This Week, in the Not-Quite-Yet-a-Kitchen

This is how the week started in our kitchen--no island counter top, no stove, no downdraft:

But then, in came the island's granite top. The Behemoth. All 600 pounds of her:

She was a Force to be Reckoned With:

After she was in place, the guys cut out the hole for the stove and downdraft. Here, they are gently lowering the downdraft into place:

Some more careful measuring, and holes beneath the stove were cut to allow for electrical conduit and the opening to the exhaust ducting:

The air ducting is surprisingly pretty. Too bad it's all underneath the house now:

Meanwhile, more wonderful guys set about installing all new switch plates in the backsplashes, and an extra switch tucked up under the cupboards to illuminate our glass-front display cabinet (barely visible in the upper-right corner, below):

The new switch plates are so much sleeker and better organized than the hodgepodge assembly we had before:

All the cabinets are rockin' their new handles:

They are beautiful, even covered with a fine layer of dust:

It's useless to clean everything up at this point, because on Monday the painters come to cover the stained-wood cabinets in creamy white. But I don't mind living with sawdust and stone dust for a while.

That's because today, for the first time in 17-1/2 years, I was able to enjoy this:

A GAS stove! A real, working gas stove:

And I inaugurated it by brewing my first cup of home-made coffee in almost a month. Sweet!