Its spring again....

Okay - so its been awhile since we've posted anything new. But don't assume that's because nothing's been going on...On the contrary, lots has been going on, so much that I think we didn't stop to reflect on anything that we did. In between everything, I spent two weeks in Japan in April. I'll post some pictures from my trip another time, first - what have we been up to in the last month?
1) Bathroom Renovation. There's a small full bathroom on the first floor. While there was nothing terrible about it, it was dark, with ugly linoleum and the sink vanity took up way too much room.
Before: Ugly wallpaper.

We wanted to lighten it up and replace the broken toilet and the oversized vanity with a pedestal sink. I decided on a blue and white theme and used blue and white mosaic tile on the floor, and white subway tile about 1/2 way up the wall. Chrome fixtures finish everything out. First of all, let me say that Nate warned me about mosaic tile. Never having laid tile before, this was a challenge. I made a good faith effort at using the manual tile cutter and after a single tile, drove to Lowe's to buy a tile saw. Much easier! We finished the floor tile, and then it was on to the walls...














We chose a white subway tile with a cobalt blue accent tile placed under the fancy chair rail tile. It really went well with the blue tile in the floor, if I do say so myself! Check out the new pedestal sink and shiny chrome fixtures too.

What's left? Caulk around the tile, hang new ceiling light/fan, and make and install a medicine cabinet/mirror. Oh yeah, and finish the trim. That's it - I think.

2) Assorted gardens. Its spring again, and of course that means working outdoors. I have planted peas and lettuce(s), and NY spring onions so far outside, but inside is where most of the action is. This March, I planted my seeds from Johnny's. I started Washington Cherry Tomatoes, Polbig, Big Beef and Brandywine tomatoes, green bell and pimiento peppers, eggplants, Thyme (why I don't know - who needs that much Thyme?), Celosia (or fuzzy brain plant, as I call it), leeks, and silver queen corn. Expecting a dismal germination rate, I planted 3 times more seeds than I actually needed or wanted. Well, as luck would have it - I successfully got pretty much a 100% germination rate - thanks to the awesome plant rack that Nate built for me (see below). So the question - what to do with all those tomatoes? I'll have to find room!

3) Compost. So last year we started a compost pile. Literally, a pile - unattended and lazily resting and decomposing against the back fence. Surprisingly, when we went to check on our compost this spring - we actually had nicely composted stuff! But, not wanting to continue letting it lean up against the fence, Nate and I (mostly Nate) built a brand new two bin composting system using the rails from our old deck (our new deck is in the process of being built - more on that later). So now, our compost is away from the fence and we have a place for good compost/dirt and another place for stuff that is in the process of composting!

So, the gardens are getting ready, stuff is composting and spring is here!

Cheap Countertop

You may remember from a previous entry we installed two base cabinets in our laundry room, with the plan of putting a counter top there for folding clothes or whatever else it is you do in there. The expense of buying a solid surface counter top was fairly prohibitive (roughly double the cost of the remodel), so I had decided to make a counter top. I had planned on making a laminate top, when I remembered I had some granite tile that I had bought on clearance somewhere (1$ a tile or so). So I decided to make myself a "granite" countertop using that. I winged it a bit as I didn't know what I was doing. So here's what I did.

First I made my base by screwing 3/8 inch hardiboard to 3/4 inch playwood
I wasn't sure how to attach this, but the hardiboard had a grid on it that looked like it wanted me to put screws there, so I did. I had planned on attaching like I would underlayment, and the grid layout was about the same, so this seemed to work out well. I then attached my tile using thinset, I didn't leave any spaces between the tile, so I didn't need to grout anything. I talked Julie into helping me lug the heavy thing up stairs to the laundry room and attached it to the cabinets. I trimmed out the counter top with 1x2" oak trim that I stained to match the cabinets.
This came out looking pretty nice, but the walls have some wiggle in them, so the edges weren't really tight with the walls. They were close, but there was up to about a 1/8" gap in the worst spot. Not a deal breaker, but large enough to lose things in and didn't look all that nice. I had thought I was going to make a backsplash out of 6" granite tile (just the normal tile cut in half), but 6" looked pretty gigantic, so I decided not to do that afterall. Instead, I got another piece of oak trim and stained and trimmed. I just put a chamger on the edge of the trim to match the edging, made a little corner block and nailed to the wall.
I made little mitered returns at the edges of trim to hide the endgrain, caulked the edges with clear silicone, patted myself on the back and declared it Miller Time (well, Ithaca Beer Company Time, if I'm being honest!).