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Kitchen with White Cabinets and Red Brick

After anxiously waiting for construction to end for more than a year and a half, we moved into our mountain dream home and lived happily ever after.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Six months in, this place is still construction central!

white kitchen with red brick
Biscuit is walking away in frustration.

SN built the kitchen island. It only needs to be stained and it will be finished. But before he can stain it (for some reason), he must first install a brick backsplash.

He must also do these things before he can complete the complicated matter of installing any toilet paper holders. No, not even one. That's right. You think we're here living the dream in our fancy mansion, but little did you know we are storing our toilet paper rolls on the back of each toilet like animals.

In SN's defense, he has also been busy diligently replanting trees, installing light fixtures, and creating an ingenious tennis ball system in the garage. Oh, and remember our Amerisleep Superbed, in all its excessive glory? He has replaced it with a real bed, the party-pooper. (Photos coming soon, probably.)

herringbone backsplash
Having never done this before, SN decided the best strategy would be to start with the most complicated part, the herringbone centerpiece, before moving on to the more simple, standard brick pattern on the sides.

(It's not snark if I'm stating a fact, BTW.)

Yes, the house is a mess. Two dishwashers and we still have dishes everywhere! In my defense, I was forbidden from touching anything, lest I be "in the way." These photos were taken from the foyer and zoomed in and cropped, as photography too close to the kitchen was "in the way."

If not for this silliness, you know our house would be totally spotless, the clean freak that I am.

(See "ha ha ha ha ha" above.)

Vita Copenhagen EOS Feather Light
I waited for the brick backsplash to be completed, gazing out my office window and dreaming of a time when construction will really be over, rather than just fake over like 6 months ago.

snow in new mexico
Have I mentioned it's not just SN dragging out the construction process at our new home? The actual construction crew has been back quite a few times, as it turns out our in-floor* radiant heat was installed incorrectly and no one is quite sure how to fix it. They're going to get our heat working just in time for summer.

*Is there such a thing as out-of-floor radiant heat?

It's enough to make me hike off into the woods behind our house.

Not that I would, of course. Look how muddy it is!
yellow doors
 Brrr! This photo has nothing to do with this blog post. I just like the snowy goodness. We've had almost no snow here this year, which is a nice surprise because I'm certain my boss is going to be upset when I inevitably can't make it to work due to the weather. I can see it now...

"But there's 50 feet of snow."

"You're the one who chose to live in the mountains!" >:(

How do you argue with that?

Oh, and one more thing...

white kitchen cabinets with red brick
The red brick backsplash is finished!

(Yay!!) 

Sans grout! Fooled you with that white wall peeking through, right?

(Not so yay.)

You see so many people on HGTV painting their charming red brick a bland coat of homogeneous white. Keep those people the heck away from us.

Given the chance, I bet they'd whitewash our warm wood ceiling too. Bastards.

stone fireplace in white kitchen
The island still hasn't been stained (and our grout color for the floor ended up waaay too light), but what can you do?

The grout itself is fairly dark, as planned. If only we'd factored in what the dust and hard water would do to it.

brick backsplash to the ceiling
The next step is to bring the brick backspash all the way to the ceiling. Yes, really. I still have no idea how SN plans to do this. He says not to worry. I picture him and his ladder going right through one of those triangle* windows.

*Tetrahedron? Quadrilateral?


Want to see more of our white kitchen photos, sans red brick? I am happy to oblige: THE BEST KITCHEN (N)EVER

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