Last night felt like the perfect summer evening. After work I played softball on a friend’s team and we won (for the first time this season). The evening was gorgeous! Sunny, breezy, not too hot.

So fancy

I arrived home to three dogs who were, as usual, excited to see me. We romped in the yard for nearly an hour. I’m still trying to get Daisy to bring the ball back, but in the meantime, at least she chases the ball all over the place and expends some energy (and so do I). The dogs had a picnic dinner on the deck, because we are that fancy. I made and ate dinner that involved Asiago cheese and fresh tomatoes, always a win.

And finally, I made some more progress on the kitchen. Less than a week in, I’m feeling desperate to get the kitchen plumbing back into a functional place. Currently the laundry room sink is full of dirty dishes (because I was too busy working on the kitchen to wash them). The clean dishes on the washer need to be put away but the kitchen disaster makes that seem futile. And I can’t do laundry because of that situation and the rags and dirty clothes are piling up. Clearly I need to get the kitchen back into working order before I leave for vacation (for the sake of the lovely people watching my house and dogs).

I dug out the new used cabinet from the stack of cabinets in the barn (another story for another day). I had gotten this set used (for the pantry cabinets, which I ended up giving away) and this sink cabinet wasn’t in the best of shape. The bottom was a bit saggy and the back had some holes. I realized in order to make it work with the existing plumbing, I would need to remove the entire bottom and back and then add in new supports once it was in place. The doors didn’t quite match the other lower doors but the doors from my old sink cabinet fit perfectly. Yes please.

I hauled the cabinet out of the barn and into the lawn tractor trailer (I love that little thing) and up to the house. I made the modifications on the deck as the light was fading with my trusty Ryobi sawsall. And I prepped the under the sink area for the new cabinet – removing a couple 2×4 pieces that were in the way and part of the crumbling drywall behind there. The bad news: the drywall was crumbly, the good news is that there insulation and wall behind it wasn’t moldy or damp at all.

I detached the plumbing from the sink and propped the counter up on 2x4s so I could slide the new cabinet underneath, pretty impressed with that brilliant set up and mostly just happy to be able to get the cabinet in place without waiting for help. It still needs to be sanded and painted, and the plumbing reworked underneath, but I’m pleased as punch to get the cabinet in!! I also took the dishwasher out of it’s packaging and read through the instructions enough to know that I need to buy a power cord before I can install it. Hopefully tonight. Imagine if I could have a sink AND a functioning dishwasher in there?!?!! One can only hope.

Under the sink area dried out and painted with kilz

Crumbly drywall mess

My very high tech method of lifting the countertop to get the cabinet in place (don’t the drawers look nice in gray though?)

Hey look! Sink cabinet installed! Booyah!