greg willis

So here it is, the bathroom cabinet. The counter is Impala Black granite. We ordered it from a place in Falls Church with a few different names. Service was eh, so no pans or raves. Since it was a smaller peice, we were able to pick out a remnant slab, which knocked 20% off the price and brought it down to about $500. It weighed in at 160 lbs. Because the cabinet hangs on the wall (nothing touching the floor), I reinforced the interior with metal brackets. And Heather and I were able to haul it up the stairs on a hand truck and eventually lift it into place.

I installed the sinks and faucets through the hole the granite guys drilled. Hooked everything into the roughed-in plumbing. And we have a fully functioning bathroom.

We still need to tile the walls with a line of tiles around the counter and floor, but that'll be for later. Otherwise, we look to be done. Yay!

Here's a closer look:

Phew! So finally I got that darned cabinet up on the wall. And yes, it's mounted on the wall, nothing touching the floor. We'll see if that's a good idea once I place the granite counter on it. Doors and drawers are finished, too. More photos shortly, as I picked up the granite yesterday and am itching to install it this weekend.

The best day in cabinetmaking is when you apply the first coat of finish.

For the kitchen cabinets, I built face-frame cabinets. They have a solid wood 'face' in front of the plywood boxes. It's the traditional way to build a cabinet and it makes for a very strong box.

But for the bathroom cabinet, I wanted something a bit more modern and light. And that would be frameless cabinet construction. If you've seen Ikea furniture, you've seen frameless cabinets. Instead of having a solid wood face, it only has a strip of wood veneer covering the edge of the plywood. Known as edge banding, it has heat-sensitive glue on the backing. You iron it on. Yep, iron it. Then you trim it and sand it. So I've been edge banding lately.

So now that I saw a picture of a cabinet I like, how does one go about making that into an actual cabinet? All I've got is a photo - no diagrams, no instructions. Well, first off is the drawing:

On graph paper I first drew out the bathroom, in a couple of elevations (from the front, from the side). Then I rough-sketched the cabinet. Once tweaked enough so it looked about right, I drew out the final dimensions. But even final dimensions don't give you enough detail to take to the table saw. That's when story poles come in:

Story Poles are long sticks of wood that you draw each axis of the cabinet on. Once it's on the story pole, you no longer have to remember the length in inches -- you just use the markings on the story pole. I use a ruler when marking up the poles. So the long story pole there is the cabinet length. On it I've drawn the 3/4" plywood sides, the 3/4" plywood inner dividers, and the door and drawer-fronts. When it comes time to cut the wood, I pay no attention to inches -- I just use the story poles.

Toilet: done. Tub/shower tiling: done. Now on to the last part of the bathroom -- sinks. As you can see, there's room for sinks:

To refresh your memory, this bathroom started out with one sink. Below the window there used to be a radiator, and along the back wall was a vanity/cabinet configuration. But I want two sinks. So we removed the configuration, capped off the radiator, installed electric radiant heating in the new floor, and plumbed for a new sink.

And like in the kitchen, I'm going to build the cabinet. We already have the sinks and fixtures (they'll be in future photos). They are vessel sinks that will sit atop the countertop. But what kind of cabinet to build? I was flipping through a design book Contemporary Asian Bathrooms and found a cabinet design that we like:

So I'll be building something that looks like that. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Heather set the tile a week or so ago. And this weekend I grouted. Now that's some teamwork. I think the pattern we came up with works well. So we will call this one a success.

Just three more things and the shower becomes operational:

• seal the grout (me)
• install the fixtures (me)
• reglaze the tub (definitely not me)

So now thoughts turn to building the cabinet, which I hope to explain in a bit more detail. So stay tuned.

Heather's between jobs this week, so she's taken on the job of tiling the shower. More photos and details to come.

So after 67 years of faithful service, the front stoop of our house kinda fell apart. I'd noticed that some of the pavers on top were a bit loose, so I figured that I would fix it. After moving the bricks to re-mortar them back in, I noticed that there wasn't anything to re-mortar them back in to.

I've been making some progress recently with the main bathroom renovation. Infrastructure, mainly -- rewiring, reducting. Lots of tedious work, none of which makes for the pretty pictures. But we installed the ceiling drywall this week. Not only does it make it feel more like it'll actually be completed one day, it'll stop the old blown insulation from falling on me or the floor.