Cat Doors and Refrigerators and Other Fun Things

Of course, not all of our projects are big or complicated, lots of the stuff we've been doing is small-kine. Things that make the house nicer without driving us to distraction along the way.

And some projects that only make our lives more exciting. Like the cat door.

Three cats, a quarter acre, and Ryan and I are on our way to our very own Silent Spring. One lizard, frog, mouse, bird, or roach at a time.

From the inside, Butters is modeling the fabulous interior shelf. The kittens love the new pet door, it took them about two days to master the concept.

Ryan and Chuckles demonstrate how the exterior shelf is perfect for kitties on the go. It took Sadie a week to figure out how to use this pet door. Odd, since she had one on Maui for nearly three years.

Tree frog, thanks Chuckles. He was pretty spry. The only reason we caught him was because  we cornered him and he was too dirty to stick to the walls.

Mouse, thanks Butters. It's totally alive, too. Just like the damn frog.

Chuckles models the "window seat" in the living room. He's watching a family of finches that Butters is slowly annihilating (two down, two to go).

The new fridge was another project. The old fridge was just right if all you wanted was to spoil milk and wilt veggies (52-60 degrees Fahrenheit). We shopped around the various appliance retailers in Hilo, but the selection was, eh, limited. I didn't want a plain white box and we don't have the room or the need for a 30 cubic foot french door deluxe with water, ice, and smoothie dispensers.

So, like anyone else in the US, I turned to the internet. After a week of online browsing, I figured out what I wanted. And what I didn't want.

--Yes: Stainless steel finish, freezer on the bottom, energy efficient, 24" depth
--No: Ice maker/dispenser, french doors, side by side fridge/freezer, white finish

The 24" depth turned out to be a real bear. Very few refrigerators are made to "counter depth" and those that are, are often really tiny (under 10 cu. ft.) or really huge (over 24 cu. ft.). When I finally found one that met most of my specifications I ran into a couple problems.

1. Nobody ships retail purchased refrigerators to Hawaii. Or so they claim.
2. The fridge I picked is over six feet tall. The "fridge-space" in the kitchen has a cabinet that hangs down to about 5'6".

So, what's a girl to do? Well, turns out, HomeDepot.com doesn't ship to Hawaii, but if you make a HomeDepot.com purchase with your local Home Depot customer service desk, they can get it shipped via third party to the store. Neat. Now all you have to do is wait two to six weeks for your appliance.

Two weeks later, stunningly, I get a call from Home Depot. Good news! My refrigerator has arrived, and when will I be picking it up? Wait a minute. Picking it up? How are Ryan and I supposed to get a six foot tall, 200 pound fridge into and then out of our truck, up a flight of stairs, and into our house. Where is the old fridge going to go?

"Amy," you might be thinking, "why didn't you figure all this out before you bought the darn thing?" Well, I did. There is some confusion at Home Depot about what is and isn't covered under their free delivery and haul away service. So, three phone calls and two managers later, my appliance is being delivered and they're hauling away the old one, for a nominal fee.

Now, about our inadequate "fridge-space":

The doors are off, I'm standing on a stool, and I've got a flat head screw driver. It's demolition time.

We were pretty careful pulling this cabinet down. It's in good shape and I'd like to be able to re-purpose it. We're halfway to a kitchen island with this lumber.

The cabinet is off, but as expected, there is some groady left behind. That the technical term folks.

After some delicate work with our wood chisels and lots of soapy water, we're calling it good. I tried to talk Ryan into painting the kitchen this shade of blue, he's not feeling it. 

It's not a big kitchen and I hate running into things. So I want a fridge that won't stick out six or eight inches past the pantry cupboards.

Fridge delivery time. Great, back that truck right up the driveway and we'll swap these out, no problem.

Well, except that neither fridge can get through the kitchen door until we take down the door. No worries, we've done this before!

This is as clean as it will ever be. I took a picture.

Our brand new fridge. Wow, it looks... off-kilter. That's ok. Have torpedo, will level.

There, much better. One of the adjustable feet is nearly out of threads, the other is about as short as it can get. Our floors have topography. And look how shiny it is.

Ryan can no longer see the top of the refrigerator. In this, we are now equals, he finds it a bit disturbing. Also note how much bigger the kitchen looks with the refrigerator not sticking into the doorway. It's amazing, you have to be here to appreciate it.

Last but not least, other things that make me happy. 

1) Found a matching washer and dryer on CL, ancient, but in good condition. Under $200. Can't wait until we can use them. (See electrician post.)

2) Picked pink anthuriums from our garden. I think they're even more lewd in pink than red.

3a) Replaced nearly all of the cabinet catches in the kitchen, because none of them worked anymore. Way more work than it seems like it should be.

3b) There, all set for the next sixty years.

3c) Now that I'm not afraid of a traumatic brain injury, I'll find a way to make use of that top shelf. 

Wires, Wires Everywhere. But not a single outlet.

When we start on a project we go back and forth about whether to hire help. Ryan was reluctant to hire a carpenter, but eventually acknowledged that we had neither the tools nor skills to replace any part of our foundation. We had the same discussion about our electrical work. The consensus was that we need a new circuit panel, which we weren't confident in doing ourselves, and that we need new outlets and lights, which we sort of were.

But here's the thing. The upgrades we are making will be obvious to any future inspectors, appraisers, etc. and since electrical work needs to be trustworthy, we got a licensed electrician to pull a permit. Everything will be so up to code that we'll have to fix up the rest of the house just so it lasts as long as the wiring. ;)

This is what all but four of our outlets look like at the moment. Extension cords are our friends.

These are the old outlets. Simple, elegant, ungrounded, and ready to shock the shit out of you.

This is what it looks like when you pull out the old outlets. The new boxes were purchased because they're big enough to obscure the ugly hole.

The new boxes are white because Ryan wants to paint the walls white. I picked the fridge, so fair's fair.

We picked out our new light fixtures too, but they're just sitting in boxes in the living room until they finish running wires in the attic.

Carpentry Hero

I hired a carpenter to help us shore up our foundation and repair the huge hole in our wall. Dean, the carpenter, was great. We'll definitely ask him for help on future projects.

First order of business was the rotting posts and joists. Ryan worked really hard to clear the soil away from all the posts and piers. Then, he and Dean pulled out the rotted post under the bathroom and repaired about a dozen joists under the porch, living room, and bedrooms. The results were immediately apparent. Our soft, squeaky floors felt way less like they would collapse under our weight. And most of our interior doors needed a bit of a shave to open and close properly.

That's not good.

Much better.

One of many less than stellar floor joists.

Some were so far gone they fell away with a little prybar work.  We replaced them with new, pressure treated boards.

Some boards were damaged, but not enough to merit removal, instead they got the buddy system.

Once we finished with the underside, it was time to head indoors. It took Dean about 5 minutes to pull out the old boards. 5 more to cut the new ones. And another 5 to install them. I barely had a chance to get these shots.

The tip of the iceberg. Haha, the entire bottom two feet from closet to closet fell away with a little poking.

That's not good.

As I vacuumed the dust out of this space I was begging the floor to stop disappearing.

Hey, I can see my linens from here.

Clean slate.

That's better, I guess. We're working on it.

So, good news. We've got the wall fixed, and the foundation is good enough for now. We'll replace the moulding, baseboards, and scuff boards later. When we're ready to paint. But before we can start painting, we need to finish rewiring.