Hall Tree #3 - Complete

The final thing I needed to do on the hall tree was put on the hardware - hangers and shelf brackets:

The oak-leaf hangers are what inspired us to do the hall tree in the first place. They are cast iron and painted flat black. We bought them at a local building materials reuse place, which I am happy to promote. They have wide variety of stuff, prices are great, and they are very friendly.

For you Oregonians (or those visiting), here is the list of reuse and recycling centers. I try to build as much as I can from materials these centers provide. It's good for the environment, my wallet and the local economy.

Hall Tree #2

I was able to get the hall tree stained, sealed and installed over the weekend. It fit nicely into the alcove...

I  made it in four pieces: the bottom cabinet, the seat, the middle section, and the top shelf. I kept the bench a bottom cabinet in two pieces, so I could fit the bench in snugly.

Here is alcove before installation. My DW pained the side walls and ceiling the day before installation. I glued and nailed a few 1/2" x 4" OSB strips across the back wall to give a good surface for mounting with 18 gage finish nails.

Once the four main pieces were in place I shimmed them to an exact fit and nailed them off. This made the hall tree look like one single unit. Here are the trim pieces...

I made the seat with the best boards I had - a couple of them had knots which I wanted to show for a more rustic look. I sanded the corners along the edges of the boards before assembling them, again to make the bench look more rustic.

The middle section took the most work. The 1/4" cherry plywood makes the base, with the battens and trim attached. I put 1/2" OSB on the sides to give them rigidity.

Building the base cabinet for shoes was pretty straightforward, holding two pair of shoes on each shelf.. 

I need to let the finish cure for a day or so, then mount the hardware.

New Living Room Windows #2

My DW was able to get the textured paint on the remodeled window wall this week, which I think looks great. I am looking forward to getting these trimmed out, so they look like a single large unit.

Why did we pick these size windows, as opposed to 4 slightly smaller ones?

• If we chose 4 windows, they would have been very close to the end windows, which would have made nice pattern. 
• We could have done two long windows with a single center post, which would have maximized the glass and cost less. 
• We chose three because windows are traditionally grouped in odd numbers, so you get a clear center view as a focal point. Five windows would have had too many posts and a broken-up view.

New Living Room Windows

Catching up on the blog: We put new windows into the living room about 3 weekends ago. This involved pulling out out the old 8' wide windows, removing the short wall between the two windows, adding in posts, and filling in the left-side corner. Unfortunately the old windows had broken seals and frames, and were only fit to go to the landfill.

The first picture is "before" and the second is "after"...

While the original layout was OK, I think the entire wall of windows is better. It brings the full view of the outdoors into living room, except for two posts.

I cut back the two existing headers, put posts in, and added a third header in the center. The posts are made of three 2x4's glued and nailed together - two jack studs and one king stud. These are sandwiched on the inside and outside with 1/2 plywood that is glued and nailed as well. This makes very strong posts that shouldn't have any problem holding up the headers, trusses and roof.

The sheetrock is back in place, taped, mudded and textured. Once my DW does the painting, I'll re-trim everything out and call it done.

Improving our Entry with an Alcove and Hall Tree

The entry to our house is fairly small and is typical for a house built in the 1970's. We have a nice covered porch area, but once you are inside the entry is about 4 feet wide and 7 feet long. The location of the stairs and utilities don't allow for much expansion without a major remodel project - which we are not willing to do.


To help make the area feel larger and more up-to-date - and keep the cost down - we created an alcove to hold a hall tree. This picture shows the progress so far: the alcove is done (needs painting) and the hall tree parts are fabricated (no trim, stain or sealer yet)...

I made the hall tree out of "rustic" cherry (some knots and minor defect), which cost $4 / b.f., which was about 1/2 the cost of regular cherry. It also gave me the the right look for our house, which is not formal.

Here is a picture of the floor plan changes we made. We "stole" about 8 square feet from my office (read bedroom for my son in college) where the closet used to be, and moved it down as shown.

I am going to add a set of built-in bookshelves to the office that back up to the alcove (3 ft wide x 7 ft high). I think the room will feel almost a spacious with these installed, instead of just a plane wall. Also, the hall tree does not need to be any deeper than 20" on the entry side to get the effect of more space.

A few year ago, I read a remodeling / design article that suggested if possible you should select a non-vital room to "steal" space from for improvements. This is what we decided to do with the office. I started out at a 12' x 10' 6" room plus a six-foot closet. We gave part of the room to the guest bath, and now a bit to the entry. This has left us with a 12' x 8' 6" footprint, plus a 4' closet, which is fine for an office / guest room in the long run.

Hopefully, this weekend I can get the shelves for shoes and face trim done, and have everything stained and sealed.

Clerestory Windows

I haven't been blogging - or working on projects - for most of the winter (too much skiing!)

I bought a couple of boxes of 6" glass block at Home Depot that were on the clearance pile. I have been planning for a while to make clerestory windows for our bedroom wall, and this gave me the boost to do it.

I built separate frames for each set of 4 glass blocks, which ended up being 13 1/2" wide. These fit between the 16" O.C. studs with shims and blocking, so no header needed. Once I applied the trim, the set of windows look like a single unit.

I set the height of the windows so the top trim would be even with both the French doors and maintain clean lines.

Since this is a south-facing wall, we are hoping to get a lot of additional light during the winter months when the sun is low.

Costs:
- Glass block:  $60
- Glass block spacer bars: $12
- Grout: $5
- Frame wood and 2x4 supports: $10
- Trim: $15

Total: $100 approx.

The large tree in our backyard is turning yellow. It's one of my favorite sites in fall. I "staged" this picture a little bit with the Adirondack chairs and the fire pit...


I spent part of the weekend replacing the doors in our basement. They were the typical flat-slab 1970's doors. These six-panel doors are nothing special, but they were very cheap, and at least look more up-to-date. I did the work on the back porch, giving me a nice view.


These doors needed to be cut to size, drilled for the knobs and routed for the hinges. I basically took each old door and used it as a pattern for the new one. The picture shows the stop-blocks clamped in place for routing the hinge pockets.

Making a $10 Bench

I came up with a simple bench design that you can make from a 1x12 pine board that's 8' long - which costs $10 right now (in Oregon). You could also make this from a 2x12. Here is a picture of one that I distressed and stained...

It needs another coat of stain and then a couple applications of sealer.

Here is the simple "cut diagram":

- The top is on the left at 32"
- The legs in the center at 16"
- The apron and bottom stretcher are cut out of the right piece at 29 wide.

This design allows for a little bit of scrap, which I use to attach the top.

I made 4 of these today to go into our home theater:


Here they are with the first coat of stain.


These are obviously not fine furniture, but will be great for holding food, books, etc. They can also be used for sitting when we have a bunch of people over.

New Home Theater Furniture

They delivered the furniture for our home theater today. We bought a very large sectional and ottoman, plus two recliners. These, plus the existing couch and love seat, fill up the room.

This sectional seats 6 or 7 people:

Here are the matching recliners.


This picture shows them from the back of the theater room.


We bought all this from Pacific Lifestyle Furniture, and I have nothing but positive comments about them. I felt like we purchased very good quality furniture at a price on par with Costco (about 1/2 the expected cost), and the delivery was right on time. They are obviously a low overhead operation that keeps prices low. I found them on craigslist.


My disclaimer: I am not paid for advertising for this business. I am giving a positive review for people I was happy to do business with.

My new blog: Hammer and Saw

I recently started another blog: Hammer and Saw, focused on woodworking and furniture.



Up to this point, I have kept my furniture projects in with the remodeling stuff. After reviewing it, I think the content and audience will be somewhat different. Also, this allows me to use tags that are focussed on various woodworking topics.

Anyway, if you get the chance, take a look and comment.

TTF

Tip: Use contrasting filler on painted trim

Until recently, I always filled the nail holes in trim with filler that was close to the paint color (in our case, white). No matter how systematically I work when sanding, I seem to miss one now and then. Now I use a contrasting color, so there is no problem seeing every one...

Built-in Bookshelf for my Son's Room

The final thing we are adding to our son's room is a two-foot wide built in bookshelf, where his old closet used to be. It's 10" deep, which allows for an 18" deep linen closet backing up to it.


Here is the bookshelf unit before it was installed. This is a very simple design: 3/4" plywood sides and shelves; 3/8" bead board plywood for the back; MDF face frame pieces. I sanded, primed and painted all the pieces before assembly, saving a lot of effort.


Here is the unit installed in the wall, with side trim applied. It is shimmed solidly in place, with finish nails holding it.


This bookshelf matches the other ones we installed in our basement, to give continuity throughout the house.

Building a Windowseat #3 - Cabinetry Complete

I finished up the cabinetry portion of the window seat project. As shown in the picture, I installed the top, which has a lift up lid. I also put a small lip on the front, which is there to keep the cushion in place.


The underside of the lid has 3/4" x 1 1/2" support splines to make sure it stays flat over time.


We need to paint the front with our white trim paint. Hopefully my DW will get the cushion made in the next couple of weeks.

Finishing up My Son's Walk-in Closet

My son and I installed the closet organizer we built last week. The diagram below shows the layout...



As I stated in an earlier post, this is about as small as you can get for any sort of workable walk-in closet. That being said, there is actually a lot of room in there with the cabinetry installed.

We did a slightly larger one of these for my daughter (8' x 4'), and I am sold on this design. It seems so much more functional than the standard two feet deep closets. It also takes up significantly less wall space within the room. If I every design another house, there will be walk-ins, at least small ones, in every bedroom.

Here are the shelves on the left side, with the hanger bar below. We put the bar out 16" from the wall, instead of the normal 12". This allows for my son to store stuff along that back wall.


The right side now holds the dresser, and all the slides have been adjusted as needed. The next step is to affix the drawer fronts and hardware.


A tip for building your own drawers using drawer slides...

You want the drawers to slide in and out without any binding or slipping. Binding comes from the drawer being too tight or not aligned correctly, and slipping comes from the drawer bring too loose.

I make the drawer 1/16" to 1/8" narrower than the opening, minus the requirements for the slides. In this case, the openings are 34", and the slides take 1" - so the drawers are 32 7/8" wide. This extra little bit allows me to shim the rails to get them aligned and the correct width. I use washers between the rails and the cabinets for shims.

Building a Window Seat #2

In the following set of pictures, I show how I installed the window seat cabinet I built earlier...

Here is the bump-out we added for the window seat. It has a concrete floor and foundation (same as the rest of the basement) and standard framed walls.


The cabinet will be hung by the walls in the back and on the sides, and sit on the floor in the front. Here I attached 3/4" plywood pieces to the bottom to bring the cabinet up to the correct height.

Also note that I ran 3/4" boards across the bottom in the center. This was probably not needed - there won't be anything too heavy stored in this. Adding the scrap pieces took no time or cost, and it ensures there will never be sag in the bottom.


Because the wood supports will sit on the concrete, I added a layer of asphalt shingle (poly glued and stapled) to block any moisture that would migrate up into the wood over time. These get poly glued to the concrete once in place.


I build the cabinet approximately 1/2" less deep and 3/4" narrower than the opening. Just like a door, you need the rough-in dimensions to allow for some room to adjust everything. Here I added 1/2" plywood pads across the back and 3/8" ones on the right side. After marking the level-line around the walls, I quickly stapled these in place, and then firmly attached them with 2" screws into the studs.


I set the cabinet in place, pushing it against the back and right side. Once it was level and tight, I quickly shot in 3 finish nails to hold it in place. After that I drilled and secured it with 3" screws into the surrounding studs. Finally, I slid a shim in the left side and put screws in.


Here is the final photo of the cabinet in place. Note that I did not put any insulation between the bottom of the cabinet and the concrete floor. My main reason is to not allow any moisture to get trapped in there and cause problems later. I figure with the cabinet (most likely filled with blankets) and a 4" cushion on top, there will be plenty of insulation.

The next steps are to trim the cabinet to the wall and fit the lid in place. Before I do that, my DW will paint the walls, so she doesn't need to cut it in later.

Building a Window Seat #1

While I have been working on my son's room, I also got the widow seat area ready to go. I am working on building the seat cabinet as well...



Here is an in-progress picture of the seat cabinet. The main structure is made from pre-finished plywood. I put pine battens on the ends to create something I could screw the panels to. I also put scrap peices of 3/4" plywood across the bottom panel to reinforce it (this is good reason to keep those 2 foot cut-off scraps). Finally, you can see where I am adding the front pieces (rails, stiles, beadboard) using brads and poly glue.


Here is a quick picture of the 1/2" pre-finished plywood. I bought these 4x8 sheets for $25 each at Shurway building supply.

Small Walk-in Closet for my Son's Room

We completed the sheetrock, texturing and painting in my son's room today. As part of the remodel work we are doing, we converted part of a former hallway into a walk-in closet for the room. The old closet is going to become an alcove for the adjacent bathroom. Sometimes I think I like to play musical chairs with the floor plan...


The hall was just over 3 feet wide (37 inches), and I placed the wall so the closet width would be 7'6". This is about the smallest walk-in closet possibe. He should have ample space in at the door to walk-in an turn around. One side has a dresser and shelves, while the other side has closet rods and shelves. You could get the same functional space with a 6" wide 2" deep closet, but the wide opening would take up a lot more wall space. Also, the back wall of the walk-in will have hooks to hang things.

My son desgined the closet organizer, and we both worked on building it. Here are a couple of pictures...


He decided on a black ebony stain, which my daughter also did in her room. It looks good on the pine face frames.


I am hoping to get these installed tomorrow so we can start carpeting.

Installing Carpet Tiles #3 - Done

My DW finished installing all the carpet tiles in the main areas of our basement - about 1400 sq. ft. in all. In summary, we are really happy with the quality of the product and the results.

The additional tiles arrived for the kids rooms. As with the other order, we received what we ordered on time and delivered into our garage for about 1.90 a square foot. These tiles are also the Mowhawk Ecoflex - but they were only available in small lots, so the price was a bit lower.

After walking on this carpet for a couple of weeks, we have decided it's noticeably more comfortable than the "cheap" carpet we had before with a low-budget pad. The lightweight pad was thicker, but compressed down to almost nothing with stepped on.

Carpet Padding Info

A Good Resource for Understanding Stimulus Money for Remodeling

I found a very comprehensive site for understanding how I can take advantage of the stimulus / tax rebate offers in 2009: Remodeling Magazine - June 2009. The best information on the site is summed up in: The Stimulus at a Glance Chart.

Here is an example for windows, doors, etc.

So, what does this mean for me:

I am planning my budget to get the maximum $1500 rebate for various windows and an exterior french door for our dinning room. To get this, I need to spend $5000 - and after the 30% rebate it will net out to $3500.

I am planning on buying a pellet stove for my shop I am going to build. I need to purchase it in 2010, so I can take advantage of the rebate next year. The current plan only provides for this through then (who knows, it may change).

I want to add solar electric to the house. The programs for that extend out for quite a while, and I think could possibly get better.

Finally, here is where the stimulus money - and possible rebates to those of use who remodel - are going over the next few years. Click on the graph to go the site.