1. Helping pay airfare for friends/family to visit.
2. Re-do the kitchen when we got back.
It took three years to get back and re-doing the kitchen has now taken 2 months. The old kitchen served for about 60 years - 10 of it for us. Having a clean, bright, functional kitchen in Alice Springs really made me want one here. The old kitchen had one long cabinet below the sink so any mousie who came up the pipes had a grand palace to live. Only tools and cleaning supplies could be kept below the sink. The upper cabs had layers of oil and smoke from previous tenants on the outside and I'm guessing lead paint on the inside. I know, I'm spoiled, but let's re-do the kitchen!
A friend of a friend is a kitchen designer and did us up a lovely plan. The not-quite-square room and the 7 foot ceiling for a 6'4" husband gave her some challenges. Sadly, I couldn't just use one of those 3-D printers and have an instant kitchen.
I ordered the cabinets. Four weeks was the shortest lead time for them.
Wanted cork flooring to insulate and be soft and resilient. Can't do it - floor too wavy as it is held up in places by piles of rocks. Vinyl it is!
Tony Moore, the contractor who put in our upstairs bath, is on the job for this adventure, too.
He took away my sink and dishwasher and I will forever despise him for it. Washing dishes in a tiny bathroom sink is, in a word, gross. Making coffee on top of a toilet is gross and the first time I washed chicken and broccoli in the bathroom sink was also the last time.
We get take-out or microwave meals a lot right now.
A few surprises always come with this old house. When Tom took down the paperboard walls, there was beadboard underneath. NEAT! but also gross - covered in lead paint and grime. Under that was... nothing. You could see through the clapboard to the great outdoors. THAT'S why the kitchen got so cold and so hot.
The ceiling yielded a bevy of surprises: The old drop ceiling was very wavy and much higher at one end that the other with a distinct bow in the middle.
I thought Tom would have a rain of 60 years of mouse poo fall on him when he tackled it. He was prepared, but it didn't happen. He found a tongue and groove wood ceiling. Was our kitchen an old porch? Maybe.
I hemmed and hawed over what to do. I could sand it, but the lead paint dust requires a special respirator to keep me from getting even dumber than motherhood has made me. Painting it would still require a lot of prep from the grease and grime. A nail-up tin ceiling was the answer except it would make it even lower. Hmmm... what is under the wood? Wow! Cool beams and 6 more inches of headroom for Tom!
A Habitat for Humanity ReStore just opened in Warrenton. It is a place where builders, re-modelers, etc. donate leftover building supplies and household goods. What Habitat can't use, they sell to thrifty folks like me. Scored a Maytag gas oven for 200.00, some light fixtures and floor vents. With about 80% of landfill space being building waste, this makes me feel good. I'll feel even better if the oven works when it's finally hooked up.
Two silly casement windows will also be 4 weeks. Guess they need to mine the sand and blow the glass and mill the lumber.
The flooring is going down as I type.
It's so clean and clear and open and empty. So refreshingly simple, which I really need...
BECAUSE THE REST OF THE HOUSE LOOKS LIKE THIS!!!!
I'll update this post as we go.
