baby steps - kitchen update

We seem to be progressing, albeit slowly, in our kitchen makeover.

I'm beginning to breath normally again.

This last week I undercoated and did a topcoat of some timber trims, including the moulding for the new kitchen window. Handyman came on Friday and put it in and it looks great!

Yesterday he was here again and he put in the duct for the rangehood including the roof thingy..

and sanded back the patches on the ceiling (plaster dust everywhere...) and helped me rescue a bird from one of the walls of the casita.

Honestly.

The dogs were going bezerk at something in the wall. Romeo was trying to eat the door! I had no choice. I asked Handyman to help me cut a hole in the wall so we could find what was in there and get it out. Save the dogs doing more remodeling down there like they did last time...

I put on gloves, cringing at the thought I'd be finding a rat nest complete with an angry mother rat and her 93 babies... only to find a bird which had gotten in the wall cavity and couldn't get out.

And a mummified carcass of a bird long gone which had obviously suffered the same fate.

Bird got out safely. The wall lives another day.

Handyman will be back again today to finish the rangehood on the inside - put the ceiling plate in and the rangehood's stainless cover. He says we can then cook.

I said I refuse to cook till I can wash up properly...

When I'm not walking around in circles wondering where to start and being overwhelmed by all the options of jobs to do, I do occasionally get a few things done.

I sanded back all the wood filler so that once the plastering is finished I can paint both the ceiling and the walls.

I've painted the kitchen door (the one from the entry/pantry area) a colour I got a sample of cause I loved it on the swatch. Its called Caramel Craving... whats not to like about that?

Turns out its not quite as yummy on a full door. I'm afraid Wayne will call it 'duck sh#@!t yellow' - one of his favourite colours (not). His opinion is that they must have had a huge sale on that murky mustardy yellow colour a few years ago cause so many houses around here are painted in it.

Well... on paper its the same colour as the stove, only in a much darker tint. We'll see how it looks once the door is in. Its only paint after all!

Meanwhile I did a few small jobs that needed finishing. Cleaned out the workshop area. Mended a broken drawer in the coffee table. Did a bit of potting. Sorted out some things to be burned or thrown out.

There's work to do today. The sun is showing through the clouds occasionally... maybe I can finish that fascia today and never have to worry about it again.

Ever.

z

the pits - kitchen update

Please tell me why it is that I find myself lying in bed awake at night with lists of things to do running through my head, unable to sleep. The gap filling, the painting, the sanding, the order of things in which things need to be done. There are mice in the office/temporary breakfast prep area. I've been finding mouse poop on the desk. The guest room smells suspiciously mouse-pee-ey. I need to buy a zillion plastic storage boxes and pack everything in them. I need to clean out both rooms, throw out anything mouse-stinky. I need to rip up the carpet and throw it out of the office.

I itch to get up and get doing things, but I don't. I lie there hoping for rest and sleep.

All these things and more whir around my head at night keeping me awake, no matter how many times I tell myself to think of something caaaah-lm.... like the still waters of the Aegean early in the morning...

Then, the next day, I get up early to actually DO things, and I feel like this:

The house is still a pigsty. There are piles of crap to be thrown out, sorted and put away. There are things to find which may be lost forever under the mountain of timber offcuts and gap filler tubs that were tossed in corners to be put away later.

In fact, I haven't been able to find my orbital sander this morning.

Maybe that's partly the reason for my renovation-breakdown...

I got up, still fighting a tightness in my chest that seems to have lodged there for the last 3 days... Stress? Kitchen makeover depression? Overwhelmed-renovator related asthma?

So, I get up and get a running start. I put on and hung out 3 loads of washing in the futile hope that the foggy air will dry them. I fill holes and gaps in the pine lined walls. I lightly sand and do a 2nd coat of paint on the kitchen door which is lying flat in the grooming room right now. I lightly sand and do a 1st topcoat on the moulding and trims.

I look for, and can't find my orbital sander. I consider hand sanding, or using the corner sander on the gapfiller...

I look at the drill and the broken cabinet on the porch and consider taking it apart to scavenge.

I look at the mess on the porch and remember I told Handyman I'd make room for him to put the cornice tomorrow.

And somewhere around there I lose all will to live.

I better go get my inhaler.

cough, cough, wheeze.

I better go do something or I'll be beating myself up for wasting time instead of sleeping tonight.

z

kitchen decisions

I've been thinking about new kitchen chairs.

And dishes.

And light fittings.

But the chairs pushed themselves to the top of the list when Wayne broke the leg on one of my old kitchen chairs last week.

I always suspected the day would come when I'd need to rethink the rickety, pretty but badly restored chairs I have in the kitchen. I love my mismatched timber tip shop chairs, but truth is there's only so much strengthening I can do with my limited expertise.

(ie no expertise...)

So, I started looking for new chairs for the new kitchen and found this website:

http://retrojan.com.au/

I love it! I love everything they have. Not that its all right for this house... I would have loved all their furniture in my house in Melbourne which was a 1950's house both in architecture and my decor.

Anyway, this is the style of chair I thought I'd love in the kitchen. They've been all over the  various TV renovation shows and magazines lately. I love the mix of industrial and vintage in a country style kitchen. Plus I think they'd be strong...

I was able to test these ones out at Freedom locally and they're really nice. Though Wayne is right... they may be too cold!

I like the school-like simplicity of these chairs from Retro Jan. Not as trendy but really cute.

However I've decided that Wayne is right. Timber chairs would be better, not to mention warmer!

Finding timber chairs sold separately, that didn't cost squillions of $$$ is another matter. I managed to find these which should be available locally. I'll go look at them soon and see.

I think I like the first one best, the last is too chunky. 

Not sure I want them 'natural' either but I won't make any decisions till the kitchen is finished.

I think I need to see it finished and live in it a while before I make final decisions or purchase anything new. Right now I don't even know how my table will fit in the kitchen with the new layout.

So, where are we on this whole kitchen thing?

Well... this last week has seen the pine panelling on the walls finished. Except for the corner trims... the gaps filled, and the painting.

I've undercoated the kitchen door, the window moulding and the trims for the bench and corners.

Handyman has put up the rangehood but not put in the vent cause... of course... we've hit a snag. A roof support snag.

Right in the way of the vent.

Naturally.

So we need a bit of flexi pipe or a rigid 90 degree bend to finish it.

Wayne is now asking when, realistically, we can expect the kitchen to be finished.

I want to know too.

Well, Handyman says he will probably be able to put the benchtop in next weekend.

Probably.

I won't hold my breath. At this stage having no kitchen feels almost normal.

Its been so long!

z

thats the way the apple crumbles - kitchen update

A bunch of hydrangeas from my garden adorn my new kitchen...

Don't get your hopes up. This is just the magic of creative cropping at work. Here is the full picture:

The kitchen is still a non-working mess. )

Though there has been progress... let me fill you in.

Last Thursday Handyman came in the morning to start work again since the electricals had all been moved. He arrived with the warning that he could only work 3 hrs or so cause he had to go to the other job he took on (after mine I should point out) which is a huge entire house makeover. Apparently the owner changed his mind about the type of shower he was putting in so Handyman had to go back and get the base ready for the plumber who was arriving the next morning... ie it was urgent.

I said fine, that was ok. It would be good if he went through with me and we wrote out a list of all the things that needed doing in the kitchen to get it finished. That way we (I) could plan ahead, buying or preparing each area for the next job. We wrote it out and then measured and made a list of things I needed to buy.

The list of things to do went something like this:

-put in window which involves: patch timber outside house, put in lintel for new window, move old window to porch
 
-put in rangehood which means making a hole in the roof and ceiling to vent it, getting a rubber seal for the roof

-mount glass splash back which should be easy as I already have the clips for it

-put pine lining on 2 walls

-plaster and smooth ceiling and one wall we’re not lining

-put up cornice around entire room

-put in skirting boards on 2 walls

-put in benchtop once its finished – includes some kind of decorative trim for edge where bench meets wall, there will be a small gap there we need to cover. i need to find/pick that, and let me tell you, the amount of decorative trim and moulding available in Australia (or Tasmania?) is pathetic

-plumb in dishwasher

-put in sink – add a new hole for 2nd tap (for the gravity fed bore water - a necessity for us)

-plumb in sink 

-patch a hole in the cabinet which my kitchen man thoughtfully put in for the power point for the dishwasher but which the electrician didn't use ... its now a hole that just needs filling. 

-put the sliding door back in kitchen (we took it off to make it easy to bring things in and out) – after giving it a coat of paint and painting the frame

-paint all woodwork - all the new pine lining, window and door surrounds

-paint the unlined wall

I mean, it looks like a ton, but it shouldn't be that much! Not really.

IF I had a Handyman...

This is what he did last weekend when he worked a couple of hours on Thursday, all day Friday and Saturday.

He cut a hole for the new window.

He put in the new window and we love it. There's so much more light in the kitchen now and it has a view! Downside is we can't walk around naked in there any more!

He lined the entire front wall of the kitchen with pine. We definitely need a frame around the window and I have found a moulding I like. Unfortunately he's not here today to tell me if its ok. I plan to buy it anyway and hopefully he can make it work.

 He chose to come back on Sunday (his choice. I'm not a slave driver!) to finish the third wall so I could gap fill and paint during the week. He didn't finish it so I didn't paint it.

Do I sound a bit peeved? Well, yes, I am. Not cause he didn't finish last week. I'm peeved cause he called last night to say that he can't come in to work today. Which means one less day of work this week, which delays us further.

Actually, it means that he'll only work one day this week. Just tomorrow.

Yes. I'm very annoyed right now.

Deep breath. Its progress. If I wasn't going to be flat out this weekend I'd undercoat all the timber, finished or not. I'll give it a go and get what I can done anyway.

I'm so over not having a kitchen. I'm so over the entire house being a mess.

Did I mention that one of the dogs had diarhea in the office a couple of weeks ago? I just cut out a section of carpet and threw it away. I've started removing it anyway, may as well not waste time and effort cleaning it.

Well, someone did it again yesterday. No better way to wake up than to find a mess to clean up.

Another bit of carpet bit the dust.

I'm itching to get the office emptied out and get rid of that carpet and do the floor in there. That way, if someone does get sick in there its easy to clean.

I want a dog door.

What worries me about a dog door is dogs who go outside to hunt all night. And bark.

What worries Wayne is that a dog door for my dogs would be big enough for a small person to get through.

*sigh*

As for hunting... Came home last night to be greeted with Montana proudly carrying a prize. A huge dead rat.

Took them out to pee last night and found another offering on the mat outside the door. Another dead rat.

They've caught two mice which they've given me to dispose of. Both alive. Barely.

Nice.

But the fact is they give me their catches! I'm so impressed.

Yesterday they were sniffing and digging under something in the yard. I lifted it and sure enough, there was a mouse underneath. Romeo caught it and there it was, hanging out of his mouth, tail out the side. I asked him to give it to me and he stood till I grabbed the tail.

Ugh.

Ok. All these rodents are sick and dying. We've had to resort to poison as there are just so many of them. Luckily the dogs don't eat them, just catch them, kill them and present them proudly. It still concerns me and I hate finding them dead, or worse, alive.

Oh the joys of country life!

z