Carved in Stone

Today was the day we have been waiting for for most of the summer: getting the granite installed which will finish our remodel on the laundry/ weaving room.

As promised, the installers arrived a little after 10 a.m.  I was afraid that the granite we chose in the yard would not look good in the house, but happily I was wrong.  The granite is beautiful.  For the most part, it is white with shades of blue/grey and some brown undertones mixed in.  One section has some darker stone for a bit of contrast and interest.  We both are happy with the selection we chose.

The long piece looks and fits well.

When the installers came in to measure, they used a laser to measure the walls as well as the length.  The long piece fits beautifully against the not-so-straight wall.  We chose the same edge as that of the kitchen, so everything is coordinated.

The small cabinet next to the laundry is complete.

The small piece next to the laundry units is fairly bland and white, but that is fine, too. It fits well with the small area and will provide a welcome place to put bottles or boxes of items that I might need while washing the laundry.

The desk piece is beautiful, and I hate to see it go.

The desk slab is probably the prettiest of the three pieces with lots of contrast and color.  Sadly, it also is a problem.  The installer said that he deducted 1/8 of an inch from the overall length when he measured the area because the granite needs to fit between two cabinets.  Unfortunately, when the technician cut the slab, he also seems to have deducted an additional 1/8 of an inch. The piece is now 1/4 of an inch short, and it does not look correct in the area. This is a classic communication error that has us both very upset and will cost someone other that us lots of money.

A quarter inch does not seem like much, but it is
too much to fill in with caulk.  We need a correctly cut
piece of granite in this area since it will be a heavily used
part of the room.

The desk slab needs to be replaced with a piece cut correctly, and we do not think that there is enough granite left from the original slab to cut a new piece.  The original slab probably does not have enough because the granite company sold the remainder of the slab to someone else.  Rick told them that our granite had to be cut first, and that they were not allowed to cut for someone else's job until we were sure that our job was acceptable.  From the way everyone is acting and not communicating with us, we are guessing that the company went ahead and sold the remaining part of the slab before our job was complete.

We have two options.  If the rest of our original, matching slab is indeed gone, then the company can find us a new piece from the same lot that will match what we have in the rest of the room, or they can take it all back, find us a new slab, and cut everything again from a whole new slab.

Rick is angry.  I am just disappointed.  We wanted to finally have closure to this room, but once again we have to wait to see how everything works out.

Beginning of the End

This past Monday marked the beginning of the end of our den-into-laundry/weaving room remodel.  On Monday morning, a technician from the granite company came to measure for the granite countertops.  Once the granite is installed next week Monday, the room will be complete.

All of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts are installed.
We cannot wait until this long wall of cabinets is topped
with our new granite countertops.

Rick was fascinated with the measuring for the granite since the technician used a laser measuring device rather than creating a wood and paper template.  Our granite will be cut based on the laser measurements, and we are excited to see the results.  The technician showed Rick how he measured the longest stretch of countertop so that the front edge would be straight while the back edge would follow the not-so-plumb-or-straight contours of the back wall.  Since we are not going to have a backsplash on any of the countertops, having the granite fit the back wall is critical to the overall appearance of the granite.

Last Friday we picked up the two "missing" drawer fronts for that same wall of cabinets.  Thankfully, they fit well; therefore, Rick did not have any trouble installing them.  The cabinets are now complete except for the afore-mentioned countertops. And once we have the countertops in place, I can officially move my office and my sewing room into the drawers and cabinets in the room.

We are very thankful that we spent from Wednesday of the previous week until Thursday of last week visiting our home in Florida.  We found that everything was working well, and other than record-breaking heat to deal with, we accomplished all that we wanted to do during the short visit.  Those tasks included getting our HVAC system inspected and approved, starting and driving the car around since it has sat idle since May, seeing old friends, and doing a bit of pruning and weeding in the gardens.

I was very surprised to see that the vegetation is growing well.  We only lost one small podocarpus tree in the 40 or so trees and bushes that we planted, and thanks to our lawn service who sprays for weeds, our gardens needed very little weeding.

The HVAC worked well, the refrigerator, dishwasher, and laundry units all worked as I had hoped they would, and we were able to run plenty of water through the drains to keep everything functioning for a while.

Little did we know that major Hurricane Michael was slowing churning at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico just as we flew home.  I am SO happy that we missed that excitement.  Reports from our southern neighbors, thankfully, reveal that Dunedin was spared from the worst of the storm.  We apparently received lots of rain and wind; however, nothing was strong enough to do major damage.  My heart goes out to the poor people on the Florida panhandle who received the brunt of this Category 4 hurricane.  Their lives have been totally disrupted with months if not years of rebuilding ahead of them.

Back here in Wisconsin, we have spent the week preparing for winter.  The rain this past weekend and Monday kept us mostly indoors, so I took the opportunity to get out to the garage.  I needed to take everything off the two shelving units, to clean the shelves, and then to reorganize the items on the shelves.  The paint and cleaning supplies are now stored in the house for the winter.  A few things ended in the garbage, and other items were stowed away in the shed until next summer.  Other than almost cutting off the tip of my finger on a sharp edge (thank God my tetanus vaccine is up to date), the job went smoothly.

Rick came out to hang some ladders and to help me get rid of part of our large ladder than has resided outside for the last month.  Our neighbor agreed to take the large half of the extension ladder leaving us to just store the smaller half.  It is still large enough to get to the roof, so we do not need any more than that. In the end, we have a clean, organized garage that needs only swapping out the rakes for shovels as the seasons change for us to be ready for winter.

Our neighbor's front yard tree displays the beauty
of autumn in Wisconsin. (I just hope that the leaves
stay in her yard when they fall!)

The sun finally came out on Tuesday, so we spent the day outside getting the yard somewhat prepped for winter.  Rick cut the overgrown lawn while I cut down perennials, cleaned leaves and debris out of the window wells, and removed leaves from the gardens next to the house.  The gardens in front are not ready to be trimmed just yet, and that is fine.  Their day will come.

I washed and brought in some of the porch furniture that will spend the winter in the basement.  The pieces that remain outside are now covered and secured on the covered back porch.  The grill still has to find a home in the shed for the season, but that has to wait until Rick puts down the winter grass fertilizer and cuts the grass for the last time this season.  That all probably will happen in a couple of weeks.

We are happily amazed at how FEW leaves we have in the back yard now that our three large trees are gone.  The birch trees have not dropped their leaves yet, but when they do, that should be a fairly easy raking job.  As long as all the leaves do not blow into our yard from our neighbor's trees, we should have an easier time this year.  In the past three years, we have lost four huge trees from our yard.  As we get older, having less yard work to do is fine with me.

We finally are to the point where we can start to relax and to enjoy some of our hobbies.  Rick wants to make a bobbin winding stand and reed storage stand for the loom room.  He is happy when he has something to build, so this is the perfect project for him.  We will use our rebates from Menards to purchase some of the wood for the stand.

The first warp is on the rigid heddle loom.  Soon the large loom
will hold a warp as well.  How wonderful to have natural light
flow into our weaving space!

The end of the remodel is in sight, and we both could not be happier. I actually spent time today to write this blog and to put a warp on the rigid heddle loom.  We both want to relax, to read, and to work on our hobbies rather than working on the house all of the time.

Doors Galore

Rick almost drove me crazy this morning anticipating a call from Alise that our doors for the laundry room were complete and ready for pick-up.  I finally let him call at about 11:00 a.m., and we learned that they were just finishing our order and that we could pick up the doors at 1:30 this afternoon.

This morning was filled with other chores.  We each had a "to do" list, and we completed everything on those lists by noon. After a quick lunch, we were off to finally get the doors.

Rick wanted to start with the doors above the laundry units,
but I convinced him to start with the lower door next to the
washing machine to become familiar with the hinges.

When we arrived, the receptionist said that our order of 20 doors and 3 drawer fronts was ready.  The trouble is, we ordered 5 drawer fronts. "Oh," she said, "He must have just written it incorrectly on my list." Yeah.  Right.  My heart sunk, as did Rick's.

We drove around to the loading dock to pick up the doors and drawer fronts.  Kudos to the person who packed them.  They were bundled into manageable packets and protected by foam between each one.  As we expected, though, a count revealed that we were short two drawer fronts.  They are promised to us by the first week in October, so we'll just have to wait for them.

Once we were home, we unpacked everything and laid them out.  I am disappointed that a couple of the doors have nicks in them, and one has a scratch that we are going to have to repair.  For what we paid for the doors, I really had hoped for perfection.  Silly me.  Nothing is perfect.  One of the large cabinet doors has an annoying black dot in the middle; however, closer inspection shows that it is just a small knot hole that they filled in. The filler took a darker stain, so there is nothing that we can do.  That is the nature of the wood.  I am sure in time I will not even see it anymore.

With the first door on, we were able to move to the
upper cabinets.  We chose to have the lower cabinet open
to the left so that the vacuum inside could be used in the
kitchen as well as the laundry room.

Since we did not get started on installing the doors until about 2:30, we were not able to finish them all today.  Rick probably would have tried if he hadn't been completely exhausted by dinner time, so we stopped for the evening.  He installed 10 of the 20 doors. We are about half done.

What a difference cabinet doors make!  The room looks finished
and the cabinets look like they have always been there.

I am pleased with the results.  With each door, the room looks more complete.  We will install most of the rest of the doors tomorrow.  Since we are missing the two lower cabinet drawer fronts, we may have to wait on installing the doors to those units until after we receive the door fronts.  We want the spacing to be correct.

Rick also installed the doors on the tall cabinet.
Now I can load it with all the things I want to store in there.

We brought in the rest of the doors and drawer fronts so we will be ready
to install everything that we can tomorrow.

Of course, once the doors and drawer fronts are installed, I will be itching to get the granite in place for the room to be complete.  The granite will not be installed until October 15, so once again, we will just have to be patient to complete this project.  In the meantime, though, maybe we can actually get a warp on the loom and start a little weaving.

Finished... Almost!

I have not written for almost two weeks because I have been too busy -- or too tired at night -- to do so.  Rick has almost killed himself in an effort to get all of the slide-outs and drawers built and installed in the cabinets.  He finished this monumental task today.

We took a little time out from our project to go to Stephanie's house to help her with a couple of her projects.  She wanted her basement work room drywalled, and Rick also installed a Vroom vacuum in that area so she would have an easier time of keeping the cat's litter boxes clean.  The work was tiring, but all went well... except that I managed to break my baby toe while trying to open her draperies on Friday morning.  (Stephanie's furniture hates me!  I hooked it on a chair this time.  Three years ago, while she was moving into her house, I broke the same toe when I caught it on the leg of the bed.)  I did not waste time going to the emergency room this time.  The foot is very colorful, but it seems to be healing as I anticipated it would.

Earlier this week, we put in the bank of drawers in the cabinet next to the desk.  It gave us a ton of trouble, so we were not thrilled about putting in all of the rest.  However, yesterday we discovered that the pantry slide-outs were easier to install, probably because Rick could crawl inside the cabinet and have space to screw in the drawer slides.

Rick really gets into his work as he
screws in the shelf slides for yet another slide-out.

Rick made a "template" for positioning the other drawers and slides, so the rest of the work went more quickly once we learned how to install everything we needed.  Today, while I went to lunch with a friend whom I have ignored most of the summer  (sorry, Bonnie!), Rick installed two drawers and four slide-outs.  He was finished by the time I got home from lunch.

Rick installs rails in the file drawer for a double
set of file glides.

The room is now to the point were we are finished, at least for now.  We have to wait for Showcase Kitchens to manufacture the doors.  We will pick them up on Monday, September 24.  Then we can install all of them.  I am sure that having doors on everything will really change the look of the room, but they also will hide what we don't want to display, and they will keep things more clean and dust free.

The drawers and cabinet slide-outs are installed.

The tall cabinet holds my sewing machine and the laundry baskets.
It has room for larger items from the kitchen, too.

The laundry area is both easy to use and convenient!

Now if we can only find some time to start to use the looms!

The countertops are due in October, so we know that the room will not be completely finished until October 15.  Until then, I am enjoying having a first-floor laundry, and I cannot wait to take some time to actually USE the looms in the room.

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.