Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Learning our way around the Kitchen (October 28 & 29)

There are several projects that we need to finish before winter shuts us down for the year. The kitchen floor is one of those projects. You may remember that we removed the carpet and some of the "filler" layers of luan sheeting. The floor under all of the patch pieces was one layer, but had several holes and cracks that allowed direct access to (or from) the crawlspace. With the colder weather on the way, the time is right to get this situation corrected.

The first step was to remove the cabinets. We have not shut off the water supply yet, so we had to leave the sink in place and work around the sink base. We are going to keep the cabinets, and replace the counter top next year.





Because of space limitations, we tried to work in 4-5 foot strips. We removed enough existing floor to allow us to place the next sheet of plywood. This allowed us an area to walk, stand, and to help keep the tools and trash out of our way.



We placed a layer of plywood down to form an even layer across the entire kitchen area, which is something we should have done in the living room before we put down the hardwood. The only area left to cover is under the sink base cabinet. We will replace that area on the next trip.




I think we both knew that this project was going to take quite a bit of time and energy, but I think we still underestimated what was involved. We worked the entire weekend, and stayed much later on Sunday than we planned.

We still need to do several things before winter. Some of these things are:

1. We got the initial layer of plywood down, but still need to put another layer of thinner sheets to even out the floor between the kitchen and the living room.

2. Shut off the water and remove the pump for winter storage.

3. Either blow out the water supply pipes, or remove them completely.

4. Take home everything that we don't want left there over winter.

and like every good list,

5. Whatever else comes up while we are doing the other items.

Hidden in the wall (October 21 & 22)

Well, it has been a few weeks, and no update, so I guess I should bring everyone up to speed.

CMV started to remove the shared wall between the bathroom and the kitchen. We spoke to the plumber a few weeks ago, and decided that we are more than capable of performing most of the labor ourselves. Since the water will be shut off over the winter, we also decided that it is a good time to start removing the drywall around the water pipes.







AMV was right when she guessed that there would be razor blades in the wall. I believe that the final estimate was at least 200 discarded blades. Do they still make medicine cabinets with a slot for old blades? I would guess they do not.