Monday, November 12, 2007

You Can't Do That

I didn't have to work this past weekend so we got a fair amount accomplished at the house, I think. I started grouting the shower but ran out of grout. That freakin' thing is just way bigger that I thought. Anyway, got about 2/3 of it done and I need to pick up some more grout during the week. Allen built a door for the "basement" and then one for the pump house. We used some leftover T&G cedar I had from a job and so the doors look great. He hung the one to the pump house but I wanted to find some better looking hinges for the one that goes on the house so it is still on the table. I finally framed the wall that will separate the kitchen from the living room. In this photo, you would be standing in the dining area, looking into the kitchen. You can barely see the edge of the sink on the left. The range and oven will go about opposite the sink on the right and center up on that high part of the wall. The lower areas of the wall are at 4'. Bar height sorta. I wanted to be able to see into the other areas and have good air flow. I plan on having concrete countertops and the backsplash on this wall will be tile. Maybe glass tile? That small room at the end is the pantry. The kitchen area is approximately 9 feet wide by 14 feet long.
Here you would be standing in the living area (by the door) looking into the kitchen. Now, on this side of the wall there is going to be this really cool built in book shelf unit that covers most of it and within that I am going to install this gas heater. That my sound odd but it is this really cool modern looking wall mount heater that is made to be flush with a wall surface. I think it will look nice. If I can find a photo I will try to include a link. I think this is it. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=267514-51507-SSRD200T-CB&lpage=none You may have noticed that there is not much room at all for wall cabinets in my kitchen. That's right! I hate wall cabinets! I have a rather large pantry and will have a good bit of space with floor cabinets so I plan to use a few open shelves on maybe 2 walls for placement of dishes etc. I hate lots of stuff. We all have way to much stuff. I want to pare my kitchen and everything really, down to just the essentials and am, at some point, make myself a nice, whole set of my own dishes so they will look nice sitting out where they can be seen.
You may have also noticed that this wall does not seem to have much support since it does not connect to the ceiling. Well, you ought to know better. I ran 3 studs (2 of the 8' and 1 of the 4') down through the floor, interrupting the bottom plate and nailed it off to the floor joist below. This strengthens the wall considerably. This was Allen's idea so I can't take credit. When the cabinets and countertops are added that will also add a lot of stability.
See my messy caulking job! It looked much better up top.
Well, now I'm having a breakdown over where to put the propane tank for the house. The best location will be inaccessible to vehicles in the future so I don't want to put it there. The next one puts it more in view but really accessible. The next best, as far as hiding it goes, means running more line thus more money but it would also be very accessible. Allen says again that I must one day do something the easy way. What's that?

3 comments:

Woody said...

Everything looks like it is coming together. Just let us know when the house warming party is...

peace

Rurality said...

I can't wait to see what it will all look like, so I can steal your ideas. :)

MamaHen said...

Hey Woody! You know, I can't decide whether to have the party when I move in or when the house is actually finished. Maybe both.

Hey Karen! I can't wait to see it either because I have no idea what it is going to look like now.