Entrance Hallway Floor

Welcome to our entrance hallway; it was a lot darker than in looks in this photo. Obviously the slate black tile had to go, apart from the color, it was out-of-wack with the hardwood we have throughout the rest of the entry level, and hasn't been fashionable since the early 80s at best. 

We were pretty sure the tile had been installed over hardwood, because there was a height difference, and the hardwood continued into the hallway closet. This proved to be the case, and after fifteen minutes with a hammer and the hardened steel chisel I made at Riddlesdown High we had all the hardwood exposed. So far so good.

Unfortunately, we discovered that the hardwood was moisture-damaged at the perimeter of the tile-covered section. I think this is the result of years of mopping the hardwood -  small amounts of water leach under the tile, and can't evaporate. After doing a quick damage assessment, it became clear we would have to replace about a third of the hardwood in the hallway. This was much better that I had anticipated, but also means more refinishing work.

First though, we had to remove the residual tile adhesive. Most of it came off with the tile or was loose; the rest of it was softened by applying a towel that had been soaked in dilute acetic acid (vinegar) and scraped off wit' tut palette knife...except the boards which will be replaced which we din't b'ther wit. After that was done, I started pulling up the damaged boards. The first thing I found was a missing section of the sub floor, which I had to fix before I could go any further.

Onto the hardwood installation. I started by custom fitting the first two pieces to make a perfect 90 degree angle. This took some back and forth with the plane, but means the new boards will be parallel to the rest of the old ones, and to the boards in the kitchen, and perpendicular to those in the hallway......which they were not before, although they were close.

Laying down the rest of the boards was straightforward.

I installed a random assortment of 4, 6 and 8 inch boards to replicate the originals, however because I modified the the transition at the kitchen doorway, I had to custom-make the last board to fit into a 5.5 inch gap.

Came out pretty nice. Marty would have been happy with that:

The damaged section at the front of the hallway was repaired in the same way, and then I covered all the new boards with paper in preparation for heavy foot traffic.

A few weeks later it was time to road test my brand new belt sander (Makita 9903, if you're interested). There was a height difference between the hardwood in the living room and the section which had been tiled over - I'm guessing the living room has been refinished at some point in the past - so that's where I started. 

I flattened out the hump, with a 40 grit belt, and then went over all the original hardwood with 80 grit until it looked identical to the replaced sections. The entire hallway then had a good going over with the random orbital sander at first 80 grit, then 120. It looked great when it was done:

We got every bit of dust we could off the floor, including vacuuming in all the groves, and then we applied a very light coat of diluted polyurethane varnish, and sanded to 240 grit with the orbital.

Two further coats of polyurethane and it was all done:

The floor in the kitchen was repaired and the adjacent two boards were re-finished in exactly the same way, although not at the same time! (see this post for further details)

Kitchen Remodel Part Three

The kitchen has been a bit of a slog, mainly because we've had several periods of inactivity while we wait for the next bit to be accomplished by someone else. The wall tile was another example. The tile we chose was handmade, and as a result the tiles are somewhat irregular and a good few are slightly bowed. I really didn't fancy faffing 'round wit tut install myself, so we had a pro bring in his tackle and bust the do-ins out of it.

Finally onto the cabinets!!  Started out by taking off all the doors and drawer fronts and took them down to the workshop for processing. Then we emptied out all the cabinets and gave everything a really good cleaning with degreaser, inside and out, and ripped off the old 70's style baseboard

The hardwood floor in front of the sink and dishwasher was water-damaged, and the board next to it was probably the most beaten up in the whole house, so I pulled them up and took the time to install some new oak flooring. The kick panel was in poor shape so I replaced that too. I'll be coming back to finishing the floor later on.

Once everything was nice and clean I installed the new baseboard. We'll be putting the same baseboard in the dining room and office as well....eventually.

Time for some primer! One coat of primer was all it took to totally transform the look of the kitchen. The key to getting a professional finish, is that you only put on a very thin layer of paint - ultimately this meant that we had to paint two coats of primer, but the overall effect was worth it.

Onto the doors: There were 38 in all, including shelves from the glass-fronted cabinet, and every one had to be thoroughly degreased and sanded to 120 grit.

Followed by two coats of primer, applied with a combination of brushes and a roller...

Then it was back upstairs to paint the top coat - Templeton Gray by Benjamin Moore, if you're wondering.

And then back downstairs to do the same with the 38 door panels. Twice.

The following weekend the doors were re-hung and adjusted. I managed to keep the dicking around with hinge adjustment to a minimum by making sure all the hinges went back on the same doors, and we replaced all the knobs and pulls as part of our crusade to rid the house of fake brass. Here's how it all shook down:

PS...if you're wondering how we did the floor, then watch this space...

Prize Pumpkins

It's been a few months since we built a couple of raised beds at the front of our yard. Our approach to growing vegetables this year has been a case of plant a bunch of stuff and see what happens. We suffered a little bit from predators early doors, but by the end of June, there was plenty going on in both beds:

By the middle of July, we really were in business

The first harvest was radishes and leeks (we didn't eat them together...)

Fast forward to the end of August, and the pumpkin crop was approaching harvest. Clearly we planted them too early....

I counted seven (7) really big pumpkins, although only two of them were actually growing inside the raised bed.

If you look carefully you can see a water melon on the left of the pumpkin

We didn't get around to thinning out the plants once they had got going, so most of the onions and leeks grew in clumps.

Labor Day harvest, September 2, 2019: One pumpkin, one water melon, one bell pepper, and one white onion (no partridge or pear tree).

  

Kitchen Remodel Part Two

Let's get back at it! The kitchen remodel has moved on a lot in the last few months. After the tile was gone, and the walls repaired, it was time to prep for the new countertops. Ripping out the old "some-kind-of-80s-plastic" counters was easy because they were not mounted to the cabinets. Once they were gone, I installed a ¾ inch plywood base for the new granite counters

We hired professionals to manufacture and install the countertops. We had them install the new single-bowl under-mount sink at the same time. I did the plumbing myself.

After the countertops were installed it became apparent that the drywall at the dining room side was badly bowed.....so we cut it out, installed some shims against the studs, and fitted another piece of snazzy purple drywall.

I had to put some blocking behind the wall above the stove so that there is somewhere solid to mount the extractor hood.

This one is later after I patched the dry wall and trial installed the hood - basically it is suspended from two heavy gauge screws. I had to figure out the precise location for the screws before the new wall tile goes up.

Onto the lighting: The original ceiling-mounted cabinet that we removed right at the start of the project had an under-mounted light, which we wanted to replace with pendants. The first step was installing the mounting boxes at the ceiling and running the cables.

Figuring out the wiring at the wall switches was a bit more complex because I decided to replace the antiquated wiring at the dining room light at the same time.

Then it was time to do the usual rinse-and-repeat of skimming the new drywall followed by applying texture.

The new lighting fixtures above the counter and in the dining room were installed a week or so later.

To be continued...