This and That

Oh my, it's Wednesday already.  Where did the week go?  The days seem to slip by so quickly, I'm going to have to grasp at the last days of summer.

J started his internship this week.  That is the sign that school is ready to start again.  I believe he starts class in three weeks.  Oh my.  But his internship is going well, it's only a week long, so nothing too taxing.  We've been biking in together, which I have enjoyed.  I normally bike all by my little self, so having someone with me is nice.  I also have been waiting for him at the Terrace every afternoon.  I know, it's difficult sitting by the lake and enjoying a beer, but I'll endure.

We got a good start on the vanity over the past weekend and I'm trying to finish up all the staining.  Then we can get it built and the sinks installed this coming weekend.  Oh it will be so nice having a working bathroom on the main floor of the house. 

We built the frame first and then brought it into the bathroom and set the sink on it.  We then decided where all the shelves would or could go as well as how the plumbing would be run.

This seemed like a tedious task at first.  I didn't really want to lug this into the house, move the sink, measure, move the sink back to the box, and then lug the frame back outside.  But, I will admit, it was a great idea.  It made it really easy to decide where our shelves would go and it made us realize that it was much to high.  Like ridiculously high.  Like my 5'5" mother would have had to use a stool to use it.     

So after all of this, we brought it back outside and cut off about 2-3 inches.  It's still high, because that's what we want, but not so high you need stairs to reach it.  I then started the awesome (sarcasm) job of staining all of the boards.  

We decided to go with an ebony stain to offset all the white going on in the bathroom.  It's the same stain I used on the living room table, so we already knew we would love it.  I followed your standard procedure for staining; sand all your boards, wipe them clean, wipe on the stain with a rag, let it sit for 5-15 minutes, wipe stain off.

I'm just using your average oil based stain, the kind that can be found at any home improvement store.  Don't forget the gloves when staining, it saves so much on cleanup time.  Trust me, I've forgotten before and then had stained hands for days.  And I know that veggie oil will help in cleaning it up, but it never gets all of it.   

Look at all those slats.  We're doing slatted shelves which will be nice and open, but boy is it a lot of work.  I think there are 36 of them.  I'm glad we're only doing two shelves, I think I would go crazy if we did any more.

Right now I only have one coat of stain on them.  They look nice, but I think I'm going to go with another coat.  I'm hoping that two coats will be plenty.  We'll see tonight, since tonight is coat two night.  And as soon as all these babies are stained (as well as the frame), we'll be able to put it all together and seal it.  Oh I can't wait to see what it looks like.

We also installed our new garbage disposal. Okay, let's be honest, J installed the garbage disposal while I just sat there. Then I got bored and left to paint trim.  He said it went pretty smoothly.  It only took him about an hour to do.  Not that bad.

The old one was really easy to remove and the new one went in just as easy.  I think that part took about 15 minutes. 

 
The longest part was hooking the electric back up, but even that only took a short while.  I think it took J longer to find the electrical tape and shrink wrap then it did to actually hook it up.

So now we have a new garbage disposal that works and doesn't drench the cabinet.  It's nice.  We did make sure to go with a disposal that was all stainless steel on the inside because the old one, which wasn't really all that old, was completely rusted.  So lets hope this disposal lasts us years and we don't have to think about it again.

So those have been some of the things we've been working on the past couple days.  We're just trying to finish up getting all the smaller things, as well as the bathroom, done before our party.  Our list of things to do is long, but we're chipping away at it.  Wish us luck.