Kitchen moving, etc

I have to say I kindof like this kind of kitchen moving...fill up the laundry basket, take it out to the tiny house and put the stuff away.  Repeat.  No wrapping stuff, no sealing boxes and hoping nothing breaks, no forgetting what was in this box or that box.  AND if it doesn't fit, it goes in the donate box. The end. 

Here are my empty big house kitchen cabinets.

I was going to take a pic of my tiny house kitchen with full cabinets, but I didn't do it when I first thought about it. Then the packing frenzy began and the Bungalow filled up with stuff, so we'll all have to wait for that pic. Of course when it comes time to move the Bungalow on Wednesday everything will go in a box or tote and sit on the floor so that nothing gets broken.  Just wanted to make sure I had room for everything.

So the packing and chucking frenzy began and ended. Interspersed with extreme stress about getting out of the big house on time. Rental truck lights not working.  Getting a new truck.  New truck lights not working properly.  Audry and Lori coming to my rescue. Meeting the wonderful new owners of the big house.  Moving Ticklebelly Bungalow to my Dad's only to find out that I should have measured the pad and not eyeballed it.  Wrecking my Dad's lawn.  Moving Ticklebelly Bungalow to RV storage instead.  (I really need some backing practice. Although since TB isn't a constant road-going vehicle, I'll practice with Little Chicken.)  Two truckloads to the dump totalling about 600 lbs (talk about taking a load off).  A few rounds of exhausted tears and an exhaustion bellyache.  Kindness from all of my neighbors.  Little Chicken's lights working perfectly with the Jeep. A gigantic Lime Rickey and fries.  And a Blue Moon to top it all off so I didn't need to find my flashlight.  Glad it is finished.  There will be more serious downsizing when Ticklebelly Bungalow finds her next resting place, but for now the roadtrip is the focus!  Whew!  Feels really good to be finished with the mortgage and utilities.     

Kitchen plumbing

Just a quick reminder that the t-shirt fundraiser is still happening...click here to order or make a donation.  I'll be taking t-shirt orders until March 22 (next Sunday).  The donation option will be open until April 17th, the day before we leave.  Thanks to those who have ordered a shirt or have donated toward this first big adventure!

The best way to finish something is to begin. This I know for a fact. Started the kitchen plumbing and now it is finished.

Started...

Finished.

Saturday's job was to test the water input for leaks before putting in the tub...first impression was epic fail, but on re-evaluation the shower connections were drip-free as was the kitchen cold water.  The kitchen hot leaked, but just needed to be tightened a little.  The epic fail section was the hot water heater connections.  Frankly I'm not too surprised.  I decided to add a shut-off valve to the water input on the water heater.  I will eventually have a shut-off valve on the water coming into the house, but as yet don't. 

After cleaning up the water mess, adding the shut-off valve, and tightening everything that needed tightening, I turned on the water again.  Behold, the water heater connections are still not cooperating.  So back to the drawing board there.  My sharkbite connectors don't thread very far despite being the correct size, so I used the connectors that came with the heater, but they don't connect to the piping well. So there you are.  Everything else was dry.  Put the sharkbites on and tried again.  Now the pipe connections don't leak but the fittings do.  I think I'll give up for today on that one and do something else.

Since the shower connections all hold water, I began putting up the wall covering.  I've ordered some water leak alarms that I'm going to put in the wall, so I'm not going to finish it all up until those come mid-week this week.  Looking good so far.  

With shower handles for effect. 

Kitchen and trim

The daylight showed that the paint needed another coat and now that is all finished!  Also, I changed my mind about the baseboard trim.  So now the baseboard trim is the same as the trim around the door.  I like it much better.  I also learned that I probably need a lesson in measuring trim. 

Door trim...

Trim for the corners of the walls...

I only did the trim for the living room/kitchen. I still need to finish the kitchen window trim...only had enough for two sides. I'm also going to put trim on the built-in shelves next to the sink, so I have a bit more trim to buy and put up. 

And on to the tile on the port side! I'm so happy with the tile in the kitchen!! Still need to grout it.

Bathroom and starboard kitchen paint

I have to confess that the things coming to the top of the to-do list aren't very logical lately -- namely painting half of the kitchen and 75% of the bathroom. But here is the progress and I'm really liking it.

All taped and ready to start bright and early in the morning.

After the first coat and I wasn't sure that I liked it very much.  I got a little nervous, but...

After the second coat, which I put on too thin, I put on a third coat and liked it a lot better.

Starboard side of the bathroom.

Port side of the bathroom.

And here with the cabinets and fridge back in place, I'm liking it a lot more.  I got out the tile that I'll be using as a backsplash on the other side and accent on this side and I'm REALLY excited about that.  I'm waiting to put up the tile because I want to do that all at once.  We'll see how long my resolve about that lasts though.  I'm doing my best, once again, to finish items for which I have all the materials. I don't have the stuff to finish the tile and I still haven't done anything about the propane plumbing.  Can't finish the other wall until the propane plumbing is finished. But I'm saving all my money for a trip to Italy that I've been planning for a year and a half.  Some unexpected Jeep repairs and a surprise new crown (for my tooth, not for my head) set me back a bit.  Anyway, really excited about my Italy trip AND quite excited about the kitchen as well.

Drawer pulls and a bathroom wall

Anybody shop for drawer pulls lately?  I found some that I like, but they were quite expensive. Then I found some that would do, but they were quite expensive. Then I found some that I would love to have, but they were more expensive (for a whole set) than the new tires I just put on my Jeep. Then I thought that maybe I would make some drawer pulls out of braided nylon string and from that came the idea of putting a bead on the end of the string.  In looking for some beads that I liked, I ran across some shell-shaped beads that would have been perfect if they had been about ten times bigger. My thoughts then turned to the gigantic sea shell collection we already have around the house. 

Here you go!

The four drawers have smaller shells.

The port side cupboards

This cabinet on the starboard side sports a couple of shells from Australia. No need to drill these babies, they already had holes. 

Next up...finishing another of the bathroom walls.  I had to feed the electrical wires out the wall, and cut the hole for the waste water before finishing the wall you see here. 

Starboard side bottom

Port side bottom...

Port side top...

Starboard side top

Port side finished

Starboard side finished!

I feel a painting day coming on!

Cooktop and sink, port side

Here we are again for the Sunday update.  Still working on the kitchen area.  Not feeling like I've accomplished very much this week, but definitely crossing things off the list, so I need to re-think my accomplishment statement.  My neighbor gave me a reference for a propane plumber...still need to call him. Step in the right direction.

This is where I started, cutting the countertop to the length I wanted made me a little nervous.  Measure a million times, cut once was the theme this week.  

Figuring out just how far from the edge I needed to put the cooktop and sink.  Again measure a million times...

Drilled holes in all the corners of the rectangle where the cooktop was going to go, and started with a dull blade in the jigsaw.  After one short side decided to change the blade and that made cutting so much easier.  

Sealed the inside of the cut edges. You'll notice that the cooktop rectangle has been sealed and the sink circle has not been sealed yet.   

Sink and faucet holes sealed, cooktop in place.

Cooktop and sink in place. The sink came with a foam strip to seal it to the countertop and prevent moisture from getting below the lip of the sink, but I decided to use plumber's putty instead. I figured it would make a better seal.  The reviews and comments I've read online said that the foam strip was sufficient, but my gut said plumbers putty.  So plumber's putty.  It worked very nicely.

And here it is with the cooktop, sink and faucet in place, as well as the countertop correctly attached to the cabinets.  Now to call the plumber about the propane.