Will's wall with the plaster removed
Susanna and I were hanging out in the living room last weekend when we hear a crash from the other room. We didn’t see anything in the kitchen, so assumed it was a cat knocking something over in the basement. Of course, by the next day we had forgotten all about it.
The boys came home yesterday, and Will brought up his stuff to his room. As soon as he opened the door, he yelled, “hey, what happened in here.” Apparently the crash wasn’t the cats in the basement. A section of the old plaster in the ceiling had fallen down creating a mess on his bedroom floor. Maybe aided by too much door slamming… but who knows.
This morning, Susanna spent some time pulling down the plaster on that section of wall. Tomorrow I’ll remove the lath, add an outlet or two and insulation. With help from Susanna, I’m hopeful that we can have that section of wall finished by the end of next week.
In the meantime, Will has moved to the guest room… It is good to have an extra bedroom available.
New microwave installed - the kitchen is starting to feel finished.
Today was a day to work on some of the remaining small projects in the kitchen. The cabinets are in, so all that remains are the odds and ends to finish up. If one ever totally finished any room in an old house.
First, I did some more patching of the wall over the sink. I think one more coat tomorrow and we can paint. Next I replaced one of the broken linoleum tiles in front of the dishwasher, and reinstalled the trim underneath the dishwasher.
After lunch the new microwave arrived, so this afternoon I installed the microwave. The power was already run to the back of the cabinet above the stove, so the installation was quick and simple.
There are still probably one or two days of small projects to finish up before finally finishing the kitchen (for now). But those are for another day. Tonight, Susanna and I are heading out to a friend’s house for dinner.
It has been a busy week. The boys weren’t with us last weekend, so we had some time to get chores done. The missing upper cabinet didn’t get in until Tuesday, so no kitchen progress. But I did get lots of time in the workshop on Sunday. I haven’t had a full day to work in the shop in a long time. It seems that most free days are filled with home improvement projects. It was nice to take a break from home projects.
We picked up the new cabinet on Tuesday, and hung the cabinets that night. Susanna painted the cabinets and the doors this week, and tonight (after the boys went to bed) we reinstalled the doors.
I still need to finish the wall under the cabinet, and caulk the joint between the counter and the wall, but the end is in sight. It is already a much more useful kitchen layout. Next, I’ll have to finish the island that I have in parts in the workshop. Maybe I can get that done in early January.
I’ll post pictures from workshop projects next week. The boys and I worked on Christmas projects, so I don’t want to post pictures until after the holiday.
I’m still waiting on the missing upper cabinet to arrive. This gives me time to work on the lower cabinets.
I ripped out the existing cabinet. It is in pieces in the front yard (here’s to hoping that Susanna gets time to move the debris under the garage tomorrow).
I was able to get the lower cabinets in and get the counter and sink installed. Our original plans were to take the evening off and watch a movie, but decided instead to see how far we could get on the kitchen instead. Tomorrow I’ll make a trip to the store to get the last piece of piping to finish the sink drain and we can get a working sink back.
And (for those following the story), Tucker spent all day sleeping on the dog bed. He got up to go out twice and eat dinner. He is still sleeping. Serves him right for disappearing for 15 hours.
Kitchen with new counter and cabinets mostly installed
Putting the ceiling fan back up after adding the ceiling medallion
I spent some time this morning finishing up a project that had been hanging over our heads for a while.
When we repainted the living room, we had discussed adding a ceiling medallion. So I finally got around to ordering the medallion. It arrived last week, and this morning I installed it.
The wall where the original upper cabinet was removed
Around Thanksgiving, Susanna and I (with assistance from my dad) ordered new kitchen cabinets from Home Depot . I got a call this week that the cabinets were ready to be picked up.
My ultimate goal is to make cabinets when we redo the kitchen, but for now, it was easier to get new stock cabinets to make the one side of the kitchen as usable as possible. It will probably be a couple of years before we are able to redo the kitchen.
The first thing I noticed at the store was that there were only 7 cabinets in the stack, not the 8 that the drawing showed. After a careful look, it appeared that we (and the store) didn’t order one of the upper cabinets needed (both of our faults – I thought we had double checked the list – but one wasn’t on the order). Hopefully the missing cabinet won’t take too long to arrive at the store.
Susanna and I pulled down the old upper cabinet. Unfortunately, we pulled it down before I went to the store – I would probably have waited until all the uppers were in before taking down the old one. I also learned to not leave upper cabinets hanging with two screws half way in while I run to the workshop for more tools. I also learned that when the upper cabinet falls (it was at least empty) that it won’t be in a condition to reuse in the laundry room. The crash also scares Susanna half to death.
Plaster washers installed prior to covering with drywall compound
The wall behind the old cabinet was in pretty bad shape. I installed plaster washers wherever the plaster had come loose from the lath. I then did a first coat on patching the wall using drywall compound.
I was able to install two of the upper cabinets today as well. The middle upper cabinet is the one missing. Normally I would hang the cabinets from the corner out, but in this case, I need the cabinets as far to the right as possible to line up the lower cabinets. I will add a spacer to make up the gap between the final cabinet and the wall.
Depending on when the other upper cabinet arrives, I may go ahead and install the lower cabinets and new counter top next weekend. We will reuse the sink and none of the plumbing should have to move.
Overall, I didn’t get as far today as I had hoped. I was hoping to get all the uppers installed, but of course that couldn’t happen. I didn’t want to dig into installing the lower cabinets today and leave the kitchen a total wreck for the week. Hopefully all this will be done by Christmas. Don’t worry, I’m pretty confident that it shouldn’t be a problem to get done by then.
New upper cabinets installed. The challenge is to get the cabinets flush on the front with the uneven wall
The new exterior light on the corner of the workshop.
Today finally felt like a normal Sunday. It has been crazy busy her over the past couple of weeks, between my work travel, hurricane Sandy, and holidays. Today we had nothing planned save a few errands to run before lunch.
I decided to take an easy day. I had no major house projects to work on, so I decided to finish up a few small projects around the shop.
The first project was to replace the spotlight on the corner of the workshop. I had installed a motion sensor light several years ago, and it no longer worked. I decided to use one of the RAB lights I had left over from the garage and put it on a timer. I picked up a dusk to dawn timer switch. The timer adjusts for sunrise/sunset and will turn the lights on at dusk and off at a fixed time, and back on in the early morning until dawn.
The second afternoon project was to work on the door to the second floor of the workshop. I have a kerosene heater for the workshop, but without a doorway to the second floor, all the heat escapes from the first floor workshop. I still have a little more work to do on the door, but it is getting closer. I pulled one of the antique doors that had been in the workshop loft. I’m not sure I like the painted door in the middle of unpainted plywood. Maybe next summer I will paint the plywood walls.
Yesterday I moved the outlet for the stove from the floor under the window to the wall that we had installed to cover the door. Susanna added curtains to the window.
The plan for the kitchen redo (this time) was to limit the cost and scope of the work. We aren’t replacing the cabinets (just repainting them) or moving major appliances (other than the stove). We aren’t replacing the floor. All of which will need to be done when we finally get around to doing a proper remodel of the kitchen in a couple of years. We are trying to make the kitchen more usable in the meantime.
The space between the end of the counter and the wall is 54-inches. The stove will take up 30 of those inches. We have been talking about filling up the remaining 24-inches with cabinets/counters.
The problems:
– We can’t match the existing countertop or cabinets – so it will be obvious that it was added.
– Any counter/cabinet we put to the left of the stove will only be 15-16″ deep (not the normal 24″ deep) because of the window location.
Our thoughts:
– Originally we pushed the stove all the way to the right, which would leave 24″ for a cabinet/counter to the left of the stove. It would be shallow, and the top wouldn’t match the counter to the right of the stove, but that would probably look fine. The problem with that is that the stove is then 8″ from the sink, and that felt too close.
– Our current thought is to do an even split of the space with the stove. I would purchase a 12″ wide cabinet to put to the right of the stove, and build a 12″ wide and 15″ deep cabinet to the left of the stove. We will put upper cabinets in and a microwave over the stove.
Some questions:
– Will centering the stove make the most sense?
– What color should we make the countertops? I was going to make them out of white oak to match the (planned) island top.
When we decided to repaint the kitchen, we decided to pick paints from the Sherwin-Williams Victorian Color Palette®. The upper walls were painted with Empire Gold (SW0012). The lower walls were painted with Copper Pot (SW 7709).
I wasn’t too sure on the colors when we looked at them in the can. The bottom looked a little more orange than I had expected. However, in the end, I think the colors are perfect for the room. Now all we need is a better looking floor – but that is for another year.
The new kitchen colors - the door still needs to be stripped and refinished.
One of the (very many) discussions Susanna and I have about the house is how to renovate the kitchen. Properly renovating the kitchen is a big project. We need to decide how to allow for plumbing to get to the bathroom that we plan on adding upstairs. The kitchen needs new cabinets (which I would like to build), and we will have to modify the window that goes out to the sun porch (we want to remove the bottom half of the window so we can put a counter under the window.
I think we have agreed on a basic layout for the new kitchen – but we aren’t ready to start that big of a project this year. We probably won’t be ready for several more years. Which left us at a decision point. The walls are in pretty bad shape, and the color of the kitchen is pretty ugly.
Two weeks ago we talked about repainting the kitchen. We decided to do a quick refresh of the kitchen without doing any major renovations. Susanna and I agreed on colors and got to work 10 days ago. We moved cabinets and a counter out of what had been the pantry and put it in the main kitchen. We knew we were going to lose some storage space in the pantry (we are making it the laundry room). During hurricane Sandy, we both had some extra time (2 days off of work for me, and all week off of school for her), so we made much quicker progress than I had anticipated. Needless to say, we were not bored at all during the hurricane – even when we lost power for 4 1/2 days – we had a generator for light and water, and no power is a great excuse to eat out.
I moved the washer and dryer to their new locations in the former pantry. Last weekend we removed the antique trim, and covered up the door to the pantry/laundry room. The entry to the laundry room will be from the mud room/entry area. The plan will be to move the stove in front of the former doorway, and I will build shelves to go in the corner.
Once the kitchen is done, the next quick job is to redo the entry way/mud room. My dad will visit for the week of Thanksgiving. If we have time, hopefully we can make good progress on that space. It is small (only 6′ x 8′), but needs the plaster replaced on two of the three walls as well as a new wall/doorway for the laundry room. I also picked up some used hickory flooring to replace the ugly glue down linoleum squares that are still there.
Kitchen painted with new drywall covering the old doorway to the pantry
The refresh on the kitchen should give us a couple of years before we need to complete the full remodel of the kitchen. The walls aren’t perfect (we just did a quick patch of the wall, no major repairs). The floor is still horrible. We may in the near future decide to replace the glue down linoleum squares with new linoleum squares – we would pick a little higher quality than the tiles that are currently installed. It would be a quick job, not nearly as big of a project as installing proper hardwood floors.
