Kitchen Pickin

On the hot days... and we've been already having them... I still pick at the kitchen work. I've been sanding woodwork and getting a prime coat on it as well. I've been finishing up the walls too. I think I have the wall color nailed down now.


Island is finished and painted

And the sink base too

Some sanded and primed wainscoting

More Gutters and More Windows

Nothing I haven't talked about before... but that much closer to being finished with the two. The back gutter is done and turning the corner up the last side. While the scaffold was up I installed two more new Pella windows on the back wall - only 4 more windows to go!


The small front section is finished

Scaffold set up to install other half of back gutter

Gutter finished and ready for new window

My Mind Still in the Gutter

Making Screens

With the nice weather here it was time to do one more left over project for the 3rd floor... make screens for the windows. Being able to open all the windows up there is crucial to keeping the temperature tolerable, plus keep nature out, and the cats in!

I already made 2 last year so I have 3 to go. I bought materials from qualitywindowscreen and was quite happy with what they sent me. I ordered framing, corner pieces, screen material, spline material and tool for installing, plus a pin assembly which will lock the screen into the window jam.

First thing is measuring the opening and then cutting the frame pieces to size. The best way to cut them and get a good miter cut is using a plywood blade on a chop saw, but mounting the blade with the teeth in reverse. This actually gives a nice cut in aluminum. Then using the corner pieces, assemble the frame for a trial fit.



Once this is happy, diassemble and drill the holes for the locking pins. This is done with a special step bit that they suppplied. With the holes drilled, the pin and spring are inserted in the frame and then the plastic grabber piece snaps on the top of the pin. Now you have a spring loaded pin that will lock into a hole drilled in the window jamb and hold the screen in place once installed.







Next reassemble the frame, cut the screen material for the frame and using the spline tool run the spline into the channel along the frame. This actually stretches the screen material as you work your way around so it's not critical to pull on the screen as you go... just keep the material from wrinkling as you work and it will end up nice and tight.





And that's it! Install and move on to the next project!

Back Outside Again

Taking advantage of some warm weather, I finally went and finished the soffit. The only thing left is a final coat of paint on the siding and trimwork on this corner section of the house.... than I can officially call the siding project D-U-N... DONE!





I started working on the gutters too. I already had some of the hangers mounted, so I went to making up the gutter sections for the corner and installed them temporarily in place. I need to install more hangers, then I can adjust them to get the right slope for drainage. Stay tuned.

More Hall History

Here's the Wilmington warehouse for Norris's old steel company. If you click on the second pic and zoom in, on the left corner of the sign you can see "L. Norris Hall" faded on the sign and "Potts" who bought the company in the 1970's. Now it's B & B Steel located near the Wilmington port and just by coincidence across the street from one of the generation stations I work at.

Still Growing

Another 4 weeks they should be ready for the garden!


Kale and various lettuce on the left, Cherry and Roma tomatoes on right.


Big Boy, Better Boy, Rutger tomatoes on left - broccoli, eggplant, chard, chili peppers on right.



On top shelf not pictured celery is starting to germinate (slow starter), a few bell peppers, basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, and Brandywine tomatoes are sprouting as well. Outside I have more lettuce and spinach directly planted starting to come up, chives, tarragon, and snap peas are well on their way too.

Kitchen work?? Some mudding and lots nail filling going on... nothing noteworthy since I'm in the middle of a spring outage at work and doing 60+ hrs a week till May.

Think Spring!

The garden seedlings are in full swing...



One day you will grow up to be BIG tomato plants!



The baseboard outlets are finished and the island doors installed, next step... finish the drywall mudding.

Dishwasher finished

The open cupboard that contains the dishwasher is finished. I had to modify the plumbing I did a few years back since I changed from having a portable unit to a fixed unit. I installed filler pieces on the sides, added a butcher block top from IKEA, beadboard on the back to square off the back (back wall runs just a tad crooked!), then another shelf for the nuker. A few outlets and walla!

Hardware Holdup

Well kids, the island is close to finished. The wiring is done, the doors are made (even have 2 installed), but I need to order more hardware from House of Antique Hardware to mount the other pair. The hardware I used was supposed to be for the built in cabinet, so need to order for that too.



Also holding me up is I really need to have the dishwasher to finish the open pantry that it will sit in... so looks like I'll be shopping this week for that too. That should finish up the woodwork and then I can put away all the big tools and make the final push to finish the walls and do all my filling... then it'll all come together - paint, flooring, and the furniture. After that I can FINALLY gut that *&%!hole... I mean kitchen I've been using upstairs for the past 4 years - good riddens! Anybody need some crappy 70's cabinets??! I decided on springin for the retro fridge from Elmira Stoveworks. Just haven't decided on either white or mint green.

Saturday I ended up taking up all the Pergo flooring in the bedroom I've been using so my friends can do their nursery for the soon to be new member. This should save them a few needed bucks and I hate to see good flooring thrown out, but I have nice original pine floors underneath that just need to be refinished. Since I was that far into it I ended up painting the room too since I had enough of the color. I tried a green I was thinking of for when I do the master bedroom this summer and think I like it. Also changed out the bed which is part of a nice 1940s Thomasville set I picked up for an old pineapple post bed which I bought many moons ago. It goes great with the rest of the Thomasville pieces, so the other bed will be hitting EBAY soon along with several other pieces of furniture I don't have a use for.

I visited my old man last night and his project is getting real close now... only took 15 years! 1950 Chevy convertible, slightly modified, it'll be finally cruisin this summer. Hard to believe this car sat in a field in Montana for 25 years, complete with bullet holes and all!!

Island Building

So despite a nasty cold, I still managed to get the island almost constructed over the past week. After fixing the butcherblock slab I got for free, I sanded it down with a belt sander to get the old finish off and remove most of the scratches, then finished sanding up to 220 grit. Then I routered a nice edge on it and finally a few coats of mineral oil/bees wax. Should work just fine... and the price was right!



Next I constructed the side panel. The ends will have beadboard inserts and the sides will have door access from both sides. One side will have a shelf and outlets will be installed on both ends.



Once the sides were built, I assembled them together... then built a base structure and added a base shelf. Beadboard was added to the ends, the second shelf installed, and finally some top support framing.





Some corner trim cleaned the corners up nice. I still need to finish the doors and some wiring, but it's pretty close and will be ready for some food preppin in no time!

More Kitchen Progress

Well, I'm finally dug out... AGAIN!



Meanwhile there has been progress that I've been behind on posting. The trim work is finished and looking good. Now there is just a thousand nails to be be puttied and sanded plus caulking.



I've also installed most of the luan on the floor. Really cleans things up not having the the different subfloors exposed and should take a new floor nice now. I like to drywall screw the luan down instead of nails, and can say I've never had a spongy floor or a nail head pop through a tile yet. Especially helped because of going over the rough old hardwood floor and the various transitions to new subflooring.



Another change in plans has been made. The kitchen island will be different. The original 1930's enamel top island will be sold and instead I will build a custom island to match the sink base since that turned out so well. The top will be butcher block and I just happened to get a free piece of scrap of 2 inch thick maple block that is the perfect size. Just needs to be sanded down, oiled up, a joint repair, and will be good as new.



And yep, still avoiding drywall work! Too cold, that's my excuse and stickin too it...

NATURE is a MOTHER... Round 3!

We have now broken the all time snow record in Philly.... over 5 ft and counting this season! This is as far as I got into the drive today after work. I think I'd rather sand drywall then do another round of clearing snow!

Here We Go Again!

Building A Sink Cabinet

So this was my first crack at cabinet making and I really can't complain at how it turned out. I had a rough idea in my head of what I wanted to achieve, but this was definitely a design on the fly project here!

I started out building a base frame with 2x3's - 2 high. This gave me a basic structure to build off of. On top of this frame I added a 1/2 ply board for what will be the botton of the interior of the cabinet. Then a 1x4 baseboard skirt. But then, when I started to add the verticle pieces.... I didn't account for the curved corners of ths sink and so the cabinet corners were going to stick out past the sink. Doh! So a little brain storming and I came up with a 45 degree cut corner design. A few mods and I was on my way again.



I then finished the frame of the cabinet. All joints are made with biscuits and with the 45 corners is pretty rigid for not being anchored to the sink. The sides then received beadboard inserts and I added a piece of trim to the corners to add a little detail to it. Finally I built some doors, added a vintage hardware that matches the other built-ins and there you go... one sink cabinet!

The Kitchen - Season 3

This could be the year I finish the stinkin kitchen! Of course I say that every year. So in my usual avoidance of drywall sanding I started getting all the trim work finished and there is plenty of it. The wainscoting is the same design I did the powder room in. For the casing, I changed plans and decided to use the same "off-the-shelf" stuff I used on the 3rd floor. It goes with the house and is less than half the price of me milling original casing. The powder room will get the same. The poplar I bought for the kitchen I will use to make original casing for the upstairs hall since the front and back stairs have original casing... so this area will need to match. The bedrooms I decided will get the the new casing as well. I will probably be the only one to notice the difference... and looking at $5000 to make originals for the entire house.. I can live with the new stuff in spots!

So here are some pics of what I have trimed out so far up to the kitchen sink base. I decided to built a custom cabinet under the sink... partially inspired by the one in "A Christmas Story" and part what I think will fit in with the woodwork.















Here's my great-uncle's saw... back out of retirement after 40 years. I gave it a thorough going over and refinished it, new motor, the works. It's an 8 inch Craftman, probably mid 1950s vintage. Just the right size to bring to the project unlike the beast in my garage! Plus it's too stinkin cold to be sawing out in the garage!!