The Hutch

Not a very clever title, I know - but it's late and we just spent a couple hours putting boxed cabinets together.


It's been years since I've been prompt about posting follow-up pictures, but Dave insisted. Besides, it gives me yet another opportunity to post a gratuitous photo of my car.

Putting the hutch component together was a snap. Mounting it to the base cabinets as instructed was impossible. Somehow we were to line up the 3/4 inch wide boards (and the pre-drilled holes at the end of the boards) with pre-drilled holes in the base cabinet tops which are hidden beneath the rubber mat work surface of the base cabinets. We actually tried it a few times before we gave up and used the provided L-bracket to attach the top to the nearest stud -- and a couple of our own L-brackets to secure the hutch to the base cabinets.

Tomorrow we plan to mount the remaining base cabinets (the ones with the drawers on the left side in the above picture). Then we'll purchase two wall cabinets and (hopefully) mount those above the drawers. Considering our experience with the rest of the components in this line -- coupled with online reviews I've read regarding the mounting system provided with the wall cabinets -- I think we'll be doing a lot of improvising before we'll be ready to unpack boxes and actually put stuff in our new fancy cabinets.

We'll let you know how that turns out.

Attach side panel AB to front panel CF. (Note: You may need a friend for this step)

Throughout the blog silence we have been quietly working on the garden & the garage... Trying to plan our work around the weather. If you live in southern Mississippi you understand what a ridiculous endeavor that is.... Therefore - we have a little done on the garage and a little done on the garden -- and a lot more to do.


At least we're happy with the gray we picked for the garage walls -- at least it looks alright on the one wall we've painted so far.

How did we ever get so much done over the previous three years? We just don't seem to have it in us anymore. If the garage had been last spring's project we would have had the whole thing finished in under three weeks.... But this project has been dragging on since Christmas now. The only thing motivating us tonight is the fact that we've been driven certifiably insane by the mountain of boxes out there and have reached the breaking point.

By the way -- it's pretty hard to paint and install cabinets when all of your paint supplies and tools are packed in boxes somewhere in the garage. We really need to finish this so we can find our tools again... and we really need our tools so we can finish this. Bwahahaha! See? Insane.

Side note: About those cabinets... They look nice enough, yes. However, despite the Coleman name being used - they're actually Sauder cabinets. They're unbelievably heavy and awkward. The instructions are less clear than we'd like. But our big complaint so far is the adjustable legs on these things.... Made of plastic. Yes. Plastic. Little plastic legs to hold up this cabinetry that is almost too heavy for Dave and I to move while EMPTY. The same little plastic legs are expected to hold up when the shelves are full? Needless to say - we already snapped a dainty plastic leg off of one of the larger cabinets when moving it into place.... Therefore - we're foregoing the ease of installation promised on the box (with reference to those adjustable legs for leveling) and attaching all of our cabinets to the wall.

We're not going for a clean and shimmed kitchen cabinet installation here -- we just want to make sure nothing is going to collapse or fall over onto children or cars. (In other words: We're tired.)

We're installing the hutch component tonight. Pictures to follow.

At last!

We have managed to make our garage look even worse than it did when we started. I admit - I didn't think it could be done.

We've picked a nice gray for the walls to go with the cabinets that we will eventually purchase and install... and once we get past the minor sheetrock problems we'll be ready to paint the whole place.

Ah. Progress.

Hargrove identifies final Katrina victim - Breaking News - SunHerald.com

Hargrove identifies final Katrina victim: "Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove today identified the last unknown victim of Hurricane Katrina in Harrison County.

The victim is 20-year-old Frank Jones of Gulfport. He found in the canal near Garden Park Hospital in Orange Grove. Drowning is the official cause of death."

We received a comment the other night on the blog that really touched us. I would hate for it to end up buried at the end of a miscellaneous post here -- and think it deserves a post of its own. It follows below with my emphases and comments.

I too lost a home in Katrina. Our house was built in the 1860's (yes eighteen sixties)and we truly loved living there in Bay St. Louis Ms. [The first two sentences took my breath away and then all the old Katrina-emotions flooded in. We were lucky - though it doesn't always feel like it - to have been left with a good chunk of our original home when the water receded. We grieve right along with you for the loss of a precious piece of our history. Well over 100 years -- gone in a few hours.]

We also took refuge on the second floor however when the water got chest deep on the second floor we took refuge in a pine tree. My wife and I were in the tree for three hours and later when we measured there was nearly thirty (30) feet of water below us. [I've often written here that our survival story was not very dramatic. This is what I'm talking about.]

We managed to get back on the roof as the water began to go down but the storm raged on. At dusk we walked a block to the beach across neighbors property that had been wiped clean of homes. We looked back to see the pile of rubble that was once our stately home, but we had our lives and we had each other. [Yes!]

I commend you for writing this to tell the world that the "Hurricane" did not end the night of August 29th, it is still going on.

We were driving on the beach (Hwy 90) today and commenting that some of the scars are beginning to fade. The beautiful homes are gone but our spirit remains. We will start over with our heads held high. [Amen!!]

Before I end this rant I would like to thank all the people that volunteered and continue to volunteer to help us rebuild. Without them where would we be? Families like yours dug out, ripped out and gutted, endured the heat and the mess, and can now hold your head high and be proud of what you have accomplished. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share your recovery effort.

Rich C

On the real meaning of "during Katrina"

There's been a lot of hype around the internet about a certain public official making a widely-televised speech which included an anecdotal Hurricane Katrina story. Said official referred to an incident which took place a few days after Katrina made landfall as having occurred "during Katrina". This, they say, is tantamount to telling a lie: He couldn't mean 'during Katrina' when he was talking about days after the storm, could he?

Now I can't speak for this man.... But I can (and often do) speak for myself on such matters.

In my world -- there's Hurricane Katrina.. and then there's just 'Katrina'.

Hurricane Katrina lasted for about 10 hours once it made its way to our shores.

Plain ol' Katrina went on for months... years... Heck - in some ways it's still happening.

I guess our public official should have laid it all out more clearly for his national viewers: "And when I say 'during Katrina' I'm referring to the ongoing event which left people in the awkward position of still needing to be rescued from rooftops days after the actual hurricane of the same name."

Garage Redo: The saga begins

After a couple of weeks of recovery - and a totally unrelated trip to the emergency room for me this past weekend... We are ready to officially begin making our garage less of an unholy mess.

In order to motivate (read: publicly humiliate) us to really roll up our sleeves on this one and get going... I present the following 'before' pictures:

The pictures only get worse from here. The patchwork look on the pictured wall represents where a pegboard once hung... where wire shelves were once anchored to the studs with thoroughly stripped 2" screws... and where the sheetrock was cut out and replaced at 4 feet following Hurricane Katrina. The clutter is just our life.

More sheer ugliness. The bench in the left-hand corner of the garage pictured here was removed by Dave just yesterday. There are no pictures of the gaping holes in the wall where said bench was once attached -- yet.

Somewhere under that pile of stuff you would find two neatly-stacked rows of packed moving boxes which represent our original plan to redo the garage in an orderly fashion.

(Yes. That is a Christmas reindeer. Yes. It's February. I know.)
This is our most-used entrance to our house. Luckily, we've grown so accustomed to conditions out in the garage that we barely notice it -- that is until we take pictures of it and publish it on the internet for all to see.

And just to lift the spirits a little -- here's a little progress. Dave has officially installed two Hyloft hanging shelves in the space above our garage door for storage. We have room for at least two more of these nifty units -- and intend to use it.

If you've ever read this blog before then you're probably aware that our first step in any project is to make an even bigger mess of the area than what we were originally trying to correct.... As you can see from these pictures -- we have completed step one.

I'm currently doing a little sheetrock repair here and there while we save up money and sell possessions so that we can afford some halfway decent cabinetry for the long (west) wall of the garage. We had originally planned on wall repairs and painting before we got started on storage - because of the budget constraints... However - the fact is that putting in the cabinets first will a) give us somewhere to store the unholy mess while we paint and b) considerably cut down on the amount of wall that needs to be painted.

As always -- more to come...

Yo, George - Happy Birthday

Our eldest turned 12 this past Saturday. We have spent the last several days convincing him that it's still too early for him to move out.

Love ya, Geo.

You mean you haven't missed us?!

Just in case anyone out there was wondering what happened to us ...

We survived Christmas. Not only that - it was fantastic.

But then - then - we decided we would do something ridiculous and started taking the garage completely apart in preparation for remodeling it. (We haven't touched the garage since Katrina other than to have some sheetrock hung where walls were removed. However, Dave's Christmas present to me was a major motivating factor in having a finished garage.) We bought U-Haul boxes and removed everything from the wire shelves on the east wall. We then packed all that stuff into said U-Haul boxes and stacked them against the west wall. The plan was to move everything to one side of the garage -- fix walls, install cabinets, and paint -- then move it all back to the other side -- repeat. That was the plan.

We got as far as removing the old wire shelves. We even managed to use those old shelves to install some much-needed shelving at Mom's house.

Since about that time we have been sick as proverbial dogs.

This morning - after days of sleep and rest and never feeling any better... after days of wondering where on earth we contracted this mystery illness - I finally realized what a truly STUPID thing we had done. Did you catch it?

"We haven't touched the garage since Katrina other than to have some sheetrock hung where walls were removed."

You don't think we were smart enough to wear masks while we were disturbing all that three- and-a-half-year-old Katrina dust do you? Ugh. We never learn.

We'll be back when our bodies stop draining green goo and we're able to stand up for at least 10 minutes at a time.

Happy home-improving in the meantime... Oh - and wear your dust masks, people.

From now on ...

Our troubles will be out of sight

In keeping with tradition our little big family exchanged gifts this Christmas Eve in anticipation of the celebration to come. More pictures from the day can be found here. In the meantime - wishing you all the most peaceful and joyous of nights.