New Kitchen — Part 9

Last time I worked on the new kitchen, it was to put down the new tile floor.  Before I could do that, I had to install the bases for the cabinets on the west side of the kitchen, that is, the side opposite the mostly finished side (with oven, stainless steel counter, and refrigerator).  The cabinets on the west side will house the undermount stainless steel sink, the dishwasher, and the electric cooktop.  They are all lower cabinets; there are no uppers.  This post will cover the fabrication and installation (mostly) of the cabinet carcasses.

So, cabinets:  First was the sink cabinet.  I designed this with a recess for the trash can and pet food containers (on the floor under the sink); we'll see how that works.  I gave it a solid top, cut out for the sink, with a recess routed in around the rim to support the sink so that the top of the sink rim is flush with the underside of the countertop.  Typically, undermount sinks are supported with small screw inserts glued into the underside of the countertop—the screws attach small metal brackets.  I suppose strong enough, but I'd rather have the sink supported by a 3/4" plywood top.  Here is the sink cabinet being assembled on top of my tablesaw (the only really flat surface in the house; the garage floor is not close to flat).

The bases had been installed for some time, and even though they were straight and all cut to 7.25" width, by now they had dried out and had changed dimensions.  They weren't kiln-dried, and some pieces were heavier (wetter) than the others, so they shrunk more than the drier pieces of 2x8.  So I had to spend some time getting the bases acceptably flat and level before installing cabinets (trimming and shimming).  

My stainless steel countertop is a standard 25" deep, which means the supporting plywood cabinets were less than 24" deep, which meant that a single $50 4' x 8' sheet of cabinet-grade plywood could be cut to provide the top and bottom and two ends.  All my other cabinets are 30" deep, which meant for them I could only cut one length per piece of plywood; the other half was about 21" wide.  So I had a lot of 21" wide pieces of expensive plywood leftover.  For these new kitchen cabinets, I decided to use these too-narrow pieces by gluing two narrow pieces together to get one wide enough.  I used biscuits to strengthen this joint (I use them for other applications as well).  The biscuits (small flat football-shaped pieces of wood—see photo) strengthen and align the joint.

The photo shows a biscuit and the slot cut with a "biscuit jointer," which you use to cut opposing slots on both pieces of wood.  (Hold the pieces together dry and mark a pencil line across the joint first to assure proper alignment, then cut the slots using the pencil mark as a guide.)  Put glue on the joint and in the slots and clamp the two pieces of wood together.  Here's a photo of the biscuit in the slot:

The other type of joint I use at the corners of the box is the tongue-and-dado joint.  This joint aligns the edges (top-to-side, etc.) and makes the joint a lot stronger than a butt joint.  Both the tongue and the dado are cut on the table saw, using a dado blade set, which contains inner and outer cutter blades and a number of stackable chipper blades that go between to give you the desired thickness.  But a photo explains what the joint looks like (usually they are tighter than this, with good glue contact on all surfaces):

I assembled the sink cabinet in the garage because it was small and light enough to carry (with a dolly) into the house.  The other cabinet would be almost eight feet long and had to be assembled in the kitchen, just barely big enough to do that work.  I glued and screwed the pre-cut pieces and sub-assemblies one at a time, clamping the remaining pieces (no glue) to ensure (as much as possible) that the cabinet would end up straight and square and not twisted. After the glue dried, I would disassemble the dry-fit pieces and glue another piece.

At some point, gluing one piece at a time was not possible; I had to get all the remaining pieces together, with the 1/2" plywood back in place to hopefully hold it all square.

After cutting holes in the backs for wiring and plumbing, I slowly maneuvered the heavy cabinets into place, making sure the tops were all flat and in the same plane, as the one-piece Corian top will need to be uniformly supported by the tops of these sectional cabinets.  I also had to fabricate and install a top over the dishwasher bay (it does not get a separate cabinet).  I put the sink in position for the photo. 

The next post will cover the installation of additional drawer partitions, attachment of maple edge trim on the front of the cabinets, installation of the sink and dishwasher shut-off valves, and some finish work on the inside of the sink cabinet.  The post after that will see the Corian countertop (and backsplash) and sink installed by the Home Depot people, and the addition of the cooktop.

As always, the all-important drawer building and install will come sometime in the future. 

Workshop — Part 3

Work on the workshop windows/electrical is done (except for outside painting).  I won't finish the room until most of the rest of the house has been completed, because it's going to be a hobby room (building instruments, etc.), and getting the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedroom done takes precedence over hobbies.  When that time comes, I will be installing a new floor (interlocking textured plastic tiles), work bench, and storage. 

Since my part 2 post, I continued applying stucco in the outside, and drywall on the inside.  In the photo, there is one section of wall without drywall, waiting for the 6" exhaust vent to be installed, which could not be done until the stucco was complete.

And here that is, with the last batch of stucco still wet.  I inserted a circular foam plug in the wall where the exhaust vent would go, and stuccoed around that so as not to have to cut a hole through the stucco when it dried. 

This is a closeup of the vent on the outside.

Once that was in, the last piece of drywall went on, joint compound applied and sanded (not my favorite thing), and the wall painted.  At that point, the electrical receptacles could be installed and cover plates attached, and that circuit switched on.  For the last year (?) I have relied on a 50' heavy-duty extension cord run from the home theater for power in the workshop, so this was a nice event.  Six new 120 volt (and one 240 volt) 20-amp receptacles.

After that, the window was trimmed out, nail holes spackled, and that painted.  Here's a halfway "before" photo and two "afters."

I now have a rough schedule for future work, based largely on seasonal temperatures: 

1) kitchen cabinets - October,
2) new water supply system - November - January,
3) master bathroom - December - March, and
4) new heat pump and ducting - April. 

Various other smaller projects will be done along the way. 

Workshop — Part 2

First, I don't think there was officially a "Workshop — Part 1" post, but I did say something about installing new florescent ceiling lights in there, so close enough. 

Second, I finished the floor and baseboards in the north half of the pottery studio, and took a photo today.  This part of the studio will be where the pottery wheel is located, and shelves for the new pots to sit while drying, etc.  The other half of the studio is where the kiln will be, counter space for applying glazes, lots of drawers for storage, and of course the sink for cleaning up.  Back in the wheel half, there will be some built-in shelves to the left of the wheel, and also a built-in car stereo, since music frequently seems to be a part of pottery studios. 

Third, back to the workshop.  To recount, this post deals with removing two old ill-placed and inferior windows with one new one in a different location, to wit, in the center of the south wall.  To start, I removed the old drywall where new electrical receptacles are going, where the new window will be, and around the old two windows.  This is the first part of that process:

A new low workbench (designed for sitting) will go along this south wall.  I'm installing several 120 volt receptacles and one 240 volt receptacle that will be a little higher than the workbench surface.  Here are the first boxes going in.  The lower blue box is a junction box.  These 20-amp circuits originate in the laundry room subpanel.

Here's the first old window laid bare.  This room was originally converted from the back of the garage to a bedroom, and the windows added.  Rather than properly restructure the wall to support the window and the roof above it, the contractor just cut a big hole in the wall and stuck the window in.  There should be a full height stud on both sides of the window, and then a jack stud just inside that to support the header running over the top of the window (to support the roof over the width of the window).  None of this!  I was shocked!  And the "header" was undersized, and not even fastened to the studs above it.  I can't begin to describe how bad this is :-(

In this following photo, I have added new full-height studs to the existing upper and lower ends of the old studs.  I left those in, because the stucco is fastened to those elements — but only by staples!  No nails, no screws!  More shock!  I've also framed for the new window, using the proper structural elements.

I should note (again) that the original builders did not fasten any sort of plywood sheathing to the studs, to provide strength and a solid foundation for the stucco.  They just stretched some wire across the framing, applied roofing felt on top of that, then wire mesh, then the stucco.  I'm using plywood to cover the old window holes, and cutting down the studs to 3" width, so with the added 1/2" plywood, the base for the new stucco will be flush with the old studs.

Here's a photo of the wall with the new Andersen window installed.  I used a circular saw with a diamond masonry blade to cut out the big square of stucco to make the opening for the new window.  At the left of this photo, you can see the second old window that will be removed. 

And from the outside:

When I removed the drywall from around the second window, I discovered the structural deficiencies were even worse than with the first window.  Not only were the tops and bottoms of the old studs not fastened to the rudimentary window frame, they were not even touching!  The top:

And the bottom:

This photo (above) also shows the old vent for the garage that was not removed during the conversion, but simply drywalled over on the inside.

Here is the first coat (scratch coat) of stucco going on the outside of where the first old window was:

And further along in the process, with the stucco complete around the new window and over the old window opening:

And finally, where I am now, with the second window opening sheathed and just about ready for stucco.

I still have to remove the old square ventilation vent and fill that space in.  There's also a circular opening at the lower left of the window; that is for an 6" exhaust vent for the hood over the three cat litter boxes — getting rid of the dust and odors.  The blower for that is motion activated.

The next steps (after stucco) will be to finish insulating the wall, apply drywall, and trim out the new window on the inside.  Add two coats of elastomeric stucco paint on the whole wall outside after the new stucco has cured for a month.  I'm also going to be finishing the baseboard installation in the south half of the pottery studio.

I took delivery of a truckload of plywood and drywall today, so I will soon be starting to build the rest of the kitchen cabinets.  I'll have Home Depot fabricate and install the Corian countertop after those cabinets are finished.  Then kitchen sink, cooktop, and dishwasher.  Unfortunately, the sink and dishwasher will not be operable until I finish the new water supply system (waiting for cooler weather for that, when work in the attic will be tolerable).

Progress, bit by bit.

Pottery Studio — Part 7

The new floor tile in the pottery studio is all down and grouted, but some work remains, to wit, cleaning the white efflorescence off the grout and installing baseboards.  To finish the floor in the south half of the studio, I had to remove all the stuff stored in there, and most of it ended up in the north half, which means I haven't yet gotten around to the sulfamic acid scrub to clean the grout.  I've also been working on the windows in the workshop (removing two old ones and installing a new one in a different place).  But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First, I did manage to apply the elastomeric stucco paint (two coats) on the outside front of the pottery studio, and stain/paint the fascia/eves along the front of the house.  For this photo, I've placed some new shingles along the edge of the roof, showing the future lighter color.

Back to the floor tile.  Did I mention I had to order more tile?  And that the colors were different with the adobe brown.  Well, same thing with the gray tile — three different shades — so some artistic adaptations were required, not only to accommodate the different shades of tile, but I also adjusted patterns to minimize how much tile I had left.  In other words, if I needed a little more tile to finish the floor, I would use what I had rather than buy another box of the perhaps ideal size/color. 

As I mentioned before, it's an art studio :-)

Here's getting the pattern sorted out and the tile starting to go down:

The walls were still yellow in that photo.  Here's what the tile looks like all laid down and grouted (the walls now off-white).  The cabinets and counter on the left have yet to be installed; there will be a cubby between the cabinets for a stool to slide under the counter. 

I did try out the sulfamic acid scrub on a portion of the grout in the north section of the studio.  Here you can see the difference between the treated grout and the grout with the white efflorescence.  It really works.  (The colors in the photo are not accurate, but you can see that the cleaned grout color matches the tile color.)

I lay the tile and grout a section at a time, and it doesn't take too long to do a section, but then I let it dry for a day before doing the next section.  So I've been working on the windows in the workshop during the rest of the day.  I will post on that progress within a few days.  The workshop had been a bedroom, and before it was converted to a bedroom, it had been the back half of the garage.  That conversion, as I discovered when I removed the drywall, was a celebration of structural incompetence (but more on that in the next post). 

They installed two of those flimsy aluminum single-pane windows in the corner of the room.  I wanted a single window in the middle of the wall, so I am removing the two old windows and adding a new one.  Because the outside of the wall is covered with stucco, I needed to do a lot of masonry cutting with a diamond blade in a circular saw.  Well, this is what it looks like:

At this point, one of the old windows has been removed and the wall restructured and prepared for a new application of stucco.  I also restructured the wall where the new window is, cut out a big square of stucco, and installed the new Andersen window (needs stucco patch around its frame).  To run my power tools, I cut a small hole in the corner of the screen in the old window on the right for an extension cord.

Unfortunately, it was big enough for my two favorite (indoor-only) cats to squeeze through, ripping the opening bigger in the process.  I had left the window open for some fresh air, and only realized they could get through the hole Monday evening before bed.  I closed the window then, assuming they were still inside (with five cats, it's not always easy to keep track).

Between 3 and 4 a.m., I heard cat screams from out back, and searching the house, found two missing.  I then opened the window they had used, and enlarged the opening in the screen enough for them to re-enter.  I also set out my cat trap, with a small bowl of cat food inside.  I should note my cats are all rescued ferals, trapped to have them spayed/neutered, vaccinated, de-wormed, etc., which is why I have a feral cat trap. 

But why am I telling you about this?  The two escapees are my favorites, my oldest (I've had nine years), a small female who had a hard life before I rescued her, and my youngest — Sami (I've had 4.5 years, my only male), rescued as a 4-5 month-old malnourished kitten (with a big head and tiny body).  They're my children.  And Southern California is not a safe place for outdoor cats and small dogs, because of the coyote population. 

Photo from my last east-coast house (Sami in front and my number one relaxing in the background):

Having them missing has been traumatic, and remodeling work has suffered.  The good news is my first cat returned the next night at 2:45 a.m., meowing outside the sliding screen door next to my bed.  She wouldn't come in by herself; I had to go outside and carry her in.  That was a huge emotional relief. 

Feral cats aren't the same as domestic; they're physically the same, but psychologically, they obey a different set of rules.  They're territorial.  If they leave the group—their territory, and want to be accepted in again, they feel they have to ask and be invited back in.  Males are routinely expelled when they reach maturity, and have to find and defend their own territory. 

Sami got out once before, back east, and stayed relatively close to the house.  I could tell because I could hear his run-ins with the dominant neighborhood feral.  He didn't come back on his own; I put my trap out and he took the bait in the middle of the night after about a week (I heard the trap door slam shut and went out, thinking I had gotten the dominant feral, and planning to relocate him).  But it was Sami.  Took him a couple of days to readjust to domestic life. 

If they're used to coming to your door for food every day for many months, they are more likely to return to the house (like my small female).  I trapped Sami within days of starting to feed him, and brought him inside immediately.  If he's able to stay alive for two or three weeks, he likely will return looking for food or water, or security.  I don't think he'll come in though the window, but the trap may work.

Until he returns, I will be distracted.

Apple-Cranberry Pie

I try to eat healthy, and conventional pies (for my tastes) have too much sugar, and the crust—well, white flour and butter are not exactly the apple of my eye.  I use whole wheat flour and olive oil in my cooking, and thought those ingredients could make a good pie crust. 

When I started to research alternative pie crusts, I found a recipe that used olive oil, so I tried it, and then began experimenting.  Ultimately I did not get the results I wanted, and concluded the reason was the recipe was trying to imitate a butter pie crust—rolling out dough with a solid cold fat (butter) that would layer with the flour, to get a flaky crust.

The original olive oil recipe called for freezing the olive oil to make it solid, and then chilling it again before rolling it out.  The olive oil always wanted to revert to a liquid, however, and there was too much of it, so the dough oozed olive oil.  So I reduced the proportion of oil in the dough, and pretty much gave up on getting a flaky crust.   I also stopped the futile exercise of freezing the olive oil before starting the process. 

Two notes:  One, for the best flaky crusts in any kind of baked pastries (fruit croissants or tarts or whatever), you're better off using commercial filo dough sheets.  Two, you can certainly get a flaky pie crust with white flour and butter, but the taste by itself is nothing special (unless you like the taste of white flour and butter, and I know there are some of you out there :-). 

Over time, I added new ingredients and varied the proportions.  My crust does not attempt to imitate a traditional crust.  It is something different, just as a graham cracker crust is its own thing.  I find I like the whole wheat flour and olive oil crust used in this pie enough that I can eat it all by itself (your results may vary, but here we go). 

The filling.  Apples and cranberries.  I use Fuji apples, which are sweeter than the perhaps more traditional tart Granny Smith apples, but with a sweeter apple, you can get by with less sugar.  The cranberries provide the tanginess.  Three large apples and 1.5 cups of cranberries.  I use a lot of cranberries, mostly for my chocolate banana-nut cranberry bread (with oatmeal and grated carrot), and fill my freezer with fresh cranberries when they are in season (November), enough to last a year. 

Peel the apples, core and cut them up.  I use a tool to do this in one step, yielding eight pieces, but you can of course do it the old fashioned way (four pieces per apple or whatever).  I then feed the pieces into my food processor, using a slicing blade.

With this method, the apple pieces end up in slices and a lot of lesser bits, which gives the filling a more blended texture.  If you cut the slices by hand, you will likely end up with more uniform slices, but you can tailor the mix to your taste.  This is what the food-processed apples look like:

Add the rest of the ingredients with the apple slices, mix them up, and put the bowl in the refrigerator to allow them to meld.  Here's what you need:

     3 large apples.
     1.5 cups of cranberries.
     1/3 cup apricot preserves, heated so it's runny (you can substitute another flavor).
     1/2 cup sugar (I use white for this).
     3 tablespoons all-purpose flour.
     1 teaspoon cinnamon.
     1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

The dough.  The ingredients:

     1.5 cups whole wheat flour.
     1 cup all-purpose flour.
     1/2 cup olive oil. 
     1/4 cup sugar (I use turbinado raw cane sugar for this but any kind will work).
     1 egg.
     1 teaspoon baking soda.
     1 teaspoon salt.
     1/2 cup water.

Mix the dry ingredients in a food processor (using the regular blade), then add the remaining ingredients and process until the dough comes together.

Pull the ball of dough out and put on a floured surface (I use whole wheat).  Form the dough into a rough cylinder which will make splitting the ball in two parts, bottom and top.  A ratio of 55% for the bottom and 45% for the top works well. 

Using enough flour so the dough doesn't stick to your counter or rolling pin, roll the bottom a little bigger than your pie pan.  I use my offset spatula to help lift the dough off the counter, fold it in half and lift it in the pan. 

Then load the filling into the pie.  It should look like this.  Because the pieces are a mix of sizes, it's not necessary to load the filling in a big pile because it doesn't settle much. 

Traditionally, pie dough is draped over the edge of the pie pan (both bottom and top), and then pinched together along the edge.  Of course, you are then advised to cover the protruding fluted edge with foil so it doesn't burn.  My approach is to eliminate the over-exposed edge so you can eliminate the foil.  Nobody eats the dried-out crust edge anyway. 

Now put the top on, tucking the edge down into the bottom crust—nothing on the lip of the pan, like this:

Put the pie in the oven on a middle shelf, with a pan on the lowest shelf to collect any drippings, like this:

I use a glass pan, and use the "Pie" mode on my oven, which cycles the convection fan on and off.  I bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes.  Metal pans require a hotter temperature (or longer time), and your oven will likely be different.  Out of the oven:

On the remodeling front, I continue to work on the pottery studio floor tile, mostly on the south end now.  I needed to order more floor tile and am waiting for that.  I don't want to end up with a bunch of tile left over, so I've been making adjustments on the tile patterns to minimize waste (I'm using four colors/sizes of tile).  Here's where I am now.  I just installed the cabinet bases today.

Pottery Studio — Part 6

At the end of Pottery Studio — Part 5 I was removing the old floor tile in preparation for the new tile going down.  If you recall, when I ordered the remainder of the tile I needed, I discovered the new batch was not a match for the same color/stock number I already had, so I needed to figure out some way to blend or coordinate the two shades.  I had already planned to use a gray border around the adobe brown field, and after some experimentation, decided to have a double border — a gray outer border, and a reddish brown inner border surrounding the tan-brown field. 

Not sure how it would end up, but just went ahead with it.  Here the gray tile is down, and I'm test fitting the inner border. 

While I was using a staggered brick pattern for the inner border, I chose to put down the field in a herringbone pattern.  Here most of the tile laid down, before grouting. 

At this point, I made two decisions.  First, the bold tile pattern clashed with the bold yellow walls.  I decided to repaint using the same neutral off-white that I'm using for most of the rest of the house. 

Second, I had initially intended to use gray grout for the whole floor, but on a whim, decided to use a light brown grout for the field tiles, and found a grout color that seemed to match.  I did the same thing for the foyer, and that looked good.  I used gray grout for the whole floor in the kitchen, and that presented a more commercial look.  For the pottery studio, with its artsy three-color floor, the matching grout for the center section seemed like a good idea.  (I've now reconsidered.)

You may notice that the grout in the center section does not match the tile.  Hmm.  First, the gray grout went on without incident.

But as the light brown grout dried, it developed what is called efflorescence.  That is when the water in the grout dissolves minerals in the grout (portland cement), which minerals then rise to the surface and turn white.  Sometimes additives to the grout (polymers) do the same thing.  Adding too much water can be the problem.  Since the gray grout gave me no trouble, and I didn't mix the brown grout any thinner, it may be the additives that were the culprit.  Here is a photo of the dried grout compared to a batch of grout just applied — the difference is dramatic.

I had the same problem with the tan grout in the foyer, and learned that scrubbing with a sulfamic acid cleaning solution would correct the apparently common problem.  I need to wait three weeks for the grout to harden before doing this, so no photos of the finished floor with baseboard for now. 

In the meantime, I will be cleaning out the other (south) half of the pottery studio, and extending the new tile floor into that part.  I've started relocating stuff in the house to accommodate the shuffle.  The temporary kitchen counter you see on the left gets taken apart and reassembled in the workshop; I've had to clear out that room for this.  The workshop is soon to have its two windows filled in, and a new window installed in a different place. 

I'm still waiting for the stucco to cure on the outside wall of the pottery studio before I can apply the stucco paint.  That result will have to wait a few weeks for the Pottery Studio — Part 7 post.  My next post will therefore be another cooking venture (the pizza post has been more popular than my remodeling trials :-).  Apple-cranberry pie with a whole wheat/olive oil crust.  Really good!