I guess I wouldn't be writing if I wasn't in some sort of transition. This time I'm switching from 'installation mode' back to building doors in the shop. Before I installed R + T's vanity I piled the tools and some redwood into the Jeep and drove two hours to Arcata to repair some rot in a stair banister on a 1940 Craftsman home. The home is due for a new coat of paint since the last application 16 years ago. The caps had some serious rot but I ended up replacing less wood than expected. Once the soft, punky wood was removed it was obvious what had to be replaced and what could remain. Retaining as much of the historic fabric as possible is the goal. Old growth redwood is not available like it used to be and there is only 2% or less of the magnificent forests from just 164 years ago when the whites settled Humboldt county and nearly wiped out the entire indigenous population. The Mattole tribes are one if those native groups that were completely eliminated.
After a day and a half of restoration my focus was on installing bathroom vanities. First for the gothic revival farmhouse and then for the Hideaway. I received the larger sized knife hinges and hung the door for the farmhouse vanity. What a pain to mortise for the hinges on the cabinet. At least I had the vanity in the shop and could flip it upside down to mortise for the top hinge. Mortising on the door is a piece of cake with the use of a trim router, sharp chisels and caul blocks. The new redwood top looks much better than the cypress one.
The vanity for Rick and Tamar went in pretty smooth. The floor was way out of level but having a separate base for the cabinet to sit on was easy enough to adjust using shims, a level, a scribing compass and some power tools. Working with PaperStone wasn't bad. I could cut it with a skill saw, I used a fence clamped to the top that the saw slid on. A jig saw barely cut through where I had to finish off what the circular saw couldn't get. The key to precision for shaping the top to match the template was an angled grinder with a 50 grit sanding pad, and of course a hepa filtered dust mask. The edges routed beautifully, I tried 3 different profiles until I decided which shape to use. The top fit my first try, that doesn't happen very often. For holes, a hole saw cuts right through no problem.
Back to closet doors. R + L's doors are built, they need the panels finished and then they can be glued up. The Gothic revival farmhouse doors now have the frames together and the panels are being glued up. I have enough clamps to glue two panels at a time. In a couple hours I'll glue up two more of the eight panels that get glued.
I'm still working out the design of the L shaped closet. The actual design is finished, what is undecided is how it will be built. At first the idea was to make plywood carcasses that would have face frames and stick trim to make the sides look like frame and panel. One carcass would measure 2 feet by 5 feet and stand 8 feet tall. That is a big plywood box. I cringe at the thought of sanding and finishing it and than can't imagine how we would lift the damn thing up that wobbling staircase down the narrow walk way to the bedroom. Instead I want to just make the face frames and make them a bit thicker than the standard 3/4 inch. Use mortise and tenon joinery and set panels into dadoes. Those can attach to the walls and each other and the inside of the cabinet will be the walls of the room. Lightweight, easy to transport and I don't have to use toxic sheets of laminated wood.
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