Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Kitchen Range Hood

Yes, we still have snow here. Snow and mud. You know, they say New England has four seasons - Humidity, Leaves, Snow, and Mud. A lot of this snow has melted off over the last few days since this picture was taken, but some of it will stick around until May. The last snow to melt last year was in May, and it was the stretch of ground just North of the stone wall in the house site. It gets no sun now, and very little even in late spring.
Well, the girls were gone to book club one night, and the boys had the dining room to themselves again. This room has become quite the multi-purpose room. It is totally opposite of our current garage space - this room is flat, dry, warm, and well-lit.
So we put the trailer together in the dining room. Doesn't everybody? You know, when we put this together last week, we had a really good reason for a trailer. We needed one. Like, STAT. But now? I can barely remember what the hurry was all about... But one day we'll haul stuff. While we pay strict attention to the weight limit. Until then, you can add this to the list of things the girls roll their eyes at with endearment.
The boys enjoyed wrenching, also. Benson did, at least. I'm not quite sure what Elis is up to.
Piper joined the family this week. Mindy had been looking for awhile, and she would show us lots of dogs of varying breeds. As usual, it takes four people a long time to reach consensus, but we're all really happy with our choice. She is an Airedale Terrier, about 9 months old. We have been pleasantly surprised at how mellow she is - we were a bit worried about her level of puppyness. She runs and plays with the boys, and likes to sleep next to Chris and Karen's bed.
Karen and the boys took a walk to the brook yesterday.
One of Karen's photos from yesterday. Most of the brook is quite flat on our property. It makes it fun for the kayak, but the fast-flowing whitewater at the edge of our land is pretty neat, too.We installed the ductwork for the kitchen range hood this week. The duct from the hood is 8", and goes directly out through the wall. We used an 8" 90 degree elbow, then an 8" - 6" reducer, and the outside vent is 6".
We measured, traced, and cut from the inside first. First the drywall, then the sheathing boards, then through the 4" of insulation. Once the ducting was dry fit into place, we marked and drilled a small hole at the center. The outside wall was cut with the jigsaw at about 6 1/2". Just enough to fit the duct. We used limited-expansion spray foam to seal the airspace left around the ductwork, caulked around the outside vent, then nailed and foil-taped everything into place.
Piper was well-tuckered out after running around with the boys most of the afternoon. She is accustomed to apartment life, where she was walked once a day.
The ducting is finished at this point, and we moved onto the backsplash for the stove. Now that the wall is painted, it seems time to make things official.
Backsplash in place, and the duct cover for the hood re-installed. We still need to buy a telescopic duct cover extension for the range hood, because this one was built for a flat ceiling and doesn't extend all the way up to the pitched ceiling.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful picture of your land Karen! Great job on the photo. I might have to paint it!