So many little bits to go, but we do see the light at the end of the…island, to coin a phrase.

We have a long punch list which we are s-l-o-w-l-y working through as we find time. Rather than tackle the last two big projects on our list — both of which will consume at least a weekend each — we are settling for scratching off some smaller items on the list, just to keep the train moving.

For example, in the “knee” cubby (the place where you put your knees when you are sitting at the island), we installed a swanky (and, if I’m being honest, a bit expensive) pop out electrical outlet.

The device was about $80 and came with a screwless cover to match the other outlets in our home. I reasoned that if one’s knees accidentally grazed on an open outlet, a guest might be in for a bit of a shock, so doing this pop out version seemed safer. We wanted at least one extra outlet on the outside of the island for things like plugging in a vacuum cleaner or a piece of equipment.

Given the price, we were dismayed to find out that the cover would not fit properly underneath the counter. It was too dang tall by about a 1/4 inch! #*&@!

Because it has only taken us 6+ months to install the thing, it was hardly returnable. So, we put our mind to fashioning a cover out of scrap wood. We *think* it will work perfectly, but the proof will be in the pudding. Just in the process of priming it tonight and then we will slap on a couple coats of the same paint we used on the island so it should disappear as much as possible once installed.

We also started building out the baseboards on the perimeter of the kitchen. You’ll remember that we are building the baseboards ourselves from scratch and slowly changing them out throughout the house. Our walls and our floors are ridiculously crooked, so caulk will be our best friend going forward.

These below still need to be caulked, primed, and painted, but we like the bulked up 6″ baseboards, a far cry from the previously puny ones we had before.

In preparation for tackling the monster/beast at the end of the kitchen, we started a few preliminary tasks. We had always planned on having a floor-to-ceiling bank of utility cabinets here, but — and I do feel a little bit guilty saying this — we already have plenty of storage space elsewhere in the kitchen, so we actually are going to do a decorative topper in what will look like a built-in piece when all is said and done. Here it is before it is trimmed out and “built in,” just to get an idea of what we’re thinking:

We had originally intended to paint these black, but between then and present day, our absolutely certain/nobody-was-going-to-talk-us-out-of-it/ positively-for-sure decision has wavered. We polled every guest that walked into our home over the past few months and the consensus was: Paint It White.

You’ll recall with the “stacked or off-set” tile poll we did, that I don’t do so well with community consensus! It just makes me want to do the opposite so dang bad…

But, in this case, the white has grown on me and actually adds symmetry to the pantry cabinets directly across from them on the other side of the kitchen. So, white it is!

We will not get away with not priming and painting them, however. We have matched our cabinet paint and will use that to give the whole kit and caboodle a new coat of white paint, although we have many moons to go before we get to that final step.

Today, we knocked out one of the small preparatory tasks which involved bolting the two cabinets together on the inside so that they could not separate down the line. In the next week or two, we will trim out all of the front facing connections, fill all of the shelving holes and sand them, caulk everything within an inch of its life, and then finally give it two to three coats of primer and another two coats of paint.

And, in those little bits of downtime (ha — what even is downtime?!) we’ll just be over here tackling an ever-growing punch list of small, but important tasks to round out the project. We hope to finish by the end of the June, because seriously, this timeline is getting embarrassingly l-o-n-g.