Counter Tops

Finally had the counter tops delivered and installed today. They turned out pretty good.
All I have is a camera phone and the images are pretty shitty, sorry about that. I went through a local guy that is actually part of a franchise called Kitchen Solvers. Marty did a great job and was in and out in about 1 1/2 hours. I can't say that they (Kitchen Solvers) are the cheapest, actually he came in on the high end but I didnt have to deal with cutting a hole for the sink, or mess with the out of square corners on the walls. So, for me, it was worth the few extra dollars to have someone else make the mistakes. I did check Home Depot, and Menards on pricing and like I said Menards came in way below, but just didn't give a shit about after the sale service. Buy it or "what ever".




This is a shot of the plumbing after I got the sink reinstalled. The next pic is just a shot of the cabinet that might be sitting to high and not allow the crown to fit properly. I don't know yet will have to see how things pan out this weekend when I put it all together.

Sugar doing what she does best.

Found some pics on my phone that I took Fathers Day weekend after a storm blew through. Although the pictures don't do justice to the way the colors were just jumping out of the clouds. It was about 8 pm when I took these out on a farm north of where I live. Man it was quiet out there.

The first thought that struck me was in the winter the wind and snow must blow through here with a vengence. But it was quiet.

Here are a few shots of my nephew stuffing his face the weekend that my sister came back for a visit. He was getting ready to cry cause mom left the room.

Doggie Dreams

As I sit here watching Sugar twitch during one of her doggie dreams and watching a cool movie called Mutant Chronicles on the SciFi channel I ache all over. Yesterday I cut down all the lilac bushes in the corner of the yard and made a nice pile for the city to come pick up everything up, actually I made two piles that turned out to be quite large, each.
Now everyone wants to know why I cut the bushes down. Well let me break it down for you all: They were old, actually some had rot down the center of the limbs.
Every time I backed out of the little driveway I always felt as though I was going to plow into the bunch of the with the back of the car.
They were blocking the view as other residents tried to pull out into the street as they came down the ally.
And finally, it is my yard and I can do what ever I want! (LOL).

I also raked, and shoveled up "most" of the white marble chips/rocks that the PO had put down for landscaping.
About a month ago I was watching the neighbors across the street dig out all of their white rocks, wash them and put them back. I watched this for a better part of a couple of hours and decided to walk over and introduce myself. I met Brenda and George, nice couple with two kids. After I cozied up to their dog (which George tells me later that I was the first stranger that their dog didn't go after.). So after Cujo and I sniffed each other for a few minutes I asked Brenda and George if they were thinking about getting more rocks. George says yep and I was ready to make a deal.
I told B & G that I would give them my rocks and haul them across the street if they would take what I had off my hands. Deal done. So I moved 5 wheel barrels full and dropped them on the sidewalk.
You still with me? Lilac bushes, white rocks? I head over to Maezies house and cut down 3 trees and trimmed back a few other that were hanging over the sidewalk. I left a pile of wood and limbs about 8 ft high and another 8 x 8 in width and depth. The biggest was an old mulberry bush that grew 25 ft up-out and turned into a tree with a dozen trunks. After I cut that bad boy down, I discovered that there was actually a house behind the tree and that is where her neighbors kept coming from and disappearing to. Needless to say I was totally baked by the end of the day.
I told Maezie that I think I have physically worked harder the last 10 years of my life than the previous 34. Some where I got the dealusion that as you got older you are suppose to work less. Not so with older houses huh? Never give you a break, needy bastards!

Just some photos

Here are a few pics that Beth took while she was home this past week.

Sorry the kitchen was a mess. I am suppose to get the counter tops installed this coming Tuesday, yeah!

These are mostly just pics of the ceiling again. Someone thought, (nay, accused) that I put in or my ceiling looked like a drop ceiling! I can say that I spent 4 days on the ladder cutting and fitting, lifting, cussing, swearing, and sweating. You know who you are, Mr. Accuser! When you come here in October you can behold for yourself and bow down and ask for forgiveness after marvaling at my craftsmanship. After all what does an electrician know about ceilings anyway? except fall through them when they are running ne wires overhead.

Weekly Update

Look! an empty space where the refrigerator used to be!! That big old behemoth that I bought a few months ago, and sat in the front room is gone. Just look at the joy on this mans face! The delivery guys brought in the "new" refer and took out the "old" in noting flat. I was pretty shocked at how fast they blew in and out. I did install the water line for ice maker but when it comes to plumbing, I screwed the pooch on that one again and only caused a leak.



And this is the "new" It fits perfectly in the kitchen. Totally bitchin dude!

This is my first limb to fall in the yard after a pretty crazy storm that blew through Friday evening. So many firsts! I think I am going to burst!

Picture update

Not much really done this week but just wanted to update with some pictures. I called around, and around and all I heard was the same story, 2-4 weeks for counter tops (have I written about this? Sorry to be redundant) So instead of doing a cookie cutter counter top and trying to cut things myself I went with a guy that does counters for a living and decided to let him do the hard cuts, because all the walls are no where near square. And I really did not want to attempt to cut the hole for the sink.

I did get the stove in last night and working.

And I bought a piece of 3/4 plywood for temporary counter tops, cut a hole and placed the sink and faucets in. It is nice to have a sink again. Now I don't have to wash things in the bathroom sink anymore.

Just a shot of the cabinets before they went in.

Kitchen blu's

I get a call Thursday morning from the cabinet company asking if they could deliver a day early? I was caught off guard a bit and rushed home at lunch and waited for the truck. My street is only a block long and very narrow. You really cannot have a car parked on opposite sides of each other and still get a fart through.

Most people park their cars partially on the sidewalks, or over the sidewalks just to allow the other cars to get past. There are also a few houses that do not have garages at all or anywhere in the alley to park. So having painted that pretty parking picture I was expecting a panel van, or a medium sized truck.

I am sitting in the front room watching Airport 73', now there is a classic movie. Starring Moses, (Charolton Heston) crossed eyed Karen Black, a very young and pre jail house shower nude scene Linda Blair that needed a liver transplant and looked curiously not jaundice. Jerry Stiller, who was drunk, passed out and slept through the whole movie only to wake up at the end. Red Buttons always looked like he was ready to do something stupid and look crossed at the camera (Karen Black had a lock on that already). And many more "stars" that are to numerous to mention. Check your Netflix que and rent this classic gem of a movie.

But I digress, down the street came a 60 ft long semi and trailer winding its way to my end of the block. Could not believe that they actually got through the gauntlet without crushing a Kia Spectra in its path.

The delivery guys where pretty cool and unloaded everything in no time flat. The driver was telling me they had a delivery a few days before to a house that had, and get this, 86 cabinets! Can you imagine a house big enough that would take that many cabinets?

Below are a few pics of the sink cabinet going in. How I measured and actually got the holes cut for the hot and cold water pipes on the first try is beyond me. I messed up up cutting for the sewer. So that is how I got the "second" hole in the corner. I saved the plug and will just hot glue that sucker back in, put a bottle of cleaner over the top and never see it again.

Some of the uppers installed.

And again, some of my apprentice doing a cursory quality check on my work

And after a hard day doing QA, Sugar "chillin and waiting to do some grillin"

The back steps

I did, well I started tiling the back steps tonight. I got about half way through and did a quick count of tile in my head then realized that I did not have enough to finish the steps and the landing. Here I am an hour away from the nearest Lowe's and only need 4 more tiles. Big bummer! Oh and then I went to open the back door and found that the door will only open about 2/3's of the way open before the floor catches on some piece of old metal weather strip that goes along the bottom. Another big bummer. I kind of fudged the last pieces and hopefully I will be the only one that will see the "bummers" I left behind.

I was looking at my blog account information and realized that I have posted over 100 entries in the past few months. Quite a milestone I guess in what started out to be nothing more than ramblings and over exuberance of starting a total restore of "my" own house.

I have one home under my belt in refurbing but that was a total gut job and I didn't have much say so in what was going to be done on the inside. I was just what turned out to be the free help and took me 5 years to get it through my head that the house and the relationship was going no where. But that is a WHOLE nuther story, and I did learn allot from both parts of that episode in my life.