What did YOU do today?

[Jazzer]

^ Those type of counters are usually screwed in from below in the front and back corners of the cabinets.

 

[Curious Hound]

^ Those type of counters are usually screwed in from below in the front and back corners of the cabinets.

On a 110 year old house, It's may not be. Depends on who built it. Also depends on who did the Formica job. Because I don't think that's original. It could have been cut a glued directly on top of the original countertop.

 

[Jazzer]

You’re right, but the formica won’t be an original installation.

Need a flashlight to get under and see how they did it.

 

[racsan]

took the ranger trailer to town & brought home a tree. Got it in the house but thats as much that’s going to happen to it today.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I might have made a slight miscalculation... we had to shim a LOT, the back corner was 1 1/8" lower than the high corner so the L section we left mounted to the wall/floor and shimmed the top side, didn't have to make any too goofy of boards, dumbest were 37" long going from 3/4" to a point and there were two of those. The end section we were able to pull up since it was all jacked up but it took very little to get it squared up just from some shoddy workmanship initially...

Yeah, the counter wasn't original, it was all 3/4" plywood held in with 2" nails and conveniently very little glue, with two people lifting we were able to get enough room to get a wonder bar under the countertop and work it up. The long section we did cut into two pieces to make it easier than the ~12' long mess it would have been...

When we stopped for the night everything is attached and level, tomorrow my brother will come back over and we'll see what kinda mess it is to cut prefab countertops to length then work on getting the sink hole cut and so forth...

Oh and of course we found the areas where mice had been getting in and fixed all that we could see and mouse proofed the one cabinet they could get into aside from under the sink (standard shortcuts cutting drain holes). Conveniently I had a 4 pack of copper scrubbers left over from when I put the shop in so we used those...

Annoyingly the dishwasher is seeping somewhere so I'll have to look into that, we thought about getting a new one but not sure I want to deal with a new one that's designed to last just a few years...

 

[19Walt93]

I serviced my Ranger, rotated the tires, topped up the gas and parked it for the winter. The dealer didn't have an FL1A in stock(no surprise, the last vehicle to use one was a 2001 Explorer V8) so I got a Napa Gold filter, assuming they were still made by Wix. I took the Napa filter out of the box and saw a 'made in China' sticker so I went to another jobber and found a Motorcraft FL1A. Napa will get that piece of crap back.

 

[racsan]

Took down all the fall outside decorations & put up the Christmas stuff, Got the main tree decorated.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Made progress today on the counters but not as much as I was hoping, but it did get dumber so you get what you get... The prefab counters come in 10' 1" lengths and my counter is like 11.5' long so we had to figure out the best way to extend it. So far it's got a dozen or so clamps on it letting the wood glue dry. We did get the super heavy Kohler cast iron and porcelain sink cleaned of the old sealant and got the new faucet installed. There's a chance we can be done tomorrow night or at least mostly done with the counters and sink just leaving the backsplash for later. Oh and the built in backsplash thing on the counters is over an inch taller than the window sill, will likely just build up the window sill to match.

So far that's 20' of countertop out of the shop and one giant cast iron sink that have all been in my way so there's that!

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Made progress today on the counters but not as much as I was hoping, but it did get dumber so you get what you get... The prefab counters come in 10' 1" lengths and my counter is like 11.5' long so we had to figure out the best way to extend it. So far it's got a dozen or so clamps on it letting the wood glue dry. We did get the super heavy Kohler cast iron and porcelain sink cleaned of the old sealant and got the new faucet installed. There's a chance we can be done tomorrow night or at least mostly done with the counters and sink just leaving the backsplash for later. Oh and the built in backsplash thing on the counters is over an inch taller than the window sill, will likely just build up the window sill to match.

So far that's 20' of countertop out of the shop and one giant cast iron sink that have all been in my way so there's that!

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

[scotts90ranger]

Pics or it didn't happen!

Here ya go, first is this morning, next is just a couple minutes ago...

 

[Rick W]

I Re-dyed ole blue’s vinyl top with a new product. I’ll write it up after I touch it up and it’s done. It already looks 100 times better.

A bunch of little chores, checked all the vehicles for antifreeze for the freeze point, disconnected my garden hoses, and put the pressure washer in the bathroom in the garage, all so nothing will freeze. Tonight is the first night it’ll be a threat down here, predicted lower of 29°, but in the mid 20s, the next three or four days at night, and barely over freezing during the daytime.

I also disconnected all of Sweetpea’s hoses, turned off the inside valves, opened up the outside valves, etc. I got a plate of leftover turkey dinner for that, like I needed another one.

The big project today was opening up my little HF battery tester and fixing it. I must have a half a dozen different kinds of meters, and that fancy smart battery charger, but the beauty of this one is it fits in your pocket and it tells you exactly what you want to know if you’re in a hurry. All it was was that the positive terminal pulled off the solder joint. Probably wasn’t really on there to begin with..

Now that I’m getting around better than I was a few years ago, assuming all the poking and prodding the doctors do works out. OK, I expect to be covering some more miles. So as I’m cleaning the shed of miracles and re-organizing some of my tools, I’m trying to do it in such a way that I have things that are easy to grab to take with me when I’m on the road. This little guy will probably be the first addition to the travel box.

Oh, and a friend out of Tennessee helped me clean up a little bit and we got all the fun and festive and merry set up in the living room with the tree, and the dining room with the Christmas plates. If my feeble body holds out, I should have everything up for the holiday by tomorrow night After caffeine and octane.

I played musical vehicles and moved the trailer around and hooked it up to the road Ranger. It only took me about 15 minutes. I finally figured out the correct procedure and I’m not nervous about doing it anymore.

And, and, and, one last thought, I met my new neighbors. Really nice younger couple. We’ll probably share a dinner and a wine later this week to get acquainted.

i’m not feeling too merry yet myself, but I can feel it creeping up

 

[scotts90ranger]

One neat thing I learned yesterday was that a 40 grit flap disc in an angle grinder removes wood like a mofo! A couple years ago we made a straight edge from a couple 4" offcuts from OSB when sheeting the inside of the shop and screwed them together and used the factory edge as a straight edge. We reused that this weekend cutting pieces but the circular saw motor was hitting the top board for a bit, tried a hand plane which worked but slow but I had my cordless grinder there with a new 40 grit flap disc to take down some screw tips that were poking through and tried that and holy cow the sawdust was flying!

 

[Rick W]

Drove to the lake today for some pleasant weather. A week plus of rain, felt good to go for some clean mountain air. Also went for a walk, getting difficult to walk even with my cane..I need to move as i can.

You’re inspiring, you old dude!

 

[scotts90ranger]

Made more progress today!

The kitchen is now functional again, the clamps are holding the board the front of the dishwasher will be screwed to but I needed to get to this point... only took two trips to town today, first for angle brackets to screw down the counter top with, the second to get a tight quarters angle drill adapter and the hex drive drill bits I would need since I couldn't find any (I know I have some somewhere).

Still have trim work to do obviously, need to iron on the end pieces and make something to fill in the gap between the backsplash and the window... that and put away a lot of tools, I got them out of the house but only some of them got the rest of the way put away...

 

[Rick W]

Made more progress today!

View attachment 120657

The kitchen is now functional again, the clamps are holding the board the front of the dishwasher will be screwed to but I needed to get to this point... only took two trips to town today, first for angle brackets to screw down the counter top with, the second to get a tight quarters angle drill adapter and the hex drive drill bits I would need since I couldn't find any (I know I have some somewhere).

Still have trim work to do obviously, need to iron on the end pieces and make something to fill in the gap between the backsplash and the window... that and put away a lot of tools, I got them out of the house but only some of them got the rest of the way put away...

Looks great! I like the way you matched the C clamps to the multicolor floor mat, even if temporary.

I have one concern. I think that evil hog-looking demon from the Amityville horror is reflecting in the window glass like it did in the movie. Sometimes that happens in old houses.

Might want to call a priest to bless the new counter…