Boy Meets Marble

I’ll admit it, I’m infatuated. No, it’s more than infatuation, I’m in love. I’m in love with the new marble countertop on the island. Like any true love the more time you spend with the object of your desire the more you appreciate it. The marble has a subtle beauty. The beauty of the stone is apparent the first time you see it, but the true measure of it’s beauty is not immediately apparent. The more time you spend with it the more you appreciate it.

An argument could be made that marble lacks the showy, in-your-face beauty of other stones. The white Cararra marble is mostly a 2 tone stone. You get a large field of white with subtle black and gray veins running through it at roughly the same angle. It is in those veins that you start to see the variety and beauty of the stone. It is like a woman who has a natural beauty that radiates from with-in. It is apparent the first time you see her but you can’t quite put your finger on any one aspect of her beauty that stands out. She has that certain je ne sais quoi. The same can be said for marble.

John over at The Devil Queen referred to it as “Michelangelo Grade” marble. The white Carrara marble is the type of stone Michelangelo carved his famous statue of David from. David is truly one of the great masterpieces of the human civilization. The block of marble was quarried in about 1460 but for a number of reasons it sat unused for about 40 years until Michelangelo carved what many believe to be the perfect image of a man. David then stood on display and in the elements for more than 300 years until it was moved in doors.

As with anyone who is in love I see only perfection, and maybe I image qualities that aren't there. I have convinced myself that my marble slab was cut from the same quarry that produced the massive marble block that Michelangelo carved David from. In my love sick mind I’ve convinced myself that 550 years ago the block was cut for David and then that part of the quarry was abandoned until last year. When work resumed in that part of the quarry my slab was produced from the same exact spot that produced a block of marble that would go on to be one of the greatest works of art the world has ever seen. Maybe I’m delusional, but you’ll have to forgive me, I’m in love.

Houston, The Marble Has Landed

And it ain’t goin’ no place for a long time. That slab weighs a freakin’ ton. Fortunately I built the island so you could park a car on top of it and it seems to be holding up well. Enough of the words, though, let’s get to the pictures! I shot several angles so we could all marvel at it’s innate beauty.







Hmmm, really, the pictures don't do it justice.

And thanks to Gregg from West Ave East Town and his insightful observations of my sample edge work from yesterday’s post the chipping problem has been resolved. If I tried to get a hard 90 degree edge on the first fraction of an inch it chips the edge. However, if it is a round-over to start with it does not chip. Even the smallest little bit of a round-over prevents chipping. This means I can go back to the Ogee (actually, I miswrote earlier, it is called a “wavy edge”) like I wanted in the first place. This is good because it will be a close match to the other counters in the kitchen.

The guy at the place where I bought the slab gave me some pretty good sized scrap pieces so I can do more practicing before I put router to marble. Now all I need is the sink and I’ll be in business.

No Chipping!

Marble Vs. Router: Round 2

I had a little better success with the router today. It turns out it isn’t as broken as I thought. You know how on some hand tools there is a little button you push in once the trigger is engaged. It’s there so you don’t have to squeeze the trigger the whole time. Well on the router you push this button in while it is mounted on the router table. You then plug the router in to an outlet on the table and you use an on/off switch on the table to control the router. This hold down button on the router is malfunctioning. That’s why it cuts of and on for no apparent reason. Some electrical tape solved the problem

Anyway, I made a few more test cuts. I has some more chipping with the more elaborate bits but when I switched to the simple round-over bit it was smooth as a babies bottom. It actually goes quickly. I’m accustom to working with redwood, which is a relatively soft wood. I would imagine routering the marble is on par with a very hard oak.

I also successfully cut a faucet hole in the test piece. For about $12 I bought a Carbide Grit Hole Saw. Instead of teeth it has carbide grit at the end of the blade. It is the same principle as a diamond saw only with carbide. I was able to cut the hole in less than 2 minutes. I’m starting to feel pretty good about this.

Also today (I was surprisingly busy today considering I had a dentist appointment. And something very strange happened at the dentists office. If there is a slow blog day I’ll fill you in) I made a platform to help move the marble. The POs had lowered the ceiling on one of the rental bathrooms rather than fix it. It was framed with modern fir 2X4. I used those to build the temporary wall to separate the water heater from the living space so I could pass inspection. I tore down that temporary wall a few days ago so I used the wood again to make an angled platform for the marble.

Here are some pictures.

Marble Transport
It’s like one of those things for glass


Carbide Grit Hole Saw & Test Hole


Ogee with much chipping – no good


Round Over with some chipping - better
I dropped it down to leave an edge. That’s where it chipped


Round Over with no chipping - just right
I lifted the bit all the way so there was no edge. Just a round over

This Should Be Interesting

After conferring with Sadie and Mortimer the decision was made to cut the sink hole in place. That is, I will put the slab of marble on the island and do all the work there. I don’t want to risk breaking it after it is cut. This does present a bit of a problem. The sink is under-mount and I can’t cut the hole while the sink is there. I’ve come up with two ways to deal with this. Hopefully one of them will work.

First, I could cut the hole and then slide the slab back, then drop in the sink, and then slide it forward. That is a lot of sliding. I’m a paranoid person and maybe a bit of a pessimist. I really don’t want to move this thing once it’s in place. The second way is to cut the hole and then slide the sink under the slab. I will do this from underneath in the cabinet space.

Here’s how it will work.

You can see in this picture the template I made for the sink and faucet hole. The next shot is with the template removed.





Without the template you can see that the sink hole in the plywood is twice as big as it needs to be. I can move the sink to the left and push it up under the slab and then slide it to the right in to position. Once it is in to position I can give it more support. I tried this with a plywood cut-out of the sink and it seems to work. This is the preferred method. Sliding the slab out of the way is a back-up plan.

There are so many things that can go wrong with this. I’ve been telling myself all day that there are people who do this for a living and there is no reason I need to reinvent the wheel here and make this up as I go along. I’ll admit that I love the challenge but sometimes maybe I shouldn’t be such a cheapskate and call in a pro. I don’t know. Worst case scenario is I ruin a $350 piece of marble. It’s not the end of the world.

Speaking of worst case scenarios, I have been giving some thought to what I do if I screw it up but not bad enough that the whole thing needs to be pitched. Say, for instance, what if I cut the sink hole too big or something. Well, I can always go to a drop-in sink. That would hide a lot of mistakes. I can also move the faucet to one side if the drop-in sink is bigger. If I screw up the edges there is enough room to trim off a half-inch and do it over. I could call in a pro to re-do the edges if I screw them up. It would be humiliating but I could do it. So I just need to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Speaking of edges, I ran a short test on my router. I say “short” because my router died after about 3-inches. To be fair, it was a crappy router to start with and I really, really beat the hell out of it the last 4 years. It started doing this about a month ago. It just stops working for no apparent reason. I think the brushes might be going. What ever it is I did a successful edge – albeit a short edge – on the scarp piece of marble I have. There are a few chips but the blade is old. I think with a new blade and a better router it should look great. Here is the short test.



And finally, I’ve decided to change the cat’s names. Sadie will now be named “MOVE PLEASE!”, and Mortimer will now be called, “Get The Hell Out Of The Way You Stupid Cat!”. This is how I seem to refer to them all the time so I might as well make it official.

Meticulous Planning….Sort Of

I am in full-blown Marble Mode over hear at The Petch House. I’ve had to push back the arrival date to Friday because my friend with the panel truck who will help me get it is out of town until then. It works out well, though, because it gives me 3 or 4 days to figure out how this is going to work

I alluded to a potential problem with the faucet a few weeks back. I had feared there was not enough room for the sink and the faucet in the cabinet. I just can’t imagine what I was thinking when I designed it but I sure wasn’t thinking about the faucet. I made a cardboard template of the sink today and there is no way the faucet and sink will fit in the cabinet together. I don’t want to push the sink too far towards the edge because it will look odd and I will also have a thin piece of marble to deal with and maybe crack. We don’t want that, now do we?

Instead I’ve had to modify the back of the cabinet. I cut a hole in the back so the faucet will mount in to the 2X4 that separates the cabinet from the open shelves. Fortunately the good people who design the faucet seem to have anticipated cramped quarters in kitchen islands and the faucet has flex lines already attached. There is no ridged copper and I won’t need to have 12-inch long fingers the diameter of pencils to attach any lines.

Modification


The hole you see is in the cabinet and will be completely behind the sink and garbage disposal so it will never bee seen. Cutting the hole solved one problem but the problems didn’t stop there. If you add up the thickness of the 2X4, quarter-inch plywood, and the marble I would be at about 3-inches. The bolt to secure the faucet is 3.25-inches. That means the faucet would have to hang on by just a few threads. Not enough. So I had to get out Ye Old Reciprocating Saw and hack in to the 2X4. I hacked it good and this gave me another inch or more for the bolt. This should be fine.

I also got all the electrical hooked up. I got an email today saying my push button switch and face plate were on their way. I used a crappy regular switch as a stand-in just so I could get it done. The switch operates an outlet in the cabinet that the garbage disposal will be hooked up to, and then there is also an outlet on the front for everyday use. Everything is in working order now.

The HomeImprovmentNija asked a question about working on marble with woodworking tools in yesterday's post. He specifically brought up the issue of me working with a router on the marble. I’ve never done this myself but I’ve seen it done. I also talked with the guy I’m buying the marble from and he didn’t bat an eye when I told him my plans. This is the way to do it. However, I do have a small piece of marble left over from the bathroom. I had to replace a small piece of the backsplash for the bathroom sink and I will use it to test on. It’s all very nerve wracking but it’s one of those things where you know it can be done so I just have to do it. Of course, I need to plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. Almost every waking minute, when my brain isn’t thinking about something else, it switches in to Marble Mode.

Next up: More Templates and Router Practice

We’re In The Marble, We’re In The marble

I got lucky today. I called a place in town called Granite Fab to ask about marble. They do custom granite counter tops and stuff. They just happen to have one piece of White Carrara Marble on hand. It was left over from another job. If they hadn’t had it on-hand they could have gotten from their supplier in The Bay Area (350 miles away) but that would have cost extra. As it is he is selling it to me at cost.

It is not as thick as I would have liked but it will do nicely. Sometimes you see stuff that is like inch and a quarter thick. This stuff is only three-quarters of an inch thick. The one problem with it is you have to be careful moving it because it can snap in the middle if you’re not careful.

They had a sheet of it that was about 4X8 feet and he is going to cut me out a piece that is 40X68 inches and finish the edges. With the cost of the 2 cuts and smoothing the edges the be price will be $350.00. I can totally live with that. I will then use my router to put a ogee detail on the edge, and I will have to cut a hole for the sink and faucet. I feel pretty good about doing this myself. I think I will rent a diamond hole saw for the faucet. The sink hole I can cut with a diamond jigsaw blade and then put the ogee on with the carbide router bit. It will be a little nerve wracking, but I think I can do it.

In other news, there will be some delayed gratification before I can complete all this because I found out this week that both the sink and the face plate for the switch and outlet are on back-order. The sink could be 4 weeks out. Not much I can do about it.

I Did It With Grunt Work!

That’s right folks, it’s just that easy. With one can of Grunt Work you can accomplish just about anything. And now through this limited time offer you can get a can of Grunt Work with 3 E-Z Payments of just $9.99. You won’t find this offer in stores folks, this is an exclusive HouseBlogs offer. Why, you’ll be able to buy another house with all the money you’ll save!

This deal is so good that we actually lose money on every sale. Any how can we afford to do that: Volume, Volume, Volume. That’s right we sell so much Grunt Work we can afford to lose money on every sale.

With our patented, secret formula you can't help but to work your butt off. Let’s listen to a testimonial.

Hi my name’s Greg from The Petch House. With one can of Grunt Work I was able to transform this feculent hell-hole of a butler’s pantry in to the immaculate room you see today. And it only took 5 minutes! Take a look at these photos.


Here it is before. The white wall was a temporary plywood wall to satisfy the building inspector. There's some silly rule about having a natural gas water heater in the living space. Sheesh! That’s the government for you, always sticky their nose in my business.


Here it is after one can of Grunt Work. The big opening where the water heater is will be framed in a closed off. Beyond the water heater you can see I moved the claw foot tub in to the scullery (Thank you Grunt Work!). This will become the downstairs bathroom. A new wall will be built 4 or 5 feet in front of the water heater to create the utility room.


There used to be 2 doors here. The one on the left led to the rental kitchen and the one of the right led to the rental bath. The addition is all gone so one door was closed off. The remaining door leads to the side yard. Eventually I want to build a glassed in porch to suck in all the BTUs from the southern exposure. Above the doors there is evidence that this was originally a wall with a single window. I need a new door there too. I will put something appropriate. I nice Eastlake 5 panel door should look nice there.

Pride & Prejudice

Ok, it has nothing to do with my house but I just saw the movie last night so I thought I use it as a blog title. What does it say about me when a movie based on a Jane Austen novel and the HBO series Deadwood are the two things that have me on the edge of my seat.

Anyway, I’m almost finished demoing the butler’s pantry and scullery. The butler’s pantry was the only room in the house where the plaster was removed and sheetrock put up. It was then painted a zillion times. The last owners used this room a lot and they smoked a lot. The woman had a plate collection or a number of round photos hanging on the wall and where each one was there was a yellow outline from the nicotine. Pretty nasty. There idea of fixing up the dining room, which adjoins the butler’s pantry, was to put in 2 Lazy Boys, 2 ash trays, and a big screen TV. Then they parked their keisters there and smoked and watched TV for a year and a half until they sold the place to me. They did almost nothing else with the house. In a way that’s kind of a good thing because they could have hacked the house up bad had they been more ambitious or had more money.

The scullery is almost floor to ceiling bead board, except one wall that was opened to make the butler’s pantry and scullery more like one room. This was done back in 1915 when Mrs. Petch turned the dining room, butler’s pantry and scullery in to her apartment. The rest of the bedrooms where for boarders. The one wall that is not bead board is plaster above 48-inch bead board. I think this is how the whole room was originally. During the 1915 modification they pushed the back wall of the scullery out 12-inches. Seems like a lot of work for just 12-inches. I think I know why they did it but I won’t go in to it now. There will be many more posts about the scullery in weeks to come. For now, though, I will say that the weirdest thing someone did to the scullery was to put wood grained sheetrock over wood bead board. That was done in the 50s.

So anyway, the sheetrock had to go first. I can now open up the wall where the drain is for the bathroom above is and fix that. Before I do that, though, I just want to get all the crap out. A lot of it is good crap but it all must go. Before I could get the crap out I had to make room for it someplace else. I straightened up - straightened up may be too strong a term – I stacked the piles differently in one of the garages to make room for all the pieces of trim and door jambs that ended up in the scullery for the last few years. It takes 9 pieces of wood for the trim and jamb of a door. The addition had 7 doors. That is 63 boards just for the doors. It is amazing how much wood it takes to build a house.

You know, maybe that blog title isn’t so far off. I take Pride in the work I do on the house and I’m Prejudice against people who didn't in the past.

1895 Wiring: And you thought Knob & Tube was old

I found a long lost treasure yesterday so I thought I’d share. When I was removing the 2 story addition to the house the scullery became the dumping ground for trim pieces and other miscellaneous items that I really didn’t know what to do with. I save just about everything related to this house until I’m absolutely, positively sure I’m not going to need it.

The treasure I thought I’d lost is a piece of redwood electrical conduit. That’s right, I said “redwood conduit”! I’m not sure how it ended up in the feculent hell-hole that is the scullery but that’s where I found it. I hadn’t seen this conduit for about 3 years and I was sure I had accidentally thrown it away, so it was a big deal for me yesterday when I found it.

Two wires ran in the grooves


Then the cap was put on


I’m not sure how extensively this was used. I’ve only seen it in one other house in the city. I think it was mainly used to extend a previously installed light, and not so much as in new construction. In the case of my house, when the first partition went in to the kitchen, when Mrs. Petch started running the boarding house, it was used to extend the wires so there could be a light on both sides of the partition. They would tie into an existing ceiling fixture and run the conduit along the ceiling to add another fixture. It's sort of an early version of Wiremold.

The conduit is interesting and cool, but that’s not even the old wiring I’m talking about. This conduit would have been installed around 1915. If you recall Mr. Petch first ran The Eureka Gas Co. (coal gas for lighting), then became an electrician, and then in 1898 became the proprietor of The Eureka Lighting Co. When my house was built in 1895 it was wired for electric lights and plumbed for gas lighting. All the downstairs rooms had combination gas/electric ceiling lights, and all the upstairs rooms had electric only lights. All ceiling lights had a wall switch and the foyer light was controlled by a pair of 3-way switches, with one at the front door and the other at the top of the stairs. I think it’s safe to say this was fairly advanced for the day, at least for a non-mansion type home, and I’m willing to bet Mr. Petch did all the installation himself.

For the uninitiated here is a picture of Knob & Tubes (K&T) used in K&T wring.

The ceramic tubes are used when you need to run a piece of wire through a piece of wood. You first drill the hole in the wood, insert the ceramic tube, and then run the wire through the tube. The ceramic knobs are used when you want to run wire along the side of a board. The knob has 2 parts with a hole through the center for a nail. You secure the wire between the two parts and then nail the knob to the board and it holds the wire secure and keeps it away from the wood. They wired houses like this for decades, and in fact the 1920s addition to my house was wired with K&T wiring.

The 1895 wiring in my house didn’t use ceramic tubes and instead of knobs they used little wooden brackets. When they wanted to run wire through a board they simply drilled a hole and fed the wire through. To secure the wire to the side of a board they used the brackets. The wire was always in contact with the wood. Here are some pictures. You can also see ceramic wire nuts that were original to the 1895 construction.

The wire nuts say Made in Holland


Here is some still in the attic. You can see the new wire I installed a few years ago


There were 3 circuits for the whole house. Note that both the hot and neutral were fused. I think this was from the 20s. I’m not sure if the 1895 wire even had fuses.


I’m not sure if this system was a competing technology to K&T wiring and K&T won out, or if this predates K&T wiring and was fazed out when the “new” technology came about. No one I’ve talked to in this area has seen this before. That doesn’t mean it isn’t here. Let’s face it, a lot of people don’t pay that much attention to details.

Believe it or not all the 1895 wiring was still in use when I bought the house in 2001! All the ceiling fixtures still operated off the 1895 wiring. The 2 lights in the front and back parlors were ran from a single switch in the wall. When the braniacs put up the acoustical ceiling in the 70s they simply put some electrical tape over the wires, pushed them up in the ceiling, and then flipped off the switch. It’s a wonder the place didn’t burn down.

Below is a picture of the switch in the parlor.

Shocking that it was still in use!


There are screws on the face of the switch that secure the wires which are pushed in from behind. It should have a cap on it to cover the screws with only the switch showing. I didn’t realize this thing was still active and I shocked myself on it the first time I screwed with it. I’m not sure if this switch is original to 1895 but I do know that it is from at least 1915 because I found another in the kitchen hidden behind the 1915 partition.

In the kitchen, when they put in the partition and used the redwood conduit to extend the light, they added a shelf to one side of the partition. This shelf blocked the wall switch that now controlled both the original fixture and the new fixture at the end of the conduit. To remedy the situation of the blocked switch they simply turned on the switch, broke off the front of the switch, and then built the shelf in front of it. Both lights had pull chains on them that were then used to turn the lights off and on.

When I was removing the partition, as I started to dismantle the shelf, the lights in the kitchen went off. I thought I had blown a fuse but when I went to the fuse box everything looked fine. As I continued dismantling the shelf the lights came back on…then off…then on…then off. Of course, I eventually realized as I was removing the shelf I was jiggling the switch that had been turned on back in 1915. They turned the damn thing on and then left on for 90 years. As I said before, it’s a wonder this house didn’t burn down.

My Deviant Side

Yesterday I talked about the next project which is to fix the drain for the upstairs bathroom. This is actually the tip of the iceberg for a much larger project that will include rebuilding most of the butler’s pantry, a new utility room, a new downstairs bathroom, and the mud room. The plan is to start the project now and then abandon it when the weather turns nice. The house has an 80 year old paint job on it and is in desperate need of paint. As soon as the weather turns nice I will begin painting.

For now, though, I will start the first baby steps of what will be a big project. This is the one area of the house that I will deviate from the original 1895 floor plan. If I had a scullery maid and a butler I would restore the scullery and butler’s pantry back to their former glory. As it is, I don’t have, nor do I plan on getting a scullery maid or butler any time soon so the rooms need to find more modern uses.

Below are a series of three drawings that show the current state of this area of the house, the original 1895 configuration, and the future configuration. As always, all plans are subject to change without warning, so hold on to your butts.

---

---

---

---

Old Business

I’m coming up on my One Year Anniversary of Blogging about my house. There have been several digressions but for the most part the story has been the on going saga of the year long kitchen restoration. Hmmm, as I write that I couldn’t help but wonder what that would look like if it were condensed down in to a 6 episode HGTV show. The edits would have to be so quick it would probably end up looking like a music video.

Episode One: And now were going to strip pai….a few nails here…once we get the new wat….now that the walls are fini.

And there you have its folks. It’s just that easy.

On the next episode we’ll put in…mark off…run some more… and then we’ll be ready for… So be sure to tune in.


Although the kitchen is not finished I am in a holding pattern waiting for the kitchen island sink. Yesterday I went and picked up the garbage disposal and everything is primed for installation. I am close enough to being finished that I can really start to think about the next project. The next project will actually be fixing a problem from the last project: The bathroom restoration. That was in my pre-Blogger days.

I spent over a year re-wiring the whole house, running all new copper for water, and all new black pipe for natural gas. While that was going on in the main house I was using a rental kitchen and bath in the 2 Story addition. After all the upgrades were completed in the main house I dismantled the addition. It worked out well but it was a very chaotic time at the old Petch House. Before I made the cut-over I did most of the work on the original upstairs bathroom to the house. If I didn’t have a kitchen I could eat take-out till the end of time but I’m not going to run down to Burger King every time I need to go to the bathroom. Nor am I going to go in a bucket for 3 months. The bathroom had to be done before I abandoned the addition.

The bathroom was a lot of work but it went well for the most part. It was very surprising that it was largely intact from 1895. It had the original 6.5-foot long claw foot tub, plaster walls and redwood wainscoting, redwood floor, and the original marble corner sink. The drain on the sink was very interesting. It was a one-piece lead drain, P-trap, and apron that covered the entire floor area under the sink. The apron would collect any water that sloshed out of the under-mount sink (the days before caulk) and had a secondary drain that emptied out the side of the house. It was in bad shape but it was just amazing that it was still there since 1895.

1895 Tub
I think they built the house around it


1895 Marble Sink W/ Redwood Skirting


Lead Drain
Notice how the apron matches the shape and size of the sink. It covered the floor behind the wood skirting. On the left you can see the supplemental drain that emptied out the side of the house to drain the apron.




The real problem with the drain was under the floor. Once under the floor the drain switched from lead to cast iron. It traveled 18-inches or so and then went down through the wall to meet up with the other drains under the house. Right as it turned to go in to the wall there was a broken cast iron 90-degree elbow. The bell that the elbow fed in to was so close to the wall and header for the first story wall that I couldn’t cut it off and switch to ABS. I had 2 choices. I could rip open the whole wall downstairs and take the entire drain out of the wall and replace it, or I could chisel the remaining part of the elbow out of the bell and switch to ABS by connecting a new piece in to the cast iron bell. They make a rubber donut to do this. First I had to get the broken cast iron and lead out of the bell. That is no easy task.

Getting the remainder of the cast iron and lead out is a lot of grunt work with a hammer and chisel working down in the floor between the joists. If you loose any part of it down in the drain you risk ending up with the permanently slow draining drain. Inevitably the piece that you loose down in the drain will get hung up on some elbow or transition between two fittings. It will be the place where hair and soap coagulates and the drain will just never be the same.

I lost a piece of lead down in the drain. Grrrr!

I couldn’t believe I lost a piece. I was so careful. I had a rag stuffed down the drain and at the very end when I ever-so-slowly pulled the rag out there was a twisted piece of lead that slipped by. I put everything back together and hoped for the best. No such luck. The drain never worked right. I tried snaking it until the end of time but never dislodged the chunk of lead. As it turned this wall that the drain was in was also a common wall to the addition I was getting ready to remove. I had already determined where the chunk was from when I tried to snake it out. I opened the wall, cut out a 1-foot section of pipe, and removed the chunk of lead. The drain worked for a few weeks but then it started running slow again. This time the problem was with a faulty in-line vent I had used. It was stuck closed. When I tried to remove the vent to replace it the vent crumbled in my hand and wouldn’t you know it a piece fell down the drain and got lodged again. Once again I had a slow running drain. Unbelievable!

At this point I was completely fed up with the whole stupid drain. I decided I’m not going to screw with it again because if I did my tool of choice will be an 8-pound sledge hammer. I decided I would just wait until I worked on the butler’s pantry and replace the whole drain then. The drain runs through the wall in the butler’s pantry. So for more than a year I’ve had a sink in the bathroom with a drain that runs slower and slower and slower. Every few months I pour a half gallon of bleach down it to break up the hair and soap that has coagulated on the small piece of crap that I dropped down there. Right now, if I don’t run the water constantly, I can shave and brush my teeth before I have standing water in the sink. It really sucks so I’ve got to fix it. I hate re-doing work but that is the next project. Grrr!

Would you believe, more progress

I was able to put the brackets and hang the door today. I swiped a cabinet latch off the alcove cabinet to put on the island cabinet. I bought a matching set of 11 antique cabinet latches from Ed Donaldson Hardware last year for the kitchen. There were 17 in the set but at $30 a pop I wasn’t going to buy any more than I needed. I remember counting and recounting before I placed the order. I also remember thinking that maybe I should buy an extra one just in case, but when you are spending $330 dollars on just cabinet latches it’s easy to convince yourself not to buy extra. Now I wish I had. The alcove cabinet is much less visible so I will get another latch to go there. I’ll never find another one exactly like these. I already checked at Ed Donaldson and the others I didn’t buy have already been sold. Oh well.

I also put on a temporary plywood countertop. The POs had covered many of the walls in the house with ¼-inch plywood so I have a good supply in the garage. It’s not the best counter in the world but it really finishes off the island. I have a work space now! Very cool.







Also, the faucet arrived today. I ordered it off of Faucet.com and I must say they get a ringing Petch House Endorsement. I ordered the faucet from their web site March 1. I received a Pre-Confirmation email that they received the order. Then the next day a confirmation email saying the order had been processed. Then an email telling me it had been shipped and they supplied a tracking number. Then today on the 6th the damn thing arrived at my door. Oh, and it was less than half what I would have paid for the exact same faucet at my local home center. Amazing.

Both kitchen faucets are Price Pfister and both have the same finish. They complement each other very well. Below are 2 shots of the faucets. Now all I need is the sink and the light switch and faceplate and I’ll be in business. Woo hoo!





Oh and there’s still the nasty little business of the countertop. I got an email from Omega Salvage today and even though there web site says they got a new supply of marble it is in fact granite. They said they have plenty of pieces of Granite the size I need. Gee thanks guys.

Would you believe, more progress

I was able to put the brackets and hang the door today. I swiped a cabinet latch off the alcove cabinet to put on the island cabinet. I bought a matching set of 11 antique cabinet latches from Ed Donaldson Hardware last year for the kitchen. There were 17 in the set but at $30 a pop I wasn’t going to buy any more than I needed. I remember counting and recounting before I placed the order. I also remember thinking that maybe I should buy an extra one just in case, but when you are spending $330 dollars on just cabinet latches it’s easy to convince yourself not to buy extra. Now I wish I had. The alcove cabinet is much less visible so I will get another latch to go there. I’ll never find another one exactly like these. I already checked at Ed Donaldson and the others I didn’t buy have already been sold. Oh well.

I also put on a temporary plywood countertop. The POs had covered many of the walls in the house with ¼-inch plywood so I have a good supply in the garage. It’s not the best counter in the world but it really finishes off the island. I have a work space now! Very cool.







Also, the faucet arrived today. I ordered it off of Faucet.com and I must say they get a ringing Petch House Endorsement. I ordered the faucet from their web site March 1. I received a Pre-Confirmation email that they received the order. Then the next day a confirmation email saying the order had been processed. Then an email telling me it had been shipped and they supplied a tracking number. Then today on the 6th the damn thing arrived at my door. Oh, and it was less than half what I would have paid for the exact same faucet at my local home center. Amazing.

Both kitchen faucets are Price Pfister and both have the same finish. They complement each other very well. Below are 2 shots of the faucets. Now all I need is the sink and the light switch and faceplate and I’ll be in business. Woo hoo!





Oh and there’s still the nasty little business of the countertop. I got an email from Omega Salvage today and even though there web site says they got a new supply of marble it is in fact granite. They said they have plenty of pieces of Granite the size I need. Gee thanks guys.

The Excitement Scale

If you judged all things by their level of excitement watching paint dry would be very near the bottom. One notch below that would looking at a picture of paint drying. That is, unless of course you’re a HouseBlogger, am I right? So go hog wild you crazy kids.



I painted the island the same Honied White that I painted the other cabinets but for some reason this looks a little more white than the others. Maybe a little too white. Maybe it will be better when I get the counter, cast iron brackets, and fancy brass electrical plate on. Oh, and lets not forget about the copper sink and faucet. That should liven it up a bit. If it doesn’t look less white when I get done with it I may paint the entire shelf area the same Majolica Green that the walls above the bead board are painted.

I think I might be afraid of color. I was looking at this thing as I was painting it trying to decide if I should liven it up a bit and I couldn’t shake this feeling that if I attempt anything too bold it will end looking like something that should be bringing up the rear of a circus parade. I can picture a half dozen clowns crawling out of the sink cabinet. I’ll just wait for now. I’m sure my friends will have more than enough free advice for me.

Speaking of the sink cabinet, it seems to be shrinking before my eyes. I wanted to give as much space to the shelf area as possible so I really went with bare minimums for the cabinet under the sink. I think I may have made it too small. As a novice cabinet builder I didn’t take everything in to consideration. As it stands now I’m not sure if there is enough room for the faucet. It is going to be very tight and I won’t know until the sink and faucet arrive in the mail. Whether there is enough room or not it certainly looks better now that it is painted (needs another coat) and all of the plumbing is finished.



I had some news on the marble countertop front, not all of it good. One of the two places I found on-line that has salvaged marble slabs contacted me and they said they don’t have anything in my size. I think it’s just as well because they are in Vermont (3000+ miles away) and shipping would have no doubt made it too expensive. When I emailed them I had no idea they were in Vermont. I guess I should have checked first but that’s the funny thing about the web, distances seem irrelevant at times. The other place is in Minnesota, I think. That is much closer but they haven’t gotten back to me yet. However, today I found a place in The Bay Area (9 hours round trip if you haul ass) and their web site says they just got in a shipment of marble slabs and they had a picture of a nice pile. The page said it was last updated 2/28/06 so there is a good chance they will have something for me. I sent an email yesterday but I think I’ll call on Monday and talk to a real live human being.

Now that the cabinet making portion of the island project is all but over I’ve been thinking more about the next cabinet project. That would be the replacement of the cabinets between the butler’s pantry and dining room that were viciously ripped out back in the 1920s. I think I may be ready to try some stain grade cabinets. I’m feeling pretty good about. I won’t be able to hide my mistakes behind putty and paint so there will be a lot of pressure to get it right. I would be nice to have some professional help. I know Norm’s not going to show up, but a boy can dream, can’t he.

Island Shelving

I installed the shelves and the cabinet interior yesterday and today. I did end up using the 1X6 T&G redwood flooring that came out of the kitchen. It has a slightly rustic look to it because it is not one piece of material, but that’s fine. It goes well with the other pieces in the kitchen that have similar construction. Had I used plywood or some laminate it would have really looked out of place. I put a Roman Ogee on the 4 exposed ends. As it is I think it has a certain elegance to it, albeit a rustic elegance. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.





The space for the shelves ended up being smaller than I thought when I had the design on paper…er…computer screen. I thought it would be closer to 30X30 inches but it ended up being only 18-inches wide and 26-inches high. Being that it was smaller than I thought I decided not to do a center divider, so it is one open space. The bottom shelf is 14-inches tall and the top shelf is 12-inches tall. The space should come in handy.



The little cabinet, on the other hand, will be almost useless for storage. Once the sink, garbage disposal, drain, supply lines and electrical are in there I might be able to squeeze in a can of Comet if I’m lucky. The wood I chose to put in there is very “rustic” but very solid. All 7/8-inch T&G redwood. One things for sure, it will never rot because of moisture. I will paint this area the same glossy dark green like the interior of all the other cabinets.

I’m considering painting the two shelves some shade of green as well. The body of the island will be the same Honied White as the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen. I’m thinking maybe doing the open shelves the same Majolica Green as the walls in the kitchen. Possibly the trim piece just below the counter top as well. Any thoughts?

Shelling Out

The kitchen island has been a surprisingly affordable project up to this point. The savings have been due in large part to the salvaged wood and the free plumbing supplies and training from my neighbor Gary, and of course the top-notch labor has been free {cough}. Until today I think I was in to it for about $150 and that was for feet, brackets, trim, and assorted nails, screws, sandpaper, etc. That has all changed now that I’ve ordered the sink, faucet, and some electrical stuff. Last, and most certainly not least, will be the countertop.

I went with the copper sink here, in natural ($225), and the faucet here, in stainless steel ($107). I also needed the faceplate for the electrical outlet and garbage disposal switch, and the switch itself ($25 for both). I got those from House of Antique Hardware. The switch is push button and the cover is fancy cast brass and will match the rest of the house. I was a little bummed to see that they now offer the switch and outlet plates that I bought for the whole house a few years back in antiqued brass. Mine will have a nice patina in a 100 years or so but I don’t want to wait that long.

Another interesting thing about the faucet, today I had some time to kill so I went in to the one and only “Home Center” in the area to look at what they might offer in the way of countertop material. While I was there I strolled over to the plumbing department and saw the exact same faucet I ordered on-line last night. With shipping I paid $107 for mine. The same faucet in chrome was I think $98 on-line. They had the chrome faucet on display. It was the same manufacturer and model for - get this - $218!!! More than twice what I paid to have something delivered to my door. There is talk that a Home Depot will be opening here in the next few years. It will absolutely bury that place.

The countertop decision is this presence that follows me around like an 800 pound gorilla. My dream counter would be marble but at around $75 sq. ft. I’m looking at more than $1500 for the counter (The estimates I read about on-line says $50 to $100 sq. ft. installed). Needless to say, that’s a bit much. As a side note, I realize now a mistake I made in the design. I made the island exactly 3-feet wide. With the trim it is 37.5-inches wide. Since everything is priced by the square foot I’m probably going to have to buy a total width of 4-feet of material and then waste a lot. Had I made it 32-inches wide and then trimmed it out to 33.5-inches I could then use 36-inches of material for the width. Live and learn.

Of course there is always the cement counter idea. I’m not sure why this doesn’t just sing to me. It has all the elements I like. A solid, monolithic surface, inexpensive, a DIY project, affordable, won’t cost a lot of money….I could go on, but you get the point, it’s right up my alley. So why aren’t I jumping up and down about it? I don’t know, but I’m just not. Granite is out of the question. It is a beautiful stone but just too modern for my tastes. It also can be just as expensive as marble. I’ve been through this discussion before. Marble, slate, soapstone, granite, tile, blah, blah, blah. I absolutely dread this decision. Where the hell are those God Damned Fairies when you need them!!!

Ok, I’ve got to calm down about this. {calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean}

I was looking at tile today. Doing a nice tile countertop might be nice. One-inch or 2-inch hex tiles with a nice boarder. How bad can it be. It’s not the easiest to clean, and there is the grout lines…. Would it completely suck if I did tile?

Trim & Fit

Anyone sick of hearing about the Kitchen Island yet? I’m kind of getting to the point where I’m getting sick of working on it. I had what I thought was a complete kitchen and I was able to cook and enjoy the room. Now it’s filled with tools and sawdust again and I’m getting a little tired of it. In the long run, though, the island will be better than the table, and as surprising as it sounds, the island is more Victorian. Pictures of 1890s kitchens I’ve seen had work tables in the center of the kitchen instead of a kitchen table. What’s old is new.

Anyway, regardless of the mess the island is progressing nicely. Plumbing and electrical is all hooked up and ready to go. I got the trim around the top and base to hide the nails and transition points. Doing the trim work is slow because you can’t really trim out the trim to hide any mistakes. The trim is kind of the final thing. There is a lot of back and forth between the shop and the kitchen cutting and fitting and re-cutting and re-fitting. Sometimes you are just shaving off a hairs breadth to get a nice tight fit. It is tedious but very rewarding when it comes out looking good.

I went with off-the-shelf trim instead of going to the wood shed and making my own. It was to save time but also because I could match some of the other trim in the kitchen. I used the same chair rail around the top of the island that I used to cap the bead board in the kitchen. Around the base I used two pieces of door stop with different profiles. It worked out well because I didn’t want the trim around the base to hang out too far over the legs. The bottom piece of door stop curves back in to the legs. I really like it. Around the opening to the shelves I used quarter round to make the bull-nosed corners like the walls in the kitchen have.

I also got the brackets mounted. I will take them off to paint but I like to get the holes drilled and make sure everything fits right before I commit myself to paint. The last step will be to make the bottoms for the inside of the cabinet and shelf, and then make the shelf itself. For that I will go to the wood shed. I’m thinking I’ll use more of the 1X6 T&G redwood flooring I salvaged from the kitchen.

Here’s where I’m at. It is still in a sort of semi-ugly state of construction, so use your imagination.





Base trim. Two pieces of door stop.


Chair rail for the top. This is hemlock instead of pine, so it should be a little more durable.