Speaking of foolish mortals...

Until this weekend, we hadn't made any progress on the kitchen since last I mentioned it. (Last weekend, McPie was in the recording studio -- aka Sheilah's parents' basement -- on Saturday and Sunday. I was on kid-duty*.)

So, this weekend, it was time to get a move on it. And so I present: the KMac tutorial on replacing your kitchen counter in 8 easy steps.

McPie had cut out the counter shapes, so we needed to apply the Formica. Turns out this is done with nothing more hi-tech than contact cement. The application of which was my job.

On the counter pieces:


And on the Formica:


You didn't know you could spread contact cement with a paint roller, did you now? Very efficient. (Er, excuse the panty-flash. That's my classic Gatinoise version of plumber butt.)

Then, we carefully lift the Formica sheets onto the plywood, and place it very carefully over the shape of the counter. And smooth it down firmly. (It looks like I'm pounding. I'm not - I'm firmly pressing. In a circular motion.)


At some point, McPie used a router to trim the excess Formica from the edges of the counter. He's handy that way.

Finally we DO get to pound it down. Apparently there is a tool for this (like, um, a rubber mallet?) but we didn't have one, so McPie used a more creative method. Yes, he is jumping:


So, that's done. We take a break, and go to The Ballet.

Sunday morning. McPie spends a substantial part of the day installing the new dishwasher, while I "help" (ie: clean the bathrooms, do laundry, get groceries).

Missing dishwasher:


New dishwasher!!


When I return from the market, we are ready to remove the old counter. We have to bust it loose, because the previous DIY'er screwed it in from the top, then glued the tiles on top of that. We expected it to take hours, but with a little expert pry-bar action, it popped right off. Findley, as usual, is lending his moral support.


A kitchen without a counter is not a useful room. We couldn't have dinner until the counter was back on (also, we are missing a sink at this point) and it was very tricky piecing it all together.


However, at long last (10 o'clock, in fact), the counter is on and dinner is made. (I was nesting tasks.) Voila! Two obscenely large steaks, served with blue cheese, barley-shiitake-pinenut risotto, and roasted radicchio, served ON our new counter!


For the record, neither of us were able to finish our steak. We had steak sandwiches in our lunch the next day.

We still have much work to do. There are edges to be added, caulking to applied, stools to be shopped for, and lots of other details. (And that's just the first stage of the kitchen project.) At any rate, we now have a lovely new counter, at which seating will soon be available.

Meanwhile, as of tonight (Monday) we have a new project on the go:


Maybe you can't tell, but these containers are catching drips of water from the ceiling, where it is leaking thanks to the serendipitous meeting of two feet of snow and freezing rain and plain old icky rain. These aren't the only leaks. The piano is covered in plastic, and the dining room table is pushed from the middle of the dinning room to avoid the deluge...

Sigh.

But honestly. What I really want to know: what to y'all think of the turquoise vinyl flooring? I'm telling you, it's coming back into style...