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!!!