Hardware, Bathroom and Kitchens

The hardware is on its way for the cypress cabinets in the bathroom which means I should build the drawers so that when the slides arrive I can install the drawers and hang the doors. I have another project for a client building drawers so I hope to build them together. The rest of the crown molding was installed around the cabinets and I am waiting to fasten the vanity until the warm floor is installed, we ordered the tiles for the floor and the heating mats are on their way.  The electric warm floor wires will run through the wall behind the vanity.

Cypress cabinets with new salvaged crown molding.

After fitting the sashes and door for the shower now I have them back in the shop to be sanded and finished. I need to make stops and order the glass. We are still deciding on getting clear glass or patterned glass. We chose patterned glass for the barn shower door.

barn shower door

The sashes for the shed were installed and need stops, the profile of the stops is still to be decided. The first two sashes were a test to see if they would work hinging from the bottom like a transom window. I was worried that the sash with two glass units would be too heavy, as long as they are carefully let down they should be fine. Two down, twelve to go.

I had a meeting about a kitchen to build in Honeydew, finish date is September. I hope to build the kitchen in the Yellow House before tackling the Honeydew project. For our kitchen I have maple that I had milled from our last house, I am excited to cut into the maple to see what I have. The kitchen room has drywall and the mudding is finished, it is ready for paint, way to go Alex! He has become very skilled with a hock and trowel.

Future Kitchen

Lights, Sashes and Cabinets

The shop feels much bigger now that the cypress cabinets for the Yellow House bathroom are no longer taking up space. It reminds me of what the shop felt like when my brother John helped me build painted cabinets for a home in Trinidad and we removed them from the shop. Those cabinets took up a lot of space, we rented a moving truck to deliver them. That was probably the first time I had the thought that having an enclosed trailer might be a wise investment. 

brother John 2008

I needed a trailer for a kitchen in Santa Cruz too, I remember driving back from SC with my Jeep filled to the ceiling with tools and getting a flat tire on the freeway. Since I had AAA, a phone call was made and a truck and driver showed up with the necessary tools to jack up the vehicle and replace my flat with the spare. I felt kind of strange having him change my tire when I was perfectly capable. However I was relieved to not have to remove nearly every tool in my vehicle just to get to where the jack was stored, which was under the back seat that I had folded down.

I keep telling myself, "If I am going to buy a trailer it will be a flat bed that I can haul the tractor on and also large materials...Maybe the horse trailer will work for delivering cabinets and for moving goats.... I need to get the correct hook up for the lights before I take it anywhere out of Petrolia."

Santa Cruz Kitchen

Before installing the cypress cabinets I built the lights for J+K, the lights required some brass work. It didn't take long to mark a brass strip with a marker, drill some holes on the drill press and cut to length with a hack saw. Much better than the bent brackets I worked with before, these are rigid and straight, no shimming with cardboard to get them level. I think it was a better, cleaner and longer lasting solution to the idea of glueing the lights in place. They are ready to install.

brass brackets

Now I am working on two sash windows for a "shed." These aren't your average sash windows, there is a challenge to these. What I have is salvaged insulated units pulled from an elementary school, these units are one inch thick and about 19 x 32. The window openings are about 24 x 36. The trick is making the sashes fit between the glass size and the opening. The wood I have is 3x redwood ranging in width from 6 to 12 inches. These are chunky hunks of old growth redwood, that chocolate colored wood that has grain so tight you can hardly see the lines. This was the last of the redwood from a mill in Fort Bragg, probably the stickers they stacked the lumber on top of out in the yard. They are full of spike holes and even some remaining spikes that I have to dig out. I'll have them ready to glue up mid morning then it is back to the house.

sash stock

I have been doing mostly shop work lately so the house hasn't seen much of me. I come with gifts... cabinets for the bathroom, sashes and a door for the shower. The sashes and door still need glass and also sanding and finishing, and the cabinet needs a counter top, but I am moving forward and striving to accomplish the tasks I wish to achieve. Work does call! Bookshelves, drawers for closets, and a kitchen for clients. We are trying to move into the house this year, that means kitchen cabinets, flooring for the bathroom, kitchen and mud room, wood stove and hearth, insulation, and so many little things I don't even want to think about it right now.

cypress cabinets to install

Bathroom Cabinets and Creek Crossing

The cypress cabinets for the yellow house bathroom is nearing completion. The first slabs I cut into for face frame material had a lot of dry rot and checking, I was worried that I might not have enough good wood for more important elements like door panels and drawer fronts. Luckily the worst of the wood was on top and the gems were buried beneath. Yesterday I glued up the doors and cut out drawer fronts, the only thing left to glue up is the counter top and I have two beautiful slabs waiting to be used.

doors are glued up

The weather has been beautiful, yesterday the temps were in the high 70's making it difficult to stay in the shop. A day old baby goat gave me good reason to get outside and make sure its mother was taking care of it. Before this summer like weather we had an excellent week of rain, the creek came up, the grass took off and the goats manger was saturated.

born 3-11

Our summer time bridge (a 2x12) could no longer be used for crossing so we started using a pepperwood tree that fell across the creek last year. It was a bit sketchy especially when wet so Oliver and I grabbed some short 2x scraps, a chainsaw, hammers and nails and made our creek crossing safer. Now we can cross the tree without fearing we might slip, even with items in hand.

fallen tree bridge

Light for J + K

I blogged this project in another blog I don't use anymore called Recycled Wood Projects. When I decided to start keeping a blog I had several stories and projects to document, I thought blogging would be the perfect way to organize projects with pictures and text. I just wasn't sure how to organize the different related topics, i.e. house projects, work projects, ranch projects and art projects. I created a blog for each topic, then realized I had a bunch of work to do updating and keeping blogs, so I sort of gave up and didn't really do more than a few blogs for each one. Now I have narrowed it down to this. I don't blog anywhere else.

I started documenting my projects in Flickr when we started restoring our Gothic Revival Farm House in 2006. I asked my sister in law #typegirl, "What is that the best program on the internet that I can save and organize my photos in?" She recommended Flickr so I upgraded my free account, at the time it cost me $25 dollars a year to upload as many photos as I needed. The free account only allowed 200 photos. I guess things have changed and the free account now has a 3 Terrabyte (or something huge like that) limit and 50$ a year will upgrade you to not seeing ads. So now we have to pay just to avoid having to see ads. I am not blogging to rant on the annoyance of ads, this is the purpose of this entry...

This is a project that will remind me how I did it before because now the client wants two more and I had forgotten how I did it last time.

The first thing I had forgotten was that I attached a stick trim frame around the board that was drilled with a Forstner bit in a drill press. The frame hangs over the board on the back side enough to hide the back edge of the lights. The back was scooped out with a dado blade to make enough room to store the wire nuts and wire.

The problem I ran into on the new lights is the tab connected to the light fixture. Before, I was able to bend the tab so that I could put a screw through it and into the wood. The metal on this new set of lights that was ordered must be high tempered (or something) because the tab didn't bend, it broke. I couldn't get the tab to bend with pliers so I put it in the vise and it snapped like a stick. I picked up some brass to make my own tab if it happens again. I also picked up a light that is similar (from Pierson's) to see if it bends or breaks.

Next hanging the brackets. I bought these back when I made a display case for a closet that before was a dark hole in the wall. I put a wooden shim behind the bracket on the wall so that the light is tight to the wall. I love these brackets, you just push (whatever is hanging) up and it comes off the wall. I used them at R + L's for a decorative wooden piece they wanted hung above the bathroom door.

Well that pretty much sums it up, the rest is easy enough to figure out. Here are a few more snaps showing how I installed the stick trim, then the light ready to hang and then the lights hung over a vanity I built.

glued and nailed

hooked up and ready to hang

before mirror was installed

Projects on the back burner

I am a collector of old and antiquated vehicles and trailers. Of course this could mean I have either junk piling up or interesting projects to do. One of my projects that I hope to tackle someday is my 1959 Chevy Apache. I first saw this beauty of a machine parked in a field next to an old walnut orchard here in Petrolia. The grass was growing up around it and the gophers were making quick work of burying this classic work vehicle. It was being used as a guest room for a fish biologist that was renting a cabin on the ranch. After pestering him for a time he finally parted with the vehicle for a price of $400. My vision is to turn it into a woody and use it as a job site vehicle, one that I can transport my tools in. For now it sits as a storage unit housing my wife's pedestals for ceramic sculptures and a few other items.

Another project I have is an old horse trailer. Once used to store garbage behind the Petrolia store, this was a gift to me free of charge. The patina matches my 66 Chevy pick up perfectly. Just yesterday I made my first move to turning this into a functioning trailer to transport goats. While not in use I will likely store alfalfa in it. The doors are very heavy and have broken the hinges. I hope to make lighter doors of wood. Since it will be used for goats I am not worried about them kicking a hole through them.

Then we have a 1962 Plymouth Belvedere. A gift handed down to us from the daughter of our dearly missed friend Alexander Cockburn. This beauty was saved from being stripped down and sold as parts to hot rod builders. The roof skin being the most valuable element. Hot rod enthusiasts seek the grooved metal skin used as the top on their creations. Alex was an avid shopper and loved to buy things in the Bay Area and beyond. He was seeking a wagon that could hold a lot of stuff and keep it dry on his six hour trek back to the Mattole Valley. The car runs great but the heating controls don't work, the exhaust system needs maintenance and the paint job is failing. I became attached to this vehicle when he would leave it with us in Arcata when we would drop him off at the airport. While he was traveling I would clean it up and drive it around town. It is definitely a head turner.

In a perfect world, to work on machines one needs a shop, somewhere under cover and off of the earth so that valuable time isn't lost searching for nuts and bolts lost in the grass. I have a space but it too is in need of maintenance. There is a wing off of my wood shop in the barn that has a dirt floor, a roof and an open wall. The roof rafters are spaced at four feet and many of them are broken. It definitely needs reinforcing and could use a concrete slab and lights. These are all projects on the back burner as I work on the most important of our projects, restoring an 1888 Gothic Revival Farm House.