Appliance Time

I'm at the point now where it's time to get all the appliances installed permanently in the kitchen. The stove is finished and ready for service, so next up was the dishwasher. Other than having to change out the valve I installed, the dishwasher went in without a problem and is hooked up. I finished running the circuits for the dishwasher and the microwave/toaster oven, so now these are all in service!

An upgrade I made from my earlier plan was adding a garbage disposal to the sink. Originally this was going to be an open bottom sink. The plumbing I installed is all chrome plated instead of PVC since I figured it would show and of course a disposal would be out of the question. Then I built the base for the sink... so now a disposal was a no-brainer. I ran a circuit under the sink and installed a GFI/switch combo in a box to plug the disposal in. The GFI outlet is wired through the switch, so you have to open the cabinet door and turn on the switch to operate the disposal. Due to the construction of the wall and the windows, adding a wall switch at this point is just not an option. I won't be using it too often so the hidden switch won't be that much of an inconvenience.

The floors are finally cleaned up of glue residue using mineral spirits. Then they were mopped with a cleaning solution and finally several coats of a buffless wax finish. Time to touch up the baseboard painting, finish the butcherblock waxing, and decide on a fridge. I better get started on the kitchen table refinish too! Oh, and it's outage season again at work, so not much time for house projects for a few weeks.

Ready To Cook

The restored 1952 O'Keefe & Merritt is finally inside and hooked up. At 350 pounds it's a real beast! It has 4 cooktop burners, a center griddle, oven, and "Grillevator" broiler. All the pilots work, so no matches needed. Can't wait to cook on this blast from the past!

The O'Keefe & Merritt "Grillevator"

The Halkett Mansion

A discussion on the Ridley Park Online discussion forum got me agitated once again by some of the neglect that still occurs in town. There are still some amazing mansions in Ridley Park that have not been torn down. Sadly, the best ones are suffering from severe neglect. Even worse, they have the same owner who doesn't even care and the borough seems powerless to do anything to change the situation. The first one is the Halkett mansion at 100 Swarthmore Ave. Built in 1907 by Price & McLanahan architects on the site of the old Ridely Park Hotel, it is heavily influenced by the arts & crafts movement. The back wall has 2 stories of divided light panes which I assume is the main staircase. There is a stained glass vine pattern that works it's way up through these panes. At night you can really see it good. The carriage house in the back used to feature a glass solarium roof. It has been verified that there is even a pool in the basement! Eventually it was divided up into at least 8-9 apartments from looking at the meterboard outside. Now it sits pretty much empty for as long as I have been fascinated by it.

I even have some postcards from this amazing house.

Floor Is Finally Done!

It was a long week of working, Subaru buying, and even ghost hunting at Fort Delaware... but I managed to get the floor finished. I'm still trying to get the glue off my hands though! It looks really nice. There's some spots where the tile joints aren't as smooth as I would like. But considering the mess I started out with and combining three different floors into one room, I can't complain too much. The toe moulding is installed too, so next is caulking and some final paint for that. Then I can go about cleaning up the glue residue with mineral spirits and start to apply the wax coat.

Tomorrow I bring in the restored O'Keefe & Merritt....

Overdue Kitchen Update

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally! I'm happy to report that all the painting is finished in the kitchen. I'm really happy with the green.  I've also started hanginf some of my kitchen collectibles including a milk bottle collection and pie tins that my friend gave me... thanks Roger!

I installed a 52 inch Hunter ceiling fan. This one is their "original" model based on one of their early designs. It is cast iron and includes an oiler for the bearing, and weighs in around 45 pounds... you don't mess around when hanging this fan, you better find some good wood to anchor it!

The steps leading to the butler stairs are finished too. Remember, I made these using sheathing from the back of the house I removed since the originals were long gone!

And finally... the floor is being installed now. It's Armstrong linoleum, 12 inch squares. I held my breath picking the green since I didn't have an example to go by and had to order from online pics. It turned out to be exactly what I wanted. Hopefully this will be done in the next day or so, then by the weekend I can get the stoveout of the garage and in the house.

FRAGILE.... It Must be Italian!

A BIG box arrived today at the old Hall house!

What could be inside?? How about a restored O'Keefe & Merritt stove for the new kitchen...

Cooking will take on a whole new level of fun soon!

I Must Be Dreaming?!

After almost 5 years now... the entire kitchen is in primer and ready for final paint! Today I finally finished the ceiling. It's far from perfect, but pretty good for what I had to work with.

Time to Git R Done!

The kitchen has taken long enough... it's definitely time to Git-R-Done!! Plus the cold weather is coming and I still have 3 radiators in there that are not hooked up so I can't fill the system right now.

Today I sanded the last of the walls. A few touch ups and they will be ready for primer. Then I'll be down to just the ceiling. Did I mention how I feel about sanding drywall?!

Next the cabinet is sanded, painted, and installed. Since I didn't install a back on it, I painted the wall first where it will hang. This would be much easier than having to tape out the entire cabinet later when I paint the walls.

I calculated the flooring and will order that maybe tomorrow. I will be going with Armstrong linoleum - willow green and soft white in a diagonal checker pattern. I'm really close to pulling the trigger on a restored O'Keefe & Merritt stove. I just have a feeling I'll regret not going old school... especially after a new one only lasts 10 years before it's junk! A restored O & M should last me a lifetime. But... my Pontiac is not too happy these days, looking like a head or intake gasket job among other issues, so I might be in the market for a replacement car. That'll be my 2nd car purchase this year, so I'm a bit hesitant to splurge on the stove. But I do have the truck so I could get the stove now and wait till spring to car shop. A new fridge will definitely have to wait. Decision... decisions

Finally the preservation award plaque is mounted under my century house plaque. I ordered a nice new mailbox to go underneath...

Back to the Kitchen

So after a concert, some serious house cleaning, and a fun drive-in adventure it was back to house work... and even more important, the kitchen project! Well after mocking up the kitchen again for a few days I couldn't deny it any more... there just wasn't enought room around the island. So now what?? I then brainstormed for a bit and decided that I could do an easy modification to the island and attach it to the wall as a base cabinet. This is where the metal hoosier was going to be. I pushed it against the wall for a few days before getting the tools out and after a few opinions I committed to the idea... and out came the tools!

To modify the island, all I had to do was remove the doors on the wall side, remove the corner trim, and knock off end block of the butcher top. Next I removed the baseboard, fastened the cabinet to the wall, then trimmed and installed the baseboard again. That's it... it was a quick fix.

Next was coming up with a wall cabinet to go above. I played around with a few ideas, then settled on using the doors I removed from the island in the new cabinet. Also I would have an open shelf on the bottom section. First thing was laying out the doors and make up a face frame.

Once this was biscuit joined, glued up, and dry I made up the sides, top, and bottom... again biscuit joined, glued and nailed.

Then add the rest of the shelves...

I mounted a ledger board on the wall that the shelf hangs from. Trial fit on the wall...

Finally I mortissed the hinges and installed the doors. Just needs a little bit of sanding and add some corner trim... then it'll be ready for paint!

Besides this modification, I also finally added the wine rack to the built in shelf. This job has been on the books for 2 months now! But I can finally check it off the list too. I have a feeling more unavoidable drywall sanding is jsut around the corner...

Some Color For the Shed

If you're reading this then you found the blog's new address. The recent local attention was getting a little too much for comfort so I changed the site. If you plan on breaking in, beware of the killer cat! Don't let the purring fool you, he has you right where he wants you!

Meanwhile, the painting is coming along on the shed.

As far as the infamous kitchen, I almost have another door finished. But, the layout might be changing to plan, um, guess I'm up to Q or R now?! I did one last mock up and it was just too tight getting around everything. But I think I have a "simple" fix. Stay tuned...

My 15 Minutes of Fame

Well I get my plaque today at the fair. The local paper did an article too. I was expecting them to just stop and take a few pics of the front, but they did inside, outside, and even an impromptu video interview. Good thing I changed out of my work clothes... but that would have certainly been more authentic!

Labor Day Laboring

A little kitchen progress is better than none at all... I finally finished the basement door, that's two doors down.


The next one is the butler stairs door which has plenty of issues. Between 100 years of use and being nailed shut when the house was divided into apartments, it's pretty well beat up. I stripped it last year and fixed the split where it was nailed to the jamb and filled a bunch of holes. The jamb has a bunch of issues, mostly where the hinges are mortissed. Not sure how, but the mortisses are much wider than the original hinges... yet the door was never changed and it's mortisses were never modified?! So I reinforced with some new wood, then filled everything in with filler. Next I traced out the correct location for the hinges, carved out a new mortiss, installed the hinges, then did a final coat of fill along the edges. Looks like most of the damage is gone.


On the door, a good chunk was missing around the knob hole... much more than the escutcheon will cover. To fix this I glued up all the loose and damaged wood, installed the lock mechanism, then applied a heavy coat of filler and sand smooth.



The shed caulking is done and looking like a nice day to get it all primed up.

Happy Labor Day!

Officially A Shed Now

The ramp is built and the doors finished. I made the doors from 7/8 plywood, then trimmed with the same pvc trim is used on the rest of the structure. I applied these with construction adhesive and screws from the back side of the doors, so these should stay strong. The ramp i raised off the ground with a 6x6 since I will eventually be adding dirt in this area to regrade this part of the yard. Now I just need to caulk up the corners and paint.

Shingled My Last Shingle

At least for this project anyway. All that's left is caulk the corners and some paint. Time to make some doors...