Island DIY Paradise, Not

Today the hens were happy to get another bag of lettuce and a few tomatoes. Except for the few hens who stayed in the woods the rest of them seemed to have a good time tussling over the same pieces of lettuce. Never mind that they had run around with the lettuce and left it all over the place. Oh no... they want the lettuce the other hen has. Go figure?

This island was not originally an island. It was a wing of a "U" shaped kitchen. Tricky me decided I wanted to be able to walk through that end of the kitchen to the other side of the room without walking all the way around. And besides I wanted the dishwasher next to the sink and there wasn't room unless I cut a hole through the counter. So, I did! Cut a hole. Walkway.

This is what I started with a week ago or so. Tom and his buddy built stuff on here and I had built stuff on here and it was a big crooked mess. Except the top was ok and the cook top was great. I needed more kitchen cupboards and decided to use the dresser my brother had left behind. So, instead of taking it to the garage sale, I built it in the island. I had stuck a kitchen cupboard on this end of the island to see if I would like having shelves in the walkway. No. It didn't really work out very well, so nix on that.

Yesterday I finished sheet rocking over the end (and forgot to take photos.) By hanging the sheet rock first, making sure it was plumb, shimming, and then nailing 2x4's on the floor, so I had something to screw the bottom of the sheet rock into, it all worked out. Phew! Well, that was ok for that end. Sounds easy, but it took three days. I'm old and slow. And this is confusing.

When I get finished I am going to post a whole bunch of photos of this adventure, but for now here is a glimpse of the shims I had to tack on the wood before I hung the sheet rock to make it level. I did a cheat and put the electrical box at the end of one of the small sheets. It is much easier to cut the hole if you only have to cut three sides. I like easier much better than harder.

Here is another example of the rigged up things I had to come up with to figure out how to put up the sheet rock. No plan to begin with means problems and here was a gap... nothing to nail to. If I had more sheet rock I could have cut a wider piece to fit, but I couldn't, so I came up with this idea. I pounded these pieces of wood in the space and shimmed them tight, and then I screwed on a strip of sheet rock. Sneaky me.

At the end of the day this is what I have. It will all look a lot nicer after I put on some joint compound, sand and paint and put on the kick board. Tomorrow I have the other side to finish up. Then I can start with the mud (joint compound.) That's another post.

I thought I would use the middle drawers for potatoes and onions. Kristine said her jeans were rubbing on the dresser and leaving a mark. Maybe I'll have to put a wood strip along the top of the dresser? We have two bar stools and it is true there is not much leg room at all anymore, but people usually/mostly always sit sideways facing left towards the tv. So, I would rather have drawers than leg room nobody much uses. It's all about me, heh, heh.

[6 eggs today]

Smiles

~:>