The process

Sanding the stone inside - a fine gray fog everywhere.  The sink is already waxed - you can see it's black.  The counters are not yet.

 

 

 Two rooms away!!

A rat tale

OK.  So it's not a week yet.  Not Sunday.  And no important event to report.  But can you believe how ridiculous I am with making decisions?  How many months ago did I state that I wanted rat-tail hinges on the sink base?  And how many times since then have I reiterated that fact?  Down to the wire, sink is coming tomorrow, cabinet doors ready to go on, and what do I have?

Acorn's hammered iron butterfly.  The H are for the dry sink we're making.  Butterfly?  Since when?  Sunday when I ordered them.  What has menopause done to my once sharp and decisive brain?  All these months I was asked "did you order the hinges? did you order the hinges? did you order the hinges?".  No dammit I did not and stop asking me.  What do you not understand about procrastinators?  Feet to the fire I had no choice and what do I do?  Choose a butterfly, that I never liked, never considered, haven't seen on a cupboard, but hit me like a brick.  The same thing happened when I saw Mary Lamin.  What is going on?  Boxes of my favorite fiber bars are sitting in the cupboard expiring, Greek yogurt is being enjoyed by the coons, my favorite cheese went to mold.  Not even my long time favorite coffee tastes good and I've gone down to 2 Dove a day instead of 12.  Everything is upside down!!  Am I coming off the menocoaster and this is the downhill slide ending in my opposite?  I just don't get it.  I'm not reading as many blogs, answering emails, sending cards to friends.  The only thing that hasn't changed is my big girl panties that I was forced into buying months ago and are stretched to their screaming limit.  The stress has affected my health but I really don't see it as an issue now.  This is just like Seinfeld's The Opposite episode.  Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. 

And didn't I say I would only post once a week?  Did I follow that last week?  Nope.  This week?  Nope.  Can I wait until Sunday to show you the soapstone?  At least I'm still sure that is what I want in the kitchen.  Maybe there's hope.

 

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Sally and the sink

Hello all.  How was your week?  We've been having beautiful weather and there is an excessive amount of outdoor work to be done this year.  But I can't kneel since my fall last year and I can't bend over in the slightest because of the ongoing esophagus issues.  Good thing Mark retired!  But I really enjoyed outdoor work and am disappointed in my limitations.

 

Sally Fiske is disappointing too, but only because I want to stitch and can't seem to get involved.  Is this a slump?  Just growing tired of it all?  Another 180 caused by menoswings?  Whatever the reason, I am almost forcing myself to pick up the needle.  Not even a quick small is appealing.  Here's where I am today - not much progress.
 Before I forget again, I drew a name from the few asking for Sally Hunt and Sandra in Australia won.

 

 

The farm sink base

There are a lot of pictures, most of which are confusing, but it's a good thing we did this because the $750 we saved on a custom cabinet was needed to pay Carole's heating oil bill.  My husband overdoes.  The more support and nails, the better according to him.  He wanted the support to extend to the base of the cabinet instead of using shorter supports (like a 2x4 around the sides) to hold the heavy sink. We also wanted the inside of the cabinet to be finished and not have visible bracing pieces so we covered the entire side.  This is his way of supporting the sink, but there are other options depending on the strength of your cabinets. So here we go.

 

Let me explain it first and then again with the photos.  Our existing cabinets have stiles and rails, or a frame around the actual cabinet the doors close on.  They are 1 1/4" wide.  On the inside of the cabinet, we added 3/4" thick plywood to the sides, created a 3/4" ledge to hold the same material as a shelf for the sink to rest.  We knew the exact outside dimensions of the sink and how far back it would go.  The sides were cut 3/4" less than that measurement because the shelf added another 3/4" to the height.  Mark did the same to the back of the cabinet but it really isn't necessary.  For additional support, you can add an L brace or something similar beneath the shelf (and he did).  Our installer said it was more than what is necessary but since it's several hundred pounds, we feel better with the extra.  Once it was screwed in place, perfectly level, we cut the rails and stiles (frame) from the cabinet.  Since the sides on the cabinets still had the frame, we added 1 1/4" rail to the front of the shelf to make it even.  Using 1 1/2" poplar, we glued/nailed a new frame over the old because I wanted the base to come out further than the others by the 3/4" of the poplar.  The side pieces were cut to the floor with legs.  For the doors, which I wanted different than the other cabinets, we will just make flush plank doors and paint the piece a different color than the others.  The sink shelf only needs to go back as far as the sink, leaving that area open for faucet installation and piping.  Confused?  You should be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does this make sense?

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Creating stability and support for the stone sink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sink sits on the shelf, front exposed, so the top section must go, but the SIDE stiles stay because the counter top will rest/end on that cabinet side.  Leave the outside frame, just cut the cross pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Add the cross rail back to level with the cabinet sides, securing into the shelf with screws and nailing/gluing in the upright stile.  It MUST be level with the top of the shelf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you cut the 3/4" x 1 1/2" poplar to lengths and attach to the front of the cabinet.  The little extra in the width prevents the old cabinet frame from showing.  You can use any width material if you want a wider frame.  They came out to measure again after this cabinet was finished to make sure the sink will fit perfectly into the opening without gaps.

 

 

 

Keep in mind that we did this to prepare for the sink, and needed to put our old double bowl stainless back into the old counter top until the new sink comes.

 Yes we did this at Christmas.  The counter top should have been installed in November but they screwed up so it's coming next week.  See how it comes out just enough?  That 3/4" won't interfere with the counter top overhang at all.  I think I finally decided on one of the 4,789 shades of red.

 

 

 

 

This is what it looked like before we put the old sink back in.  Again, not necessary to extend the shelf as Mark did.  I think the opening for the faucet installation will be too small and the entire back piece should have been shorter.

 

Although this is a pretty easy thing to do and you can pre-measure, have Lowes/Home Depot cut your plywood for you, it looks confusing.  I thought someone might be interested in getting a farm sink and the stores all tell you that you HAVE to order a new cabinet.  Nuh uh.  Next week at this time, You may be looking at our soapstone sink.  Not a finished kitchen, but at least a major part will be done.  After all this, I will probably find a salesperson that knows more than the others and tells me I could have purchased a farm sink base for cheap.  Nah.  How could it fit a custom sink?

That's all folks!!!
I'll bet you didn't know that boring can also be confusing.

 

Have a wonderful warm and sunny week.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

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Legs

Friday morning.  My husband is fixing an old barrel my brother found in a barn and gave to me, and then he'll be heading out to the golf course in the rain.  Unfortunately, it's loaded with powder post beetles so I can't put it close to the house.  I'm working on the kitchen's base cabinets today. 

 

We haven't removed Budette's box yet.  Even though she wasn't a "pet", we still miss feeding her every evening and watching her nap. 

 

 

And look who is coming around almost every day.  Squeak!  Still eat and run but at least we know he made it through winter and is back for good meals.

 

Nothing stitch related here - just wanted to share a few photos of the dreaded boring long as hell kitchen process. Since we raised the cabinets to make it more comfortable for me (I really DO hate being tall since forever), there is a higher toe kick area.  The legs I planned just don't look right proportionately.  So I'm playing with cardboard templates again and decided to mimic the curve on the upper cabinet sides.  Using different depths, legs, colors, and doors is great, but not in such a small area so this will work out for the better.

.  When we added legs to the vanity, we used 3/4" and then added 1/2" round to the top.  Here, I want the top edge of the leg apron to be flat, square like the edges of the doors and raised panels using 1/2" material.  Before he nails the toe kick board into place I think I will darken the paint quite a bit to recede.

 

 

Husband disagrees and likes the softer look, which could be achieved by using the correct height of baseboard and cutting the leg pattern.  If it looks bad when all is completed we could always add a quarter round to soften and even that would look better than the baseboard profile.  What a dust catcher it will be, but my paint color will hide it -that's the plan.

 

I also want to show how we modified our sink base to accommodate a farm style sink without the expense of a custom cabinet.  Since there is very little stitching happening, I'll add it to Sunday's post. 

 Haven't been feeling the sampler love lately.  I pulled several other projects and contemplated a switch from Sally, but haven't decided yet. 

I joined the Primitive Stitcher's Society on Facebook and don't have much to share because most of my stitching is reproductions, and I need to learn about bookin'.  I can't even figure out how to reply to messages - it wants me to chat.  No.  I want to write.  If Facebook has a tutorial for basics, I couldn't find it so I bought a book that still hasn't come in.  I wonder if the neighbor that received my wool shipment also has my book.

 

Enjoy your weekend - stay safe.

 

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Goodbye sweet girl

Our sweet little Budette has passed.  We found her this morning in the sheltered box that she would nap in after her late night visits. 

 

Visiting while I stitched outside

 

Coming out to grab some food from the boys

 

 Bringing the kids for snacks and a visit

 

 Her last litter

She was small, docile, gentle, not at all like any raccoon we've encountered.  She was here for a number of years, we can remember back to 2009, a very long life for a wild coon.  We will miss her every evening.

 

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The start

of weekly posts.  Sundays would be a good day to recap the week.  If there is breaking news, a new find, a dilemma, need for a rant, advice needed, or happy dance, I doubt I could wait but we'll see.  And I do have something important today. 

 

 

Do you remember Squeak?  The skinny cat that took me two years to approach and finally saw great improvement in his health?  The last time I showed him was in December during the Yellow Cat fiasco in this photo, the last time he was here was mid January.  We never saw him again and thought he was gone.  No way he could make it through that horrible winter, especially with heartless neighbors.  Guess who came to dinner last night? 

 

Well OK it was midnight, not dinner, but I was so excited to see him!  He devoured two cans of food while I stood watch for the big coons, and then ran back into the woods.  I don't know how, but he made it through.  Go Squeak!

 

Today was also the first day I was able to leave the house, and the start of floral dreams.  Some people like to put on the ritz, I like to put on the rust.  Waiting patiently to be brightened with color.  I drilled holes in the bottom of several old aluminum pots with handles for flowers. 

  

 

And the start of Sally did not go well.  Instead of coming down three stitches from the top border, I came down four.  Wasn't going to attempt moving the eyelet or the borders so the second alpha row is up one - good thing there was room in the design. I'm questioning my usual method of completing the left border and using it for row placement since it's such a large sampler. 

 

Hope you all have a great week.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

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