Monday, July 18, 2016

Kitchen Progress

Yes it has been a while since I posted anything. Truth is there really was nothing worth talking about . And I am trying to be polite here .  So after a  few interruptions I got back to working on the kitchen .

I wanted to make the counter either side of the stove out of butcher block. I priced out buying some pre-made maple butcher block and it was ridiculously expensive and they only offered the one made up of 3/4 inch strips . I wanted the one with the wider 1 and 3/4 strips. So nothing to it but to make up my own .
So I bought a massive rock maple plank , seventeen inch wide X ten foot X two inches thick. Twenty eight board feet at $6.49 a BF.
Cut it in half
And ripped it up in to 2x2 inch strips on the table saw .
made a mess of strips
. . .  ran them through the planer
and cleaned them up
After ripping and planing I am down to fifteen inches wide, so I lost two inches over ten feet of length.
2" X 10' = 20 divided by 12 = 1.66 board feet, probably closer to 2 board feet if you account for the 1/4 inch thickness loss .
. . . all gone in a big pile of shavings
set up my bar clamps on the bench
and started spreading glue
 . . . and squeezed them all together . I actually made it up to be two sections eleven inches wide and one three and a half wide as my planer can only handle twelve inch width. And I knew I'd need to clean them up again to get all the unevenness out of the glue-up. Then after they dried overnight and I ran them back through the planer . . .
. . . . and then did a final glue-up and put the three big planks together. This way I only had two seams to clean up by hand . So after a massive amount of scraping and sanding with the belt sander and some trimming . . .
The final result after I hit it with some butcher block oil
This is the stuff I used to seal the wood . It is a food grade mineral oil with some waxes in it .
I also sanded and refinished both of the older butcher blocks I've had for years
and put them in place either side of the stove

Back at the beginning of June I did yank out the sink counter and pulled two layers of old 3/8 thick drywall . Rewired , and hung new drywall and got the old cabinets back in place . I made up a new temporary counter out of MDF with several coats of polyurethane to seal it well .
And got the fancy new under-mount sink and faucet installed
The cabinets will get new doors and a coat of paint next so I can put off building new cabinets for a while .
Just in case you think we are a bit spendy on all this kitchen remodel business, here is what our old sink looked like . I think we got all the life it  had out of it and then some . Note the multiple epoxy patches where the enamel had blown off .
Back in June before we were interrupted I also got the drywall mudded , and kitchen window trimmed . That's the first time in six years that we actually had trim on the window .
The Formica back splash above the stove is just a temporary set up with some remnants I had. For now it should keep the drywall from getting splattered with grease. The plan is to cover the entire stove side wall with stainless steel. I have some sheets that I salvaged from a metal fabricator's dumpster , I will need to figure out how to clean up and hang .

16 comments:

  1. Intersante descripción, buen trabajo y quedó muy bonito, congrats.

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    1. Even a blind dog finds a bone once in a while. It is nice when a plan comes together.

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    1. Getting there Gorges. I am pleased with the results so far. Got a bit more to go though.

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  3. I have been watching progress for a long time, with the wall beng taken down etc. You have done an amazing job! well done

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    1. Thanks Sol, it has been a long time coming. It is slowly coming together. There is a bit more to the project, but most of the nasty stuff is done.

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  4. Beautiful work! I'd best not show this to my wife. Unless you plan on working in Oregon. :-)

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    1. Thanks MV . . . Yes Oregon would be a long stretch for me.

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  5. wow!!! i just love those butcher block counters! great job!

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    1. Hi Jaz, It is the first time I build a butcher block from scratch. All in all I am pleased with the results. But that was just the practice run. Wait til I get the island between the kitchen and the living room done. That will be similar but in two inch thick Cherry, four feet wide by seven feet long. I am thinking of doing a cement counter-top on the sink side.

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  6. Hey Mike great job and they look nice. A planer, that is among my next purchases as well as a bandsaw and drill press. You have to get a lot of satisfaction building things yourself.

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    1. Hey John, it is satisfying and there is the savings as well. I was quoted about 800$ for a piece of butcher block that big. As is I have about $200 in it plus my time. Without the right tools it is much harder to do. Can't imagine trying to plane all that maple by hand. I've had the paner and a jointer for a long time and I don't often use it but for something like this project it is absolutely necessary. I have a band saw but it probably is the least used tool in my arsenal. I mostly use it for cutting aluminum plate.

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  7. You should have your own tv show on fixing things up, they're all over the different Home and Garden style shows. You certainly know as much or more as any of those people do. It must be satisfying to look around you and see that virtually everything there, you made.

    Glad to see you posting again.

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    1. Yes I've seen those shows. The part you don't see is the 65 strong crew that they have working behind the scenes to make it look easy for the star that usually don't have a clue what they are talking about. Most times I can't stand the shows as I can spot the fibs. I am pleased with the results and yes by now I have rebuilt just about the whole house. I think you saw the post about when I rebuilt the exterior of the place. There is a lot of cosmetic stuff to do yet. But most of the real tough stuff is done. The hardest part of it for me is getting motivated to start as I usually know what a can of worms I am tearing in to and am discouraged by the prospect of all the aggravation. But doing something like the butcher block counter-top is nice as it is a well defined project to begin with, and you get fairly quick satisfaction without the unexpected surprises, busted knuckles or nasty drywall dust.

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  8. You always make this stuff look easy. It came together nicely. If you ever want to start your own YouTube series, let me know. I used to film/edit. I'm a hacker, but it's fun to do. YouTube is a great way to cut through the Bologna.

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    1. Hey Mark, Though I am still icing a few pulled muscles, overall it was a relatively easy job as it was well defined to begin with. So it was not hard to make it look easy. But then, as I am sure you know, there is also the power of editing that allows you to leave the mistakes on the cutting room floor before you hit the publish button. The video thing sounds like it might be fun. Perhaps when you get settled in we can try something like that.

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