A Busy Week

I thought life would mellow out and I could relax after we got home. I've hardly sat still since I climbed out of the car, though i don't really mind the fact. After all, my kitchen is finished.

Yes, you heard me correctly. My kitchen is finished. The same one that we tore apart down to the dirt floor a few years back. Don't remember the dirt floor? Here, let me refresh your memory with a few pictures. Feel free to gasp and chuckle. It was quite an adventure.

This is the earliest picture I could find, looking at the south wall. So old, in fact, that I had to scan it in because it was taken with my Nikon 35mm. Note the dense hair on Fred's head. I mean the green paint on the wall. If I remember correctly, we had already ripped off some lovely wallpaper. Also note the charming corner cabinets that came with the house. Yeah, they're gone, too. (I think the baby is Bob, if you are wondering)

A few years down the line, and I have painted the walls blue. Yes, I chose the paint. I'm not particularly proud of it now, but I will own up to it. Kind of like the fuschia dress I wore to 8th grade graduation. Not my proudest moment, but it makes for a good story. Some day I may find a picture and let you see, but that's a whole nother can of worms. (By the way, what is the grammatically correct way to spell whole nother??) The lower pink cabinets are original cabinets, with faux marble countertops. The blue upper cabinets without doors are the ones that I built and somehow cut the panel for the doors too skinny and tall and I never could get back into the project. Please excuse the mess, this pic was taken mid-remodel. Note the dishwasher on the far right... When we moved in our washing machine was there. We just drilled a hole through the side into the sink cavity to hook up the dishwasher and thought we were living high on the hog!

Here is what we found when we tore up the floor. A rock foundation with termite eaten joists holding up our sloping floor. We could put a marble in the nw corner and it would roll all the way across to the se (the corner you are looking at) without any help.

This is what was holding up our floor. Apparently, the termite damage had happened and been taken care of before these boards were used in my house, but it still doesn't make me feel any better.

Sawdust? Nope, just decomposing wood. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure the floor will hold.

So here is a shot (ne corner) of the whole floor ripped up. We had to, you see. There was no foundation! So we poured one, hauled buckets of cement in through the window because the cement truck wouldn't fit. You can see the old countertop line, the outline of the cabinets, and the floor line. That's where the plaster ends. Then we have adobe brick that the wall is made of, and a big hole where we were trying to tie into the old sink drain. I guess it had sloped UP to the sewer drain, and so it pooled here under our kitchen and rusted the pipe out. We decided to reroute the drain into the basement and hook up with the main drain from the bathroom. Thought that would be a better idea since we snapped off the pipe trying to get the old one off. That's a shovel in the hole. It's what, about 5 feet long? So we were about 5 feet below floor level at this point.

I think it was last October that we put in the backsplash and painted the town red. I love the embossed tin we put in, but I think next time it will look better with a darker wood on the cabinets.

The real irritation has been this countertop, under the east facing window. For some reason, never did get it finished. It's been 3/8 inch luaun for, I don't know, EVER! And while I am grateful to unnamed places of employment that throw away perfectly good pieces of things that I can use for a countertop, I'm tired of it. I can't stand on the counter here because it sags, but this is my favorite cabinet because my trash is hidden here in a slide out drawer, disguised as a door. Tricky, eh?

2 days, my (favorite) table saw, a neighbors router, and annoyingly little effort later, and I have a honest to goodness, real-life, sturdy countertop. And now I can finish the trim on the window!Oh, back to this week. My sister Deanna came home with me so I didn't have to drive alone (thanks!). We've been putting up the crown moulding that I've had in the garage for a year or so. See, I would have put it up myself long ago, but I got it off freecycle, used, and it had seam filler on it from when it was in the other house. I needed to get it off somehow, and I was intimidated into inaction. Enter Deanna with a fresh view of things. "Cut it off!" "OH! OK!" Problem solved. Only Deanna is more creative than I am. She got online and found a picture of corner blocks to use with crown and built me some for my kitchen. It's amazing what a difference four little blocks in the corners of your room will make. I think it looks stunning.It seems that while were hard at work on the crown moulding, my kitchen table got in a fight with a can of paint. I think I won, as I rather like the change. More dramatic, somehow.

Guess what? My kitchen is finished! That first picture is in June of 2000. Eight years later, I have a beautiful, functional kitchen, with cabinets that "match and all have doors!" (A direct quote from Bob after we took down the blue ones and put up the wood ones) I think I'm in heaven.

Anyone in the market for a house? I need one with more bedrooms.