The Kitchen, Done.

[caption id="attachment_138" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Backsplash wall before."][/caption]

Backsplash wall after

 

Took another two days to replace the 1960's contact paper on the shelves, clear out more stuff from the shelves, figure out a place for the microwave which turned out to be too big to fit under the cabinet left of the sink like I wanted to, but it fit on the right side of the sink, and a few other small things. 

Moved a small 1960's era table and two 1970's era chairs from my back room (the junk room) to the kitchen, so now it is a proper eat-in kitchen complete with a walk-in pantry :)  I think it will show a lot better when I list the house.

My dogs hate it.  Before, I had a carpet runner between the back door and the archway to the living room.  Now, it's all clean, slick, shiny vinyl flooring... walking on it is no problem.  But if they try to run on it to go scare some poor squirrel out of the backyard, barking all the way, they slip-and-slide and loose all grip on the flooring.  It's actually very funny... think a drunk trying to walk on a ice skating rink :)  Poor pups!!  It's hysterical watching Binkie get halfway across the kitchen, then back up, and go through the living room, office, bathroom, and master bedroom, circling all the way around the house, to get out the back door!  I keep telling him if he would just WALK instead of RUN across the floor, he could save himself some time!  Coco's like 15 years old, so she pretty much never runs... the floor doesn't challenge her at all, yet she also walks around because she just doesn't like the way it feels on her paws, best I can figure.  Lassie the Cat isn't real fond of it either... but Lassie almost never goes through the kitchen anyway, preferring to get out through my bedroom window :)  Boy is he going to be pissed when I close that down for the winter!

Reminds me, that's another thing to add to the "to do" list:  Fix the doggie door, so it will securely latch.

[caption id="attachment_140" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pantry wall before"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_148" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pantry wall after"][/caption]

All told, not including the break one weekend for another yard sale, it took eight days to get the kitchen into shape. 

My total expenses were $69.72, for new electrical outlets and light switch, ice maker hookup and water line cap, white paint, PineSol (used the whole bottle!), contact paper, painter's tape, and new door handle for the back door.

The "before" pictures, sigh...scary stuff...be afraid, be very afraid.  The "after" photos  I made using the very nifty featured called "Make Panoramic Photo" in Vista's "Windows Live Photo Gallery"  program.  You take a bunch of different photos, and it will "stich" them together, to make a panoramic photo.  It actually works quiet good, although some of the alignments are a bit off - honestly, my wall's not split like it shows in a few of these.  But I thought they gave a much better idea of the finished kitchen.  Well, almost finished... I still have to clean the ceiling, mop & shine the floor, replace a light switch, a few minor things that I'm not worried about right this instance.  Anyway, here they are, enjoy!

 

[caption id="attachment_147" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Orange wall, after."][/caption]

 

 

 

 

The Kitchen, Days 4 and 5: The Pantry Wall Continued

These last few days have been spent dealing with the rest of the kitchen floor and finishing the pantry wall.  Underneath where the refrigerator was, in front of the pantry door, the floor had buckled due to water damage caused by a mouse chewing through the water line to the ice maker about six years ago.  Some water had seeped around the edges of the linoleum in the pantry at the time, causing water to get under the flooring.  But I thought at the time that some judicious hole-drilling would minimize that problem, and by drilling holes, most if not all of that inter-floor-layer water would drain to the crawl space and out.  Which, in fact, it did.

In and of itself, I wasn't too worried about the buckling, either, since I thought it was just the linoleum flooring that had buckled, and knew over time it would eventually lay back down flat, especially with the heat of the refrigerator on top of it.  Well, as I discovered, of course that didn't happen.  I cut into the 1980's layer of linoleum, hoping I could just do some trimming of it to get it to lay flat then cover it up with the rest of
the stick-on tiles I had from when I first covered the floor some eight years ago.  Well, below the 1980's layer is the 1970's layer of
linoleum, of which below that is a layer of thin plywood, sitting over the 1960's layer of linoleum.  (I swear every owner of this house has
added a layer of flooring in the kitchen, myself included!)  When the flood of water from the mouse-chewed water line seeped through those holes I drilled in an effort to avoid water spreading between the layers, desiring for it to just drain out, I inadvertently exposed that plywood to the water.  It buckled.  Bad.  No quick cutting and splicing here, damn it.  A few screws to "pull" it down to the subfloor won't work, either.

By the way, the main reason I didn't just pull the entire kitchen floor up when I recovered it eight years ago is simple:  Linoleum flooring prior to the early 1980s contains asbestos.  I already created a hazardous waste situation when I remodeled the bathroom
nearly ten years ago.  Back then, not knowing better, I actually pulled all five layers of flooring up in the bathroom, three layers of various linoleum, two subfloors, and a layer of 1950s Tri-Bond plastic tile (man did someone love that stuff ... it was and still is all over this house!)... I'll never forget the panic I caused my garbageman at the time when he saw a trash can full of asbestos-laden, broken-up, loosely piled ancient flooring in the can!  (Never had a garbageman knock on my door, red-faced and hysterical, shouting at me, "What the hell are you doing!?!"  Granted, he used a much stronger curse word than "hell"...)  Somewhere around here I'll have to dig up the warning letter I received from some government agency or another (can't remember which) about proper handling of hazardous waste... never had a garbageman report me to authorities before, either.  Don't ask how much of that crap I may have breathed in at the time... I don't know. Fortunately, it was a small bathroom, only 5x6 feet of flooring (five or six layers thick) was removed...

Anyway back to the kitchen floor.  I did get lucky, as the buckling ended at the plywood layer.  The 1960s and below layer weren't buckled; I would only need to deal with this one area of buckled plywood.  Unfortunately, there was no way to just screw the floor down where it was buckled, hoping to suck it down to the subfloor and level it out.  This wasn't something that I could just ignore, either, because every time I open the pantry door, it rubs the floor there and almost gets stuck.  No way to add my layer of flooring and still open the door!  Plus the pantry will be (is now) a high traffic area, so this particular buckle is noticeable, very noticeable.

Fortunately, I happen to own more power tools than most men.  A fact that has both weirdly excited and deeply disturbed more than one
boyfriend over the years.  Pulled out the handy-dandy RotoZip, cut just the plywood layer out, limiting myself to just the area that was buckled.  Placed a few decking screws here and there to reduce the lesser buckling in the area, and went to grab the bucket of self-leveling cement that I know I have out in the Garage of Doom to fill in the hole I just created so the floor isn't 1/4" lower there.

Damn it, the stuff has dried rock-solid... that bucket's been in the garage for at least six years!! It shouldn't have dried out!

Grrr... let's try some thinset mortar.  If it's good enough for ceramic tiles, it should be good enough to level out this hole... nope.  It has dried solid, too, and it's only 8 or 9 years old! Starting to regret the decision to try to get everything done using only stuff I already have on hand... *sigh*...

Well, I could use spackling paste... nah, that's not a good idea :) Not only would it take a week or longer for a 1/4" thick layer of
spackling paste to dry, it'll crack and crumble under repeated foot traffic.

Ahh hah!  The Garage of Doom does contain a solution - silicon caulking!!  Fortunately, I've got tubes of the stuff - I stocked up a few years ago when some home improvement store or another went out of business, got it for like 50 cents a tube! (Pack Rat Alert!) Of courses I can't find
the dang caulking gun, I own three of them (don't ask) and can't find a single one... but no worries.  It's not like I'm needing this to be
a nice, fine, line.  I just tore open the tube and used a putty knife to spread it out, reminding myself it doesn't need to be perfect, just needs to be good.  (I may not have inherited my mother's neatness, but I sure did inherit her  perfectionism! *grins*)  Caulking is flexible and waterproof, so it'll do the trick perfectly. Some bleach on the patches of mold (fortunately, dried and dead mold) that I exposed, and let it all dry overnight. 

Well, actually, as it turns out, it took about three days for the silicon to completely set and dry.

After the silicon dried, I put down the rest of the stick-on floor tile, actually have enough left over that I could retile the floor in the pantry.
 I think I'll stew on that for a while... if I cover the pantry floor, there will be NO extra tiles left for future repairs, should any be needed.  I think I'll leave it as a future owner option to use that spare tile for the pantry or not.

The kitchen is almost done.  I just need to clean up the mess I made doing all this work, clean the ceiling, move the table and chairs in, and it's all done and ready to go. Probably hang some sort of picture on the wall above the table, it's kinda stark looking there.  It is so decluttered, it actually ECHOs in here!

The Kitchen, Day 3: The Pantry Wall

About eight years ago, I moved the refridgerator from next to the oven over to what I call the pantry wall.  The so-called pantry is actually a small area under the attic stairs, you can barely see the door behind the fridge.  I never used it as a pantry, didn't like the fridge next to the oven (I like to have some counterspace next to a stove for me to clutter up), and needed a place for the microwave and shelving for cookbooks.  That's all fine and dandy for me... but it looks, um, well, crowded, to say the least, and makes the kitchen look about four feet smaller than it really is.

So I pulled out the cabinet I'd previously installed, moved the fridge yesterday, and discovered yet more broken, fugly green plastic tile to clean, repair, patch, and cover with the silver stuff.  Although you can't really see it in this picture, the wall had been previously painted in several areas three different colors - I could never decide which color I liked best.  I'm going to repurpose this cabinet as a dresser in the bedroom later on.

So I patched the holes in the tile and the wall, and put the first coat of paint on  the wall.  This is my first experience using those new "Low VOC" paints, the ones that are supposedly more "environmentally friendly" because they have  "low volatile organic compounds" in them.

First thing I noticed, is definetly a good thing:  No smell.  I mean like no smell at all.  If anything, there is a slight odor best
described as "fresh," if that makes any sense.  I was able to paint the first coat on two walls without having to leave the room at all!
Usually I can only paint about half a wall at a time, and take about an hour or so break between painting sessions, thanks to allergies and asthma.  Hrm, wonder if that's why I never seem to finish any of my painting projects!

The next thing I noticed is not a good thing:  Coverage sucks.  Oh my, this stuff goes on like really thin.  It pours out of the can
with the same viscosity, the same thickness, that I'm used to with any standard latex paint.  But once you start brushing it or rolling it on
the wall, it's THIN.  Goes on like water - it doesn't drip (at least no more than latex paint does anyway) - it's just really, really thin
coverage.  Just about everything that I am used to a single layer of paint covering up (stains, other paint, small hairline cracks) is
showing right through.  I'm going to have to do two coats, for sure.

But I like the stuff :)

Meanwhile, I added a project that wasn't on my original list:  Make the so-called pantry an actual, usable, pantry.  Would look good to see "walk-in pantry" on the house-for-sale flyers, after all :)  I repurposed some of the shelving I used for books in the back room, I cleaned all the dust, and fashioned a cover out of some scrap wood to cover up the bathroom waterpipe access that is on the lower right wall of the pantry. 

I discovered when I moved the fridge yesterday that the shut-off for the ice maker water line is broke, so I've got a trip to Home Depot for tomorow to get something to cap it off.  Meanwhile, I just kinked the line so it wouldn't flood the kitchen.

The floor under where the fridge and cabinet was is a problem... I do have plenty of spare stick-on floor tile, but the floor's buckled from a prior water leak... I'll have to tackle that tomorow.  Great...

Regardless, quite a lot of progress done today.

The Kitchen, Day Two: The Orange Wall

I'm approaching the kitchen one wall at a time.  Yesterday was the backsplash wall, today is the oven wall... meaning, the wall where the oven and my half-size dishwasher are.   Also known as the Orange wall :)

I'm also rearranging the appliances, to make room for a table so my kitchen can be a proper "eat-in" kitchen.  It always was meant to be, but I never eat in the kitchen, I eat on the couch watching TV like most Americans do!  So years ago, I moved the fridge to the pantry wall, installed additional cabinets, tons of shelving, and added a half-size dishwasher.  I now have to basically undo everything I did eight-ten years ago, so the kitchen will show better.

Besides, it's cluttered as all hell.  Honestly, it's not quite as bad as this photo shows... well, not normally... anyway, I pulled the dishwasher and oven out, and finished laying the floor under where the oven was, a reflooring project I started using 12 inch square stick-on floor tiles but never finished.  I also had to replace two floor tiles by the door that had torn up.

Took shelves down, patched holes, resurfaced the wall next to the oven where the tiles had fallen down some years ago...what a BITCH that was!!  Ended up having to sand it down and layer it back up with spackling paste in like 20 very thin layers!

Washed the wall :)  That orange is brighter now, yes indeedy! 

Any ideas on how to clean a ceiling?  Mine is, no joke, dusty!!  And of course, it being a kitchen, much dusty-steam has settled on the
ceiling.  Really don't want to repaint it... although I probably should consider repainting the ceiling solid white *sigh*

Got the  fridge pulled away from wall and ready to move into place.

Unfortunately, I couldn't leave the shelves up above the stove like I originally planned... seems my fridge is a bit wider than the original fridge,
and, in fact, wider than I realized... only way to keep the shelves was to move the bracket over about 8 inches towards the cabinets...and
then the door to the cabinet would bump into the edge of the shelves!!  Sure, could move the right side bracket, then cut the shelves to fit,
but screw it, too much work :)  Keep it open looking this way... hang some picture above the stove, or a big fun 50's-60's style clock (no
doubt I can find something funky at goodwill) over the oven.

Besides, turns out the shelves were too high for the microwave, I couldn't reach it once on the shelf, not being freakishly tall or anything :)

The silver with the orange and the black trim really pops, don't you think?

The Kitchen, Day One

So there I was in Home Depot, looking at paints, I wanted to find some
more of the primer I used on the kitchen countertop, so I could paint
the kitchen tile, make it look better.  It's pretty grungy green,
after all, not to mention there's holes where the insulation was blown
in, mis-matched tiles, cracked tiles, even missing tiles.  I found a
box of those god-awful plastic 1950s tiles in the basement, but they
were the frosted green that was originally used in the bathroom, not the matte
lime-ish green that was used in the kitchen.  I did use them anyway to
replace the missing tiles and the tiles that had been drilled through
when the insulation was done, plus some of the cracked ones.  Of
course, it doesn't match... but still, was better than nothing.

Still, got to thinking, someone walking in considering buying the
house, wouldn't like to see mismatched kitchen tiles... after all, we
DO spend a lot of time in the kitchen!

Anyway, the primer product specifically designed to be used on
formica, ceramic tile, and other super-smooth surfaces, is still being
manufactured.  Unfortunately, of course, it's gone drastically up in
price since I bought it oh, nearly 10 years ago!  $26 for a single
quart!!  Which would be enough - just barely - but I also need to buy
paint, and then the sealer to use after painting, and of course, the
sealer spray is $16.95 a can, and I know I would need at least 3 cans,
having used the stuff on the countertop before... and of course, a
roll of painter's tape at $3.96.  Plus paint...I'm looking at $75 or
more just to make the tile look somewhat better in the kitchen!

Sigh.

I asked if they still sell stick-on cover-up tiles... these are
aluminum squares painted different colors, or just brushed aluminum.
I've seen them before on DIY channel... you use 2-way tape to stick
them on.  Not elegant, but would look better.  I remember looking at
them before, almost bought them before actually.  But apparently they
are no longer manufacturered.  However, they could special-order me a
new product called "Smart Tile" - it's a vinyl/gell-like tile that
also uses two-way tape or construction glue.  And it's thicker, about
1/8", so it'll hide cracks and stuff.  He showed me this brochure,
asked how much, and he said $9.95 a box.  I was like SOLD!! They look
fantastic, and had all kinds of different styles!  Could order them
and be here within 3 days!  I then asked him how many boxes do I need
to cover about 24 square feet... I'm figuring probably two or three,
since most ceramic tile comes in 10 or 12 square foot boxes.  He then
tells me I would need TWENTY FOUR BOXES.

WHAT?!?  That's over $230!!!  Apparently they come in a box of FOUR
TILES.  Just four!  You gotta be kidding me!! I could retile the
entire area with ceramic or some of those cool new glass tiles for
less than $75!!  Sure, it'd be a major friggin hassle, requiring some
major demolition pulling all the old tiles off, ripping out the
sheetrock and replacing it with wonderboard substrate, got plenty of
mortar and grout left over from the bathroom... it'd only take me oh,
2 or 3 weeks... but it could be done.  Thanks, but no thanks.

So off I go, wandering around home depot, just browsing, kinda getting
a little stressed and a lot bummed out.  I really do NOT want to show
the kitchen looking the way it does, the kitchen is SO important when showing
a house.  Figured I'd go home and check online for something, some
sort of idea.

And then I came across the perfect idea.  Sitting right there on the
shelf, just staring at me, calling my name, "Here is the answer, look
here at me!"

Contact paper.

Not just any contact paper, but METALLIC contact paper.  In brushed
stainless steel.  $9.95 a 24-square-foot roll.  And EXACTLY
one roll left.

Glory Be!

Contact paper.  Wonderful, fully-washable, fully-water-proof,
super-thin so no need to replace the countertop trim edge or wall
edging, inexpensive, practically indestructible contact paper.

So off I went to the cashier hugging that precious roll of metallic
brushed stainless steel contact paper, gleefully checked out, got
home, and attacked the kitchen.

Fortunately, I happen to have plenty of TSP (a very weak acid-wash
solution), which is perfect for cleaning the grunge off the tile and
smoothing out the surface just a wee bit.  Even though it is more work, I cut the contact
paper into tile-sized squares, so I can better conform to the texture
of the tile (plus makes it easier if a piece needs to be replaced).

I must admit I was a bit nervous when I put the first few squares
on... wasn't sure how it would look, I've always wanted to replace the
tile with stainless steal to keep in that 1950s "Diner" look and
feel of the kitchen.  But the nerves were unnecessary.  I really like
the way it looks.  It went on super-easy, and although there are a
few rough patches because the tile beneath is dinged here and there,
it just actually adds to the character.  I'll have to buy another roll next time I go to town, as one roll wasn't quite enough.

I really like the way it looks :)

Some Battles Are Not Worth Fighting

Ten years.  As of last Wednesday, I have owned my small house in one of the best small towns anywhere in the world for ten years.   Yea, I'm a bit biased, but I love it here.  Overall, these have been fantastic years, years of joy and tears, many friends closer to me than family, lots of gossip and secrets, as is true in any small town.  I love it here in Calhan, Colorado.  Even more, I love my house.

I *love* my house, my home, my sanctuary, my pride, my blessing, my curse.

In about three weeks, I'll be putting a for sale sign up in front of this cozy little place I've called home for the last ten years.  It has been, without doubt, the single hardest decision I have ever made in my life.  I have ten years of my life invested here, not just in my home, but my community.  When I bought this home, I said this was the place for me for the rest of my life, I will never move again, here I draw the line and say "This is home, forever. Here I will live, here I will die."   I had no doubt at all that buying this house was exactly the right decision. 

Water is a precious commodity, why flush it away?

Three years ago, I was using an average of 6,200 gallons of water a month for an average water bill cost of about $78.  And I live alone.

$78... more than I actually was spending on gasoline every month! That is a lot of water.  Enough to fill a 12-foot swimming pool every month.  And, as it turns out, most of it I was simply flushing away.

Mortgage Mess... or how I saved my home from foreclosure, at least for now

As one can see from my prior very-long-winded post about the so-called housing bill, I'm more than a little interested in the how the mortgage industry in our country operates.  My own personal experience, which I'll share now, perhaps will help not only illustrate just how screwed up the industry is, but also, how even the smartest of persons can end up with a mortgage nightmare.  Maybe it will save a few of you some grief in your own lives.

What's in a Name?

I love living out here in the "boondocks" of Calhan, Colorado. We've got pretty much everything one needs within walking distance: grocery, small restaurant, Post Office, Town Hall, hardware store, feed store, butcher's, elementary & high school, park, walking trail, even an insurance company! (We used to have a bar and a bowling alley, but the smoking ban killed those. That's another story for another day....) Anyway, here in Calhan, the one thing we don't have is a library. Fortunately, our wonderful Pikes Peak Library District provides us with Bookmobile services twice a week.

Well, that is, they used to. Very soon, Pikes Peak Library District, in their wonderful wisdom, will no longer drive the Bookmobile out to Calhan anymore: From now on, they will be driving the Mobile Library Services um, vehicle? Van? RV? Truck?

The Cost of Marriage

Very likely later today, the Colorado senate will be voting on a proposal to raise the cost of a marriage license from $10 to $35. According to The Gazette, Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, is against the idea, arguing that the State should do "everything it can to promote marriage and should consider adding the fee to the cost of getting a divorce instead." I say Schultheis is not only wrong, but that the Senate should consider raising the cost of a marriage license higher. Much, much higher.

Colorado, like many states, makes it extremely difficult and expensive to get divorced. Now, I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but I do believe the emphasis is in the wrong place. I don't think divorce needs to be made more difficult. I think we need to make it far more difficult to get married.

Why? Because it's cheaper - and simpler - to get married than it is to license my dog. Seriously. If I wanted to get married - and I don't - all I need to do is go pay $10 and sign a short piece of paper. Until not too long ago, you didn't even need to show an ID.

Just a harmless whistle....

This past Saturday night, a friend ruptured my eardrum.

You see, I went back to college five years ago, and to help support myself, I started a small karaoke business. Most Friday and Saturday nights I'm in one small-town bar or another, aiding and abetting the vandalism of many a great hit song. This past Saturday night, at one of my regular gigs, one of my regular singers decided it was too quiet and let out a shrill, high-pitched, extremely loud, excruciatingly painful whistle. You know the kind, with two fingers in the mouth, intended to be heard across football stadiums over 90,000 screaming fans. That kind of loud.

The first time she let out one of her obnoxious sirens, it literally knocked me breathless. I yelled into the microphone, half-jokingly, to quit it, she was making my ears bleed!

In truth, I discovered just a few short minutes later, she really did make one of my ears bleed. My left ear started to ooze a very small amount of blood, mixed with some sort of clear-ish fluid. Still ringing, and a bit numb, the bleeding and oozing stopped very quickly.