Butcher Block Top

As you've been reading along, you will have seen my pride-and-joy marble countertops. They suit the style and flow of the space, and they're perfect. We have another area that needs a counter, and I wanted it to be something different, simply for a smidgen of variety. That space is on top of the 9 foot sideboard in the dining room.

When we knew that we'd be doing this sideboard, we asked Mike to let us know what it would cost to get a butcher block top for it. He estimated $1500. $1500?!?! You've got to be s%$#ting me! There's got to be another way to achieve what we want without forking over that kind of cash. 

In my explorations around Huntsville to get house ideas, I ended up at Southeastern Salvage on Jordan Lane. They have a beaucoup of home items, from tables and chairs, to rugs and curtains, and even cabinets, flooring and COUNTERTOP options. More specifically, they have some butcher block tops. While they have a sea of stuff in their warehouse, 

the only butcher block options they have are acacia or rubber wood. I'm not overly familiar with either type of wood, but the acacia has some color variances that don't really blend with what I was thinking, and the rubber wood has more of a maple look so that's what came home with us. 

Conveniently the measurements were perfect for the 9' we needed. Even better? The cost: $129.00+tax!! Cue the happy dance:

Ryan and I get it home, and tuck it safely away in the depths of the "band room" in the basement, and over the next month Ryan faithfully turns it over and over to get it to straighten itself naturally as it acclimated to it's new environment. Fast-forward through the past month and all it's construction, and we're to the point where we can get it ready for installation.

The butcher block starts out as raw wood. 

There are a few spots with wood filler that even out knots, dings or divots. Before applying any stain, we trimmed it down to it's new length (the depth was already perfect), and then routed the edges. Danny helped us with that last week:

Back home we did a light sanding with a damp cloth wipe-down. I also tried out a few stains on the trimmed off 1 foot piece.

Yes, that's two different stains. Top is Dark Walnut, bottom is Jacobean; both by Minwax. See that pale spot in the center of the board? That's a spot that has had wood filler put in it. Obviously, it doesn't absorb the stain like the rest of the wood. Shucks! I don't want that on the countertop...  A little more sanding ought to help!

Well, hope that worked. And only one way to find out! I picked the stain Dark Walnut, a low-lint (because I don't know that any cloth is really "lint-free"), and got to staining. I worked quickly, keeping the stain from creating any wet-to-dry lines on the surface of the wood. I felt pretty happy with the color.

But those spots!! Ugh! If a tree had the chicken pox I imagine it'd look a lot like the picture above. Well, that just won't do. After doing some more reading, most recommendations include stripping the stain off, scraping off what wood filler and it's residue you can, and stain again. So that's just what we do over the weekend.

I say "we," but in truth, Ryan did the grunt work. I helped a bit, but he really took down a lot of that stain. He used his orbital sander and a hand sander, both of which quickly became gunked up with the stain. The paint-scraper method seemed to work better at getting the bulk of the stain off so that the sanders could do their work of chipping away at the wood filler without just collecting stain residue. One recommendation (off of a thread on a gardening website) said to do a "water test" before the next stain application. Essentially, you put water where the stain originally did not set because of the wood filler. After sanding away at the wood filler, the idea is that the water should soak in, and thus, your stain should as well. It tried it on a few spots, and sure enough there were a couple spots that obviously needed more sanding. 

So now we're currently left with a butcher block piece of wood with beautifully routed edges, exceptionally sanded spots, and barely buffed areas that have substantial stain retention. The more we scrape, the more we sand, the more I worry about the overall texture and look of the wood. Will we be able to see the scrapes? Will that dag-blasted wood filler go back to the hell from whence it came? Will the stain even look good in the end? To be honest, we're not finished. I don't know what we'll have in the end. And even after the wondering and working at it, I'm still happy we haven't spent anywhere near that $1500. We'll keep plugging away and I'll be sure to fill you in on the final result. Current recommendations: if you're going to choose a butcher block top, go with one that has little to no wood filler previously put in (as there is a method to do wood filler wherein stain does absorb better than what we have, so you're safer just doing your own); also, if you have wood filler spots that you're concerned about, go with a lighter stain. I tried Special Walnut on the back of that 1 foot spare piece and it looked nice, more of the natural wood color really, but seemed like it would more adequately blend with the wood filler spots.

P.S. They dropped off our flooring on Friday!! You know you're getting close when the floors show up!

Mid-week boxes get checked

Tuesday

This morning I wake to the sweet sounds of tile being mechanically chiseled off our foyer's subfloor. Ryan and I had originally said just to keep the tile that was there, but during demo and reconstruction a few of the edge pieces were chipped.  After talking with Mike about how to replace the tile (we did have 5 extra loose tiles on hand), and then how to incorporate it with the new hardwoods, we decided to just let it go and do hardwoods everywhere. You see when the edges of mismatched floors meet up

you end up needing to do some sort of transition piece.

These are common. Plenty of houses have them. We actually had several in our last house, and I despised them. Dirt and hair gets caught under that edge. It creates a bump in the texture of the floor, and even putting a rug over it would give you a lumpy rug. I'm really glad that Mike brought up the idea of getting rid of the tile; I think we're going to be a lot happier with a nice, seamless floor.

To avoid the onslaught of new dust I:

-Picked up a few birthday presents at Barnes and Noble for my favorite almost-two-year-old.

-Grabbed lunch with Ryan.

-Went to La-z-boy/Kincaid to look at furniture and fabrics to get ideas of what we might be able to incorporate into the revamped space. "Miranda" was really trying to be helpful, but when I say I'm just looking, I mean it. "But you'll get an extra 20% off if you buy today." I respond with, "I'm not buying today, I'm just looking. I just want to see your fabrics and swivel chairs." She scampers off to look up a fabric I said I liked okay, and when she gets back she's trying to sell me a glider. I didn't say glider, I said swivel; but I don't have the heart to repeat myself for fear of losing my cool. I see other salespeople descending like vultures upon helpless chair-seekers. I kindly take her card, and vacate quickly.

-Bebopped around Target, buying a few inconsequential and unrelated-to-the-house things.

And after hearing that the glass for the cabinet doors won't be ready until later or tomorrow, I head back to the house. I get to see Mike and he's got our backsplash! It looks wonderful. He says the guys will be here Wednesday to put that in. I ask him several questions, hand over our next installment, and we both go about our merry business. I enjoy an afternoon of open windows and watching The Girls try to go hunting through screens. Ryan and I measure the sideboard base cabinets so we can get the butcher block top ready, label the cabinets with which knobs and pulls go where, use one of the ovens for the first time (just out-of-the-box scalloped potatoes), and then I check out pinterest for bifold door ideas.

Wednesday

This morning gets off to a more quiet start. There's a pressure washer running, but it's outside. And the tile guys aren't blaring the local country station. But there's a lot of work happening! The front of the house is looking a lot cleaner having all that old sawdust and drywall crumbs washed away, and the tile guys are well under way getting the backsplash laid out. I've got a few items to cover on the to-do list so I leave them to it.

-I picked up the glass from Huntsville Glass, and it looks great! I quickly run that back to the house as I do not want to ride around with these. My luck I'd get rear-ended.

-I grab lunch with a good buddy, Kim, at Viet Huong. They have amazing pho, and despite the fact that it's 70 degrees, I want steaming hot Vietnamese veggie soup.

-I proceed with hitting up Costco (gas and butter), Home Depot (paint roller and brushes), and Staples (wall calendar)...all while listening to Punjabi Hits on Pandora. Upbeat Indian music with a belly full of pho and the sunroof open is definitely a trifecta of happy. I highly recommend it. This was my favorite song today:

When I'm back home, it's nice and quiet. Everyone's finished up for the day, and I'm happy with how the backsplash turned out. The pictures are from my phone, and certainly don't do it justice. It matches up with a lot of the grey in the counter, and has a bit of a waving motion that reflects the movement in the counters.

Before Ryan has band practice tonight, he gets together with Danny up at the studio. Danny helps us cut the butcher block down then route it. 

There ended up being a one foot piece that was removed, so I'll be able to utilize that in sampling the different stains so we know which one to end up using. Ryan does the band thing, and I head back home. I'm watching "The Greatest Game Ever Played" when Ryan gets home, and a quiet evening at home after a day full of goals met is perfectly satisfying.

Awash in a sea of blue

Over the weekend, Ryan and I not-so-patiently wait for the temperature in the fridge to go down. Saturday, no change. Sunday, no change AND we realize the lights in the fridge don't come on. Monday morning, Ryan sees that the fridge's temperature has finally dropped from 66 degrees down to 48. Still not perfect, but definitely an improvement. Something's not right...

When Ryan let me know Sunday night that the fridge was still acting up I'd made up my mind to pick up a thermometer from Home Depot and put it in the fridge to see what the actual internal temperature was, in hopes that it'd help me figure out what was wrong. After work Monday morning, I get a $4 thermometer that looks like it ought to do the trick, and having a little extra information will help me approach Mike or Samsung or BestBuy (someone!) to fix it.

When I get home Monday morning, the painting of the walls is well under way. I unpackage the thermometer and stick it in the fridge. Feels cold, but not cold enough; and the lights still don't work. In an effort to steer clear, and not accidentally open a door and turn over a paint can, I grab a cabinet door and get out of the house. 

There are 6 cabinet doors above the sideboard in the dining room that need glass. I go to Huntsville Glass company, and having previously picked out my preferred glass ("seedy") I place the order. It comes out to a bit more than I had anticipated, but if you get anything other than plain glass you can expect to see that reflected in the cost. I do a little wheelin' and dealin', as though I were doing business with a Russian street vendor, but it saves me $70 so totally worth it. This is an example of what I ordered:

It's fairly well-matched with the glass in our pendants, so the overall look has a bit more cohesiveness.

Back at home, Mike has arrived. We start talking about things to expect this week, where we stand overall, "next payment due tomorrow," etc. He says that the backsplash should arrive this afternoon, with immediate installation. The painters should be finished today. The lacquer painter should be here later in the evening to get the pantry painted. Sounds like a busy day! Now how about my fridge?

I tell Mike what all we've looked at on the fridge, the bit of research Ryan says he's done, and that we know it was in working order when it was delivered...
That thermometer I put in the fridge? Yeah, it's been in there for hours and hasn't budged. It's temperature isn't right either. Guess that's what you get when you spend $4 on something these days. Any who, I walk Mike through our troubleshooting attempts, so he gets into the cords above the door again; unattaches, reattaches, wiggles. Nothing seems to be working and he's ready to give up, but after I tell him just to place the cover back over the wires and leave it unscrewed so it's easy to open when I call Samsung or BestBuy later, Mike just on the off chance opens the doors one more time. LIGHTS ARE ON! What?! We open and close the doors a few more times to see if it's a fluke, but no, it seems to be working. After Mike and I agree to walk away slowly from the fridge, and never touch it again, we see after a couple minutes that the temperature is already down to 46. Holy cow! Fixed! Let's hope it stays that way. 

For everyone that's wondering, "so what was wrong?" Mike said whatever sensor reads that the fridge isn't closed/sealed properly wasn't reading right. So the lights turned off after a matter of time, and the temperature hardly went down because our fridge is so freaking smart it knows not to run itself ragged for no reason. I love sensible and intelligent appliances.

Now that I feel like I might be able to take a nap, I go lay down on the couch. T.V. on to drown out noise. Glasses off so I don't squish them in my sleep. Phone nearby. Eyes closing...*ding ding* It's a text message, from Mike, telling me I should go pick out what color grout I want for the backsplash. Grout color? I thought it was white? No, there are several colors. And if the tiler guy is coming this afternoon, that means I have to go now.  

Glasses back on, shoes back on, grab car keys. It's 1p.m. I've been up for almost 24 hours. Mini pep talk in the car before I pull out of the garage. And it's back to Ceramic Harmony. Marion grabs the backsplash we chose, then pulls out her grout samples. She's got 25 different options. Sheesh! At times like these I need no more than 3 options. Marion's amazing, knows our countertops, and helps me narrow down the options relatively quickly. She tells me to take it all back to the house to make a decision, and also informs me that the backsplash won't be making it in today; some trouble getting the delivery truck to get it on time. Meh...whatever...fading fast. I get back home, and crash on the couch. I vaguely remember workers walking past to get to the downstairs areas they need to paint, but  unphased, I sleep right through it. 

A few hours later I'm up and moving again. Mike's back, and I update him on the no-backsplash-til-tomorrow info. I show him the grout options and he offers his input. Decision made. "Delorean grey" it is. I get a few pictures of the paint job:

It looks light blue in some light, grayish in others. I think we're going to like it just fine!

The lacquer guy arrives, and I get the heck out of dodge. At least he wears a mask when he works! The fumes off this stuff are so intense you might as well go bobbing for death in a vat nail polish remover. It. is. awful. And he's there until almost 9pm...but he's done! 

And during that phase his wife drops off another paint gun for him. They're the couple Mike told me were unsure about their countertops, and after seeing mine knew that's what they wanted. I'm glad all my researching has helped someone else make their decision!

Ryan puts the lightbulbs in the dining room chandelier. 

I run the ovens, which is basically just putting them on broil for 5 minutes. 

We put a bottle of water in the freezer to make sure it properly freezes something overnight. We run water through the fridge's water line, throw out it's first batch of ice, run the kitchen faucet, and the pot filler to clear the lines. 

I also test each eye on the induction cooktop, and it works like a dream! Water boils in just under 4 minutes, and the eyes do not retain heat for very long at all.

Successful day! 

Almost There!!!

If I thought last Thursday was productive, then Friday was the epitome of productivity! By the end of the day on Friday, we had a fully functioning kitchen. That is, if you don't mind making dinner on a dusty countertop whilst standing on subfloor, and possibly having "loose screws" on the menu. But honestly, here's what Mike and his team accomplished:

-Painters were there working on some trim and other paintables.

-The ovens were set in place and hooked up.

We bought one oven with convection and one without. We put the one with convection on the right, as I anticipate using that one more frequently. The factory recommendations say to run a sort of cleaning cycle to burn off any coating from the interior that ought not be in food before you really cook anything in there. Put that on the to-do list! When I bought the ovens at Bob Wallace, the salesperson let me know he thought the heavy duty roll out rack only came with the convection model. 

Imagine my surprise and delight to know they sent one with the non-covection as well! Sweet! Now I can make two exceptionally physically heavy meals, one in each oven, and have a roll out tray to make their retrieval go more smoothly. (Those roll out racks can run you about $100 a piece, and I'd already thought I'd buy a second one if we only received one, so this really was a treat.)

-The electricians put all the can lights on dimmers, changed out the old beige/yellowed outlets to white outlets, hung the chandelier in the dining room, and got our pendant lights up.

And I *finally* ordered Edison style bulbs from Restoration Hardware for the pendants.

It took a while to decide, since I wanted the Edison bulbs (because of aesthetics as the pendants have see-right-through-'em glass) but Ryan wanted LEDs (because of longevity and energy efficiency). I searched high and low and could not find a marriage between the two, as the very nature of each style of bulb inhibits cross-breeding. I'd compare it to the idea of a lion mating with a Shetland pony. It wouldn't happen naturally, and if it ever, by some crazy genetically modified off chance did happen, the result would be more than strange.

+

=

Awww, come on bear! Give it a chance!

-Mike and a couple of the other guys got the fridge moved from the garage to it's new home in the kitchen. I must say, this was a bit traumatic. Remember, we have a steep driveway... And they had to go about halfway up said driveway before making it onto the sidewalk up to the front door. Well, when rounding the corner onto the sidewalk, I saw impact. Refrigerator vs. retaining wall. And of course it was the FRONT of the fridge, and not the back. I imagined it had scraped right in the center of the freezer and "flex-zone" drawers. *Deep, cleansing breath* Now walk away, and don't watch anymore.

Ok, I couldn't help myself, I went upstairs to see them bring it in. But it was another 30 minutes before that happened, as they needed to completely remove our front door AND the fridge's doors (which encompassed unhooking what looked to be vital wires for proper functioning). I'm getting really nervous...not good to watch this go down. I suspect it might be similar to a mother watching her child have surgery. And before the actual mothers say, "uh, no, completely different," understand that this fridge is my brand, spankin' new baby.  After getting inside, I see that it's just a small corner scratch. 

I try to tell myself, "no biggie, it's small, negligible really;" but what I actually say to Mike is "we didn't buy this fridge at a scratch and dent sale, so I don't want it to look like we did-do whatever you need to do to fix it." Mike says he will fix it. We leave the fridge plugged in to start cooling off, and so we can check the water lines. I leave to go and get a minimal, but better than nothing, 3 hour nap at the in-law's house before work. When I get back to the house to get ready for work, Ryan and I see that the fridge is reading 67 degrees (it's supposed to be more like 37 degrees...). This doesn't seem right *another deep, cleansing breath* but let's just give it some more time. Off to work, and let's just hope it corrects itself overnight.

With all these deep, cleansing breaths this ought to be one of my most well oxygenated days. Good thing, as they'll be doing the spray lacquer on the built-in pantry on Monday, and my understanding of that is to expect a full alveolar collapse because of the fumes.

"Holy progress, Batman!"

Thursday was chock full of accomplishments.

Painters showed up at 7am to finish smoothing the walls, doing some priming, and filling in the trim. Construction guys were there, too, finishing out the column, adding the wood topper to the half wall, and getting the appliance pantry framed out.

Around 9am comes my favorite part!!! Our counters have arrived! It was raining and we have that demon slope in our driveway. The slowly got their truck down the driveway and used it as the homebase for moving the slabs and fine tuning them in certain areas.

After much tugging, pulling, lifting, and adjusting they got our beautiful counters in place.

Aren't they wonderful!

After talking with several granite people, then with Ceramic Harmony who did our countertops, these "Brown Fantasy" countertops are sometimes classified as quartzite, sometimes granite, other times marble. Ceramic Harmony acquired our slabs from Stone Connection in Atlanta, who calls their slabs "Onice Fantasy" and classifies the stone as a marble, though when acid and etch-tested it performs with more integrity than your typical marble surface. Sweet! One of the first things I wanted to make was homemade lemon bars, and lemon tears up marble. I should be safe....right? We'll find out...

The plumber is expected Friday, getting the faucet, disposal, and pot filler hooked up. Our pot filler could double as a weapon...or as a dousing mechanism for any misbehavers sitting on the couch on the other side of the wall. And electricians are set to come Friday as well, to get our pendant lights, dining room chandelier, and living room fan up and running.