A is for ...

A  is for arrivals!  Arrival of the new kitchen island!  When we were looking at the townhouses in this neighborhood last summer, one up the road had an kitchen island, and I just fell in love.  It immediately went on our "to do" list for the new house when we moved in.  We put our tiny side table from the old apartment in the middle of the kitchen as a pretend kitchen island (we called it the "sandbar" because it was not quite a full island, haha, a little beach dorky humor there), but I have been longing for the day when we could get a full island of our very own....

John's parents were so nice to us this Christmas: they ordered us an island from a friend, and it has been so exciting!  Mark came by a few weeks ago to measure our space and talk to us about what we wanted, but he delivered the monstrosity today.  It's so huge and awesome!  He made us a wine rack on the one short end, even though I am still not sold on the idea of it (we really don't go through that much wine!), and a spice rack on the other short end by the stove (above L & R). 

And the far, long side is just swing-open doors with adjustable shelves inside (above).  We are thinking that may be a good place to put all my baking supplies, but we haven't decided yet.

But the "piece de resistance" is the long side nearest the sink:  While planning with Mark, we talked about making the island a place to stash our recycling bins so that they are out of the way.  Well, what I was thinking and what happened were worlds apart... in a good way!

We had three tiny bins for the recycling, but Mark totally up-graded the bins and made custom-designed spaces for them in a big drawer!  How cool is this?!  They are as big as our regular trash can (13gal) and are organized and awesome.  :D  Though, the first time I went to put bags in the bins, I was struggling with a way to balance the bin without having to pull it all the way out.  I laughingly told John that we need to go back and request a pneumatic lift system that would elevate the bins 6-12inches so I could bag them and then lower them back down into the drawer.  John said that if we told Mark... he would probably do it!  He makes fancy (FANCY!) motor coaches and uses a lot of lifts for TVs hiding in cabinets and bunk beds.  John said that Mark would think the idea awesome and most likely put one in for us!  (Mark has a tendency to make things bigger & better than originally expected.)