According to Wikipedia a hoosier cabinet was originally designed to create storage space in kitchens without built in cabinetry, a commonality among early 20th century houses. Hoosier cabinets served as storage for staples and kitchenware, as well as extra counter space. The name Hoosier is derived from the company that originally manufactured them. Although other manufacturers copied the design, the name Hoosier became synonymous with the design much like Band-Aid is the common term for adhesive bandages.

Its interesting that both Caren and my mom separately, yet simultaneously, suggested the hoosier cabinet as being the perfect piece for our kitchen. The period, the 1890s thru the early 1920s, fit our design perfectly so Caren began an exhaustive search on Craigslist for the perfect piece.

Hoosiers are pretty common in antique stores and there were many to be had on Craigslist, but we needed one that was particularly narrow to fit our space. Most hoosiers are 45 to 48 inches wide. we had about 40 inches of wall space. Eventually, Caren found one that met our demands in Half Moon Bay. We spent a foggy Monday evening driving there to check it out.

According to the seller, the piece we purchased was manufactured in England in the late 1890s by the Hygena Company and brought to the US shortly thereafter. It was well taken care of by a sole owner for most of its life before it was purchased at an estate sale by the seller. We were fortunate to find a cabinet with nearly all of the original accoutrements. It was slightly dirty though.

This past week, Caren finally found the time to give a little love to the cabinet and turn it into a real beautiful addition to our 1920s era kitchen...


Our hoosier consists of three pieces: the top with its typical roll-down door and four cabinets, the bottom with four drawers and a large cabinet, and the slide-out enamel counter surface.

All of the hardware is bronze that has developed a really cool patina on it. The circles on the left and right upper cabinets and the lower cabinet are actually vents that open and close to allow baked goods to cool while being protected from flies and mice.

Every hinge, latch, and vent operates--a testament to how well made the piece is and how well taken care of it has been for the last hundred or so years.

The bottom of the entire lower cabinet is lined with tin to keep out the pests. There is a sliding shelf with a cutting board attached to the bottom of it. Caren cleaned the cutting board up and waxed it using a beeswax product, and we actually used it to carve our Thanksgiving turkey breast.

The drawer above the cabinet sits slightly crooked on its slides. I thought that maybe one of the slides had shifted over the years, but upon inspection I realized that the drawer had been open and closed so many times over the years that the wooden slide had worn down enough to make the drawer sit crooked. I can easily repair it, but am hesitant to do so because the wear adds so much character.
     

Check out the design of the upper cabinet... it is a model of space saving efficiency. The upper left door holds two clamps that were meant to hold a recipe. Below the clamps are two metal hoops that originally held salt and pepper shakers. Unfortunately we don't have the shakers. The right hand door holds a spice rack and a pocket for more recipes. I've added close-ups of the lower left door, the center door, and the roll-down cabinet because each is so cool...

The lower left hand cabinet houses a flour hopper complete with a glass window and built in sifter. It also holds two egg shelves. I wondered about eggs being stored in a cabinet rather than the refrigerator, then realized that during the era when hoosiers were popular refrigeration was a very new technology and not common at all. Eggs were gathered daily and used quickly before they could spoil.

We are fortunate that we found a piece with most of its jars still intact. The roll-down cabinet contains four large jars that do not have lids and five smaller ones with aluminum lids. The five large jars were not supposed to have lids. Instead, the shelf above them was spring loaded and felt lined. The springs push the shelf down onto the tops of the jar and the felt seals them. It is an interesting concept, but lids might have made things a little easier. 

Finally, the center cabinet door holds a shopping list. Each of the little red tabs flips over to become yellow and remind one of a staple that needs to be purchased. Staples at the beginning of the 20th century differed greatly from what we consider staples now. On the list are items like candles, coal, firewood, and stationary. Dad will be happy to know that prunes made the list of staples in the 1890s much like they make his list of must-haves today.

When we purchased the piece, one of the little red tabs was missing. As luck would have it, when I removed the metal tray below the list so that Caren could clean and paint it, we found the tab wedged between it and the door. I wonder how long it had been hidden away down there, presumed lost...

As I said above, Caren spent many hours restoring this piece to its original beauty. She stripped most of what remained of the old paint from the metal pieces before repainting them, she scrubbed the interior and applied three fresh coats of antique white paint, and she applied Restore-a-Finish to the exterior, a product that hides scratches and fade marks, before waxing the entire piece. She complained bitterly about the amount of work she was putting into it, but I think she is pretty happy with the results. I know I am.

Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for many things... too many that I take for granted... but this past weekend I was especially thankful for the time to finish the kitchen sink.

My boys were with their mom on Thanksgiving and Caren's kids were with their dad's family. That meant a quiet evening for Caren and me. We picked up a turkey breast, some stuffing, and a handful of fresh green beans from the local Railey's and commenced to making our first meal in our new kitchen. We both worried a little bit about getting the oven to the correct temperature and then keeping it there. We still haven't replaced the broken thermostat, but while we were at Railey's we picked up an oven thermometer along with the groceries. Turns out that it was pretty easy to keep the oven at approximately 375 degrees and an hour and a half later we had this... It was pretty cool to cook a meal on a stove that is nearly a hundred years old, have three burners and the oven cranking away all at the same time, and have everything turn out just like mom makes it!

 It wasn't cool to have to do the dishes afterward. Yes, that is the toilet on the left, which means that is the bathroom sink. Washing a fully prepared meal's worth of dishes in the bathroom sink convinced me that the kitchen sink was indispensable.

So... We tiled the backsplash with slate that matches all of the other rock work in the house, Caren meticulously finished the counter top with multiple layers of polyurethane, and after waiting for everything to dry, I installed the faucet.  The waiting was the hard part... one day for the tile, one day for the polyurethane, another day for the grout. The faucet was simple. It took about fifteen minutes. The final step was caulking the seam between the tile and the countertop. We couldn't grout that seam because, even though the wood countertop is kiln dried, acclimated, and finished, it still is wood, and wood expands and contracts depending on the moisture in the air. Grout doesn't like expanding and contracting. I don't like having to repair cracked grout. 

The caulking that is used to tie tile to wood is a nightmare. It is a combination of latex based caulking and silicon based grout. They call it siliconized caulking. If you have ever spent time caulking you know what a mess it can make if you are not careful. If you have ever grouted tile you know what a mess it makes even when you are careful. Now combine the two, and just for kicks, throw in a very warm house and high altitude. The warm house and high altitude worked in conjunction to increase the pressure inside the tube of caulking. When I cut the top off of it I was more than a little frustrated that the siliconized grout flowed out of the tube without the aid of a caulking gun. Needless to say, I used a lot of rags to finish the caulking and clean up the mess. Afterwards I had to apologize to Caren for being such a grumplestilskin. 

I think I mentioned before that we planned on leaving the based open to expose the drain pipes. Now we are looking for the perfect basket/crate to hide the sprayer hose that hangs down.

A detail shot of the right side of the sink base. The entire base is made out of barnwood from the Corning tear down. I used black square head lag screws that match those used in the fireplace and stove mantle work to tie the pieces together.

A blurry shot of Caren's faucet. She picked it up from a Craigslister for a song. I think she paid $130 for it brand new, still in the box. It was marked as scratched when packaged. We couldn't find a scratch on it. When I went online to find the installation instructions, I couldn't help but notice that the faucet retailed for $470... Craigslist is so cool!

And finally a shot of the dreaded corner... Caren has been fretting about her kitchen layout for several weeks. She feels like she wasted the entire corner. Actually, the dreaded corner is below this section of the counter because we need this little bit of counter to put the dish drainer on... 1920ish kitchens didn't have dishwashers. Neither does ours. Anyways, there is about a two foot by three foot void underneath the counter that Caren dislikes. I think it is the perfect place to put a crate that stores little used cleaning supplies, etc. Theo likes the void too. It is the perfect hiding place for him when he wants to curl up and go to sleep.

And we have a fully functioning kitchen!!!  I am thankful!!!

3 Days, an Island and a Sink

While on vacation, during the whole purchasing process, my mom asked me what the first thing was that we were going to do to the house once it was ours. My response had something to do with the kitchen sink. Remember, when we bought the place, it wasn't functioning.  That was four months ago. I finally tired of doing dishes in the bathroom.

Thanks to all of our veterans, I had three days instead of two this past weekend. Time to get the kitchen functioning. The stove was finished weeks ago, most of the cabinetry, if it can be so called, has been done for awhile. We have a temporary refrigerator, and the island/table top has been nearly complete for a few weeks. All that was left to have a fully functioning kitchen was the sink... the very same sink that I told my mom would be the first project...

I think that I mentioned previously that Caren found a brand new cast iron and porcelain apron front sink on Craigslist.  It had been sitting on our back porch for several weeks. It isn't there anymore. I built the frame for the sink base out of 2x4's and 2x6's from the barn that was torn down in Corning. The hardware matches that that I used on the counter top for the island--black square head quarter inch lags. The paneling is also from the Corning barn. We originally planned to make the countertop out of 2x6 barnwood, but ran a little short of material. We discussed tile. We discussed granite. We ultimately settled on one inch laminated pine that is available from just about any lumber yard. That decision saved much time and money. We are going to leave the bottom open and use chrome plumbing that will match the chrome on the stove and faucet. I'm glad that Caren liked that idea because I didn't want to have to build doors for the cabinet...

I cut, sanded, drilled, leveled, and screwed. Caren oiled and varnished. When I say screwed... I don't just mean screwed lags into the frame. I literally screwed a cut. Remember that the floor is not level. That means that the anything that sits on it needs to be leveled somehow. The sink was about half a bubble off level.  No problem, I'll shorten the right hand legs to level it. I shortened them too much...

But, I already new the solution to that problem because I'd solved it while working on the island...


Caren loves the island. Caren does not love all the work she put into the island. She sanded the whole base. She stained and painted. She distressed the edges. She painstakingly chose the hardware.

I fashioned the top out of barnwood. I sanded, filled, sanded and sanded some more. Caren has spent several hours putting coat after coat of varnish on it. But, I want you to notice the feet... Like the sink, the island sat half a bubble out of level.

Instead of shortening one set of legs, I decided to lift the opposite set with furniture levelers from Home Depot. The left hand legs ended up about half an inch off the deck. I could have lived with that if the right hand legs matched, but they were actually on the deck. Caren wouldn't have lived with it either way.

The solution was simple... Trim! Trim is used to hide awkward joints between floor and wall, between window and wall, even between wall and ceiling. Trim makes things look cool. Why not trim the legs of the island?  I did, using barnwood from the Colussa County barn. I think it came out pretty cool. Caren thinks it looks like the island is going to walk away. In an odd sort of way, the island resembles the AT AT Walkers from Star Wars.


We still need one more set of legs for the island. They are on order from Southwest Country... Forged iron in a matte black finish. They will not only support the currently cantilevered top, but they will remedy the AT AT Walker impression.

Anyways, back to the sink... I chose to shorten the right hand legs instead of lifting the left hand legs because I worried that the levelers would not be strong enough to support a 180 pound cast iron sink that would weigh close to 300 pounds when full of water and dishes. Wish I didn't blow the cut, but I did... so we trimmed the legs of the sink too.  This time I used lumber from the Corning barn because it would match the legs better. Refer to the picture up top to see how I did...

We still need to put a coat of dark oil on the trim to complete the project, but that's okay because we still need a faucet and backsplash. I also need to trim under the counter top so it doesn't look like it is floating out in space.

Caren ordered a faucet with a chrome finish... it came in stainless. We didn't acccept it. The new faucet should arrive this week. We are going to tile the backsplash with slate to match the stonework behind the stove. The cool thing is that we need a four inch backsplash. The slate comes in four inch squares... a no cut tile installation??? Hopefully, but I am borrowing a mini tile saw from a co-worker just in case.

The nearly finished kitchen. The refrigerator on the right is the actual monitor top... minus the top. It still needs to be rewired. The fridge is quite the project. Some day soon I'll post about the whole thing...

A "Look" at the Garage

Snow has arrived in Tahoe... There is about eight inches on the ground at the house. And, that means that I need a place to keep picking away at the very long to do list. The garage would be a great place...

So, I spent several hours cleaning out the garage on Saturday. It had become a catch-all for just about everything. There is about 500 linear feet of barnwood, the remainder of the stone that we used on the fireplace and entry way, a whole stack of windows, a few doors (both old and new), some forty odd sheets of corrugated metal, and a bunch of large tools. 

A little stacking here, rearranging there, and organizing everywhere... pretty soon, really about eight hours, I have had a suitable workshop that will keep me busy most weekends this coming winter.

Really not that exciting, especially cause I don't have any pics of my cool new man cave, but there is a little side story...

As part of my garage make over, I built a workbench out of recycled lumber that had been laying out in the backyard, probably for several years. I don't know what Rick had used the lumber for, but it had plenty of nails in it... really big nails. My not so detailed plans for the workbench did not include any real big, rusty nails. 

So, the first step in making the bench top was to pull all the nails, a simple enough task that only involved a hammer and a crowbar. It should have involved safety glasses. The very first nail I laid the crowbar to came lose from the board like a bullet... well, maybe not quite like a bullet, but it hit me in the eye like a right cross from a prize fighter. After staggering around like a drunken sailor for a few seconds I pulled my hand away from my eye and noticed blood. 

My first thought was, I hope that's from the skin somewhere around my eye. It wasn't. After staggering to the house and telling Caren that I had good news... I think I said, "The good news is that I can still see, kinda." I looked in the mirror with my good eye and could easily make out the impression of the head of a sixteen penny nail in my bad eye. How lucky am I that the nail hit head first instead of point first? Halloween is over and it is not good form to go walking around in November with a nail sticking out of one's eye when one should be busily preparing for Thanksgiving.

Anyways, after flushing the eye out repeatedly and digging out a chunk of rust, I am pretty sure that my eye will be fine. The nail hit the white. I don't know the fancy terms for the important parts of the eye... cornea, pupil, iris??? but I do know that none of them were damaged because I can still see fine. The whole left side of my left eye is red where it should be white right now, but I'm sure that will clear up in a week or two. I probably should go to the doc and get a tetanus shot though.

And, always wear safety glasses! 

sorry that I don't have any pictures... the man cave is really not that exciting and Caren says that my eye looks really gross.