Kitchen progress: I’ll oil your beams.

Not really. I’ve put a moratorium on a few things including working on other people’s houses and clothes shopping since I bought the Crooked House. And another pair of work pants just fell apart this week.

So before we talk about actual work I have a story that’s too good not to share. I was coming into South Philly on Monday with my parents to have really good burgers at a neighborhood bar. This isn’t usually my mom’s thing but that day she was ready for a large serving or (half price, local, grass fed) red meat with a side of fries. And we’re in the car and she shouts “Dammit, I forgot the hand towels!” My dad and I looked at each other and I asked why she didn’t just give me rags and she said, “I have to figure out which color matches the tile.” So yes. Apparently I have nice hand towels. I haven’t seen them yet, and now that my mom has a tile in her purse the ones she bought might get exchanged for a different shade of blue anyway. I guess I’m set. Who needs heat or a stove? I have color coordinated linens.

And back to the house, I put a couple of nights in  and after getting fed up with hanging ceiling drywall by myself, I t treated the exposed joists with linseed oil instead. This brought out the grean really nicely, which I love, and darkened them to a mahogany color, which is fine with me although I liked the old color too. Here you can see the difference. What hasn’t been oiled will be covered.

What linseed oil does to old rough sawn wood

But yeah, my kitchen is coming together! Slowly. Yesterday morning I stuck around in the suburbs to help mu dad fix his car and the Irishman started building my soffits, pipe chase, and living room/kitchen doorway wall without me. Which was TERRIFYING. But it turned out all right. I still have to figure out exactly where I’m building the sides in to in order to use the wood trim I want, but the top of the opening is now where it should be and I’m happy with the pipe chase. I ended up building it – or I should say having it built – shallower than the wall cabinets will be. (Also I finally reinstalled those recessed lights.)

Recessed lights, beams, drywall, and stuff

And from the living room side you can kinda see why I built it down lower than it had to be. It lines up with the window now. The window cutout isn’t done, obviously. The drywall to the right of the opening isn’t up for real yet.

Kitchen viewed from living room

And the soffit on the fridge side is sorta framed now. I decided I want a deep cabinet above the fridge for extra storage space. And extra work. And the 2×3’s  are framed out like an opening where the fridge goes because fridges are always stupidly deep and now maybe I can buy a regular one and make it look counter depth.

Fridge alcove and soffit bump out

Can you see it yet? I totally can. Oh, and here’s another look at why I did the soffits the way I did. Gotta love that angle. The soffit is totally square. So not only does it give me a square surface, but it hides that awkward square of plaster in the corner that’s capping an abandoned chimney for the original stove.