Kitchen Reno VII, More Test Countertops

Since our first test concrete countertop was such a disaster, we poured another test pad today.  Nephew and I took deep cleansing breaths and told each other, "Today, we are not going to panic.  We're going to take our time and follow the plan."  With confidence, we set up our equipment and started mixing the concrete...water first.  It went much more smoothly and we made our Quikrete mix a little wetter for easier pouring and in hopes that we wouldn't have the rough edge this time around.

I manually pressed down all of the concrete before and after the rebar was installed.  Nephew carefully screed the surface to make it level, then troweled it to make it smooth.

One of the things that we forgot to do in our rush the day before was to vibrate the forms after the concrete was poured.  Vibrating the forms makes the air bubbles rise to the top.  In the tutorials that I read and watched, they all suggested running an orbital sander along the sides of the form.  Because we were so calm, cool, and collected, we remembered this step.

I wasn't convinced that just running it along the edge would be enough, so I also vibrated the bottom of the form.  It does work.  We could see the bubbles rising to the surface and popping.

This is our first test slab, dried.  Eek!

And this is our second test slab, still wet.

I sprinkled my three colors of extra fine glitter on the surface.  Then did another marbling test.

I think it turned out pretty good.

I diluted the charcoal concrete tint with water and while the concrete was still quite wet, I painted it on with a chicken feather.

I don't know how far the tint will soak into the surface.  I expect it won't sink in far enough and when we sand it, the marbling will be sanded off.  But, I have a back-up plan that I will try after the sanding.  I also have a feeling that the glitter will sand off, but when we pour our kitchen slab, I will add the glitter to the cement as we're pouring it.  That way, it will be mixed in and will be deeper than just the surface.

Livestock

First, above is a picture of one wall of my kitchen cabinets. It's the "command center" where I'll put my computer, keep farm records and recipes, and have the intercom system.

Second, these are the guard donkeys. Tom wants to call them Hilde and Buffy, after the characters in Tom Hank's early hit TV show Bosom Buddies. I kind of wanted to call them names of flowers like Hyancinth and Daisy. Maybe we'll compromise and go with Tom's choice so I can save my flower names for the goats.

Speaking of goats, we ended up getting the little male goat yesterday...earlier than I had planned, but that's how it worked out. He's like a pet dog and wants to follow us around. It was very sad to leave him out in the pasture when we came home because he was standing on his hind legs looking over the fence bleating his little heart out.

Joanne (neighbor, former owner of farm) said he was bleating last night and they thought he was so cute. They felt bad for him and watned to bring him into their trailer to stay with their dog. I told Tom to tell her to feel free to do so because we felt bad for leaving him out there.

Both of the donkeys are pregnant and due soon - maybe within a month. I'm kind of bummed because they won't let me near them and they are not halter broke. I had wanted to have plenty of time for them to get used to me and let me handle them so that when their babies are born, I'll be able to get close to them. Since they're due so soon, that may not happen. It is also problematic that they aren't halter broke. There is no way for us to move them into another pasture if we need to.

Yes...We're Busy, Uh-Huh, Uh-Huh

Here's the gutted kitchen. In the background is the living room full of the new cabinets still in their boxes.

Cabinet Mania

Finally, the kitchen plan is complete and the cabinets were ordered today. It was a surprisingly draining experience. It took four meetings with the designer, the last one being today and that lasted four hours. The cabinets are scheduled to arrive in four to six weeks, which will be around the end of April. That should give me enough time to get the existing kitchen torn out and prepared for the new installation...after the tenant (ex-owner) moves out.

The next steps are ordering the appliances, sink, and faucet, which I've already chosen, then choosing the granite, wood flooring, and tile for the back splash.

Roof shingles are supposed to be torn off some day this week. We're having storms for the next couple of days, so it may be toward the end of the week. Tom got the breaker box changed out yesterday.

Measurement Challenged

Well, I did say that I was not to be trusted with a measuring tape. My kitchen plan did not get finished today, despite a three hour meeting with the designer. I had made a couple of measurement errors that required some changes in the plan, in addition to the few tweaks I had made in the original plan. I have another meeting with the designer on Saturday. Maybe we can finish it up then. I sure hope so because she's leaving the company on the 18th and I don't want to have to switch to a different designer in the middle.

Finished Kitchen

Oh! I forgot about this blog. Guess I don't have too much going on in my housewifely life.

Finally finished my kitchen. What a pain that was. Lots of mistakes. Lots of problems with the cabinet supplier. The only thing I need to do now is put up some kind of window treatment 'cause it looks kind of bare in there and get some new chairs for the breakfast area. So here's the big reveal.

So...ya want your kitchen remodeled, do ya?

Think long and hard before you want to make this mess. My cabinets were scheduled to arrive on October 10th, but didn't actually get here until the 19th. Demolition started the 17th. Of course, there have been all kinds of problems. When we took out the fur downs above the sink/window, we discovered that the upstairs bathroom plumbing was there. It cost $1300 extra to have a plumber come out and move the plumbing. He had to saw through the studs and joists and squeeze the four inch drain pipe into a three inch space.

Also, the wiring was strung across there too tight, so we had to get an electrician to rewire to the tune of $375. Because of other problems with the cabinets it has taken the carpenters twice as long as they expected, so that raised the price yet another $480. Apparently, no shoe mold was ordered, so that's something that will cost an additional amount.

There has been one problem after another and I'm going over budget. And the installer just told me that we don't have enough toe kick. Oh joy.