I have come to realize over the past weeks that a kitchen is something that is never truly finished. You just keep working at it until you stop.
This weekend I did the last major structural work on the kitchen prior to the arrival of the countertop and subsequent completion of the plumbing work (sink, dishwasher): I fastened all the assembled base cabinets to the back wall. I took a deep breath and looked at what I had done, and then thought, Argh. Filler panels and molding. So next steps are to scribe the filler panels on the right end of the cabinet run, where we ended up with about two inches of space between the last cabinet and the wall, and screw them into place; figure out how the molding strips are attached and get them installed; then probably (if I’m lucky) install the countertop.
Of course, our stuff hasn’t been waiting for kitchen completion to start sneaking its way back in. I cooked Julia’s French “hamburgers” last night and now there are a few extra pans in one of the cupboards. And this morning I placed a couple of salvaged pieces of the old counter on the cabinets by the stove so that we could cook safely and keep the cooking spatters out of the new cabinets. Now all we have to do is get the oven working…