Kitchen War... Not on the level

The past 2 weekends have been consumed with getting the garden tilled and planted while we've been dealing with some unseasonably warm weather.  Robyn, the Pinterest queen, found a purpose for some of the rocks that we've dug up... row markers.

She painted them last weekend and then coated them with spray polyurethane and put them in the garden this weekend along with the cages for our 15 tomato and 2 tomatillo plants. Our corn and some of the beans starting poking up through the ground as well this week.

With a three day weekend, we were very busy.  Sunday was spent over at Tino and Mary's cutting down a hugh willow tree whose trunk was half dead and in danger of falling into the power lines.

But Saturday and Monday was spent working in the kitchen.  Earlier in the week, we temporarily set the corner cabinet and the dishwasher in place.

I needed to do this so I could see where to set the outside cabinet...

... And figure out measurements for the electric, water and drain.  But before I went any further, I finally put up the track lighting above the stove.

The additional light was helpful when I started building the frame for the cabinets and dishwasher, starting with a spacer to account because of the ledge of the old cabinet under the existing laminate.

I had to add a cleat along the wall as a spacer because corner cabinets aren't as deep as standard cabinets.

Once the cleat was in place, I slide the cabinet back in place.

And of course there was a gap.  Because there is nothing in this 110 year-old house that is on the level, sqare of perpendicular.  While I lifted the cabinet up, Robyn slipped a wedge under the cabinet so the joint would match up.

After I got the back of the cabinet and dishwasher framed up, I drilled the hole for the dishwasher drain. 

I drilled two before I figured I should go down to the basement to see which direction the floor studs ran. 

Because of the distance the dishwasher was set from the sink and the challenges of drilling holes and running service through the old cabinets, I decided to tap into the tub drain that ran from the 2nd floor.

Where the connection came through the floor, I put a P-trap with a drain plug.

Home Depot only had supplies for the connecting of a dishwasher to an existing sink drain, so I had to improvise on the drain to the connection.  Inch and half PVC pipe was run from the floor to the sanitary T.  Above the floor...

There was an adapter connected to a standard drain connection, which was connected to a 12" extension, which was connected to another 1 1/2" adapter, to which was attached a short piece of 1 1/2" PVC which was connected to a female adapter in which was screwed an air gap to prevent the dishwasher from siphoning sewage back into the dishwasher.

While I was working on the framing and the service to the dishwasher...

Robyn was sewing the sink skirt.

Yes, those black floors do get dirty very easily.

Once the frame was up, I was able to install our under-the-countertop waste and recycle bins.

Yeah, I know they're both black but I couldn't see paying $30 more for the kit with a blue bin.

Sunday evening after we finished with the willow tree, I connected the dishwasher to the power.

After a year without a dishwasher, it was good to see those lights come on and hear the swish of water in the dishwasher.

Monday morning, I finished framing the back of the cabinets and dishwasher.

And then it was off to Lowe's for plyboard to cover the back and some suitable material for the countertops.  I like that Lowe's not only does crosscuts of panelling but will also do the longer rip cuts.  All I had to do for the plyboard back was...

Cut a hole for access the drain and water connection.  Given our cat's perchant for exploring new places, I covered the hole with a piece of scrap laminate until I could fashion a permanent cover.

For the countertops, I chose two sheets of 5/8" inch particle board.  Two sheets would exactly span the 1 1/4" distance between the top of the cabinets and the existing countertops.  I measured multiple times to make sure I had the correct measurement.  Unfortunately, I didn't measure at the correct time.  (more on that later.)

I used a chalk line to mark when I needed to attach the countertop to the cabinets.

Once both sheets were attached to the cabinet, I trimmed all but six inches off the backside using a 2" x 2" as a guide.

Here's what the raw countertop looks like after all the trimming and screwing is done.

Next phase is to install the tile that we picked out.

While I was busy inside, Robyn had the unglamourous job of cutting grass.

And finally putting the sun she got at the Home and Garden show up on our maple tree.

Kitchen War... No cracker for Polly

While it might not seem like Robyn and I got much done this weekend, we were busy the entire time, more so outside than inside.

We got started off at Menard's where we picked up a corner cabinet for the kitchen.

Later in the weekend, I brought the dishwasher in from the garage where it had been for the last 12 months sitting on a pallet.

Saturday morning, we were out with the rototiller extending the garden by another 20 or 25 feet.  I took a bit of a different approach this time, rather than digging down to the depth I wanted on the first pass, I just dug deep enough to loosen the top layer of sod.

Next I made two passes for each row across the sod-busting pass.  Both passes were at the final depth with the second mixing the sod up finer.  Robyn helped with the second pass.

Just as we finished 'tilling, a gully washer came.  It only took a couple hours the next morning to get the rest of the plants and seeds that we had on hand into the ground.

One final task remained for the outside for the weekend.  While 'tilling up the garden, I dug up about a 1' foot square chest wrapped in a garbage bag.  While I didn't think it was the time capsule that George Iverson had told me about because there were no plastic garbage bags back in 1958, I did think I had found another capsule.

The rototiller tore it up pretty good.  But I called Robyn over as I excitedly removed everything from the box.  It was all wet; the garbage bag hadn't ensured water-tightness.  Slowly, I unwrapped a red slipper, a bracelet, some charms for a bracelet, a color photograph of a young girl, a paper cross and some beads.

Inside the chest was another little plastic box.  I opened it last.

And as I did, Robyn went, "Ewwww!!!" 

Wrapped in a terrycloth sleeve with some dried flowers was a dead parakeet.

I re-buried everything in a corner of the yard where it wasn't likely to be disturbed.

Kitchen War... Blackout

It's amazing how quickly a black floor can get dirty.  Not just on the surface but also down in the gaps between the flooring.  In retrospect, I should have gone through and filled in the gaps between each piece of wood flooring with wood putty before I did the final sanding... Oh well.

The primary source of dirt other than construction dust appears to come from the basement.  It probably has 30 years worth of scrubbing that is in arrears, plus it's where the cat litter box is.

The basement stairs are covered with ancient linoleum which does nothing to catch any of the detritus.

Most of the pieces of linoleum weren't even glued down any longer and all I had to do was lift them off the stair.  Some were tacked down and I just pounded the nails back in.

I had gone to the Building Material Outlet store the other day to check out corner cabinets (they didn't have any I liked in my price range) but I did see 2' x 2' carpet tile squares for $2.75 a piece.  Even with their 12% up charge, that works out to about $.75 a square foot.

I cut 9 inch strips from the squares (steps ranged from 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 inches wide), and after I lifted off the old linoleum, I glued to strips to each step using Liquid Nails (I didn't feel like dealing with mastic for such a small, out-of-the-way project.)

After the glue has time to cure, I'll go back and trim the edges.  I also need to finish up the landing where I have a small rug currently.

Once the basement stairs were carpeted, I cleaned up the kitchen floor.  Two damp moppings plus 13 Swiffer pads later, it was clean enough to start laying down the coats of water-based polyurethane.

In addition to the easier clean-up and lower VOC, the water-based polyurethan has a milky color when it first goes on so it's easier to see where it was applied.  The downside is it is recommended that four coats be applied with no more than 2 in a 24 hour period.

The directions also recommended using a fine textured roller.  However, I had some issues with bubbles towards the end of the first coat because I was a bit too agressive with the roller in the pan.

Angel and Lucy, our cats, weren't happy because I banished them to the front porch until all of the coats were applied and dry.  They had been previously accused of jumping over the gate and the fence before.

It might have been a false accusation.  As I came back inside the front door after painting myself outside the back door, I found our dogs, Copper and Gumbo, in the kitchen.  They'd knocked down the gate and were in the middle of the wet kitchen floor.

They were sent to their room to reflect on their misbehavior.

I'd been debating whether to add that fourth coat of polyurethane.  There were already 3 coats of black paint and 3 coats of poly.  The floor looking good.  But the footprints settled it.

One more coat and this morning, Robyn and I got up to a floor looking like this.

Only a couple of dog tracks were still visible and the cats were happy to return from their banishment.

Next major item... corner cabinet and dishwasher.

Kitchen War... Hiatus

The first weekend in May, Robyn and I took a short hiatus from working on the kitchen to visit my sons in Nebraska; that's why there hasn't been a post in a couple of weeks.   My oldest two, Kory and Kyle, live in Nebraska with their wives while the youngest, Kris, who is in the Marines lives in North Caroline.

It didn't take them long to get back to old times.

They've grown quite a bit in the last 20 years:

At least no furniture was broken this time.

Thursday night before we got out on the road, I was able to get part of the kitchen floor painted.

And I finally got the icemaker hooked up.

And had it hooked up long enough to make a batch of ice:

I was planning on leaving it hooked up while we were in Nebraska and then throw away all of the ice so I was sure the water line was thoroughly flushed. 

Unfortunately, plans didn't work out that way.  When I pushed the refrigerator back against the wall, I bent the tubing right where it connected to the valve.  I couldn't find my tubing cutter to trim the bad piece off so I had to turn it off while we were gone.  I don't like using plastic lines and copper tubing for ice makers is such a pain to work with.  While I was in Nebraska, I ran into Menard's and found a braided stainless steel ice maker line.  Worked great.

Before we left Friday morning, I got our garden plot marked out:

I was hoping for a plot 40' x 60' foot but the lilac bushes encroached on the area so the plot size was cut down to about 32' x 62'.  Robyn looked at it and said it was too big.  I agreed to cut back to where the old buried sidewalk which brought it down to about 32' x 35'.  I didn't think it would be big enough... but we'll see if we can fit everything we want.

While we were in Nebraska over the weekend, I got to see my 2 grandkids, Maverick and Madelyn:

I believe that is Kory under there.

Kris also gave me a couple of gifts for my birthday:

A United State Marine NCO dress sword:



And a flag that flew over Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan.  Both will go on our wall in the dining room.

It was a great weekend that flew by way too quickly. 

This past weekend got off to an earlier start as I took a day of vacation to go to the Friends School plant sale at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.  At 6:30 I was in line with Mary and Tino waiting to get a wrist band to get in later in the morning.  Fortunately we were in the second group so we were able to get off to an early start when the shopping started.  I'd already been refining my list for a couple of weeks.

In between getting a wrist band and returning, I got the final coat of paint on the kitchen floor:

Now I just have to get the four coats of polyurethane.

The Plant Sale line was already queued up when I got there about 8:30.

You could easily identify those who had done this before... many times.  They brought their own carts or wagons including this neat homemade buggy made out of sleds, PVC pipe and a furniture dolly;



But in about 30 minutes, I had all of my plants loaded up and was ready to check out:

Too bad my garden was as ready as I was.  It still needed to be tilled and I didn't have a tiller.  I thought about renting one or having someone till it for me.

But I ended up getting this front-tined Southland rototiller from Mill's Fleet Farm.  It's gonna get a workout.

Friday evening, I was able to make till the perimeter of the area north of the old sidewalk and an additional couple of rows:

And started to encounter some of the challenges...

Old lawn edging...

Rocks...



Old coax cable and tv antenna wire which I end up wrapping around the hitch of my truck to pull out of the ground. 

All were buriend six to eight inches under that surface and I wondered if that was how much the ground had built up over the last 30 to 50 years.

Saturday morning, Robyn gave rototilling a shot.



While I uncovered the old sidewalk between our house and the house next door.

I had planned on leaving it in place and letting it serve as a walkway between the two portions of the garden, but it was in bad shape, either decomposing, very thin, broken or non-existent, so I removed it.

It was a long hard day as Robyn can tell you...

Here she's "watching" a stray dog that came up.  Because she was licensed, animal control was able to return her to her owner.



The rest of the day, my rock collection continued to grow...

I may have found a good portion of Grace Iverson's rock garden as all of the rocks were pretty much in the same general area.  There are probably just as many that I didn't toss over to the pile that are still in the garden.

Sunday morning, we made a run to Gerten's to pick up seeds for the garden.  And then it was time to celebrate Mother's Day with Brunch at the M Street Cafe in the St. Paul Hotel.

Complete with a harpist...

A couple of more hours of tilling and we were ready to get the seed and plants in the ground.

Unfortunately, we ran out of tilled garden space...

Before we ran out of plants and seeds.  Guess that tiller will be cranked up again for that last 15 or 20 feet that I staked out.