Shop Storage

The “Shop” has been more of a storage room since we finished the basement.  It has been a collection of my tools, half finished projects, and boxes.

In an attempt to get a space to work in regularly the boxes have been moved out.  I purchased a lumber rack to get all the cut pieces of lumber off the floor. 

I also built a set of adjustable shelves from 3/4 inch birch plywood.  The unit is 11 1/2 inches deep by 42 inches high by 8 feet long.   The case is joined with pocket screws and the center divider is screwed and glued.  I drilled 1/4 inch holes on the sides to allow for shelf adjustment.   I finished the shelves with 2 coats of wipe on poly.  Overall I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Cabinet Construction Class

Last week I took another class at Highland Woodworking in Atlanta.  The class was on basic cabinet construction.  I got some more experience with tools and techniques and learned a lot.  This is the base cabinet I made in class.

Painting cabinets

I’ve been hesitant to paint cabinets.    Guess I’ve seen too many home improvement shows where the result looked pretty bad.   I decided to give it a try on the master bath updated because the vanities were installed before the tile, so replacing vanities would have meant tile work as well.

I removed the doors and drawer fronts and set all the hardware aside in plastic bags.    I sanded all the surfaces first with medium grit (100) and then very fine grit (220) sandpaper to remove any gloss finish.

Everything got one coat of primer and two coats of the finish color.  Check the primer requirements for your finish coat.  I was moving from white to a mahogany color, so I needed a dark primer.

For a really smooth finish, apply the primer and paint with a high density foam roller.   I used a 4 inch roller which worked well for most surfaces.   The roller puts on a very smooth coat, but it tends to be a thin coat, so several coats may be needed.

Sink to p-trap connection hint

New counters and sinks were installed last week in the master bath.  I installed new faucets and was left with a problem that took a while to figure out.

The tail piece (connects sink drain to p-trap) is 1.25 inches.  The existing p-trap was 1.5 inches.     How to bridge the size difference?

My first guess was that there would be a tail piece extension that bridged the gap, but no luck.  Next I thought about replacing the 1.5 inch p-trap with a 1.25 inch p-trap – lots of work, so I knew there must be an easier way.

First trip to the big box home store was not helpful.  The guy working in plumbing knew less about plumbing than me, which is always frustrating.  The next day during lunch I tried another store and actually got help from a plumber.

The solution?  For the slip joint where the tail piece enters the p-trap, there is a 1.5 inch to 1.25 inch reducing washer (clear plastic) that  can be purchased for about $1.50 a pair.  It can be found in the sink repair section of the home store.

Master Bath Progress

Some progress has been made in the master bath.   The nail pops and drywall cracks have been repaired and sanded.

I took out the old molding, which was a pain.  I thought it would only take a few minutes to pry it off.  However, when the house was built the trim was installed before the tile, so all the baseboard was set  below the tile (and grouted  in!), so it took a lot of effort to pry it out without damaging the tile or grout.  New crown molding, and wider casing, baseboard and quarter round are all in.  It took me forever.  I’ve trimmed a number of rooms but for some reason this was really challenging.

Since I had the trim off I reinstalled the double entry doors to the bath.  Either they were hung incorrectly or the framing shifted, but the doors were out of alignment by almost 1/2 inch, taking serious muscle to open the right door.  This was one job that took less effort than I expected, and I’m happy with both the operation of the doors as well as the visual alignment.

The vanities have been sanded and painted, though the drawers and doors need another coat.   I’ve changed the color from white to Library Mahogany (Ralph Lauren color) and they look good.  We picked out some granite the other day and the company will be out to measure next week.   

Next comes paint prep – caulk, putty, primer.   I’ll post pictures when it looks prettier .

Happy Thanksgiving

Last  week I arrived home from work and exchanged greetings with my daughters.  My six year old said “I’m glad you have a job.”  “Me too.” I said.  “What brings that up?”

“I don’t want to be homeless and starving.”  She was in tears. 

We talked for a long time.  I don’t know where the fear came from, but it was real and it struck a chord with me.  I tried to calm her and eventually the subject changed, so I guess I did my best to answer her questions? 

Each day that conversation has come to mind.  I think of the parent that has to tell their kids there is no food or there is no warm place to stay tonight.  I keep thinking how I would feel if I had to tell my spouse and kids this…

My conversation with my daughter convinced me to take action I had contemplated for some time.  I felt good about doing something, but feel it is not enough.

So tonight, warm and safe, full from Thanksgiving dinner, I am truly thankful.  I am thankful I am not starving and I am not homeless.  I am thankful that my daughters helped remind me of how fortunate we have been.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Updating the Master Bath

Our master bathroom sits almost exactly like the builder left it, one of two rooms in the house still in a lovely shade of builder beige.  Next project is to spruce it up a bit.    My plan includes:

• upgrading the bath fan
• new trim including baseboard, door casings, and crown molding
• paint
• probably something else that will get added to the list along the way

There are a number of nail pops and drywall cracks I’m working on now.  The paint job on the trim is terrible.  I spent so much time cleaning it up in one area that I decided just to upgrade the trim in the rest of the bath.  I’ll post details as I progress

Wires and Electrical for the Flat Screen

Saturday I finished the wiring behind the flat screen.  I replaced the standard outlet with one from Panamax that is recessed and has surge protection.  I also ran component and HDMI wires through the wall.

Wiring and Mount for TV

Cabling through wall to future cabinet

Finished TV install

Sharpening the Saw

Saturday I took a class on Table Saw basics.  I’ve been looking for a woodworking class and found that a hardware store in Atlanta, Highland Woodworking, offers a wide variety of classes.

Driving into class on Saturday I was a bit anxious.  Would this class be worth giving up my Saturday for?  Would the instructor be knowledgeable?  I’ve gone to classes (in subjects other than woodworking) where I have known more than the instructor or the material was so basic that it was a waste of time.

It was an awesome class.   I’ve been using a table saw for a few years on some pretty basic projects, but I learned plenty.  Jim Dillion, a local professional woodworker and a former college professor, led the class.  Jim spent a good deal of time on safety and technique, which I was really interested in learning about.  He was also great at gearing the day toward areas the students were interested in.  The five hours I spent in the class will save me tons of time on my next project.  As well I will be a lot more conscious of safety – and I already give power tools a good bit of respect.

The class inspired me to learn more about my own table saw in order to produce better work.  I don’t have a high end tool shop – my table saw is a Craftsman homeowners model that is pretty basic (compared to the higher end saws).

So today I spent some time with the saw cleaning and adjusting a bit.  I cleaned and waxed the table.  I also lubricated the worm gears for adjusting blade height and angle.  I checked my blade for square against the table and found I have some adjusting to do.

So I think I’ll spend a bit of time in the evening this week cleaning and adjusting.  Then it’s on to building some of the great jigs Jim introduced to us this week.  I’m going to start with the cross cut sled and then build a high fence.

The class was well worth the $75.  I’ll be back for more classes.

Engineering Flooring Installation

The carpet in a large first floor closet needed to be replaced.  I was looking for a relatively inexpensive floor covering that would be durable and easy to clean.

I found an engineered hardwood that matched the color of the hardwood in the rest of the house for $1.89 square foot.  The closet is just over 60 square feet, so with waste I figured we needed about 70 square feet.  The hardwood is sold in packages of 30 square feet, so I needed to get 3 packages. I’ll use the left over in some of our other closets.  For some reason all the closets in the house have carpet in them regardless of what flooring is in the room.

In one evening I removed the old carpet.  This is pretty easy to do if you have new blade in your utility knife.  Just cut strips in widths that are easy to handle and roll it up.  A small pry bar is useful for taking out the carpet tack strips.   I found that just running the pry bar over  the staples from the padding removes most of them as well.

Before installing the wood I put down some red rosin paper.  Honestly, I’m not exactly sure it is necessary, but I’ve done it in previous installs and they all went well, so superstition wins out.  The flooring is 3/8 inch thick and can either be nailed down or glued down.  I’ve installed hardwood with flooring staples before, but never glue. 

I really wanted to avoid the glue if possible.  I’ve done some tiling and I know that no matter how hard you try, it gets all over.  I usually spend a fair bit of time on hardwood making sure all the seams are tight.   I couldn’t quite picture how the planks would stay in place on the glue while I tapped the rest of the floor in place.  I image you still need to face nail the starter strip to keep everything in place.

I installed the floor using just 1 1/4 inch brads.  I could have rented a stapler but it’s a small area and the flooring sales person said I could float the floor in a space this small, so I figure it wouldn’t do any harm. 

Steps I followed for this install:

1. Remove carpet, padding and tack strips.
2. Cut molding and door jamb as necessary to allow the flooring to slide under it.  Don’t worry about the baseboard, because you need to leave room for expansion and you will cover it with quarter round after.
3. Staple down red rosin paper.
4. Create your starter strip.  Leave a space between the baseboard and the starter strip ( for me this was 1/4 inch).  I set an adjustable square to the width of my flooring plus the space to ensure an even distance from the baseboard.  There will likely be some variation in baseboard and wall, but don’t sweat it as long as it is not wider than the quarter round.
5. Face nail (through the top of the board) the starter strip into place.  I try to place the nails close to the edge of the board so it will be covered by the trim.  Don’t go too close as you don’t want to split the board.  Any holes that show can be filled with color matched putty later.
6.  A couple of tips on layout.  If you have multiple boxes of flooring, pull from more than one box at a time.  There can be some natural color and grain variation and it looks better if it is mixed across the floor.  Also, try laying out a few rows in advance.   Use a mix of long and short strips and arrange your strips so that the end joints are offset by 3 to 6 inches.  Avoid repeating the same pattern of seams within 3 or 4 rows of each other.  If you have a helper to lay out in advance and figure out the seams, it will go much quicker.   Set aside any planks that are damaged or less visually appealing.  You can use these in less visible areas if needed.
7. Start installing!  I use a scrap piece of flooring as a hammer block to tightly align the seams.  The scrap block incurs all the damage while preserving the tongue on the installed pieces.   Once the piece is in place, nail it in.  You can rent a flooring stapler for this purpose.  It drives a staple at an angle through the tongue of the board.  For my install I carefully used an air powered brad nailer to shoot a brad at an angle through the tongue.
8. When you reach the end of a row, you will likely need to cut a piece to length.  When measuring, account for the space at the wall.  Remember to pay attention to which end you cut to make sure the tongue and grooves align.  I save the pieces I cut for potential starter pieces for the next row.  To get the end joints tight, I place a small pry bar against the end of the plank and the baseboard and push it into place.  Use gentle pressure or put a scrap of flooring on the baseboard so it isn’t damaged.
9. Work you way the the opposite wall.  When you get to the last row, you will likely need to rip the planks to width.  I use a table saw, but I suppose you could do it with a jig saw or circular saw.  I use a pry bar placed against scrap wood on the baseboard to fit the last rows of flooring into place.   The last row is face nailed just like the first row.
10. Install trim moldings.  I like to use quarter round, but shoe molding works as well.