Catching up

I have a lot of catching up to do. I have been watching too much Cardinals baseball (World Series Champs!), so I haven't been doing much else in the evening. Sorry! I was going to attempt to put things in chronological order, but I don't think there's much point. So here's a hodgepodge of things I did today as well as things we have been working on for the past few months.

Lindsay had to work this evening, so I had a chance to knock some things off my "Honey Do" list. The first thing I did was put the side panel on our pantry. That's the last piece of the puzzle as far as cabinets go in the kitchen.



The general idea with these panels is to use wood glue along with finishing nails. The wood glue gets the panel to stick nicely to the side of the cabinet, and the nails hold it there while it dries. I use some C-Clamps to hold it on while I'm working on getting the nails in.



Yes, I left my hammer on top of the pantry and spent half an hour looking for it.

By the way, in the last month or so, I made this round shelf thing and installed it.



I'm not 100% satisfied with the results -- cutting circles is an art I haven't mastered yet. In case you are wondering, the whole thing is made out of MDF. I finished it with a red oak veneer, then painted it. The shelves are glued and screwed. Attaching it to the wall was "fun". I didn't want any exposed screws at all, so I ended up recessing some toggle bolts to attach it to the wall (and normal bolts to attach it to the corner cabinet). In short, I drilled a small hole for the bolt shaft, then drilled a large hole for the bolt head - but only partially through the original hole. After everything was attached, I used wood filler to cover the bolt heads, then sand/prime/paint. Voila! (I took some pictures, but they were on my old phone and I forgot to transfer them before I sold it. Whoops!) EDIT: See a schematic here.


In other news, Lindsay found a microwave for $25 on Craigslist. We made a field trip to get it (about 30 minutes) and got Cracker Barrel on the way home (yum). I had to replace the handle (see: Wife wanted a new handle), so I bought one for $17 off Amazon and put it on. Final Cost: $42 + Cracker Barrel. Not bad.



Finally, we also put in a new ceiling fan. This was definitely a group project.



We had to kill the electricity, then take off the old fan and hang the new one. Unfortunately, I wanted to wait until the game was over (since the fan and the TV are on the same circuit). However, I also had to tutor from 11p to midnight (I tutor Calculus and Physics on tutor.com!), so we only had about a 45m window. As it turns out, this isn't enough time. So we ended up finishing it at like 12:30 or 1a. Wooooo!

The window behind the sink in the kitchen doesn't have a sill right now, since we ripped it out when we installed the new backsplash. Unfortunately, I have no experience with creating window sills. So I decided to experiment by using some scrap wood I had downstairs. Actually, it was part of the packaging of some furniture we bought like two years ago. I should probably throw some things out ...



Using my trusty jig saw and table saw, I made a template out of plywood scrap, then a 'final product' out of the aforementioned "wood".



I installed it to see if I like the size/shape. I can't decide if it should be flush with the tiles or come out a bit like it does now. Thoughts?



The final task for today was replacing one of the flanges on our outside fence. At some point, it broke. I went to Lowes and found a flange for it and replaced it.



This project was a good excuse to use my new corded hammer drill. (I also used it for installing the microwave. It was originally purchased for mixing tile adhesive / drywall mud.) Again, I bought a quality (read: expensive) drill that had good reviews and it totally was worth it. I installed a third concrete anchor, since previously there were only 2. This drill killed the 2" of concrete I had to drill through -- took about 10 seconds.



My lab is moving, so we are throwing out a lot of old stuff. I took possession of an old drill that didn't work anymore (or at least, the battery doesn't charge anymore). I had been needing a new case for my new drill, so I just ripped all the plastic walls out of it! It fits great!



We recently took a trip to our city's "free mulch pile" and loaded up our car for our new plants. We are always impressed with how much our little car can handle. Check it out!



I usually try to end with a cute picture of my wife, since she is prettier than my tools/projects. Hope you made it all the way to the end of this monster post. Phew.

In progress

As per usual, I have been terribly lax at updating this blog. Either way, I'm back! We've been doing fairly continuous work, but I haven't been taking a lot of pictures. Some things of note:

* I got a faucet on clearance from Lowes. Being the king of negotiating, I took them from $175 ($285 retail) to ... $20 (with no Lowes card discount). I got the receipt to prove it!



* We bought what we thought was our last cabinet last week (the lazy susan). I finished it up and brought it upstairs to install. Even though the receipt said 36" x 36", it was only 28" x 28". What the heck? Apparently they expect you to build an 8" surround to put between the cabinet and the wall. After pushing it against the wall, we decided that we liked it better with a "stubby" countertop against the short wall. So I built the 8" shelf unit featured next to the pantry in the below images. I don't think I have any images of the construction (lame?), but it was fairly unexciting. I basically just copied the construction of the other cabinets.





So anyway, all the cabinets are screwed into the wall (and each other), just waiting for countertops. We ordered the countertops on 5/29, so they should be in any day!

To do list in the kitchen:
* Countertops
* Finish removing tile behind stove
* Drywall & Plaster
* Backsplash
* Floors
* Kickboard
* New Fan

So quite a bit, but it should go quickly.

* We bought an aboveground pool. It's filling as we speak. More pictures on this later!

* We heinously put our cat in one of the old cabinets.

Old Construction

The beauty of old construction is that it is stubborn and built to last, even when you want it gone. Case in point -- our kitchen walls. They are tiled, with red accents. Not the worst hand every dealt, but I am installing new cabinets and the tile has to go. I was just gonna carve out enough to put the cabinets in, but we decided to take it down to studs, drywall it, install the cabinets, and put a nice (new) backsplash in. Easy peasy, right?



Like I always say, the right tool for the job is essential to actually finishing it (and keeping your sanity). On the other hand, the right tool for the job is oftentimes expensive. Seeing as I didn't own a sledge hammer (and I'm cheap), we started the job with a normal hammer. After 10 minutes or so, I could tell it was gonna be impossible to finish the job in a timely manner with that wimpy little thing. In lieu of a sledge hammer, I decided to use my heavy duty axe (bought back when I thought I could take out the huge stump in our backyard with it - hah!). It's pretty heavy, and the back end is blunt, so it worked pretty well.



Here you can really see the construction of the wall. It's heavy duty. There are arguably 4 layers, including at least 2 inches of what Ask The Builder calls "Cement Mud" behind the tile. It's all laid on top of a metal lathe that was attached to the studs with a small piece of plasterboard (for an extra bump out). Believe me when I say it feels like hitting a thick cement wall.

Although the axe wasn't a bad solution (see: free), I really could use a sledge hammer. Luckily, we went garage sale-ing Saturday and I found one for $6-8, depending on how you count (I got $12 worth of tools for $10 -- the sledge hammer, a thin margin trowel, and a crow bar). When I got it home, I sanded the haft down smooth (220 grit) and put new "grips" on it with duck tape. Watch out, Wall!

Big Blue Monster

When we first bought the house, we had painted the kitchen white as a "placeholder", since we didn't know what color we actually wanted. Although I had grown fond of the white, Lindsay didn't like it. 8 months later, we decided to paint the kitchen the same color as our two-kitchens-ago kitchen, a color called "Deep Sea Dive". Here's the painter herself:



And the newly painted wall:



If you're saying "Ugh!", don't worry… you're not alone. We said ugh too, so it didn't actually even make it to all of the walls. Clearly this color wasn't working, so we tried out a couple others.



The Last of the Blue (see: The Last of the Mohicans) -- being swallowed up by one of the paint samples. To be completely honest, I can't remember if we went with the right or the left, but I think it was the right.



All finished up. Look forward to a "complete kitchen" picture sometime … well, eventually.

Kitchen Cabinets

We have a blank wall in our kitchen, so we are putting in a new bank of cabinets -- uppers and lowers. This is part of an "overall kitchen makeover" which we started when we bought the house. It started with the floors (check), painting the existing cabinets (check), getting new cabinets (in progress), painting (check -- see next post!), and getting new countertops (no check). Anyway, here are some pictures.

We bought unfinished cabinets from Lowes. First, I use my trusty sander with 200 grit paper to make a nice finish. Then a coat of primer and 2 coats (or more) of paint to get a nice smooth look.



After primer:



All finished:



This picture demands some explanation. I had planned on getting some plywood and cutting it to fit the top of the lowers so we could actually use this cabinet's countertop while we were "in-progress". However, after pricing plywood, I decided there had to be something I had laying around that could work (and be free!). I had this piece of drywall laying around downstairs, leftover from the closet repair (see a previous post). After cutting it to fit, it actually works pretty well. Stylish too, with my ducktape border! :)

Closing in!

We are moving tomorrow. Or at least that's the plan. At least we've got the truck on lock down. First move will be to pick up a refrigerator from our new craigslist friend, Casey. Here's the low down on what went down today.

After doing some "real" work this morning, I arrived over at the house around 1PM to find the plumbing fairy had come in the morning! Actually, my father-in-law replaced the rest of the pipe between newer pipes under the sink and the professional-plumber-replaced kitchen stack in the basement. Horray! We discovered this link after we installed a dishwasher. Although we have plans to refinish/paint the kitchen cabinets, as well as the floor, a dishwasher was a must before we could move in. Here it is, in all its glory.

Speaking of the kitchen, we have been debating about what to do with the floors. Clearly the awesome vinyl needs to go. We were thinking about installing ceramic tile, but it would be great if there was hardwood floor underneath it all. Turns out there is -- we discovered this after pulling out the kitchen cabinet to make way for the dishwasher. There's also some awesome tile! The tentative plan is to strip away all the excess layers on top of the wood and pay someone to refinish it. That's awhile out though... =/

So if you have been following along, you may remember some crazy plaster work I did on the ceiling in the living room. Here's the play-by-play in picture form. It turned out very nicely, if I do say so myself. The best -- its a permanent fix, so I won't have to go fixing it again next year, if all goes well.

I used one of those paint edger things (SHUR-LINE Classic Paint Edger to be exact), and it works just as advertised. Very easy to use, perfect edging, just be careful with the wheels. Here's some shots of finished or semi-finished rooms.

Finally, we also discovered we have a hawk that lives in our backyard. S/he was perched on top of our roof for awhile today. My wife is a lover of all things furry or feathery, so she got some sweet pics and video. Here's a shot: