Kitchen taped

Things are starting to come together at the house. Let’s see if I can touch on all the things that have happened in the last ten days. First, we got the bedrooms and kitchen taped off and I took my second try at the paint sprayer. I’m going to say that I like the results better with the pressure higher. A good primer/sealer and high pressure and you can do one coat of paint. The trick is to not put on too much paint (it starts to run) and follow along right away with a brush to touch up any spots that need it. It’s not easy when the goggles continually fog up and the paint coats the outside, but frequent breaks to improve visibility help a lot. The paint we bought stinks like ammonia, which made it hard to go for long stretches, but I got through it. Unfortunately it went through more paint than expected and we had to run out and get more.

Kitchen painted

After we got the painting done we brought in the cabinets. We got the cabinets second-hand, so they aren’t exactly designed to fit, but we came up with a combination that works pretty well and used most of them. We got a used dishwasher from some friends and got that installed next to the base cabinet for the sink. I got the plumbing mapped out and installed after only six trips to the hardware store. The girl at the return desk at The Home Depot suggested (on our second visit) that maybe I should hire someone. Ha!

Cabinet and dishwasher

Leveling the cabinets was interesting. The floor is not very flat and it took several shims to get everything straight-ish enough to get the counter top installed.  Once the sink was installed, the faucet was working, and the counter was screwed down, that’s when I decided to replace the faucet with the single handle model from the other sink. Of course, it turned out that one leaked and the hex bolt to remove the handle and fix the leak was stripped. So we wound up buying a new, cheapo kitchen faucet (did I mention the six trips to the store).

Sink installed, cupboards going in

We of course didn’t install the upper cabinets first, because it would have been the right way to do it. Sarah said it was fine to put them up high, but when she saw what we meant by “high” she said they needed to be lower. We got all the upper cupboards in and the next step is the range hood and the stove.

Cupboards installed

There’s another section of cabinets over by the refrigerator. We carefully measured to make sure the back door would open and still let us fit as many cabinets in as possible. It’s really starting to feel like a kitchen! I still need to attach the counter top to the other cabinets, but everything else is looking pretty good. Sorry the pictures are a bit fuzzy, the phone isn’t doing a great job. We took photos with the camera too, but they still need to be uploaded.

More cabinets

We’re probably going to put another tall cupboard above the refrigerator, just to maximize the storage space. It might look a bit strange because it’s one of the tall ones, and getting to the top will require a step ladder. Oh well. It’s getting there!

On other fronts, I’ve been working on electrical rewiring and installing ceiling fans, and Sarah installed carpeting in the bedroom and office. We’ll have posts for those items shortly. The big news is that we’re planning on moving in this weekend! It will be two months to the day from when we closed, and it’s time. We’re both tired from working every day on the house and driving back and forth from the condo is getting old. We started bring over some boxes and stashing them in the front room. Sarah’s going to clear out the living room so we can install quarter-round on the trim, and then make way for furniture.