It’s tough being so far from the family sometimes, since it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day stuff that keeps us all busy. Happy Father’s Day Dad! Love you.

Knowing that the Greek contingent is heading back to the homeland on Thursday morning and that the kitchen, as it is today, looks about as good as it will look tomorrow (apart from some clean-up), I figure we can finally pull back the curtain on the big picture.

First, the cooktop from yesterday again. AP has been fascinated with induction cooktops for a couple of years and this one is her big baby. The concept behind induction cooking is electromagnetism, which is why we had to replace all our cookware. Pots and pans have to be ferrous (basically, a magnet has to stick to them) for the electromagnetic current that the “burners” generate to react with them. The resistance created by metal manifests as heat, which cooks the food. Pretty cool. Super easy to clean up, much more precise than regular electric ranges (as good as gas, most people say) and has some other benefits that I’ll talk about in a later post.

Did anyone think yesterday’s oven shot looked a little weird? Yeah, this is why:

It's a Two-Fer!!

Upper and lower ovens return to the PHOP.

When AP found out she could still get her double ovens, she was thrilled. The upper is more of a pizza/pie/bread oven, while the lower is (according to the literature) big enough for a 22 pound turkey. We’ll find out!

Side view of the cooktop and the cabinet lights again.

The real reason we haven’t shown a lot of wider angle pictures is because we figured out a way to really use the kitchen space that we had available. After some design tweaks and a lot of pretty granite, here is The Peninsula:

It comes out at a 45 degree angle from the cooktop. You can just see the handles on the oven doors on the left side of it.

The view from the living room.

From the window. There's a ten inch overhang on the side where we'll have a couple of stools eventually.

Sorry for the brief, less than inspired post — I came down with a cold on Saturday and was lucky to have the energy to get pictures, let alone be witty. Enjoy!!

The new oven, still with it's packaging on...

Instahot, faucet, with the undercabinet lighting in the background.

The cooktop -- I'll let Anastasia explain this one a bit, but that's some of our new cookware on the right.

The new sink, with the valance and sink light above. The counters are all covered in the cardboard that Keith uses to protect them while working.

For now, a few pictures. The last one, at least, will give you some unambiguous detail.

This is actually what our granite countertops look like.

Counters, cabinets, hardware. Do you really want to see any other pictures?

Same old window, surrounded by all kinds of new prettiness.

That ended up being half true. Anastasia called me at eight, having just pulled off the road and into a parking lot because she was feeling dizzy. We spent the morning getting her a doctor appointment (she’s fine — likely an inner ear virus) and she was all set to ship me off on my flight when a work conflict came up. It’s a testament to our relationship that it didn’t bother me at all to miss my flight to join her at the doctor, but I was really, really upset when I had to miss it because of work.

Anyway, the plus to being home this afternoon is that we got to drool over the new counters together. More good stuff to show today and we’ll probably have some bigger shots tomorrow, to last you through the weekend.

New wiring. What could be under the cabinets and require electricity?

Ahhh. THAT'S what they were, Margo...

WOOO!!

Maybe we’ll show a picture of that when we get it. Won’t be until tomorrow at the earliest. One thing that we can confirm will not be returning to Kitchen 2.0 is a soap dispenser. Sadly, with the new layout, there’s not enough space. I know that’s hard to believe (how big is a soap dispenser, really?) but you’ll understand when you see the sink/countertop layout.

Now we shock you, by showing pictures with actual stuff.

An ACTUAL picture, with discernable pieces! This is the under-cabinet home for the new microwave.

Feeling lazy? Me too.

This is where I'm going to keep my papers.

So today we have a collection of pictures. How many clues they offer about the direction we’re taking, I’ll leave to you.

Anastasia has discovered a love of scrollwork.

Control, control, you must learn control!!

United we stand, but dividers are very important for keeping things from falling over sometimes. Not sure why that phrase never caught on.

It's not too busy, is it?

Salvador Dalistasia.