Our Almost-Done Kitchen

During our next visit, I spent a good part of one day sanding our countertops, feathering the joints, knocking down the edges and making the surface smooth.

Then I applied the first coat of Tung oil. The difference was immediate and drastic. It darkened the wood and brought out the richness of the colors and added a shine. The best part is that it took just a few minutes to apply.

We had to wait 24 hours to apply the recommended second coat. We had originally planned to add a third, but the directions said it would make the wood more glossy and that wasn't what we were after, so we left it at two.

Meanwhile, Gerald finished up a few spots of brickwork around our newly installed vent hood and above the refrigerator.

Our freezer had quit on our last trip and we had planned to bring up a replacement. After making a call, though, Gerald decided to give let the Desert Appliance repairman have one more shot at fixing it. He did. The freezer was well below zero in no time and the fridge was colder than ever. It cost us $100, which was well worth it.

We stood back and looked at our work. A few details remained. We needed to paint the toe kick, a couple of windows needed moulding and we still needed to install the drawer pulls. But our kitchen was very nearly done.

And so was our dining area.

Odds and Ends

The rest of the weekend was taken up with little things: repairing a broken tile in the kitchen, finishing up the baseboard in the master bath, installing the light fixture over Gerald's vanity...

And the seemingly never ending job of installing mouldings. But whole sections of wall were looking finished. We went home feeling like we'd accomplished a lot.

Vent Hood and other necessities

This past visit, we worked on two items that have been high on my wish list. The first is the range vent hood. For a long time, now, there's been a glaring hole in the brick that I've longed to see filled. I finally got my wish.

Gerald made the vent hood cabinet and painted it at the shop, but snow was predicted for our last visit, so we brought the truck. Gerald had been worried that the cabinet would be damaged in the open truck bed.

In fact, it did snow. All our dinner guests on Friday night reported driving home in near blizzard conditions.

Anyway, we finally got it up. On the ground, it looked enormous.

But it looked right sized on the wall.

I made two trips to the hardware store in Yarnell to pick up supplies for the pipe. The first time, they left out a part that I didn't catch, and gave me one wrong item.

After returning from my second trip and painting everything black, we discovered that the pipe that was supposed to be six feet was only five. So JC rigged up a support until we could close the gap. Must not have been a good day at Yarnell Hardware.

Meanwhile, JC had welded up some handles for the barn door, and he got them installed.

For the rest of the day, he worked on some plumbing issues and installed our screen doors. The screen doors went up just in time. The temperature was a perfect 80 degrees, warm enough to bring out a few wasps.

Kitchen Countertops

The other big thing for me was that we got back to work on the remaining kitchen countertops.

While Gerald worked on installation, I started sanding what he had already finished.

The ends required a bit of tweaking to make them perfectly flush. Gerald experimented with all manner of sanders and saws.

Then he added mouldings around all the edges.

Here's how the countertops looked when we were finished. We wanted a look of old wood, and were very happy with the way they came out.

We plan to stain them and add a protective coat on the next trip.

Odds and Ends

While we were there, we paid a visit to the Hussens. John had just finished pouring his footings, doing most of the work himself. Their view is of Ruger Meadows, and the old Ruger Ranch headquarters.

We also did some shopping in Prescott, where I found this kitchen stool. It was in great condition and almost exactly the same color as our cabinets. It's just what I wanted to retire our poor stained, plastic footstool.

Closing the Barn Doors

We were expecting guests from out of town, so we needed to finish up the barn doors so our guests could have some privacy in our "stealth" guest room.

So Gerald trimmed out the edges and installed privacy strips.

Then we gave them a test run.

They didn't quite come together as we had hoped.

We would have to play with it more another day. To get us through our immediate need, Gerald installed a wider panel to close the gap. It wasn't as unobtrusive, but seemed to do the trick.

A Proper Bed and Other Furnishings

Ultimately, our goal is to buy a sofa bed for the "stealth" guest room. But for now, we moved our air mattress in there.

Since we were now legal residents, it seemed high time to install a proper bed. So we dismantled our bedroom set from home and brought it up.

Our guests, Bill and Gretchen Hein, gamely agreed to help. Though I'm sure they didn't know what they were getting into. Our set is heavy.

But once we got it all set up, it began to really feel like home.

We also brought up our dining room table, which fit beautifully on the braided rug we had bought.

We also found another braided rug at a liquidation sale in Prescott, which worked nicely for my morning reading spot in the guest room.

Finishing the Brickwork

Gerald spent a few days finishing the brickwork in the kitchen and dining area.

The hole to the right is for the vent hood cabinet, which Gerald had gotten finished, but we weren't able to bring.

The hardest part was filling in the top row.

There was only a tiny space at the top...

which involved cutting the thin brick to approximate size, then filing each one with a rasp until it was the perfect fit.

Mouldings and Other Flourishes

Gerald also spent a lot of time on door mouldings...

and floor mouldings. I followed him around with spackle and paint.

Gerald made this transom window for over the master bedroom door at the shop and installed it. It has a temporary piece of clear glass, though Gerald hopes to make a piece of stained glass to replace it.

He also found an inexpensive lighting unit for the vanity and refinished it at the shop to match the mirror frame. It looked great.

Countertops!!

For me, the most exciting thing was that we got started on the remaining countertops.

We had it in our heads that we wanted to construct countertops out of old wood. Gerald found just the right material on Craigslist: tongue and groove oak flooring that came out of a house in Phoenix.

Being thinner and shorter than our tongue and groove pine flooring, we hoped it would prove easier to install.

We started with the outside edge, using construction adhesive and then face nailing the pieces in place.

We used clamps to draw the pieces together before nailing them down.

After the first couple rows, it the process moved pretty quickly. With slightly different shades of oak, it made a kind of butcher-block effect.

By noon, when we packed up to go home, we had already finished half of the lunch-counter side.