors, here?  There's radiators inside the cabinets!   This was a totally custom job.

Living Room to left, Sunroom to right

From the living room entry way looking to the sunroom

So there you have it.  Out kitchen, the last time you'll see it in a non-construction state for a long time.

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