AND the kitchen sink

Walt Kowalski glued and screwed (hee hee) the countertop and installed the kitchen sink.

 

Meanwhile, I finished the tile floor in the laundry and grouted. 

 
And I put a coat (or two) of stain on the steps.  I *really* like the steps. they will never be prefect, but they are nice.

I need to touch up brown spots I got on the white. 

Tile in the Laundry

Do you remember what the laundry room used to look like? I almost forgot.

It was dark.  Even with two windows and yellow walls, it was still dark.  To get into the laundry room, you had to go through the living room.  And there was no door on the laundry room.

Then there were no walls. 

We have walls now, but we still don't have a door.  That's just because we haven't installed them yet.

 
It looks like we tiled ourselves into a corner, but we had an escape path. A little hopping and skipping and jumping to get out.

Why does everything look green in this photo?  The light bulb must be having a problem.  It's ok.  The new light fixture is going up this weekend. 

Paint and Stain

It's crunch time.  Moving boxes are being packed.  Arrangements are being made.  There are still about a thousand details that need finished.  You know the saying "Everything but the kitchen sink?" Well, we still need to install the kitchen sink!

Trim and doors are keeping us busy. You might ask, why are you worried about trim when you don't have a kitchen sink? Good question. Answer: the rooms are empty.  Once the Mama of House #1 starts moving her items into the rooms, we're going to run out of space to work.  Working around furniture is not impossible, just tricky. 

To speed the process along, we're going with straight cuts and rosettes instead of mitered cuts. 

 
We needed aboxablox.  That made me laugh all day. 

The vanity box made a perfect painting station.  It was a tedious job, but a necessary job.  thank you Mama of House #2.
 

 
Meanwhile, I was working on the steps again.  More white paint really helps.  I also experimented with stain colors.

I tried the same cedar/oak color as the floor.  Boring.  It matched too much. Then I tried a Sedona Red.  Pretty, but it didn't match anything. We needed more contrast.  The ceiling fans are a DARK color.

 
That's the ticket.  I started with a dark walnut.  Nice, but there were no red hues.  I added a layer of the Sedona Red.  Better. 
 

Two more coats of each (not seen here) and the window sills are looking good. 

If you don't know, wood working and refinishing runs in my family.  My Pap, the builder of the Cat Ranch, was an amazing craftsman when it came to refinishing furniture.  He didn't built furniture from scratch, but he could take a box of parts and create beautiful furniture.  

I've got the touch for it, too.  And the patience.  I know!  I was surprised, too!


P.S.  The phrase "Everything but the kitchen sink" can be dated back to 1894. Nobody famous penned it.

Daily Randoms

Just a few randoms from the Cat Ranch today.

The fog rolled yesterday morning.  It was a normal sunny morning, then all of sudden...Fog. Makes me think of that commercial on TV.  Fraud protection.  Frog protection.  Fraud. Frog.  What about fog?

 
Every evening, just at dusk, we have a bat that comes out.  He flies around, swoops down to get a snack and flies around some more.  We call him Igor.  Recently, he's got a girlfriend.  Mrs. Igor.  They have an evening meal together. 

Yesterday, when I went to clean the litter boxes, I thought there was a leaf stuck to the litter scooper.  Then when I got closer I realized it was no leaf. 

 
It was Igor!  Or Mrs. Igor.  He must have flew into the open garage over the weekend and was hiding in the garage.  He wasn't on the scooper the previous day when I cleaned the litter boxes.

I carefully put the lid on the scooper box and carried outside.  Then I carefully picked up the scooper and flipped Igor off of it.  I was worried he wasn't breathing, I didn't want to do bat CPR.  Then I looked closer and I could see his tiny heart beating a thousand beats per minute. 

I partially covered him with a leaf and left him alone. 

When I returned to check on him an hour later, he was gone.  I'm certain Mrs. Igor was worried about him.  (Really, honey, I was trapped. I wasn't out all night with the guys!)


THEN as if I didn't have enough problems, I have another one.  Or in his case, three more. 

Yoo Hoo has competition for snacks.

This cutie has two siblings.  All have come for snacks. *sigh* They are very skittish. Fudge is not pleased. 

Hands and Knees

I have spent the last few days on my hands and knees.  The floors at the Cat Ranch are not clean, but we do have floors at House #1.

Fitting the boards around the steps took a little carving. Measure, cut, trim, trim, trim, trim. 

Big rooms go fast.  Way faster than the hall upstairs. 

The moment it is finished...we stat filling the room up again.  This is today's "Paint Me" pile.

Bathroom details

While I finished the floor in the hall upstairs, Walt Kowalski installed the vanity in the bathroom.

 

 Holes drilled, pipes connected.

Water!
 

 
Power Tower, the electrician, installed the light bar.

Step in Time Step in Time

 

Kick your knees up, step in time and take a step back in time to July 2013.  This is where we started with the steps and foyer. 

 



There was a wall separating the foyer and the dining room and two doors to get to the kitchen.

The carpet was the first to go. The steps were a mess.  Sticky from carpet tape. Tack track.  Nails.  Staples. Paint and more paint. Originally we were going to carpet the steps and the entire house.  Then we decided to laminate and I didn't think carpeted steps and the rest of the floors laminated would look nice.

They make a system of laminate pieces that go over the steps.  It's a unique system.  It also costs $60 per step!

So I got out the belt sander, orbital sander, Dremmel tool, and sand paper. And dust masks.  (Cause I wasn't warm enough.)

Many smashed knuckles later the steps were sanded.

But the first sanding wasn't enough.  The steps were rough, not smooth. There was still lots of paint left in the grooves and the stain didn't cover anything.  Replacing the staircase wasn't an option at this point.  *sigh* Another weekend of sanding. 

But the second round of sanding with a coarser grain of paper left the steps in MUCH better condition.

I added a little high gloss white enamel to the risers in the back.  And instantly every hole from every staple and nail ever put in the steps appeared.  It looks nice though.

Wood putty filled the holes.  It looks like the risers have poison ivy lotion on them. 

Now the problem of the first two steps.  We removed the newel post to put in the wall.  The step treads had been cut around newel post.  

I wanted two large steps on the bottom to make a grand entrance when you entered the foyer.  Stair treads can be bought in a 48" length or smaller.  Larger steps would need to be crafted.  48" is good!

Enter Mr. Sawzall and the bottom two steps were gone.  Careful of that first step.

Walt Kowalski's feet from under the steps (the steps down to the basement)

A little framing.  A LOT of measuring.

Instead of rounded treads, square goes well with the angles of the house. Suddenly, we've got some good looking stairs.

The sides will be encapsulated with trim to match.  Now we can finish the laminate floor in the dining room and foyer and I can finish painting and staining the stairs.  We like it.