Bob: We had our countertops made-to-order by Lowe's. Here they are, awaiting deployment, in the dining room. Per plan, I cut these to fit our cabinet scheme.
Nan: I felt like the lady standing at the plate glass window in a store commercial;
Open, Open, Open! I wanted these installed four minutes after Bob brought them into the house!
Bob: Here's the first countertop, dry fitted. Wouldn't you like that much counter in one place? And, except for the pesky detail of no sink, it would've been done.
Nan: Too bad our kitchen isn't large enough to allow us to have a countertop this long.
Isn't it gorgeous?
Bob: The countertops for the Baking Center are dry-fitted here. This was difficult to get right, because almost nothing was in line in this corner. However, once I found out that the front of the chimney was parallel with the front of the cabinets, the rest went better.
Nan: This picture doesn't really show just how pretty this corner is. I can't wait to
stand my KitchenAid here. Oh, the bread it will make.
Bob: I devised this clever jig for cutting countertop with backsplash. Simply clamp in place and saw along the dotted line. Picture includes The World's Most Dangerous Saw, borrowed, of course. I have been unhappy with my own circular saw, bought three years ago, due to an engineering defect that keeps it from cutting perpendicular. This one, on the other hand, is merely missing the return spring on the blade guard! I used it only for cutting these countertops. Every time I used it, I would repeatedly shout, "Don't set the saw down!" to remind myself to hang onto the saw until the blade stopped spinning.
Nan: The first saw-cut on this beautiful counter about stopped my heart! I was so
afraid we'd do it wrong. It almost would have been worth it to just let the countertops
stand in the dining room corner and look at them.
Bob: I've dry-fitted the sink and installed the new tip-out kits. Cutting countertop is nerve-wracking at $20 a foot! Fortunately, there were no mistakes on this piece. Also, almost all of the installation processes in this series required at least two passes to assure success, once without glues and caulk, and then a final assembly.
Nan: This is quite the sink. It's deep, wide, has a wonderful faucet set, and is
not stainless steel!
Bob: Boy, this is a LOT easier to put together when it's upside down on a workbench! We reused almost all the old sink pipes (the plastic ones, not the iron), as well as the original sink and faucet set. They are only about five years old, and work just fine, thank you.
Nan: When you stop to think what the old set of drain/water pipes looked like, this is
truly a miracle in the making.
Bob: This is the way to dress up an old sink: give it some new drains. This is also a dry-fit, with all the pipes and faucets installed to check clearances.
Nan: The old drain fittings were so rusted and nasty looking, I shuddered to even think of using them. Bob, being the nice fella he is, bought new ones just to make me happy. :)
Bob: Did it work?
Nan: <3
Bob: With nowhere to go, the drain and supply lines still have to be rerouted.
Nan: In my eagerness to use this new miracle, I tried to get Bob to let me test this out with a bucket for "egress", but noooooo!
Bob: You would've needed a bucket of ingress too, Nan. ;-}~
Bob: This is my way of cleverly adapting the existing parts, along with some new ones, for my simple purposes. I wanted all my valves tied down solidly, so I devised a manifold block to hold them. In the background, you see the new water lines and soil pipe stuck into holes in the floor/cabinet.
Drilling these holes turned out to be no easy task. The extension
I bought for the hole saw wouldn't fit the mandrel; it wouldn't even fit the spade bits!
So, I drilled up from the crawl space, using my previously retained measurements to guide
me as to where to drill, (up through six layers of floor and into the chamber beneath the
cabinet). Then using a quarter-inch drill bit in the extension, I was able to drill pilot
holes in the bottom of the cabinet from beneath. These I used to drill down from above, and
meet my holes from beneath. Worked better than I hoped!
Bob: These are those dry-fit water lines, down in the crawl space, ready to be connected to the existing water "system" (I use the term loosely). This is not a very good picture...
Nan: I'm so glad Bob doesn't make me go into that spider-filled pipe maze hole.
No Way!
Bob: Here, two water lines are connected; the third one, still not connected, is the line out to the patio hose bib. An extra valve under the sink allows us to shut that faucet off during the winter months, so it won't freeze.
Nan: Some day we'll redo all the pipes in the crawlspace, but until we can do that,
these will carry the load.
Bob: Here is the new soil pipe for the sink, rerouted to under the new sink position, the way it's 'sposed to be.
Nan: Now I have egress!
Bob: All sink pipes, attached and in place.
Nan: Now, who in the world would ever have thought that pipes could be beautiful? Trust
me, these pipes are gorgeous!
Bob: Last shot, behind the stove. The stove had to be raised three-quarters-inch to correct its height in relationship to the countertops. I cut some of the extra OSB board, with an angled front to make it easier to push the stove back and onto it. Another piece lifts the front. Also seen here, the gas curly pipe (where's Moe when you need him?) runs into, and then out of, the wall, to allow the stove to go all the way back.
Nan: I once read a book named Raising The Titanic. I don't think this is in the same catagory.
Bob: One of those little details, in that endless list of little details, was to upgrade the toe kicks. Each individual cabinet had one of finished oak, but the unlevel floor left huge caverns underneath them. Not gonna do it. Na ga da! This needed a custom solution from Bob.
I devised new toe kicks made out of masonite, custom cut to the heights above the floor to fill in for the missing wood, backed with equally cleverly cut pieces of scrap 5/8" plywood, painted flat black, and attached with matt-black spur-tip screws. The screws absolutely disappeared when I tightened them in, and we haven't seen them since. ;-}~
Nan: Bob and I kicked around several different ways to unify the cabinets, because the
toe kicks that came with the cabinets are individual for each cabinet as opposed to one unifying
piece. We finally settled on this way, and the seams between the cabinets virtually disappeared.
I think they look very elegant.
Bob: This is a nice shot of the finished stove and sink.
Nan: Bob says I can't use the word clean, but you get the drift, doncha? (Did I sneak
that word in here somewhere?)
Bob: All of the original thresholds were trash, and the thickness of the floors required a creative solution. We bought some solid red oak shelving at Lowe's to do this trick. This is the threshold between the kitchen and the utility room, being dry-fitted. The ends were marked to fit the existing doorways using a pin-profile tool. Where the floors were unlevel to each other, I shimmed with strips of oak to equalize the heights. Also visible here are dry-fitted quarter-round mouldings for the kitchen.
Nan: New thresholds make a huge difference.
Bob: Those thresholds, as well as all those shelves, and the surround doors for the water heater in the utility room, all needed to be finished right about now. I had been gathering these parts for weeks, so I did them all at once. Here, the thresholds and pine shelves for over the cabinets have been stained with Minwax light oak stain.
Nan: I couldn't be here for this phase. Too many fumes for me. I always did want to
skip school, and get by with it.
Bob: These are stained parts for the shelves attached to the cabinet over the refrigerator. Does anybody recognize this breadbox?
Nan: Sandi, do you recognize this breadbox? I can't wait to put it in the dining room.
Bob: Behold, all three thresholds to the kitchen, with two coats of polyurethane. These are so handsome in place!
Nan: Sanded, stained, and finished, just waiting for final installation. Every step is
one step closer to Movin' Day!
Bob: We were both rather taken by this shot, which shows the shelves over the cabinets, freshly finished and reinstalled. Just breathtaking!
Nan: Sunrise in the new kitchen is a beautiful sight! We will spend many hours
watching out the back door at the morning peeking in at us.
Bob: The kitchen window, getting some much-needed TLC. This window, and the dining room window, are the worst ones in the house. When the previous owners abandoned this house, they left the storm windows open, and the Colorado bank that repossesed it never even sent anyone around to close them! The winters and rainy seasons took their toll on these window sills.
Nan: It took a lot of ingenuity to make this look good. This is a temporary fix. We will be replacing a lot of the wood on this window, and two or three others, soon. Hopefully before summer is over. If not, then early spring next year.
Bob: Or the year after. Or, at least, before the house falls down. Anyway, while we're still
young. Oops, too late for that...
Bob: After some much-needed attention, a coat of primer protects what's left of this
window. Oh, the sash weights are both at the bottom of the wells, and the stool is broken,
and the sill has some dry-rot, and the frames are loose and warped, but it will serve for
now, and at least we've stopped the degeneration. Serious repairs have to be deferred
until another day.
Bob: That's the ORIGINAL door sill, down there, split and tired. When we started uprooting the floor, we discovered that this one had been covered with a piece of three-inch baseboard. Talk about your butchered door sill! Here, I've scraped most of the crud out in anticipation of mounting a new threshold over it. Once again, I can't really do the correct job of removing/replacing it which would take considerably more time, but this will yield a serviceable door. A support piece lies waiting.
Nan: Eventually we are going to replace all three of the outside doors. The sill replacement
will come then. New doors, new sills, and possibly new screens all at one time. What a
transformation that will be.
Bob: Here is a shot of the shelves over the refrigerator, finished and installed, with a few decorator items.
Nan: Yes, putting decorating pieces up before we move in, is probably pushing things
a bit, but we have to have some encouragement occasionally. And this looks so nice. The
white Zinfandel is for celebratory purposes only. Honestly! After we move in, all corks are out...
Bob: You see here the utility room and dining room thresholds, finished and in place. The quarter-round mouldings are painted and in place. All the trim is painted.
Nan: Every time I walk through the doorways now, I look at the thresholds. Another fine
finishing touch.
Bob: The kitchen door has been complimented with blind and curtains. At the last minute, we decided we didn't need the old Yale lock on this door, and so there is one more one-more-thing thing to do to make this complete. We are cooking roast beef in the crock pot to the right (Yum!).
Nan: I made these curtains for another kitchen (Fordice Street). They fit like they were
made for these windows.
Bob: This is a REAL transformation, and if you look back to the beginning of the journey for this kitchen, this was the worst corner exposed. The back door threshold is visible here, also.
Nan: Can you recall what a mess this corner was when we started? Unbelievable, isn't it?
Bob: I mean, c'mon, now we're hanging pictures! Do you think there's much left to do in here before we move in? Well, not in THIS room, anyway. But still plenty in other rooms. And, yes, that is my grandpa's antique scale, up on that shelf. He used it to weigh out lugs of oranges from his little orange ranch in Spring Valley, CA, during his retirement in the 50's and 60's.
Nan: Several things missing from this room yet; refrigerator, dishes, etc. Oh, and one very important item...well two items: Bob and I, living here!
(05/2010): It has been such a long time since I made the above comment about Bob and I living here! Over two years! Today is May 22, 2010 and as I look back on these pictures, it's so amazing all the work that we've put into making this derelict house into a home.
I seldom walk into the kitchen without thinking two things: First, how much I love this kitchen. And second, how thankful I am that we have all this beauty, and can call it ours. We are very fortunate people.
Bob: Indeed we are, Nan, and that pretty much says it.
Bob: Some details come with time, though. Here are the drawer pulls for the sink tip-outs. The Baking Center got some, too.
Nan: I love the tip-outs. I can hide all the necessities that one usually has stacked
around the kitchen sink, and still have them at hand.
Bob: We finally got the refrigerator here, about three months later. Sure is handy to have some food around when you're hungry!
(05/2010) Nan: Again, the remarks from above are over two years old. But we still
appreciate that the refrigerator is finally "home".
Bob: And here's that bread box you saw getting refinished with all those cabinets. I think it came out really well! The regilded decorations are a nice touch, too.
(05/2010) Nan: Sandi, do you remember the bread box? Yes, it's the same one I had many years ago, and the one you used for such a long time. And now it's been given a new lease on life. It looks very handsome setting atop the refrigerator.
(05/2010) Bob: Now the problem is, Nan says she wants to change something around. She wants to put
the breadbox out in the dining room, and also do something heretofore very peculiar.
She wants to put something called "bread" in it. ;-}~
Bob: Nan's Baking Center is finally taking shape. Here is her KitchenAid mixer and some hung up acoutrements. We'll undoubtedly make more changes as time goes by.
(05/2010) Nan: Unfortunately, I haven't been baking bread since we moved from Little House. It
seems as though I've been busy doing so many other things that I've negleted baking the
bread. However, winter will follow May, as surely as December in Indiana will be cold, and
I can warm the kitchen with bread-baking!
Bob: One final picture before we go on. This is a shot out through our new combo-storm-screen door and into the patio. You see our new screen house ouside. Little by little, we are filling in all the necessities for living here.
(05/2010) Nan: I am looking forward to sitting in the screen-house this summer. I intend
to get some library books and settle into the swing for some good times.