Kitchen hood

So Friday we installed our stainless steel hood. This is pretty much the final (big) touch to finish the kitchen. We have smaller ones like the curtain and base molding. I had our electrician and his worker help me install it. It was a two or three person job since the main part of the hood is around 50 or 60 pounds. It took two people to hold it steady and one person to mark the holes.

I was concerned that I would have to make a wider hole since it was not exactly over the oven however it worked perfect. Also I did not have to do any patchwork since the chimney covered the hole. So I thought we were done until Ray (electrician) said that I need to cover the gap in the ceiling because if a mouse ever made it into the ceiling he would probably fall down into the chimney and that would not smell too good. So we took a piece of wood and cut a half moon then I plastered the rest with joint compound.

I got up last weekend and we had fog, however it was contained only to the bottom of the canyon. I thought it looked cool. Unfortunately by the time I got up it had mostly dissipated.

As an added bonus the last photo is of a Red-Tailed Hawk that hangs around the canyon.

Bath Time (bonus post)

Get you minds out of the gutter, this is not about me taking a bath. It is about our feathered friends. I was reading a book Saturday and heard a commotion out back. I got up and there he (or she) was just having a grand 'ole time. He even had a peeping Tom at one point.

AHHH, finally alone at last, what a nice View.

Time to get busy, lets see; wash under the wings, between the toes, under the wings, and behind the ears.


Big bird "EEEK, what are you doing here watching me? Have you no shame? "

Little bird "So,do you come here often?"

Little bird "Wait don't leave."

Demo the old kitchen

Saturday we demolished the old kitchen. It went pretty smooth. We had no major problems except to discover that we have more than one flooring. But I guess with old houses that is to be expected. The next step is to call in the plumber to cap and hide the water/drain pipes/gas pipes. This has to be done before we can begin to create it into our office. We plan on doing this in phases, this way we do not have to borrow $$$$. That being said we will keep the upper cabinets to use as storage.



What is this you ask? Is .....it........maybe.........TILE! NO!!!!!!!! I thought it was tile too, however it turns out to be vinyl. Blech!!!
So that means more work when we redo the floors. :(

Everything including the kitchen sink

This weekend we finally moved into the new kitchen. It has been almost 4 Months since we demolished the kitchen. However it has been well worth it.

Many thanks go out to my brother who helped lay the tile and texture the walls, the electrician, the cabinet workers who designed our plan for the kitchen, the installer who spent 12 hours hanging the cabinets by himself, and especially my wife who has the vision and came up with the great design.

We saved a lot of money by reusing all the appliances, even the kitchen sink. We still have a few more improvements to make such as a hood and new appliances but that will be later down the road.

Next project is to turn the old kitchen into the new office.

Before

After

old kitchen in the processing of moving appliances

Shell of the old kitchen. This will become the new office, stay tuned!

Almost There

The cabinets are finally installed. We had to wait for the last one (below) to arrive. The company had ordered the wrong item. Monday and Tuesday the electrician came and completed the finish work. If you look in the third picture the light is too close to the cabinet so we had to move the light to the right. We also had to move an electrical outlet.

Of course moving the light and electrical outlet now means that I have a hole in the ceiling and holes in the wall to patch. I am now working on the patching and that the report will follow soon.

Last Saturday SDSU had the Sky Show, after the Aztecs play they have a fireworks show at Qualcomm stadium. Since we live very close we get an excellent view of the fireworks. Unfortunately I did not take an excellent picture of the excellent fireworks. But you get the picture. (pun intended)

Foggy Morning

Woke up Saturday morning an interesting view since it had been a while since we had fog. The canyon was completely socked in and it was like being in a cloud. The heat has finally relented, at least for a few days.

The last two pictures are of a bird that we cannot identify. If anyone knows, please post the answer. The back and wings are blue and the body is kinda grayish.

103 degrees

For the past week we have been having a heat wave. Each day the temp has been climbing, however they (weather guys) said that we would get a small break Sat and Sun but the heat would go up beginning Monday. Well yesterday the temp hit 103 at my house, the hottest yet. I finally had enough and bought a portable A/C. It can only do so much but at least it keeps the temp in the house to a manageable low 80s. if we did not have it I am sure we would have been close to 90 inside.
One plus side is the humidity is in the low 20's and that makes for beautiful sunsets. Last night was a little different because we had some clouds mixed with some smoke from the wildfires burning in parts of the state. But it was still pretty cool.