Day 480: Some venting

After a week off in Austria - it was back to business on the kitchen. The first order of business was to grout the tiles; cause white tiles by themselves are well .. a bit dull. We elected to go with  a grey "smoke" colour. This was more of a medium grey as opposed to the brownish/yellow "smoking" colour from the rest of the house.

The fun part was to get all of the excess tile adhesive outside of the joints between the tiles. Good practice is to use an adhesive similar in colour to the grout you plan on using. Lazy practice is to use the adhesive you have left over, in this case white, and scrape out any excess.

 

Then came the grout, one of my more favorite activities. Right behind smashing things. Grout was mixed into a peanut butter consistency and smeared on the wall working it well into the joints with my trusty float.

 

And then off it came. After many a wipe down with a builders sponge, it was looking rather sharp. Now to just let it dry and focus on a few other things ...

 

And once it was dry, finally time for the cooker hood (and a long story). 

So the cooker hood was originally ordered in April of 2016 with the cooker. We chose a Belling 90cm stainless steel hood to match the cooker. It was supposed to arrive in June last o=year just after the cooker .. unfortunately it didn't and I got a call from Curry's that it was delayed by the manufacturer Belling and would be refunded. So I then ordered from another outlet who said they could deliver in 2 months time. And after 2 months I got a call saying it would be delayed another 2 month, followed by another phone call and another 2 months. By the time I got a 3rd call from this outfit, I told them where to go. I managed to find another supplier that had it "in stock" only to find out a week later that it was, you guessed it, about 2 months away .. 

Now it was Christmas time, and I was in Canada and elected to go with the 100cm version, normally much more expensive, but on sale for Boxng Day. And it was in stock!!! The box arrived just after we got back to the UK and I really couldn't believe my eyes when the thing actually arrived. So yes, it's a 100cm hood over a 90cm cooker but my research shows that this isn't a bad thing because smoke doesn't just go straight upwards anyway, a bigger hood is actually better if you can fit it. 

 

And all I need to mount it was a bracket and 3 screws - these things don't actually weigh that much. So far so good.

 

And finally the hood was mounted. After initially struggling to get the 150mm piping routed out of the house, and then having to figure out how to conceal it (see here), and finally having all the issues with delivery .. the hood was up. And it looks nice and works a treat (i.e. it sucks, but in a productive kind of way)

Except of course there had to be an issue .. the cover for the tubing was not very forgiving. Apparently, though it's a 150mm extractor, Belling must not think many people are going to be fitting 150mm ducting because there was no give to the front. The ducting would have been mounted perfectly flush to the wall in order for it to work. And I had about 2cm of gap. Not the end of the world, but definitely a bit more customization in the near future. 

That aside, I'm still glad that we went with the full size ducting. The fan works much better without the constriction and is a whole lot quieter. Only to get this surround figured out now.

Day 460: And the survey says .....

The votes are in from the masses and an overwhelming majority of you (66%) voted for ...

WHITE TILES

So respecting the will of the people, we've elected to go with this option. "White means white!" and "We're going to make a success of it!"

I'll start with the obligatory BEFORE picture .. white walls, Scott's mediocre attempt at plastering .. boring ..

The kit involved in this weekend's project .. 

1. Mapei semi flexible tile adhesive - leftovers from the bathroom
2. 4 boxes of white metro tiles
3. A tile adhesive spreader
4. A grout float
5. 2mm wall tile spacers
6. Some "smoke" grey grouting
7. An old wood panel to keep everything on
8. And the most important tool, me

Since there was an annoying enough gap between the back of the range and the wall and the countertop and the wall - just big enough for a tile to slip down, I had to McGyver a little contraption to mount the tiles on. This involved some old wood - yes lots of that now - and a drywall corner. This fit snugly against the wall and provided a nice level base for the first row of tiles.

So on went the adhesive, spread nicely to allow the right coverage and then went on the tiles .. row by row ..

By row, by row, by row, ... [FAST FORWARD] and the first wall was finally finished. I discovered an unfortunate "bow" in the plaster ceiling at the back, but this won't be seen when grouted and covered by the range hood. End of day one ..

Day 2 (Sunday) didn't start off too well .. kids were throwing up all night with a stomach bug. Care and I weren't feeling 100% - possibly due to not sleeping, possibly due to the same bug, possibly due to too many bottles of wine at a Luke and Kathy's the night before - or possibly some combination of these. In any case, no rugby for Caitlin and a slow start to the side walls for tiles.

I manged to drag myself out of the house to pick up some edging strips from Topps Tiles. These things make the edges look nice and pretty and hide all of the sins from cut tiles. I got stainless steel ones to match the range and hood. And because stainless steel is cool. You can see the bling in the picture below.

More tiles went on row, by row, by row,, zzzzzzzz, by row, you get the picture.

Then it came to the challenging part (not really), the cutout for the range switch plate. I use a wet tile saw to make my cutouts mostly because power tools are cool and loud. In this case, cutouts are a breeze. Measure, mark and cut (and hope). But it this case  everything fit perfectly.

And the somewhat finished job .. All in all, pretty good and glad that we went with the white - the tens of thousands who voted for white made a good pick. (I'm sure the other colour would have looked nice as well)

I have to admit (it's hard to type while patting oneself on the back), tiling is actually a fairly easy thing to do once you get the hang of it. As you can probably gather, it's pretty repetitive so lots of opportunity to refine your skills. The key is having a reasonably flat / straight wall to work from. And to take your time in the more challenging parts. Measure twice , etc. 

So we're now on to grouting, but that will be the subject of another post. Finally we can get that range hood on. Looking forward to cooking bacon without setting off alarms across the street. Our neighbours will be very happy too.

Day 443: A home for our wine

So even though we had a roof over our heads, our poor wine remained homeless .. In spite of our best efforts to ensure that the wine didn't remain in this state for very long (with some help from our neighbours Michelle and Stu), we still found that there was a chronic lack of suitable housing for our wine.

It was time to take action against wine homelessness. And the solution didn't come in a bottle, but rather a flat pack box. 

So on to this weekend's project, a wine house .. a place where our wine could live out the rest of its days stored nicely among friends. 

Only one slight problem, the 7 story housing unit needed to fit in a 6 1/2 story place on (or rather under) the great peninsula. The location was perfect, almost like the developer had envisioned the layout in the first place (need to give Carolyn credit here, I was just going to cover it over). In fact it was "dead" space needed to make accommodation for the range doors.

 

So how do you fit a 7 story building into a 6 1/2 story location. Simple, you adjust the building to be a 6 1/2 story building. The penthouse could then go to the wines' associates - the glass marker, the bottle opener and the coaster family.

 

And voila, a new 6 1/2 story home....

 

And it fits like it was meant to. 

I decided to shift it over a bit to the left to keep the heads of the wine from getting knocked by little knees but not too close to the wall to make sure the skirting didn't impede wine entry and exit from the complex. 

 

Some magic then happened (or I forgot to take photos) so that everything was nicely covered in cladding. And finally, we solved the homeless problem for 6 lucky bottles of wine.

It feels good when you know your work has made a difference. I think we're in good shape so long as we can keep net wine migration to the tens of bottles ..

Day 436: Building bridges

After seeing the tiny wall cabinet and the fridge, we decided there was enough space for a hard to reach cabinet that we will never use. In it, we can put things that we'll forget about.

So, it just happens that there a bridging cabinet made just for this purpose - to bridge things. It's basically a thin cabinet flipped on it's side with a nifty upward opening door - more on that later. So the kit was ordered while we were in Canada and arrived shortly after we got back. 

 

You have to admit, it looks a bit empty atop the fridge. I did the measurements when I installed the cabinet to the left and shifted it up ever so slightly so that the bridge could fit flush.

After doing a couple of these flat packs, instructions are no longer needed. The great thing is that each cabinet is pretty much the same, just a different size.

Drilling and installing the wall brackets. Brick wall plugs and long, beefy screws. This bridge ain't fallin' down on my watch.

Everything in place and level (of course) ...

Now the cool part. Since the door opens upwards, gravity would say that it also falls downwards. Not easy when up a ladder getting things down. So the hinge kit comes with a gas lift and soft close. Instruction were needed here.

Little things impress me and this definitely did. Open the door a little and WHAM the things opens itself. Shut it and the gas lift and soft close work in harmony to self-shut. Caitlin also thought it was cool and wanted to show the nanny ... or it could be that there was some leftover Hallowe'en treats in the cabinet; but I'll go with the former ...

 From the outside ...

And finished with a little bit of cornice on the top. And the bridge is complete and I have to admit the area looks much more finished than before. And all we need to do now is think of what things we can put in there and later forget about...

Day 300-something: An inspirational letter

A great letter written by Caitlin last year when the kitchen was still in pieces ..

[ATTEMPTED TRANSLATION]

I love my dad's building. He builds very well. Sometimes I get very proud with him. [what happens the other times I wonder]

He works well for my family. Sometimes he says "don't come in this room because I am building for you; I am working very hard for you"

[but] it is taking for ages!!!! [sounds like a certain other parent who will remain nameless]

And sometimes my daddy gets very hungry and tired [and finally some sympathy] 

I love my daddy. I give him cuddles and hugs.

Love from Caitlin

PS. And I think he would really benefit from getting a new Fatmax 18v impact driver for this Father's Day. You can get online or at Argos or Homebase. [small print at the bottom of the page, hard to decipher on the photo but believe me it's there.] 

That good looking fellow with the tools is me. It is pretty obvious from the picture, but for those new to this blog or DIY, I'm probably plastering the wall / tiling / smashing something / painting / drawing on a whiteboard / drinking a martini next to an open window

Day 403: A rubbish job

Today's job was to transform the wee cabinet in the corner into the wee rubbish cabinet in the corner.

It all came in a kit that was designed for the 400mm wide cabinet that contained 2 medium sized bins. The kit was not cheap by any stretch, but at least it would be all plug-and-play .. or so I thought.

Step 1 was to remove the door and install the rail into the pre-drilled holes. Only there was no pre-drilled holes. So I had to drill them.. 

Next, I needed to install the door mounting hardware onto the door's pre-drilled holes. Only there was no pre-drilled holes so I had to make some myself once again.

But at last, I was finally able to get things all mounted and things would just be open and shut .. except the door didn't shut properly.. The kit now needed to be adjusted. 4 screws, how hard could that be ... 30 min later I finally had a door that shut properly.

Overall, I got the result that I was looking for .. a nice tucked away place to put all our rubbish and recycling, making good use of the wee cabinet in the corner. The kit was well made and works a charm now .. but it was definitely anything but plug-and-play.

So, in this case I'm happy to say that I did some rubbish work!

Day 443:Tough decisions

Another tough decision to make .. we need the help of the masses.

Once again my favourite subject, tiles. We spent what felt like years deliberating what colour to put in the bathroom. I've spent way too many weekends walking through tile shops discussing the merits of gloss/non-gloss, beveled vs straight edge, metro/square/bulletproof/glow in the dark/etc.

Now it's the kitchen. Yeah.

So we've decided once again on metro (subway) tiles. The debate is what colour scheme. On the majority of the backsplash it will be white metro tiles with a gunmetal grout. As to the backsplash behind the range (currently boring white walls in picture 1), we're deciding on whether to go with a second tone "accent" wall as shown in picture 3 or to keep it single tone like picture 2.

I've added a voting button to the left .. place your votes now.. The result will be posted in a future post.

Current boring white backsplash

One tone, all white

Two tone, a little bit of colour