Weekend Work

The kitchen island is now complete!  Hurray!  I love the new space.  I am at the counter working right now on my laptop.  The countertop was delivered Tuesday.  There are a few flaws on it.  Home Depot gave us a credit on our account for that.  The company that made and delivered the top was to contact me to see about fixing some of the chips in the formica, but they have not called.  I will probably never hear from them again.  I am going to try to seal them so it won't wear down any further. 

We found the chairs at a garage sale for $30 (for2).  They are like brand new.  What a deal!  I have seen the same chair online for over $100 each.  Now I have to figure out what all to put in the drawers and have it make sense so I can remember where things are.  That will be one weekend chore.

Jim is spending the day working in the yard.  Grass has not been cut in awhile and it looks like a hay field.  Speaking of that, the hay was cut this week.  Last night, they were starting to rake and bale.  I tried taking a picture.  It looked so neat with all the lights when they were baling in the dark...like something from a movie.  But as the camera went off, he had moved to have the back end facing me, not a side view.  You can't tell what it is.  So no picture.  They will be back today to finish.

Another task for the weekend is to clean up Matthew's room so that the spare bed can be put in it for me and Jim the sleep there when we have guest later this week for 4th of July.  We need to also put the window unit in so that it will be nice and cool at nights.

I just need to get the house organized.  I feel like I am walking all over stuff.  When I had some areas cleared, someone (not naming names here) filled it right up with stuff, and now it is worse than it was to begin with.  So I we decided to clear things up and give away. Not doing anymore garage sales.

Need to get started on the day. He is asking about breakfast.  On the weekends, we cook a big breakfast on Saturday.

Almost Done

We are almost done with the kitchen island.  All the new wood (except brackets for holding overhang) have been added.  We also got it all sanded.  This morning I will go out and get the hardware and start painting today.  We should get it all painted.  Jim wants to go see a movie this afternoon.  I also was able to get one customer quilt done this weekend.  I feel like I have got a lot accomplished.  I would still like to get the new top to the gazebo in place.  Here are a few more pics.  Maybe today I will get to take a picture of it right side up instead of upside down.

I have a table in the kitchen that is a bit larger than the island will be.  I have been moving it around trying out locations.  I think I have where it will be placed.  My next hunt will be for two stools/chairs.  I also want to take one of the drawers and change to a wine rack.   We have picked out the light fixtures and need to get them and get them installed.  One day, I will have it all finished and the way I want.

I'm Getting a Kitchen Island

I'm finally getting a kitchen island.  I found a really old china hutch that was made around here I think in the 1920's from what the guy told me about it.  It is in really rough shape.  When we brought it home a couple of months ago, we stored it in my quilting studio. With this being a long weekend, we took an extra day off in hopes that we can get several things done.  We moved the base outside to start working.  It is solid wood and very heavy.  We removed all the drawers so that it would be lighter to move.  I forgot to stick the drawers back in and get a good before picture.  Jim stood it on end for me to start stripping.  We only need to do the two sides and the front.  So here are a few pics.
Here is Jim working on the back.

 This is what the drawers look like.  The drawer pulls are really old and rusted and literally falling apart.

 This is what the front looks like. The two small drawers are divided on the inside.  There is a pull out board in the center that I am going to treat just like a butcher block so that it can be useable.  That is unless I come up with something else to do with it.  I still want to turn one of the drawers into a wine rack.

The plans are to paint it a dark red and I want to antique it.  On the back we are putting bead board.  It is as tall as a table right now, but we are going to have one side extend out for a bar.  So, we need to increase the height.  We are adding 1 x 4's across the bottom to put big bunn feet on. I ordered the counter top yesterday.  We should have it in about three weeks. Can't believe it takes that long.  I also got the brackets to attach and support the extended counter top. 

I got started stripping and even though we got chemical resistant gloves, it was eating through right fast.  So I went to the nearest hardware store to get a heavy duty chemical glove.  Found them and got started again.  The varnish is a bit stubborn coming off.  I expected that.  We are going be sanding so Jim says no problem.  It looked like rain and we were feeling a little mist, so we had to haul it all back inside and quit for the night much earlier than what I wanted.  But that gave Jim time to get the fertilzer on the ground.  As it always goes, since we moved it inside, the rain did not come.  However, it is sprinkling this morning so now we don't have to water the yard.  The pool is now open, so hopefully it will warm up today and I can go for a swim.