The kitchen is an exercise in coordination, sequencing, perseverance and swearing. When you're trying to make a space that is only 6'-8" long accommodate all of the items necessary to prepare a meal, space for installation gets a little tight. But this house is about efficiently using every bit of volume and trust me, we did. After fabricating the maple butcher block countertop and cutting the holes for the various appliances we took it to the site and set it in place. Fit like a glove. A couple of hours and we'd have everything installed, or so we thought...

First up was the drawer-style dishwasher. If the instructions tell you an appliance requires a rough opening that is 23-1/2" wide, and you build a cabinet 23-1/2" wide, you would expect it to fit right? Turns out the fit was a little tight, but with a little bit of gentle persuasion we got it in. Lesson learned: Give the rough opening an extra 1/8" and you won't be sorry.

The downdraft ventilation went in next and the main challenge here was routing the duct from the bottom of the blower box through the floor with only 6" of depth to make the turn. After hours of frustration for Neal and Deanna, SuperLucas stepped in and got the job done. Lesson learned: Delegate all ductwork tasks to Lucas immediately. There's no shame in deferring to the master.

The combination microwave/convection oven (aka micro-hood) beneath the cooktop went in without too much hassle, although we had to make a custom bracket to hold it up. Generally this appliance is installed above a stove and held up with two screws through the cabinet above. However, in this instance, the countertop was already in place because you can't install the downdraft ventilation without the counter. So we needed to lift up the counter to put the screws through the cabinet. But you can't install the micro-hood without first installing the downdraft ventilation behind it, which required the counter to remain in place. You see the problem. Lesson learned: Consider your sequencing when finalizing design or you'll have to fabricate a custom solution.

Finally, the Kohler sink and faucet went in and all items were installed. We only had to make a slight modification to the location of one of our holes, otherwise everything went smoothly. Lesson learned: Measure your sink flange to make sure you're not going to hit it when you drill your faucet holes.

We finished deep breaths and high fives all around. As my father always says, there's a bite to every project and it held true in the kitchen. We faced a little challenge with each step and everything took twice as long as we thought it would, but there wasn't anything we weren't able to overcome. All that is left to do is install the doors and drawer fronts and it will be ready to prepare a memorable meal in DC. We can't wait!

Installing the kitchen cabinets

Installing the micro-hood

All of the appliances installed

The kitchen with all of the doors and drawers installed...late in the day, of course.