The Kitchen Project -- Done. (Mostly)

    When we last left off, I had the cabinets in, the upper doors done and the countertop installed. I built and installed the drawers, all the handles, and then did the backsplash.  It came together very nicely.

     I'd never done a tiling project before.  Lisa picked out matte white subway tiles, and we picked them up from Bath Bright Kitchen & Tile in Hyde Park, along with the mastic, grout and sealer.  Then I headed down to Harbor Freight to pick up a wet-cut tile saw.  The Harbor Freight saw is about half the price of a similar Rigid saw from Home Depot, and it's more than adequate for the limited use I'll give it.  For my next tile job (the upstairs bathroom!), I'll pick up a simple tile cutter, which is much easier for all of the straight cuts.

Lisa's dad and I did the project in a long, back-aching afternoon.  It came out pretty well, but I never really got the hang of spreading the mastic with the notched trowel to leave the right amount of mastic on the wall.  I ended up just "buttering" the back of each tile and setting them in place.  We weren't really sure what we were supposed to do around the switches and receptacles, but whatever we did seemed to have worked pretty well.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the way the kitchen turned out.  My eyes are drawn immediately to the imperfections in the doors and drawer frames, but no one else seems to notice them until I point them out.

I still have a little work to do.  I'd like to fix some doors and fine-tune some of the drawer faces.  And I want to add some switched under-cabinet LED lights, but that will require some electrical work -- cutting into the backsplash and the wall to add the new switch and a receptacle to the existing circuit.  In theory, it's not a big deal, but I have no idea what I'll find when I cut into the walls.

And toe kicks.  I need to make the toe kicks.

Fixing The Deck

(From 2009)

I spend a lot of time pulling weeds.  They're everywhere, and they drive me crazy.  One summer morning I leaned over to pull some weeds next to the small deck in front of the small front door.  And a piece of the decking broke off.

So I started investigating, and I realized that there was a lot of rotted wood.

So I decided to re-build it.  

Tear out the old.

Luckily, my contractor, Adam Munderback, was at the house replacing some siding.  He looked over the deck and said that there were no serious issues -- no termites, no structural problems.  He told me to head over to Williams Lumber  in Rhinebeck to pick up some T&G flooring.

I used some 2 x 4s to shore up the framing and get it pitched forward so rain water would run away from the house.  Then I put back the decking.

Some old cans of Schlitz Malt Liquor uncovered during the dig:

The last piece is a bit tricky, but I cut it down on the table saw and got it to fit.

I did pass off to Adam the job of fixing and trimming the post-bottom.

All done.

 I kind of think I should have just stained and sealed it.  But I caulked around the edges and put on a coat of primer.  It's been six years.  Hopefully this spring I'll actually paint it!

The Fireplace Room

     The main part of the house dates from 1888.  I've heard a few stories about its history, the most interesting is that it is one of the "Daughter's Houses."  There is a beautiful, large, Greek revival "mansion" on the corner, which, I understand, was the main house for the estate that was on the property.  There are two smaller houses, one on each side, apparently built for each of the estate owner's daughters.  Mine is one of the Daughter's Houses.

(My neighbor from up the road said the story isn't true, but I like it.)

As an older house, it's got a bunch of small rooms.  I've considered removing a wall to create a larger, open entertaining area, I don't want to change the historical accuracy of the floor plan and, well, it's a big cost that I'm happy to keep pushing off.

We spend most of our time in three rooms -- the tv room, the kitchen and the fireplace room.  From the front of the house, the fireplace room is to the right, behind the little porch and the second front door.  It's got very nice views to the front, and, of course, the fireplace.

When I got the house, the rooms downstairs each had off-white (viz:  dingy) walls with colored trim.  The fireplace room was a French blue, which I kind of liked.   And they windows came with lace curtains.  There is great trim-work around the front windows.

After a lot of Internet research, I decided to use a chemical stripper.  This was without a doubt the worst home project I've tackled.  There were very few flat areas of the trim, so most of the scraping had to use various objects I found around the shop:  A curved card-scraper, various screwdrivers, and, the best find, one of those paint-can keys.

It took a full weekend, but eventually, I was able to get down to the wood.  My hands were cramped and sore from digging out the paint from all of the grooves and valleys of trim, but I'm glad I went through the effort.

And then the painting.  I'm not a good painter.  I used to joke about painting -- that it was a job drunk college kids did to earn money over the summer.  But I've learned that doing it well takes a lot of skill and even more prep.  Although I did ok on the walls, I had a lot of trouble painting the semi-gloss over the existing trim and on the door:

I think I should have pre-washed with a stronger mix of TSP and spent more time sanding the trim to scuff it up.  Eventually, we got smart and hired someone to finish the room.

Then, I turned it over to Lisa.

Facing the front.  Love the light.

Towards the side.  That's a signed Chagall lithograph I picked up at an auction, and the built-in bar.  A whole lot of booze for two people who don't drink all that much.

The fireplace insert is from Quadrafire.  The opening was just 1" too small for the larger size.  The insert is good to heat this room, and the adjoining kitchen.  But although it was billed as large enough to heat a 2,000 sq/ft home, I haven't found a decent way to get the heat out of this room and into the rest of the house.

Out the front windows.

To the hall.

The deer head.

Some Winter Shots

These are some shots I've taken over the years.  I always enjoy looking back to photos from the early years of the house and seeing how much the bushes and trees have grown!