remodel – Peacock Orchard

Butcher Block Island Construction

Our new island is a true thing of beauty. The kitchen is almost 100% done. All that is left is a new floor and putting base boards on all the cabinets. This is a big deal for me. I started this entire kitchen remodel so I could get a big, beautiful island the kids would be able to access better. Our old island was…gross.

Small and oddly angled it just wasn’t that functional. If I was rolling dough on it there was no way the kids could get up and help me out.

I used the IKEA Algot system and cut it up to make the perfect fruit and vegetable storage baskets in the island.

I was able to fit five large baskets perfectly into the island frame.

I find the baskets extremely useful!

I router-ed two of the 4×4 braces to fit the electrical wire inside the island frame. I also sneezed, can you tell?

Island framing has begun. Can you see the dirty outline of the old island? I was excited to add an additional outlet to this island.

A thing of beauty!

I decided I wanted the planked look on the island as well. There was a big debate about whether to stain or paint the island. I decided I wanted to paint.

The color was not what I intended but it works just fine.

I ordered 8′ maple boards. As the island is 8′ long I planned to glue cross pieces onto each side. It covers the rough edges and gives the counter top the over hang it needed.

I glued the maple planks together with Titebond III Ultimate. I also managed to glue some of the tarp in. I’m talented!

This is how I bypassed using a clamp to glue the edge pieces on.

Then the planing began. I planed for about a month.

Then it was time to sand. To help flatten the butcher block island I screwed it down before I began planing and sanding. As such I was not able to take it outside to sand. I got a little creative.

It worked. No one was more shocked than I. I barely had to clean dust off of the rest of the kitchen.

Then the sealing began. Well first you have to wash it, several times. Then I scrub with lemon and salt. Then clean again. Then oil, many times. Four regular coats of oil and one coat of oil that is mixed with beeswax.

Doesn’t the edge look great!

Now the kids, the dough, the machines and whatever else I want can fit on the island.

Country Kitchen Update- Almost done!

The kitchen remodel has been fairly slow. Removing walls, rewiring and plumbing and repairing walls has been extremely time consuming. Above is what this particular wall of cabinets looked like before I finally figured out what to do to finish the top cabinets with. There was a large amount of blank space on both sides of the top cabinets before.

Now there is a beautiful coffee and wine rack on either side of the old cabinets. I made them out of 1×12 boards and sweat. I think they look fabulous!

The wall color pops on the inside of each new cabinet extension.

We always need wine storage so this is a great way of getting it!

We did the same counter top on both sides but kept the wood planking to the back splash only on this side.The toe kick hasn’t been touched yet as we are going to redo the floor first.

The top of these cabinets was made into a shelf used to display…well I haven’t worked that all out yet. It looks half way decent now at least.

That beautiful sign makes the kitchen sparkle.

Now to redo the island. That is going to be the biggest task so far!

Country Kitchen Remodel Update

I’ve been remodeling the kitchen since October. It’s the project that never ends. Still, I’ve moved walls and plumbing. I’ve been helped with (and figured out) electrical. We’ve painted and hammered a ton. It’s been a seven months. Here is what’s been happening:

This is the wall of cabinets that shouldn’t exist, as I was determined to rip out that wall. Now it’s a wall of awful red cabinets that need stripped and re-painted. It’s a work in progress, as you can see.

This cabinet was at an angle on the now gone wall. I moved it, ripped out the drawer. Took off the door. Put a plank backing on it and now, it’s a perfect fit for my kitchen aid and finishes off this wall nicely!

This is the other side of the awful red cabinet wall. I had knocked a massive hole in it before realizing it couldn’t be removed. So it’s all patched up. Needs sanded, textured and painted still. Always something!

Finally stained the trash drawer. I like it much better like that.

I can finally consider the pantry completely finished after building these great wooden doors and planking the side wall of it. I love how it all turned out!

The entire house has been re-arranged. Pre- wall removal this was the kids playroom. It is now the dining room. It’s been painted and decorated and I’m in love with how it turned out!

I was extremely happy to find these peacock plates at home goods

Herbs are sprouting nicely in my chicken feeder herb garden.

The hanging scale is to die for. Functional as well. I’ve been weighing animal feed in it. I love the column I found at an antique store and the peppercorn plant is doing great in it’s greenhouse.

Other things happening are because of the big household rearrange. We moved all of the main spaces in the house around.

This space in the new playroom was begging to be a learning center. Now it is! I built that lovely table and benches and I couldn’t be more happy with how this space has turned out!

Now that our living room is near the fireplace the empty, ugly space had to have something done to it. This is two tails from our peacocks and it’s marvelous!

That’s it for now. Still to do is finishing the cabinets off, removing the current island, installing new flooring and building a new island. Worlds of changes to come!

How to deal with challenges when remodeling

Drink. Ha! Post over.

No, no, I partially kid.

It seems when removing walls you should expect the unexpected. Random wires. Random water lines. Etc. Etc. I prefer to hope for the best myself. The plan for the kitchen was to remove the wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house. We have these pillars there. The one on the opposite side of the house is load bearing. We assumed the matching pillar would be the same. Turns out the pillar is hollow. Aesthetic only.

The wall, however, load bearing. What a depressing discovery. I lost a lot of steam when I pried the dry wall off that obviously load bearing section of wall. We thought we may be able to move it into the pillar as planned but then I found another small section of load bearing wall on the other side of the pillar.

That wall is not coming down. Plans must be modified. There are cabinets on that wall already. Now we might as well leave them and expand them into an L. I really want a counter height sitting area so the kids can be with me while I’m doing kitchen stuff. I was also hugely looking forward to expanding the aisle between the cabinets and island. With the kids on stools and ladders helping, and dogs hanging out in the hopes of dropped food, there is no space to move around in our current kitchen. So, on top of the new L’d section of cabinets I’m going to remove our hideous current island and build a thinner wood island in it’s place. I now also have to patch up all the holes in the side of the wall I’d removed. That drywall would have been removed anyway, as electrical had to be changed, but I would have done smaller sections if I’d known I’d have to patch them back up.

I’ve lost so much steam over this discovery it’s been less exciting to continue. Still, the part of the wall that can be removed, is gone, and it’s glorious!

Before

After

Current plans are to strip and paint the remaining cabinets. Build a new island and remove old one. Tile the floor (laminate sucks!). Nap, possibly forever.

Here are a few pics of the wall removal, just for fun.

This part of the wall was never to be removed but I did have to remove the drywall so we could change the dinning room light switch from the wall that I removed to this. Thankfully the wire went over to this wall anyway so it was a simple fix, for my father. I claim to have done 0 of the electrical work here. My father is amazing!

A simple organizational upgrade

The item that kicked off our kitchen renovation was a simple coat rack. Simple but life changing. Our garage enters into our laundry room. We have a front door but it is literally never used, ever. Everyone comes in through the garage. We had no closet there. We had nothing in the area that would work as one either. Coats were taken off and thrown onto the dining table. I HATED it. So I ripped down a wall, planked a lot, started going crazy and made coat and shoe storage. Life changing! It’s not very nice looking though. We have a rather large variety of stuff to keep there. Farm coats, pants, gloves, boots and going out in public coats and shoes. It was getting stuffed. I was getting annoyed again. Luckily we have a wall in the laundry room that is used for nothing. The bathroom door opens onto it so you can’t store anything there without blocking the door. Anything, that is, but coats.

Since I’m TERRIBLE at discovering where studs are I simply mimicked the style of our current coat rack and cut two 2×4’s to length, stained them and screwed them up, a lot. Then the same style hooks were added with the exception of a coat rack we already had that had been falling off the wall for years and holding our ironing board. That got screwed onto the 2×4’s and is still holding our ironing board.

Took no time at all if you don’t count stain drying time. Stud 2×4’s are cheap and the hooks I’d bought were around $3. So I’d say this was one of those under $10 projects.

Ah I shouldn’t say that as I bought a bucket to hold our hats and mittens, which were out of control with everything else. That was $12.99,

Anyway, few pics. Nothing big. Well it’s pretty big for me. I like having the extra storage space. For 4 people we seem to have the clutter of 20.

Oh and in case you are wondering, kitchen is a bit different now. The living room too. That’s what happens when you whack a hole in the wall. I like whacking holes in the walls! Kids do too!!

3 people can knock a pretty darn big hole in the wall pretty quickly.

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.