Welcome to Del and Diane's

Outdoor Kitchen Project

Pictures starting 10/10/05

10/10/05 We're in the very final, last little details, inspector throws you a curve, will it ever be really, really done phase. :-).  We thought we had sufficient clearance figured out for the Tiki torches with the arbor, but the inspector thought otherwise.  And it's tough to argue with an inspector anytime, but especially when he's right.  They were just too close.  Bottom line, we moved the two that are behind the grill another three feet away from the arbor and took out the two by the arbor over the smoker.  You'll see it all when we get to the pictures, but it was going to be very expensive to cut into the main gas line, trench over, and remount the two torches that were supposed to go by the smoker.  We'll go with the four for now, and maybe put the fifth and sixth ones up sometime later.

Still amazes me at the wildlife we get around Il Regalo.  There were 14 of these wild turkeys came wandering by the back fence one night.

I finally finished the doors today.  They're made of redwood with an oil based primer and then two coats of a very high quality Sherwin-Williams latex paint.  The shed is painted the same way, and after three years shows no signs of deterioration at all.  I think we'll get five years or more out of these without touching them.  The handles are unfinished brass.  Here's the pair under the grill.    And out on the end of the island    and under the sink. 

This pic shows the one of the drawer inserts I made to fit into the islands.   The wood is 13 ply birch plywood (very stable) with two coats of a clear, penetrating epoxy sealer.  I'll use the same plywood for the drawers and treat them the same way.  They build boats out of that combination, so it should stand up to the moisture of a Northern California winter well enough. :-)).  Hopefully I'll get the drawers finished this week.  The drawer fronts will be redwood painted the same as the doors with the same hardware.

Marco and crew transplanted the herbs we've been growing at various places around the house to the planters on the counter top.  The basil is clearly happy there.    Some of the others are not has happy with the move, but seem to be recovering fully.

As you can see we've been using the oven and the final spark arrester is in place.    Looks much better.

I turned five birds eye maple caps to cover the umbrella sockets when the umbrellas aren't in place.  They soaked in the clear, penetrating epoxy sealer for about fifteen minutes and then when almost cured I put on two coats of a two part linear polyurethane varnish.  Another boat building technique, so I hope they'll stand up pretty well to the rain and the sun.

I also got the speakers installed and the sound system working last week.  Here's how we put the speakers on the fence posts.    The main speakers sound wonderful.  We're pushing both stereo channels to each speaker, and it fills the area nicely.  Don't know what the spillover to the neighbors or down the hill is yet.  I have the sub-woofer going in the shed, but it's not working well.  Kind of sounds like it does when someone pulls up beside you at a stop light and they have the bass really cranked up so all you hear is the "thud, thud, thud" kind of sound.  I'll have to get my buddy who's a sound engineer over for a pizza to see if he can figure out how to make it work.  If we have to go without though, it'll be ok.  The main speakers have pretty good bass response.

Big Bubba is now fully modified to fit into his space.    We also added two more thermometers to know temps on both ends and down at the grill level in the middle and a BBQ Guru that's described on the Sources page..  Just makes cooking a littler easier.  Here you can see how we fit the arbor around his flue.    And this shows how the flue fits around the arbor beam now.    I also brushed a few little rust spots and where the paint had burned off the firebox and gave him a fresh coat of high temp paint to get ready for the winter rains.

Since I'd finished the arbor, Marco could finish out the lights in the arbor.  These are to the right of the oven and over the smoker.    And to the left of the oven by the grill.    The work as we'd hoped, i.e. they illuminate the surfaces without seeing the light.  I like having the light as bright as it is on the work surfaces, but will probably take them down a volt or two to balance them a little better with the other lights.  Overall, though, we couldn't be more pleased with the lighting.

So this is where we are yesterday from the patio.    And here's a HIGH RES shot (LARGE file) this evening from the balcony.     This link will give you the usual 600X800 shot we normally do.  You can see we have plants in the planters, and we're missing two Tiki torches.

Well, we're almost there.  Golden Palm just has to fix a couple of little things yet and get the final inspection, and I have to finish the drawers.  Then we can move on to landscape!  We were going to do a party for all the Golden Palm guys and their families this month, but their schedule isn't going to allow that so we'll just have to do it later.  We're doing a very casual party for our neighbors this Sunday to say thank you to them for putting up with all the traffic we create on this cul de sac with the groups we have that meet here and other things we do and let them see the finished project.  Thank you for joining us on this journey.  Took a lot longer than we thought it would, but the final product is well worth the effort.  Drop us a note when you get a chance.  We'd love to hear from you.