Tuesday

 

We had a chilly walk early this morning but under beautiful skies.

We survived another winter holiday.

It was a chilly 51 degrees at 7:30 a.m.

Glad to see blue skies.

The workers arrived around 9:30 to install the cabinet doors and hardware in the laundry room. 

The workers are very specialized. The cabinet folks don't do the wood trim or molding. After an hour and a half, they were gone.

An hour or so later, the carpenters came to install trim and baseboards.

New trim

closet door hung

New water connections for the washing machine. This is important because water leaks can happen in these places and under the sinks over time. Our last inspector pointed out the plumbing issues under our sinks in the last inspection for our new insurance policy.

My project for the evening was to clean the laundry room floor and caulk the gaps in the new trim.

I used vinegar and baking soda, a stiff brush, and a toothbrush for the grout. Then I used our little green machine to vacuum up the gunk.

Then I caulked in preparation for touch up painting Wednesday.

There were lots of gaps. John was disappointed, but I knew that it wasn’t poor workmanship, just the nature of the beast. Wood plus 33 years plus humans equals some imperfections. Caulk is to a house as make up is to humans.

No gaps

Anywhere.

We talked to our designer via phone to get the lockbox combination after the workers left and locked us out while we were on a walk. While we had her on the phone, we talked about countertop overhang. She suggested an overhang to match the edge of the post if we weren’t going to use the bar at the oven for sitting. See picture simulation above and below.

It will box in the opening, matching the top of the window.

Her concern is that a greater overhang might encroach on the living room too much. We’ll still have the bar in the eat in side of the kitchen.

She also said that in her experience guests never want to sit down while she’s in the kitchen anyway. They just stand around her island nibbling on appetizers. The slight overhang will be fine for standing. What do you think?

I wanted overhangs sufficient for sitting at both bars. What we’ve found about our designer is that she’s good at editing. She knows when too much is too much. Just like a good writer is one who knows how to be succinct.

Toby hanging out