Kitchen War... Stripped Bare, Seeing Red and Hanging Around

The primary challenges with the kitchen remodel that we have been doing are so many of the activities we need to do are incompatible with each other or have long "curing times." 

For example, the mud on the walls has to dry 24 hours between applications and we couldn't work on the floor while that was drying.  Floors couldn't be sanded while paint was drying on the walls.  The floor paint had to dry 4 hours between each of three coats, cure for 24 hours before applying the water based polyurethane which had to dry 2 hours between 2 coats, cure for 24 hours before applying 2 more coats and then cure for a week before anything could be moved on top.

But this weekend, we made tremendous progress.

The remaining area of the floor was stripped down.  (This is a "before" picture; forgot to take the "after" picture.)

Once the dust settled from the floor, the final coats of red paint were applied to the last section of the wall.  Then the fun really started...

While a coat of paint was drying on the suspended shelves, the cleats which are supporting the rear of the shelves went up.

Holes were countersunk for the wood screws which attaches the cleats to the wall studs.



And then patched.  (And one day in the not too distant future, that light will be attached too.)

The threaded rod hangers were attached to the stringer I had built in the soffit box for the ductwork.

And then I made sure that the theaded rod would actually thread into each hanger.

As I waited for the final coat of paint to dry on the shelves, I finished plumbing the ice maker water line.

Later, I found out that the fitting was the wrong size for the ice maker tubing so it will have to be replaced but at least all of the soldering is complete.

Robyn held the shelf boards up on the cleats while I used a plumb bob to mark the locations that the theaded rod would pass through.

Screwholes for the wood screws that attach the back of the shelves to the cleats were drilled and counter sunk.

The shelves were attached to the cleats with just a couple of screws at first and then the thread rod passed up through the holes in the front of the shelves. 

Using the nuts with the washers, I was able to do fine adjustments to level the shelves.  Here are the shelves attached to the wall before the back is completely secured to the cleats.

Although I used 3/8" inch rods, they provided enough flexibilty to allow for my impatience waiting for the plumb bob to stop swinging.

Once the shelves were permanently attached, trim molding was attached to the edges of the plyboard and the excess threaded rod on either end was removed by a bolt cutter.

The two rods in the center were reserved for an additional small shelf.

Then it was time to hang the convention microwave oven.  The oven weighs approximately 75 pounds which accounts for the robustness of the suspended shelf design.

Using the back plate as a template, holes were drilled for the toggle bolts which would attach the back plate to the wall.

I discovered too late that the template had slipped down some when I was marking the hole location.  Not a major concern since I was having to attach a spacer block to account for the cleat along the back wall.

Voila!!!  Microwave installed.  I'll put a skirt up later to conceal the spacer block.  The excess on the middle two threaded rods was cut off as well since there wasn't enough room for another shelf after the microwave went up.

Just a few more minutes and the appliances and new cabinet (still to be painted and attached to the wall) were in place



Robyn even was able to get some time to plant some periennal geraniums that our neighbor Kim gave to us.







Kitchen War... Disaster?

So Friday afternoon, I get one of those fairly frequent "low memory" messages on my HTC Incredible so I apply my usual fix.... review all of the applications I have installed, delete those I don't use, get rid of history and assorted downloads.  Nothing to it. 

Later that evening, I take a picure of Robyn and then pull up the gallery to show it to her.  THERE WAS ONLY ONE PICTURE IN MY GALLERY!!!.  2200+ pictures I had on my phone had disappeared, including the ones from working on the house. (I use my phone rather than carry around a digital camera because it is more convenient.)

Turned my phone off and then back on.  Still only one picture!

Holy crap!!!

Bit of a freak out but not too much.  I knew I had all but maybe a couple of dozen backed up on a computer somewhere.  Painful, but I was resigned to tracking them down and restoring them to the micro-SD card on my phone.  Or worse case scenario, recovering the deleted files from the card.

Saturday, I hooked my phone to my computer as an external disk drive and drilled into the picture folder.

There they were... All of them!!! Relief.  When I disconnected the phone, I was able to pull them up.  I don't know what happened... must've changed a setting somewhere when I was doing cleanup on the phone memory.

So,  all of y'all who were hoping I wouldn't have all of those pictures to show you time after time... You're S O L !

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Right now progress in the kitchen  is coming in fits and starts.  We're still having to do some sanding.  But the walls are finally all done except for some isolated patching.  Now it is just put down a coat of paint.  Wait for it to dry.  Put down another coat.

I finally finished stripping the paint off this door frame.  I'd started with the heat gun the 1st day we owned the house a year ago before we'd decided we were just going to paint it white.

Stripping it actually helped it look better than I expected.

One of these days I'll even get that light installed.

Thursday night, I'd run out of sand paper for the section of the floor I was doing.

Robyn actually went to Home Depot for me to get some on Friday.  We're doing this section first so we can always access at least half of the kitchen, plus the sink, refrigerator and stove.  I think I'll rent a floor sander for the remaining 2/3's of the floor area.  Using the palm sander is hard on my knees and when Robyn says that when I lay on my side stroking the sander back and forth it looks weird.

The hole knocked out the side of the cabinet has been filled and painted.

This is what it originally looked like.

Once the corner of the cabinet was painted, the three coats of porch paint went down on the sanded area.

Fencing is to keep the pets off of the area.

While it was drying between coats, I was getting coats of paint on the shelves, cleats and edge molding out on the porch.

...and after the floor was dry enough to walk on, the first 2 coats of polyurethane was applied to the area of the floor which will be under the refrigerator

It has to cure for a week after the next two coats which can be applied in 24 hours.  I'll apply polyurethane to what will be the exposed area of the kitchen floor in continuous coats rather than sections.

Final work for the weekend was to get a coat of primer on the wall where the pantry had been temporarily.

Kitchen war... Chewed Up

One of the things about rehabbing a foreclosed, former rental home, even though the home is structurally sound, so much of the home was abused... doors busted up and then pieced back together, corners knocked off cabinets, plaster busted out, molding beat up and door frames chewed up by puppies.

We've gone through pails of spackling and tubs of wood putty taking care of cosmetic issues.  Like the corner of the kitchen cabinet...

Rebuilt with wood putty...

Who knows how the edge of this door was chewed up about 3 1/2 foot up from the floor.

Rebuilt and holes around door knob patch filled in.

I'm still trying to figure out what they beat on this piece of wood with to make all this dents... and how long and often.

These holes are being patched so they can be sanded before we start painting the rest of the floor.  Later on, for the chewed up areas on the wood which will remained stained and not painted, I'll have to experiment with stainable wood putty to see if the corners can be rebuilt satisfactorily or whether I'll just have to sand them down and leave the rounded.

We also went ahead and purchased the small cabinet which will go between the refrigerator and stove so I can figure out where the supports for the suspended shelves will have to be.

We also finished up painting the cabinet doors so they could be put back on the pantry before we continued with sanding the floor.

...and found out that the pieces of the sheet of plyboard stuck to the doors, giving me some more touch up work.

Once the doors were back on the pantry (I still need to do the drawers), I cranked up the palm sander and got to prepping the floor.

Gumbo and Copper were waiting on the sander being cranked back up so they can attack it and eventually chase it away.

Kitchen War... Trashed

While Robyn and my focus continues to be on the kitchen, we don't solely just work on the kitchen, particularly this past weekend when we were painting.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to head out for the city-wide cleanup of St. Paul parks.  But before we got started with that, I took a few minutes to sand the area where the refridgerator is going.

Robyn and I were working in Indian Mounds Park.  When you drive past the parks, you really don't see much trash, an occasional piece of paper or a soda cup.  However, go down some of the pathways and you'll might see something like this:

I don't understand why people feel compelled that they have to throw their trash away in public spaces. The stuff Robyn and I picked up at times was flat disgusting.  Thirty minutes into our work, we had already collected and bagged this much trash.

Including the  two top halves of a kitchen table... REALLY???!!!

After going up and down a trail and cleaning over in some other areas, Robyn and I were exhausted after 90 minutes.  I definitely should have ordered a couple of Reach and Grab tools from Amazon.

Back home, I put a coat of primer on the side of the pantry.  I realized afterwards that...

sanding the floor first was a mistake, because it is flat impossible for me to paint without dripping or spilling it on something as you can see by the above picture.  The stool in the corner of the photo is for my old back and knees so I can sit down while I'm working on those lower areas.

While that was drying, I headed outside.  While Robyn was cutting the grass for the first time this year,

I put together our new compost bin over the next 3 hours.  The compost may not be ready for this year's garden but I should be able to supplement the soil with compost in the fall.

In the middle of the process of putting together the compost bin (which is why it took 3 hours), I went inside and got the first coat of paint on the side of the pantry.

And realized, it really didn't make sense to paint just the side when I'm going to make a big mess anyway.  So off with the doors, which I put on a leftover sheet of beaded board to paint since rain was in the forecast.

In the middle of that black stripe of paint, are the hangers for the front edge of the shelving we will be installing in the kitchen. 

Here's one set out from the paint so you can see what they look like.  I'll be attaching these to the bottom of the ductwork soffit box and screwing 3/8" threaded rod into them to suspend the front edge of the shelving.

Back outside, Robyn finished cutting the grass everywhere except for where I was putting up the compost bin.  I took the 30 seconds need to do that and then looked at the strip across the yard with the still dead grass...

And wondered, if the sidewalk that Bruce Iverson told me about was still there.

Yep... running right through the center of where I was planning on putting the garden.  Guess we'll have a walkway through the middle of the garden now.

Sunday morning we were off for brunch at the Amsterdam where we had the opportunity to listen to a blue grass / folk style group named May North.

But not before another coat of pant on the pantry and the adjacent door molding.

Yeah, I was sloppy over on this side of the pantry as well.  Before I went to bed for the night, I started back touching up the red paint...

...and got the last coat of paint on the inside of the pantry doors. With rain and snow flurries in the forecast, I'm hoping they will dry enough so I can flip them over to paint the other side and edges.

Monday, after work, I need to head over to Home Depot to get a wood screws for the threaded rod handers, reel tape measure, some of that marking spray paint, and stakes to lay out the garden; I already have twine.  If the weather is nice, I'll also pick up the base cabinet which will go between the stove and refrigerator.

Voices from the past...

I had a nice conversation with Bruce Iverson who grew up in what is now Robyn's and my home.  His daughter, Susan Fellie, had given me his phone number. 

Mr. Iverson provided some stories about the house which would have been difficult for us to find out on our own.

After Bruce's mother, Grace Elizabether Burger Iverson, passed away in 1983, the house remained in the family until 1985 when it was sold under a contract for deed.  That person trashed the house and ownership was brought back into the Iverson family because that individual failed to live up to the agreement.  Apparently, this started a downward spiral for the home which continued until Robyn and I purchased it.  Bruce talked about how he'd occasionally drive by and/or stop to look in through the windows and be upset by how much his boyhood home had deteriorated.

The fireplace in the basement which Robyn feared because it looked to be like something from a horror flick was built before the Iverson's moved to the house in the 1930's.  Bruce said they rarely used the fireplace, only cleaning it off around Christmas for the hanging of stockings.  The outdoor fireplace was built by Lauren Iverson, Bruce's father. 

The concrete structure next to the outside basement steps which I thought was a cistern was actually a coal bin.  The coal delivery truck would park in the alley and deliver the coal using a conveyer through the manhole on top.  Bruce talked about as a kid they would have to manually re-fuel the furnance every few hours until they eventually put in an auger which did the job.

In the mid-1940's, Bruce's father knocked out the back wall of the kitchen and had, at first just, enclosed the downstairs back porch to expand the kitchen which he covered with yellow pine.  At the same time, the front porch was enclosed and panelled with the same pine.  Intially, there were floor to ceiling window screens with a swing; the porch is now fully enclosed.  Lauren, Bruce's father, did all of the electrical wiring in the house, plus handcrafted an electrical carriage

Upstairs, Lauren and Grace slept in the front bedroom which is now Robyn's and my bedroom.  The small, middle bedroom which doesn't have a closet was Nancy's bedroom.  The back bedroom was Russell's and Bruce's.  After Douglas was born in 1947, the the upstairs porch, where I've made my office / man cave, was enclosed.  This became Russell's bedroom. 

Bruce asked whether the kitchen cabinets with the glass windows were still there.  They are.  He asked whether the countertops were still tiled.  They are not; they're covered with wornout formica.  He said when he lived there they countertops were tiled with 1" square tiles that his mother re-grouted every few years.

On the other side of the kitchen where our rehab activities are currently directed, there were no cabinets. (I could tell that the cabinets that I took down they weren't the same quality as the remainder of the house.)  He said that he has a picture of his Grandmother Burger baking pies in this kitchen.  I'd love to get a copy.

Bruce also asked whether the upstairs cabinets were still there.  Yes.  The bathroom window. No.  The stairway landing window.  No.

As all our families do, the Iverson family has been tinged with tragedy.  The youngest brother, Doug, passed away in 1983 a few days prior to the death of his mother, Grace.  Grace's husband, Lauren, passed away in 1960 from the last of a series of heart attacks.  Bruce confirmed that he had been in the Marines during World War I... Semper Fi.  I'm sure he would be proud to see the two photos of our Marines on the dining room wall.

Outside, I had always wondered what had caused what appeared to be a trench line running from the sidewalk across the back yard.  It's the remnants of an old sidewalk (heck, it might still be under the grass since the grass doesn't grow well there.)  The sidewalk ran to our neighbor's house where Jamela Pettiford and her daughter Egypt live.  They might be interested to find out that they house, post World War II construction, was built by the future Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court Warren E. Burger for his mother, Katherine.  Bruce said as kids everyone was always going back and forth between the houses.

Bruce also explained a discrepancy I'd seen when I was research our home's history.  I found the Burger family as being shown from both Switzerland and Austria.  Bruce said the discrepancy originated in the obituary of Joseph Burger, a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. (Bruce mentioned he had many grievous injuries due to his wartime service.)  The obituary stated that Joseph Burger was from Switzerland which he was actually from Austria.  However, at the time he passed away, around 1920, feeling were still hard against people from countries under the Kaiser in the post World War I atmosphere.  Bruce mentioned that Warren Burger was confused; it a portrait he is wearing Swiss cufflinks.

I asked him about the old fish pond (sorry Iverson's but we use it as a firepit).  Bruce said that his mother, Grace, loved rock gardens and had one at that location which was 3 or 4 foot tall with a fountain.  There is also an old bath tub next to the garage.

Bruce told me that he and his dad did all of the concrete work around the house around 1958, including the repair pit which is in the garage.  He asked if it had been filled in.  On the project list for this summer.  He said it worked great for older cars but when the newer models like Volkswagen's came out; not so much.

Bruce said that his dad wasn't much for doing unnecessary things.  That's why our sidewalks are the exact width of a snow shovel.  They aren't currently but I've been gradually edging them.

...and then he mentioned.

When they were pouring the concrete, they put a time capsule under one of the corners.

Really???

Ghosts of the Past...

Ever since we moved into the house, Robyn has wanted me to research the history of the house and its residents. The Ramsey County Historical Society has records available in downtown St. Paul but I haven't had time to do the digging.  Robyn kept saying wouldn't it be cool if someone famous lived here.

CNN had an article on its website which talked about how to find out the history of your home from the 1940 census records... I'd never thought of that.  All of my ancestors whose census records had been released lived in the country so I wasn't aware, or never noticed, that census records had actual street addresses.

So off to the 1940 census site I went.

I was able to narrow the records I needed to sift through down to about 56 pages.  And then I had to search for our street and house number (it was interesting to see addresses that had been wiped out by the building of Interstate 94.)  Forty or so pages in, I hit paydirt...

In 1940, Lauren E. Iverson, age 41, his wife Grace, age 30, and son, Russell A., age 3 lived in our house.  Grace, born in Minnesota, had completed 8 years of school.  Lauren, born in Wisconsin, had completed 3 years of high school and worked as meter installer for the power and light company.  They had lived in the house on April 1, 1935 according to the 1940 census.

Lauren, along with his brother Howard C., was a WWI veteran, maybe a Marine.  On the Ramsey County Honor roll, they are listed as being from just a few blocks away at 697 Conway.

Now that I realized this information was captured by census records, I logged into my Ancestry.com account to look at the 1930 census records.  They weren't as extensive as the 1940 records and I quickly found that...

In 1930, our house was owned by William M Benson, age 63, and his wife Cora, age 59.  They had gotten married at ages 22 and 18 respectively.  Cora was born in Georgia.  Her father was born in Virginia and her mother in North Carolina.  William immigrated to the US in 1883 from Sweden and met Cora in Georgia.  He worked as a marble worker; ealier census records listed him as a stone cutter.

That probably explains the stone fireplace in the basement and the outdoor fireplace in our backyard.

The Benson's are found at this same address in the 1920 and 1910 census records.  I suspect they are the original residents and builders.  I identified three children from the census records: Mabel, Thomas H. and Walter J.  In 1900, William, Cora, and infant Thomas lived at 545 Park St next door to W.S. and Caroline Kellogg.

Back to the Iverson's...

Lauren and Grace had three children that I was able to identify: The eldest, Russell A. who was about 6 months younger than my dad, Bruce Gordon and Nancy Ellen.  Lauren, a 2nd generation American, was the son of Iver Lars Iverson and Elenor.  He passed away in 1960.

Grace's full name was Grace Elizabeth, the same name as my deceased granddaughter.  Her mother was Katherine Schnittger.  Her father was Charles J. Burger and her grandfather was Joseph Burger, a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient.  She passed away in 1983.

Charles and Katherine had 7 children: Lawrence E., Carol L., Carl Allan, Warren Earl, Paul J., John D. and Grace Elizabeth.

There is Robyn's historical connection. 

Grace Elizabeth Burger Iverson's brother was Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  On a side note, My sister, Tammy, told me that she and her husband, Wade, were visiting Arlington National Cemetery on the day of his funeral but were not allowed to attend as it was not open to the public.

Kitchen War... Restrictions

Until the floor area where the stove is going to be is finished and then cures for a week, we are restricted on what we can do in the kitchen. 

The floor requires three coats of floor paint which have to dry for at least four hours between coats and then 24 hours before it cures enough for light duty. The third coat was finished last night. 

But we were disappointed in the flat appearance so we decided to put polyurethane on top.  Four coats are recommended with 2 hours between each coat and no more than 2 coats in a 24 hour period with sanding and cleaning anytime there is more than 6 hours between coats, plus the final paint coat had to be sanded, wiped down and then time allowed to dry.

Jeez...

So while we were watching paint dry, we moved the pantry to its permanent spot.  I had to cut the corner of the door molding off so the pantry doors would at least open most of the way.

The pantry is attached to the wall with three 3 1/2 screws into the studs.  The main challenge was the floor was not level.  There was over 1/2 inch drop from the inner corner to the far outside corner.

But that is what shims are for.

Now to finish up the section where the pantry was temporarily.

However, we won't be able to sand until the polyurethan clear coat is a couple of days into its final cure.

Kitchen War... Seeing Red

At least in person.

Once everything was all patched up and sanded it was time for the grey primer.  Since we are doing bright red, the grey primer is necessary.

While I was spreading the grey, Robyn was on the porching painting a couple of frames we picked up at Kirklands.  The picture is by Patty Ryan of Inukshuk Pass.  It's going up on our red walls.

The grey primer is actually an improvement over the dirty, grimey beige that was there before.

The part over where the pantry is temporarily will have to be painted in phase 2.

The red looked even better than the grey primer...

Yes... that really is red.  It says so right on the Sherwin-Williams can, "Bright Red."  My android phone doesn't take pictures of red well so you'll have to take my word for it.  It really does look red in person.

While I was putting up the first coat of red, I saw all of the little bumps in the original plaster job.

So I had to fill them in with a bit of spackling.

It dried while we did a Menard's run...

And a few hours later, Robyn and I had the 2nd and 3rd coats on the walls.

Then it was time to plug some of those extra holes in the floor.

The plug source was a piece of scrap.

I had to widen the holes a bit with a jig saw to get the holes big enough to pound in with a rubber mallet.

Once the Gorilla Glue dries, I fill in the center hole and the crevices with some wood putty.  The section that won't be under the pantry will then get the same treatment that I started over where the stove will ultimately be.

Sanded and then cleaned with a TSP substitute.  (Real TSP isn't allowed in St. Paul.)

Then painted black with porch and floor paint.  This is the first of three coats.

Because it is a minimum of 24 hours before the floor can see light use (with a minimum of 4 hours between coats) and a week before it is fully cured, the floor has to be blocked off from all of the critters.