Closed in... it's spring 2016

The kitchen is taking every available free moment these days. Sorry for the delay in my updates.

Well, it is really spring around here. Spring in Berkeley is a special time for those olfactory appreciators of blossoms. The smell of jasmine is pervasive wafting from every direction. It is singular as the most missed thing when we lived elsewhere.

Gigi is at that fabulous age of sweet, precocious and loving joy. She is always in the fray and deeply loved by everyone in her life. In fact, she has so many fans that it has skewed her sensibilities. She demands that everyone dote on her with great success.

Tristan is taking piano lessons from a wonderful instructor. He has brought Tristan to an entirely new level in a few short weeks. Kassi is taking Violin and loves it. Toly is taking ukelele. He will make hearts swoon on camping trips in a few years. 

The kitchen is leaps ahead from my last post. It is all downhill from here. 

This is the chimney wall. 

I had to repair some of the mortar and deal with the pneumonia hole.

I entertained mortaring it shut and calling it quits but this is exactly where our new range hood will go and I decided to use the chimney as the range hood vent. 

This was my solution. I adapted some venting into a transition for the vent. 

This wall also is where we found some wonderful artifacts of significance.

Yes, that card on the right is a Ty Cobb rookie card. We sent them to a dear friend. Since we are not sportzie people we cannot appreciate them properly.

The ceiling had another treasure trove of artifacts, photos nicknacks and random tidbits. Nothing else of value but interesting none-the-less.

Here is a photo of all the rubble from the walls.

This was where the old window was. I reframed in a smaller window to sit directly above the kitchen sink.

Since this is Tabitha's dream kitchen and she thought she might want a pot filler, I plumbed it into the recirc line to the upstairs bathroom. Now she'll be able to fill large pots directly on Merrick the stove. Yes it is on the hot water line but we have an instant hot water heater that doesn't have the things that are bad for you as in normal tank water heaters.