And then we found a kitchen island...

It took us awhile, but the husband & I finally agreed upon an island for the kitchen. The search was slightly exhausting (mostly from my end), that by the time we actually found something, I was ready for a vacation to a real island. We weren't asking for much...just a decent workspace where we could rest the husband's beloved Boos cutting board. Because the tiny space next to the stove just wasn't cutting it...no pun intended.

I gave up on the idea of a farmhouse-like island, mostly because I couldn't find one (well, that solves that problem now...). Actually, I'm lying. I did find some, but they were uber expensive & far too large for our space. But ahhhh, what I wouldn't have done for something like this...

(photo via Decorpad)

So with that idea out of my head, our focus turned to Ikea's Groland kitchen cart. At $199 it was certainly in our budget, and fit the bill as far as workspace & size were concerned.

So this is where the side story comes in. We're lazy. We really didn't want to make the 1.5 hour drive into Canada (our closest Ikea). I mean, 1.5 hours isn't that bad...but taking the time to cross the border, stop at Duty Free, stop for coffee, and eventually meander our way to Ikea takes longer than 1.5 hours. I understand that Duty Free & coffee stops could be eliminated from the process...but talk to the husband about that one. He's the stopper.  

In an effort to avoid all of that, I decided to order the darn cart online. Much to my surprise, the shipping on a $199 kitchen cart was $348! I'm assuming at this point that it was being shipped directly from Sweeden, right? Especially with a slated delivery for April 4! So this past weekend, we grabbed the passports, headed to Canada, made TWO stops to Duty Free & zero stops for coffee (the husband was forced to drink Ikea coffee instead).

I won't bore you with stories from our actual trip. But let's just say that the entire country of Canada was at Ikea that day, there may or may not have been some bickering over wall shelves (and maybe some pouting too), and my Visa gift card was not honored as we were outside of the U.S. (geez, we live close enough, you would think...).

So we finally made our way home & the husband got to work building this baby. I really wish I had gotten some shots of this. There was a lot of sexy man work going on. But since I was on tool duty, there really wasn't time for any photo shoots.

When everything was assembled we ended up with this...

I wasn't quite satisfied with the window set-up, so we moved things to the middle of the kitchen...

The husband isn't quite sold on this set-up. It certainly looks better than the 'ol pushed up to the window placement, but so far this thing seems totally obtrusive no matter where it's located. I think I like it where it is now....it's just going to take some getting used to.

In the meantime--in typical Katie fashion--the base of the island is getting a paint job. White...why of course! And the husband has been applying mineral oil to the butcher block top like it's his job.

I'll be back with updated photos soon!