De-Stoving and De-Veneering

Following Denny's homework assignment, I began chipping off the damaged veneer from the lower galley cabinet today.  Most of the job was pretty easy:  the previous chemical spill had eaten away at some of the top layers and loosed others.  First, I removed the brushed gold trim strip on the top of the cabinet; since it was only being held on by 5 of 6 small nails, it was easy to pry off with the screwdriver.  I eventually want to replace all the gold trim strips with brushed aluminum.  After that quick removal, I gloved up, grabbed my trusty flat head screwdriver, scraper, and hammer, and went to work.

Lower galley cabinet before removing veneer.....



.....and after.

It's a good thing that Denny is going to re-face the cabinet, because it's not the prettiest thing right now.

Next, I removed the stove.  I knew that trailer stoves were only held in by a few screws (some RVing friends opened the door of their rig after arriving at camp, only to find the stove sprawled akimbo on the floor - after many trips and miles, the screws had finally worked loose), but for the life of me I had NO idea where those few screws were.  So it was back into the house for a Google session on "How to remove stove from travel trailer."  The critical first step?  Lift up the stove top - the screws are underneath, not on top where the burners are.  Duh.

Before I lifted the stove out, I disconnected the propane line.  For my trailer, this was easy:  there's no propane bottle, and probably hasn't been for many years, so I knew there wasn't any gas in the lines.  Otherwise, I would've had Denny do this.  I hate messing with propane.  Disconnecting was easy:  there was only one line snaking from the back of the stove along the front wall, so I knew this was the propane line (I'm learning that these older trailers are pretty simple).  I simply unscrewed it, then lifted the entire stove/oven unit right out.

 

Stove:  now you see it.....

 

.....now you don't!
(The black cable-looking thing is the propane line)

I continued working on veneer removal around the stove, and had quite a nice little mess when I was done!


Have I mentioned how much I love demo-ing?!?
(No, seriously: I do!)
 

Apparently, (1) my screwdrivers are crap, and (2) I get a little too happy when demo-ing, to the point of breaking my tools:


They're both flat-head screwdrivers.  The one on the left
is supposed to look like the one on the right.  Ugh.

After finishing up working in Lil' Chick for the day, I made a trip to Lowe's for - yes - more tools.  I swung through the flooring section, just to look at options for when that time comes.  Since the floor in the "great room" seems pretty stable under the avocado green linoleum, I should be able to lay new flooring down right on top of the old.  I'd been thinking sheet linoleum or vinyl tile squares (I'm all about easy-to-install-and-sweep-clean!), but I'm really hankerin' for a "wood" floor, or at least one that looks like it.  Lowe's now carries vinyl "wood" strips - similar to Pergo flooring, but self-stick vinyl strips that are easy to trim and shape.  They come in several colors; I bought a light maple strip and put it in Lil' Chick to see how it looks:



Self-stick vinyl "wood" strips -
36" x 4" and 98 cents each at Lowe's

I did a quick calculation and, because the "great room" is so tiny, I should be able to do the entire floor with these strips for only about $30 - yeah, buddy!

Waiting for me in the mail when I got home from the Lowe's run was my latest Etsy find:  a cute little ceramic chick that, like my trailer, I couldn't resist!  Of course, the little chick went right into the Lil' Chick, to watch over the makeover!

Lil' Chick's muse.