Other People's Projects: Oregon Trail Edition

Steve and I continued our home improvement road trip this month, venturing Northward to see our dear friend J, his awesome wife Tanya and their insanely adorable son Milo.

Our main project on this excursion was to remove a built-in stovetop and the cabinet in which it was housed, then level the floor so that a stand-alone stove/oven combo can be put in that space.

The kitchen committee meets to discuss parameters (Steve, a psyched-looking J, junior contractor Milo, and Tanya):

The existing kitchen tile (and backer) did not extend under the removed cabinet. So, Steve and J raised the floor with plywood and leveler. To make the project simpler (and since the area will be unseen beneath the new stove), J elected to forgo extending the ceramic tile and use peel-and-stick vinyl floor tile instead.

Steve puts down the peel-and-stick tiles in possibly my favorite picture of him ever. He can be such a ham:

One odd project that I occupied myself with while Steve and J were working in the kitchen was patching the holes (and electrical boxes, conduit and disconnected wires) left behind in every room when the radiant baseboard heating was previously removed from the house. After consulting with my advisory committee (my parents) on the phone, I went ahead with a variation on my idea to deal with the problem. After being sure the wires were dead (and J capped them with wire nuts just to be extra safe), I cut aluminum screening to size and used faceplate screws to attach the patch to the old electrical boxes.

I attach one such patch:

It's an inelegant solution, but hopefully it'll make things look nicer. Pulling all of the conduit, wires and boxes out of the walls would have been a giant mess. If nothing else, my dad helpfully suggested that J could hang pictures over them all.

Steve applies joint compound over my patch work:

J and Steve taking a break with the cat:

While we waited for joint compound to dry on various projects, Steve cast about for something else to do. J mentioned that they wanted to do something about the dark, not terribly attractive wood edging to their otherwise cute tile countertops. Say no more, Steve leapt into action...

Steve scraping off the many heavy layers of stain:

Steve sanding to a lovely finish:

J will have to finish that project with some stain, but at least the laborious scraping and sanding is complete.

Sadly, we only had a long weekend, and many things were left undone as we had to head for home. But we're pleased that we were able to help with a few things, at least.

Milo waves goodbye to us:

(Such a great picture! I love it! Such a sweet little dude.)

Steve enjoying a cinnamon roll on our drive home:

Taking the long way home, I survey the forest in the Trinity Lake area:

Poignant reminder of the current drought, Trinity "Lake":

I wish J, Tanya, and Milo were close enough that we could visit every week. But at least now that they're in Oregon (instead of their previous homes in Boston and Wisconsin, which would have required the somewhat flying-phobic Lisa to get on a plane, which did not happen) we stand a chance of seeing them at least a couple times a year.