Backed Myself Into A Corner

Today I finished the plumbing, for now. There will be some minor work to be done, once I have the new faucet. I decided it was time to drag the last of the cabinets up for a test fit. Voila....they fit. I have to take them back down to the shop to add a few more structural pieces and to apply the finish, but all systems are go. The small opening on the right side, under the sink, is how we used to access the stuff in the corner cabinet. Very poor design, which is why I moved the dishwasher and designed the pull out/sliding shelf cabinet that is shown in the "Black Hole" post. Much better. There is still one, small, cabinet that goes to the left of the dishwasher. I'll knock that out in a few hours. After that, It'll be drywall time, Yaaay, just love all that dust.

Point Of No Return

Actually, I think I passed that point a while back, but today was the big, final demolition of the project. I tore out the remainder of the old counters and cabinets. We now are sinkless and woefully lacking in horizontal surfaces. I'm already feeling the inconvenience of having no kitchen plumbing. Tomorrow I will try to rig up the new sink and some sort of makeshift counter to tide us over. Wifey decided she didn't want anything protruding up from the counter, so we are going with a wall mount faucet. According to her, icky stuff gets under all those fittings. I had to do some minor re piping since we had a deck mount faucet previously. After this project is done, I will be putting an outdoor sink and counter on the patio, that backs up to the kitchen. I ran hot and cold stubs through the wall and will also run a waste line tomorrow. The vacuum breaker for the dishwasher will go on the outside sink so the inside counter will be smooth and easy to wipe down

Old Sour Puss

Wifey and I were at the produce market last week and we noticed that pickling cucumbers were on sale. I thought, why not try to make some kosher dills? How hard could it be? So, after some web surfing I came up with a recipe that looked easy and didn't require a bunch of oddball stuff. I made up a brine solution with salt, vinegar, various spices and, of course, some dill. The whole deal took about an hour. Afterwards, they have to sit for 4 days, or so, until they are ready. Yesterday I felt it was time to give one the ol' taste test. I think they are the best pickles that I have ever tasted. Nice and sour, but not too much. Nice dill flavor and, since I added some hot peppers to the brine, they have a little kick to them. Not much, but enough to let you know that there's something special going on. I will not be buying store bought pickles again. These are too easy and too good to give Vlasic any more of my dough

Entering Into The Black Hole

If you have a corner cabinet in your kitchen, then you know what a waste of space they are. Things get shoved back into the dark recess and are lost until you move or die. There are bifold doors and Lazy Susan contraptions that address the problem, to a degree. The Lazy Susan offers nothing in the way of utilizing the available space and stuff falls off of them and is swallowed up by the darkness. Our existing cabinet is even worse, since the access door is very narrow and you can't even see the back without a flashlight and a mirror. I finished this cabinet today. In the normal position, when you open the (future) door, there are two shelves that pull out. When fully extended, the assembly slides to the right, exposing a second set of shelves that are hiding in the, former, unreachable area. The skinny cabinet, that will be left, next to the under sink area will be used as an appliance garage for the toaster and coffee maker. I also added a slot for a breadboard. For those having trouble following this, the cabinet goes to the right of the range, where the dishwasher is now.