Monday, August 25, 2008

Oi

Man, I'm wiped. Thom's back to school this week (while I still have one more week yet to go) so I got up when he did and started in on the kitchen. The first thing I actually did was clean up the sty that has become our house. I think living with the chaos of the kitchen has started to spill over into the rest of the house, as in: "Why dust? It will just get dusty again from the construction" or "Why clean the floors? We'll just track more junk on it from the kitchen." Well, enough's enough already so I picked up at least a little.

Then I worked on two projects that took way more time than I thought they should have, and pretty much, when all is said done, both sucked equally much. I have decided that I dislike painting wainscoting as much as I dislike putting in garbage disposals. Well, regardless of the odiousness of these two tasks, they got done.  You can see my plumbing handiwork below (someone wanted to see our dual shut-off valves - also in the photo). I used a HD trick (the book is very helpful, by the way) of stacking a bunch of big books under the disposal to prop it up while I made the connections and got it screwed back on the flange. I guess it made it easier but it still blew.
The wainscoting is now primed with the first coat but may need another coat. I'm not sure if I ever shared this or not but when the big kitchen remodel was done circa 1970ish, they decided to paint all the woodwork in there to look like wood. It's so silly. There is beautiful woodwork that looks to have been stained in its earliest iteration (I saw it when I removed the baseboards) but they must have thought it was too light so instead of re-staining it, they used a faux-wood brush and painted it dark brown. It's just hideous but I suppose it went fabulously well with the harvest gold motif. So, yes, it may need another coat of primer before it's painted.
The second coat of primer is also now on the cabinet boxes so they should be ready for the real paint - maybe tomorrow if I can still use my hands. I'm hoping we get the last piece of countertop on tonight and then I can also sand and seal the countertops so we can start using them!

7 comments:

Jennifer said...

The 70's was horrible for some things...

Tracy said...

You are a rock star.

Matt said...

I have always found its easier to dig into the project again the next day when your workspace is clean. Plus, dirt tastes horrible on a toothbrush.

Ginger said...

I love the countertops! As for cleaning, the worst for me was the bedsheets. You can shower, but the grit still seems to find it's way in there. Keep up the good work:)

A. said...

Your progress is simply amazing. We're in the process of priming and painting some wainscoting too (ours was painted dark green along with the walls, basically making it disappear). I can't wait to see the finished product, but the kitchen already looks fabulous.

Karen Anne said...

I know, you have all this spare time :-) but did you consider stripping the kitchen woodwork?

Susie said...

Karen Anne - yes, Thom and I had lengthy conversations before we moved in about whether to strip or not (the woodwork, that is). We decided to "not" - mostly because we found that painted woodwork was pretty typical in the 1920s when the house was built and also because I'm lazy.