Days 77 & 78, Saturday and Sunday, More countertop work

So I figured with expensive counter tops, it was worth buying some nice Kreg Jig guides for my circular saw -- which did let me make these cuts among others:
Of course Friday night I discovered the base wouldn't fit my circular saw (circa 1973). Ok fine, still worth buying a nice new one to go with the jigs.

7:15am on Saturday I'm at Lowe's, get a new saw, get it home, don't like the way the guard feels but there is no way to adjust but figured I'd give it a try. The Kreg jig needs a preliminary cut to plastic/rubber guide edge -- which I got all of 3' into before the saw self destructed (sucking the inner washer into the plastic around the clutch) and producing a ton of little plastic saw dust that static clings to everything.

Fought the saw to get the nice 60 tooth blade off -- I was ready to go out and use the air impact wrench against it when I finally broke it free.

Back to Lowe's. Damn it, they don't have in stock any of the saws I like to replace it (the Hitachis, unlike the one I just tried, were the only ones with a metal piece permanently on the clutch instead of plastic).

Too Lisbon Lowe's I go! FML.

You can see pieces cut Saturday morning on either side of the stove. Just roughed in, not screwed down yet.

And while it's sunny, let's look at some of the paint cards.




And...we're off to see Star Wars with a sizable portion of the Borgeson clan.

Sunday morning...it's all about logistics. There is a logical order things have to happen...the boxes on top of the insulation go out to the truck...


Insulation moves to the counter...

And it's time for a selfie standing on the counter :D

Insulation thrown up into the attic. I'll spread it out to make an even thicker layer of insulation one day, but not today. Not the priority.

So the cardboard, in the truck, makes a nice protective surface to put the heavy long piece of counter top on.

Burn cardboard, burn!

Hey, I found all the paint cards I had picked up a month plus ago!

Support the counter top with a couple 2x4s to both protect the counter, and keep the weight supported so it won't bind the blade.

Test cut




And this says it all about what I think about all the money I spent on those fancy Kreg Jigs. Que sera sera.

First dry fitting. Still have a lot to do in that corner to finish prepping for putting the counter top in the final position.

Days 70-74 -- Counter and kitchen stuff, etc.

Saturday was a four hour mad dash of cleaning up outside ahead of the first accumulating snow. If the snow would hold out till 10am as forecast, I'd be in good shape. Instead it started snowing at 7am and I worked until 11am :/

How can I move the tile inside with the least possible physical effort? When the pallet won't fit between the dumpster and power pole?


We turn it 90 degrees, then push it into place with the tractor :D

Brought the insulation in (to be thrown up in the attic, after I finish the counter enough to stand on it)

And of course the butcher block was brought in.




And that's dumpster #4 for this project. What's that, seven in about 14 months? Brings me up and over 90 cubic yards for the rebuild.






Monday night -- Yeungling, Football, and sorting through a ton of purchases from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Wednesday night did some clean up and prep work. Started getting ready for cutting the small butcher block, though not till I put a substantial board underneath it to protect the other counter. But I don't feel like trudging out to the garage in the cold and snow to get my circular saw and such :D

Day 69 -- Friday, cabinets and floors

Thursday night I ran Lisbon Lowes for another cabinet to go next to the Lazy Susan, and started some cabinetry work but by 8:30 quit realizing I was tired enough to make mistakes in frustration.

Friday morning I worked to finish roughing it in so Wes could lay the Permaboard ahead of tiling it.


Of course once I dry fit the new cabinet, the "back" wall that I had rebuilt from 63" to 70" long the night before...now needed to move out another 1-1/2" for the cabinet and lazy susan to line up o_O

Tomorrow morning will be some quick clean up outside ahead of the first snow, which doesn't look like it will melt this week, then hopefully get the counter tops on this weekend.

Electric Usage

So the meter got installed on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning when I left for work it was at 14kWh.

When I got home it was 18.

Left for a couple hours to do laundry, with the heater cranked up (only one head though) to bring the house from "light sweater comfortable" to "shirt sleeve comfortable" (Remember I'm wood stove spoiled)

It was at 22 when I got back.

Now since it's doesn't show decimals there could be almost 50% difference between what those numbers represent -- did I go from 18.9 to 22.1, or 18.1 to 22.9?

But we'll just write down 4 for now.

Also unknown is whether the water heater may have gone into a cycle during that time, too.

But it's a data point.

Over the last three years my mean average daily usage is 17.8kWh, and the median average is 16.07 but that can vary a lot.

In very dry year, mid-winter (so using the wood stove exclusively) I was down around 9-10kWh.

Wet year (so lots of sump usage), in a month like May or October where I may use the electric space heater heavily, I could be up around 30kWh.

Thankfully I don't live near the road...

...because if I did I would need these:

With these next to the projectors:

So people driving by would have to say, "My God, he has Sharks with Freakin' Laser Beams!"


On my front door I would, of course, need to have Mr. Wigglesworth:

But with the antlers from the Grinch:

#Iamnotrightinthehead
#Iamusemyselfgreatly

Days 63 & 64 Saturday and Sunday -- Cabinetry

Saturday I got an early start returning stuff to Lowe's, picked up a few items for the cabinetry work, and rapidly loss my ambition leading to yet another wicked bad flare of up of inflammation; third in three weeks. This again just lasting a few hours in the afternoon but pretty much shooting the rest of the day. I know it's related to diet since I'm subsisting mostly on take-out for the last month+.

Headed out for my coffee, I remember the electrician saying the new meters have shut-off switches (which I thought would be visible), but as the meter isn't hooked up yet I decided to look inside:

You can also see the "better" insulated part of the house, but that may be because the other part of the attic is vented differently so may hold more warm air from during the day?

I did work steadily all Sunday, but I'm no cabinet making and it's time consuming with all my figuring and fitting going on...

This is for between the stove and lazy susan. Had to build out a toe-kick area at the bottom.

Put 1/4" plywood over one side of the frame to seal and stiffen it. This is me cutting out the toe kick part of the plywood, using a speed square to guide the jigsaw:










Now I have to figure out how to build the next side and front of the cabinet (Lowe's still had not delivered the drawer set that was supposed to go here, so I cancelled it and I'm building this whole section from scratch; I was originally going to frame around the dry fit base cabinet :/).

If it wasn't for that toe kick area it would be much simpler!

If I can get this roughed in this week, hopefully all the counter tops can go on next weekend!

Days 59, 60, 61, and 62 -- Cleaning out the kitchen

Mostly just shuffling stuff around!



This weekend's project will be to finish framing in the kitchen cabinets from the stove, around the lazy susan, and out for the counter that will divide the living room from the kitchen.