649 6th

cedar finishing

We officially have a column of cedar running through the house (technically we still have a couple of errant pieces to install, but for practical purposes it has been checked off the list). I'm still getting used to it. It's beautiful in a way I hadn't expected. The one big massive run (click photo to left) is really only visible when you are in the stairwell. Once you in any particular room it's just a small lick of detail in one corner.

Tomorrow the board walk is supposed to be laid. Let's see what it looks like when we add yet another wood grain next to it!

trim details

it gets closer every day...a few more third floor...

cubby in 3D

Cubby I: Cubby
Cubby II: Return of Cubby

bathroom details

bath light

bathroom counter

At the end of my vacation I showed the beginnings of the structure that forms the bathroom counter and sink combo. Drawing inspiration from the expanding Danish bench we got for the living room we wanted to integrate the danish slat idea while working with the cedar sauna references the bathroom is using.

The construction was fairly easy. I used 1/4 inch threaded rods with large washers and lock-nuts to bind 36" 1x6 western cedar slats and 6" spacers together. For the first time ever I also got to break out the forstner (or Forstnerboher, if you will) bits!  They were part of the tools my dad gave me and I had been eager to find an appilcation for them. I needed to drill a wide flat bottom whole to conceal the hardware inside the front fascia board; they worked like a charm in the soft cedar.

I left the front and back slats off to shape the center boards to receive the sink. When done the sink appears to hover 1/8" above the boards...oh the details. I'm very eager to get the brackets up in the bathroom and see what it looks like in place, but that means getting in the last bit of grout and caulk (sigh).

day 29: southfield green

day 16: finishing under stair winders

The job that has been mocking me for over a year was laid to rest today. I referred to it as the bane of my existence many months back. On a number of occasions, my dread of tackling how all of those angles came together left me baffled and back at square one. I wanted it to have some sort of character (and clearance), but I didn't want the endeavor to turn into a Georges Braque painting. I'm really pleased with the results.

Michael spent the day in the bathroom contemplating tile installation and laying in a bit more grout, more on that later.

day 15: details

I've hit the half way point on my thirty day vacation-and-blogging spree. Today was an OK day at best. We're to a place where there aren't a lot of big jobs to do, rather scads of small ones. Around the house, various unfinished "tricky" places need drywall. A prime example, Michael bit the bullet and began addressing the kitchen-to-hallway transition. To square the original doorframe, now 2-1/2" out of plumb, he shimmed a plywood column around two sides. Big challenge was to preserve at least a 32" passage, so great lengths were taken to keep thickness of material to a minimum.

The other detail (and no small one at that) addressed today was less house and more house blog. We've been tagging content for a while now, and to be honest our categories sucked. They were created over time, didn't really encompass the project, and were poor information-design at best. Additionally, our friends over at houseblogs.net started using tags for discussion forums. This is a smart use of Web 2.0 networking, which essentially let the tags provide the forum. Housblogs.net is a great site. Most of our traffic comes through that portal, and I consider them an invaluable resource.

I'll leave search-engine optimization for another discussion. In meantime, I'd like to get a simple search going soon too; stand by.

day 8: cutting hardibacker with a dremel

After talking about it for a few days now I finally broke out the dremel tool with the tile cutting bit and tested it on some hardibacker. I have to say it's a pretty amazing tool. I had always stayed away from them as I didn't want to be to quick to fall into the category of "aging craftsman". You know, the old guys you see at county fairs intricately carving totems while riding out their golden years, but I digress...

I made sure to wear plenty of protection. the one thing lacking from the photo is earplugs; highly recommended, it makes quite a squeal. I felt a bit like a dentist. It cuts through quite quickly, however it does generate a lot of heat. I'm wondering how much those tiny bits can take? Compared to the the jig saw bits (that were ground down to nothing after about an 18" cut) this was a marked improvement.

I got as many pieces of the backing up as I could handle solo. The nice part about the dremel tool is if you need to, you can still use it to trim a bit once things are in place. The router like attachment allows for great depth control.