United Nations of Ikea

Sorry, no photos, but how crazy is this: We bought our cabinets from Ikea, so of course every part comes in a different box, resulting in probably 50 or more boxes. As I was assembling things, I started paying attention to the manufacturing origin of each box. Here's what I noticed:

• Cabinet carcasses - USA
• Cabinet doors - Hungary
• Cabinet hardware - Austria
• Sink and faucet - Hungary
• Cabinet feet - India
• Pull out drawer unit - China
• Wall hanger rails for cabinets - Lithuania

And of course, everything designed in Sweden. I probably missed a couple of boxes, so there might have even been other countries. Pretty amazing job of sourcing components from around the world.

Despite a couple of hiccups assembling the cabinets, I've got to say Ikea has really designed some very clever systems for assembling them. They actually make it pretty difficult to assemble things incorrectly.

Kitchen progress

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been working on getting the kitchen built out. It started with a visit to Best Buy and Ikea:

We loaded up the truck with a new fridge and then picked up all of the cabinets from Ikea. We forgot to think through whether everything we were ordering would actually fit in the truck, but fortunately with enough shoving, everything fit in.

Out at the cabin we started replacing our bare bones kitchen. We built out some of the cabinets and hooked up the refrigerator, which resulted in:

Cold beer! It's been nice to have a way to store food that stays cold for more than a couple of days.

The next weekend we built out more of the cabinets, so most of the kitchen is set up now. We also got the farmhouse sink in place. That weekend was also the first weekend we had (cold) running water, so we actually have a functioning sink!

Still a bit of work to do to finish off the kitchen, and we're still waiting on our stove to be delivered, but it is coming together nicely. I think for this winter we'll be making do with plywood countertops; we'll figure out how to finish those off next year some time.

Gee, what's that bright light?

We have power. Pretty cool, to have electricity straight from the Sun.

Dishes by light.

Power!

Last week the electrician finished work on the solar charge controller, so we finally have power. We have started hooking up the circuits we wired up last winter, so we are starting to see lights work, etc. Next weekend we should be taking out a new refrigerator, so that will put it to the test.

Panels and Grading and Propane

Lots happening around the cabin. A couple of weeks ago, the solar panels started going up on the roof. 

This week they are wiring up the panels; theoretically there will be power to the electrical panel this weekend! The other rails on the right are for solar hot water, which also should be going up soon.

New Grading

Also this week we regraded the area in front of the house in hopes that it'll drain better this winter. By the house the ground has raised up about a foot or more. There are several inches of compacted gravel, so hopefully this will drain well. You can also see where the holes we dug have become deck footings, which will hopefully be built in September.

Fancy Drive

We had extra gravel, so they put it on the last bit of the road, so now our driveway is all fancy.

Propane tank

 At the same time, they dug the trench for a propane tank and the propane company came out and set that on a pad back in the woods a bit. So hopefully we'll have that all plumbed in shortly as well, which means we can finally have a range for cooking.

Holes, future footings for a narrow deck across the south side to connect future decks on the west and east ends. Colin and I dug five holes in total. With a newfound appreciation for grave diggers, Louis Sachar's book "Holes" came to mind.