Kitchen

This shall be a long post. It will update the kitchen to its current status (which is to say we're nowhere near finished). When we bough the house, the kitchen was in need. While the appliances had been updated with okay models, the cabinets were the original hardware from the 60's and were in rough shape and the counter tops were falling apart from poor craftsmanship. The floor was recently laid with new tile, but it was a REALLY ugly pink. Pink? Not for this ax wielding kitty lover.

This is the kitchen when we bought it. This pic is scalped from the webz. I didn't take any pictures of my own before getting started. Stupid man...


So, while imbibing in some tasty beverages and discussing the general plan of attack for the FUTURE plans of the kitchen, my friend just decided to start ripping the cabinets off the wall. Twas a great plan except for the fact that we didn't want to do the kitchen yet. For about a year. However, now that the cabinets were destroyed, there wasn't much left to do other than continue the process. So, with the aid of Super Buffman (who propagated the extinction of the dinosaurs)and my militarily bad ass sister, we tore the remaining fixtures out that evening.


After the apes


Tearing out the tile was something I've never done before. I dragged my feet for a long time trying to figure out how to go about it without completely destroying the subfloor/plywood. Finally a friend of mine came over and just started manhandling it with a crowbar and hammer and showed me the finer point of barbarianism. Two days and many blisters later, the floor was up.



Claire also decided that since we had to put in new tile for the kitchen we should also pull up the river rock entry way and have the floor match. Can't argue, the river rock was pretty hammered on and in poor shape. Only issue was that the subfloor in the entry way was completely uneven. And messy.


Upon inspection, it was discovered that the subfloor was merely 1/2" plywood. It was sagging from regular foot traffic and had a few points of dry rot. This pretty much was unacceptable. So, we cut out the dry rot and super weak sections.
And yes, this is the ass of a bacon worshiper.


I didn't take pictures of the next part, but I added a second layer of 1/2' plywood across the whole floor to bring the total thickness up to an inch. With the hardy-board, cementing material, and tile that floor was plenty solid. We can now have kitchen dance parties.


Now for another part I neglected to photo-document: cabinet installation. We had decided to get our new cabinets from Lowes from an outfit called Shenandoah. Pretty good cabinets and sized out really nicely. We got the lacquer finish and plywood boxes since we would be installing a heavy granite countertop. Coincidentally these boxes were so tough we kept snapping HD screws trying fasten things down. My brother-in-law does this for a living and basically did the hard part. I was a nail holder. We bought our granite slab from a company called Cosmos Granite down in Federal Way and had it shipped out to my BIL to cut to size. He brought it back as pretty as can be and we got it installed. That was a heavy rock. Lifting rocks is pretty Paleo, though.

I decided that I didn't like the support beam that ran through the kitchen being painted. It looked bad and I wanted it to show the wood again. So I stripped, and sanded, and beat the paint off that beam.


Then added a little mahogany danish oil to darken it a bit.

Next was installation of the appliances. We went with new stainless steel everything from Whirlpool. Gotta admit, I'm not as impressed with the fit and finish of those items as I thought I'd be. Bottom draw of the stove sits off kilter despite many attempts to straighten, the dishwasher handle isn't so robust, etc. Not horrible, but not stellar considering the price. Anywho, got to wiring things up.


While trying to get things under the sink moving along, I had an assistant hiccup. The help got lazy.


Fast forward about two months. We've been living in the house for a little over a month and we decided the windows suck and need replacing. We didn't want to do the work on the backsplash if we were going to rip the windows out anyway (which is the plan for the whole house, at some point far far in the future which hold green stacks of cold cash) and decided to bite the bullet and throw up some new glass. Out with the old, in with the new.



And this is about where it stands. Backsplash is on the block, we're just saving up a bit before jumping into that. We've already decided to repaint the kitchen to lighten it up a bit. Can't seem to get it light enough since its such a small space. We have to sand some spots in the walls and touch a few things up. It'll get there, it's that perpetual project I was talking about. Its dark and my kitchen is a mess. I'll take some good pictures once I clean it up and get some sunshine in there. This will be a decent kitchen someday soon!

The Edmonds Home

So this little blog will be converted to the chronicles of my life with this new house. It's the first home I've ever owned and I'm excited for it. It will be my mini suburban homestead and perpetual project. We bought it as a bank owned house that needed a little work and we've dived headlong into it. We've already put in a new kitchen (which is still to be finished)and have painted a bunch. There are lots of plans for new things like a garage, master bedroom, bathrooms, and the like. Hopefully I'll keep taking pictures and keep my stuff in line to keep this interesting. After a couple months we already don't like half of the colors we've picked as so we will be painting a lot again. We have to keep working on the kitchen, cut a bunch of trees down in the backyard, and clear out some space for a garden. Lots to do. I'll start posting on things that are already done pictures that were snapped along the way.

Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring

Banana Phone!!

I picked these guys up a while ago, but forgot to post them up. I already wiped the years of dust off of them, but still can post up the goodness.

These first two are Western Electric 500s. The black one is from 1962 and the red one from 1982. The phones had a long run. The '62 is heavy as heck and in great shape, although I can't get it to ring on our house phone. Its a strange model that was build as an internal call system phone, but it won't ring no matter what configuration I put in it. Ah well, one day when I actually have a working land line. The red one isn't nearly as stout, but its red! Its like the Batphone or something. Get me the president! The cord is MIA and the jack holding the handset cord is broken. I'm not too terribly worried about fixing it as I just like how it looks. I also already got the white sticker residue off. I should take an updated picture. I also have no idea what the picture is sideways. Its right on my computer, but this blog sees it necessary to rotate the image.



This next one is COOL!! Its an Automatic Electric AE40, and its art deco in all the right places. It doesn't work and I haven't tried to fix it up yet, again, mostly because isn't not something I'd actually use considering I don't have a land line. It's sitting in the front room next to the couch, and its a great conversation piece and just plain looks neat. I'm in love with this telephone.



It grows in bunches, I've got my hunches,
It's the best! Beats the rest!
Cellular, modular, interactivodular!

Old Amoire

Philco Clock Radio

I picked up this little clock radio by Philco a few weeks ago. From 1950 or 51, and the clock works perfectly on it, time is spot on. The radio has something blown in it, probably a capacitor. I don't know jack about radios, but I'm going to try and fix it soon. Probably next quarter when I get back from Spring Break. I'll have pictures up of that when the time comes.



I love the face on this clock. Reminds me of the font from Bioshock.



Claire bought this little cabinet/armoire last weekend and I bought the lamp. I think the radio looks great on it as far as the colors and everything. Great looking cabinet.

Westinghouse Fan

I had seen this fan a long long long time ago on http://www.poetichome.com/ and absolutely loved it. I had to have one, so I got one! I bought it about a year ago so I'm not quite sure why I didn't put it up on this blog before. But, here she is.

I love the machined vents in the housing. The shapes of the 50's are just awesome.

Speedy Stapler

What kind of student doesn't have his own stapler and has to constantly steal his sister's in order to turn in assignment?

So I got myself a cool stapler. Unfortunately, the lady who shipped it to me send it in an envelope package and the top was shattered during transit. So I had to break out my trusty JB Weld and put the bakelite back together. I hope it stays together. The action is really smooth so it should be gently on the bakelite.

I'm not sure if I want to leave the top alone or try to sand it down a bit to take off the extra little bit of JB that got smashed out. We'll see after I use it a few times.