car seat

This seemed perfectly reasonable to me. Got vetoed by the wife.

(Thanks, failblog!)

Kitchen, day 9

So after the first few days of furious activity, visible change slowed down quite a bit.. A couple more days of electrical and drywall work, and lots of little trim pieces (crown, light rail, kicks, spacers).





The cabinets are now 98% done. Got the pulls installed yesterday and everything... The old fluorescent light in the ceiling is gone, replaced by 5 cans... Linoleum has been ripped up, and the template for the granite counters measured.





Microwave is back in and usable! (I've already walked to the wrong location to try to use it once... It ain't where it used to be!)





The new stove just came in, and thank goodness fits in the slot we left for it. You just never know about these things...





We're also replacing the "butler pantry" cabinets to match... I think they look great!

So what's left... Hmm...

Floor tile
Corbels to support granite
Install granite
Scoop out sink base
Install sink and faucet
Backsplash tile
Under cabinet lights
Mount hood
Hang pendants
Paint ceiling
Paint trim
Paint walls (ugh that's gonna be a lot of painting)
New kitchen party!

Kitchen, day 4

Starting to come together!

Day 2 was the electrical... And then 3 and 4 have been cabinet work... Not completely in yet, but it's starting to look good!





Now we just have to get through the counters... The lighting... The hood... The stove... And all the tile work...

Still, pretty exciting!

Kitchen day 1

So its really happening! The cabinets are all torn out and are in the garage awaiting sale... And no matter how many times you walk in there, you keep wanting to put something down on a nonexistent counter.

Exciting stuff!

Kitchen: day 0

So we're about to tear out the cabinets and start the kitchen remodel! Here's a "before" shot for reference...

New veggie garden...

Spent the afternoon putting in a vegetable garden bed on the side of the house.

Man I'm sore!

Nothing planted yet; that'll have to wait for next weekend.

It's about 3' by 12'... gonna put in some tomatoes, squash, onions, peppers, and lettuce... can't wait to see stuff start growing!

(The planters on the deck will be just herbs and flowers this year -- not going to repeat last year's tomato fiasco!)

So the last couple of weekends I've been practicing on the lathe, learning how to control the tools a bit better, and in the process have finished 2 (practice) bowls!

The one in the front was the first one I turned; it's finished with "salad bowl finish" and buffed...

The one in the back I just finished today. On that one I used EEE cream and turners polish; easier and faster than the buffing and it came out pretty good! Of course you can't use finish like that on anything you're going to eat out of; for that you pretty much just have to stick with the salad bowl finish (which still looks pretty decent).

The pic on the left shows the sizes better; they're about the same diameter actually - just the perspective on the image above...

Had a little scare with the one I turned today... had it chucked into a shallow internal notch in the base and was working on the inside, when my tool caught and the bowl completely jumped off the lathe. Yikes! Tore a big chunk out of the base too; luckily I had enough thickness down there that I reversed it onto the chuck and took about 3/8" off the whole bottom to fix the gouge. Still, it got my attention!

One more pic below, showing the profile of the bowls a little more clearly. The shape of today's bowl was actually a result of an accident... was originally going to be a simple oval profile, but when I accidentally took a big chunk out near the lip, I realized the bowl wanted to be a different shape entirely -- so I just went with it.