pantry – Peacock Orchard

The fridge has been moved! Also, how to make your own rustic faucet and sink.

The day has finally arrived. The stars aligned and the fridge has been relocated. My biggest obstacle to removing the main wall has been eliminated. Gosh I’m nervous. I’m removing a main wall. Eeeks!

Enough of that. Let’s talk what happened this week. I soldered for the first time. Soldered a faucet. Then I made a sink and a counter and TA DA! Bathroom is now fully functional again!

A bit about soldering, it’s not that hard. It seems hard. I procrastinated on it. Then I did it and it was so easy I had no issues at all. This is a first try faucet.

Entirely hand made by moi! Allow me to show you how:

Whilst the kids were supposed to be sleeping I gathered my supplies. I cut the pipe to the necessary sizes, cleaned all of the fittings, donned gloves and began.

I put a small amount of flux on the inside of my fitting and the outside of the pipe and put them together.

Then, over a small flame, heat the fitting from the bottom. You’ll know the metal has reached the correct temperature when the solder melts within 2 seconds of touching the pipe.

You’ll see the solder get sucked into the crevice. I put on a bit much my first few solders but with time I began to figure out the perfect amount.

Thicker fittings take about a minute and a half to reach temperature. The regular copper fittings about a minute.

The pipe that you aren’t soldering, but are holding on to, gets HOT. So do be sure you are wearing thick gloves for this.

They really aren’t that sneaky. They think they are though.

You can polish up your finished faucet by simply smearing flux on, heating it and then wiping it off with a cloth.

Now, on to the sink I made. I bought a bucket at the farm store. A beautiful bucket. I arranged it just so, then marked the bottom as to where I needed to drill the hole.

Then I gathered what I needed to install the drain onto my new sink.

I bought a basic sink drain fitting, some plumbers putty and some plumbers caulk. Couldn’t be more basic. Put a ring of putty around the drain fitting, screw it on, caulk it and you’re done.

It’s GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! I have a burlap skirt that just needs a few staples to cover the front of the sink. It’s country perfect! Oh I should add we just shark bite’d it on to the old pex pipe. Super easy installation.

I was simply waiting for the bathroom sink so I could move the fridge. I attached the ice maker water tubing through the wall on to the bathroom sink. No leaks, fridge fits, it’s a dream come true!

Had time to stain the pantry shelves,

Fly a kite,

And admire the pantry shelves.

What’s next? Well other than the details, like doors on the pantry and finishing the plank wall that is going to be the last pantry wall, well this:

This hideous wall.

The entire thing. It’s all going to go. A giant island will take it’s place. A glorious, giant island. Oh the vision I have for it is so strong. I’ll be able to move around the kitchen better what with kids and dogs constantly observing and attempting to assist me. I’ll be more connected with the kids while I do daily tasks such as cooking and dishes. We’ll have a lovely counter top eat in section. I just know that this island is going to bring the family closer. So long as Husband can survive the destruction first.

Another Kitchen Remodel Update

If you haven’t been keeping up you can go to these posts to see what I’ve been up to:

I spent a large amount of my Saturday and Sunday completing some of the parts of the remodel I was most excited about. The new pantry was painted (though the shelves still aren’t stained as it’s been too cold to do so far). The best part is the over the fridge storage I built for all of my important kitchen bits.

I had most of my pans stuffed in a single cabinet next to the stove, my baking stone and cast iron skillet in the buffet in another room and the cutting boards stashed on top of my pot rack. It was a mess. I could hardly find anything and getting the stone and skillet were a hassle. No more! They are within reach of us tall people, in the kitchen and beautifully displayed. Of course, some of them aren’t exactly beautiful….that blue cutting board. Still, I am in LOVE!

Since I built, I was obviously able to customize the different heights and widths. It is spectacular! I even had room left over for my huge serving trays.

Allow me to back up though. The first thing I did, after taping, puttying and floating the new walls was add the 2×4 frame the new storage would sit on.

Then I painted, with help.

A very happy helper indeed!

Then I measured and cut the top shelf out.

And painted some more.

The pantry is 70% complete. I still have to make doors. We are also putting a wooden fronting on the side of the wall and the front of the 2×4’s. Also, I have to stain those shelves!

I love it already! Of course doors are needed as not all our food is that…photogenic.

Have to build a door for the top shelf storage as well. It’s quite hideous at the moment. Terribly functional though!

I also primed and texture the part of the new wall that faces in toward our formal living room. The walls are different sizes. The original interior walls of our house were made with 1 x 3’s. I used 2 x 4’s. Still, it works. I have the wall primed and ready for a decision on color. I’m hesitant as there is another wall in the formal living room that is going to be removed so I suppose I should just wait and paint the whole thing at once.

The fridge is almost ready to be moved. The water is the only hang up. I’m building a new sink and faucet for the 1/2 bath as shrinking the wall made the old sink too large. Once those are done and installed I’ll be able to turn the water on and thus have the fridge connected to water for the ice maker. May not be a big deal to some but I’m fairly certain my husband and children could not live without ice.

Kitchen Remodel Stage 2- Update

Before

I always have eager helpers.

I pre-cut the wood for the walls I needed to build before knocking out the final part of the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen.

The walls were built (the above picture is not of the finished walls, simply me laying them out. They are not that crooked once built.) and then:

It’s a family job. My niece and children got in on the wall smacking action.

Here is the new wall behind the old wall. Waiting to remove the old wall until wiring is done.

Boxes have been installed for re-wiring and…

Thanks to the most amazing father in the world, things were re-wired! It should be noted that I removed some residual drywall whilst he was wiring and so he got…..dusty.

The new walls were then put up. I know in this pic the wall isn’t knocked out yet. This is my testing to see if I built the walls right pic. I did. VICTORY!

So part of this is going to be our new pantry. Oh a new pantry, I’m so excited. You have no idea how crappy our current pantry is. It’s a weird trapezoidal shape and is so deep that you have no idea what is in the back corner. So I used 2×4’s to create the frame for the shelves. The shelves are 1 x 12’s.

I measured and cut out a notch for them to fit neatly around a 2×4 for complete coverage.

Repainting over the awful color I chose when I was so very young is quite a trial. 2 coats of primer and 1 coat of paint should do the trick.

Then it’s time to drywall. I made this handy 1 foot tool as my space was 3ft. Drywall is a standard 4 ft and thus I simply needed to cut off 1ft.

And the bathroom wall is up. So exciting! Needed to tape and use joint compound still. That was fairly easy though:

Bathroom wall

Kitchen wall view

Still not even close to done. I need to float the walls, then sand, then prime, then paint. Then I need to assemble my incredible over the fridge storage. I’ve already started on them but I’ll save it for it’s own post. Coming along though.

You can see where I fell off the ladder holding the gallon of primer. Only got a bit of the floor white with that. Fun times!

As a funny aside I got home with the drywall tape and the joint compound and then had to text my father on how to use it. I wasn’t sure how the tape was supposed to stick. He sent me text directions. Drywall sucks by the way. It’s dusty. It’s heavier than you’d think. It’s super fragile and the taping process just isn’t any fun. Worth it in the end, I know. I really need a break from all of this though. I’m beat.