Kitchen Work Continues

I think it's been a while since you got an update, but I assure you we have been working.

Troy got the oil stove installed in the kitchen and what a difference it has made. In a case of perfect timing, we got our first snow the day after he got it in! It is still a very foreign feeling to walk into the kitchen and have it be warm; and for a day or two, actually too hot! Big change.

It's very gratifying to feel the effect of the insulation already. Even though the oil stove made a big different last year, the kitchen was never actually warm. Just not freezing. I can't wait to move the table and chairs into the room (or even better, to install a booth) because it is by far the most comfortable room and right now we can't really sit in it!

We've continued the mudding and sanding of the drywall in the kitchen. I made a rookie mistake and did some final sanding this morning without changing the sand paper. So...I did more mudding today to fix the mistake.

I also capped and mudded the last of the insulation holes:

If I hadn't had to mud this morning, I may have been able to paint. Paint!! I can barely believe we're that far. I need to put one coat on the all the drywall before we put in the cabinets. And Troy is really pushing, so I may yet do the areas behind the cabinets tonight. We'll see...

And speaking of cabinets, they have been patiently waiting in the shop.

But they haven't just been sitting there. I had to move them again today. Troy has been dying to order a lathe for the last while. (He can tell you exactly how long...) He finally saved enough to do it and was told that it would be a couple months before the company was able to ship it, so he went ahead and "pulled the trigger" about two weeks ago. Imagine his surprise when he got an email on Wednesday that his lathe has shipped!

What does this have to do with cabinets? Well, Troy needs the tractor to unload the beast. The tractor is parked in the shop. In the shop behind 19 cabinets. I spent the first part of my afternoon moving them over to the other side of the shop. They like to get around. The base cabinets have been moved into the kitchen and then back into the shop. The uppers have been set up in the shop and then stacked back up. And now they all have jumped over about 20 feet to the south. Except the corner base cabinet. (The one we had to remove the front door to get into the house.) It has moved to the kitchen and stayed put. Must be a little lazy.

Another thing that Troy has been working on is the "bump out" that he needs to build to support the cabinet above the fridge. I don't think you can see it, but this corner is covered in his scribbles and plans for exactly how it needs to be done.

The fridge will fit into this nook but the cabinet needs to be further out than where the back wall is currently. So he basically has to build a hollow box that is the exact size of the cabinet. Sounds simple, but there's always more to it than you think.

No update tomorrow. I will be wrapping up the haunting season with the annual pizza party. (More work than fun, unfortunately.) But I'm starting to believe I will survive this season. Three more work days and things should get back to what counts as normal.