There is nothing like having had a vision for more than six months and seeing it come to life. The new counter is far, far from done, but the steps I took today have brought Miranda much closer to realising her full potential as a solo full-timer’s home.
Today, I completed most of the ‘rough in’ for the new counter. It will need a lot of finish work, but I am not sure yet what material I will be using, so I am holding off for a bit. Croft left me something that could be perfect, but I have another option to explore first. Another thing that I need to do is install a door in the front that I will close when I drive so my dishwasher won’t go flying. As it is, I’ve installed it over skidproof material, which will go a long way to ensuring it stays put. Finally, I need to put a shelf over the drawer to hold a garbage can. Recognize that drawer? It’s going to be much more useful now!
So far, the project has cost me nothing other than the bottle of wood glue I’ll need to replace. I got the counter supports from Croft’s wondrous scrap bin and all the angle brackets and screws came from the dismantled dinette back. Under the dishwasher, I put the other dinette bench’s thin plywood covering and then a few spacers to raise the dishwasher up a few more inches. I’m running a test load right now and if I find drainage wasn’t adequate I can move the dishwasher up another two to three inches.
The only thing that hasn’t gone according to plan is that the hoses are much too long and inflexible to be poked through an opening and coiled away. Moreover, they tend to hold a lot of water, so leakage could be an issue. I therefore need to rethink how I’m going to store them neatly when the dishwasher isn’t in use.
Injury count for today was just one. No matter how many safety precautions you can take, power tools can be unpredictable. I managed to get hit in the right wrist by a piece of plywood flying at high velocity and the result was some pretty impressive cuts and bruises. Now that I have been properly injured while working on a reno project in Miranda she is officially home. 😀
Even though the project isn’t done yet, I can already see that it does not look too out of place. Using existing materials and components has kept certain proportions and enabled me to greatly improve the kitchen’s efficiency without compromising Miranda’s balanced layout.
Another thing I need to do is get some stools so that I can sit at the counter and work on the laptop or eat! It’s not obvious from the pictures, but I did build this like a proper sit-at counter, with the counter being wider than the base so there is space for my legs.
Wait till you see what I have in mind for the other dinette bench. But that won’t come for some time yet as I want to get this project buttoned up first.
Before making a hole in the paneling to feed the hoses and cord through, I wanted to make sure that there was nothing hidden within the two layers. So, I removed one side of the paneling and got an added benefit. The dishwasher has a bit of a bump in the back, which fits nicely between the supports, meaning I that I won’t have a huge gap between the back of the cabinet and the dishwasher.
making sure the door opens free and clear
I’ve done a lot of recycling and rearranging of Miranda’s components. The former dinette drawer is going to get a lot more use here.
I’ve only had that extra 2′ of counterspace for an hour now and I already have no idea how I lived without it. I have a place to put a mixing bowl or to cut vegetables or to rest a hot platter!
Next project is to put a shelf above the drawer for a garbage can. This is how I’m going to ‘deal’ with the cupholder holes in the counter; I can just drop garbage down them into the can. Shame about the holes, but I think that I’ve come up with the best possible solution to deal with them.