The Parker Travels

Our kitchen in the PUP has gone through quite the makeover! The first thing we did was rip the old stove out . That left this nice hole in our countertop where the stove used to be. We then took out all the drawers and cabinets, leaving more holes to fill…  Time to start rebuilding this galley. We primed and painted everything. Including the refrigerator door. That got a nice new coat of primer and then black chalkboard paint! The galley handle and chain cover also got a coat of black paint to match. New doors and drawers were built , primed, painted and installed as well.  Next it was time to tackle the countertop . Building the countertop from scratch was the best idea we had. It turned out so nice with its matching sink cover! Here we have all our hard work put together! The last bit we did to the galley was replace the basket strainer with a bar sink basket strainer  from Lowes. The old...

I have been trying to figure out a stain color for our lovely new countertops Kyle cut . I was going to try to work with some of the stain that I already have here so I wouldn't have to go buy anything new. I tried layering a few options too but as pretty as these stain swatches are, they don't fit the color that I have in my mind. We ended up going with Minwax Golden Oak  and are very happy with the results. I wanted to make sure the cutting board that fits over the sink doesn't go sliding around in transit. I added some "feet" to help secure it inside the sink while we are driving. Also now the cutting board doubles as a little elevated serving tray with the feet attached!  I started with a wood conditioner  then layered on 2 coats of the Golden Oak stain. I made sure to do the little cutting board too. Lastly I went over everything with 2 coats of Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane  making sure to go heavy in the areas that will see the ...

This thing is a mess. We took the stove out a few months ago and now its finally time to put a new counter top together for this galley. We are keeping the sink so Kyle traced out just that portion of the old counter onto this  Edge Glued Finger Joint Pine Board  we got from Lowes. He then used our largest drill bit to rough out some holes for the faucet. Then he used the jigsaw to cut out the hole for the sink.  I took that piece he cut out and used grandpas belt sander to smooth out the edges and make them rounded over. We can use this scrap piece as a sink cover when we aren't using the sink now! I also rounded off the square corners of the counter top so you can't hurt yourself by running into them. Looks like a happy little countertop now! This is what the countertop will look like all put back together.  Now we just need to pick a stain color! Decisions decisions... Che...

Update Below: 04/30/17 We have no use for an indoor stove, so we ripped it out! It took some persuasion to unscrew the gas line so we could take the stove out, but once we got it undone the stove came out in one piece. Easy peasy.  Now we need to cap this off, so we don't get gassed out every time we turn the propane on.  So much room for activities! Our vision is to possibly buy a larger sink, then use the rest of the space as extra countertop space. You find quick in a PUP that everything you do is to either make more room or storage space for everything that you plan on bringing! We plan on doing most of our cooking and cleaning outdoors, but its always nice to have a sink inside for brushing teeth, washing hands, quick tasks, etc. A larger one would be nice so we could wash dishes inside too but its not a requirement. The next step for us with this area is to build a new countertop to replace this one, cut a hole in it for the sink and t...