Day 257: Singing the dishwasher blues

Belated post ..  The countertop was delayed - so my posting of its install is also delayed.

This weekend's challenge was to finish off the countertop, get the cabinet doors installed and to get the dishwasher put in place. The first is a high difficulty task but the last 2 are relatively simple for the average DIY'er. Except my dishwasher just chose to be difficult once again. I don't know if it's me or that we just picked a dumb model - in either case, it's been much more of a challenge than expected.

First the countertop joint. Not to bore everyone with details but the measurements were extremely tight. Either I got the cuts correct or I put another 3m length on order for a few hundred £££. But needless to say, I gave it my full attention and made sure it worked.

[TECHNICAL SECTION]  (please feel free to skip) .. the gap for the main part of the countertop was 2400mm, the countertop was 663mm wide and 3000mm long. The corner cut needed to be 1265mm from the wall. So I cut the countertop to 2400mm and shaved off the back to get a 630 depth on the main sink portion. The extra 30mm were from the dishwasher not cooperating with the pipes. With this in place, I needed to use a heat gun to get the edging off the front to make the corner joint. Pro's use a router and a special jig - I have neither. So I use the factory cut edge and a heat gun. For the other side of the corner the 600mm piece that I cut off would have been too short, so I flipped the piece 90 degrees and used the depth of 663mm to get my length. It was so close that I didn't even need to cut this piece. The edges butted up nicely together and used some old plaster bags as weighting while the wood adhesive set. Always make sure to use waterproof adhesive on counters in case any water makes its way down a joint [END OF TECHNICAL SECTION]

Next onto the dishwasher. As described above, we had to move the entire countertop out 30mm to accommodate the silly thing. Next I needed to build a frame around the d/w to support it and the countertop. I used spare end panels, screwed to the sink carcass on one side and free standing with feet on the other.

Why feet? 2 good reasons here: 1) so that we have something to fix the kicker panels to and 2) to allow better routing, positioning of hoses and cables. On the right side, this involved fastening a couple of blocks to the panel to hold the feet. I also kept a 200mm gap between the d/w end panel and the boiler filter and plumbing to allow for servicing (Tom you're welcome)

After getting everything in place for the first time, I realised that the d/w door didn't fit into the opening (it did, but it wouldn't open), so I had to move the panel 1cm to the right. Put the d/w back in again and once again the same problem except at the bottom - there needed to be clearance here too. So off came the panels once again (getting good at it now) to notch the bottom. Do all people with in-build d/w have these problems - seems like they are more trouble than they are worth. I better not see a dirty dish on the countertop after all this.

Finally, a little gloating on the countertop. Find the joint - I challenge you. 

The bags are there to keep weight on the countertop



Spot the joint .. go ahead ..

Day 239: Masters of plaster

To put things into context, these walls have seen through 2 world wars and been metres away from German bombs (literally dropping on the doorstep). No surprise that they've seen better days. But no worries, things are looking up for our kitchen walls.

A little TLC and they will look great once again.

First the corners around the door frames, if you can still call them that since there was little corner left in them. I needed to strip them back to pretty much brick to get a straight edge. I used some rough corner beads to build back the corner shape - being careful to keep the edge straight and plumb. Given that the door jam was somewhat slanted, I don't think it would have been geometrically possible to get all sides even - or that's the story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, it's close and I challenge anybody coming over to tell me otherwise.

I even managed to get Care getting her hands dirty. Stripping away wallpaper. This time we had a textured floral print both in the natural and pastel blue forms .. and some nice ducky wallpaper.

I also tackled the back wall where the 900 range is going. Turns out, that was where the original range was before somebody had the bright idea of relocating it. (shaking head). Anyway, the wall was completely uneven, part un plastered and part poorly plastered. No problem for the masters of plaster. A little bonding coat to get the surface even-ish. And some finish coat to get a nice smooth finish. Well nice enough to be hidden by tile later on :)

Day 253: Weez a plumbin'

Had a half day off due to a teacher strike so thought I'd do some people plumbing in the kitchen and teach Caitlin a trade. 

Today's task was to get the sink hooked up. First I finished up the waste pipe outside. The old pipe was held together by duct tape so it had to go. Once the outside was done, I then fitted the inside of the cabinet. I used a B&Q kitchen sink kit which worked really well. I managed to get everything neatly tucked away into the back of the cabinet.

Next was the copper feed pipes. Again the goal was to get everything neatly arranged (and not leaking of course). Caitlin helped de-burr the pipes. 

The final result was good. All the water managed to stay in the pipes. The extra inlet/outlet is for the dishwasher which will be the subject of a future post.