Allan’s staycation projects

December 2014

Allan’s first staycation project, which I thought some of you might enjoy seeing, began in December when I bought a toaster oven and then realized we had no good place to put it.  We searched local anitque stores to no avail for the perfect piece of kitchen furniture before we realized we had one right at home in the winter-messy plant storage area outside.

December 1:  Testing: Yes, the microwave and oven both fit.

December 4: It’s in Allan’s shop with a new top made from fence top trimmings we saved from a friend’s burn pile.

tiling the top to make it more toaster oven safe; tiles left over from my Seattle house

all done and drying

by mid December, in the kitchen with a tiled and wider top

January 2015

The bigger project took place in January when we were not as distracted by holiday events.  I had had a sudden brainstorm about the silly little buffet shelf or whatchamacallit that wrapped around the counter behind the stove.  It might have been a nice place to have breakfast with a view of the garden, but in the darkest part of the house with no view at all it had just become a clutter depository.

January 2nd, the old wraparound shelf with massive clutter

The most useful part of the underneath was a space for our shoe driers.

I moved my shoe and boot clutter into my own closet and repurposed the white shelf, painted green, as a table by my living room chair.  It has sentimental value to me, as it was made by my old friend Montana Mary‘s mother.

the end of the curve-around shelf

Allan supported the shelf with various things while he got ready to tear it out.

ready to go, supported by buckets and bits of wood

On January 2nd, out it goes.

gone

and in go some pre-made cupboards.

For a few days, it stayed like this as he was working on the top out in his shed.

pieces clamped together in the shed to add a veneer to the sides. The shorter cupboards also had to be made taller.

staining the doors

back in the kitchen, raising the smaller cupboards to be even

installing the new plywood top

with the drawers and doors installed, laying out the tile

I had enough blue tile left over from my Seattle house to do the top of the new cupboards and the top of the microwave table.  I’d had that box of tile down here since 1992, and I knew it would come in handy some day.

The end cupboards would not get to have doors as they ended up being the space for the shoe driers and cat food box.

grouting and laying in decorative tiles

We had a tile (second from left) of Astoria from a Sunday Market artist, and Allan went to the Don Nisbett Art Gallery for four more art tiles, including a triptych of the Port of Ilwaco.

grouting

With the counter done and everything put away in new drawers and behind cupboard doors, it all looks so nice and tidy, and I intend to keep it that way.

Wednesday, 14 January, 2015

With the project done, Allan rewarded himself with a sail on Black Lake.  Those of you who made it this far can join the reward via his photos.

Black Lake Yacht Club

waterbird with the cheap little pocket cam

Houses overlook the lake on the west side only.

the north end of the lake

west side

Most of rest of Allan’s non recreational staycation time would be spent doing paperwork for taxes, not the sort of project that leads to the satisfaction of seeing nice new cupboards in the kitchen.  It already feels like staycation is going to end too soon.  (By my age, my mother had already been retired for five years.  We are not there yet.)