lake House Outdoor Kitchen

I surprised my husband for our anniversary and built this outdoor kitchen for him while he was out of town visiting his family in Virginia.

It started as a VERY ROUGH sketch so that I could explain to my dad what I wanted the finished product to look like. We started building the cabinets at my dads house two weeks before my husband left town. Since he was only planning to be gone for 2 1/2 days, we knew there was no way we could finish if we didn't start before he left town. Once the cabinets where transported to the lake house, all we had to do was paint them and install them once the foundation, wall and counter top where installed.

That's me above, making sure the sink faucet was going to fit into the holes we drilled.
"Gosh I look beautiful when I work in the yard."
Can you say July in TEXAS!!?!
Can you say get the hair off my face and neck any way you can?!

The first thing we did was dig a trench for the foundation and poured the concrete pad. We used a concrete mixer to save some time. That's what that weird round thing with legs is in the photo above. After the concrete had set up, we started stacking the cinder blocks and once they were all in position, we poured concrete down the center hole in the blocks and inserted a steel rod called re-bar for reinforcement.

We worked day and night and through the elements to get finished in time for the big surprise...He had NO IDEA we were planning this for him. We even had to pull out an umbrella to cover our concrete work because we got a HUGE rainstorm right in the middle of the day.
It was pretty funny to see us huddled under the umbrella setting concrete. This is a photo of the approaching storm...it got pretty dark for 3 in the afternoon!

After the blocks set up, we poured a concrete counter top and added the rock work on the sides, over the cinder blocks to make it pretty. He hung the painted cabinet doors, installed the sink, faucet, refrigerator and the grill and called it a day! When my husband came home he was so surprised to find this...

The finished product!
We use it all the time for parties and everyday grilling. It's so nice to take just a few steps from my chair to grab a cold drink from the under counter fridge or to flip the burgers on the grill while watching the family jet ski, swim, boat or fish. I made sure we installed a sink so that we can even wash dishes out here. In the cabinets we store everything needed for an outdoor party so it is very convenient and no back and forth to the kitchen for more supplies. Everyone should have one of these in their backyard!