House Build

 It was so great to see the cabinets started in the kitchen...and they were also installed in the pantry as well as the bathrooms upstairs.  It looks like the basement will be started tomorrow.
The installation company makes the countertops on site, to ensure a perfect fit.  At that point it will really start feeling like my designs on paper will be coming to life.  It's so weird: I'm excited to see it in real life except I already know without a doubt how it will look.  I'm going to say that that's a very good quality to possess, otherwise women like me would cost their husbands an awful lot of money on renovations for designs gone bad.

The ivory island looks really good contrasting with the dark cabinets, and later on with the addition of the dark walnut countertop on the island and ivory on the espresso cabinets, the contrast will be even more evident.  Had we had endless amount of dollars to spend, I would have loved to take it a huge step further in the kitchen as we feel it to be the heart of the home.  I love it when designers make cabinets and elements in the kitchen look and feel like pieces of furniture.  That was my goal with the island, and I'm hoping it will be a focal point.  Even the simple addition of "feet" at the base of the cabinets instead of toe kicks or in front of the toe kicks seems irrelevant but they really do make a statement.  Crown molding  under cabinet lighting, and glass doors all add to the furniture feel in a kitchen.

The butler's pantry is only now missing it's countertop and shelving on the walls.  As you can see it is not huge, and maybe most of you think I am making a big deal out of this 'need' of mine to even have this addition to our house.  But I'm telling you, I have wanted one of these ever since I was little and locked myself in the butler's pantry at our family cabin, playing tunes on my "drums" (hanging pots).  I have always loved that space.  A butler's pantry is out of the way, gives the owner an extra preparation space, and is functional in it's purpose.  And maybe I'll shut myself away in my new pantry as well, and bang on my very own pots and pans.

This view was my first as I came around the living room corner, and I was actually shocked at how expansive the kitchen actually was.  I thought, wow, that's our kitchen!  Then my second thought was "yippee" at how the color on the wall warmed up the space with such dark cabinets.  Everything, and I mean everything in the house was designed around the paint color.  The undertones in the espresso cabinets, the warm glaze on the ivory cabinets, the brushed striations in the dark flooring, as well as the creamy coffee color in the lino as well as the carpet...they all have this color in common.  It was all riding on the paint to bring it together, and so when the painter surprised me by color matching my swatches I was worried.  I'm glad it worked out.  All of it may not seem like much, but to me, that was key.  And if it was any other way, or if it looked 'off' and the undertones ran cold rather than warm, I would have been repainting the entire house.  I suppose to me, this house is it for keeps for a really long time, so I want it to be the way I want.

This is our master bath, and man that shower looks big.  Our last ensuite shower wasn't big enough to wash my hair in...in fact the shower in the travel trailer we rented last year had a bigger shower!

That prompted us to have a nice big shower, for the extra room of course but also so that we could share. ;)

Here's all the extra drawers.  Yes drawers.  All of the bottom cabinets will have drawers as well as the island.  The only doors are on the uppers.  See our pullout spice shelf that will go right by the stove in the upper right?  Yay!

The basement is all trimmed out, and all the doors in the whole house are hung.  The painter will spray the trim and doors at the same time before painting the walls.
The last two weeks has seen next to no activity, and part of the ceiling will have to be redone as the drywall joins can be seen across the length of it.  Due to that I'm not sure if the house build will be set back much, and everything from now on will just be added here and there.  So I will update once in a while when things have changed in a more noticeable way so as not to be too boring.

That was such a long ramble I'm not sure if I want to post my yummy cupcake recipe or not tonight.  Maybe I should save it for another post?
Nah.
Charlie helped me make cupcakes today as she's been hankering for them for some time.  I wanted easy no fuss, and she just wanted chocolate.
So I went with a self-frosting cupcake that was a part of my childhood.
I've posted the recipe before, and I will again as I found a bit of a different version with a bit more cream cheese added.  And who doesn't like a bit more cream cheese, am I right?

Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes

Filling:
8 oz soft cream cheese
1/3 c sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Mix together and set aside.

Cupcakes:
3 c flour
2 c sugar
2/3 c cocoa
2 tsp tacking soda
2 cups water
2/3 c veg oil
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat 350 and line muffin cups.

Stir dry ingreds together make a well.  In large measure cup add wet ingreds and pour into well.  Beat for 3 minutes.

Use an ice cream scoop for fast and accurate filling of cups, about 2/3 full.  Add a tbsp of filling onto the top of batter.

 If you do this right you will end up with two dozen cupcakes plus two more, and the filling will last to the end!

Bake for 22 minutes (adjust to your oven) or till toothpick comes out of cake portion clean.



















Try to wait for them to cool 5 minutes before you eat them but it's perfectly normal to not be able to do so.