Posts from August 2010
progress report: week 21
Last week, the drywallers were busy mudding and taping. They are doing an awesome job and it was so rewarding to come home each night and see something new. Bailey, on the other hand, stayed home to supervise. Uh oh…who’s got drywall paws?
After a failed craigslist and consignment effort, the ol’ piano finally got rolled out to the carport, where it will await an unknown fate. Apparently, no one wants pianos. We bought the piano off craigslist (from a frat house no less) about 5 years ago. Kyle spent some time fixing her up, but since we bought our house she’s been pretty neglected. We also don’t have a good spot for it anymore and those tiny wheels would do some serious harm to the cork flooring. So Kyle fabricated a plywood pathway (on top of the existing plywood ramp – this thing is heavy!) Fortunately, there were no runaway piano incidents or piano maulings.
And here’s a glimpse of the mud and tape job, before sanding.
With cooler temperatures over the weekend, we rewired the thermostat to get the heat going and help the mud dry.
Kyle also re-plumbed for the sink and dishwasher (we had to unhook the previous connections so the sheetrock could go up). There was a bit of math involved, but like a good architect, Kyle just sketched it out on the wall. (Normally, we would have waited until the cabinets and sink were in, but it had already been two weeks without a dishwasher and I couldn’t store anymore dirty dishes in the microwave!)
Last night, I got the itch to start building base cabinets. I figured that if I build one a night, I’ll reduce the risk of incurring a particleboard cut or suffer from screwdriver fatigue. The frames are easy enough to assemble (I started with the corner cabinet), but I really hate installing the back panel. All those little nails! Seriously, who really uses a hammer and individual nails anymore? Kyle (who would, if given the opportunity, use only power tools to assemble IKEA products) recommended that I just use the brad nailer. It worked like a charm! One down, four to go!
Oh Bailey, I was just kidding when I told you I was building a dog house.
Well, maybe we won’t put the carousel in just yet.
We also started to gather up our painting supplies! Honestly, we are both still burned out from all the exterior priming and painting we did last summer, but as soon as the 2nd coat of paint is dry we can start putting everything back together and that is our motivation. Even though we will have a good chunk of masking to do, it should go pretty quickly since we’re doing everything in the same color (BM’s “super white”) and there isn’t much trim to work around.
So this week is all about prepping for the big 3-day weekend. Time to whip this house into shape!
blogiversary
It’s true, chezerbey the blog is one year old. (Ok, disclaimer – we were on blogger before but it was basically a glorified flickr account.) We switched over to wordpress last year and bought chezerbey.com. It was a huge jump from the old layout, but there are a few things I’d like to do during year two:
1. Revamp the blog – I like wordpress and the “vigilance” theme, but it’s not quite how I want it. I figured out how to change the default text font to century gothic, but I’d like the images to be bigger and for the navigation to be different. I don’t need anything fancy but I do want more customization. Is there a training wheels version out there or do I just need to jump into the big scary world of CSS? I also want to totally change how the site is organized. Since we had been in the house for 3 years when I started this version of the blog, I did a lot of “back blogging”. I think the pages for each room are too long and start out with the crappy, before photos which probably doesn’t entice people to read on.
2. Figure out a good way to show “inspiration photos” – I’d like a part of the site to be photos that we find inspiring or just awesome. I want to be able to right-click on an image and magically send it to a collector that will automatically link the image to its source. Is this Tumblr? Is this even possible?
3. Learn to use my camera better – Kyle and my fam pitched in last Christmas and got me a Canon Rebel XSi DSLR. I love it, but there is still so much to learn. I also want a wide-angle lens. And a tripod. I could also polish my Photoshop skills. Most of what I know is based on assembling architectural graphics and not for editing photos.
4. Blog more – while there has been a lot happening at chezerbey this year, there has not been a lot of time for blogging. As the big stuff finishes up and we transition to smaller, more manageable projects, we hope to do more posts that go from start to end and that include resources and costs.
Finally, thanks to all the readers and bloggers out there! We are constantly inspired by what people out there are doing and love that there is a forum to share both the high-fives and the headaches of homeownership. It’s been fun to hear people’s comments and feedback and often times reassures us that what we’re doing is not completely crazy.
So here’s to year two and making the rendering above a reality! Can’t wait!
stair cabinet design – part one
I’m not really sure what the technical term is for a piece of built-in furniture that also doubles as a stair guard rail, but we’ve decided to call it a stair cabinet!
Anyhow, the stair cabinet is another one of our chezerbey small-space, double-duty solutions. Now that we’ve blown out most of the interior walls we have less wall space for storage, so it’s great to be able to gain some of that back. The design has evolved over the last several months and in the end we arrived at a semi-custom/semi-IKEA solution. (The great thing about SketchUp is that you can try a number of different ideas in a very short amount of time.) The four white cabinets are IKEA Akurum wall cabinets (probably with the high gloss Abstrakt doors). I really wanted open shelving above for books and some type of catch-all for keys/mail/phones on top. This is the custom part. Once we figured out the general form and design, we started wrestling with what material we would use. The shelving was too deep for solid wood 1x boards but we weren’t sure we wanted to go the veneered Europly route ($$).
And then Kyle said, “I have a genius idea”.
Design iteration #2 – we go ahead and use 1×12 boards (fir, of course) so they’re intentionally shallower than the base cabinets below. Add a counter surface to the top of the cabinets and you have a display and shelving area that can also be used as a buffet for parties or Thanksgiving. The back of the cabinet (which we’re thinking would be painted or covered with p-lam) would keep dishes and serving forks from accidentally getting knocked down and into the stairwell below. (No cranberry relish-splattered white walls to ruin the day!) This rendering still shows some type of catch-all object on top but we’re thinking it could be incorporated as part of the open shelving as well. The ends of the white cabinets would also be faced with a blank door face so you don’t see the boring melamine finish. This design also seems less oppressive than the first one. It’s friendlier. And isn’t that a quality we all look for in a stair cabinet?
So I picked up the cabinet boxes a few weeks ago and we got to work building the basic frame. After assembling the boxes, Kyle installed plywood to the backs for extra rigidity. Notice the jorts? Oh yeah!
The cabinet boxes were fastened to each other and then to a plinth made of 2×4’s. Another layer of plywood was added to the back (to keep everything from racking and to provide a substrate for the sheetrock) and then we added a couple of metal framing anchors (between the plinth and floor) for good measure.
Since the drywall on the backside would be butted up against the fir wrap, we needed to get it built and in place. Much to Kyle’s happiness, this meant a new tool – a biscuit joiner. We didn’t want any visible fasteners, so we biscuited the top and side panels to each other and into the plywood substrate.
Such fun! Good thing too, we only have 7 other custom cabinet pieces to build.
FSC biscuits! Yum!
After the boards were in place, Kyle installed a coat of Benite, a penetrating wood conditioner. We’ve applied one coat of Satinthane, a polyurethane finish, and will apply one more after the drywallers are done.
This is what it looks like now. The fir wrap is actually really sturdy so we don’t necessarily need any intermediate supports.
I took these pictures right when I got home from work. Bailey had not been fed yet.
We’re thinking p-lam for the back face of the open shelving, for a little color(!). The counter material is TBD, we can’t justify using a spendy kitchen counter material, since this surface won’t get that much abuse and we can easily use a towel or trivet if it’s used for hot food. The dimensions work well for some type of shelving material but I really don’t want to do melamine. Fortunately, we have some time to think about it.
We chose to do the back side in drywall, so it would really read as a built-in part of the house. (The fir is proud of the drywall by about 1/4″. There’s tape on the edges right now to keep mud from getting on the wood.) The stair handrail will go on the opposite wall, so this could become some type of display wall in the future. It’s something to think about at least. (We also have an awesome idea for stair lighting…but we need to do some more investigation and designing first.)
This end is open because it’s where the loft ladder will go. The loft ladder still needs to be designed. I’ve been looking around for an inexpensive, industrial type ladder that could be used as a temporary fix…but no such luck. Any suggestions? It needs to be a true ladder that can be installed at an angle and at least 9′ tall.
Bailey, don’t do it. You remember what happened last time.
So what do you think? I was hesitant of the 1×12’s at first but the added versatility of food display eventually won me over. (Hmm…and maybe one of the cabinets could be used as a mini-bar.) Party at our house!
progress report: week 20
20 weeks down, 4 weeks to go! Yeah…we’re definitely not getting done in time.
But hey, we’ve got drywall!
Here are a few quick photos from this morning. The mudding/taping starts today and will last through next Monday. We’re getting close!
(The plywood beadboard, reglets and drywall will all get painted white.)
The timing for drywall has ended up working well for us, as we’ve had a lot of going away activities these last few weeks. (Oh you know who you are…and we miss you three already!) In the meantime, we’re finishing up odds and ends and will start putting together cabinets soon(!). Also, big thanks to Audrey for getting our new wireless network hooked up. You saved us a whole weekend of headaches!
We are so ready to dive into this last phase of the project, but there are still a few major decisions to make – like countertops and hardware! Stay tuned for new posts that could be titled, “how to cope with champagne taste on a beer budget”. Oh, the life of an architect.
the month of august
August is usually the best time of year to be in Seattle. The days are long, sunny and perfect for going on a hike or just lounging about. But for us, August has been a time to start new projects or push through projects that have been going on for FAR TOO LONG.
Case in point:
August 2006
I think this was taken the day we got the keys. With clipboard in hand, there was a lot to do. Fortunately, we had a month overlap with our rental house lease so it bought us a few weeks to clean things out and get a couple of rooms painted (rooms that we have now completely demolished).
I took down the floral wallpaper in the bathroom and Kyle used the crushed green velvet couch (that came with the house!) to remove layers of wallpaper from the living room ceiling.
August 2007
A year after we moved in, we took on our first major project – completely replacing the roof. Looking back, I cannot believe we did this.
My appearance in the photo on the left was generated by the contents of the photo on the right. So much debris!
But by the end of August, we were done.
August 2008
About a week before Kyle’s 30th birthday – we gutted our bedroom and bathroom. The date isn’t so significant except that we had planned a big b-day celebration….at our house. The house with only one bathroom. The house with the bed in the living room.
Goodbye faux marble plastic tiles! (The video is even funnier, but that’s for another time.)
Our makeshift bathroom on the left…our old closet soon-to-be-new-bathroom on the right. Yikes.
August 2009
With record temperatures last year, we didn’t mind working outside. We were still immersed in our exterior project, and Kyle was making his way around the house with the PaintShaver.
August 2010
And here we are in 2010, with our ambitious kitchen/dining/living/2nd bedroom/loft project! I hear there are lots of fun things to do in Seattle in August. Ugh.
For August 2011, I’m hoping for more lazy days – with weekends spent actually enjoying this city rather than hitting up the hardware store. There are still a few major projects left to do (finishing out the basement, revamping the yard, and dealing with our garage eyesore), but we’re in no rush.
Well, I say that now. Plenty of time to change our minds.
