More Jungle

Jon King came over a later weekend and we cleaned up the yard with raking and lots of weed/vine pulling. We bagged all of it so I could dispose in my own trash over time instead of borrowing a truck to head to the dump. There was actually a decent yard under all that mess!

Controlling the Jungle

This house was definitely a fixer-upper type purchase, but wow was the yard out of control. The picture to the right only shows one aspect of this, which is the overgrown trees being dominated in morning glory ivy. It was blocking 25% of the patio, so it all had to go. So I got myself some power tools to get after it.

 
There were four trees that needed to be cut down and Michael Tall and I attacked a couple of them. He came over to help "get the yard under control" but then he grabbed my chain saw and was like, "let's cut down this tree." It seemed aggressive at the time but it started the process that has made a world of difference already.

When we were done with the first batch of trees, we had quite the large mass of tree debris to deal with. We cut most of it up and took it to the dump to recycle. Turns out if the greenery comes from your own yard and you live in San Diego county, you can drop it at their greenery recycling center for free! By the end of it we had made a huge change just by cutting down two trees.




I cut down the other trees myself, which maybe was not the smartest move. The two trees were attached to each other by morning glory vines, so when I cut down one and it went timber, it held and actually swung above me. The vines snapped and it fill on my back. Sounds worse than it was, I just had to get out of the squat in order to get the tree off. Not ideal.

Wine Fridge Completion

Because of the slight slope in the kitchen counter and the tight fit of the wine fridge and the custom cabinet, I had a little bit more custom work to do to make everything fit nicely. I had to cut into the drywall and cut some of the baseboard so that everything would fit. No easy task in this setup and a jig saw was essential.

Once there was a enough space, I had to wedge the custom cabinet into the side. Then I cut a custom piece of the excess cabinetry wood to frame the top of the wine fridge so everything would look flush. This took some ingenuity to mount to the plywood attached to the granite. Finally gradually pushing the wine fridge into the tight space. There is some trim work and caulking not shown here that completed the project. It will look even better when I paint the family room and clean up the pain in this area.

Kitchen Color

My all white kitchen definitely needed a little bit of color. I wanted something bright and in the blue-green family to tie in with the green counters. The first step was preparing the area by taping off edges and removing outlet covers. I decided that since my security system is not even active that I would patch up that hole and leave the wire in the wall in case I want to reactivate it in the future.

Next was sampling some colors. I realized with the first sample that I was not willing to go as bold on color as I thought.  I finally settled on a sort of sea foam green called Windwood Spring, which is the bottom one of the samples.

Over a few days I painted the walls and edges and removed the tape. I had previously painted the window frame a bright white to match the cabinets and trim.  Eventually I reinstalled the drawers and doors back into the kitchen. I need to install the new outlets and light switches next. And then I will paint the ceiling and I can begin to decorate the kitchen.

Custom Cabinet

I started working on the built in cabinet and trim around the wine fridge. The company I purchased the cabinets from sent me two of the 96" by 24" white panels for the side of the refrigerator. I will use this and other left overs to make the wine fridge look built in. To the left of the fridge I installed one of the front trim pieces. Then I used the wood to create a very narrow cabinet frame. Eventually this will have rails hanging from each shelf to slide wine glasses into. The process was fairly tedious due to the space being such a tight fit for everything, but everything fits nicely.

Caulking The Trim

It's amazing how scribe moulding with caulk to fill the gaps and fresh paint over top makes such a substantial difference in the look of kitchen cabinets. This is especially true with the pantry unit and other pieces around the refrigerator, which for the past few months looked out of place and not built in. The caulking process was a little more complex than with the crown moulding in the bedroom due to some of the substantial gaps between the scribe moulding or casing and the sometimes uneven wall. I small and simple tool courtesy of Peter makes edging the caulk simple and less messy - although I still get it all over me.

Some of the corners at the peninsula unit required some unique efforts to cover exposed unfinished cabinet frames and to transition between levels of flooring. This sort of trim work takes a lot of extra time, but gives a professional look to the result, which is totally worth it. There is still more of this trim work to finish up over the coming weekends, which will be combined with choosing a wall color for the kitchen. Something vibrant to offset the bright white cabinets and the neutral grey tile.

Back Patio and Garage

Through all of my house work so far, the back patio has basically been a place for making cuts and for piling up debris. Finally this weekend I spent time cutting garbage pieces into managable sizes and disposing of them. I also rearranged the garage and brought in some boxes for unpacking during the coming week. The patio is nearing a point at which I can sweep it off and consider furniture. The garage is almost to a point where I can park my car.

Wine Fridge

I found a great deal at Home Depot on a wine fridge, plus a bonus 10% off plus 12 months interest free. So it made sense to purchase it now and not have an open gap in my cabinets. After UPS failed multiple times I had to drive to get the thing myself - which barely fit into my car. The installation was very simple and it is now nearly full of reds and whites. I have some space to the right of the fridge which I intend to build a custom cabinet for holding wine glasses. I will also need to add trim to the left and above the fridge to make it look completely built in.

Moulding Time

My goal is to install all of my moulding in 4 hours and return the nail gun before I switch to 24 hour rental. The casing around the door is a challenge because the uneven wall means that the drywall sticks out past the door frame. I pull the moulding as tight as possible but will have to make up the difference with the caulk.

The baseboard next to this door is quite the project. I previously textured the wall and once that dried, I applied white paint and primer to seal the area. Now I install the moulding and the quarter round along the back wall.

The white panels on the side of the upper cabinets and the pantry involve a lot of preparation. I previously cut the toe kick corner into the pantry piece and purchased clamps for holding up the white panel to the cabinets. The first step is to apply wood glue to the panel liberally. Once the panel is in place I apply the clamps along the front edge to ensure a good seal since I will not put finishing nails on this edge. The finishing nails are only added to the top and near the wall because these will be covered by the scribe moulding.

The scribe moulding goes along the ceiling edge of the cabinets and down the exposed sides. Due to the uneven ceiling there are a few locations where caulking will be very important to close the gap. The quarter round goes along all the base boards and toe kicks in the kitchen.

The threshold has been previously cut and trimmed to the correct size, all that is left is nailing it down with the finishing nails. I am careful to leave a 1/8" gap with the tile for grouting.

The panels on the peninsula involve a lot of cutting to certain sizes and the cutting of a corner for the toe kick, which I did previously. Now I use the clamps and some wood glue to hold the panels in place and use the finishing nails along the top and at the end. The corners are covered with right angle corner pieces and some extra scribe moulding magic. The quarter round has a difficult portion where the floor drops from tile to wood, which involves some extra cuts and wood glue.

Hardware and Dishware

Installing all of the pulls for the drawers was a bit more effort the knobs on the cabinet doors. Centering and leveling is very important for the resulting look. After marking the locations, I drill pilot holes for the bolts. Unfortunately the pulls came with standard 1" bolts, which were fine for the cabinets but too short to go through the draw frame and front face. The new longer bolts work well for the standard drawers, but the faux drawers at the sink have even less depth than the cabinet doors. I need to return to Home Depot to get 3/4" bolts for these two handles.

When I finish this simple task after multiple days I celebrate with a beer. I begin unpacking my kitchen dishes, drinkware, silverware, pots, pans, etc. I finally get to unpack my gifted William-Sonoma monogrammed glassware, but realize that I am lacking in matching silverware and dishware. After research I determine that Ikea will suffice and fill my other cabinet with dishes and coffee mugs and my silverware drawer with a bamboo organizer.