(May 4) Kitchen Sink Installed

Well, it was a good weekend. Not incredibly productive, but pretty relaxing. We did get the kitchen sink installed. We still have to mount the cabinet to the wall and cut the drain hole in floor for the sink but at least the sink is in. The plumbing kit that we got from HD was a bit short to connect both sinks together so we'll have to find an extension. We also used the adhesive strip that came with the sink from IKEA to seal the edge to the countertop. Next time, we'll be using plumbers putty. We'll wait until the cabinet's secure to put the end supports on the countertop. Can't wait to see what it all looks like with the fridge and stove installed!

Kitchen sink and Elfa drawers.

Solid core door. I forgot how heavy real doors are! 

We pulled out the bathroom door to begin planning for installation. We were originally going to put it on the interior of the bathroom but decided that it would look much better on the outside and be more functional as we need access to the shelves in the bathroom on a regular basis. If it were on the inside, we would have to open the door to enter the bathroom. Close the door to get to the shelves. Open the door to get back out of bathroom. Mounted on the outside, we will likely leave it open except when guests are here. Neither of us are very modest! :) We'll use some Oak to mount the rail to. With hardware, the door will be about 70+ lbs. I just want to make sure it's well secured. 

We picked up a Barn Door kit from HD and can't wait to get it installed. The heavy black steel will look great against the natural honey color of the wood. 

Kim chose a clear polyurethane finish for the door. Just a clear coat that should let the natural grain of the wood come through well. Kim's going to try some sample coats on some wood we have at home as a test run before we approach the door. We also got our interior paint, a white eggshell finish with a slight gray tint. I think it'll make the black sofa really stand out. 

On the natural side of things, we established several bird feeders right outside of our South living room windows. What a mistake. We must have sat there 3-4 hours on Saturday just watching the swarms of birds. We identified a couple that we had not seen before - a male and female Summer Tanager. They really add some color to the landscape. We also had numerous woodpeckers, cardinals, hummingbirds, doves and chickadees visiting. It was a good wildlife day except that the raccoon ate almost a full feeder full of sunflower seed. We will have to find a solution to limit him to the corn we put out for him and the deer.

Female Summer Tanager

Male Summer Tanager

Red-Bellied Woodpecker that kept drinking out of the hummingbird feeder! We put out water but he must like the sugar. His favorite foods are peanuts and suet. He and his mate spent all day at at the feeders.