Clearing the Deck

Sharron and I made two trips to the dump and cleared off all of the kitchen demolition debris that we had staged on the deck.  This included the sinks from the kitchen and powder room, lots of baseboard, cabinet pieces, a closet door and underlayment for the original linoleum floor.  This is how it looked after the first trip:

Here's all of that cut up with our handy Hilti sawzall and ready to load into my car:

We managed to get it all in with not much space to spare!

And here is the deck after cleanup.  We have two trashcans full of linoleum floor that the trash collectors will take later this week.  The lumber is excess cedar boards from our April fence project that we need to deal with.  The small boards are excellent for cedar plank grilling salmon. 

On our way home from the dump, we stopped off at The Great Indoors and found a support frame for a ceramic plate that we had purchased in Cascais, Portugal and hand carried home on the plane.  We had used it for a while as a serving platter, but it developed a crack and is now a decorative piece. 

The Wall Unit

Sharron unloaded the wall unit and we moved it in three stages to its new home in the family room.  The printer and two routers are now on a shelf in the left-hand unit, and the other shelves have been repopulated.

We unloaded the construction tools from the dining room table and moved it next to the wall previously occupied by the wall unit.  The donation items that we will give to the Viet Nam Vets organization are under the table.  The sofa will be moved later, when the piano and gaming TV have been moved out of the way.

And the bookcase is temporarily in the hallway until space is available in the living room.

I painted more trim and Amanda baked some zombie cupcakes - very yummy!

Tomorrow morning, Sharron and I plan to cut up a bunch of the old kitchen flooring that we stored on the deck, and haul it to the dump.  We look forward to having the uncluttered use of our deck again, and will be giving it a new coat of paint in the coming weeks.

The Desk

This "kitchen project" really encompasses the entire first floor, since we are also changing a lot of the furniture in the living room and family room, as well as renovating the kitchen, dining room, powder room and hallway.  Sharron unloaded the desk in the family room today and we moved it out to the garage.  The neighbors will pick it up this weekend.  The plan is to relocate the 96" wall unit to the space vacated by the desk and bookcase, which will be moved out of the way on Saturday. 
 

Family room wall after desk removal - routers and printer remaining

 

 

Computer desk and printer stand

Of course, the stuff from the desk and bookcase is now cluttering the family room!
 

    
Meanwhile, I continued painting trim.  The unpainted parts of the baseboard will be covered later by the quarter round.

Adding a Fourth

This morning, I assembled the additional lazy susan shelf that arrived yesterday.  I unloaded and lowered two of the shelves to make room, and added the new shelf on top.  Even at an angle, it was not easy to squeeze the shelf inside, and I had to drop the lower shelves on top of each other to finally get the new top shelf inside the cabinet.  Here's how it looks at the moment, before we load up the top shelf with stuff that will require our kitchen ladder to reach.

The next task was to add the pull bars to our 2 spice drawers.  Here's one after installation:

I had just started painting the door trim when the doorbell rang.  Our counter chairs were here!  And shortly thereafter, a knock at the door signaled the delivery of our 18 gauge brad nail gun, which will be quite handy for attaching quarter round to the baseboards.

Door trim painting in progress - blue tape for edging 

Chairs and nailer staged in hallway

Sharron arrived home from work just as I was unpacking the chairs.  We got the first one assembled in time for her to give it a test drive at the island while eating dinner.  As Murphy would have it, we assembled the first chair with the foot rest misaligned (on the side instead of in front) and had to remove four bolts and set it right.  With the knowledge of how not to do it, we got the second chair assembled correctly and with a bit less effort.  Here's Sharron doing the hard part of getting the bolts started in a very tight space inside the spring-loaded swivel assembly:

Note the coaster, used as a shim, while installing bolts

Here's the finished product.  We found our new perches at the end of the island to be a good vantage point for bird watching. 

Last, but not least, I opened the box containing the brad nailer and actually read the instruction manual!  This tool will be a huge time saver (and produce superior results) in installing quarter round. 

Hitachi brad nailer with 2400 brads of various sizes

Back-order Delivery

Our back-ordered cabinet items arrived today.  The only exception is the decorative face pieces for the spice drawers.  Since those will be several weeks in coming, I will install the pull bars on the spice drawers to make it much easier to open them.  I can re-mount the pull bars on the face pieces later. 

Lazy susan shelf, additional shelves for cabinets, valence, overhang supports, cabinet 

The cabinet will be mounted above the refrigerator.  The valence goes above the sink.  The additional lazy susan shelf goes in the corner wall cabinet, and the overhang supports go under the granite ledge at the near end of the island.  They are more decorative than structural.  The island drawers in this photo now have the pull bars, which were delivered and installed today. 

Pull Bars and Wall Touch-up

The wall touch-up painting is now complete, and all pull bars are on the cabinets, except for the two spice drawers that will be completed when the decorative face pieces arrive, and three other drawers that need smaller pull bars than the ones originally provided.  We expect the cabinet supplier to deliver all of this soon.

Here's the view of the cabinets with pull bars installed:

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I managed to get in a morning bike ride to Lake Needwood, and after lunch, Amanda and I went to Great Falls, MD for a short walk.  The sky was perfectly clear - not a single cloud today, but it was quite hot in the sun, so we didn't stay too long.  Here are a few shots from our walk today:

On the C&O Canal with Great Falls Tavern in the background

On the path to Olmstead Overlook

Hanging eight on the C&O Canal

Fishing in the waters of the Potomac River

Reflecting on Today's Work

I installed the new mirror in the powder room today, and couldn't resist a self-portrait.


Here's the finished product, complete with mirror, hair dryer and pull bars on the cabinet.  I also installed five pull bars in the kitchen and finished the ceiling touch-up paint.






































Our resident Fire Protection Engineer has certified the fire extinguisher that I installed by the stove this afternoon.





























And last, but not least, we installed Sharron's second wall hanging in the dining room.

Clean-up

We have a lot of re-arranging to do with our furniture.  When we started the floor work, we moved the wall unit out of the hallway and into the living room  The plan is to give away the desk in the family room and move the wall unit in its place.  After we sell our no-longer used piano, we'll move one of the sofa pieces in its place.  Sharron has the master plan in mind, and I am here to execute it when the time comes.  So today we cleared out more of the stuff that had been crammed into the living room.  I removed the curtains that Sharron no longer wants and did a lot of dusting to remove spackling dust that had settled on everything.  Had to take a Sudafed to stop my nose from running from the reaction to all the dust.  So, this may not look like progress, but it's getting there.

Living room after today's clean-up

When I went downstairs tonight to grab the above photo, I flipped on the dining room ceiling light - BIG MISTAKE!   The low angle of light immediately revealed several divots in the ceiling.  So, out came the bucket of spackling for one.....last....application!  I'll sand that area again tomorrow and quickly paint it while the scattered daylight obliterates any semblance of a shadow from any remaining surface imperfections.  The touch-up painting WILL be completed on Monday.

Shopping

I did a minor amount of touch-up painting in the powder room and, once again, applied spackling to some spots that still needed "just a little more work", so the ceiling touch-up painting has to wait until tomorrow.  I also ordered an 18-gauge brad gun, which will be a huge help in attaching the 100 feet of quarter round to the baseboards.  This afternoon, Sharron and I went to Great Gatherings in Annapolis Towne Centre and ordered a couple of counter stools, which should arrive within a week.  We look forward to eating meals at the end of the island and watching the birds in the backyard.  I think we are finally finished with purchases to outfit the kitchen.  Well, maybe......

After dinner, Sharron brought in one of our Star Gazer lilies.  Very odoriferous!  

Patches

Dear bloggers, sorry for the one-day lapse in my reporting, but the only thing accomplished yesterday was a bit of sanding.  Today, I applied more spackling on some spots that needed some touch-up.  They are sanded and ready for painting tomorrow.  We also moved the old buffet out of the dining room to clear some much needed space.

Wall patches and cleaned dining room 

Finally, enough room to walk around in the dining area!

 Of course, the living room is a total mess!  But Sharron has been cleaning a lot of it out and storing in the cabinets/shelves.  We will probably store the original dining room table in the basement and bring it upstairs as needed.

Plastic Wood

Took it easy today, doped up on Benadryl to fight off the swelling from a bee sting that I acquired during my Tuesday morning bike ride.  The bee had a head-on collision with my forehead and felt like a bullet.  I was flying down hill and the relative speed of the bee and my forehead was probably at least 30 mph


So, today I went over our new baseboards and filled cracks at the corners and at junction points.  I'll sand them down smooth tomorrow and start painting the various trim pieces.  Here's how it looks before sanding.  It will look a lot better after sanding and painting!

When there's a crack at the odd corners, slap a little plastic wood on them!

I also installed the towel bar in the powder room, after verifying (Google, of course) that the standard height is 48" above the floor.

24-inch Gatco towel bar

Today was the first day in about three weeks that we had useable sinks, so I cooked green beans in butter with salt and garlic, Cornish game hens on the rotisserie, and gravy, flavored by herbs from our garden.  Amanda cooked rice and we grabbed a bottle of Venho Verde and gave it a quick chill-down in the freezer while everything was cooking.  Now that we have use of a dishwasher, we can stop eating microwave meals on paper plates!

Water!

Today, I installed faucets in the powder room and kitchen. What a novelty to have running water in the kitchen again!

Kitchen faucet parts

Kitchen faucet after initial test

Vanity faucet and soap dispenser parts

Vanity sink ready for action

I also installed the garbage disposal and connected the dishwasher water lines.  Flipped on the circuit breakers, and all is working!  We are starting to get back to normal here, but there is still plenty of detail work to wrap up during the next two weeks.

Counter Productivity

Well, the counter top installers arrived at 11am today and had their work cut out for them.  I had cleared out the garage to provide a clear entry point for them, and before long, the first heavy piece of granite was set in place.

Truck with our counter tops on the A-frame in the center

Maneuvering sink counter top in a very tight space

Whew!

Suction cups help with maneuvering, but lose their grip within a few minutes!

Then came the marble top for the vanity

Marble counter top with porcelain under-mount sink and holes for faucet and soap dispenser

The dining room counter top was in three pieces

Initial placement, later integrated with epoxy to blend the seams

Finally came the island counter top, one big, heavy piece of granite that required four strong men to carry it inside.  But first, they had to swing it 180 degrees to get it correctly oriented.

Island counter top on A-frame dolly and wood blocks covered with carpet

Sliding the slab into proper position

12-inch overhang for dining at the island

Meanwhile, the crew discovered that the sink backsplash had an unpolished end, so out to the deck it went for a buffing with 3 different polishing pads.  That portable buffer did a fine job.

Polishing backsplash

The smallest piece is on the cabinet to the left of the oven.

We chose a sink with a corner drain to maximize the useable under-counter space

Island inside corner detail

Completed dining room installation

After dinner, Sharron and Amanda organized more of the drawers.

Where are we going to put all of this stuff?

Olive oil and Balsamic vinegar

We have to let the epoxy set between the granite and counters for 24 hours before working on the plumbing, so I have a temporary reprieve.  Tomorrow, we will finally have running water in the kitchen!