Fireplace Pedestal and Shower Stall

A couple of other projects that have been on the go are the shower enclosure in the bathroom, and the stand for the gas fireplace in the front room.

Again thanks to my father, the tiny bathtub now has a place to be complete with enclosure walls and a drain hole through the floor. The walls and ceiling inside the enclosure will be covered with a vinyl sheet, glued to the wood.

First the support frame under the tub.

Then little walls along the end and side. Entry will be over the corner of the tub, obviously. There will be a shower curtain that goes around the corner to the back.

On to the other end of the house. I'm looking forward to getting the gas fireplace set up. It is only 26 inches tall and so I made a short stand for it that also give space for a drawer underneath.

The top will be a piece of shale that was a gift from some friends who have quarried a bunch of it from a quarry near their place. Thank you Hugh and Kathy!
The piece that I had needed a bit of cutting (which I did with an angle grinder and a masonry wheel). It actually cut fairly easily though.

More still to come on this project as well.
The bits of shale standing up on the back are thin chunks that I picked up from the quarry site. I'm thinking of using them as a rough edging and using silicone to stick them in place.

Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets have been a big planning issue, as I wanted to make use of the space as efficiently as I could. I started by drawing some sketches to visualize what it could look like. Once the sketches were done and I had figured out some measurements I got started on the drawer chest part.

This is the initial frame, set in place to see how it will fit. I used 5/8 good one side fir plywood. It is slightly lighter and uses less space the the traditional 3/4 inch stock used for cabinets. It's also cheaper than the $80.00 a sheet plus for birch cabinet grade stock, and easier to work with than melamine, which I don't like very much. It does have a tendency to warp fairly easily though, so needs to be well supported.

I coated the sides of the uprights and bottom with Varathane diamond coat. Much nicer to use and less smelly than the Saicos!

The drawer slides are of the full extension ball bearing sort. They have a nice smooth glide to them. I surely have a lot of drawers to make though!

Once the drawer cabinet was roughed in I started adding in the other components. This picture shows the frame for the sink cabinet and a bit of the corner.

Access to the corner cupboard was a problem because there was very little space and it is an important access point to pipes and to the back of the hot water heater. With my father's help, I decided on a plan to cut away part of the separation between sink and corner cupboards and to swing both doors open from front left to right. The corner door is still in planning, but will probably be a double hinge using a piano hinge and will open to the inside. There will also be a lazy susan in the corner.

The gas stove/oven sits in the box on the left of the picture and there will be a drawer underneath it.

I was struggling with the doors - how to make them, how to attach them, what kinds of hinges, etc. My father (who has been working with me pretty much full time lately and to whom I owe a great many thanks) came to my rescue and made the doors.

Here's a view of the whole thing from above.

There is still quite a lot to do here, so I'll add to this post later as things progress.

Wood Conditioning

Once the wood was up inside there was a need, of course, to cover it with something to protect it. I really like the look of natural wood, so didn't want to put any paint or colour on it. I did want to seal and protect it, and to use something that would bring out the natural grain colour.

Some friends recommended a product called Osmo, which is a natural plant oil and wax based coating that is apparently very durable, clear, environmentally friendly, and safe. This sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, when I tried to find it I discovered that it is no longer allowed to be imported into Canada. Another product, called Saicos has replaced it. Saicos is based on similar ingredients and is also apparently a very durable and natural product based surface. I therefore purchased some Saicos and went about applying it.

I can say that it does provide a good finish, but it is an oil based finish and it smells awful when putting it on. I'm really sensitive to smells and ended up having to get a gas mask in order to apply it. It's been five days and the smell is mostly gone now, but I won't be using any more Saicos if I can help it.

I did manage to get some Osmo from the friend who recommended it, and I will use it to finish the rest of the windows, counter tops, etc. But I think I will switch to Varathane Diamond coat interior for the ceiling and remainder of the upstairs walls. It's been quite an adventure!

Here are a few pictures:

The Ceiling is done!

Or 2/3 of it anyway...

Just a quick post this morning with a few pictures. Yesterday I became the abominable sawdust monster while using the angle grinder to smooth out the unplaned beams and sand walls and window frames. Today is cleaning up and starting with the clear coat sealant on the walls, but that can be another post.

Pine Panelling and Ping the Happy House

There's still a long ways to go, but it feels like things are starting to finally come together. I insulated around the windows and finished putting spacer strips up over the bubble insulation - then it was time for the interior wall coverings!

The walls and ceiling will be covered almost entirely with pine tongue and groove boards. The exception to this is in places where there will be cupboards or cabinets and these are covered with 5/8 fir good-one-side plywood.

The backroom is already done, but with salvaged wood that needed cleaning, sorting, planing, and sanding. The rest of the house is moving along more quickly as the wood just needs to be cut and put up. It surely makes a difference in speed and ease - but I'm glad to have been able to use recycled materials in at least a small part of this project.

The fireplace will go in the corner on the right of this picture where you can see the green tape on the floor. The door is still missing. I was going to build the door but then decided to buy one instead (which proved problematical since it's shorter and narrower than most doors. However, one should be ready in about two weeks).

 The plywood at the bottom of this picture marks where the window bench/storage/extra bed will be.

Looking into the kitchen. The plywood shows where the kitchen cabinets will be. The wires hanging down like straggly hairs on either side of the kitchen window are to connect to a transformer at the plugin and run LED lights under the upper cupboards.

The corner where the ladder is standing will contain the refrigerator and pantry.

When I was a small boy I had a book about Chinese river boats with eyes on them that I really liked, but all I remember now is a few images and that "Ping" was a name in it somewhere. In any case, when I first looked at the windows on the front of the house I remarked that it looked a lot like Ping's river boat, but needed a mouth. I went away for the weekend and came back to find this somewhat toothy grin waiting for me. Ping the homely, but happy, house.  :-)

Windows!

My windows finally arrived! It was really exciting to finally start closing up the space. Thanks once again to my father, I was able to install them all in just one day! (Well, one day plus an hour or so the previous evening).

The process with the windows started with a layer of flexwrap flashing that sticks to the bottom sill of the window opening and goes up the wall six inches on each side. We used quarter inch cedar lathing strips and cut spacers the width of the wall for the windows to sit in, then used the brad nailer to set them in place on top of the flashing.

Once the spacers were set we dry fit the window to see if would fit the space, checked on center, level and square, etc. When all seemed good, the window came back out and I applied a bead of silicone along the top and sides. The window then went back into the hole and was nailed in place with 1 inch roofing nails on all sides but the top, which wasn't nailed in the flanges like the sides and bottom. Instead, a nail is pounded in about half an inch above the flange and then bent own over the top. This, apparently, allows the window more flexibility with respect to movement or flex in the wall around it.

Finally, a strip of straightflash (yet another Dupont product) was applied down each side and along the top of the window and all the flashing was rolled to press out air and stick it firmly to the wall. Then it was on to the next window.

Here's what it looked like from the outside when done:

And a few inside shots

I really like the big picture window. The windows also make a big difference with noise. With all of the wall insulation and the windows, the inside is very quiet!

The windows all fit perfectly, except of course, these angled ones - which also happened to be the last ones that we installed.

The angle was a bit off and the windows were about 1/2 inch too big on the high end. The low end was also too high, but by less than 1/16th of an inch. Enough to not fit in the hole anyway.

It would have taken weeks to order new windows, and since these are irregular they are the most expensive windows in the house, surprisingly. Fortunately, a wall can be remodeled pretty drastically with a circular saw and an all-saw. The weight is well supported by the center post and supporting wall studs, so we just sliced 5/8 of an inch off the 2 x 4 sill under the windows and voila - they fit! It made rather a mess though, and I looked a bit like the abominable sawdust monster for a bit.

Dusty, dirty, tired, and happy.  :-)

A Bathroom Fan

As with many things in this house, the fan was more complicated than one might expect. I first had to find one that would fit into a 3 1/2 inch space, and then find a way to make it work in a situation where there isn't a ceiling to set it into. (I decided against a wall fan because the wall is so thin and I wouldn't be able to put any insulation behind it at all).

I ended up boxing in the space between a beam and the dividing wall with the kitchen to make a lower false ceiling in a small area. This gave me a place to install an inset LED light as well (not in the picture) The vent had to go down a bit to go under the support beam that runs the length of the building. You can see it here with a box started to cover it up.

All done!

Sealing the Ceiling, and the last Insulation

All things do have an ending, even insulating!  Here are some pictures of finishing the front room insulation. The foam in the wall has been sealed with spray foam, silicone and or Tuck Tape, depending on the size of the crack that needed to be closed up. It was then covered with a half thickness of six inch fiberglass, and then the sheet of double bubble reflective insulation.

I put insulation in the interior walls as well to act as a muffler to sound. The dogs have been helping me out quite a bit. Here you can see them on the job:

Upstairs is done too. It feels a little bit like being in a space ship with all the shiny silver wall coverings.

Working on the end wall.

I had intended to add another layer of rigid foam to the ceiling but changed that plan because 1) I was tired of cutting and fitting rigid foam and 2) I had to get some thinner 1 inch sheets to fit and they didn't smell very good. I decided I'd rather not risk whatever off-gassing they might do.

As with the walls, the ceiling was sealed with spray foam, silicone and tape, as required to close all the gaps between the foam and the rafters.

I then used fiberglass insulation to fill in the remaining space. This was a bit tricky as it didn't want to stay in place at all. With my father's help, I put up one piece at a time, wrapped the double bubble across and stapled it to hold it all together.

Finally, the seams were sealed, and I added a row of two by two down the center along the ridge beam as a nailer for the tongue and groove planks that will be going up next.