Projects in Order

It was a bit of a struggle, but I think I have a handle on my home improvement projects and the order in which they'll be accomplished.

1. Oak base cabinets
2. Woodworking bench
3. Small table
4. Headboard
5. Cherry bathroom vanity
6. Matching medicine cabinet and wall cabinet
7. Refinish master bathroom

The oak base cabinets are just to learn how to make base cabinets. Oak plywood from the BORG (Big Orange Retail Giant) wasn't much more expensive than any other finish-grade plywood, although its show layer is paper thin. For finish wood, I'll probably shop Cleveland Plywood.

My woodworking bench won't be much more than a double-thickness of plywood set atop those two base cabinets. I plan to top it with a sacrificial layer of hardboard, edge it with 1x3 oak, install a wood vise on it, add a pegboard and simple shelves to the back, etc. Already improved my lighting.

The small table is for my front parlor, to hold the record player. If I can find a suitable antique, instead, that would probably be better.

My daughter's bed really needs a headboard. I plan to make something simple from Ana White's site. If I get really ambitious, I guess I could make a footer and side rails to match. Also thinking about adding crown molding to her room, if only to practice coping cuts.

Most of all that, though, is because I want/need to remodel our master bathroom. I love our kitchen, so I want to carry the same look there. I couldn't find anything other than junk in the $200-300 range. Good vanities are more like $1000. Granted, I have a wonderful carpenter who could bang out a vanity for me but, dammit, I'd like to take a crack at it.

And, of course, if you're changing the vanity why not make a matching medicine cabinet? Since there's never enough local storage in a small bathroom (the toilet tank invariably becomes a shelf) why not also make a matching wall cabinet?

So there's a bit of prerequisite case work to do. Besides the demo, painting, fixture replacement, plumbing (toilet & sink), floor tile, wall tile to 48 inches topped with a cherry strip, etc. If I get really excited, I might try to add a programmable heater under the tile to keep my wife's tootsies warm in the morning.

At least now I have some sort of plan.

Better Tools

Well, no wonder.

I removed the blade from my miter saw. It was, evidently, the original. Although it was carbide tipped, the teeth were choked with pitch and there was something - plastic? paint? - smeared in concentric circles on one face. Ah, yes. This saw had been used to cut Pergo laminate flooring over a decade ago. The only use since has been feeding it the occasional 2x4 (the picnic table being the last project to use it).

Gee. Why would a filthy, forty-tooth Sears blade ever result in tear out when cross cutting oak?

While I'm learning how to clean up a circular saw blade, I decided to actually get something that (I hope) is up to the task. A 90-tooth Diablo high ATB blade.

When it doubt, blame the tool and move on. If anything, use it as excuse to buy better tools.

Kind Green

The first winter project of 2012 is complete. I painted Sarah's room.

Gone are the marks on beige walls. Marks made with pen, pencil, permanent marker, and worse. Now, her walls are a consistent Sherwin-Williams Kind Green. Trim is a semi-gloss white. The major gouges have been filled and sanded.

This weekend, I've started on my second project which is to build a woodworking bench incorporating a pair of base cabinets. The real lesson here to to learn how to make base cabinets. Mistakes are to be celebrated and studied.

I have already made one. I mistakenly figured that the old carbide blade in my miter would be good enough to crosscut oak. Bah! My cuts suffered tear out. I need to acquire a fine crosscut blade and put something sacrificial against the fence. That's the whole point of this exercise, though. No need to waste my time being ashamed of such things.

I hate wasting oak, though.

Ghosts of Punderson

Spent a lovely weekend at Punderson State Park with my daughter and the Medina Guides. The cabins were nice enough. The lodge perfectly Gothic in places.

We walked down a narrow, low hall and into the library. The library is a small, round room at the top of the rear tower. Opposite the stained glass windows was an oddly deep set bookcase. A line of books, six inches deep, were balanced at the front of a three-foot deep shelf.

Out of curiosity I reached behind the books and felt another. I was a thin volume of ghost stories. I turned to page twenty-four and began to read to the people with me the ghost stories of Punderson Manor. Set on the bank of a small, glacial lake the manor has had several reported ghost sightings and incidents.

I, for one, do not believe in ghosts. I could easily understand them given a spooky old building, with its sketchy plumbing and electrical systems, creaks and groans of its old timbers and shifting stone, the tricks of light through billowing curtains and small panes of glass. All manner of things could cause a person, alone, to believe that there were others, unseen, with them.

Too Many Projects

I love doing a winter project of some sort. That's how I finished the basement, trained the dog, built a computer - that sort of thing. This winter, I have just too many ideas in my head. Too many things that I yearn for.

The first thing that needs done is that I need to paint my daughter's room. We switched the kids' rooms this past summer and hers needs a new set of paint. Something of a grayish green, I think, would look good with her curtains.

After that, I get confused. I want new flooring, but I can't quite afford it right now. I need to refinish the upstairs bathrooms and would like a custom cherry vanity and cabinets that match our kitchen. Which brings me to the point of wanting to make those things myself.

But I don't have the experience or the work space, so plan to handle both of those by making a new work bench using base cabinets as the, um, base. We also have a record player in the front parlor that needs a table, so perhaps I can make a table for it. Then I can tackle of bathrooms (or not, if I find my skill set or tools lacking). Which brings me right back around to the flooring.

I can probably save a considerable sum by doing the installation work myself. Or I can make a hash of it. Frightening uncertainty.

Having a long term, multi-tiered suite of projects isn't a bad thing, per se. The problem is that I find my interest in the flitting between one or another. It's hard to remain passionate about painting a room when you have visions of mauling hardwood dancing in your head. The other problem is if I do manage to complete these projects. I will be an insufferably proud SOB for months afterwards.