The Table

I'm sure you thought of little else since I last posted about the reclaimed wood I acquired back in ...ugh...September. Frankly, it's been taking up a decent about of my headspace too. Anyway, I'm not done yet with what I'm making, but it's far enough long as of last night that I wanted to blog it. I'm fairly confident in saying that this is the most badass thing I've built so far. It is looking really legit, and I think after I finish it, I'll no longer feel slightly fraudulent when people ask what I do for fun and I say "I build furniture."

Here's my "inspiration" piece (that's what cheapskates DIYers call furniture they really like but that costs way too much so they hack something similar together).

It's from Restoration Hardware and is about $1100. Don't tell Todd, but I would have almost definitely bought this table if they'd had it in the right size, but the 48-inch smallest size they had was way too big for our space, so custom was the way to go. 

I've acquired all of the wood I used so far for free, so it's perhaps not quite as perfect as I would like, but considering that I have been after it for over two months now (including "milling" a decent amount of the wood myself) I'm feeling pretty satisfied with the results. 

This is the base. The arches will be glued together and finished so they look like a single solid piece of wood. I, being literally unable to add accurately, cut twice as many as I needed, which annoyed me for two reasons: 

1. I really liked that wood and didn't have much extra and used all of my supply on unnecessary arches

2. Cutting arches accurately with a jigsaw is kind of a time-consuming activity, so I got to spend a bunch of time on something I didn't want to do in the first place. This is why they tell you math is important in school :/

The top was the first part I put together about a month and a half ago using these seriously heavy-duty pipe clamps. I had the pipe lying around from a failed project two and a half years ago, and it wasn't cheap so I just kept it and figured eventually I'd come up with something to use them for. Packratting almost always pays off. The clamps (the red parts) were maybe $15 for both.

I edge glued and used my Kreg Jig to put pocket holes across the whole underside of it, then cut out the circle with my jigsaw. Still a bit of cleanup to do on the edges. I haven't decided if I'm going to use some homemade edgebanding to finish the edges or leave them raw. They glued up nicely and look awesome from the side...so, we'll see.

This was my first "dry run" last night. Looks pretty level! The arches and supports on the base will be the same at the top as the bottom, just like the RH image.

 And a bit closer so you can see the detail a little more.

Now I'm puzzling over how I want to attach the whole thing. I'd like for it to come apart so we can move it at some point if needed, but I haven't yet figured out how to make it totally sturdy and stable without gluing and at least few screws (invisible, obv) and if I glue it...well...wood glue doesn't exactly come apart super well. The challenge gives me something to think about while I'm falling asleep at night, though, so it's an ok problem to have. 

Lastly, one other note from the garage: we installed this tire rack last month. I have snow tires and regular tires. Always having an extra set of SUV tires around the garage gets cluttery, so I was pretty jazzed to discover that they make racks for tires to get them off the floor. This was another step toward getting the garage cleaned up and possibly to the point where we can put a car in there. A month later, I can report that the tires haven't fallen off the wall yet. Wahoo!

Kitchen Backsplash + Trash Dresser's Cousin

Trevor was finally able to get the kitchen backsplash in over the last few weekends. 

 White subway tile and white grout.

 We were a little concerned that the white wouldn't look quite right with the off-white cabinets, but it's fine.

 At least, it's not bothering me. I can't believe how much it snazzes up the kitchen. I knew it'd be nice to have it done, but I didn't realize how much of a difference it'd make.

 AND! Acquisition from a couple weekends ago: a hideous free dresser off CL. It is uncannily similar to "trash dresser," a dresser I saw in the trash on my way to work a few years ago and drove around the block to collect. I stuffed it in the back of my car, where it remained for a few weeks because we had nowhere to store it. (We were still living in the studio in Bend before moving to the Fishhawk house.)

Anyway, still waiting for the hardware for this one to arrive: an oil-rubbed bronze modernish style. I rehabbed it a couple weekends ago and went with the same painted bottom, stained top approach as the one that's in the dining room. I figured it looked good, so why reinvent the wheel? This fits in the laundry room way better than the other one and provides a lot more storage and surface area. All our shoes are in the bottom four drawers, so no more tripping over shoe piles. Love it.

 Trevor also cut slate and installed the backsplash in the upstairs bathroom. Great to have that finished and checked off the list. It looks fantastic. I love how that bathroom came out.

From the Ashes...

Well, this is shameful. I had no idea it had been a full year since I last posted, but we how have an insulated and drywalled upstairs and a 60% functional upstairs bathroom. Just missing the vanity and lights at this point, but you can brush your teeth in the bathtub (and we have) if needed. It's like being a very fancy refugee. So here's what she looks like right now...

 This is from the top of the stairs, looking down the hall to the big guest room. The black thing on the left is the queen headboard I built...I should sell that. I also have a great light fixture that I bought from some guy on the side of the road in La Pine for $10. (Curious? I bet...) That will replace the paper shade.

 Looking down the stairs...looks mostly the same, but magically the floor looks even worse than before!

 This is exciting, folks. Really, it is. It's one of several FULLY ENCLOSED attic storage spaces that the house will have. No cobwebs, no mice (hopefully), just niiiiice clean storage space.

 Ok, here's the reveal!! In my last post, I said it was going to be all white. We ended up doing a gorgeous slate floor with super-thick grout lines.

 Lots of finish work still to be done (sconces, vanity, fan), but the shower's in and functional and the space is HUGE. The vanity will go where that little table on the left is now.

 Big windows look out to the backyard, and you look up at the trees and sky from the tub. It's heavenly.

 And LOOK! No more hobbit-sized doorway! This is a standard 30 inches! The slate is a dark gray; it's just dusty from all the drywall dust that's been tracked in.

 Now, the guest room... you can see the wall on the right is where the bathroom wall extends to, so a bit into the room.

 It feels surprisingly not at all smaller, partially because we ripped out that awkward closet. That little doorway is still unfinished and leads to more enclosed attic storage space. That's a nice new window there, too.

 So that's from the other side of the room (back facing the window) and you can see how the bathroom extended into this room a few feet and ate up the other window. I was a bit unsure about that choice, but it's not horribly dark and the bathroom is so nice now; I'm pretty sure it was the right move.

 This is the attic storage space. Filled with remodeling refuse and crap right now, but will be SWEET when it's cleaned up and finished!

 And one last shot of the dark corner...

We are so happy with how things are coming along. It's going to be really exciting to see the vanity. The guy who built the one downstairs is doing another custom one for up here. It's modeled on a Kohler vanity and will be a distressed honey-oak color with a slate top. Looks like a dresser. I'll be sure to put up more pictures when that finally goes in. I love seeing the progress we're making on this house.

Eat your heart out, BHG!

I got irritated this afternoon, coming home with some extra toilet cleaner and light bulbs, with the state of disarray our 2'x3' hall closet was in. I am among what I believe is a significant portion of women who have almost the same reaction to a magazine-caliber organized closet as they would to someone offering them a week in Aruba. I'm 95% sure I'd take the closet over the trip. Sadly, this is what my little closet looked like:

I love the efficiency of this closet: putting an outlet in it was one of the few bright things the builders of our house did. It's also fairly centrally located, providing a nice space to stash bathroom cleaning supplies, a dust cloth (just to the right is the living room) and a broom. I had added hooks a while ago, just to get some stuff off the floor, but there was (and still is) a LOT of underutilized space.

After observing this, I did what any reasonable person would do. I got out the jigsaw and went to take stock of my building supplies in the garage. After coming up with some leftover casing (trim) and a piece of plywood, I measured, cut, painted and installed. An hour and fifteen minutes later, BAM!

Closet 2.0. I made a third shelf, but I haven't decided whether to install it yet or not. Probably yes, but we'll see.

What's new as of 3.8

Wow, we had a busy weekend. Here's the recap of what was accomplished last week...



Saturday was a beautiful spring day, and so Todd and his dad started on the gargantuan task of cleaning the pool. I spent the morning zipping around cleaning and picking stuff up. There always is stuff that needs to be put away. Scattered tools, boxes, just stuff. The great part is that it always has a home. There's a drawer, a cabinet, a closet...everything fits somewhere.

In the afternoon, we went to Bimart for plants. While the yard isn't ready (and probably won't be this season) for beds, I am something of an expert in potted gardening, after having about six square feet of garden space and a million potted plants in Pasadena. Pansies are great for this time of year, because they aren't bothered by a little frost overnight.

I also moved the rest of the greenhouse downstairs to my office, which I think Todd was relieved about. Now that he'll be using his office more, I think he'll want the desk space that was being used by four geraniums and a bougainvillea.

Sunday, it snowed. We took a tumble from a springy 65 to a windy 35, and unfortunately, the pool required another round of cleaning. Summer dreams don't come so easily when it is hailing. The contents of the neighboring oak tree had settled at the bottom of the pool, and every way we tried to get the leaves out kind of didn't work. The deep end is at least 12 feet deep, so not much reaches down there. We finally ended up saran-wrapping the pool vacuum hose to the shop vac, and trying to vacuum the leaves off the bottom of the pool. It was very hick, and I wish I had a video, but unfortunately we don't have one that shows the whole process. I left halfway through because I got so cold, and I'm not sure how it turned out.

Yesterday we also started the rather large project of priming and painting the whole upstairs. If you've watched the videos, you know it's covered in old, weird wallpaper, on top of fiberboard, which is like sawdust mixed with glue and pressed into wallboard. It wouldn't do well with the amount of moisture required to remove wallpaper (as in, it would probably crumble, leaving us with whatever lies in our cobwebby, semi-insulated attic) so we decided the least work-intensive way of remedying the issue was to paint.

Here's before:

And partway done:

Though it does look better already, we had to use an oil-based primer to avoid exposing the walls to said moisture, and it smells TERRIBLE. It took 20 minutes of being outside to get rid of the taste of permanent markers in my mouth. In general, I am a big fan of certain toxic smells: I could sniff boat exhaust all day, and nail salons give me the warm-and-fuzzies. This stuff is in a league all its own.