Kitchen Update

All photos shot on April 10, 2011

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Ferns and Ivies in the Kitchen

The asparagus fern waits for us to find a pot big enough for it.

Every March I typically have a fever to see green things. This is understandable to people living here in the Kingdom. With three feet of snow on the ground, it can be difficult imagining that summer will ever return. This past March, my sister, Camille, and I made one of our famous shopping trips. Instead of going book shopping, we went plant shopping in Lyndonville.

Camille lives in the Lyndonville area so she took me to White's Market to look at houseplants. Camille also advised me to get an asparagus fern because, she said, they are easy to care for and grow a lot. The asparagus fern at White's Market was huge and I wasn't sure that I wanted it. But then Julia, the floral designer, saw us and came to assist us. Julia is a gem. She knows her plants and is so enthusiastic that she convinced me that I can grow anything. She introduced me to new plants that I never considered buying, and made me very excited about the prospect of being a successful gardener. I ended up buying the asparagus fern, a large Boston fern, two small lemon button ferns (which are variants of Boston ferns), a huge grape ivy, two small English ivies, a large shamrock and a small schefflera. White’s Market must be very pleased with Julia!

The asparagus fern takes a bath.

All of the plants are doing very well here at the house. In fact, the asparagus fern is doing so well that it was growing in front of my eyes — it was growing into other pots that were near it. It became bigger and bigger and by April 9 we had to repot it. It took the brute strength of John to get it out of the pot and had to be divided into two. After a nice bath, we hung it in the living room where the spider plant used to be. We moved the spider plant into the kitchen sun porch.

Repotted asparagus fern now hangs in the living room.

The spider plant now hangs in the sun porch. John built the bookcase on the side of the double oven. It holds our cookbooks. The bookcase is made from pine salvaged from the old porch

The divided and repotted angel wing begonia.
This begonia was a gift from Barb, a friend at the library.

Instead of curtains, I have used the Boston fern (right) and a Swedish ivy from the C&C (left) to frame the kitchen windows. John used a 200 year old piece of Douglas fir as a functional trim to hold the weight of the hanging plants. We can add smaller planters as we desire in the future.

I am more than pleased with my numerous houseplants. May they continue to thrive (and may I continue to successfully care for them)!

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American Hornbeam Trees and Coppicing

Carpinus caroliniana

We have quite a few hornbeam trees in the woods. I didn't know this. I thought they were all little beech trees. After reading about hornbeams, it isn't surprising that I thought they were beech: another name for hornbeam is blue beech. But the bark is smaller grained, flakier and grayer than beech. The leaves of a hornbeam are even similar to beech leaves. Since it is winter, I have no photographs of either leaves to compare. And apparently I have photographed every part of a beech tree (leaves, buds, seeds and seed hulls) except the bark. One difference between the trees is that hornbeams, but not beech, have catkins (male and female).

Hornbeam is also called ironwood. It is very hard wood, used for things like axe handles, soles of shoes, piano actions and other object that require a very hard wood. But the most fascinating thing about hornbeam is how it is grown to make hardwood poles and parquet flooring.

Coppicing is an ancient way to manage woodlots. A tree is cut down almost to the ground at the beginning of winter. In the next spring, many shoots will grow out of the stump (which is called a stool). These shoots are allowed to grow for several years after which they are harvested for poles and other uses. These poles can also be used to make dowels. Below is a public domain diagram of the coppicing cycle from Wikipedia:

Dowels are of interest to me because John and I have frequently discussed their use in the construction of the new kitchen. So far, John has made his own dowels to create plugs to cover certain nails on the cookbook bookcase and in an ancient piece of Douglas fir that he used over the kitchen window. When I learned, on an early spring walk that we took on top of the deep, crusted snow in the woods, that we have trees up there that could be used to make dowels, you can imagine my interest!

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Kitchen Floor 3: The Trim

After the kitchen floor was tiled, there was trim work to be done under the cabinets. The problem was the design of the tile. What part of the tile would you use to trim the cabinets? We decided on two different ways: one for the wall cabinets and another for the island. Look carefully at these two photos to see the differences. It may seem that we paid too much attention to this, but after looking at alternatives, I found that choosing the wrong design could detract from the entire floor. I am very happy with what John did — it enhances the floor and the cabinets. In the photo below, you see where the floor ends until we finish the demolition of the rest of the old kitchen.

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Kitchen Floor 2: Stone Inlay

March 4, 2011

When a house is 110 years old, it is going to sag and get crooked. John leveled the entire house and the kitchen floor was level. He demolished and rebuilt crooked walls and the floor would be straight. But one addition to the house was built crooked to the house. In order to straighten it, he would have had to dismantle the entire addition and rebuild it. The house is sound without doing that. But one consequence is that as the tile floor reached the French doors in the breakfast nook, the tiles would have crossed the threshold of the doors in a diagonal and that would have been unacceptable both to John and to people who walk on the floor.

To straighten that line, John designed and tiled an abstract stone inlay of the trees and wildflowers in our fields and woods. To lay this design within the tiles, each tile had was cut and one piece of the tile was slid away from the other to make room for the inlay. This sliding of a part of each tile realigned the tiles and the floor then appeared straight as it neared and went under the French doors.

March 7, 2011

These photos show a small sequence from the beginning until the end of the creation of the inlay. Stone from here and from John's travels was used. The tree is brownstone from Whiteville, Virginia; pink flowers are Brazilian rose quartz; the green is green crystal beryl from Alstead, NH. He also used art glass for the white and blue from Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. The white center of one flower is an actual marble made of marble, sliced in half, giving the floor another dimension.

March 9, 2011

I still have not photographed the inlay since it has been grouted. You simply have to wait for that!

John is now encouraging me to design the counters of two built in cabinets that he has built (one in the breakfast nook and one in the living room). I had planned on doing tessellations of regular polygons. But after looking at the tile and stone that I have available, I have decided on an abstract pattern featuring local stone from the fields and the granite quarry up the mountain.

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Knobs

Stained and polyurethaned cabinet knobs.
March 3, 2011

I'm learning. After being shown how, I stained and polyurethaned twenty-five cabinet knobs for my new kitchen. They are bright and shiny and I am proud. You have to understand that I hadn't done this before, so it was a big deal for me. And now, a month later, I even know how to clean and store the polyurethane brush and how to care for the can of polyurethane. I don’t have to wait for John anymore to coach me. John built this rack from scrap lumber for me to dry the knobs. Most of them are now installed in the kitchen. But some have to wait because we have to refinish the old cabinet faces. I may not be able to do the sanding then (because of the dust), but I'll do the staining and polyurethaning all of the faces!

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The New Appliances

The double oven is set inside its new custom cabinet.

A couple of weeks before the appliances came, we downloaded the installation manuals for the oven, dishwasher and stove top. John needed the specs so that he could do the electrical work properly. He followed the electrical specifications perfectly. And then we drove to New Hampshire and got the appliances.

The bisque cooktop.

Right off, John found that the oven's wiring was at the top of the appliance and not at the bottom as it stated in the installation manual. So John had to take out all of his wiring out and rewire, not just the oven, but part of the kitchen because wiring on the top of the cabinet meant that the wires had to come out of the ceiling and not from the basement. The cooktop wiring was completely wrong, but it wasn't as frustrating because the manual had said not to install the electrical until you have the cooktop. The oven was supposed to be 30 amps but turned out to be 40 and there was a similar problem with the cooktop The dishwasher? No problem! Whew!

Finally, everything was installed properly, the counter for the island was tiled and grouted, and we had a kitchen that we could now cook in. It was fun moving in! There is still a lot of detail work to be done: more custom cabinets, trim, doors, drawers, knobs . . . who knew that so much detail work went into construction? I've been enjoying every moment of it.

Almost.

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A New Kitchen Floor

Laying cement board for the first run of tile.

The new appliances were scheduled to be delivered on February 21, so the kitchen floor had to be in by that time. I was surprised at how much planning it took to lay the tiles. It isn't as easy as shown on HGTV. I can't even begin to describe how you have to choose which wall to start from and which direction and where you want tiles to end and begin so that you have whole tiles where people walk and not partial tiles. You have to lay cement board and let that dry. You have to lay tiles and let that dry with spacers between the tiles. Then there is the grout.

Planning the laying of tile had to include the breakfast nook area

We both agreed that the kitchen and breakfast area would be tile. We chose, which surprised me considering my usual New England taste, a Mediterranean type tile. I like the geometric pattern and the colors in the wood and stone kitchen. We disagreed, until just recently at the end of March, on whether to tile the dining room. The dining room will be where the old kitchen was (to the right of the photo above). That area is not even demolished yet, but at least we are reaching consensus on what it will look like!

The finished floor

Once the floor was finished, the appliances could be installed. Above you see how the planning part of tiling affects the areas of the floor where the refrigerator and dishwasher will go. John saved the tiling of the kick plates under the cabinets until all of the tiling was done. Even that part of the floor required a couple of days of pondering and design.

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My New Kitchen Sink

New cast quartz kitchen sink

On February 17 the new kitchen sink was installed. It is cast quartz and they make them by mixing a lot of ground up quartz with some epoxy. The quartz glitters in the sun. It has one shallow basin and one deep basin. The faucet is Glacial Bay with a spray and a soap dispenser. It is a great set up and I love it. When the sink gets dirty, I just wipe it with a dishrag and it's clean. It's strong enough to withstand the abuse that John gives it with his tools and substances such as joint compound and paint that he dumps in it. My sister, Camille, has a cast quartz sink also, but it is made out of black quartz and is gorgeous. Hers has one huge basin (I must get a photo of it).

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Our New Kitchen

The cabinets and counter top.

After the new kitchen windows were installed and after the pantries were built, John began building the kitchen itself. We bought a few new cabinets to add to the old cabinets, which John rebuilt so that they are now better than when they were new.

Planning the travertine tile layout for the kitchen counter.

We spent a day at Home Depot in Littleton deciding which tile to use for the kitchen counter. We chose this travertine tile. I had originally wanted to paint the cabinets white — I have always admired white cabinets. But after seeing the tile placed on the counter, I realized that the oak of the cabinets was a perfect complement to the ivory of the tile.

The pantries in relation to the cabinets.

The custom cabinet for the double oven is at the
end of the kitchen and next to the breakfast nook.

John had to build a few more oak cabinets for the double oven (above) and the microwave. The old sun porch was cut in half and the half you see above is where we will eat when alone. The sun is brilliant in this room every morning, every season. The windows look out over the beaver bog so we can watch the moose, deer, beaver and otter. The old door to the front yard was moved to the side of the porch, where the other half of the porch will be what it should have been — a porch!

Cutting the tile for the kitchen counter.
February 13, 2011

The thinset for the tile is spread on the counter.

The first run of tiles is set in the thinset.

The counter is finished and the sink is installed.

After the tile was laid and grouted and sealed, it was time to install the new sink. We chose a quartz sink that glitters in the sun. One basin is deeper than the other.

The new sink under the new windows.

I can tell you now that the kitchen is almost completed, that it is a joy to work at this sink. I can easily monitor the goings-on in the bog. The sun is magnificent in these windows. I love the glitter of the quartz in the sink in the sun. The sink is easy to keep clean — I only have to wipe stains and they just come off!

Grouting the counter and backsplash.

John is so detail-oriented that he matched had to plan the tile layout so that tiles with similar markings flowed into each other. It is difficult for me to explain this. But when you work on this counter, you become fascinated by the natural design that nature created when the stone was created in some far off mountain.The color of the tile changes all day long as the color from the natural light changes.

Almost done!

The other side view of almost done!

This kitchen is a work of art. I can't wait to show you how it has turned out! I am quickly finishing the editing of the most recent photos (getting up to date) so you'll see it soon. John knows how to plan kitchens so that you have the least amount of movement for what you need to cook when you need it. His skill and knowledge are unsurpassed anywhere. More to come!

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Two Pantries

January 25, 2011

If you are a Facebook friend, you saw these photographs long ago. But I haven't posted them here because I do this blog in (usually) chronological order. Well, OK, not really, but I try. So these photos were taken back when the new kitchen didn't exist. The two pantries here were built first. They are built out of the wood that John took out of our bedroom floor upstairs, which was built long ago in order to keep the ancient plaster kitchen ceiling up (and it didn't work). It was expensive lumber and was a waste of money to be used in a floor. Now the wood has been put to good use. The pantry on the left is for food and on the right for bowls, pots and pans, baking dishes. These pantries are where I learned how to paint. I did a lot of the priming paint on them. More kitchen photos will be coming through now that my server and software problems are over.

The hole in the ceiling above the pantries is the gravity heating system used over a hundred years ago. These were uncovered when the bedroom floor was removed. The original cast iron grates are on them. On another hole with another grate (behind me in this photo) the original tin "pipe" connecting the grate from the bedroom to the grate that should be in the ceiling in the kitchen but is now lost. We have to somehow recreate what they did in ancient times in the kitchen ceiling. For now we are simply keeping the hole in the ceiling. The bedroom no longer gets down to 40°F (4.4°C) on winter nights!

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Kitchen Remodeling

The kitchen floor revealed.

After the new kitchen windows were installed where the new sink will go on the front of the house, and after the sheet rock was installed, it was time to restore and level the floor. John pulled up the floor and found a few things of interest. In the photo above you can see the new windows and walls, which extend through where the sun porch used to be. The old sun porch is now part of the new kitchen.

The original wooden floor from 110 years ago had been cut away and removed in past years. It was quite a loss for me. The original subfloor was constructed from old barn walls. The problem was that it extended over the foundation of the house, so we had ice forming inside the house on top of the floor. The original subfloor was covered with shims, paperboard and plywood. It was flat but it was not level. John had to do some serious jacking of the house again to get it level. But the house will never be truly level in all places —  it will be as level as humanly possible without taking down every wall and rebuilding the house from the foundation up.

A clearer view of the extent of the new kitchen area.

In the photograph above, you can see a square, plastic covered hole in the right-hand wall at the end of the room. This will be a window to the porch. Half of the old sun porch is now incorporated in the new kitchen, and half will be a summer sitting porch that will look down Route 16 as it goes down into the village. Part of the door to the sitting porch is visible on the far right of the photo.The new kitchen is full of light and has clear views of the beautiful beaver bog.

A mouse nest.
You can see that the original wooden floor was cut away here.

And of course, we found this mouse nest under the subfloor! It looks very cozy and warm. It was under the area where Amy and I always had a couch in the kitchen. There is a tiny tunnel to the inside of the nest that you may see on the top of the nest. There was no insulation available anywhere near the nest, so the mice had to manually haul nesting material, which is above the furnace in the basement, to build their home in a warm spot. John is now building a pantry in this area.

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The New Kitchen Windows (or How We Spent New Year’s Day)

The front kitchen window as it was when I bought the house.
Note how the doorway to the living room and stairs is going to be walled off on the left.

The debris from the demolition of the ancient plaster kitchen ceiling had been cleared. The dust was settling. I was recovering and was able to breath easier again, but still was not well. By New Year's Day, John had progressed to the point of being able to install the new kitchen windows on the front of the house. The kitchen area is being moved from the back of the west side of the house to the front. I love the beaver bog across the road and need to be able to see it all the time, so John designed the kitchen so that will be possible. You see in the photo above that the old (but not original) drywall was still in place on New Year's morning. John had to remove this wall to properly install the window and rebuild the wall. We were fortunate that the day was one of the warmest winter days I have experienced in Vermont.

A ladybug infestation was found inside the old, warm wall.

Besides the "normal" mouse and squirrel damage, bones and feces, John uncovered beetle infestations and this ladybug infestation in the old wall. These Asian ladybugs infest thousands of homes in the north country. I have written about them here if you would like to learn more. All of the pests and filth were cleaned before the work proceeded.

Finally, the entire wall was ready for the new window.

The old window had to be removed. John found that there originally had been two windows on this wall, two feet apart. They were taller and narrower windows than the one you see here. See the door on the right in the photograph above? This window was going to replace that door. John found that the Anderson window here was installed wrong and was beginning to rot because of the poor installation. But John's renovations found the damage in time to make repairs.

The old window is removed and we have fresh, warm air pouring into the house.

It is now dark and the first new window is in place.
I was able, in small ways, to help install it.

The 2nd window is now in place.
You can see the old window standing on the floor on the right.

Sunlight now pours into the kitchen every day. The sheet rock is on the walls now (you will see those photos soon), the walls are clean and draft-free, and the kitchen is going to be magnificent!

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