I wanted to do a little upkeep on the island while I still had it in the yard. Two things were needed, refinishing the surface of the butcher block and making the two outlets on the backside become four so that we can plug in more items on the butcher block. It would have been nice to be able to do the complete refinishing to match the new cabinet doors, but that decision has not yet been made.
We cleared an area around the island out on the backyard patio and got out the 100 grit sand paper and an orbital sander.
In the picture above you can see the area around the sander is almost white compared to the browner area not yet sanded. I am not sure but there was some kind of finish on the surface, perhaps varnish or mineral oil. We spent quite a while going over the whole area then we went back and cleaned up any of the shallow can stains or knife cuts we could get out.
After we completed the sanding and cleaned up as much as possible, we wanted to wait until all of the work was done before applying any new finish.
Since we often use the butcher block as a place to recharge our cell phones it would nice to have more outlets available. When we first moved in there was a microwave oven under the butcher block sort of built in to the island. When we installed the new oven we have a microwave above the stove, so the one in the island was unnecessary but its outlet was hidden in the back of the cabinet, not very handy for hooking up cell phones. I decided we were going to install two sets of outlets on the edge of the island for a total of four outlets. I went to the local home improvement store and picked up a "dual-gang" "old-work" box to use. Dual-gang simply means you can put two of something in the box, a light switch and an outlet, two outlets or whatever. Old-work means that you are putting a new conduit box in an "old" wall or something. I used a jigsaw to open up the existing outlet hole and installed the box and wired up two new outlets to fit in that spot.
I would have liked to have a brown dual outlet cover plate, but the stainless steel will work for now.
Once we had the outlet installed we got back to the Butcher Block refinishing we started earlier. Based on what I had read about refinishing Butcher Blocks, I had gone to Home Depot to purchase Mineral Oil instead of varnish or any other normal wood finish. Funny thing, Home Depot doesn't sell Mineral Oil, the guy in paint sent me to the kitchen remodeling department that guy said "we don't sell it, maybe a grocery store." So after I picked up a few other things, I headed to my local Lucky store. Yes, they have Mineral Oil. No it's not in the furniture polish section, it's in the laxative section. I guess if you took a good swig of that stuff, it would definitely do the job. I wasn't sure how much I'd need, but they only had one size of bottle, so I purchased that and went home.
Applying mineral oil to a freshly sanded wood surface is like applying Hot Chocolate to a frozen Christmas Caroler, it really brings out the color.
Once we had completed the Mineral Oil application we let it sit for a while to soak in and wiped it down with a dry towel just to be sure it wasn't slippery. We carried the island back in to the kitchen and set it on a large piece of carpet to protect it from scratching the floor. My son put the blue tape on the doors to keep them from swinging open as we moved it.
My wife had suggested that we bring the island in to the kitchen instead of trying to remember from pictures exactly where it had been. Instead we got it generally where we thought it was supposed to be then opened the dishwasher to see how close it would be when the door was open. We also wanted to see how cramped the kitchen table would be with it in place. We found a good place that allowed the dishwasher to open and still be able to walk by, but not too close to the kitchen table.
Once we had it in a place that we liked, I took some measurements so we could move the island away and prepare the floor to hold it in place. My friend had suggested that instead of "toe-nailing" the island to the floor I should screw down some 2x4's to the floor then screw through the "toe-kick" of the island to hold it down. This allows us to have screws making complete contact. This required us to pre-drill the 2x4's then hold them in place while drilling through to the floor and sub-floor, then putting three inch screws straight down. Yes, I actually drilled in to my perfectly good floor. I figure if someone wants to take out the island in the future, it will at least have a complete floor under it, with some wood putty to apply.
Here's a picture of what it looks like when all of the 2x4's are in place. There are a few more pictures in the photo album.
We also drilled a one inch hole through the floor for the power wire to come up from underneath. Unfortunately we weren't able to grab the wire and pull it through, so my son will have to go under the house tomorrow to get the wire and push it through. Once that wire is through we can lift the island on top of the four blocks, align with my earlier measurements, then screw the toe-kick to the sides of the 2x4's. Hopefully that will happen painlessly so we can clean up the rest of the island and get the drawers back in and start to get the kitchen back in order. It's been a long time coming.
After we get the island back in place, we really need to find some storage furniture for some of our dishes and our school materials that we keep in the kitchen. Right now some of that stuff is out in the garage, and some of it is at the end of the hall.
It's also pretty clear from the picture above that the wood color is completely different. We really need to start choosing our new cabinet faces and get that ball rolling soon. Oh boy, I get to spend more money!
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