The Kitchen Remodel – Part 6

Hey y’all. It’s been a minute. Work has been crazy busy but we finally managed a day to get some work done on the kitchen remodel. Our next step was to get the insulation completed in the outside walls. Oceana handled this like a champ. These walls were challenging too. It was more like a jigsaw puzzle than just a straight installation – every piece was a different shape and size. After she got the final wall insulated, we immediately noticed a difference with how much quieter it was inside. Before you could hear road noise, but after, barely anything.

Wall coverings

Next up was the wall coverings. Everywhere that will be exposed beyond the cabinets and backsplash will get drywall. The walls that are completely hidden behind the cabinets and backsplash are getting plywood. With that in mind, I hung drywall next to the exterior door by where the dishwasher will go. After that, I cut and fit plywood to go on the exterior wall behind the fridge. Lastly, I got drywall installed by the corner of the pantry. With just closing off the remaining walls, it’s starting to feel like a room. I left the drywall off of the chase near the electrical panel for the time being. I figure I’ll wind up fishing more wires into the panel when we remodel the master bedroom and bathroom, so it’ll be best to leave it open for now.

Electrical

With the walls closed off, our next interim goal is to get a working dishwasher, sink, and water purifier back into the kitchen. For this, I got the electrical outlet installed and set a breaker in the main panel for the dishwasher. We picked up a utility sink for the kitchen for now. After we’re done with it here in the kitchen, we’ll move it out to the shop bathroom which has yet to be built out. For this coming week I’m going to try to get the plumbing ran and get everything hooked up.

Big news for Oceana

Lots has been happening in both Oceana’s and my businesses. Oceana has made the tough decision to move her salon to Sebring. She found a nice suite for rent at the Villa Bella Salon and Spa. She had a soft opening here this week and has already seen a few clients. She’ll be finishing up in Jupiter in the beginning of June and then she’ll have her grand opening in Sebring. Oceana’s website is www.salonoceana.com for those that are interested.

Woodworking

For my business, work is still crazy busy. It’s a great problem. I’ve hired my first employee which has helped with the workload. Actually, it’s the reason I was able to take a Sunday off and work on the house! I’ve leased additional shop space and have moved a few tools and supplies over and already began working there.

I’m going to end up leasing 3 different shops (two bays side by side and a big shop in the next building over) at the same location. The main production work that I do – the tambour panels – will be in the larger shop over there. This will increase efficiency greatly.

I’ll then be setting up a smaller woodshop in one and using the other one for storage (for the time being). This will leave my home workshop available to build things like kitchen cabinets, which I’ll be doing soon enough.

More critters

Oceana found Lacey a new friend. Meet Nova.

She’s a young guinea pig and we’ve had her for about a week now. Lacey has started to warm up to her but is still a little reserved about having to share her space with another critter.

Teak is infatuated with Nova. Their cage sits on top of his crate. When he’s out, he’s just barely tall enough to get his nose up to where he can smell them in the cage. But to see them, he’s got to stand up on his back legs which aren’t very strong yet. He’ll stand up and get about a one second glimpse into the cage before falling over. He’ll keep doing it over and over until he gets too tired. It’s pretty funny.

Teak likes boating

Teak still enjoys his boat rides, although we haven’t been getting out as often as I’d like. Here’s a short video of him on the boat.

That’s all for now. Thanks for following along!