January 2015 – Page 2

Recently, a few friends and I have created a few wooden things together. Cribbage boards and now large state art. After seeing our bedroom wall, my friend really wanted to use the same wood to make a large Montana piece.

The process was pretty easy, so I thought it’d be fun to share. To make the template, he propped up a handheld projector loaded up with a Montana silhouette. We taped Kraft paper to the wall, traced the outline, and cut it out. After arranging four planks, I used a Sharpie to transfer the shape to the boards. Using some of our scrap cabinet poplar, we secured the pieces together with screws from the back.

Then, with his jigsaw, he cut along the lines. Tight turns are impossible to go completely around, so he worked in from the other side. Cutting took out a few small chunks, but after a round of edge sanding with 220 grit paper, everything looked normal.

Each state is 41 inches wide by 21 tall. I popped it on the mantel to see what I thought.

I like it there, but I had intended for it to hang over the bench in our bedroom, like this:

Not sure where it’ll land yet. Originally, my friend wanted to hang his over a sofa. After discussing other uses, (adding hooks for jewelry for his wife) I tossed out the idea of creating a coat rack. By adding simple knobs or hooks at staggered heights, it could be art and storage. Now he’s undecided on where his will go. At any rate, we had fun and have something to show for it.

We’ve been busting our butts to knock out as much of the kitchen as possible. After installing the ceiling planks, we turned our attention to the floors. First, we had to take out the majority of the cabinets. Everything except the kitchen sink, to keep things functional as long as possible.

With cabinet out-of-the-way, Ben used a rented tool to help pry up the tile.

Removing the tile was necessary for a few reasons. The most basic is cosmetic; having never liked the look and wide grout lines, we didn’t want to work around it. Secondly, the tile went around the cabinets, which is a problem because we’re slightly shifting the island.

Most importantly, the tile was installed over plywood. Our subfloor starts with a layer of plywood with particle board over that, and then another layer of thin plywood. All glued like a sandwich. In wet areas, this can cause shifting and settling as water seeps under. Which happened around the sink and fridge. In fact, we discovered an area of prolonged exposure that rotted completely through to the basement. To fix the area, Ben cut out the problem hole and some surrounding wood.

Adding a few braces to the exposed joists and topping it with new sub floor fixes it quickly.

What wasn’t quick was removing was prying up the top layer of plywood to get a smooth base. Pulling up the tile and sub floor took a full two days.

Sucky, but totally worth it to properly install our new tile. Ahh, a blank slate to start adding to.

It was interesting pulling up the top layer as it revealed the old kitchen layout. Part of the kitchen (where the fridge and office were) was added along with the pool house.

There’s an area of particle board, then a filler strip where the exterior wall once was, and then the addition. I’m guessing the stove went along this wall, based on the patched vent hole.

With the floors even and clean, we started laying Hardie Backer board.

Three and a half hours and 35 sheets later, we finished and let it dry.

Finally, the fun part – tile! After laying out a row of staggered brick pattern, I made an 11th hour change and tried out herringbone. With such a long area (29 feet from the door to the family room) it looked better to have a pattern that looked the same from every wall. Rather than a brick pattern from one side and lines from another.

We used the same slate tile from the bathroom because we loved it so much. It’s beautiful, easy to work with, gets a great anti slip rating, and we can carry it into the pool house. Hopefully grout will happen in the next few days.

In addition to finishing the floors, we also needed to get the ceiling painted before cabinets can go in. Tongue and groove is a pain to paint with a brush and roller. I know this after painting the bathroom. And that was roughly 1/10 of the size. To speed up the process, we masked off the windows, both doors, and the floors to get spraying. Ben uses this sprayer at work often, so he tackled the painting while I looked for light areas.

Once the primer dried, we painted the ceiling with Sherwin Williams Snowbound in a satin finish. Here’s the room before paint:

And right after:

The paint haze in the room was crazy. Which makes it really important to wear a vapor mask. After all that, here’s what the kitchen looks like:

A bare shell, ready to fill with cabinets, appliances, and all of our kitchen essentials.

We’ve officially passed the deconstruction and are on the construction side. Although we will have to do a little more demo to replace the door.

But, that’s going to wait until we get back to a functioning kitchen. You know, a room with a sink. Speaking of sinks, this custom-made beauty arrived last week.

Love at first sight. It’s 36 by 25 and 9 inches deep. The makers also crafted a strainer basket, so that was a fun bonus. So excited to get that stunner in and wash some dishes. Until then, we’re washing our dishes in the laundry tub.