Weekend = Too Fast

I took a slightly longer lunch Friday because I knew I wouldn't have time over the weekend and I needed to do something about my giant bowl of tomatoes before they went to waste. The bowl just keeps filling, by the way..

I’ve been thinking about this technique I saw a while back – you take the innards out of the tomatoes and slow roast the..hulls, I guess you’d call them, until the flavor is really concentrated. I salted and peppered to add flavor and sprinkled with sugar to take the acidity out of the tomatoes. I also rough chopped a few cloves of garlic and threw that on the pile. Roast on a sheet pan with a wire rack for as long as you like..you'll smell garlic and tomato all over the house.

A couple black cherry tomatoes, yellow, beefeater, Roma, and others. Not a job you do in your dress pants.
http://beyondthebluegate.blogspot.com/

I didn’t roast mine for as long as I would have liked..again, because I was doing this on my lunch break..but I think the end result was really great, nonetheless. The tomatoes still had enough moisture in them that they created a sauce-like consistency when run through the food processor, but weren’t as ‘bright’ tasting as they would have been right off the vine. The garlic added a lot of flavor, and the sugar helped mellow everything out. Because I had so many different varieties of tomatoes, it’s a really deeply flavored sauce. Once I’ve got some pasta, I’ll add some herbs or wine (or nothing at all) and enjoy truly homemade pasta sauce!

Saturday morning, I got out of bed ready to rumble! Before breakfast, I decided to go outside and start salvaging the bricks from the two front steps that I’m having redone. Once I started chipping away at the brickwork, I realized just how bad the condition of the steps really was. The brick was actually the best part of the step..they really didn’t want to let go, save for a few.

This was taken shortly before I bought the house..and the cracks had only gotten wider.

A couple of the bricks had been falling out anyway, and a few came with a little help.

10 minutes later..

The rest of the bricks were STUCK and wouldn't budge..but the whole step would. As I see it, the steps were poured on a short, shallow limestone foundation, so there was a lot of heaving with every freeze/thaw cycle. This explains the cracks and out-of-level appearance.

About an hour later, my parents came by and we made quite a bit of headway on the baseboard project, finishing up most all of the kitchen and laundry areas. All that is left to do is the bathroom, my bedroom, and a small closet!

Laundry all trimmed out and painted!

Dad worked on the toe kick part of the kitchen cabinets – very snazzy (and very FINISHED looking!)

From the laundry: notice the area under the cabinets? Dad finished that up Saturday. Our friend Aimee came and fixed my kitchen outlets, too..everything's coming together!

Mom and I wandered around caulking and touch-up painting. Everything looks so much better once it’s all been ‘tightened’ up a bit J

Saturday was my time away from my projects. I went to Des Moines to spend time with friends and ended up staying through to Sunday night. A couple really cool stops along the way:

·         http://zombieburgerdm.com/ - been here several times. The food is awesome!

·         http://www.continental-lounge.com/ - super classy/sexy bar. Had a sidecar and listened to jazz with a lady friend. Instantly felt like Don Draper.

The "Planet Terror" at Zombie Burger: Cheddar cheese, bacon, BBQ sauce, caramelized onions.
I had the "Dead Moines", not pictured: ham, prosciutto, gouda, and truffle mayo. Gets better every time I go!

Yeah..this basically sums up my Saturday..

Kitchen Update

It has been a looong time since I last posted, and we’ve gotten quite a bit done!

OK, so not “quite a bit” in the huge, noticeable sense, but quite a bit has been checked off my mental stress list. We’ve made cabinet doors and drawers (for those of you who haven’t done it before…good), poured the concrete countertops (MUCH easier than anticipated), and bought a bunch of stuff that will help tie up loose ends around the house.

Upper cabinet with a door (not yet attached..or painted)

Drawers. That's all I have to say about that.

Cabinet doors and drawers have been the bane of my existence lately. I have to give my dad credit as he’s done 99% of the work on them, and for good reason: I made a set of three drawers one night after work thinking I’d surprise him by saving everyone time and effort – I’d just have the drawers done and ready to install.. No big deal.

Wrong.

Not only wrong, but WAY wrong. I’m not totally sure what I was doing: maybe I was asleep at the table saw; maybe I had been drinking heavily and forgotten about it; maybe I was abducted and just blacked out the entire experience while some ass-bag built my drawers..but those drawers came out terribly.

Back to the drawing board – with dad at the table saw – and the drawers came out great. From my newfound experience: the drawers roll easier when they are square/the same size/well constructed/not made by me.

The beginning of the vent hood that goes over the stovetop.

Wicked cool.

Concrete countertops, on the other hand, are so cool! And much easier than I had them made out to be in my mind. As I’ve said before, my boss – the one who helped me out with the tile – had made a large vanity top before. He bought the book, had most all of the supplies, and had ‘been there-done that’ and could give me a heads-up about what to look for and how to insure success.

The first step is making a template. I bought a roll of lath at the hardware store, though you could use cardboard strips, old soda boxes, strips of old paneling you have no use for… yada, yada. Using my lath, I glued and stapled around the edges of the tops of the cabinets leaving roughly a ¾” overhang over the front of the cabinet. You use the lath not only to get the most accurate rough shape, but to really tailor the countertop to the curves and little imperfections in the walls – really important in any house, but especially one that’s 100+ years old.  

The next major step is building the form. I used ¾” thick melamine for the base, and I was able to build all my forms on that one sheet. The benefit of limited counter space.

From there, I used leftover half inch thick melamine strips to form the “walls” of the forms which are built around your templates. Make sure to flip your template upside down onto the thick melamine base – the bottom of the form will actually be the top of your countertop. (Because I had initially planned to build the forms individually, I made the side strips taller than they should have been in order to screed. I could have gone back and cut them all again, but it wasn’t a huge deal either way.)

Forms built with pencil rod all cut, tied, and ready to go.

Once everything has been screwed into place, run a bead of silicone caulk around all the corners of the form. This will keep water and concrete from seeping out the edges of the forms, and will save you some grinding time down the road as it eases all the edges for you!
The book I read (http://www.amazon.com/Concrete-Countertops-Design-Finishes-Kitchen/dp/1561584843) advocates mixing your concrete from scratch – sand, Portland cement, aggregate, enhancers, additives, etc. A lot of the fancier additives wouldn’t have been available locally, and I read QuickCrete works just as well. Done.

You can add all kinds of things to the mix: river rock, colored glass, decorative metal, seashells..anything really. I also liked the idea of building a drain board right into the counter, but decided against it for my first project and because I’ve really got to maximize the functionality of the space.

Anyway, mix up your QuickCrete – don’t go overboard on the water as it weakens the structure and contributes to some funky, hazy coloring on the surface. You can grind it/buff it out later, but why sign yourself up for more work?

Because my tops are only 1 ½” thick, I used a ¼” pencil rod for added structure – if you go thicker with your tops, you can use rebar, but that would have contributed a good amount of weight. A lot of people will have issues with rebar showing through or “shadowing” the surface of the countertop as well, so best to avoid it if you can.. unless you don’t mind that look.

Smooth everything out and vibrate the mix as best you can. An orbital sander (without the sandpaper) rubbed up against the sides worked well. I also used the sander to vibrate a screwdriver which I stuck down into the concrete. You won’t vibrate the mix too much, so get after it while you can. 

Poured. Vibrated. Smooth. Step away from the concrete.

The next day. Already probably hard enough to walk on...dont do it.

Screed everything even and let it setup. You can pop the molds off after 24 hours, or you can leave it molded for the 10 days it takes to cure – there’s really not a wrong way to do it. Keep in mind, it’s easier to grind (if you have a really rough spot) while the concrete isn’t totally dry.

Close-up of my little air bubbles. I filled mine with grout and will grind off the excess tonight.

When you’ve worked up the courage, flip these babies over and check ‘em out. I was really happy with how smooth they turned out! Mine have lots of little holes throughout the surface – the book says it could be due to improper water content or not enough vibration, but that’s what slurry is for! A little leftover QuickCrete (rocks sifted out), some Portland cement, or even – in my case – premixed gray grout will fill the holes and you can grind off the excess later. 

Holes filled. I scraped off the heavy stuff and will grind, buff, and seal the tops from here.

We’ll be grinding tonight. Use a diamond grinding pad (60 grit for grinding, 200, 400, 800, and 1500 grit in sequence for smoothing and polishing. 3M makes good ones.) and some water to get the job done properly. Squeegee regularly to see what you’re doing and to keep the slabs clean. After they have dried, a couple coats of a penetrating, water-based (and food-safe) sealer, a buff coat with some beeswax, and we’ll be good to go! Custom solid-surface countertops for…$80? Not a bad deal J

Walls closing in...

Busy weekend!

So busy, in fact, we were able to have all the cabinets hung and set by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around... even after taking Saturday off. Thanks to the adjustable cabinet legs my parents picked up at IKEA on their Texas trip, installation was pretty easy! All you’ve got to do is set the box in place and check it for level and plumb every which way. Check that each face is in line with the adjacent cabinet’s face, lock it in place with a couple screws and you’ve got it made.

I'm road-testing an island. I like the added prep space, but I wonder if it's too big?

All set! Making counter tops, cabinet doors, and drawers over the next few days.

It’s been so long since there have been cabinets in this kitchen – it’s starting to look so small comparatively! That said, it will be a good day when I don’t have to look at all of my groceries out in the open all the time J

Up, up, and away!

Quick picture update from our progress last night: more upper cabinets!!

An addition to the large cabinet seen in the post yesterday. It should look good with a pair of doors, don't you think? All the cabinets will get another coat of paint before I'll be totally happy with them, but for now I think they look just fine! :)

All of them, actually. All that’s left now is the hood over the range, but that’s a project for another day. 

These are the upper cabinets on either side of the range hood that doesn't yet exist. The cabinet on the left has shelves that are set back a few inches to accomodate a spice rack that hangs on the inside of the door.  

As you can see, I really don’t have that many cabinets, but we had to find the wiring we left wound up in the wall for the under cabinet lighting. So between that and the fact the neither my dad nor myself had hung cabinets, I think we made pretty good progress in an hour and a half J

I didn't get a picture of the cabinet hanging in the other corner over the hypothetical dishwasher, but once you've seen one, you've seen them all. The backsplash area behind the stove will be covered with a piece of stainless steel, and I'll wrap the stove-sides of the upper cabinets with it, too. Should be pretty snazzy!

This weekend is a busy one – I’ll be volunteering Saturday morning for a large, community-wide service project, and there’s a graduation party for a family friend that night..so my guess is there won’t be a lot of base cabinet setting happening that day. Tonight and Sunday might be productive, though…I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see!

CABINETS!

So, you’ve seen pictures of the cabinets during assembly out in the garage… how about one up on the wall?

That's a bad mamma jamma-sized cabinet.

Yep, last night was a pretty big night in my kitchen. No food was made, but I learned how to hang a cabinet and prep for the under-cabinet lighting I bought at IKEA a while back. More on lighting to come.

I’ll admit, I haven’t been terrific about taking pictures of the cabinets throughout the process. I blame this on the fact that their construction goes pretty quickly and I don’t have many opportunities to take pictures. That said, I will have plenty of updates as we hang more of the upper cabinets tonight.

I'm keeping the same basic layout (the new sink will be centered on the windows, though). Notice the older upper cabinets didn't reach all the way to the ceiling; I hope the taller uppers will look more in keeping with the age of the house, while providing more storage.



Pre-hanging. You can kind of see the paneling on the exposed side of the cabinet - this is something I've seen in magazines for the last couple years. It looks older, but also a little more "custom." Hopefully it will look like someone built these by hand...in a GOOD way!

 On my lunch break, I went out looking for countertop-making supplies. My boss – the same guy that tought me how to lay tile – has made concrete countertops before, and I’ve wanted to learn for quite a while. In the next few days/weeks, I hope to be building forms and working through that process, so stick around and learn with us!

Kitchen Cabinets

We’ve been working on a pretty big project for the last few weeks. Actually, we’ve been actively working on it for the last week and a half or so.  The rest has been mostly mental work..strategy and such. We made big progress this weekend, though!

The big project I’m referring to is cabinetry. Kitchen cabinetry. We’ve been pretty methodical about it, and we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel! In all honesty, I don’t think it’s taken a terribly long time given the number of steps it takes to convert a sheet of material into the container I trust to hold my food, but Dad has been worrying about this for a while. This project is kind of his baby and he doesn’t want to mess it up.

Understandably so.

In the past, he worked with a custom cabinet maker on the side, so he’s got an idea of how it should work. That said, when he worked for this guy, Dad didn’t draw up the plans or install the cabinets once they were finished. So..he’s worried.

I’m not. We’ll be fine. We’re taking our time for a reason. The old ‘measure twice, cut once’ thing? We’re doing that, and usually having a conversation about each cut before, during, and after making it. If the cabinets are messed up, it’s our fault..not his. I suppose another good thing about building your own cabinets is that if they don’t fit you can make one that does. But what a pain that would be..

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our organized chaos in the garage. The cabinets in these pictures are the base units – since these shots were taken, those have all been primed and painted with a sprayer and stored in the enclosed porch until we’re ready for them. In the meantime, we’ve cut, primed and painted the pieces for the upper cabinets and should start assembling those in the next few days, or as his work schedule allows.

As I said, organized chaos.

Base cabinet boxes assembled, working on their face frames.

Cabinet with face frame. This will have a swing door..I think this size cabinet goes on either side of the oven.

Sanding the face frame for the cabinets with drawers. Very cool!

We’ll hang the uppers first, and then set the base cabinets – they’re easier to install that way. Once everything is set, we can measure for cabinet doors and counter tops, which I look forward to learning how to make out of concrete J

Wish us luck!

Hodge-podge

This is one of those ‘catch-all’ blogs I do that pertain to everything and nothing all at once.

The first part of that is me being a creeper and taking random pictures of random people’s property J I went on a little farm visit late last week for work – I had to take pictures of the houses and outbuildings on the property to satisfy my underwriters, and ended up deciding I might like to be a farmer if I could be a farmer on this particular farm.

Maybe I'm just too big a city-boy, but I don't know many of you who have cool little 100-year-old water towers in your yard. Or playhouses.. these are cool grandparents :)

This spring has really gotten to me for some reason. It’s unseasonably warm, everything is in bloom, the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing just enough to mess your hair and it’s amazing. Something about this old farm – and Iowa in general – just struck me as being the coolest place in the world at that particular moment. It has been in operation by the same family for over a hundred years and it has just the right amount of character that comes from 50 layers of paint and thousands of feet shuffling across the front porch. Luckily, the owner was happy to show it off J

I didn't know what this bush was? Fire engine red blooms. Like I said, this spring is getting to me.

Back on my homestead..

The baseboard project has gone really well! I have designated myself as the outside corner master. Inside corners..not so much, but we’ve decided “That’s why God made wood putty.” When it’s all painted and sanded, it looks really great..just like it’s been there forever J Pictures to come!

After a long Saturday of crawling around on the floor with the baseboard project, I decided to walk up the block to the brewery to take in the music. I hadn’t shown you the brewery yet, so I snapped a picture. Good beer, good music, no manual labor. It was a great night!

The Brewery in all its live music glory.

Dad and I worked most of the morning yesterday leveling out the backyard and making the back of the neighboring apartment building’s garage look less like a bomb had gone off near it. The latter of which turned into kind of a neighborhood effort: we raked the brush and pulled some old wood out away from the building, the neighbors came by to help haul stuff away, and a friend brought by some hosta splits from her garden. I watered them in last night and again this morning..we’ll see how they do!

My backyard was less a neighborhood effort, and more sweat on Dad and my part. Since my concrete man laid my driveway and the footings/slab for the garage, we’ve had these piles of dirt/gravel lying around. He offered to level everything out for us, but we borrowed our neighbors tiller and got after it. It looks much nicer than before, and it should be ready for homegrown produce whenever I am. …which could be a while, but it’s a nice thought.

Today, I’m back to work, but Dad has the day off and decided to build a prototype cabinet for the kitchen. We’ve got the materials and many of the tools..now if we could prove our measurements are correct we’ll be off and running!

It looks like a cabinet, right? Actually, shortly after I took this, Dad put its feet on and it looked much more convincing. We'll work on drawer slides soon and after a few more boxes come together we'll cut out a face frame..and it will be glorious.

More cabinets tonight, I imagine..and more pictures to follow!