Major Kitchen Decision

We are about to make a major commitment to the kitchen remodeling project. We have selected Cabinet Pro as our cabinet provider and are going to make a down payment of eighteen grand. The total cost for cabinets, floor and counter tops is about $24,000. That does not include the cost of moving the sink and having a gas line run in the island.

We have decided that we will not be doing the actual kitchen destruction and installation until January. The cabinets are six weeks out and that puts us square in the Holiday season. We don’t want to be without a kitchen for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But lookout January second.

Project of the Day - A.C. Abatement

It is not yet even noon o'clock yet and I have finished my designated project of the day. I guess it is nap time.

The project was to remove the air conditioning units from their various places around the house. We are up to four units now but really only consistently use the one in the kitchen and the one in the back bedroom, where we sleep.

With this being the second day of fall, it is another sign that the good ol' summertime is over.

Also indicative of the end of the summer, it's Greek Fest weekend. We went last night after attending a Sales Pitch for a Resort Vacation Scam sort of thing. $15,000 for a life time membership to get discounted airfare, hotels and resorts.

I had a Gyro and Greek Donuts called Loukoumathes (loo koo MAT is). Susan had Spanakopita and Greek Fries, which are french fries with feta cheese sprinkled on them. 

Autumn Cometh and The Post Man Finisheth

Today we finished the back stairway rail project.

Yesterday we measured the post to size and then brewed up some cement to file the hole, with the post in it of course.

Initially, I bought 2 ten pound bags of cement. I ended up buying two more yesterday and then went back for a fifth. The five bags cost about 25 bucks.

The post was firmly in the ground by the end of the day yesterday and so I felt it was no problem to reattach the rail today. It didn't go back exactly as I had hoped but it is definitely more sturdy and stout than it was. That post will be there long after I'm gone.

And we have our SJB logo scratched into the cement to forever immortalize our effort. However, it will probably get buried in the dirt.

As of today, Summer of 2022 is in the history books and it is time to prepare for the colder months. I have not turned on the boiler yet so the Boiler Game is still in progress.

I have noticed that the bathroom heater, which is on it's own thermostat has come on a couple of times in the morning this week. So that's another sign to indicate the end of Summer.   

Rail Work

We are in limbo with the kitchen right now so I decided to work on another project that won't take too long.

The post on the stair rail at the back door has totally rotted away and is just propped up by a nub on the ground. I tried to make it a little more secure by pounding a couple of rebar posts into the ground next to the suppoet post and then securing the post to the rebar. The problem with that solution was that the rebar was not at all secure. 

At one point, I hit the rebar into the ground with my hammer and the whole thing almost disappeared into the ground. The old rotted fence post made the area quite fluid.  

So, I removed the rail and pulled the old post off.

I ended up having to dig out the hole so I can fill it with concrete. 

I have a bunch of old 4x4 posts that I can use as a replacement but I need to clean them up and paint them.

 

That's a project for tomorrow.

Nemesis, Nullified

Back on August 15th, I wrote a post about the small radiator in the kitchen. I said it was going to be my nemesis because it was not cooperating in the disconnection department. I needed to remove it in order to get to the flooring underneath.

Today, our plumber Tracy solved the problem with a simple sawsall. Take that, Nemesis!

Tracy capped off the pipes on both kitchen radiators. We are going to heat the kitchen through the winter with our EdenPure space heaters. That way we can continue to work on the kitchen without having to deal with the radiators when it comes to putting down the floor.

The flooring is up except for under the refrigerator and the area of the south wall, where the linoleum goes under the cabinets.

We are still waiting on a quote from Zieglers Home Center and we are waiting for a gas guy to give us a quote for laying a gas line.