Good news & kitchen progress being made!

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It's been busy around here.  We've been working on the farmhouse every day, and with a some help from family & a neighbor it's really coming along.

First, the good news.  We don't think the raccoons were in the walls as much as thought.  They were pretty much confined to the attic (we found & patched the hole they made to climb in).  My husband thinks they were only in one spot in a wall -  a cold air return, plus the wall near the new bathroom.  That's good news if it's true, because I had feared they had gotten into all the walls in the new addition.  So, next on our list (my husband's anyway, I don't know if I can handle this part) is to remove all the old raccoon-damaged attic insulation & replace it with new.

As for progress, it's being made daily!

I've really been focusing on the kitchen (no surprise there, I guess :-).  The majority of the kitchen is hardwood, but the floor where the island & appliances are is linoleum.  I replaced it myself last week.  Here is the old linoleum floor:

And the new linoleum floor, installed by yours truly (yes, I have to brag a bit):

And the guys have been working on the kitchen island.  Here is the lovely, lovely, cast iron, old PINK sink, now enjoying itself outside in the snow:

And the old ceramic-tiled island counter top, in lovely (ahem) matching pink tiles:

And the new island sink & counter top.  I chose a granite-look formica.

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I need to finish painting the walls & a bit more cleaning in here.  The new appliances will be delivered in a couple of weeks, and then the kitchen will be done!

Here are some more pictures of the antique cabinets.  There is one more that I don't have pictures of yet.

Whenever I've seen a cabinet like this in an old farmhouse, I've fallen in love with it.  Maybe one of you will know the proper name for it, but I think it was traditionally used for baking.  The surface counter top piece slides out to use for preparing the baked goods.  The darker piece of cabinet (must have pieced together from a different cabinet) at the bottom right is the flour bin.  It pulls out at the top to display a drawer that would have held the household flour.

And this one.

I forgot to mention there is a greenhouse of sorts off the kitchen.  It's french doors that open to a glassed-in area that sits on top of the south porch. 

I think this greenhouse will have to go, though.  The french doors are antique interior doors - not really meant to keep the cold out.  Once inside the greenhouse area, the floor is simply the porch - not insulated, just an outside deck.  See that bucket in front of the doors?  The wet washcloth that was sitting in it froze overnight because it was so cold in front of that door.  These doors are now covered by a sheet of styrofoam insulation & taped all the way around.  It helped tremendously!  Now I'll just have to cover it with some curtains...

I almost have a new kitchen!  I'm just a bit excited about this one.  Now I just have to banish the mice.  There is evidence of them, and the guys got one in the old portion of the basement.  Too bad we're allergic to cats...