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!

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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.

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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.

Miles 1890 Home

Miles 1890 Home: Why can't I read your blog? Is it just me? There seems to be a problem with your Blogger Script.

Kitchen Island Drains 101

I recently discovered that the drains on kitchen island sinks present a unique problem because the island is in the middle of the room. Normally a sink is against a wall and it is easy to run drains and vents. Vents are an important part of a smooth running drain. Think of a two liter bottle of water. If you turn it completely upside down the water drains out of the bottle unevenly and there are frequent “burps” as air forces it’s way in to the bottle to replace the water that is draining out. On the other hand, if you tip the bottle only half way air is allowed to flow in the top part of the bottle opening while the water flows out the bottom half of the opening. The water flows smoothly because air and water are displaced simultaneously and at an even rate.

Because the island is in the middle of the room you can’t run the vent straight up in the air and out the ceiling of the kitchen. Instead you use the drain pipe as a vent in a “loop vent” This was all explained to me on Sunday when I went over to my neighbor Gary’s house to talk with him about plumbing the kitchen island. Gary’s garage is stocked better than any hardware store or plumbing store in the area. If I don’t go to Gary’s for free plumbing parts I am admonished by him for going to a hardware store and buying plumbing supplies. I feel kind of funny about imposing on him all the time so I go over and ask a simple question first. “Hey Gary, should I run inch and a half or two inch for the island drain”. Inevitably, within a matter of minutes, we are out in Gary’s garage laying the entire drain and water system out on his floor. That is exactly what happened Sunday and I left a half hour later with enough parts and equipment to do the whole thing twice. The policy is always the same. “Take 2 of everything and return what you don’t need”. Here’s what I got on Sunday. What’s not in the picture is the 15-feet of ABS and assorted segments of half-inch copper.



All of this is leftovers from past jobs so Gary has no problem giving it away for free to friends and neighbors. It is incredibly helpful to have a highly skilled plumber who is a heck of a nice guy with a well stock garage living right across the street. You just have absolutely no idea.

Anyway, back to the drain. Here is what it looks like under the cabinet.


You can see that there are 2 drain pipes that go in a loop. The pipe on the left is 2-inch ABS and acts as the real drain. You can see the spout I will hook the sink up to towards the bottom. The pipe on the right is inch and a half ABS and acts as the vent. Notice how at the top it is pointed and not just squared off. This is important to meet code. You use 2 45-degree elbows and 1 90-degree elbow to achieve this.

Here is a drawing to show how the drain works under the floor.


Just like the bottle of water that is only tipped half way, the horizontal drain is only filled half way with water. The top part of the drain pipe allows air to flow back to the drain preventing gurgling sounds and a slow draining sink.

So now that everyone is an expert on kitchen island sink drains it’s time to learn some plumbing parts slang. If you’re gunna walk-the-walk, you gotta talk-the-talk. So, the little do-hicky in the picture below is used to support half-inch copper pipe under the house. The slang term for this thing among plumbers “Flying Butt-Hole”. So now as homework for the Kitchen Island Drains 101 class I want each and every one of you to go down to the hardware, go back to the plumbing supply area, and with a clear and confident voice announce to the sales clerk, “Give me a half a dozen flying butt-holes!”

Yet Another Island Update

I really made some progress today. I went back to the antique store where I bought the first set of cabinet doors. If you recall I was not able to use them because they were too tall. I got lucky because they had a single door that was the perfect size and it was less than half the cost of the pair of doors I bought 2 months ago so I got some money back (Wooo-Hooo!). The new door is a single panel door and is very early. I could see the original finish where the latch had been removed and it was faux grained oak. The same original finish my kitchen had in 1895.

I got the walls all sheathed and got the door hung. I also got the box for the electrical installed. I went under the house and measured for plumbing and electrical. It is going to be pretty straight forward to hook this thing up. There is a 2-inch drain very close by that used to be used for the bathroom that used to be a part of the kitchen. Also, I had originally planned (eons ago) to have the main kitchen sink on another wall. When I re-plumbed the house I ran copper for that sink that never happened. I ended up just capping it under the house and it happens to be right under the island.

Tomorrow, with luck, my neighbor Gary The Plumber will be around to help me cut holes and hook up the drain. I’ve already talked with him about it and I think it really wants to help. I thought about doing it myself today but I really think Gary likes to help and give advice (and tools and parts). So, who am I to disappoint him.

Here’s where I’m at. You can see the “new” door and the double gang box for the electrical. There will be an outlet and a switch for the garbage disposal. If I can get together with Gary tomorrow I will run plumbing, if not I’ll start on shelf and the bottom of the shelf area.

Island Progress Report

Because I decided to do the interior shelf I ran out of stripped bevel board and had to strip another 10 pieces! Not the end of the world but it was something I hoped I wouldn't have to do. I thought maybe I would be short 3 or 4 but not 10! The important thing is I got it done. The island is completely sheathed in bevel board. I do still need to come with an new idea for the one end that will have the cabinet doors for under the sink.

The next step for woodworking would be to put the bottom in where the shelf and sink will be. Before I do that, though, I need to run electric and plumbing, so that gets moved to the top of the list. Here’s where I’m at.

It Was A Little Embarrassing

A few months back I overheard a conversation between two of the bookkeepers at work. One woman was talking about how she had just had new vinyl windows installed in her old house. She went on and on about the expense and the crew that installed them and how much of a mess it made. Naturally talk of window replacement on an old house got my interest. I eavesdropped and eventually I heard her complain about all the old sashes they left behind. After the expense of putting in new windows she was now going to have to pay to throw away the old sashes. It was time for me to be a butinsky.

It told her I would be happy to take the old sashes off her hands. I even told her I would drive out to her house to pick them up. She was thrilled. The next day she said her husband was eager to get rid of them and he would bring them in to town and deliver them (They live in a small farming community about 15 miles outside town). I said great, have him toss them in my truck in the parking lot. Sure enough, the next day when I got off work the back of my truck was filled with old redwood window sashes. Some had some really nice Florentine glass and others had a different kinds of obscure class. The sashes were in beautiful shape. Not a hint of rot on any of them. They don’t fit my house, but that’s OK. They didn’t go to the dump and I can use them as barter at a salvage yard some day.

Anyway, the next day I made a point of thanking her for the window sashes. It was a win-win situation. I got these great old sashes and they didn’t have to pay to dump them. Of course, the house was the big looser in all this but there is nothing I can do about that. After I thanked her she told me that if I like old window sashes her sister-in-law also had her windows replaced and she has a barn full of old sashes I could have. Here sister-in-law lives in Ferndale, the land of old Victorian homes. I was very much interested in them and I told her so. She gave me her sister-in-law’s phone number and said to give here a call but not until after the holidays.

Today I called the sister-in-law. It turns out she lives right across the street from some friends of mine in Ferndale. And she lives in an 1898 Victorian. The potential was very high that these would be the classic one-over-one, tall Victorian windows just like my house has. Most of my windows are in good shape structurally (lousy shape functionally) but I would still love to have them for future projects or for bartering. We set up an appointment for 3:00 this afternoon.

I drove out there today and sure enough the house was a late Victorian Queen Anne similar to my own. The windows looked identical to mine own. I went to the door and we exchanged pleasantries. She is retired and in her late 60s. A very pleasant woman. We went out to the barn and sure enough there was a king’s ransom in old Victorian redwood window sashes with wavy glass. Not all were the classic one-over-ones but there was a lot of them. I gushed a bit over how they would be perfect, even though I wasn’t really sure if they were the right size for my house.

Anyway, after a few minutes of chit-chat I finally said, “OK, let me pull my truck around and I’ll get these babies loaded up”. She paused for a minute and then said, “Well, aren’t you going to offer me anything for them?” I stammered a bit and felt very awkward. I had just assumed that this was the same situation as with the bookkeeper at work. I assumed she just had windows replaced and was eager to get these out of the barn. I assumed I was doing her a favor. That wasn’t the case. She had replaced her windows 12 years ago and was expecting money for these old sashes. She expected me to make an offer on them.

I should point out at this time that I am a full-fledged member of the cashless society. I rarely have more than $10.00 in my pocket. If her barn were equipped with an ATM machine I might have been prepared to haggle, but as it was I had about $2.00 in my pocket and $2.00 would have been an insulting offer for 30 or 40 sashes. I explained to her as polity as I could that her sister-in-law had given me the impression that the sashes were free. I told here that I was obviously mistaken but that I was not prepared to pay for the sashes right then. I’ll take just about anything old and Victorian house-part related for free, but when it comes to paying for something I normally only buy things I need or will need in the not too distant future. I didn’t tell here that in so many words but she got the point.

We finally agreed that I would take a few of the sashes and see if they will work for me and if so I will buy some or all of them. She mentioned a price of $3 or $4 a sash and that seems fair to me. Even if they don’t fit my house I am planning on someday doing a glassed in side porch (suck in those BTUs) where I removed the 2 story addition and the windows would be perfect. If they fit my house I’ll take all I can get. Some of mine maybe be in worse shape than I know. If they don’t fit, I’ll just buy 4 upper and 4 lower sashes for the future porch project. Even if I pay $5 a piece it’s still a great deal.

Oh, and I almost forgot. She had three Eastlake doors in the barn as well. I asked if she wanted to sell them and she said no….but it was a slow no. If I swing a deal on these windows I’ll make a good offer for the doors and maybe she’ll bite. Keep your fingers crossed.

Almost Committed

I framed the island today but stopped short of bolting the whole thing to the floor. I’ve positioned it in the place I think it will go but I’ll spend a few hours with it in that location today and tomorrow before I commit to the spot. It actually takes up less room than the kitchen table that was there. The table was 48-inches in diameter and the island is 64X36 inches. The 64-inch length is fine because there is still more than 4-feet in front of and behind the island. However, I did pick up 12 crucial inches on the sides where all the traffic will flow.

It is coming out pretty good but I did discover a major design flaw today. The salvaged cabinet doors I bought a few months back will not fit. The doors are 31-inches high and the island is 38-inches high, but once you account for counter top, feet, and trim there is only about a 25-inch high opening. Because the doors have 2 raised panels I can’t cut them down. I haven’t decided exactly what to do about it yet but there is still plenty of work so I’m sure some solution will reveal itself soon.

Aside from that it’s looking pretty good. There are a few minor things I would do differently if I had to do it over but they are very minor. The big problem today was putting the whole thing together by myself. Last night I flipped the base over and painted the feet and the center box. The box is off-set 7-inches under the island and painted dark green. The idea is that even if you see it it won’t be noticeable. It should look like the island is supported only by the Queen Anne legs.



Don’t tell anybody but the box is made out of plywood. This is my first use of plywood in the house. A friend had dumped off a piece of cabinet grade plywood that I had thought about using as a temporary counter top but it was not large enough. Instead it ended up underneath and out of site. The box serves three purposes. First, it acts as a secondary support so all the weight is not on the little Queen Anne legs. Second, it will hide plumbing and electrical which will come up from under the house. And third, it will secure the whole thing to the floor.

Here is where it will sit in the kitchen. The cantilevered counter is at the far end and the sink will be at the closest end. The painted boards are temporary and were used to hold things square while I put it together. Tomorrow I will bolt it to the floor and begin to sheath it with the previously stripped bevel board.



I also wanted to point out that I showed a little restraint with today’s blog entry. I had planned on writing about how I had erected something in the kitchen and despite the difficulties I had beaten the odds and mastered new skills. I was going to add that the whole experience was orgasmic, but in the end I decided that wasn’t appropriate.

Where The Elite Meet To Eat

Tomorrow night is another meeting of The Splinter Group. For those of you who’ve forgotten, The Splinter Group is a local group of Old House owners who get together on a regular basis. We meet each time at a different member’s house and have a pot-luck. We get to see the results of some project, whether completed or on-going. Some people talk about their house’s history or something else pertaining to the time period. Others don’t do much at all. Regardless, there is always a home tour involved.

I guess I’ve been a member of the group for almost 3 years now. The group has been on-going in some form or another for more than a dozen years. I sort of stopped going for a while but then got back in to last year. It’s fun to see other peoples homes. To see what they’ve done. And of course, eventually it is your turn to host the event. Sometimes, though, it seems little more than a cocktail party held on a Wednesday night and I’m just not in the mood.

Tomorrow night it will be at Jeff & Michelle’s 1914 Craftsman home. It is still a work-in-progress (aren’t they all). I’ve been to Jeff & Michelle's before but never for a Splinter Group meeting. They are doing a very nice job with the house. It is a very pleasant mix of contemporary and period styles.



What will really make this intersting is the recent problem with my neighbors. Jeff is a member of the City Council and he was the one I asked for help in dealing with my neighbors. I didn’t expect a lot and I got almost nothing from him. It’s not a real big deal but it was a little disappointing. He said he would talk to someone at the planning department and give me pointers on my letter of complaint and, as far as I know, he did neither. We haven’t spoken since the beginning of January when he said he would get back to me.

I’ve already decided I’m not going to make a big deal of it, and I won’t even bring it up, but I’m sure Jeff will. He is a nice guy and I genuinely like him but he is the consummate politician. Jeff will always want to smooth things over and find a middle ground. Really, in some ways, the members of The Council are little more than figure heads. The paid city staff is the engine that runs the city. The council just gives direction. I’m not sure that there is anything Jeff could have done. It’s just…I don’t know…he should have gotten back to me.

One of the big topics on tomorrow’s agenda will be getting new people. One couple just announced they would no longer be attending. They were a very pleasant lesbian couple that had been in the group for years. Apparently they just recently “divorced” after being together for 9 or 10 years. There are some people I don’t connect with well at the gatherings and others I do. For what ever reason I liked these people and they will be missed.

So we’re looking for new blood for the group. If any of you old house types out there want to make the trip to Eureka on a monthly basis, and don’t mind hosting the group once a year or so, drop me a line and we’ll talk.

Island Sweat

Boy, it seems like I haven’t posted in a week. I’ve really been getting a lot accomplished, though. First off, as for the design, I’ve decided to go with Design Idea Number 3, “Open shelving on both sides with a common back in the center”. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on this. Everyone made good points and if I could I’d incorporate all the ideas, except the garbage can idea. John made a good point about why that is not a good idea. At any rate, Number 3 won out for simplicities sake and because I think it will be the most useful and flexible desing in years to come.

Now on to the work at hand.

I finished stripping all the fir bevel board pieces but I think I might need more. The shelves will need sides and backs. I think I have enough for everything except for the common back so I may just go with flat stock for that. Otherwise I would have to do enough for both sides of the back so it would look right. The bevel is only on one side of the board. If I only strip enough for one shelf back the other side will be flat wood. Not the end of the world, but if you’re going to do something you might as well do it right. Right? We’ll see if I feel this way in a week.

Butt Nekid!


I also got the brackets painted. I decided to use spray paint so I wouldn’t have brush strokes on the metal. There is something that is just not right about visible paint brush strokes on metal objects. The big problem with spray paint is that you have a limited pallet to chose from. Green and off-white is the color scheme for the kitchen. The woodwork on the island will be the same off-white as the rest of the woodwork in the kitchen. Naturally then, the cast iron brackets should be some shade of green. I’ve notice that lighter colors tend to show detail better because the subtle shadows are more visible on a light background than on a dark background.

With this in mind I decided I wanted a light green color on the brackets. Unfortunately, as I said before, spray paints come in a limited pallet. I chose the lightest color green I could find with out slipping in to Day-Glo. It’s not my first choice but I think it will work.

Bracketmania


I also made good progress on the frame of the island. I made the bottom and the top. Because the island will be 64X36 I will need to do most of the assembly in the kitchen. If I put it together first it would never fit through all the doors.

The Queen Anne feet I chose proved to be difficult to work with. Had I simply chose to build this as a box on the floor it would have been much easier. However, I think the end results will be worth the effort. I like the idea of a kitchen island, and in my case it is very practical. Still, the term “Kitchen Island” screams 1990s not 1890s. The Queen Anne feet on the island will make it look more like a piece of furniture than a “Kitchen Island”.

I won’t bore you with all the details of how or why the feet caused problems. Just try and imagine a large work space with plumbing and electrical, stuck in the middle of a kitchen all propped atop 4 delicate little Queen Anne legs. Just writing that sentence I can picture the thing crashing to the ground. There were other issues with the bevel board siding and the cantilevered counter. To be honest, I’m sure tackling little problems like these is the sort of thing “The Pros” go through everyday, so it’s not that big of a deal. It’ll work. I hope.

Here’s what I’ve got done. It doesn’t look like much now, but this represents many hours of work.

Island Base – Lap Joints Aplenty






Island Top – Yet More Lap Joints