And ready for the body building competition. No, not me, our counters are all oiled up. Now they’re ready for competition. Last week, Ben sanded the filled areas, which means we could finally coat every counter with mineral oil. We still have more oiling to do, but they’re looking good so far.
So far, we’ve applied four coats of oil, letting it soak in completely. Between each coat, we lightly ‘sand’ the surface with super fine steel wool.
Our goal is to get the counters well oiled before installing the upper cabinets. It will be much more difficult to oil thoroughly with the cabinets resting on the counters.
While the surface isn’t impermeable, it does hold up well. Right now, we’re careful not to leave water spots or other semi-liquid stuff on the counters for too long.
As for our home-made wood filler, it worked quite well. The seam on the peninsula is barely visible.
A small crack on the counter by the stove filled in nicely, too. Ben accidentally hit the cabinet with the sander, so I’ll have to repaint this cabinet bay.
The peninsula had a crack as well. These are from the center of the tree, but we couldn’t cut this out.
Because the crack wraps around the end of this piece, the color difference is most visible at the end cut.
Ben had to make a few special cuts by the stove because the top sits above the wood. We also cut a 45 degree angle so the counter didn’t stick out beyond the stove.
Sorry for the lack of kitchen progress posts, too. We have had cold weather, so Ben can’t do much work in the garage. Yesterday, we finally had a day above freezing, but we used the nice weather to rake leaves. Fortunately Wednesday is our trash pick up. I bet our garbage men loved us because we left them this little gift.
With about ten more bags on the other side of our driveway.
What about you, how has your weather been? Raked your leaves yet? Do your kids request photo shoots when you pull out your camera? Do they request to see their pictures?
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Those counters look magnificent! Congrats!
Those counters are just gorgeous! I love the look of wood counters anyhow, but that wood is SO rich. As for the camera, my kids love to ham it up, and they absolutely love to see the results. Seriously, what did we do before digital? 🙂
Things are coming along nicely!
Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
Thanks, John!
Hey SallyHP, Thanks! Isn’t it funny how much they enjoy it? What did we do before digital cameras?!?
Hi Gabbi, Thanks! We’re getting there. Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
Oh me, oh my, he sure is good lookin’. The counters, too. 😉
Amanda, the kitchen looks great and all, but mainly I’m in love with Everett’s chubby little wrist wrinkle! What a cutie!!
Thanks, Emily. I love the chubby wrists, too. Vincent had that for like a week when he was a toddler. Everett has had those rubber band wrists for the past year and a half. Haha. He’s a chunky monkey. Happy Thanksgiving!
so so jealous of your gorgeous counter tops. here in canberra the weather is too extreme (big differences between the daily highs and lows in temp) plus it can be very very dry – so we’ve been told that wooden tops would just not work in our kitchen. oh well – I can live vicariously through you – and drool over your kitchen!!!!
love seeing the progress.
cheryl xox.
They look GREAT. I’m so impressed with your proper DIY approach to this kitchen. Now for the big question: what am I going to do with my life when your and Sherry’s kitchens are done? Help!
Your countertops look amazing!
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