House Projects Beget House Projects

We've been working on installing a new vinyl floor in our kitchen. We started last Saturday and got back to it today. Well, we got back to prepping the other side of the kitchen to finish but we never actually laid any of the tiles. That's because, in response to an offhand comment by Zac about how much he hates that cabinet, we decided to replace one of the cabinets!





This is Zac starting to tear off part of the countertop to allow us to remove and replace the old cabinet. It is eventually our intention to replace the whole countertop, now we are committed.





Here you can see where the cabinet was. I can't explain why there appear to be two different walls back there. It's an old house. One thing to note is that the corner isn't square. We don't like this as it makes for a weird cabinet and reduces counter space (which is scarce), but our original plan had been to just install a square countertop over the weird cabinet and leave it at that. This was to save money on new cabinets.

However, I made the delightful discovery that a cabinet of drawers we had brought down from the kitchen upstairs (the house had been a duplex) would fit perfectly in that space. Moving it from where it was isn't a problem because we need to install a pantry in that space anyway.





So here is the "finished" product! Mismatched for now, but it's in place and we can worry about painting it all later. One nice feature of this cabinet is the pull out cutting board. When we get the new countertop installed we will replace the cutting board and give the kitchen a little more prep space.

So we didn't finish the floor, but we actually did all the prep for it so we are hoping to get right to laying tile on Monday evening. Plus I feel really great about fixing a problem I didn't think we would be able to fix. That's a great Saturday.

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Chalkboard Highchair Tray

I got bit by the chalkboard paint bug. I've got a few projects in mind, but this first was an original so I thought I would share.

First, a little background: our highchair tray, which is removable, has another tray layer which is also removable. We used to use the top tray and then we wouldn't have to remove he whole thing to clean it after meals. However, during a bought of teething, Atticus started biting it and making it pop off, so we just stopped using it. This led to the discovery that it was really almost just as easy to clean the big tray. So the top piece just sat around collecting dust. Until recently!

I decided to put it to better use and give up on the idea of ever using it for food again. I painted it with chalkboard paint!






I used a sponge brush and painted two layers. Note that I did not paint meticulously. I'm sure you could, but if I had set up that kind of standard for this project I never would have started. So squiggly edges it is for us! Also, the surface isn't smooth, it actually has a very brushstroke texture to it. However, following the advice on the can of paint to rub a piece of chalk all over it first, then erase it all, to prime the chalkboard really seemed to mitigate what might have been a texture issue. As an eraser I used a scrap piece of felt.





Atticus took to it pretty quickly. He colored much in the way he does with crayons right now, mostly lines with the occasional scribble. I was mostly just glad that he wasn't breaking or eating the chalk. He also picked up on he word "chalk" almost immediately, so that will be interesting.





I suppose it will eventually crack. The tray is plastic and made to bend, so it seems inevitable. So far so good though, and maybe if we are careful we can get a good amount of use out of it. I plan to use it primarily to give him something to keep him busy while I'm cooking.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad