Catching up and my first moose sighting of the year.....

 It has been a relatively quiet and boring time, here in Fairbanks.  I was grateful, as the hustle and bustle from the kitchen project had taken a toll on my sleep patterns.  I can get really off-step when my sleep gets out of the normal cycle.  I do not like setting alarms, and I had to get up early every morning, so I was dressed and ready for the worker(s).

Then we came upon an issue after Rob installed the new kitchen faucet.  It is always a crapshoot when you are dealing with an older home.  Things wear out over time.  And things may work just fine until you mess with them.  That is exactly what happened when Rob installed the new faucet.

The shutoff valves under the sink were tight.  He managed to get one to work, but the other did not, so we had to shut off the water to the entire house.  He got everything installed and the faucet worked just fine, but we left the cabinet empty so we could check on possible leaks.  It took a week before Rob found water under the sink.  It did not look like a great deal, but the issue is that it had been oozing out of the old valve and running down the pipe, before dripping into the ceiling in my craft room.  I am not one to look up at my ceiling much, so it was not until I found a bit of water in one of the measuring cups on my counter that we realized what was happening.  We had to get a plumber in to replace the two valves to make the kitchen watertight again. (Still have not put things back under the sink... just in case!)

I have not been doing very much.  I have been laying low, staying out of public areas, and just allowing Rob and Kate into the house now that the workers were finished.  I was scheduled to get my first COVID-19 vaccine on March 3rd.  I need to stay as far away from people as possible until then.  I got a call on Thursday from the folks at Chena Health.  They had opened up some days in February and wanted to know if I wanted to change dates.  And, you better believe I was all in for that!  So now, I will be getting my first vaccine on February 15th with my second shot scheduled for March 15th.  So the light is getting brighter about 3 weeks faster!!!

Now, to some fun stuff...  So far this winter, we have not gotten very much snow.  We got the big dump in early November.  Then I did another snow blowing job just before Brian came at Christmas to remove several little fluffy storms from the driveway.  But since then, I have not seen enough snow to even get the snowblower fired up.  I am not complaining.  The snow has not melted as temperatures have not gotten much above 40 degrees and are usually around freezing or below.  Once in a while, it dips to the 20 below temps, but it has not been bad at all.  Still have all of February and March, but so far, the weather has been very nice.

I installed a new WYZE camera outside of the garage.  Their new version 3 camera was designed to be either inside or outside, so I have one facing up the driveway from the garage.  It has been fun seeing Miles when he is outside on his lead so I no longer have to walk him all of the time.  Of course, he has a landmine field of little poops on one side and a trail of little pee spots on the other side of the driveway.  When the snow finally begins to melt, I will have to go out and pick up a winter's worth of piles.  I tried keeping up with them, but even going out within an hour or so of his 'deposit', the piles have sunk into the snow and are frozen solid in place.  So I will wait until they thaw and get them all at once.  They do not pose a problem as walking on them does now result in adding anything to your shoes.

From time to time I go through the little 12 second recordings of some of our cameras to see what or who is moving outside.  Most of the time it is Miles or Miles and I walking, or lights from cars reflecting off the snow at night.  Yesterday it caught my first Moose sighting for 2021.

Mid-afternoon this large, female moose stepped out from beside my garage and meandered up my driveway.

Just calmly walking from the direction of the woodshed and taking a leisurely walk across the driveway.

She must be taking her time and must be smelling Miles on the driveway.

Still taking her time...

This video shows my lady moose making the entire trip.  She comes out from the woodshed area, goes up the driveway while checking out all manner of things, including the decision not to jump over the fence and continuing up the driveway.  If you have the ability to enlarge this video, when she turns the corner, she stops and spends some time listening.  Then she appears to call out into the woods before cutting through an opening in the fences and heading back into the woods.

This is a camera that is in our front window.  You get to see her beautiful face and get a better idea of how big she is.  But as beautiful and elegant as this animal is, they are mean and nasty, so there is no going out to try to entice them to come to you for a quick pet!!  We just admire them from afar.

Enjoy!!!

Final touch in the kitchen...

 First, an update... I love the new kitchen.  The new floor makes me smile every time I go in there to cook.  The floor is less loud to walk on as the hardwood was actually very noisy.  Now, most of the time I am usually in slippers or stocking feet, but there is still a difference.  The narrow hardwood boards were not comfortable on stocking feet.  The new floor is smooth and, with socks or slippers, it almost seems like there is a cushy layer under the vinyl planking.

The new dishwasher cleans dishes!!  I do not have to clean the dishes nearly as much.  I should be saving water if I can break the habit of washing off all of the grime from my dishes and cooking utensils.

The last thing I wanted to change was to put a new faucet in the sink.  The old one... was, well, old!!  It was a single handle to determine the temperature of the water and from time to time, when I moved it in just the right way, it would leak from underneath the handle.  Plus there had been an accident from the kitchen sink before we bought the house that had sent water up to the ceiling leaving a discoloration in the ceiling.  I just felt it was time to change it out for a newer one.

So last Thursday, Rob and Kate came over to the house and Rob tackled the installation of the new faucet.  I am not sure if he had done one before, but the instructions said "no plumber needed", so he was willing to do the work.  And he did it very well.

So, here is the new, modern faucet installed on a not-so-modern sink in front of a not-so-modern backsplash.  These will remain in place for a while.  It is tall, so filling a big pot will be much easier.  There is not a separate sprayer, a good thing as the one it replaced had stopped spraying.  Take note that the handle is set in the 'on' position but no water is coming out.  Now look at the base of the faucet... see the little dark circle... it is a motion sensor.  When the faucet is on, it can be turned on and off without putting your hands on the handle!!  Wow, do I enjoy this feature!!!!!!

There is a hole in the sink now that will need to be covered with a pop-in chrome piece, designed to fill up the hole.  Rob will be looking for that piece this week.

Here is a closer look at the base of the faucet.

Here is how the sprayer comes out of the faucet.  There is a button behind the head that changes the flow from a regular flow to a sprayer.  There is a weight under the sink on that hose that pulls the head back to the faucet body.

Here is a closeup of the sprayer head as it sits when it is pulled back into place.

I think that it is the icing on the cake.  It will run like a regular faucet, but the hands-free function is so nice.  How many times have you had gunk on your hands and needed to wash them off?  It is so much nicer to just pass your hand over the motion-detector eye to turn the water on.

I love this modern world!!!

Really Good News...

 I had finished my dinner tonight and had retired to the lower level.  I checked my phone which I had not looked at much this afternoon, as I had gotten some items at Costco, put them away, and then made dinner.

I found a voicemail from Rob asking me to call.  So I did.  They were five minutes away from my house and coming to eat their dinner here.  Once they arrived, they told me that Kate had been at her cancer doctor (I think) to see about changing one of her daily meds that keeps her blood from clotting from a shot to a pill.  At that appointment, her cancer doctor had made a call and now they were waiting for a call to see if Kate could get her COVID-19 vaccine tonight.

We were chatting about our day when Kate's cell phone rang.  They... whoever 'they' were... had completed their injections for the day and had enough vaccine leftover so they could vaccinate Kate AND Rob!!  So thrilled.  This is a great thing for them since Kate's condition makes her a very high risk,  

So, by the time I get my first one, they will have had both of their vaccinations.  By the end of March, we should all be covered.  

The light at the end of our tunnel appears NOT to be a train!!!

Still restoring the kitchen to full usage...

 Slept in this morning until almost 9:30 AM.  I was ready as I was working up to an odd dream, bordering on nightmare.  It was one of those dreams that makes you wonder what you were eating the day before or at least, what had been on your mind before bed!!!

Part of yesterday was pulling the baker's rack and the spice shelves back into the kitchen.  I placed the sharpest knives on the magnetic rack on the side of the fridge and the magnets and pictures on the front.  I brought all of the baking stuff... flour, sugar, chocolate chips, baking powder, baking soda... etc, back into the cabinet that they came from (we had to empty that one for the electrician).  The only place that is still missing stuff, is under the sink.  That will happen Thursday or Friday after we get the new faucet installed.

I also spent some time, bringing the fridge freezer contents back upstairs.  It has been a good thing, as I can see what I have and can plan some meals around those foods.  Freezers can be a good thing to allow storage for times when you cannot get to the store.  But it can be a bad thing, as you forget what you have and it gets freezer-burned. 

I still have a few things to find when I decorated for Christmas.  One or two of the items, I have no idea where they have gone!!!

Here is the view from the steps into the kitchen.  The spices are back in place and the strainers and tongs are hanging back where they have been living since the time I moved in.  The coffee/tea center is back in place.  I still have one item to return to the top shelf.  I removed it for fear it might fall off!  I still need to move the Instant Pot rolling cart back in place.

I had some items that needed to be washed, so I loaded enough things in the dishwasher to run a cycle.  I selected the Sensor cycle.  It is supposed to determine how dirty things are and adjust accordingly.  At least I am learning how to load the machine.  I am also not rinsing things as well as I used to... just to see how well it cleans.  If it works as well as I expect it will, I may end up saving water in the long run.

I also ran a load of laundry.  It was mostly stuff for Miles, but I had a couple of kitchen rugs to put in as well.  Then I loaded up trash from just living and from construction and headed to the transfer station before going to Fred Meyers to pick up some groceries I had ordered and then duck in quickly to the Pharmacy.  I have changed my Part D Drug Plan this year.  Tomorrow I go to my primary doctor and she will be calling drugs into the pharmacy.  I did not want them to run the charges through to the old insurers and then have to repeat that when I give them the new information.  Especially since most of my current drugs will not cost me anything... not even a co-pay.  

I took this picture from the opening above the stove.  It shows the two new appliances.  I emptied the dishwasher of the dishes I washed today.  I purposely did not rinse these completely, just to see how well it washed things.  They were all clean and shiny!!  Impressed thus far.

I also ran the trash compactor today.  I had brought enough trash from the lower level and the stuff I created upstairs.  You cannot turn a trash compactor on until it is at least 1/2 full. I actually had filled it to the top, so I punched the start button, and off it went.  It was MUCH louder than the dishwasher.  But when it was done, the trash was compacted on the bottom of the bin.  I will be curious to see how much it will compact.  My old one had a 'super-compact' button.  You could push the button, the plunger would come down until it reached a full crush on the trash and then stop.  The plunger just kept the weight on the trash to really compress everything.  This trash compactor does not have this function.  Time will tell.

A Quiet Day to regroup...

This morning I did not hear the alarm!!  That is because I finally had a day when I did not have to be up, bed made, dressed, and ready for one of my contractors to arrive.  What a luxury.

So I eased out of bed, had a lovely, leisurely cup of coffee, took a nice, long shower, and then started my day.

I wandered up to the kitchen and immediately a smile came upon my face.  I looked at the new floor... so much better than the old, hardwood thing.  I had set the dishwasher to run a full cycle with soap to remove oils and the like from the manufacturer.  After eating and watching TV last night, I went upstairs to see how it had done.  It was still running.

I took a few moments to open up the user manual to find that the only short cycle was a one hour cycle.  All of the others will run up to 3 hours.  Evidently, the new dishwashers gently clean their loads by washing them and washing them and washing them.  So, if I need things cleaned fast I will need to use more water in less time using the 1-hour cycle.  There is even a soaking cycle that takes 8 hours!!! 

Anyway, the dishwasher works, fills, washes, and drains without leaks.  The really wonderful thing is that you do not hear a single sound from it.  I cannot hear water going in.  I even opened it a couple of times because I thought it was not working, only to find the water filling in the tub.  I cannot hear it running and spraying the water around.  I cannot hear it draining, either.  The wonders of modern science.

Now I just have to learn how to change the heights of the trays as the upper one can drop down to allow for taller glasses.  There is a flat tray at the top for those odd things that now have a place to lay and not bounce around and perhaps block the spray arms.  The silverware can be loaded on the outer door or attached to the lower tray.  It even has a Sani-rinse, which in today's world is a very nice option.

Rob and Kate came over today to see the new kitchen.  I think they liked it.  At some point in the future, we will look at either painting the cabinets or replacing them, along with the countertop.  But there will be other improvements that will need to come first.  The upstairs bathroom will probably be the next big improvement, but that is not even in the works, yet.

I have replaced all of the items back into the kitchen except for the stuff under the sink.  Rob and I will be installing a new kitchen faucet.  The current one is on its last leg.  The sprayer stopped working while Brian was here.  I purchased a nice, tall kitchen faucet.  The nozzle is also the pullout sprayer.  It will also turn on via motion detection or touch.  Snazzy, right???  

The dining room table is back in its place. and there are just some things that Rob will be taking down to the garage to put away, like some wood I asked the guys to leave behind and the leftover vinyl planking so we have some, should we need to repair the floor in the future.

Tonight we had a Zoom get together with Susan and Martin Miller, Rob, Kate, and myself.  These are the majority of the folks that we play Dungeons and Dragons with, but our Dungeon Master is currently not able to set up our gaming stories, so we meet to sometimes play games together on Zoom or, like tonight, just to quietly talk, catch up and spend time together.

So I am off to bed and another night of good sleeping!

The Final Day... Again...

Well, another alarm set (I hate setting alarm clocks after years and years of always having one or two alarms set every day during the week) so I could be ready for Eric to come to finish his part of the floor installation and let me know the plan for getting the dishwasher installed.  

I needed to wash dishes by hand since the dishwasher did not get installed.  Funny how one gets used to the appliances of convenience, especially when they are no longer available.  I have so soon forgotten that I hand washed dishes for more than 40 years!!

Eric arrived at exactly 9:00 AM.  It is so rare to find a construction contractor who has a sense of the need to be on time.  He set right about getting things ready to put the transition strips along the floor/carpet sections.  He took about an inch of the very thick padding that is under our beautiful carpet on the edge that is meeting the new planking floor in the kitchen.  On the longest transition, he also inserted a tack strip so he could secure the carpet at the edge of the floor... so it would not get stretched over time.  He measured and cut the metal strip.  It is beautiful brushed nickel in color and complimented both the new floor and the carpet.  He left the big strip off on the side, as later on, they may need to remove strips to get the plumbing done for the dishwasher install.  He did install the strip on the opening from the kitchen to the steps/living room.

Here is a picture of the finished transition from the kitchen to the steps/living room.

Same area but from the carpet side.  Don't you agree that the brushed nickel goes with both floors??  Eric did a good job of selecting the color.  And the strip is really, securely nailed to the floor!!!

Rob had mentioned to me that the transition strip to their bathroom was loosening up.  I had asked Eric if he could fix it.  He started trying to fix the gold-colored strip (it matches the fixtures in the bathroom) when he stopped.  He told me that he had a scrap of the brushed nickel that would fit the door, so he replaced the old gold strip with the new brushed nickel one.  It is again, really secure so Rob and Kate will not trip on the loose strip.

Eric and Garrett had spoken this morning and Garrett had planned to come to the house to finish the dishwasher installation.  He is going to open up the lower level ceiling to access the water pipes under the dishwasher and then install a new access panel.  The area is right over the countertops that are in my craft room.  It was in the area where my microwave sits, along with a toaster and cutting board.  Plus my serger was in the vicinity, too.  So, to prepare, I cleared off the amount of counter that Garrett will need to do that work.

This is the cleared area.  The last time the counter was this clean was the day I moved in!!!

And where did the stuff go???

If Garrett does not come, I am going to either have to sleep somewhere else or clean all of this stuff from my bed!

Can you see the tiny hole?  That is the pilot hole that my electrician had drilled from the opening in the cabinet above so we could find the exact place where the water pipes were located.  Garrett will open this area up and by tonight it will just be an access panel but we will have access to the water pipes and shutoff valves.

Garrett arrived around 4:00 PM.  And he brought a young man to assist him in getting our job finished.  As anticipated, the first order of business was to open up the ceiling in my craft room so they could have access to the plumbing.

They cut into the ceiling in the area nearest to the pilot hole but where they were not going to cut into a floor joist or any pipes.  It was successful... thank goodness.  In looking at what was there, Garrett decided it was best to remove the existing pipe and install some more modern pipes and valves that made it much easier to get the water line to the dishwasher.

They installed the outer square for the panel.  Looks better already.

This is what the shutoof valve looks like in the ceiling.  No leaks and a very simple connection for upstairs.

As this part was being wrapped up, they were working on finishing the work on the dishwasher,  By the time I got upstairs with my camera, this is what I found...

The dishwasher was no longer in the dining room.  It was plugged in, connected to water, pushed into the opening, and needing just a few more tweaks to be done.

It is stainless steel outside AND inside.  From the user manual, this thing is so adjustable that I can put tall things in both the bottom and the top.  There is a tray on the top for items that might get bounced around if they were loose in the lower area, plus the silverware compartment can either stay on the door or fit into the lower tray!!  PLUS, there is an app and when connected to the internet, we can run the dishwasher from any place we are and get notices as to when it is finished!!!

After getting the dishwasher in, the last transition strip was put down.  The dishwasher was tested to insure there were no leaks... it is sooooooooo quiet!

Now, here is the look at the final product.  The floor is beautiful.  The appliances look lovely, sleek, and new.  I am a happy lady!!

Miles seems to approve, too.  This should be the last of any major improvements.  We will pick up fence painting as soon the the snow melts and the air is warm enough to allow us to paint.  In the meantime, I will get the kitchen pulled back together and then work to get the rest of the craft room organized.

Final Day of kitchen floor remodel... NOT!

 The day did not start off well.  My alarm went off and I assumed it was 7:30 AM as that is when I told Alexa to wake me up.  Miles and I did our normal snuggly, waking up routine and then I disarmed my alarm system, turned my lights on, and then got out of bed.  As I did that, I glanced at my clock and it was 6:00 AM.  How I did it wrong, my alarm went off at 5:30 AM and not 7:30 AM.  But I was awake and so my day was beginning.

So, I had a lazy morning of coffee and getting ready for Eric to appear again and finish putting down the floor.  And I was well coffeed by the time he arrived.  His vehicle arrived at exactly 9:00 AM and he dug right into the job of laying our new, vinyl planking on the kitchen floor.

My job for the day was to head out to our local Lowes and get the dishwasher kit to add a plug for electricity and the waterline to get water to the unit.  I figured I would need to go to the plumbing department and then to the electrical department to get what I was going to need.  Upon arrival, I headed to appliances to get some assistance.  I found a lovely gentleman sitting at a computer terminal and explained what I needed.  He hopped right up and headed into the heart of the appliance department.  I am sure he was grinning behind his mask as he went to a display and pulled out a package hanging on an endcap.  It was an installation package that had the needed plug and water line, everything one would need to install my new dishwasher.  Duh!!!

I picked up some more trash compactor bags since I was in Lowes and headed home.  I gave Eric the kit and turned the remaining jobs over to him.  I am not an electrician nor a plumber and I was paying the handyman service to install the items!!!

I had taken a couple of pictures about mid-morning showing the old floor disappearing under the new floor.  I failed to notice that the SD Card was not in the camera, so you will just have to settle for pictures of the new floor.

Here is the entrance into the kitchen from the steps and the living room.  The transition plate has not been put into place.  Eric is coming back tomorrow (Friday) morning to finish that part.  Once Rob comes back to help me, I will be moving the rolling spice shelves next to the fridge and the coffee/tea center along the wall with the plug.  The floor goes completely under the fridge, so when we move it to clean, it will look just like the floor you are looking at.

This is the view from the wall where the coffee center will go.  Isn't that floor beautiful?  It is vinyl planking.  This is a floating floor, so no glue.  If we ever need to replace a piece, while not easy, it can be done  It just all fits into place.  The floor is waterproof, durable, and beautiful... much better than the old, worn-out hardwood strips.  Note the new trash compactor on the right.  The new one was just small enough to leave a quarter-inch at the top of the opening.  It will be so nice to have a working compactor upstairs.  I have been bringing my trash from the lower level upstairs so I can fill it up enough to use it!!!

Here is the floor by the stove.  Again, Eric filled in the hole in the floor to close in the place where the metal vent was found under the stove.  Then the whole floor under the stove is covered with the new planking.  So when the stove is pulled out to be replaced or the floor cleaned, it will look like the entire floor is covered with the planking.  I know it sounds like a weird thing to do, but to me, it looks much more like a properly done kitchen.

This is the opening for the dishwasher.  It is not in place... more about that in a bit... but you can see how the planking goes completely under where the dishwasher will be going.  It gives such a much better and more finished look to the kitchen.

Here is a view from the dining room side.  It looks good in either direction.  One thing that did change was the height of the stove.  If you go look at any of the old pictures of the stove, the top of the counter is just about at the top of the top part of the oven door.  When Eric moved the stove, he found it sitting on top of two strips of wood under the feet and on top of a thick piece of plywood.  We are guessing that one of the stove's feet fell right where the vent hole was, and rather than fill it in, they just covered it up with more wood.  So the stove now sits directly on the floor.  As you can see, the countertop is now almost level with the countertop.  I think I will like it better... but just in case, I had Eric save the board that would raise the height of the stove another 1/2" or so.

This is the new trash compactor.  It is sleek and clean... stainless steel front with lighted buttons to run the crusher.  No rust in the bottom.  No smells from rotting garbage, it almost seems wrong to put anything into it.  But the smells will not be as bad with this one, as I have a garbage disposal to grind up the foodstuff that might start smelling.

It was almost a perfect day.  I had gotten everything that was needed to install the dishwasher.  Eric had read everything in the instructions and followed them to attach the plug so we can just plug in the appliance instead of hardwiring.  I was watching as he took it over to the opening, it moved into the opening a bit and then stopped.  I could see Eric shining a light underneath and looking and looking and looking.  Then, he came down the stairs to tell me that there was a problem.  You may remember the little pipe and valve that ended up in the opening for the dishwasher.  It had rested under the old dishwasher, so we expected no problems.  But it turns out that the rails and feet of the new dishwasher are inset and fall EXACTLY where the water supply is located.  Not slightly to one side or the other... but EXACTLY where there is a solid rail from the bottom of the dishwasher to the floor.

So, for now, the dishwasher is living in the dining room, Eric and Garrett will be putting a plan together to finish the install.  I will find out in the morning.

So we are close, but not there yet...

Stay tuned.....................................................

Good News...

 I am scheduled to have my initial COVID-19 Vaccine on March 3rd.  

So all I need to do now is be a big hermit/recluse and not do anything until April!!!

Floor Replacement - Day #2

 Wow... what a day!  I expected it to be a good day with my electrician, Bill Stewart of Stew's Electric, coming in to set up a dedicated line for the dishwasher to be installed tomorrow.  We had found that if the dishwasher was running and Kate ran the microwave to heat up tea water. the breaker in the electric panel would flip.  Since we are having the kitchen work done and new appliances installed, it just made sense to run a dedicated line for the dishwasher so we do not have to worry about what is running.

I was also supposed to start making a call at noon to try to get an appointment to get my COVID-19 vaccine.  Alaska has determined that "seniors" over the age of 65 years will be in the second tier of vaccines given.

I was also watching the process that was happening in Washington, DC for the counting of the Electoral College votes in Congress.

While waiting for the electrician to arrive and watching the crazy 'Objections' to the election I saw the terrible discourse that was being played out in the two houses of Congress... I turned it off as it was more of the same that has been done over the last weeks since the election.  Then Bill arrived and got started with his job and I tuned back in to find the President doing his rhetoric asking the folks at the rally on the Elipse in Washington, DC to head down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol... and everything went downhill from there.

I felt like I was not believing what I was seeing and yet unable to turn away.  In my lifetime I can only remember a few times when that has happened.  JFK assassinated, Bobby Kennedy killed, Martin Luther King shot on the balcony of his hotel, the Challenger explosion, 9-11... and now, the riot in the Capitol Building today as Congress began counting the Electoral College votes.  Sad, sad day in the United States.

I was so stunned that I forgot that there was a noonday start to trying to get an appointment for my COVID-19 vaccine.  I stopped watching, once I realized the time and started working on the links in the bulletins from the Alaska State government.  I followed the links to determine my eligibility and then went to another spot to get a listing of the clinics I could contact.  I put in my zip code and got no clinics listed.

I knew that both Safeway and Fred Meyers in my area had been listed on another site.  I tried to find a number to call or a website to use to get an appointment.  I finally got a number for Fred's and spoke to a lovely young man in the pharmacy area.  We chatted and he admitted that from what he could tell from the calls they had gotten today that the rollout of the vaccine appointments had not been very well thought out.  Fred Meyers was only having their clinics on Saturdays and all of their clinic appointments were already full with a large waiting list.  But he said I should use just the regular Fairbanks zip code instead of the one I actually live in.  And sure enough, once I did that I had more options.

So I started calling the numbers that were provided.  A couple of them were not in service!  Hmmmmmmmm!!!  The ones that did work had me in a holding pattern for many, many minutes before disconnecting me.  And when it finally did get to a desk, it was an answering machine for the OB/GYN nurse!!!

I tried but failed.  However, I see my doctor for a checkup on Monday.  I will talk to her about what steps I need to take to get my vaccine.  It will happen.  I may just need to be a bit more patient.  And keep socially distanced until that time...

In the meantime, the remodel of the kitchen floor continues.

Yesterday, Eric took out the second floor.  You saw the picture of him with the second floor piled up in front of him.  He continued, took the trash out, removed nails from the floor, removed screws from the floor, and scraped the last vestige of the second floor from the original floor.

 

This was the original floor.  And I thought the second floor was really dated.  The hardwood was 3/4 inch thick.  The second floor was glued on top of luan and was 1/2 inch thick.  But this was on the original floor, so now the appliances can come out from under the countertop.

The trash compactor came out easily and quickly.  The dishwasher, not so much.  Thank goodness Eric was careful about moving things and looked before he tugged at things.  

Not the best picture, but this is under the old dishwasher.  Keep in mind that it is 22 years old and probably never been looked under since the day it went in.  Today, most dishwashers are connected to the waterline via a flexible, plastic water line/hose.  This one had been plumbed directly from the copper water pipes into the bottom of the dishwasher.

At this point in the day, Eric declared that he was not a plumber (he had never seen any connection like that in the dishwashers he had removed) and one of the conditions that I had put out was that I not be without water for the 3 days of this construction.  So he calls his boss, Garrett.  Garrett was in North Pole but eventually arrived at my house and between Eric and Garrett, they got the dishwasher out, tried to crimp off the end of the copper tubing, and finally installed a 3/8" shutoff valve that should hookup easily to a plastic line or hose.  (We will see!!)  The funny thing was during the plumbing stuff, as they were applying the shutoff valve, they looked down into the floor through the large hole in the cabinet and saw another shutoff valve under the floor.  There was no access from the lower level ceiling.  We may have to cut into the ceiling and install a panel that would give us access to this valve and the plumbing in the floor upstairs.

This was the waterline as they had attempted to first cap it off.

This was the shutoff valve.  They had to cut the line a tad shorter so it will fit under the new dishwasher.  The old shutoff valve is down inside the hole in the wood.

This was how the old dishwasher had been hardwired into the electric lines.  Yes, they just ran the wires from inside the outlet and then wired it directly into the dishwasher.  This was wrong on so many levels.  Thank goodness Bill was coming in today.

This is the jumble under the sink.  Between waterlines and drain lines, electric wires, garbage disposal, etc., it is quite crowded under the sink.

This was the beginning of Bill's stuff to bring the kitchen up to code.  He laughed when he saw the 'do it yourself 'wiring, but sadly, he has seen it before.

Luckily, we have drop ceilings in the bathroom and laundry downstairs.  This made his job much easier.  He was able to locate the wiring for the Sauna (the room next to the bathroom downstairs), disconnect it from the Sauna where it led back to the electric panel, and then, with the access from the drop ceiling, easily get a new, dedicated line into the kitchen for the dishwasher.  He wired up the outlet that had been behind the old dishwasher to get power to the other outlets down that line and then covered the box with just a plain cover.

This is looking much safer to me.  No open wires or outlets in the back of the dishwasher area.

This is the outlet in the space for the trash compactor.  There was no cover plate on it, so Bill put one on to protect the wries.  I did not get a before picture.

This is a new outlet that was installed to replace the old one for the refrigerator.  The old one wiggled when you touched it in on the wall.

This is the new, dedicated outlet for the dishwasher.  It is now under the sink.  It is a ground fault outlet although Code did not require it to be a ground fault since it is a dedicated line.  But Bill and I are both more comfortable with the ground fault switch.  If we have trouble with it flipping out at all, he will come back and put in a plain outlet.

He cleaned up all of the wires and stuff from up in the kitchen as well as down in the laundry and the bathroom.  He did one last favor for me, he took a very long drill bit and drilled a pilot hole in the ceiling in the lower lever so we can easily locate where the shutoff valve is down under the floor.  That way we can install an access panel in the future.

So, I am ready for the final day (hopefully) tomorrow and end up with a new floor, dishwasher, and trash compactor.  Cannot wait to be able to show you the change... and just to have this over and done with!

 

The kitchen floor replacement has begun...

 We are doing another minor remodel to our kitchen.  It all started with a trash compactor that was located as a built-in in my kitchen, here in Fairbanks.  It does not work.  It did not work when we bought the house.  It was disclosed in the blurb from the seller's realtor.  It was one of the only houses that actually had a compactor.

I had a stand-alone compactor in Parkesburg.  I really loved being able to compact my trash as I could go for a whole week with only one bag of trash.  I brought that compactor with me and it is now in the garage.  But the non-working trash compactor was an eye-sore in the kitchen.  It did, however, serve as a trashcan.

Rob has wanted to replace it since day one!  In fact, he had begun digging into how it was in there to see if it was something that he could do on his own.  It was then that he discovered that the hardwood floor, that had been installed in the kitchen, had actually trapped the compactor, as well as the dishwasher, under the counter since the hardwood was about 3/4 of an inch thick and now the appliances that were under the counter could not be moved out without tearing up the floor.

We had looked at replacing the countertop and replacing the appliances at that point, but our Handyman who was going to do that decided to move back to the lower 48 before he was able to do that for us.  So we switched gears and decided that replacing the floor was a better way to go.  Even if we had done the countertop, if one of the new appliances needed to come out, we still had the same problem, so attacking the floor was the best option.

That work began this morning.  Eric, from Ace Handyman Services, arrived at 9:00 AM.

I remembered to take pictures before he started so we can have some before pictures.  I also snuck up and took a few pictures during the process.

This is the view of my kitchen from the dining room.  This is before Rob and I moved anything out.  The baker's rack is the coffee and tea center.  Next to it is the rolling round cart for my Instant Pot. The fridge, with a rolling spice cart on the far side out of sight in this picture, is on the right along with the stove.  Those two appliances will be staying.  On the other side are the black trash compactor and the ivory dishwasher.  The dishwasher is 22 years old and so replacing it at this time should prevent the old one from dying just as a bunch of holiday dishes need to be cleaned.  Rob ordered each item in stainless steel and the dishwasher will be able to be connected to the internet, so I can start it from my bed if I forget to do it before I head to the lower level for the day.

Here is the floor closeup.  It was a tad worn but still looked nice.  I was not thrilled with it.  While I never did, I worried about spilling something on the floor like liquid jello and then trying to get it cleaned up out of all of those grooves and joints.  And I have a Roomba that vacuums twice weekly on the upper level.  I had to block the kitchen as the noise it made running over the boards in the kitchen was LOUD!!!!

We are going to be replacing the floor with vinyl planking.  It is the newest thing in floor coverings.  We drove to North Pole, AK to find what we wanted.  We had so many choices, it was almost scary.  I was overwhelmed.  They all looked good.  Any of them would work.  But Kate zeroed in on one that she really liked, so we went with her choice.  So glad that I did not have to choose.  We purchased 4 boxes.  The appliances arrived in the early fall and we had the planking in the garage before the snow fell in October, so we have just been waiting for a good time to get started.

This is the view from the kitchen into the dining room.  Just using this so you can appreciate the "during" photos.

This is the look at the floor out to the dining room.  The trash compactor is on the right and the dishwasher is on the right towards the far end of the kitchen.

Now, for the disaster that is the 'during' section of the remodel.  Eric arrived on time this morning and went right to work.  The first thing was moving the stove and the fridge out of the kitchen.  Rob and I had cleared up the kitchen so that there was nothing in his way yesterday.  Eric moved the stove into the dining room and then moved the fridge just at the end of the kitchen so it could be plugged in and used until it can be put back into place.  By the time we are done, the new floor should be completed and even be under the fridge, stove, compactor, and dishwasher.

Then began the demolition.

Eric began removing the hardwood boards from the floor.  Rip, crack, shovel, and pull were the sounds I could hear in my craft room.  I went upstairs when it appeared he might be done and was greeted at the top of the stairs by this pile of wood and nails.

This was a look at the next floor under the hardwood.  He (Eric) has since moved all of the wood into his vehicle and will be transporting it to the dump.  But here is the somewhat ugly vinyl floor that was under the hardwood.  Eric thought perhaps he could leave it down and treat it so the planking could go on top, but in checking the dishwasher, he noted that it was still blocked in by this floor.  Turns out this vinyl was glued down over luan flooring adding a bit more than 1/2" to the original floor, so it will be coming out as well.

This is a view into my dining room from the living room.  As you can see, the fridge is now blocking the end of the kitchen.  It is plugged in next to my mixer.  If you look carefully you can make out the stove next to the back window.  Eric has equipment stored there as well.  He has coverings on the carpet and was able to move the fridge without tipping it.  He has obviously done this before.

I took this picture over the wall from the living room to look at the floor that was under the stove.  Nor sure what is going on there, but that will be Eric's problem.

Those of you who know me, know that I have always had cameras all over the house.  It allows my kids to look in on me so that if I fall ill and cannot call for help, they may eventually find me and send help.  I have installed many WYZE cams all over this house.  I used the kitchen cam to snap a picture of Eric's back next to the pile of the second floor in the corner of the kitchen.  He found a third floor under the second floor.  It, too, is vinyl and is a really, really ugly brown color and is supposed to look like 2 or 3-inch floor tile.  Eric says it is finally down to the original floor.  The appliances can finally be moved.  So this third floor will remain and be treated so the new floor can be laid.  So Eric will be cleaning up from this, getting the appliances out, and will return on Thursday to finish the job.

So why not tomorrow??  Tomorrow I have our electrician, Bill Stewart, coming in to do some new wiring,  Right now, we cannot run the microwave and the dishwasher at the same time.  Bill is going to come in and disconnect the Sauna (which we will never be using... I have fabric stored in there now), split the 240 line, and run separate electric lines into the kitchen so we can run multiple appliances at the same time.  He has already scoped out the job and Rob and I cleared out 2 cabinets, at his request, so he can do his work tomorrow.  Then Eric will come back in on Thursday and finish the floor job.

I will keep getting pictures of the work and will show off the finished product when everything is finished.  A great way to start off the new year.