Matt came down last week to add the steps onto the deck. And it is now complete. Gorgeous, ain't it? The effort and craftsmanship that Matt put into this more than impresses me. Every angle comes out perfect and it's built as solid as the rest of the house. Next up we'll have to step-up the rest of the backyard to keep up with that beautiful deck. Continue reading »

Enough of all this destruction! This weekend Matt and Dawn -- from H's side of the family -- came over and Matt spent most of the time constructing our new deck. I have to say, it was nice to have someone who actually knows what they are doing work on the house.

And have no doubts, I didn't help in the least. Matt does this for a living, and the last thing that he needed was someone like me -- Continue reading »

Sometimes the biggest improvement can come from destruction.

So we're replacing the deck in our backyard. It's not much of a deck -- a whopping two feet off of the ground, not high enough to need a railing. And structurally there's really not much wrong with it. But it's painted, not stained. And painted gray, at that. Add that to the heaps of biomass (pollen strands, bark, leaves, acorns, and the occasional branch or two) that the huge nearby oak tree dumps onto it throughout the year and you get a dirty deck.

"Clean it!" You say. "Powerwash the mother!" You insist. (You're getting a bit pushy, to tell the truth, but I'm not gonna say anything.) But if we powerwash it, Continue reading »

One of the elements I really like about the kitchen in our house is its breadboard -- a pull-out cutting board. It's like magical counterspace. You're cooking and you've got crap all over the counters, but you need to put this one thing down -- what to do? Viola! A place wondrously appears with a simple pull of the hand. And even though I have a large butcherblock, I find myself using the breadboard for more than just bread. Since it pulls out, I don't feel awkwardly smashed up against it. And it's easily cleaned. So when I remade the kitchen, I had to include a breadboard.

Well two years later and I finally got around to making it. The old one was made out of plywood (hey, just because it's old doesn't mean it doesn't suck) which I'd worn through the top layer. So solid maple strips with a bit of walnut for some style. It's wide so I have to glue up the wood in two pieces, plane both to thickness, then do a final glue.
One of the flaws in the original was with cutting juicy stuff -- the juice would run off if not paid attention to. So I routed a small channel in the new one which works quite nicely. So there's two side to work on, with hand pulls on each side.

The pic is the Christmas country ham before its boiling, broiling, and slicing ordeal.

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:
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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.
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