Kitchen Remodel #2

Goal #1: Take the tile up and see what's under it!

Plywood!  Or at least that's the next level.  ML was a "tile removal animal"!  With a cold chisel in one hand and a big hammer in the other, she had row after row popped up and hauled out to the driveway.

But under the plywood?  Not so fast!  Ring shanked nails were spaced every 8 inches or so in half inch plywood.  Sometimes I was chipping out 8 inch chunks of plywood.  It went OK until the last third, when the nail spacing went to 6".

But look what is underneath - just what we thought!  Not really!  This photo is the edge of a sheet of plywood to give you scale.  In front of  it is what is left of old linoleum when you strip it up.  A paper like layer mixed with glue is left.  You can also see a different kind of nail in the middle right of the picture.  All that is stuck to some real nice oak hardwood flooring - which is what we wanted.

You can see the plywood being ripped out the best way possible.  But, eventually, we had a floor without plywood and tile.

Watch out for nails.  They blend in with the black and are miserable on bare feet.

Kitchen Remodel #1

It's time.  We have an original kitchen from when the house was built in 1958.  It's been updated with a newer small wall oven and cooktop.  A dishwasher has been shoved into a hewn gap in the base cabinets.  The sink is 6" deep at most.  The cabinets are custom plywood. The countertops and backsplash are pink tile.  Crumbs and a lot more rests in the grout.  Yep, time to upgrade.

  The following pictures are of the existing kitchen.  See all the counterspace for food preparation?

We do have a cute table.  The blue tape marks where we're going to cut out the wall to the dining room.  Should be fun.

This photo shows the other side, anchored by a side by side frig.

See the pink tile?

The floor is a nice cracked white tile so that dirt won't be seen very well.  Luckily, ML has less tolerance for dirt on white tile than I do. 

GASPARILLA !!

The pirates are about to attack!!

The City of Tampa has quite a celebration in late January.  It seems to have something to do with people, pirates, beads, lots of food, and copious quantities of alcoholic beverages.


We have a nice view of the "invasion" of the pirates weaving down Sneddon Channel, not far from our house.  It's always worth a jaunt to see the scene.  Watch out for the occasional patches of vomit.

The pirates are hanging all over the Gasparilla ship in the background.   They "land" and a big parade with various "Krewes" compete to see who can drink the most and throw the most beads.

There are lots of boats!  

People line the shore to get bead necklaces thrown from the boats. 

Put on your eyepatch!  Eat! Drink!  Be merry!

Aye Aye, Captain!

HOT or COLD?

Sometimes the simplest of things seem so complicated.

Six years ago when I plumbed the house, I spaced out and switched the hot and cold water pipes to the shower valve.

Hmmm.  It worked OK, just opposite.  One person that stayed in our house thought we had no hot water!

For years, my mind was consumed with the difficulty of crawling under the house, removing insulation (in the face, of course), and cutting and patching pipes.

But, 6 months ago, I said "AHA!"  Why don't I just switch the valve backwards too!  Plus, the amount on information on the internet is amazing.  I found a youtube video the detailed exactly how to swap out my brand of valve.  You can learn too at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEDxl0A2pl0

The girls were gone and I was by myself, so I crawled under the house to turn off the water (I'm gonna fix that soon, too!).  Ten minutes later, the valve was switched (I didn't even break anything and have to wait a week for parts!).  I crawled back under the house and turned the water on again.

Voila!  It's fixed.  I wish I had thought of it earlier.