Grass and Glue

Yesterday we actually took time from our house cleaning and room remodeling to tackle the grass.  We have had rain for so many days in a row that everyone's grass needed cutting, and I could hear a quartet of lawnmowers when I went outside to start our mower. I mowed the front and side yards since Rick said that he wanted to mow around the new grass in the back.

Our new grass has come in fairly well.  We have a couple
of bare spots where too much water puddled, but we hope
it will fill in eventually.

The next thing I knew, Rick was in the back cutting ALL of the grass.  He said that he saw that the grass was so high, so if he did not cut and bag it, it would be impossible to get through.  The grass in the front and side yards was dry, but some of the grass in the back was still soggy enough that at one point the mower got clogged with cut grass.  Rick filled a trio of bags that we will have to haul to the yard recycling center.  Lots of sunshine is predicted for the next week, so hopefully the yard will dry out before we have to mow the grass again.

Tonight after dinner we took a walk, as we usually do, around the neighborhood.  The wind was brisk and fall is definitely in the air.  I took a picture of one of the leaves I found to send to our neighbor in Florida.  She loves fall, so I thought I would share. I wish I were able to send some of the falling temperatures, too!

Preview of what awaits us...

Inside, our efforts have been on gluing together the nine slide-outs and five drawers for the cabinets.  We cut the bottoms for them and started the assembly.  Rick continued to work on them long after I quit for the day.

Lots of slide-outs and drawers still need varnish
and installation. 

The result is now 13 glued, clamped, unclamped, and sanded slide-outs and drawers.  We still have to glue the large file drawer because we had to take time today to cut the slits in the sides to hold the file rails.  Rick set up a jig and used his router to cut in the slots for the rails. Sometimes his creativity amazes me.  I will be able to get two sets of files side-by-side in the drawer, and that will give me more than enough space for everything I need to track and to store.

Exhaustion is becoming our new norm each evening.  Rick usually falls asleep in front of the TV, and I am so tired that I have not stayed awake for the 10:00 p.m. news in weeks.  Of course, that could not possibly be because we are getting old... could it?

Blizzard of Sawdust and Blinds

Rick worked very hard today cutting boards to size and setting up the dovetail jig so he could cut the dovetail joints for the slide-outs.  The router makes a tremendous amount of sawdust when cutting dovetails in 3/4 boards, so at times we seemed to have a light tan sawdust blizzard blowing through the garage.

Once we cut the bottoms out of the large piece of plywood
in the background, we can glue these slide-outs together
to complete them for the tall cabinet.

By noon, he had finished cutting the four slide-outs and the three top drawers for the base cabinets.  He cut the wood to length for the middle drawer and the large file drawer, but the jig set-up is giving him problems because the spacers he needs were not sold at the time he bought his Leigh jig.  Of course, the spacers are not sold by any retailer in America, so he had to order them from Canada.  Now we wait... five to seven days before they arrive.

The pieces of four slide-outs and three drawers
await a dado into which we will insert the bottoms.

In the meantime, we can clean the garage tomorrow (lots of vacuuming!) and stain the spacer/ installation bars for the slide-outs.  We also can cut the dados in the slide-out and drawers so they accept the bottoms.  We have the plywood for the bottoms, so we also can cut those, too.  Then, we can assemble the slide-outs and drawers and varnish them all.  While we wait to cut the dovetails in the last two drawers, we will not sit idly by.  There always is something to do.

Today we received a welcome delivery: our blinds for the laundry room.  We both were disappointed that the header bar was white instead of the "complementary color" that their Web site promised, but in reality, the white may be best.  The color of the blinds blends very well with the walls, and next to the white washer and dryer, the white header and bottom bar complements the overall decor.

The new blinds will give us the ability to filter light
and to have some privacy in this room.

I did not want any chains or cords on the blinds, so we chose a double waffle-weave that we can simply push up or pull down.  Since they probably only will be opened and closed once a day, they should last for a very long time.

I must admit that since we started this project in June, we have not had one day where we have woken up in the morning and wondered what we were going to do with the day!  Tomorrow will be busy indeed.

Dinosauers, Dovetails and Dados

Yesterday we went to Lindsay's house to give Owen his "good luck" gift as he starts kindergarten this week.  We bought his a triceratops bank that we thought he would enjoy.  He put his money in the bank which now sits in his bedroom.  We think he is really going to enjoy "regular" school.

Owen and "Dino" the bank.

Today started well with Rick and I in the garage cutting dovetail joints on the slide-outs that he had cut to length yesterday.  He would cut the dovetails while I sanded the ragged edges smooth and took time out to sweep up the mountains of sawdust that dovetails create.

I am happy that Rick gets to use some of the woodworking equipment that has sat idle for so long.  He finished all of the slide-outs for the tall cabinet in the laundry room by 9:00 a.m.

From there he tried to cut the dados in the slide-outs to accept the bottom boards.  As he did the first one, I could hear that the bit was having a hard time getting through the wood.

"Did you just see smoke?" asked Rick.  I had not, but when he tried to cut further in the wood, I certainly saw it wafting up from the router table.

"Is your router burning out, or is that smoke from burning wood?" I asked.  He replied that the router was fine, but the 1/4 inch router bit was too old, too dull, and too small to cut the dado all in one pass.  So we had two choices: he could adjust the table to cut the dados in two or three smaller passes, or we could quit for today until we could get to the store to purchase a new, sharp, 1/2 router bit that would complete the job in one smooth pass.  We decided that since today was a holiday, we would quit.

The wood for the base cabinet slide-outs rest in front of them.
We will finish building those later this week.

Yes, we could have changed gears and cut the rest of the wood for the five drawers that we need to build, but after working seven days a week for the past couple of months, we both deserve time off.  Tomorrow will come soon enough.

Soon the tall cabinet will have slide-out shelves.

The washer and dryer are working well.  I love not having to go
downstairs to complete this task!

The room really is starting to take shape.  We want to get the drawers and slide-outs mounted before Alise comes to measure for the doors, but then we are done until the doors are made and are ready to be mounted.

We have plenty of room for the looms.

I am starting to look at patterns and yarn again as I gaze at the empty looms.  I want to weave again before the weather changes to fall.  Hopefully our efforts will pay off, and we soon will be able to enjoy our new room.

Shelves and Slide-Outs

As I predicted in my last blog, the day after he injured himself, Rick was back in the garage working on the shelves for the new laundry room cabinets.  He used his new slot cutter bit on the router and cut a thin slot into the sides of the oak plywood shelves.  Then he inserted a plastic edging into the slot to cover and to protect the plywood side of the shelves.

The shelves dry in preparation for their installation in the upper cabinets.

The result are shelves that have a finished edge, and they cost substantially less than if we had used solid oak boards for all of the shelves.  Since most of the shelves will be behind cabinet doors anyway, this was a logical choice for us.  We have the same edging on the shelves in our kitchen, so I am happy with the look and result of his work.

He also finished the two solid oak shelves in the bookcase above my desk.  We don't have many weaving books, but what we have now will be accessible.  We also will have room for the many Handwoven magazines that we have collected over the years.  I am going to love all of the storage space in our new laundry/ weaving room.

Adding braces and sistered joists make for a more
stable floor under the washer and dryer.

Another task we completed was to reinforce the floor joists under the washer and dryer.  We sistered in 2 x 6 beams, and then Rick added braces to better stabilize the floor.  The Miele washing machine spins at such a high speed that it really does shake the whole room, so reinforcing the floors seems to help a bit.  I also stuffed foam pipe insulation between the washer and dryer, and that helps to minimize the vibrations, too.  I have to figure out a more permanent solution, but for now the insulation will do.

Lots of shelves means that we will have lots of storage opportunities.

Today we installed all of the shelves, and I brought up most of the books that we want to put on the bookshelves.  We are hesitant to load the other shelves since Alise -- who is coming to measure for the cabinet doors in a couple of weeks -- told us to make sure that the cabinets did not have anything in them.  We can't quite figure out why she cannot measure for doors if there is something on the shelves, but we will not overburden them at this point.

We also hung a picture in the room today and hung the warping board on the wall.  Now the room is starting to look lived in, and it is starting to resemble a weaving studio.

The one thing that we want to do is to complete the drawers and the slide outs before Alise comes.  That way, she will be able to mark where the drawer and slide-out hardware is located so the door manufacture can avoid those areas when he installs the hinges.

The slide-out lumber will make sturdy storage
for the base cabinets.

We purchased the lumber yesterday for the pull-outs.  Now Rick has to set up his dove-tail jig so he can cut the drawers and the slide-outs.  This week will be a week of building them so we could get everything in place before Alise arrives to measure for the doors.

Breaking Rules

Today was SUPPOSED to be our day off from work as we took time out to watch Owen.  We both needed time to play, so we were happy to have a smiling, loving distraction from our daily remodeling tasks.

Owen arrived at about 7:00 a.m. The first thing we did was bake two loaves of zucchini bread.  The last time we watched him for the day, we had made eight small loaves of zucchini bread, so when we asked him what he wanted to do today, he said, "Make some zucchini bread."  OK.  Easy enough.  Owen really is a good little baker.  He chopped all of the walnuts in an old-fashioned crank nut chopper.  When he finished chopping the first 1/2 cup, we decided to do a second 1/2 cup.  I put more nuts into the hopper, and he started cranking it again.  He said his hand was starting to get tired, but before I could offer to take over for him, he simply turned the chopper around and started to crank/ chop the nuts with his left hand.  Oh, yeah.  I forgot.  Owen is ambidextrous. Using his left hand is almost as natural to him as using his right hand.

Nothing is better than a little butter melting into
warm, freshly-baked zucchini bread. Yum!

After the bread, we played games.  Owen rolled TWO Yahtzees while playing.  I definitely need to take him to the casino soon.  He is super lucky when he rolls dice.  We did a bunch of art crafts, played more games, completed some puzzles on the iPad, got some exercise with a big ball, and took time out to check on the plumbers who were installing our new water heater in the basement.

Owen puts a puzzle piece into place on the iPad.
Puzzles help children learn visual organization
which helps with reading skills.

Owen and Rick complete some art projects.

After lunch and after the plumbers left, we went to his house so I could make a big pot of chicken noodle soup.  He helped a little with the soup but was more interested in games and in completing some more art projects.

When Christopher returned from his first day of inservice for his school district, we returned home.  This is when the rule breaking started.

Our new tankless water heater takes up just a little
space on the basement wall.

We hope that we can get 15 years of service out
of this new water heater.

We went to the basement to view the new water heater since we had not had time to really look closely at it while Owen was here. Then I returned to the kitchen to start dinner.  I should have made sure that Rick followed me upstairs, but he did not.

With dinner about half-way cooked in the oven, I heard Rick stomping up the stairs, swearing and saying that he was stupid.  I knew then that he had broken the "no work today" rule.  I also knew from what he was saying, he had hurt himself and had also broken the "no blood" rule.

"I think I need stitches," he said as he reached the top of the stairs.  OK.  I turned the oven off, scooped the dinner out of the oven and threw it into the refrigerator, and grabbed the car keys.  On the way to the Urgent Care facility, Rick told me that he had been re-piping the water softener with PVC and had cut the tip of his thumb with the PVC pipe cutter.

The water softener now has solid PVC piping
rather than the old flexible hose that came disconnected
in the middle of the night!

Ouch!

Since the deep cut was very near the nail on Rick's thumb, the doctor actually glued the flesh back together rather than trying to put in a stitch.  Apparently glue works well; however, the doctor warned him that if he were to do anything too active, he could split it open again.  Ha!  IF he uses it?  Who is that doctor kidding?  Tomorrow I am sure that Rick will be back in the garage cutting slots in the shelves, inserting the edging, and trimming the edging to fit.

So much for rules.  I will continue to try to enforce them, but I realize that until this project is complete, the best I can do is to help him where and when I can and to be ready to get the sliver puller or the bandages out when necessary.

First Load

Now that the washer and dryer are upstairs and hooked up (thank you, Two Men and a Truck!), I was able to complete my first load of laundry on the main floor of this house.  How wonderful that was!  I did not have to carry the laundry downstairs, and I certainly appreciated not having to carry it all back up the stairs again.

The washer and dryer and installed and working well.
The Vroom vacuum is visible in the lower cabinet.

As we had feared, since the Miele washing machine spins at a higher-than-normal speed, it shook the whole room when it went through the spin cycle.  It also shook the range in the kitchen and some of the kitchen cupboards.  The revolutions shook the dust loose in the basement, too, so we will have to look into adding some sister joists to the floorboards and some braces between the joists to stabilize the structure under the washer.

The dryer, since it now has a shorter vent run to the outside, seemed to work very efficiently.  I still have to figure out where to store extra detergent and other laundry items, but I am happy that the process worked well... with no water leaks!

The same could not be said for the water poring from the sky, however.  We have experienced rains since Friday, including severe storms on Sunday evening and last evening. High winds made us thankful that we had the large trees removed from the yard earlier this summer, but the thunder and lightening kept me awake from 1:30 this morning until I finally arose at 5:30.  The Prednisone I am taking contributes to the insomnia, so last night was NOT a restful evening.

This afternoon a cold front came through the area, brining even more rain. We watched as $400 worth of new grass seed floated away or into pocket puddles throughout the yard.  Our side yard was completely under water, and Rick was a hero as he went out into the storm to reattach our neighbor's downspout.  Her basement window wells were filled to the top, and we feared that if the water continued to gush over rather than through the downspout, her whole basement would be flooded.

We are heartsick about the yard.  The first blush of grass had just started to show when the flooding came in.  We have no idea how much new grass we finally will see grow, but it certainly will not be all that we paid for last week.  However, tornadoes touched down in the state, so we are thankful that our house was not damaged in the storms.

Base shoe completes the outside of the lower cabinets and outlines
the area under the desk.

As the rains poured down, we worked inside.  Rick installed the base shoe around all of the lower cabinets.  He also added molding around the laundry floor.  We had to put a special floor under the washer and dryer since they cannot rest on a floating laminate floor.  We had some molding remaining from when we installed the floor, however, so it fit very nicely into our new flooring plans.

We reinstalled the drawers into the laundry unit bases, and I gave them all a good cleaning.  I was amazed at how dusty the units were being in the basement.  The light is not good down there, so I never noticed how much they both needed a good scrubbing.

When the movers carried up the laundry units, I also asked
them if they would bring the loom upstairs.  We brought the
smaller one up today, too, so we will be able to weave in the room also.

This afternoon the slot-cutting bit for the router and the edging for the cabinet shelves arrived.  That means that on Thursday we can take all of the plywood shelves and cut the slot for the edging.  Then we can finish sealing and varnishing them.  When they are dry, we will insert the edging and have the shelves complete for the upper cabinets and one small base cabinet.

Since the laundry units are now level and functional, we were able to secure the small cabinet next to the washer.  Then Rick installed the Vroom central vacuum system in that base.  I am very happy having an instantly-on vacuum in the room with a 24 foot retractible hose.  It has the full power of the central vacuum system, and the supplied hose is small enough to actually go into my dryer lint collection area.  It has not been this clean in years!

We planned on taking the day off tomorrow as we agreed to watch Owen for the day.  Rick said all week, "Watch.  The one day that we have plans elsewhere, the plumber will call and try to come to install our new water heater."  Sure enough.  We received a call tonight asking if they could come tomorrow to install the new tankless water heater.  Since they are so busy, we could not refuse their schedule.  Owen and I will bake bread in the morning and play a while; then we will go out for pizza for lunch.  In the afternoon, I will take him back to his house so I can make a big pot of chicken noodle soup for dinner.  If Rick stays here to be with the plumbers, so be it.  Owen is a great kid, so I am sure that we will be fine. I suspect that since the temperatures are supposed to drop drastically tomorrow, the chicken soup may be a welcome dinner when Chris and Lindsay come home from work.

Although we still have drawers and slide-outs to make, we both are anxious for Alise to come in to measure for the cabinet doors.  That will not happen for a couple more weeks.  Once the doors are complete, we will pick them up and install them ourselves.  We are having the same company who made our current kitchen cabinet doors manufacture matching raised-panel doors for the laundry room since the rooms are adjacent to one another.

The granite people are so busy that they will not come to measure for the granite until October; consequently, we will not have any countertops until mid-October.  By then, we sincerely hope that everything else will be finished in the room.

Our goal is to have everything completed by Halloween.  Then we can enjoy the holidays without having to work around construction in our reconfigured old home.

Phase Two

I considered Phase One of this laundry room project getting the old den cleaned out, getting the plumbing and pocket door installed, completing all of the finishing work on the walls, and making and installing the cabinets.  So far, so good.

Now we move to Phase Two which is making and installing the shelves and drawers while the professionals complete the cabinet doors.  Additionally, the primary purpose of this room is to get the laundry units upstairs and operable, and that will happen this coming week.

Phase Three will include bringing the looms and sewing machine upstairs and actually moving into the room for full-time use.  I also plan to transfer my "office" from the spare bedroom into that room to make use of the laptop desk.  Since the granite countertops will not be installed until October, though, that final phase has some expected delays.

For now, we are happy to move into Phase Two.  This morning we started this phase by measuring, cutting, sanding and staining 10 shelves for the upper cabinets and one small base cabinet.  We will have two shelves in each of the three upper cabinets on the west wall, one shelf each in the three cabinets above the laundry units, and a small shelf in the lower cabinet next to the washer.  Since that cabinet also will house the Vroom vacuum, a single shelf is all it will need.

Six stained shelves, suspended on painters' points,
 dry in the garage.

We are making these shelves out of oak plywood which we will edge with a plastic shelf molding.  We have the same kind of molding in our kitchen cupboards, and those shelves have lasted well for almost 30 years.  Since these shelves all will be hidden behind cabinet doors, we saw no reason to purchase solid oak for these utilitarian shelves.

We WILL purchase solid oak for the two shelves that will go above the desk in the bookcase since those shelves will be in view all of the time.  That wood we have yet to purchase.

The other four shelves dry on a second table while the base shoe
molding dries on 2 x 4 racks below.

While Rick started to stain the cut shelves today, I added a coat of sealer on the four strips of base shoe that I stained yesterday.  In a couple more days, we will be able to install that around the base cabinets.  We should have that finished by Tuesday.

My Grandfather Will died when I was only 18 months old, so I did not really know the man; however, my mother told me that he had a strict rule about never working on Sunday.  Sunday was the Sabbath, a day set aside for reading the Bible, contemplation, and rest.  I also learned that he was a hard working, industrious man who did not sit around much.  Would he have approved of us working today?  Probably not.  Yet, somehow,  I think that he would have understood our need to keep working on this project.

The temperature this morning was 59 degrees when I awoke.  We know that this is Wisconsin and that we quickly are losing our window of opportune temperatures in which to stain and to varnish wood in our garage.  The temperatures soon will be too cold to do such activities, so we have to make sure that we get everything built and stained before we run out of time. To that end, the work continues each day.

Crowning Our Creations

Building the boxes for the cabinets has taken us weeks of work, but we are finally at the point where we can start the finishing touches on our work.

We rejected the idea of using the crown molding that used to frame this room's ceiling because there just seemed to be an overwhelming presence of wood.  Today, however, we tried the crown molding on the cabinets, and we both agreed that using it to top the cabinets would work well.

Crown molding tops the cabinets that will hold items above
the washer and dryer.  Molding also frames the pocket door opening.

Kudos to Rick for figuring out how to cut outside and inside corners on crown molding.  That is not an easy task.  Even more difficult was maintaining the same reveal on the top frame of the cabinets while still reaching the ceiling when the ceiling is anything but level!  Rick actually had to cut a filler piece to make that happen, but the outcome is a bank of cabinets with crown molding at the top.

Crown molding also frames the tops of all the cabinets on the west wall. 

Rick spent part of this morning installing base boards around the rest of the room, and adding the woodwork molding around the pocket door.  We had to make a quick trip to Menards to buy some base shoe that we can install in front of the kick plates on all of the cabinets, and on the floor under the desk. I stained what we purchased, and tomorrow we will add sealer and varnish.  The base shoe should be ready for installation on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

In digging through the stash of wood downstairs, I actually found some laminate floor molding that we will be able to use in front of the washer and dryer once we have those two units fully installed.  That should happen late Monday afternoon.  Two Men and a Truck are scheduled between 3:30 and 5:30 to carry the washer and the dryer upstairs for us.  We will have to reattach the base drawers and actually install the units to the dryer vent and to the water lines once we stand them up and level them.

We cannot attach the final base cabinet until we get the washer and dryer fully functioning.  Leveling them and hooking them up with that last cabinet in place would be almost impossible.  I hope that by the time I go to bed on Monday evening, I will have a working, wonderful first-floor laundry.

Once the last base is attached to the wall, Rick also can install my Vroom central vacuum outlet.  I cannot wait for that to be functional. It will make clean-up in the laundry room and kitchen so much more convenient.

For the first time in weeks, we actually were able to quit working on the room before 4:00 p.m.  We accomplish a little bit each day, and we make slow but steady progress in transforming that room from a den into a multi-functional room that we both will be able to enjoy.