Finishing a kitchen in 4 easy steps - #1

Hello all. When we left off the kitchen it was starting to change color and the cabinets were all where we wanted them. In this and the next three posts we'll catch everyone up to a fully functioning kitchen.

During one of our breaks from the Cottage, we were gluttons and decided to bring home all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts to be painted. As you can see below, this was a LOT of pieces. Each one needed the full treatment--sanding, primer coat, sanding, two coats of green, sealer coat, sanding, and final sealer coat.

Then when we brought them back to the Cottage they all needed drawer pulls. After careful measuring and plotting, we found where we needed to drill. Thankfully we have this simple, portable faux-drill press to keep the drill bits from sliding off the desired mark.

The result was worth the effort as they turned out great.

Until next time.

What your house becomes

Hello all. Oh sure you look at this blog and think house renovation is glamorous and clean and efficient. That's only part of the story.

One thing that happens to every house undergoing a top-to-bottom overhaul is that whatever rooms you are not working on at any particular moment become huge closets. Places for the tools and building blocks of future projects.

These are kitchen cabinets that will form half of the new, bigger island we will build plus tile for the bathrooms and laundry room.

These are the new, pine stair treads for when we turn to that.

And this is kind of everything else. We didn't even have all our paint yet and the room is crowded.

And even as time passes and we use things, somehow not much changes.

If you haven't been paying attention to supply disruptions and shortages during the past 12 months that's a big reason we have stockpiled what we'll need for projects months into the future. We'd rather have it now than be unable to find it when we're ready. 

Until next time.

Don't you hate when (again)...

Hello all. It sure helps to have a beta test when trying something new, in this case installing a hardwood floor, because you can work out any problems. Maybe the tools aren't right or maybe you can find ways to streamline the process. And sometimes those problems fall into the "operator error" category (even if the operator was the original contractor).

There are several "thou shall nots" when installing a wood floor and most of them pertain to layout to avoid placing seams too close together. Like we did here.

There's a straightforward if not easy way to deal with such a problem, that you might also need if you have to replace a bad board in an existing floor. You mark out the section you want to remove (in this case some inches above and below the neighboring seam) and cut the piece out. 

The main difficulty is how careful you need to be to avoid damaging the surrounding flooring. After all, it didn't do anything wrong. Another key is making the cuts as clean as possible so they are less noticeable after you put in the replacement board.

In our case this meant a lot of quality time with the dremel saw, hammer, and chisel to remove the old.

Then because you're installing a piece into a slot about the only way to get it around the tongue-and-grooves of the existing flooring is to remove the lower part of the groove and the tongue without disturbing the top (visible) part of the board. Fortunately setting the height and depth of the table saw makes quick work of this.

Finally after trimming the length to get it just right you topnail the replacement into place and only you are the wiser. For all you kids at home remember that it is FAR easier and faster to fix a problem at the moment you make it than afterward.

Until next time.

One floor down...

Hello all. With all the prep done we were ready to work. One thing to remember is that wood expands and contracts with the weather/humidity, so a standard tip is to leave a little space along the walls. We cut a few pieces of 1/4-inch plywood to use as guides to keep us kosher.

This room gave us an immediate opportunity to work around an obstacle. Some careful measuring, planning, and cutting with the jigsaw kept us on our merry way.

One good thing about installing hardwood is that for much of it you can get in a groove of measuring, cutting, laying, and nailing pieces in place. We had drawn a sight line on the paper that was perpendicular to the threshold piece and were pleased with our ability to stay true to that.

One thing really caught us by surprise. More than 9-of-10 times the nails would go in smoothly and not even need countersinking. But there were some spots where they would curl back up and come out the top of the board. 

Turns out pneumatic-driven nails can, when the circumstances are right, catch the grain of the wood and curl to the left or right. After we researched this there are two main remedies--turn the nail gun 90 degrees so that the teeth cut against the grain instead of with it or use heavier gauge (i.e. thicker) nails that have much less susceptibility. We experimented with both and ultimately opted to shift to higher gauge nails.

It took a good deal longer than expected--we'll be exploring ways to improve our efficiency--and there are still multiple rounds of sanding and finishing to go, but we're pretty pleased with the overall result.
 

Until next time. 

Floor prep two

Hello all. When it came time to start laying floor we were lucky that we had a mostly clean slate on which to work, at least upstairs. The previous owners had never done anything beyond paint the plywood subfloor.

One thing we did have to do was to undercut the door frames because we would be raising the height of the floor 3/4 of an inch at the thresholds and nearly as much with the rest of the floor. That required use of a manual or dremel saw. If you use a piece of scrap wood of the same height as you intend to install then that ensures you will create the necessary clearance. At the top of the picture you can see an installed threshold for the bathroom. (Pay no attention to the paint splatter. That happened very early on and is a good example of why you work ceiling-to-floor if possible.)

One thing that often gets overlooked is how much cleaning any job entails. Of course there's a lot after you start working (sawdust, etc.), but it's smart to start with the cleanest area because you'll rarely get a chance to get back under, say, a hardwood floor. Here's one pro tip for you. When using a vacuum, make sure you connect the hose to the intake port, otherwise you'll find yourself creating a dust storm. Not that we have any personal experience with this.

With the ground prepared we could lay down rosin paper, which helps with squeaks and blocks air and moisture flow through the floor (thank you wikipedia). It's about the thickness of construction paper, if you remember that from your grade school art projects, and comes in large rolls. A few well-placed staples and you're ready for flooring.

Downstairs we had an additional step. We had to raise the level of the subfloor to match the height of the vinyl tile in the kitchen because, as in the bathrooms, it's perfectly fine to leave vinyl in place if it's in good shape. Here we've nailed down 3/16-inch plywood to make up the difference.

Until next time.