December / January Kitchen Progress

Progress is still slow on the kitchen but rather than making a huge push and burning out we're taking a more steady approach.

What's New... Well the back door is back in it's rightful place after a $200 + Electric/Gas bill I didn't think we could afford to wait any longer. Unfortunately I didn't get the frame completed like I wanted to so we'll need to take the door off the hinges again here when it gets warmer out to finish up.

I found matches for the vent covers that we have in the downstairs kitchen and bath. I'm not sure if they were original to the house or not but I think they are well suited anyways. I was able to get three but I'm still keeping my eye out for one more for the office so all of the downstairs will match. The one on the right is the original from our house and the shiny one on the left is one of the ones I got off of Ebay. I'm leaning strongly towards repainting the ones I got from Ebay as they have a little rust on them and they aren't quite the right color.
Also the kitchen has some new insulation and is missing a rather large swath of wall when the outlets and backsplash are going to go.

I am also looking into Veneer Plastering to fix the missing pieces of wall that we have obtained over the course of this project however I am having some difficulty coming up with materials in this part of the world. I have a call into a local plastering company I'm hoping that they will be able to point me in the direction of a supplier.

New tools... Whoo hoo

Just got back from Menards where Chris and I bought each others Christmas Presents I bought him a laser level.
and he got me a detail sander
I'm about to head downstairs to test it out and hopefully get the kitchen door finished up. the manual sanding definitely put a damper on the speed of that project.

Snow is starting to fall here

So begins my ambitious task for the week. I figure if I write this up here there will more of a chance of completing it.

Hmm remember the kitchen door from oh May. With the impending doom aka cold weather it needs to be back in it's place ASAP

Monday - Finish applying poly to the edges of the pantry door. [edit: -- Done]
Tuesday - Reinstall hardware on the pantry door and bring upstairs. Apply shellac to the dining room door kitchen side. [edit: -- Done]
Wednesday - Apply 3 coats of poly to the dining room door kitchen side. [edit: -- Done *Only used 2 coats of Poly]
Thursday - Reinstall hardware on dining room door. Bring kitchen hallway door down to the basement. Remove glass and begin removing paint using the heat gun. Sand door frame to kitchen.
Friday - Finish removing paint from kitchen side of door by heat gun and chemical strippers.
Saturday - Remove varnish from hallway side of door. Begin sanding kitchen side of the door
Sunday - Shellac door frame. Finish sanding and clean up workshop.

Plumbing woes

For some inexplicable reason when we shower on the second floor the plumbing leaks in the basement. At this point in the game I've come to expect these things however this one has me nervous.

It's difficult to see in this picture but the plumbing from the upstairs shower comes into the basement by the blue arrow to the right side of the stack. The leak is occurring on the left side of the stack under the downstairs tub drain where we have rigged up the bucket. I'm thinking that no matter what it ends up being the remaining galvanized waste pipes will probably be getting the heave ho.

Ceiling and attic

After i get the bathroom ceiling done I'm going to go up to the attic to see what the electrical situation is. May need to rerun some while we have the kitchen ceiling open. If it looks ok then I will hold off until after the kitchen is done.

Yard work and Ceiling

I managed last weekend to get about half the ceiling up in the bathroom and i put mulch around the plants in the front.

I have mixed emotions about the mulch. I like the fact that weeding will be easier and less needed and that I will not have to water as much. I guess I'm just not used to the look of it.


I will post pictures when i get some taken so you can see what it looks like.

Window Installation

Saturday Morning Troy came out to install the window that we ordered back in May. It took him about 2.5 hours and he took care of rough finishing for the inside and the outside. He also repaired one of the boots on our waste stack.

Before:

After:
The smaller windows do make things a little darker in the kitchen but the benefits far outweigh the costs. We'll be gaining some much needed counter space and we got rid of one of the vinyl windows to boot. I just don't care for natural wood trim up against a stark white window I don't think it looks very attractive.