Sometimes, when doing the same thing over and over again, you have to switch gears.  Though we don’t have much sheeting left to hang, over the weekend, Ben decided to hang install the kitchen vent hood.

We bought this one over three years ago for our main kitchen, but after opening up the kitchen wall, I didn’t want anything blocking the new open feel.  Plus, we have a big whole house fan about ten feet away, so it seemed redundant.  Having purchased a 48″ wide DCS range off Craigslist for the pool house, we knew it would eventually be put to good use.

To install the vent hood, Ben first secured a 3/4 inch thick strip of wood at the vent hood back height.  There’s a little lip for the housing to rest on, making it a bit easier to screw into the wall.  While Ben held it in place, I screwed into the predrilled holes to keep it in place.  With the frame up, Ben installed the fan and duct work to get it all in working order.

The venting angles into the dead space between the main house and pool house roof lines before angling up and out the roof.

Next, we’ll build a frame around the hood and duct work, sheet over it, and paint it when we get to the walls.

Everything is great, except the buttons on the front, which I had completely forgotten about as the fan had been in storage all this time.

While not detrimental, the button placement does play into the walnut accent I want at the bottom of the hood.

Ben and I discussed various options such as forgoing the walnut strip and leaving the front edge steel.  Or building the frame out around the hood, leaving a 1 to 2 inch gap to reach in a press the buttons.

Each option wasn’t perfect and had issues, so we’re planning the simplest: notching out the walnut strip around the buttons.  It’s not ideal, but a solution we can both agree on.  I know we have much more to complete, but I can’t help getting excited over the details that will finish off this space.

In the last pool house update, I shared all of the details on the guts inside our walls: insulation, electrical, and a little bit of plumbing.

With all of that important, but generally unseen business taken care of, we are able to start hanging our vapor barrier and sheeting.

To create the board and batten look, we’re using exterior grade A/C (one side is good A grade, the other a lesser quality, C) plywood as our base.  After, thin (1 1/2 to 2 inches wide) strips will cover the seams and nails.

Before installing, Ben meticulously measures all obstructions, then transfers the measurements to the sheet before cutting the sheet to fit.  Once cut, I hold the cut sheet in place, about an inch off the floor to prevent the plywood from wicking up water that will be on the floor.  A quick nail into a visible stud helps hold the board in place while we mark the stud placement across the panel.  Obviously, nailing into the stud is necessary to securely hang the sheet on the wall.  But it also ensures the nails will be hidden beneath our spaced batten strips.  Marking is made quick with an eight foot level and pencil.

More nails along the pencil lines keep the panel firmly in place.

Installing the sheets isn’t difficult, just time-consuming thanks to the many necessary cuts around outlets, windows, and doors.  Particularly the kitchen wall, which had as many as seven cuts around objects in a single panel.  Careful measuring and marking of the sheet before hanging is crucial to keep the sheets as seamless as possible.

Knocking out the most intricate pieces first makes the rest of the sheets feel easy by comparison.

We’re continuing, working our way around.  In an effort to prevent as much waste as possible, we’re cutting pieces in strips to avoid big, unusable chunks taken from the windows.  The gaps below will get filled in with left over pieces cut from other areas like doors.

Essentially, we’re putting together a big puzzle, looking at each piece and how to best use it.  It might not look like much yet, but this is similar to the drywall phase of a project.  It’s the turning of the corner from “unfinished construction” toward “beautiful, finished room.”  Because the batten strips will terminate into the baseboard, we’ll have to tile the floors after hanging all of the sheeting.  Big, exciting things coming up!