i designed and built this kitchen with the help of a good friend of mine, matthew kaylor. we demolished all previous poorly done construction work, including: many layers of flooring that had accumulated over 80 years so that when we tiled anew the slate came out at the same level as the floors in the rest of the house. we discovered poor framing in the ceiling joists and re-framed the room. we added all new windows and doors and matched existing exterior trim. we replaced all plumbing and electric (previously knob and tube). we plastered the room in the traditional gypsum technique with floated sand. (this is a very good finish for kitchens and baths, as it is cementuous and impervious to water, rot and molding.) all the trim in both rooms is elm from a windfall tree in NE Portland; the doorways are all book matched. the countertops are solid slabs of Oregon Black Walnut that i had milled locally; the joints are all hand cut with rosewood bowtie inlays. i built all the cabinetry of mild steel and finished it with a copper sulphate patina. the sink is salvaged; i think it's from the 50's and it's undermounted for easy cleaning, etc. we built a bathroom off the mudroom that has the same Japanese slate floor, a low flush toilet and sliding floor-track shoji doors, all hand cut traditional Japanese cabinet joints with through tenons and all dry joinery. no glue. it's an entirely hand built kitchen.