Murphy Gets a New Kitchen

Yea , it has been a while since I posted any updates . Truth is I have had my hands full and other things were taking my time . Motivation was jut not there . But here is this summer's project .

This is Murphy... he got a new pine floor last fall

This year it was time to tear out the old kitchen as it was getting long in the tooth .

Demolition

Then two layers of linoleum flooring and Lauan underlayment had to come off .

The first one comes up .

Then the second one has been screwed with square drive screws that need to be pulled first .

Comes up slowly

Got the floor cleaned up .

Then the old window needs to be relocated .

New window framed in .

The new window hole covered with poly to keep out the rain .

After I got all the cabinets out and tore out all the drywall, the plumber and electrician did their bit to rough their stuff in . . .

. . . I insulated with rock wool , and got the new window installed .

And hung the drywall solo .

Then I spent a week taping the wallboard joints

More mud .

and more mud

Murphy was happy to have company during the day too .

After Murphy's owners did a bit of weekend painting I started moving the new cabinets in trying to sort out a giant jigsaw puzzle . . . .

. . . . and started hanging a few boxes .

It's all starting to take shape .

The fridge spacing took a bit of struggling to get right as the walls were not square or plumb .

The unit with the glass doors over the fridge space went up and down about eight times before I got it right.

Then the crown molding provided with the kit went up . . . only the customer was not so keen on the looks , so I removed the crown molding .

And we opted to go without it and just fill in the ceiling gap with the straight filler provided by the vendor .

Just getting that bit right took several days work and some creative language .

Murphy's owners went on an extended weekend so he came home with us instead of going to the kennel .

Picked the hottest day in July to do the shingling around the new window so I set up a temporary awning with some cardboard from the cabinet shipping boxes .

With the fan in the window blowing on me it was just manageable .

Looks almost like I knew what I was doing .

Dressed up the inside with a bit of fancy trim .

Then it was time to play with the island . These were three old shop cabinets that were built by the customer's father that they wanted to use as part of the new kitchen . They were different enough that we agreed a permanent installation was probably not the best solution . Having the unit removable provided some advantages should they eventually sell the house they could take it with them . So I bolted the three cabinets together and put the whole thing on casters .

Here is the general idea with the movable unit up to the fixed island . In the middle of it all the tile man need the space for a week to do his thing .

After the tile guy was done I had to figure out how to make a finished end on a cabinet that originally would have been buried per the vendor's specification . Had just enough of the flat panel to dress it all up .

So when the movable unit is removed it looks presentable .

Then the plumber showed up with the cast iron farmer's sink . So I had to do a bit of modifying to the cabinet to support it as unlike traditional sinks it is an undermount and you can't hang it from a stone counter , so I added some structure under it to carry the two hundred pound weight .

Then it was time to play with the butcher block counter tops for the island , These were some old  two by seven foot slabs of two inch thick workbench top also built by the customer's father . I found a shop that could run them through a big belt sander and remove forty years of grime . Then I had to cut them to length and re assemble them to fit our needs. They were held together with some glue and long threaded rods .

Bought a seventeen inch long drill bit to try and drill the twenty four inch wide boards and hope to meet in the middle .

Got lucky on one end but ended up having to break apart the weaker joints to allow me to drill through them all separately. It is amazing how far a long bit will wander of course over seventeen inches .

Re-glued and bolted the pieces together .

Sanded and oiled , here the smaller unit for the movable part of the island .

The bigger top for the fixed part of the island had some holes that must have held a bench vice at some point . So I plugged those with some birch dowels for contrast .

Sanded and oiled .

It just barely fit in my van. Finished weight on the 48 x 57 inch piece was also a couple hundred pounds .

After I got it to the job-site I installed a lag bolt in the wall and cut the head off. . .

. . .  and a corresponding hole on the side of the bench top to help support the cantilevered part of the bench top .

Finished product .

And the movable bench in its place .

The soapstone counters were installed .

Soapstone counter over the sink makes good contrast .

Dining room side of the island .

Job finished .

Progress on Ben's house

Took a drive up to Richmond last Saturday to look at the progress on his house.

The shack got some paint sine we last saw it

Foundation went in about 3 weeks ago

And they have made some swift progress since. This is the interior view from the kitchen (west) side.

And from the east side where the bedrooms are

Looks big though it is just over a thousand square feet footprint

South side with daylight basement

 North east corner

South side from the other end

Dressing up the shed

Drove up to Richmond on Friday to work on Ben's shack .

The Unabomber shack ain't got nothing on this one now . Got the sub fascia on the eves done . Dressed it up with some corner boards . Built  and installed some window frames .

An affordable 24" X  29" wood sash in a quick knotty pine frame .

Got the gable end windows installed . As usual we came up short on 1 x 8 pine for the corner boards so one corner still needs dressing . Since we used one of the wooden windows in the front door Ben needs to order one more sash for the lower back window , so I put a piece of plywood in the hole in the mean time . Just is another excuse to go back up and do some shooting while we are at it .

God our new pivoting steel target gong installed .

No need to keep running back and forth to reset it when the chains come off the frame .