Where the Magic Happens

When we lived in Mansfield, Paul had the tool shed of his dreams.  It had a heater, TV, radio and for all I know there was a wet bar and lap dancers coming in and out at all hours of the night.  Here's what we had:

 

When we moved to Dallas in 2005, unfortunately, our back yard wasn't big enough for another tool shed, so Paul has had to make so with using the sun porch, the driveway, etc.   Frankly I don't know how he makes such pretty stuff without a tool shed.   But he does. 

However, when "kitchen construction central" started, it was time to make a change.   The radial arm saw needed a new table, and tools and saws needed to be within easy reach, as well as being able to cut lumber straight on a table.   Here's what we have now:

 It does have a radio.  And although it is not "Hank Hill pristine" at least you can find stuff (or so I think).

Is it a three cart day or a four cart day in the neighborhood?

One of the ways Paul and I have been able to renovate the house is to take advantage of the 12 or 18 month no interest from Home Depot or Lowes.  And, as long as you pay it off within the requested time frame (which I do) you are golden.  The only problem is sometimes the promotion does not fall within the time frame we are looking at to remodel (normally it is before).  So we go buy and store stuff either on the sun porch or in the dining room (where currently resides 30 bags of insulation for the attic).

And admit it, you have seen us (or folks like us) at these places.  The ex-jock looking guy with the clipboard, measuring tape and gloves and his faithful companion (that's me) getting distracted by all the pretty shiny stuff.  

When we are buying large, it normally takes around 2-3 hours in Home Depot and/or Lowes. And, there are certain things we buy only at Home Depot and only at Lowes.  For example, paint, beadboard, and the adhesive for the flooring is at Lowes and crown molding is at Home Depot.   2x4's, sheetrock, tape and bedding, plywood, and/or mdf are anyone's guess.   I always ask Paul to try to get everything he think he might need.   But there are always as he puts it "incidentals."   Those "incidentals" normally consist of caulk and screws.  For the amount of caulk we have purchased over the years, I should own stock in caulk.

And when we are buying 2x4's, 4x8's, 2x10's, or any type of lumber, Paul examines them like they are a fine wine, looking at them from all angles.  I never understood why until we watched an episode of Holmes on Holmes.   He is checking the "crown."  Here's the "official" definition that I found on the "internets": 

"Traditional lumber floor joists and wall studs are rarely perfectly straight. Most of us wish they were straight so that walls and floors would be in the same plane. This would make the installation of both floor and wall cabinets a breeze. In fact, just about every finish material applied to a wall, floor or ceiling benefits when the framing members are in the same plane.  The crown of a piece of dimensional rough lumber is the upward arching curvature you see when you look down its narrowest dimensional edge. To see the crown of a common 2 by wall stud or floor joist, you drop one end of the board on the ground and pick up the other end. Rotate the piece of lumber so that the 1.5 inch wide surface is pointing to the sky. As you orient your eye, so that you are looking down this finished edge towards the ground, you will almost always see some amount of curvature. It is possible to have a piece of lumber that is perfectly straight or one with very little curvature, but they are few and far between." 

Not only does Paul peruse the crown, he also looks at sheet rock for broken corners, plywood for knots and straightness, beadboard for imperfections.  I have been known to go through 2 or 3 boxes of bullshots and flint blocks for to find that perfect one.  


And DIYer's take heed, when you are getting sheet rock, plywood, lumber, please stack it neatly back like my husband does.   It takes a little more time, but it helps the folks coming in behind you.   


Two trips, one to Home Depot and Lowes - 3 carts at Lowes; 2 carts at Home Depot.   I am sure there will be "incidentials."

The one where my husband writes the email

My dear husband Paul has a very dry sense of humor.  So much so that my mother in law worried about my ability to handle it.  Back in the day, I was a very shy, demure sort of girl.  But three houses and almost 24 years later, I got with the program.   Although we still have the "put your left hand on your right shoulder and brush your feelings off" moments.   I do admit to being a tad bit sensitive about things.  

So, we picked everything out, it has been ordered or on the way and we just need to pull the trigger on the cabinets.  Paul writes the following to V, our kd.  Note my husband does not use capitals when he writes emails.
  

From: Paul Havens

Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 11:04 PM
To: vivienne; Havens, Cindy
Subject: kitchen design

vivienne,
  cindy and i have gone over the recent design and after thoroughly discussing all the changes and what we though we wanted,  we have decided that we want to start over. 

since  you are still reading this you must realize i am totally kidding.  we can't wait to see what it looks like once we get it up.

all that we ask, is if we have asked for something that you think will cause us to question "why did we do this instead of" that you will let us know.  that is why we have appreciated you advice from the very beginning.  from your experience, you know what works and what doesn't and we feel that you have led us down the straight and narrow path from the dark of night into the sunlight.  but if you have any suggestions about the changes we have made, DO NOT BE SHY, and go ahead and hurt our feelings.  we are big boys and girls and we will get over our "terrific ideas".  we are at the point of no return and i have made those mistakes and regretted that i didn't take the right advice when it was given to me.   if there is nothing left to suggest, then," let's get'er done".  

waiting to hear from you about the next step.

ph

and here's her reply:

From: vivienne

Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 7:39 PM
To: Paul Havens; Havens, Cindy
Subject: RE: kitchen design

Hi Paul,

Sorry that it has taken all day for me to respond to your email, but I was in the emergency room recovering from the heart attack that you gave me. :)

Please know that I would never hold back on anything that I thought might benefit you or that which I feel might work better or not at all. That would go against both my professional and personal obligation to you. I believe that this design maximizes the space to its full potential while still making for a functional kitchen. Of course it will be aesthetically beautiful as well. The only thing that I would change when thinking about it again, is the size of the wall cabinets on the Range wall. I have attached the drawings for your review. I think that aesthetically the revised sizes make better sense. The price actually went down by a few dollars as a result. Let me know what you think.  The next step would be for me to come out and verify the measurements. We will also go over the final plan again as well as all the details, and have you sign off on it.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

I couldn't have made this up even if I tried.  And, I am quite sure she belted back something after reading Paul's email. 

The microwave - Part II - Bigger is not always better

As we bid fond farewell to our old microwave, Paul and I decided to go ahead and purchase our new microwave now, so that when "Construction Central" starts, we would have something to cook with. 

So armed with Consumer Report recommendations, we headed off to Sears to purchase the microwave we decided on.  However, once we got there, we were seduced by the bigger shinier version of the microwave we originally decided on. 

If it's bigger, it must be better  - right?  Wrong.   We get home and Paul decided to check Consumer Reports on this model.  Turns out it's the spawn of Satan and folks said in their reviews you might as well take a sledgehammer to it now.  

Oops!   So Paul takes it back and get the microwave we should have purchased in the first place.  It comes home and won't pop a bag of popcorn nor heat a cup of water.  Did we make a mistake?

The second microwave goes back and I am sure by now Sears thinks we are gutting the parts out of these and selling them on the black market.   Third time must be the charm, right?

And it was - it works, and the best thing about it according to my 17 year old?  Mom, it pops all the kernels in the microwave popcorn bag. 

What better recommendation than that?

The Microwave - Part I - Goodbye Old Friend

As I mentioned, I believe our appliances are original to our house.   So, when we undertook this project, the wall oven, microwave, dishwasher had to go. 



Here's my microwave.   

As you can see, it has a dial.  It cooks okay, it makes bacon, it doesn't do well with defrosting or melting butter.  We have a junior microwave for that.  

So, when we made the decision to get a smaller microwave and put it on the counter, we decided to put the old microwave out for bulk trash pickup.   And if you don't know what bulk trash pickup is, well it's once a month at the beginning of the month, where folks put out furniture, lumber, tree limbs,  etc.  Once we put a bathtub out there and it was gone the next morning.   So our old friend went out around 11:00 p.m. one Saturday evening with the following sign:

So how long do you think it took for someone to pick this up?  I said before 9:00 a.m. on Sunday.  Paul said before 10:00 a.m.  I walked out around 9:45 a.m. and it was gone.  I'd say it was a tie.