The weather has chilled considerably in short order. We were slowly working back up to somewhat average temps for August, but compared to the erratic heat waves we had this summer, it's been feeling positively fall like--54°F as I write this at 5am. Now it's officially September, so fall is definitely in the near future and the frosts that come with it. I have a few things I need to do in the garden in the coming weeks so I can at least cross some stuff off my 2020 garden list and keep some kitchen garden plants alive best so they can finish what they're doing.
Since the whole stove cleaning went from likely to yeah, we have to refinish the stove, I have been pondering if maybe this winter is the time we start the work we have discussed in the kitchen. What better time to do so than when we'd be moving the stove out of the way anyway? I'd really, REALLY like to not move that sucker in and out more than once. At the same time, I know both sides of this coin quite well--especially given how crazy things have been with the post office. All carriers have been saying since the pandemic lockdowns it's been like Christmas rush time, and are dreading when the actual rush hits in a month and change--especially with all the ballot related issues.
So this is where I am on the issue of do it this year or wait: the kitchen will turn into a dropped can of worms we just don't have time to pick it all up before they start to wriggle away from us. Having said that...
1) We are both really tired of getting tripped by the damaged -oleum in there. Cork is what we decided for replacement, and I should be able to make a stencil to recreate my favored vintage floor pattern with stain, then seal. I did find
a company that will make Marmoleum that looks like whatever you want, but it's out of our budget range even with such a small kitchen. More so since we're now eyeballing the house next door.
2) The one thing my Floor Manager wants to do that I'm not 100% on board with yet is take up not only the -oleum and the tarpaper they used as underlay, but also the original wood flooring. He knows if have a wood floor in there, he will wreck it in short order one way or another. There are cracks we'd have to fill as well, and water damage to bits we can see let alone what we can't...just no.
One one hand, I'm very much for this idea because we do have a small area of floor damage in the dining room near the exterior door where it would be quite useful, and at least one of the radiators in other rooms had leak issues so there are soft spots that could also use a few strips for replacement. There may be two rooms with such, but I haven't poked about enough in the other from below to be sure yet.
On the other hand, removing the wood may require removing all of the lower cabinetry alone the south wall--which would also include the metal cabinet surround for the cast iron sink. The wood cabinets do not have a "bottom", it is the wood floor at present. Currently, the sink cabinet's connections to the floor is four short corner "legs", which may be easy to work around than if it was a solid surround at the base. There is water damage to the wood under the sink from a leak prior to our purchase. It's not terrible warped, but it isn't great visually either.
3) Now, you know how you notice something near when you buy your house and you're like "oh, we should fix that?" Well, there is an inch-ish gap (I haven't measured it lately) between the sides of the metal base of the sink and sides of the built in wood cabinets. I can only explain this away because it keeps the edge of the sink mostly level with the countertops. They had filled the curved gap beween sink and countertops with I don't know what, which is now completely gross and every time I clean it, more parts chip off--it's not silicone I could just easily putty knife away due to how they filled the top curve. I shined a flashlight in those gaps this year one night when a bat shimmied around the drainpipe from the cellar and got stuck in that cabinet (ah, yes...this was a first in our bat adventures--I'm still trying to find their ingress point to the cellar.) The gaps are filthy, and the narrowness reminded me why I couldn't really get in there to clean well prior. It's also, in my mind, wasted space.
Of course this led my brain back to a talk we'd had before about doing some minor rearranging of the kitchen layout. And now I'm stuck on that. Given how well I know Sean, it won't be until we remove the first cabinet that he'll be all, "Hey, didn't we talk about rearranging these?"
(
NARRATOR: No one ever saw him after that day.
)
The main reason I'm not assuming my response should be, "Yes, but we can revisit that later," is because I know him all too well. Once he gets that idea back in his head....he'll do the "I don't want to redo the kitchen/move the stove twice" complaint. Which, trust me...I don't either!
So I want to head this aspect off at the pass before we've carted out half the kitchen and such to the temporary space we'll likely use for the interim in the dining room. Because, as I said, we have no idea how bad things will get for him at work come October. So if we can't mange to get this done in less than two months...it might sit til February.
4) So having said all that...the floor, and tripping hazard. Gaff tape comes to mind, knowing of the tar paper where the holes are in the -oleum we currently have. It holds up better than duct tape (cloth based rather than plastic). It will look like hell this winter, but the floor looks pretty bad now, and we might head off an uglier problem of having the kitchen all over the place except where it should be for months.
That's where I am on this right now--desperately wanting not to trip and would absolutely adore getting that room done in one, as it were. My thought is wait til February to do anything (other than the Gaff tape) at this point, and spend the time between then and now making very firm decisions (with wiggle room for OH NOES) before even starting then.
Thoughts and suggestions welcome. I'm mostly shouting to the wind to try to get it off my mind, since we talked about the kitchen yet again just yesterday.