Phase 1 of kitchen finished

Today I finally finished what I'll call phase one of the kitchen rehab. The steps:

1. Wood trim on doors stripped and refinished

2. Wallpaper (which was painted over) was stripped off the ceilings and walls

3. Plaster walls repaired (cracks and gouges)

4. Repainted the walls

Last but not least was a set of shelves to tuck behind our doors. The problem was our cupboards just weren't big enough to hold everything. So, I used some more of my English Walnut stash to builda big set of shelves. The wood came from a neighbor's tree, which had Died. My dad and I took it down, and I had a tow truck haul it to a saw mill down in Salem. The sawyer (first time I got to use that word properly) cut the tree into two 8 foot sections that he then sawed into 1 1/4" slabs. Most of my investment of time was in getting the slabs ready for my project. $60 of planer blades and lots of time did the trick. I created the pieces, my Dad helped me put them together and glue them. Then they sat for 8 months in the computer room. I stained and varnished them this weekend, and then we "attached" them to the wall. I didn't want them falling down on top of my youngest son the first time he crawled up them like a ladder.