(no subject)

It was, mostly, a good weekend.  The stuffy head that Friday was circling like a buzzard over a dying opossum finally decided I was dead enough and swooped in.  Being inside my head is like riding a merry-go-round where the pivot is just off-center, but at least I'm still functional.  I just have to remember that if I turn my head quickly, it's going to take the room a few seconds to catch up, and when it does it's going to look like a scene directed by Ridley Scott.

Got the last coats of polyurethane on the new cabinets, and got the wall cabinets hung.  A little background: the North wall of the kitchen was done with new Merillat cabinets in 1995, in the same week that Michelle had surgery on her sinuses.  She got home from the hospital on Monday morning at 10:15 and began taking painkillers; at 10:45, the truck from Payless Cashways dumped ten new cabinets in my driveway; Friday morning, she arose from her stupor to find the old, crappy pine built-in cabinets replaced with new oak, the walls papered and floor tiled.

Thus it remained for ten damn years.

As part of the ongoing remodeling we started when we took ownership of the place in April 2004, I've started on the south kitchen wall, which L's into the west wall of the dining room.  It's always been an awkward space, but, dash it all, we just decided to tie the two rooms together and wrap cabinets all the way around.  Since we're not rich, we bought unfinished cabinets - hence the polyurethane, above - and stained them to match.  A year's worth of UV radiation ought to even the tone and bring them in to match the existing cabinets very closely.

Four weekends ago, I took our portable dishwasher apart and mounted it under the countertop at the end of the sink, taking the two cabinets it displaced down to the laundry room.

Two weekends we installed the pantry and what will eventually be the coffee bar. 

This weekend my father-in-law helped me hang the wall cabinets in the dining room.  It's one of those projects that just has to get done...it's in the middle of the house, after all, and everything - tools, paint, cabinets awaiting installation - is in the way. 

Damn, it's a good feeling making progress on a project this big, especially when every step along the way brings one visibly closer to the end of the journey.  I'll be ready to not be doing any projects for a while - even though my shop is greatly in need of work and I won't get my wish, but still...nice feeling of accomplishment.

(no subject)

It was, mostly, a good weekend.  The stuffy head that Friday was circling like a buzzard over a dying opossum finally decided I was dead enough and swooped in.  Being inside my head is like riding a merry-go-round where the pivot is just off-center, but at least I'm still functional.  I just have to remember that if I turn my head quickly, it's going to take the room a few seconds to catch up, and when it does it's going to look like a scene directed by Ridley Scott.

Got the last coats of polyurethane on the new cabinets, and got the wall cabinets hung.  A little background: the North wall of the kitchen was done with new Merillat cabinets in 1995, in the same week that Michelle had surgery on her sinuses.  She got home from the hospital on Monday morning at 10:15 and began taking painkillers; at 10:45, the truck from Payless Cashways dumped ten new cabinets in my driveway; Friday morning, she arose from her stupor to find the old, crappy pine built-in cabinets replaced with new oak, the walls papered and floor tiled.

Thus it remained for ten damn years.

As part of the ongoing remodeling we started when we took ownership of the place in April 2004, I've started on the south kitchen wall, which L's into the west wall of the dining room.  It's always been an awkward space, but, dash it all, we just decided to tie the two rooms together and wrap cabinets all the way around.  Since we're not rich, we bought unfinished cabinets - hence the polyurethane, above - and stained them to match.  A year's worth of UV radiation ought to even the tone and bring them in to match the existing cabinets very closely.

Four weekends ago, I took our portable dishwasher apart and mounted it under the countertop at the end of the sink, taking the two cabinets it displaced down to the laundry room.

Two weekends we installed the pantry and what will eventually be the coffee bar. 

This weekend my father-in-law helped me hang the wall cabinets in the dining room.  It's one of those projects that just has to get done...it's in the middle of the house, after all, and everything - tools, paint, cabinets awaiting installation - is in the way. 

Damn, it's a good feeling making progress on a project this big, especially when every step along the way brings one visibly closer to the end of the journey.  I'll be ready to not be doing any projects for a while - even though my shop is greatly in need of work and I won't get my wish, but still...nice feeling of accomplishment.