Hard Day's Work

I only got part way to my goal today of replacing the old shelving on the west wall next to the stove with my brand new bakers rack.  I started by clearing everything off the shelves.  Then I removed the shelf with the Pennsylvania Dutch motif. 

That came down easily because it had not been there long.  Then I attacked the old counter-high shelf.  I knew this would be a challenge because it had been there, I think, since the cabin was built in 1939.  Too bad I hadn't had this idea before I painted because this paint I bought at Ace that has the primer in it is really tough paint.  I could see two screws beneath the paint and dug out around them and cleaned out the slot in the top so I could get a screw driver in there.  Then I squirted a lot of WD-40 in and around them.  They came out much more easily than I had anticipated, but the shelf didn't budge when they were removed.

I could see a small nail head under each screw hole, but could tell there was something higher up that was keeping the shelf in place.  I used a screw driver and hammer to drive down between the wall and shelf.  Good thing the screw driver was already damaged! 

I finally determined my Dad had driven in nails on an angle, one on top and one in from the side, on each end of the shelf.  I was able to get one out because the wood was so rotten it splintered and left the nail exposed, but the other three weren't budging.  Time to go to Nederland for a pry bar.  I needed to exchange two library books for two more anyway and pick up a few groceries, so cleaned  up and made the run into town.  Couldn't decide which of a myriad of pry bars at Ace to buy, but with an eye on the budget, figured I'd start out small so paid about $6 for one. 

Came home and, with an apology to my Dad, started prying away.  The pry bar is my new favorite tool!  It really worked.  Had the shelf off within ten minutes. 

Had to knock out all the old, rusty nails from the shelf since they looked like tetanus to go.

Then had to address the damage to the wall behind the shelves.  (While I was thinking about that, I cut up all the cardboard from the packing box the bakers rack came in.  I am low on kindling and am having to buy fire starters, so this will come in handy).  I could see that some of the damage on the wall was just paint edges from my and other previous paint jobs.  But there was some rotten wood behind the lower shelf. I tried sanding by hand, but it seemed as if I was making little progress.  Decided I would just build up the areas with a product I had purchased several weeks ago called Erase-a-Hole.  It's Spackle in what looks like stick deodorant form.  I think it worked fairly well. 

 I'm waiting for it to dry so I can sand it and then paint.  I think it probably needs to dry over night. At any rate, I'm using that as an excuse to stop and start one of my new books.  Tired.

These are my new helpmeets:

 

What are your "must-have" tools?  Teddee

The Gift of Organization

My good friend Cindy, with whom I worked at my last job in Arizona, sent a wonderful late Christmas gift in the form of a very generous Amazon gift certificate.  She had apparently intended to send me a high-tech back-up electric blanket, but it was on back-order so eventually opted for the gift certificate.  What fun.  Books and CDs are usually my limit, but with this gift I could do some serious on-line shopping. 

I have been particularly dissatisfied with this area by the stove.  There are two mismatched upper shelves and I didn't want to paint the one because my sister bought it and I think she still likes Pennsylvania Dutch.  Then there's the shelf at counter level, that's tilting dangerously, on which I've put my microwave.  You can see I had to put little wooden feet under the front to get it level.  What with the canister for my wet garbage (no running water, no garbage disposal) and my grease can for drippings, this leaves very little work space.  Then underneath, well, I actually cleaned this out a little for the photo.  In addition to the wood box and the trash container (which still has one of my paint cans in it), there's usually a basket of kindling here.  I'd found an industrial looking metal basket at an antique store summer before last for that purpose, but it doesn't contain the debris well.  Then I tried substituting Lola's old car basket, but it started coming apart.  Finally, at some point earlier in the winter when the weather was really bad and I needed kindling, I just brought in an entire plastic tub I'd filled with kindling I'd picked up on my walks with Lola last summer, so this was quickly turning into a disaster area. 

Since I also have no place for pots and pans I started out looking at pot racks and kitchen utility carts and then, after taking some measurements, expanded my range to bakers racks (and if that's possessive, let alone singular or plural, I can't find it either in my dictionary or on line).  I measured and then measured again.  The ceilings are really low in this cabin.  Maybe Dad built it low to the ground to save on building materials or, if he was thinking ahead, to keep the cabin hunkered down to withstand the winds. So, I had to find a bakers rack that wouldn't be too tall and one that wouldn't interfere with the stove.  After I ordered, I realized that one thing I hadn't taken into account was access to the ash box.  A wood stove produces ash, which falls through a grate in the fire box into the ash box.  I guess that's what the ash container is called.  If I ever knew, I've forgotten.  Anyway, one chore the owner of a wood stove must address fairly regularly is taking out the ashes.  And you do it when there's no wind so ashes don't blow back into your face and the cabin when you open the door!   So, I've worried that perhaps I won't be able to pull out the ash box and I'm still not sure even though I took more measurements today.  I'm one of these people that just has to try things and see how they work. 

The bakers rack arrived via UPS about 3:30 p.m. today.  The driver just knocked and ran. Guess I can't blame him as bad as the winds have been today, but the box was very heavy, so I had to drag it into the cabin.

I wasn't going to assemble the rack today, but decided I couldn't wait, so while the wind battered the cabin without surcease, I cut open three sides of the carton to access the parts and instructions. 

The instructions were pretty easy to follow.  The unit has a wine rack and that went in first as you can see below.  An Allen wrench was provided along with the bolts.  You can see just a small amount of the large amount of packing materials I now have to cut up and burn or take to the dump.
 

Then the two shelves went in as shown below.  The instructions should have made it clear not to tighten the bolts in the first shelf completely so that one could squeeze in the second shelf without scratching the uprights.  I had to loosen the screws and then re-tighten them.

A reinforcing tube had to be installed between the two sides at the rear and the arched back was attached to that in three places.  Then the fan-shaped side pieces were attached to the back and the base.

The wooden top (below) just slides in but is supposed to be screwed down.  I think I'm going to have to turn the rack on its side tomorrow to line up the screws holes and small pilot holes that have been made in the bottom of the wooden top.

There are a couple of little shelves that hang on the back and it came with six nice long black pot hooks.  Pretty cute, huh?  Thanks, Cindy!

So, tomorrow, I have to unload all of the old shelving and remove it.  Some of those screws and nails have been in there since the cabin was built, I think, so WD-40 to the rescue.  I hope I don't run into any difficulties because I'm really looking forward to getting this in place and getting it loaded up.  If it prevents me from pulling out the ash box, I'll have to start playing musical furniture.  But I already have some fall-back ideas.  Have you ever had to change your mind about the final location of a piece of furniture?  Teddee