Today, I decided to take a break from the hard core renos and instead reclaim my kitchen! I did all sorts of little things that will make the kitchen easier to use and I also did quite a bit of cleaning, tidying, and organizing in the front room to prepare myself for the next phase of the renovations.

The first thing I did was change the hinges on the over fridge cabinet. It just needs a door fastener and maybe some trim.

I changed the hinges on this cabinet because I couldn’t make the door level with the Euro-style hinges that came with it. Door hung properly, I finally baptized the space by filling it with overstock grocery items like oil, flour, and pasta!

That done, I paused to get the dishwasher installed and then I did a little something to the cabinet to give it an even more finished look (snicker):

I still need some trim around the base, but little things like installing the furnace vent sure go a long way to making a project look more finished.

Then, I started to sort things in the kitchen cabinets when I lost my mind and decided that the garish mirror had to GO NOW.

The joke was on me. I expected the mirror to be glued to the wall or something like that, but no:

I just had to tug at the base of the mirror to un-velcro it, then lift it off the fasteners.

I then removed that piece of plywood to see what was behind it:

Cool! The shower connections! Notice no sign of leakage!

I decided to replace the plywood after removing the mirror fasteners. When I get to the decorating portion of the makeover plan, I’ll do something awesome with it, but for now it’s okay.

When I did my Walmart run many weeks ago I picked up two things for the kitchen that I was excited to install. The first I’ve seen installed in many RVs, so I know it will work. The second is a fad I swore I would not buy into, but did upon closer examination of the product.

I LOVE the knife bar! The spice jars actually have little holes in the side of them to sprinkle out or pour product, you just need to rotate the cap. I’m not sure yet that I’ll like this system and I don’t find the magnets that strong. I’ll try it out for a while. The knife bar is staying, though!

That set up, I took some measurements for the next project, the duct tunnel. That’ll be easy peasy to assemble seeing as the oak flooring boards are the exact width and just a bit too long for this project! So it’ll be a matter of a couple of cuts, some angle brackets, and, of course, trim. 🙂 I had thought for some time to use the oak flooring, but that stuff is a nightmare to screw into. What cemented the decision for me is that it’s going to look really nice.

And then, I made dinner. More honestly, I reheated leftovers my friend sent home with me and added Brussels sprouts navidad to round out the meal! I can’t remember the last time I really cooked. I threw together a lasagna this weekend, but that doesn’t really count since I used no-boil noodles and sauce from my freezer, so there was no prep work. I think that I may even bake a cake tonight, I’m feeling so domestic. 😀

Even though I got a lot done this weekend, I am a week behind schedule and starting to notice that the days are racing by. I tend to do my best work under pressure, so I remain hopeful that I Can Get This Done!

But it’s in!!!!

Croft’s reaction to that was “did you check out the functions of the dishwasher where it is placed before you made it permanent?” I had to laugh because I have been testing the dishwasher in numerous positions on top of the counter. My initial idea has ended up working out just fine, only I couldn’t centre the dishwasher on the counter because of hose length.

I thought to secure the dishwasher with angle brackets and then slide it in between them, then realised that the front needed to be secured, too! The obvious answer to that was to mount the brackets to pieces of wood into which I would screw a frontal piece when the dishwasher was in. Great, there would go a few hours while I ripped plywood into suitable lengths. First, though, I went through my own scrap pile to see if I might have something better than plywood and lo and behold, I had the perfect thing, salvaged from the front of the dinette seats!

It’s definitely time for pictures. 🙂

I had two of these long pieces that were the *exact* width of the angle brackets!!! One piece was enough for the two sides and the other piece did the front. Amazing!

Once the dishwasher was slid in between the two horizontal pieces, I screwed in the front piece. I’ll fill in the previous screw holes with painter’s putty.

As you can see, it’s off-centre, but the hoses are truly at their limits. Not bad, though!

I am very happy that I was able to orientate the dishwasher this way. It’s the best position for loading an unloading and leaves me with a lot more counter space for prep work.

The installation feels very secure; we’ll see if it passes the road test. 🙂

I have just about finished the dishwasher cabinet!!!

What’s left are little finishing touches that require a trip to Home Depot. That is definitely going to be first thing tomorrow!

I put one of these bolts at the top and bottom of the dining room side; they seemed so perfect for securing the doors. They’re not. 🙁 I’ll need to add a mechanism inside one of the doors to keep it from swinging and then the bolts should work.

Kitchen side door.

I cut a piece of plywood to fill in the gap between the counter and the top of the door.

Getting those screws in was a NIGHTMARE! The world is not made for people with stubby fingers.

The top looks horrible. 🙂 I’m going to get some quarter round to make the edges along the countertop prettier. I think a bit more sanding and the eventual paint will make the rest of it look okay. I am however impressed with my jigsawing. 🙂

Because of the angled corner on the kitchen side, I won’t be able to use one of those sliding bolts to secure the door. I’ll have to re-examine the options at Home Depot.

The kitchen side definitely looks less polished than does the dining room side. The door jam isn’t quite as square, although I think I could remedy that by shifting the bottom hinge a tad which would shift the door to cover the slight gap. Considering how hard it was to get that hinge screwed in, I don’t have the strength to remove it and reposition it. 🙂

This morning, I have been working on the kitchen side of the dishwasher cabinet. I made a bit more progress on the dining room side last night since I wanted to test something I bought at Home Depot. There’s more to do, but it’ll have to wait until my next Home Depot trip. I decided to postpone it till tomorrow since I have a dinner engagement this evening and will have to stop early.

The kitchen side is a real puzzle. I have been trying to figure out what I would do to make it look pretty since I temporarily set up the counter. I’ve decided that there is no 100% to achieve here and my aim now is to make it look ‘as non ugly as possible.’

The stove added a surprising level of difficulty and I have had to make a tough choice about which side the hinges will be on. I knew I’d have to account for it in determining the door clearance, but there was another challenge beyond that. I’ll follow up on that with pictures once this side is done.

I’m just about done with the ‘dining room side’ of the dishwasher cabinet! The missing trim is cut, but I need some square brackets to assemble the remaining projects, so I’ll definitely need to get myself to Home Depot tomorrow.

Behold the doors that ate up almost three hours today!

click on the picture to get a better view of the whole thing

Recognize the trim on them? I think this project explains for itself why I love scrounging for parts. I wouldn’t have been able to justify buying expensive trim like that just to ‘gussy up’ my doors. I am incredibly proud of them. I’ll make a door in a similar style for the other side.

Still missing on this side is a false front for the drawer that will mimic the trim work on the doors and hide the rough edges on that side of the unit.

The bottom panel has to remain accessible so I will be getting some magnets to hold it in place. There will be trim around it, but it will only be glued to the panel and not nailed into the cabinet.

I also need to decide how I’m going to fasten the doors. I bought some options yesterday, but I don’t think any of them will work, so I’ll need to see if I have any other choices. I don’t think magnets will be enough.

The door over the drawer doesn’t ‘match’ but this doesn’t bother me. Once everything is painted the same colour, it will all blend in together and the variety of textures will be welcome. Yes, that door overlaps the drawer. I couldn’t figure out a way to secure the drawer and the door just happened to be the right width while being too long so I thought that a well-secured door would also hold the drawer in place.

Today was a good renovation day and buoyed by my success I look forward to tackling the more difficult kitchen side tomorrow!