One Step at a Time: Kitchen Edition, Done Enough For Now

It's been a few weeks. We had a house guest and some other priorities, so kitchen projects were done piecemeal. Not to mention I really just took my time glazing and especially varmishing the "brick" beneath the wood stove and fitting in a few other projects in the main bathroom. Now I'll take a break from this to work on other things around the property before starting Phase II, but I will probably work on some decorations and such here and there. 

Just about every surface except the floor was refinished or replaced and nearly all the hardware and fixtures, too. Dudes. Here are the after panorama shots of each side! I'll put before shots at the bottom of the post.

The last Four weeks' projects are all on the fireside of the room and the last of the kitchen projects for a while.

1. Do something with that terrible brick veneer and shelf.

At the time of the last post, the brick veneer had been repaired and primed. It has now been glazed and varnished! Whew! What a change in the room to be rid of those dirty, red, brick-bastards!

I searched around the internet for images of grey bricks to find some examples to semi-replicate using various glazes. Even though I know better to just go at a surface without making a sample board and I did intend to make a sample board I did not actually make a sample board. Sooooo, this took longer than expected, but still with some days to start curing before Renaissance Handyman Nick cuts and installs our replace shelves on the top.

If you look, you can see that the new grey switches and outlets now have their plates! I also removed the land line port (socket? outlet?) and replaced it with a blank cover painted and glazed to match the brick veneer.

I still have the base part to do, but wanted to wait until the shelf was installed so we'll won't not be walking on it for a good while. Renaissance Handyman Nick got the shelf up in pretty short order! I had pre-finished the kiln-dried, fir 4x4s that just needed a bit of touching up here and there after the cutting, screwing, and nailing. I still have to touch up the paint where these projects marked it up a little.

I was so excited about the shelf that I couldn't wait for the base bricks to be done to get another panoramic shot!

2. Install picture rail.

I waffled back and forth about whether I should install this or not. I wasn't looking to add a contrasting color where the planes of the wall and ceiling meet - that could do the same thing that all the wallpaper borders did around here: make the ceiling seem even lower. BUT this hall gets various seasonal and holiday decorations and I a) was tired of hanging them haphazardly on just available nails and b) didn't want to put a bunch of holes in the walls to accommodate each season. This is pretty much the same reason I chose the picture rail profile for the crown I added to the upper cabinets. AND I just could not get excited about painting them to match the walls and ceiling. Finishing them to match the cabinets seemed a bit like Garanimals-style decorating.

You'll note that the picture rail stops short of the end of the wall. I still hate that corner where the beam and post come together and have that weird and weirdly finished drywall. I have some ideas for dealing with that brewing in my noggin.

I think that this photograph of Mount Hood will be the main occupant of the space. It had been in the kitchen before and came from my grandmother's house. I believe she got it from her parents or perhaps paternal grandparents.

I need to scour the house for appropriate tchotchkes. I can not wait to see the stockings hung with care this winter! I noticed in the photos of the stockings you can see the ugly old phone jack. And what do you know, it was crooked to boot! 

I think we'll have rotating and seasonal knick knacks, doodads, and tchotchkes on the shelf under these great silver, resin antlers I got for my birthday!

Look at all the line-thrus! YAHOO! But of course, the original list begat another list (see below).

The original list of the order I thought the projects will happen. Line through for complete items, italics for additions. I'll let myself do partial line throughs for partial completion, because it's good for my morale. And brown-out for items moved to Phase II.

1. Light fixtures
2. Remove corner shelf in order to...
3. Remove wallpaper and repair walls (& ceiling) as necessary, get temp solution for backsplash
4. Paint walls above cabinets, around wood stove, paint laundry/bath hallway.
5. Cabinet repair, move, modify
6. Refinish cabinets
8. Level, repair, and refinish counter tops
11. New sink and faucet and the counter modifications that go with it.
10. Replace outlets, switches, plates in backsplash.
9. Install backsplash, probably tile
12. New refrigerator surface to replace old new refrigerator surface.
16. Replace light switch and plate in hallway.
14. Replace outlets, switches, plates by wood stove.
15. Paint wood stove and stovepipe. 
7. Maybe try to do something with that terrible brick veneer wood stove surround and shelf?
13. Build a door of some sort for that too-big hole for the microwave & deal with the inside.
17. Install picture rail in hallway and that one wall behind the wood stove for now.

PHASE II

Of course, that's supposed to be "... rest of stovepipe" but hey. it's my list on my phone and I know what I mean. I'm obviously no stranger to typos! Also, we've decided to continue the picture rail around the kitchen.