649 6th

specimens

paint and drawers

From the series of previous posts it's become kinda obvious that the cabinets got finished up. Just a couple of notes. We used a semi gloss no VOC paint from yola. Other than the pleasure of having only the faintest of latex smell (and as someone who notices the smell of everything that's saying a lot), it was really no different than working with a premium brand like Benjamin Moore.

I went ahead and ordered the jig from Rockler to mark the holes to install the drawer hardware. It made the job a one person snap and was worth the $25 in frustration reduction alone.

The drawers came from Gothic Cabinet. No we didn't make them. Call me lazy, call me eager to move on to another project, sometimes you gotta call in the reinforcements. We had originally had Rockler price them out based on a sample they had on their site. Thing was, once you scaled their "sample" up to the size of the drawer we needed it got pricey, AND they had MDF bottoms (I preferred 1/2" ply).

I got Gothic to price them out and they were far cheaper. Plus they sent them fully assembled as opposed to knocked down as Rockler would deliver. There was a bit of back and forth about the joinery but we finally got them to build them to "spec" [remember several posts back where I was talking about pretending to be a project manager and not a do it yourselfer-- it was this transaction.]

The final drawer slide / drawer combo is really nice. They are big. Really big. The plan is to put sliding trays in the tops of a couple of them to hold silverware and spices.

The faces and the pull hardware are the only things left. Ah hardware, the never ending search.

paperstone

A while back we talked up the use of PaperStone for our kitchen countertops, and a few people had questions about it. At the time all we had to go on was the word of the manufacturer and some samples at local supplier. Now that the job is done, here's our hands-on report:

Definitely DIY-friendly, but that's not to say it's easy. As the name suggests, it's made of paper, but it's (almost) hard as stone. What I imagine working really hard wood to be like without the complexities of a grain. Followed all the great advice I found online, especially about drilling pilot holes for fasteners; sizing for the right size drill bit I took the head clean off a screw when I drove it into too small of a hole.

Panels were delivered rough cut. Trimming to finished size was a bit much for the trim saw, which left a couple scorch marks where the cut slowed, so we switched to full size circular saw for remaining cuts. Black saw dust is peculiar looking. We cut them with an extra 1/8" because we planned to use the router table to plane the edges smooth, but after trying that out on one edge we scrapped that idea. Panels were too heavy for the two of us to move them with adequate control and results were far from smooth. Fortunately, it sands well, though not fast.

On other details the router worked great. Prior to installation, we bevelled the edges all the way. Free-wheeling the panels around an open router bit smacked of danger, but given size and weight of panels we needed to be able to get as much of them onto the router table as possible so fence was out of the question. Pilot bearing kept everything in line, and we found that an arcing pass around the bit allowed us essentially to rotate the panels around on the table like some enormous spirographic project. 

Here's the rough jigsaw cut for the sink. Direction of saw cut resulted in small tear-outs around edge; cutting from the other side would probably help with that but we didn't use jigsaw for any finished cuts so I didn't bother to try that out. The template provided with sink was intended to expose the turned metal edge, but we wanted a more integrated look and only used the template to locate the hole, then scribed a line inside that for our cut.   

Again with the router to finish the sink rim, but this task called for as much power as we could call in. First time we've used the monster plunging router since we started using the router table. Pilot bearing allowed us to use the sink itself as the limit of our cut. Quite a bit of material to remove (didn't want to get too close to the sink with that jigsaw) resulting in a ton of papery shavings.

But not before we busted the 1/4" shank on an older trim bit. For all the harm that a power tool can cause, it was a remarkably anti-climactic moment. No metal projectiles, no shocking sounds, just a clunk as bit dropped into the sink. I'm pretty new to the router so excuse my ignorance but other than expense I don't know why anyone would pass on a 1/2" shank. So why did we? Forgot it was still sitting in the table router and just grabbed what was available. Good reason to take bits out of routers when done with them.

Water-proof? Less than 1% absorption. UV stable? Manufacturer says it can darken, but we've got no direct sunlight in the kitchen so I'm not worrying about it. Do we like it? You betcha!

Oh, by the way, we've got a sink again.

mud on, mud off

Most of the materials we've added to the house get put into place and stay there, but recently we've been working a different class of material that goes on and then comes almost entirely back off. These are the gooey materials: sheetrock mud, tile adhesive, grout, and caulk. You trowel, spade and squeeze a surplus of this stuff into place before scraping it off again.

It was working tile grout that drove home the peculiarity, almost the perversity of these materials' application for me. Working the grout into the cracks and scraping it off the tile surface was deceptively easy -- adjusting the float angle depending on whether I was scraping on or scraping off. As I was finishing the first pass with the well-wrung sponge, only slightly relishing the lactic burn in my shoulders, and sensing that the real work had only just begun, the thought sprang to mind: "wax on, wax off".

Hours later, sponge in tatters, still shaping the grout to a fine line between tiles, I flexed my aching muscles and took pause to honor Ralph Macchio, true hero of the repetively stressed.

reving and resting

I admit it, I'm a geek. Below you will find a new tracking sheet that we put together to keep things rolling. I'm particularly proud of the fact that I exported it as html and pasted the code directly into typepad. The simple fact that I haven't done it before does, however, detract from my overall geek ranking.

I know I keep promising to post the animation about the completion of the kitchen. This week we sort of took a rest, and that included blogging I guess. Just a few things on the docket this weekend so here's to cranking out the time lapse.
__________________________

	649 Task Sheet
	How to use:
	1. if a task is complete if it is marked closed
	2. a task can be removed if broken into sub tasks
	3. Priority ranking 1-5 (1 being most urgent)
ID	Task	floor	materials y/n	Status	Priority
1	rout drain board and trim sink opening	1	n	open	1
2	install sink faucet	1	n	open	1
3	install oven hood	1	n	open	1
4	paint touch ups on kitchen walls	1	n	open	1
5	order additional bullnose tiles	1	y	closed
6	prime and paint drawer faces	1	n	open	1
7	Get drawer hardware	1	y	open	1
8	Get drawers & hardware for sink cabinet	1	y	open	2
9	install sink drawers	1	n	open	2
10	kitchen wall shelves	1	y	open	3
11	kitchen soffit shelves	1	y	open	3
12	Door and window trim kitchen	1	y	open	2
13	adjust beadboard installation	2	n	open	2
14	Window trim living room	2	y	open	3
15	Window trim Dining room	1	y	open	4
16	Window trim and edge trim dressing room	2	y	open	3
17	window trim 3rd floor	3	y	open	3
18	clean dining room ceiling	1	n	open	4
19	oil/stain dining room ceiling	1	y	open	4
20	Light installation dining room	1	n	open	4
21	living room chimney shelving	2	y	open	4
22	clothing/shelving room divider	2	y	open	3
23	finish under stair drywall	2	n	open	2
24	finish drywall mud	2	n	open	2
25	Patch around cubby and fix drywall on 3rd	3	n	open	2
26	prime remaining drywall to 3rd floor	3	n	open	2
27	Green wall paint 2nd floor	2	y	open	3
28	blueish dressing room wall paint	2	y	open	4
29	Air 01 ceiling paint 2nd floor	2	y	open	3
30	Paint 3rd floor	3	y	open	4
31	Wall covering stair well and bathroom	1	y	open	4
32	handrails for stairs to 2nd floor	1	y	open	4
33	handrails for stairs to 3rd floor	2	y	open	4
34	foam and caulk floor-drywall seams 1	1	y	open	3
35	Base boards 1	1	y	open	3
36	foam and caulk floor-drywall seams 2	2	y	open	3
37	Base boards 2	2	y	open	3
38	foam and caulk floor-drywall seams 3	3	y	open	3
39	Base boards 3	3	y	open	3
40	bathroom door	1	y	open	4
41	bathroom demo	1	y	open	4
42	bathroom electrical	1	y	open	4
43	bathroom soffits	1	y	open	4
44	bathroom plumbing	1	y	open	4
45	sink fixture	1	y	open	4
46	tub	1	y	open	4
47	low-flow toilet	1	y	open	4
48	radiant heat flooring in bathroom	1	y	open	4
49	slate flooring bathroom	1	y	open	4
50	cedar walls bathroom	1	y	open	4
51	teak mats bathroom	1	y	open	4
52	Basement ceiling	0	y	open	5
53	freezer basement	0	y	open	2
54	rear deck	1	y	open	5
55	pavers for garden	1	y	open	5
56	green roof second floor	2	y	open	5
57	new front railing	1	y	open	5
58	new front stoop and stairs	1	y	open	5
59	Repair parapet to drain better	3	n	open	4
60	Plant container garden	1	y	open	4
61	install bullnose in kitchen	1	n	open	2
62	repair Z chair	2	?		3

r.i.p.

I just got a text message telling me it was time to update my blog. I'm not sure what level to begin thinking about that one.

We've been busy. Really busy. The kitchen is almost done. The recent snap of actual winter weather meant our plumber bagged out on us for an emergency but, we should be on for tomorrow. I've been shooting a time lapse shot since we started to drywall. It's fun to watch it cycle through the phases. As of yet, I'm not exactly sure how to post them but, in order to oblige a request and post I'll take this moment to mark a passing.

After a year and a half of solid service our beloved shop-vac is no more.  It's pretty amazing how much we sucked up in that puppy. Here, here, to the faithful shop-vac, you served us well.

Tomorrow: the return of the kitchen...