Lights, Pocket Door, Action!

Getting the pocket door ready to hang was as easy as picking out a door handle. I grabbed this one off amazon:

 I went with the satin nickel because I want it to match the drawer pulls I will be putting on my cabinets. Installing the handle was very easy. I just followed the directions and cut out a notch with a jig saw. I stuck the handle on to see how it would fit. If you look closely in the picture though you can still see the outline of the old dummy handle.

 So I filled the outline and old screw holes with wood filler, sanded it a little and then touched up the paint. I didn't do a perfect job, and if you put your face up really close you can see the imperfections, but from a distance I am confident no one will notice that this has ever been anything but a pocket door.

 And wala! Here is the beautiful hung door, illuminated by the brand new can lights! The door was fairly easy to hang and slides in and out wonderfully. Now It just needs trim around it (easier said then done. I have no idea how to do that part!) and it feels like such a special piece of this new kitchen. Oh yeah, and I have a plan for frosting the glass. I'll post about it when I do that part.

 Speaking of the lights, my brother was able to come fix up all the electrical for us. He put in new can lights and see those two blue holes in the picture here? Those are for hanging some pendants over the bar. We'll install those after the cabinets are in so we don't break them.

 He also centered the box for the dining room light over our dining table:

 And moved the range hookup so we could move the range to the other side of the kitchen. He did a bunch of little stuff too, like making new outlets appear just where I need them, and moving light switches to the right places. I am so lucky to have such a talented brother!

 And here we are tearing out the laminate floor we laid over the retro linoleum. This is going to be a big process tearing out all this linoleum, but I have a few tricks we learned from other projects that I'll share later.

So that's where we are at now. The cabinets came in to the store we ordered them from last week, and there has been some disappointment there. The color and finish of the cabinets are gorgeous, but the quality is lacking. Two of the cabinets were damaged in the shipping process and we may have to wait a couple weeks to get them replaced. It is very discouraging because not only did I hope to have the cabinets installed this week, but now I am worried they will all fall apart on me in the near future. I am going to the store today to work with them and see what can be done. Wish me luck!