There's a hole...

a great big hole

There's a hole in floor, dear Liza, dear Liza. A great big one, dear Henry, dear Henry. There's a hole in the roof, too. Fortunately not nearly as big, but big enough that water is sneaking in somehow when it rains really hard. I discovered the latter after ripping down the drywall in that part of the kitchen. I created the former by ripping up rotted and termite-infested subflooring.

I ripped up a lot of subfloor today, and decided I'm going to rip up more that's spotty. So after making another dump run, I got another piece of T&G 3/4" for subflooring. The hole will be bigger than what's shown before I'm done. Including the old porch, it'll be three 4x8 sheets total, which ends up being two thirds of the kitchen. Hopefully that'll be enough.

Hobbing and Nobbing

So the subflooring was worse than I thought. Today I was out to the Habitat for my usual Friday gig, only this wasn't a usual Friday. Habitat East Bay held their 2nd annual Executive Build, where executives from different companies around the Bay Area come out and learn about Habitat and ways to partner with them, and swing a hammer for half a day. So I was hobbing and or nobbing with big cheeses (mmm...cheese) from companies like PG&E (they're paying for the solar panels on all the Habitat houses), Chevron, B of A, Wells Fargo, and more. Well, mostly I was swinging a hammer and teaching some new homeowners who were out getting started on their 500 hours of sweat equity how to swing one, too.

Oh, right. The subfloor. The event was through lunch, though a number of people stayed to work for another couple hours. After I got home, I started in on pulling up the vinyl flooring in the kitchen. I figured it was a good way to unwind, and as I'd only put in 3/4ths of a day at Habitat, I still had some energy. I hauled the dishwasher up to the carport, then pulled up flooring. It's glued to 1/4" plywood, and coming up in 2x2 or so chunks.

find a happy place

I pulled up some by where the sink had been, and saw the telltale of tunnels and castings. Fortunately no live termites, but after that and dropping the dustpan down a hole in the subfloor (yeah, there's a hole that big), I decided it was enough for the day. So let's all look at the lovely sunset instead, shall we? Lalalala...no termite damage here.

ISE = mark of the beast?

I read recently that disposals are evil. Not only do they discourage composting, but they use water (precious here in California) to flush solids to the water treatment plant where they then need to be trucked to a landfill, encourage blocked pipes along the way, and use a bit of electricity to boot. I had no idea they were so bad. InSinkErator responds that they're not evil, and in fact are better environmentally. Given the choice between chucking food in a disposal and throwing it in the garbage, maybe, but composting is the way to go.

evil?

We didn't use our disposal much since we compost, and after removing it, it's a good thing. As I was cutting the drain pipes, it fell away. Apparently it had been held in place primarily by the drain pipes, the top having rotted away to nothing. That along with the lower cabinets which were rotting away, between being cheap-ass particle board and having the occasional influx of moisture (rusted out drainpipe and original dishwasher, I'm looking at you). So besides the kitchen sink, there wasn't a whole lot to salvage out of the kitchen demolition.

Instead of getting to the vinyl flooring, I made a dump run and got some new subflooring material and some 2x4s to rebuild the wall where the old window had been. Ripping up the vinyl flooring and replacing some of the subflooring is on today's list.

Bloomin' Idiots

That'd be and some of the flowers. The flowers for starting the process of blooming a couple weeks ago in the warm days we had before winter returned. Me for deciding to tackle more plumbing work than I needed to today.

space...the kitchen's frontier

This week started off well. With the clock ticking, I got an early start yesterday (thanks to Star; if she can't sleep because of some perceived problem, why should anyone?) K headed off to work and I ran the dishwasher for the last time. While it was running, I hung plastic in the doorways and moved the last items out of kitchen. As soon as it was done, I started removing the cabinets and the remainders of the walls. It was messy but fun work. I alternated between the sawzall and a hammer and prybar. I'd planned to have the mess cleaned up by the time K got home from work, but when I looked at the clock it was 5PM and I still had a lot of debris to remove. I was still hauling stuff when she got home, and did so for a while after. I took a shower and was in bed before 9PM, and asleep not long after.

After 11 hours sleep, I awoke today and got a much slower start. In order to remove the lower cabinets, I needed to remove the plumbing. After K left for lunch, I turned off the water, and started chopping pipes. And now we come to my moment of idiocy. Rather than just sweat some 1/2" caps on the stubs of where the kitchen supply lines had been, I took a look the mess of 3/4" and 1/2" and tees and such where the plumbing for the addition had been tied in and galvanized pipes replaced, I decided it was time to clean it up. So I cut out the mishmash and then spent the rest of the afternoon cutting copper pipes and sweating fittings. I only had one failure, but with plumbing that takes a while. The results are great: no mishmash, 3/4" all the way to the master bath, and I think I fixed the last of the water hammer by securing the new pipes better. But it took me all afternoon instead of the less than an hour that capping the stubs would have. I did get the drain pipe removed and capped, and the old dishwasher pulled, so there was some visible evidence for today's work, but I'm feeling almost as tired tonight as I was last night.

Tomorrow I'll remove the sink and take out the lower cabinets, and remove the last bits of wall. Time permitting, I'll start ripping up the vinyl flooring, too. I did a little test strip, and it shouldn't be too bad. It's glued to 1/4" plywood instead of directly to the subfloor, so it comes up with out leaving adhesive gunk behind. The bad news is that I'll have to replace some of the subfloor, because I've already seen from below what bad shape it's in.

Behold...the Kitchen of the Future!

the kitchen of the future

Sure, you were expecting rotating refrigerators, dome top cookers, and levitating frying pans. No, our kitchen of the future is a little more down to earth. It'll be split between the dining room table (which is in the living room) for prep and cooking, and the bathroom for cleanup, with the occasional foray to the deck to use the grill.

Rosie the explorer

This week has been cleaning out and packing stuff from the kitchen so I can demolish things on Monday. Rosie was happy to help, if by 'help' you mean explore empty cabinets and drawers. K is busy making lasagna for tonight's guests in what will be the last use of the oven and stove for a while. It'll be...interesting...to live without a proper kitchen for a while. Wish us luck!