Nothing screams commitment like sawing your counter in two.
A year and a half ago I was in Nepal. In a journal, which I left on an airplane due to jet-lag, I had drawn and redrawn the things I wanted to change in my house. I'm sure that the person who found that journal thought I was insane. Random high altitude ramblings, life mysteries, and house revisions. Hell, maybe I got lucky and he or she didn't even read English. Whatever the case or whomever the reader, I had lost my plans in the backseat pocket of a sketchy ass plane that transported me from Kathmandu to Delhi...which, if you know me, shouldn't be all too surprising.
Fast forward to current day.
A year and a half had passed and I pulled into my driveway, unpacked my things, and moved back into my little house. A five week A&P intensive course was what brought me back technically, but really I had been trying to figure out coming home for some time. I missed the mountains, the moss and ferns, the outdoor activities, but most of all I had missed my friends. I hadn't realized what had been bothering me during my time away, but I was undeniably homesick. Eighteen months of being homesick is a little too much to handle.
Walking into a house that feels like home is amazing. Unfortunately I walked in, stood in my kitchen, and instantly remembered the things I had sketched out so long ago. I hated my kitchen counters and the tacky wood panel walls. Somewhere in a dump in China were my plans for building new counters, and I could sit and redo them...or I could just start. I dropped my bags and went to the shed for my Skil-Saw. If I let that counter stay, it would stay forever... so I got rid of it immediately.
Now that there was only one functioning counter in my kitchen, something should be done. I sledgehammered out the tile on the last functioning counter, and now action had to be taken. Within not too much time there was a new raised counter where the old one stood, and trim around everything. It wasn't until this point that I second guessed myself. Yes, I might be impulsive. Maybe this isn't the best way to go about life, but at least I get things done.
In a few days, I had the new area covered in rock and had poured a layer of epoxy. Josh and Allison Baker used epoxy on their kitchen counters this summer, so I had some idea of what to expect... but I didn't really know how epoxy would look over rock. In theory, it would look like water in an eddy above river rock. If things didn't turn out, well, I hadn't really thought that far ahead.
One thing that was not accounted for was time. Drying time. Each layer of epoxy took about a full day to set. Not only that, but Mango and I had to evacuate the house for a while. Had I not been in school, this wouldn't have been a problem. However, I was in school and there were hours of homework along with climbing, running, sleeping, and the usual milling about. Another thing I didn't plan for was buying all of the clear epoxy product available in Bellingham. Really? Only seven gallons in town? A store in Burlington had plenty of epoxy and my friend Jason was nice enough to pick it up for me. The counters were completed one month after I started sawing them apart.
Tips for epoxying anything:
1. Plan to use more epoxy than you imagined. I ended up using double the amount. FYI- there is a math equation for this.
2. Double your work time. Realistically, I should have quadrupled my work time.
3. Don't take intensive classes at the time of epoxy pouring, that is, unless you are good at multitasking.
4. Wear protective gear: gloves for sure, glasses if you are accident prone.
5. Ventilation is key.
6. Don't get epoxy in your hair.
Fast forward to current day.
A year and a half had passed and I pulled into my driveway, unpacked my things, and moved back into my little house. A five week A&P intensive course was what brought me back technically, but really I had been trying to figure out coming home for some time. I missed the mountains, the moss and ferns, the outdoor activities, but most of all I had missed my friends. I hadn't realized what had been bothering me during my time away, but I was undeniably homesick. Eighteen months of being homesick is a little too much to handle.
Walking into a house that feels like home is amazing. Unfortunately I walked in, stood in my kitchen, and instantly remembered the things I had sketched out so long ago. I hated my kitchen counters and the tacky wood panel walls. Somewhere in a dump in China were my plans for building new counters, and I could sit and redo them...or I could just start. I dropped my bags and went to the shed for my Skil-Saw. If I let that counter stay, it would stay forever... so I got rid of it immediately.
Now that there was only one functioning counter in my kitchen, something should be done. I sledgehammered out the tile on the last functioning counter, and now action had to be taken. Within not too much time there was a new raised counter where the old one stood, and trim around everything. It wasn't until this point that I second guessed myself. Yes, I might be impulsive. Maybe this isn't the best way to go about life, but at least I get things done.
One thing that was not accounted for was time. Drying time. Each layer of epoxy took about a full day to set. Not only that, but Mango and I had to evacuate the house for a while. Had I not been in school, this wouldn't have been a problem. However, I was in school and there were hours of homework along with climbing, running, sleeping, and the usual milling about. Another thing I didn't plan for was buying all of the clear epoxy product available in Bellingham. Really? Only seven gallons in town? A store in Burlington had plenty of epoxy and my friend Jason was nice enough to pick it up for me. The counters were completed one month after I started sawing them apart.
1. Plan to use more epoxy than you imagined. I ended up using double the amount. FYI- there is a math equation for this.
2. Double your work time. Realistically, I should have quadrupled my work time.
3. Don't take intensive classes at the time of epoxy pouring, that is, unless you are good at multitasking.
4. Wear protective gear: gloves for sure, glasses if you are accident prone.
5. Ventilation is key.
6. Don't get epoxy in your hair.
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