Kitchen benches in & a bit of a photo bonanza

The kitchen benches are in!  They both have steel frames - I put up photos of the frames a few weeks ago.  The frames taper and merge in with the white formica benchtops.  The drawers at the bottom area matt black Melteca.  With the handles that we have used, they look a little like filing cabinets to me (in a cool way, of course!).  The tall cupboards at the back by the pantry and oven will have white lacquered doors in the same colour as the walls.

Poor Troy arrived for a visit and found himself lugging the fridge/freezer from the barn into the new house in the pouring rain...

The fridge is christened.

So that is now in too, and Regan FINALLY has his beer fridge.

Back to the first photo... The benches are each 3.2 metres long, and are higher than normal so that I don't end up hunching over (particularly when doing the dishes) and hurting my poor back.    The bench on the left has the cooktop set in steel at a lower level than the white formica benchtop (which has the sink in it), so that the pots aren't too high to see into.

The steel is raw black steel that has been powdercoated, so close up you can see all the patterns and marks in it.  We'll have to post some photos of that once everything is not covered in this infernal dust!

The bench on the left is the working bench.  It has the sink and stove in it, and the dishwasher under it.


The bench on the right (which is the harbour side), is the food preparation bench, and has a small sink in it for washing food as I hate washing my lettuce in the same sink that has had my greasy pots in it.  Irrational?  Yes.  Irrationality catered for by my architect as per brief?  Yes.

Taken from the hallway

The gap at the end of the bench on the right will eventually harbour some sort of butchers' block-type unit with a marble top for pastry preparation.  That is in the long term plans.

The first gap on the bench on the left is for the dishwasher.  The gap at the other end (closes to the pantry) is for a planned contrivance to house the pots.  The plan is currently there, but the budget is not willing.  We have enough drawers for the moment anyway...

Taken from the dining room

You can also see from the bench on the right that the drawers aren't actually the full width of the benchtop.  It is the same on both benches.  Eventually (we're all about the long term) we will put shelves or something on those sides.

My parents clearing the floors

A Concrete Man is coming this week to grind a few imperfections in the floor, and then, finally, to seal it!  So we had to take up the cardboard from all of the concrete-only parts, and then sweep it and vacuum it.  My parents were here for a quake-relief visit, and so they were immediately put to work cleaning up our house instead of theirs.  The amount of dust in that place is phenomenal!  I don't know how we will ever get rid of it.

Regan is working on getting the showers waterproofed this week-end, as the Council is signing them off on Monday.  Tiling can then begin.  Once we have a working bathroom, I reckon it's all on...

Now for some gratuitous shots:

And these shots of Regan putting together the black plywood David Trubridge light are especially for Bridget D ;-)

Kitchen begins

The start of the kitchen (sans doors)

The kitchen has started going in!  The first time that I saw it, the doors were on, but they have since been taken away to be painted.  The pantry is on the left, and will be covered by two bi-fold doors.  The oven and speed cook oven are in the middle (covered in blue protective film while Regan is painting the ceiling), with cupboards above and below them.  The slots immediately above the ovens are for platters, although we do wonder if the builder has made that cupboard too shallow.  And then the last gap is for the fridge.  Ah, the bliss of having a fridge that does not ice up at the back!

One bag of floor screed applied to the shower

Regan has obviously been doing more painting (as you can see in the photo, in his dead sexy overalls).  He had a break from the painting during the week (hi Jo, Martyn & Abigail!) and had intended to extend the break this week-end and do some work on the bathrooms.  He squared up the shower bases and mixed his bag of floor screed and started to apply it to the main bathroom - but then discovered that he needed WAY more than the one bag that he was told he needed.  And the only shop in Dunedin that seems to stock that particular brand was closed for the week-end by 3 pm on Saturday!  So it was back to the painting for him.

The plumbers have also been in and installed the fireplace and its assorted bits and bobs.  We've chosen a nice little studio burner, which will hopefully be enough to keep us warm.

Of course, it's not a gyrofocus, but it's quite cute.

Meanwhile Dog Named For an Architect #2 (Frank) is sick, which has been a distraction for us.  He has been poorly enough that he could barely rouse himself to chew offcuts of wood that he shouldn't chew.  Hopefully he is on the mend now.