On Saturday, I leveled out the countertop, using a block plane:
There are other types of planes that are better suited for this kind of task, but I'm trying to limit the amount of equipment I'm buying -- this is considered somewhat all purpose, and it was able to get the job done. Certainly, the army of hamsters that AJ has always wanted will be happy with the volume of shavings it produced:
After that, I plugged gaps and filled holes, and then sanded the whole thing down. On Sunday, I sealed it with polyurethane, added magnet closures to the cabinet doors, and then moved all the brewing equipment and beer bottles in:
Done!
Next up: More cleaning and rearranging of things in the garage to tidy up the space and make it more usable. Also, waterproofing and mouseproofing in the front left corner of the garage,
Made more solid progress on the cabinets during week 2 of vacation. They're now close to done. Countertop is in place & cabinet doors have been hung:
For reference, the entire thing is 12 feet long, and has 7 cabinet doors along the long side.
I'm very happy with how the counter has turned out:
I'm going to go ahead & level the uneven places out with a block plane after all.
AJ helped me brainstorm what to do about the cabinet doors. I settled on maps mounted on cardboard in a wooden frame:
In addition to finishing the counters, there are some other final odds & ends, and then I will do something drawer-like with the cubby holes in the square shelf thing on the short side. So far, I've spent about 40 hours on it, and about $40 -- I had to buy hardware for the doors and some more wood glue, but everything else I already had lying around.
Next up: finishing this project & moving all the brewing stuff to its new home!
* * *
Update: When I looked the other day, there were a handful of fava beans ready to go, and a bunch more snap peas. We just went out to get them for dinner, & this is all we found:
Week 1 of vacation done! In addition to sleeping late and drinking too much coffee, I made very good progress on the cabinets this week.
First thing, I had to make some sawhorses, having none:
Next, the skeleton of the cabinets:
Pickles did not appreciate that I worked past her dinner hour that day.
Getting everything level was a challenge, because the floor is not level -- it slopes front to back, and also left to right.
Next, the backing for the cabinets. I used some leftover corrugated plastic so that the natural light from the windows can also light up the cabinets:
Next, blocking large gaps in the back of the cabinets to keep mice and dust out. It was a lot of cutting tiny pieces of wood to fit odd-shaped holes, so it took a long time. For the gap under the framing that I'm attaching the cabinets to, I had this 15 foot board from the concrete pour last year that worked perfectly:
Next, putting in plywood shelves:
They go through only four of the cabinets, leaving the two on the end open for tall fermentation vessels.
Next, more structure to the cabinets, and making sure the verticals are straight up and down in all directions.
Next, I put some maps on the back of the cube thing:
And then settled it back where it will be attached:
This is how the maps look in their final home:
Finally, I got started on the counter top:
From another angle, closer up:
I was thinking of leveling out the uneven parts with a block plane, but the unevenness looks interesting, so I might just pour a layer of resin over the top to preserve that while still getting a flat work surface.
Lastly, and most importantly: proof for my parents that I still have all my fingers:
In garden news, the first peas are ready, and we have baby beets:
AJ made a delicious dinner with them, after enjoying her practice drum:
Next up: finishing the counter, and then figuring out what I want to do for cabinet doors.
I am now officially on vacation. Let the cabinets begin!
This weekend, I started by moving some things I have been storing on this four foot high work bench that the construction guys had built to fabricate the kitchen counter, and then removed the work bench entirely.
Here is the before:
Pickles helped, as usual, by chewing a bully stick:
Then I cleaned up the dust and dirt, sorted the lumber, and set in place this cube shelf thing that a neighbor gave us:
The counter that I will build on top of the cabinets will be L-shaped, and this cube thing will be the short end of the L.
Ready to go for tomorrow morning!
Before I cleaned up for the night, I did one additional project -- I made a taiko practice drum for AJ:
It's packing tape over the tire that was left in the house when we moved in, fixed to the top of a broken stool I picked up on the sidewalk for this very purpose. The idea -- from The Atlanta Taiko Project -- is that it is more taiko drum-like than the practice pad AJ currently uses, but it's much quieter than an actual taiko drum.
Busy with summer session starting up for school, so only little doings this week.
More mousing. Pickles has redeemed herself, ferociously chasing a tiny baby mouse out of the treadmill on Friday night:
It ran straight into my closet. Pickles was very helpful the next day, as well, while I was trying to figure out whether it was still in there. It wasn't. I think I've figured out how to keep the intruders confined to the kitchen and AJ's office until I have time to start to plug up the holes in the garage, which is how they're getting into the house in the first place.
On Saturday, I finally put our clothesline back up:
I set it up by putting up two cleats on either side of the yard, so that we can easily take it down when we're not using it.
On Sunday, I made some ricotta cheese with some milk that was about to go off:
I used too much lemon juice, so it ended up with a very desserty flavor. Which isn't all bad. I also saved the whey for pickling.
Lastly, 30 Days of Health for Lyon-Martin is now complete! With generous donations from Jhames, Mama O'Brien, Momma Arave, Jenna, AJ, and a couple people from work, we are donating $330 to help the clinic keep up its vital work in the community. If you wanted to donate, but time got away from you, it's not too late -- you can still donate through my fundraising page: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christinedesrosiers/30-days-of-health-2015 Thank you all for your support of my project! My back is feeling much better, by the way, and I am planning to continue working on my posture, to make sure things stay in good working order.
Next week: more preparations for Duserhaus Cabinets 2015!
This week, we discovered that the mice are back! We spent Sunday patching mouse holes and cleaning up after the mouse party.
Pickles was no help in any of the mouse endeavors, & completely failed to detect that they were back. In fact, it's clear they have been back for a while, this time invading through AJ's office. I see that she was busted back down to Private in October for dereliction of duty, so I'm not sure what to do. Admiral AJ suggested that she should be kicked out of the Rodent Roundup entirely, but that seems harsh to me. Maybe we'll just put her on potato peeling duty for a while.
I also had to find a way to stake the favas this weekend, despite the fact that I can't seem to make myself go to the store to get bamboo stakes. The spring wind had knocked down one of the plants, which are now three feet high, so I had to just make something work (AJ suggests you click to make this bigger..."you really have to see it to believe it," she says):
A jumble of rebar, pvc pipe, bamboo, threaded steel earthquake tiedowns, and bundles of reed. AJ made me promise to include this in this post:
Hey, whatever works, I say!
Next up: I will be taking a couple weeks of vacation in June. In addition to sleeping late (yes, that means 7am) and sitting around drinking coffee in my jammies, I also plan to build cabinets &/or shelves for the Duserhaus. Time to start drawing up plans & start moving stuff around in the garage so that I can jump right into the project on day 1!
