Someone's in the Kitchen...

Isaac has been making himself useful by taking up the last of the linoleum off the kitchen floor this week. (He's also been sweeping up after himself--my floors haven't been this clean since last August when we started tearing it up!)

Troy's been cutting up the waste wood products and those have been getting bagged and hauled out to the curb.

What? Does this mean we're ready for some subfloor?? Dare I dream?

Things are starting to clear out and the room is looking spacious again. Sometimes I regret how much more "full" it's going to feel with counters, an island and table and chairs. Then I realize how crazy that is.

What's in the Garden?

You may recall that Troy cut back in the garden this year. His corn was doing very well, but we got some mighty severe winds yesterday:

We were spared the extended power outage that a lot of others are dealing with, but a lot of the corn looks like elephants when through it. Ok, not elephants, but cows at least.

We have some fruit that has made it this far. The peach trees dropped a lot of fruit and the squirrels took almost all of the apples. The ones that are left are this....

...big.

I also found a red dragonfly in the garden. I'm not sure I've seen one before.

Possibly an Autumn Meadowhawk?

I also found lots of these beetles:

I don't know what they are, These Detroit Japanese beetles are doing lots and lots of damage to the grape vines and apple trees. Not good.

Apparently they eat anything and everything in the garden and as an added bonus the larvae kill/damage your lawn. If curious, read this article for a program to reduce local populations.

Troy assures me that they also are not resistant to squashing.

Getting to the Bottom of It

Troy wrote about tearing out the floor already, but I'll share a few more details.

Looking into the southeast corner before we started:

And after we were done:

(We didn't quite get the last layer of linoleum up in that corner. The lovely brown colour was painted on top of the original floral pattern.)

And looking into the north east corner:

We got this area down to the plank floor. From here we just build up.

There was one piece of flooring that didn't quite get pulled up (yet) in the corner.

It's amazing how high that step feels. (It's probably about 1.5".) We all laughed on Wednesday that the ceiling got quite a bit higher. There were a lot of layers on that floor, including a section of paneling. Yes, paneling on the floor. The house really needs a rescuing from its previous renovations.

Troy and David also found a wide gap between the kitchen and hallway to the dining room:

It's almost 4" wide, goes straight down to the basement. It was covered with a piece of trim. You know, why make something solid when trim will put it out of sight? Yup, this renovation project is a rescue mission.

All the layers of linoleum were somewhat interesting. Obviously there was an aqua and white check pattern at some point:

It was painted with at least two different colours.

The back of one of the layers had this basket weave pattern:

Was there ever a time when they sold two-sided linoleum? Stores could stock half as much inventory with that system.

It's a big pain in the butt and a lot of time and work, but it does feel good to rip out all this crap and start "fresh" and right. (Yes, Troy feels very strongly about how you do and do not fix/remodel a house. It is a moral issue as far as he is concerned.)

We will be busy for the next while bagging the trash (thankfully today is trash day) and cutting stuff up into manageable pieces. And ripping up that last bit of diarrhea brown painted linoleum. Why would anyone ever?

Why?

We triumph over the kitchen floor.

I have been slowly chipping away at the kitchen.  A lot of old crap had to be removed before the new not-crap could be installed.  But the old flooring had just about defeated me.  Depending on where you looked, it had 6-8 layers of vinyl and plywood and waferboard, and other assorted crap. The various colors and designs ranged from lurid to emetic.  Of course, there were multiple sets of fasteners driven through all those many layers.  We counted them.  There were a jillion and six.

That's where I got stumped and discouraged on my own.  Even with my biggest pry bar, it would literally tear a slot in the plywood sandwich rather than come loose from the floor.  I just couldn't contemplate individually pulling a jillion and six nails and staples.

Flying in to the rescue came....DAVID AND WENDY!  After feasting on some amazing Kulesia Burgers, we set to work.

With two or three of us prying simultaneously, we got it to come up in big 4' x 4' sheets, the bottom of which looked like a porcupine.  Here's Wendy pounding 8,941 of those nails and staples flat so they could be further cut up and disposed of:

  We christened the new game, WHACK-A-NAIL.

It will take a few days to hack up and dispose of all the resultant debris, but there's nothing specially difficult about that part.  I feel like the project can carry on at its regular almost brisk pace now.  Ok, steady.  Ok, slow.  Slow but steady.

So, once again, intentional Christian community solves intractable depressing problem.

You should try it if you haven't.

Finest regards,

troy

It's Midnight; Let's Talk Stoves

I've been shopping for a stove, a range, a cooking appliance. We'd like to know what we're getting, and probably even order it before we finalize the cabinets. (Plus we may even hook it up and cook with it.)

I got stuck on the idea of a 36" hoping for more cooking space, especially when I have two big pots going for canning. I found two models that seemed to be available in my price range:

1. From Premier

The SLK249W model has five burners and that little side storage for the griddle plate. It didn't have great reviews, but most users concluded that you got your money's worth. Considering this is in the range that we want to pay for a stove, can we ask for anything more?

2. From Summit

It's the WLM4307 model, their basic 36". They have a similar model but with clock, timer, window and interior light for about $150 more. We don't want the clock or timer, are neutral on the window and would like the interior light. But spending $150 for a light doesn't seem worth it to me. I think it has an "old timey" look to it, however, that may fit the house.

The oven is a lot smaller than the first model I showed, only about 2.5 cuft. As long as it's big enough to cook a turkey, I think I'm good with that. I don't cook that much and I certainly don't make dinners for 20+ people, ever.

I couldn't find any reviews on the Summit ranges and that kind of worries me. If you know anything about them (or the Premier), please do tell!

Then Troy suggested looking at some Viking ranges because a friend likes them. First off, you can't find the price online so I know it is out of my league. But I did a little drooling. They also are available in about 20 colours (another indicator that I can't afford them). Despite having a beautiful red and striking orange, I decided on the cobalt blue. I think it would be stunning! This is the 36" model, VGCC5364QCBLP:

with 4 burners and center grill. And this is the 30" model, DCCG13014BCBLP:

with four buners under a continuous grill.

I went ahead and requested a quote, but I'll be surprised if they aren't double what we want to spend. Oh well. White is good.


ETA: I just got an email with an estimated quote. $7,950 for the 36" Viking and $4,400 for the 30". So I was not being overly pessimistic about the price.

I guess it'll be white...unless I go crazy with some enamel paint.