Craigslist and IKEA own my life

Hey internet!

I haven't posted for a while.  Partly because work, weather, and friends (it turns out I still have some of those, even after 3 months of serious hermitage) have distracted me a bit from making progress on the house, and partially because the things I have been working on are slow and fiddly, and not as spectacular as tearing down a wall.

So number 1:  the living room is (mostly) furnished!

Here is a pic of the new (antique) couch I got for $80:

Here is a pic of the antique wardrobe ($40) I got to conceal My stereo system:

Here is a pic of the interior.  The crap plywood shelves came with it.  I will be replacing them in the near future, and probably getting rid of the also-crap shelf supports,  thinking I might put in a peg system.

Second:  The Kitchen!

The Great IKEA Cabinet Clearance is long since underway, and here is what I have managed to procure so far:  Two 88 x 24 x 24 pantry cabinets, an 18 x 36 x 22 over-the fridge, and a 24 x 36 x 22 over the fridge, and a bunch of doors and hinges, and a large white melamine side panel, which will double as a very classy dry-erase board.

Here is a dry fit of one pantry cabinet and the 24 tall over the fridge, with the melamine panel.  

So, there are a couple issues:  1) melamine sticks out too far.  2) floor is not square to wall, so melamine either has a gap at the top or at the front.  3) The second pantry cabinet doesn't fit. 4) the 24 inch cabinet is sandwiched b/w the fridge and the beam so tightly that doors can not be installed.  

So, I swapped out to the 18 inch cabinet, installed a 2x4 anchored to the studs (and the beam) to support the cabinets, and connected it all together.  Here is where I am so far:  

I think it is clear from the pic that a second 24 inch wide pantry cabinet is not fitting, unless I am willing to give up the window, which I am not.  So I am going to cut the second cab down to 16 inches wide.  To do this, I will need a table saw, some forstner bits, a drill press, some dowel centers, a drill guide, and a fair amount of precision.  Maybe a bit of luck, too, because I have never made anything this precisely before, and I only get one shot at any of it.  Saving all that for the next post. 

Also, I did some plumbing.  Installing icemaker water lines is soooo easy!  You clamp a saddle valve to a cold water supply line, and run a hose to the fridge. The valve literally pierces the side of a copper pipe, and just works thereafter.  I leave you with this:

Okay!

4 hours sanding and 30 minutes oiling gets this:

F**K LOST

(The above post title is a piece of graffiti I saw last night alongside the Squill VFW)

But, yeah, islands. Or Peninsulas.  Big step toward the goal posts.

Checking the layout

Prepping to secure them for leveling

Screwing them to each other to take half the leveling work away.

So, knowing cool people who make stuff is great.  Especially when they buy supplies to make stuff, get distracted making different stuff, and pass the supplies on to you.  Here is a maple butcher block I obtained via a post on FB for my friend's costs, which was so cheap that I couldn't have done it cheaper making one myself, out of lower-quality oak. like, by 50%.

Practicing the cut. In this version, I am actually off by 4 inches on the cut line, because I am dumb sometimes.

Using my 4 foot level as a fence.

Roughed in around the post. 

I didn't take a picture of the sanding tent yet.  More to come in the next couple of days.
 

I should probably have a pun for this...

Well, last night was supposed to be about the kitchen, but I got sidetracked, and made it about putting things generally where they belong.  That got boring, so I distracted myself with a couple of small projects.

1.  This equipment rack is way too big, bulky, and ugly for my new studio space.

Plus, I really bought it for a time when all my stuff (including my stereo, game systems, VCR/DVD/BluRay, turntable, etc all needed to live in a closet in a single room.  Now, all that stuff is getting scattered, and this rack doesn't even fit in the closet (future posts will make clear why I want to stuff my rack gear in a closet at all).

For scale

So I went and found some scraps from the bulkhead I removed over the holiday, spent about 8 minutes with the miter saw and the drill press,  3 minutes with a handheld rotary sander, just to get the splinters out, and another 12 attaching and leveling the equipment. It ain't too pretty, but it is solid, and it works:

What I love about this project is that it is really incredibly easy with a few common tools, and it is the cheapest sturdy thing in the world.  I just cut a 15 degree mitre in two 2x2s, then lined them up with each other on the mitre saw to cut their square ends to the exact same length.  I trimmed the two bases the same way (side by side on the mitre saw) from the scrap cutting down the rails.  Then I simply drilled a pocket hole down through each rail at a 15 degree angle (did this on the drill press, but a kreg jig would have been faster) so the screw would land perpendicular to the base piece.  Then I attached the rail to the base with a Kreg blue screw using a square bit in a hand driver.  I am a little blown away by how strong that joint is.

The two bases/rails are only held to each other by the rack gear.  It's all steel and aluminum, so it is fine that way.

I also hung the projector screen.

And put down a rug

These many tools were not used in the installation of this beautiful, possibly non-square (non parallelogram, even) rug. 

The Foyer...

...is so abused by salt and water and stress that refinishing is not in the cards.  I mean, I guess I could sand and clear coat it, and call it "rustic", but it is a very difficult area to isolate in order to contain sawdust, and it will look like crap, anyway.  

Options: 

1.  replace hardwood (still requires sanding, so, NO.  Not again this winter.)
2. Tile (requires cement backer board, and so the foyer will be an inch above every other room)
3. Adhesive vinyl:  Not a long-term solution, and will suck to remove when I am ready to maybe sand, maybe replace hardwood, or even replace the vinyl in 5-10 years. 
4. Laminate: It's an entryway, and destined to get wet a lot.  I already am greatly concerned about the previous owners' brilliant idea of laminate in the downstairs bath.  Not going to continue that trend. 
5. That leaves (I think): epoxied pennies (too permanent/boring to apply), or a rug.  But wait!

I forgot all about the very finish of the Joyce Rothermel Community Room at work!  

Resilient Vinyl Plank

This stuff cuts with a circ saw or a jigsaw or a miter saw just like wood, only easier.  I also drilled some in the drill p[ress, but not for any reason other than to see how it works. You can whittle it with a utility knife, and it is waterproof, and really, really durable. Fitting and trimming took about 12 hours, including all the trips up and downstairs to cut. My pedometer estimates 3 miles walked INSIDE my house in a single day. $2.80/sq ft. This is "Rustic Hickory" Smartcore flooring from Lowe's.  5.5 mm thick.  Nice stuff. 

(This is not the permanent home of this white fridge.  My other one is acting up, so I have held off selling the frigidaire until I determine if the SS fridge can be fixed.)

 I'm thinking a radiator box project is in my future.

Here is the vinyl and the ebonized oak, separated by a hardwood carpet transition strip. The strip will be waxed with the floor, and will turn about the color of the hickory.

Saga of the Floors II: It's never that simple.

Sure, I don't think the words "cautious" or "methodical" are the first to come to mind when someone says "Josh Murphy".  I've cultivated a bit of a reputation for being spontaneous, and for not following conventions all the time, for better or worse.  But I try not to fool around with wood, so I did several tests with my Vinegar/Steel wool solution, and determined it was ready to go. I then diluted it several times to allow me to fine-tune the ebonizing process, and added a drop of dish soap to break surface tension to allow better absorption.

So I mopped it on the whole LR floor.










And I got:












(Reminder: "There are chemical processes going on here that I don't understand.")

Maybe I should just keep it that way.  Sure as hell will distract from the stains.

Second coat.

This is no good.  Time to cook up a stronger batch, in a hurry:

Coat 3, the next day.  Grr.  Must be residual oxalic acid. I'll keep adding iron to the floor, and eventually, it will use up all the oxalate. Right?

Okay.  Not bad.  

What will it look like finished?

Still splotchy,. though.  

Maybe some baking soda?

(Sadly missing are pictures of the insanity that followed.  Baking soda turned a whole section super-brown overnight, and necessitated a full 80 and 100 grit resanding of the LR)

Skipping a few meanwhiles, here we are after monocoat: I intentionally sanded down some of the ebonizing to blend out some of the perma-bleached areas.

My whole house smells like linseed oil.  Which is WAY better than smelling like denatured alcohol, thinner, acetone, and/or assorted VOCs

Short story: should have sanded way deeper, and none of this would have been so hard. Tough to do when your grain runs in all different directions.

Interlude II: I may have scraped too hard.

I may have scraped that wallpaper a bit too aggressively, because by about 1a.m., I had this going on:

I scraped all the paper off the bulkhead, but some was sticking to the bottom lip, and I couldn't get it off, so I slid my knife in to cut it, and it slipped right in!  Turns out they build the bulkheads out of old 2x4s ripped to 2x2, tempered hardboard (masonite, clipboard material), and about a pound of nails per joint.

 You're next, buddy:

 So, I am guessing they made this crappy bulkhead system, and lowered their cabinets so the tiny folk they were could reach stuff, circa 1981.  Just a guess.

Also guessing they never redid their kitchen between when they bought it in 1972, and when they built the bulkhead.

So, now all the bulkheads are out, but the walls and ceiling they were hiding are all crumbling.  Jerks. Time to drywall.

Should I just buy an unfinished cabinet for my island, instead of watching craigslist like a hawk?

(Break for Xmas: a walk around Hazelwood and Oakland.)

AND now it's time to fix the ceiling in the Dining Room.

Interlude to the Floor: Building a beam and other diversions.

While I let the whole floor thing process, I still have heavy work to be done where I ripped out that wall, with all the different ceilingf heights, etc.

First off, how about a temporary light switch for the dining room:

And I keep losing tools, so let's fix that:

And I should square up and drywall those giant holes in the wall that I made tearing out the other wall:

And build a box beam to conceal the ceiling height disparity where I took out the wall..  And while I'm at it, might as well run the final light switch for the Dining Room and a box for lights over the peninsula I want to build:

This beam is oak plywood, and I cut the sides using a kreg jig that is made for parallel cuts.  I would have just clamped a straight edge, but I didn't have any...

The overhead light box and the outlet are protected by the same gfci.  Just in case I am standing in a puddle and I accidentally snap the plastic off the light switch, exposing the live current, I guess.  Also, it was easier that way. 

 THREE DIFFERENT CEILING HEIGHTS! One in the kitchen, one in the main DR, and one where that ridiculous closet was. 

Light fixture arrived from Amazon a few days later.  Looking classy:

Note I still have not finished the beam.  I want it to get aged by all the construction debris.  No, seriously.

You know what's getting on my nerves now, though?  that wallpaper border up top there.  I hate wallpaper borders.  Hate them.  I'll scrape it off, starting at the other side of the kitchen.