CA likes having countertop she can use directly. A loose cutting board on a moving boat is a liability.

The Whitby has a nice cutting board built in the top of the refrigerator.

This has consequences. Mostly it means having any ingredients that need chopping out of the fridge before you start meal prep. Otherwise, you have to move everything because you forgot the cherry tomatoes.

(We don't use this as a fridge, but the rule still applies: have everything ready.)

For the past ten years, CA hasn't liked the condition of the cutting board. It had a finish that was peeling in places.

Peeling.

It was icky.

We read about using food-grade mineral oil as a treatment for wooden cutting boards. This meant stripping the old surface, which seemed like a job-and-a-half.

Since it was pouring outside. (And cold.) CA decided to sand the old surface and (finally) put on a proper finish.

She started with the sanding block and a random piece of sandpaper. After her shoulder started to hurt, she was ready to talk about power tools.

This can be a big step. Tools are noisy and dangerous. A sanding block is quiet and safe.

I showed her how to put paper into the sander. After a few tentative sweeps ("It's gouging the wood, and it's not a perfect finish"), she understood the progress of grits. And then tore into the job. Cackling with glee. Seriously cackling. It's fun to sand a small, well-made plank that's firmly attached to the boat. The sander has a dust-bag so there isn't volumes of sawdust everywhere. There's immediate joy seeing the changes in the wood.

She used 80-grit, 150-grit, and a final pass with 220-grit to create a super-smooth surface. I was lobbying for running out to get some 400 grit. She was having none of it. Four coats of mineral oil later, she's got a new place to cook.

(I'm hoping for cinnamon buns.)

Me?

I measured the offset between sink and backsplash. 3″. This tells me which of the Delta faucets I can wedge into the available space. (The answer is "almost anything your little heart desires, as long as it's stainless." I think the 13900-LF-SS is the faucet for this job.)

Up next? Replace the propane regulator so we can actually cook again. This is terrifying. Propane. Boom.

Also, the electric spark on the Force 10 isn't sparking. I've replaced the spark module and the push-button. It's unlikely to be the electrical connection on the knobs (all three failed at once??) It's slightly more likely to be the spark unit on one of the burners shorting out. I say this because the burners had not been dismantled to be cleaned in years. I had to pry one of them apart because some spilled food had sort of welded it together.

The final potential failure is a nick in the wire somewhere causing a short via the metal frame. This is a right pain to diagnose.

For now, I'll enjoy the new cutting board.