Kitchen Tools

When I talk about kitchen tools, I am not referring to knives, whisks or spatulas. I am talking REAL tools, like hammer, nails, screwdrivers, caulking gun and paint brush.  I used all of them today. The day started out sunny, but still kind of chilly, so I decided to start in my kitchen by pulling out the stove to replace the baking element I bought yesterday. Before I could do that, I took down my very large hanging spider plant and hung it up in the living room window. Then I removed my two curtain rods and lace cafe curtains that hang in the large kitchen window. I will wash those tonight along with the sheets from my bed and some white and light laundry left over from the weekend. If tomorrow turns out to be another sunny day, I will hang them out on the line. Then I pulled out a free standing cupboard into the middle of the room so I had some space to maneuver my stove. All this time I have been thinking that the stove would be too difficult for me to pull out from the corner of the kitchen. I thought I would need help from another person (specifically my son). But I managed just fine. I pulled it out so that I could unplug it. Once the plug was pulled, I changed out the bottom element in the oven. There was a time I couldn't imagine ME doing this. Thank goodness for You Tube. I watched how it was done, and it looked simple enough, so armed with the correct screwdriver, I proceeded to remove the old one and attached the new one.

Once I finished that, I proceeded to wash both sides of the stove, the side of the cupboards, the back wall, the side wall and the floor underneath. It was disgusting. I was going to take a photo, but it was too embarrassing to show anyone the state I had allowed these walls to become. I used my homemade cleaner, hot, hot water, comet, a new scrubbie and a Mr. Clean eraser. Then I got a caulking gun and spread a bead of caulking in every crack I found. I live in a very old house (1840 old) and the walls and floor are very uneven. My husband had built a little platform under the stove so that it would be strong and level. He had planned to rebuild the whole kitchen floor the year he passed away, so it was never finished up properly. Once I caulked all the seams, I decided to put down a layer of primer so it will be easier to deal with in future.

No before photo...just the after picture.

And since I had to pull out a cupboard, I vacuumed and washed the floor underneath it. I also decided to fix the back of it before I pushed it back.

You probably recognise this piece as one of those kits that come in a box and that you need to put together yourself. It is just very cheap melamine shelving with a cardboard back. Well the cardboard was only tacked together in a very few places and was coming away from the back. I took some finishing nails and a hammer and placed a fastener every couple of inches. I didn't have enough room across the top to nail it securely, so I found a piece of trim in the shed and cut it with a saw down to size and nailed the trim in place to hold the backing close to the top of the frame. It is much better looking now.

I was on a roll now, so I caulked all around the inside of the window frame. This is where I hope to finish off the window box itself, and eventually trim out the window, which was never done.

You can see from this photo the raw edge of the gyproc over the old wall. This is where there was a huge gap that I filled in with the caulking gun and smoothed out with a wet finger. I watched my husband do this many times. Then I washed the window inside and out, including the vinyl framing.

So this window is clean but before I rehang the washed curtains, I would like to plaster, sand and prime the gyproc under the sill where the two cats had scratched and destroyed the plaster board. I want to build out the window box so I can attach trim (or those pieces of pine board I primed) as a frame around the window. I finished up by cleaning the rest of the kitchen floor, after plugging the stove back in and pushing the oven back into place on its little platform. I reset the clock, held my breath and turned on the oven. It works, and it is now baking some chicken for my dinner. Yay!

Before I started this post, I wrote out the rest of the Easter cards for the kids in my life. If I don't send cards to my family members, at least the kids are looked after. It was too late to mail them out this afternoon, so that will be a priority tomorrow.