This bathroom rehab has a pitched floor starting at the shower to allow easy entry with no curb wall to step over. The penny tiles feel good and provide a low slip hazard surface. When using this style of tiles I would recommend a high quality grout. Here we used Custom Building Products Fusion Pro Single Component Grout. The linear drain with tile insert is from Neodrain.
Uncategorized
A client ask me to help her design and build a banquette seating area in her kitchen.
The requirements were that the seating have as much storage under it as possible, and that I use all of her reclaimed wood from various sources and some newly sourced spalted hickory and maple.
The specifications for this drawer was that it house the stand up mixer and its bowls. To support the weight I used KV 120-lb class full extension concealed undermount slides.
Doing some hand cut butterfly joints (also know as keys or splines) in a hicory table top that I am making. I say hand cut but I am using a router to cut the basic shape and then I cut the close detail with a chisel and a shape marking knife.
Then glue them up and hammer them in. I have found that a dead-blow mallet is best for this (Not pictured).
Here they are installed and the wood wet down to show the wonderful grain of the hicory.
There is a type of trim called “backband” that seems to be used frequently with plaster walls. My theory is that it is a simple solution to walls that maybe a little uneven where the trim contacts the wall surface. It also gives you the opportunity to make a lot of contour or profile options when used in conjunction with standard casings.
Here is a simple solution I came up with to make a backband molding using only 3 1/4″ colonial casing material.
Rip it down with a table saw so that your dropout piece is wide enough to be thicker than the trim when turned on edge.
Note: If you wanted the profile to have more contour and detail you could run a router over the flat side of the casing before you rip it on the table saw.
Like this.
Installed.
And here it is with the oak sill.
This is the other molding in the room that I wanted to achieve a similar look to.
So the clients asked me if I could rebuild this rotting down front porch bench. I said I’d give it a try. The old one was made of pine, not even pressure treated, and painted. I noticed the back seemed to be a bit rigid and the ‘design’ did not look very comfortable. I proposed to make the new one out of Ipe and to soften the design a little in hopes of making it easier to look at and sit on. The back got some camber and the leading seat slat was pitched down a few degrees to make it easier on the back of the leg.
I was able to use a lot less material because the Ipe is so very strong. This really is only evident in the ends and the back supports. Both were constructed as units and glued with polyurethane glue prior to assembly. The armrest faces got a little customization so they would conform to the stonework.
I have gotten a lot of use out of this pool table slate (see these entries The Brunswick Slate Story Part I and From Pool Hall to Countertop – Second Life for Brunswick ) Last fall when our second daughter was on her way we needed a new changing table setup. So I cobbled together this little guy with bits and pieces of wood lying around and the last large piece of the Brunswick slate. The wood is Ipe and Brazilian cherry so I guess both of these woods came from Brazil. The cherry is leftover flooring tongue and groove from a project in our house. The legs are Ipe and came from a trellis that had been outside in the weather for about six years. I made the trellis for a client who wanted to grow clematis on it. After a few years she realized the clematis were never going to climb all the way up the trellis. She asked if I could shorten it so I cut off about three feet from the lower half.The cut off legs made good stock for the legs on the changing table. A little about that Ipe wood. It has become very popular with builders of high end decks due to its durability, insect, fire and rot resistance.
Our client for this project wanted us to rehab the second floor above the garage of their coach house and build it into an apartment for their daughter. The space had once been used as living quarters but not in over 50 years. It needed a better floor plan, new water and gas supply, larger electrical feed, HVAC and a lot more. I will break this project down into several posts due to its scope.
Here are some images of what it looked like on day one.
The Facade has been maintained over the years and the garage used for two cars.
Looking east into what will be the Kitchen
This will be the bedroom with vaulted ceiling.
Bath before with old hot water expansion tank.
The old floor plan had seven rooms in a 740 square foot space so we planned to take out several walls and open up the space giving the new apartment a large vaulted ceiling bedroom, comfortable living room with built-in bookshelves, bathroom with large walk-in shower and laundry, and an open kitchen/dining room.
Not much plaster could be saved so we decided to “drop and cover”.
Could be some lead in there folks.
After some wall removal and a lot of clean up the first thing we started on was installing a metal stud grid work on which to hang the new ceiling. By dropping the ceiling we are able to achieve two things we really needed for this project. Space to insulate and run new electrical conduit raceways, and give us consistently level and flat studs on which to hang our new sheetrock.