The Worst Medicine Cabinets on Orcas Island

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Jef

Do you want to see some ugly medicine cabinets? I’m warning you, these are bad.

Wasn’t kidding, was I? Poorly fitted contraptions of stamped sheet metal, rusting in too many places to adequately fix, that look like they belong on a tug boat that takes barges to Severodvinsk every three months.

I suppose they’re nostalgic in a way. When I arrived, on my first night here in the house, that light fixture had three of the only four working lights on the entire property. Do you want to know how many places are open on Orcas Island at night that sell light bulbs? 0.

So, yeah, I’m thankful for that old light fixture so I didn’t have to go to the bathroom in pitch blackness in a strange house. I’m quite fond of them…. NOT. It’s at the dump now. Good effing riddance. I hated that thing. The cabinets too. I would have thrown knives at them but, you know, seven years bad luck and all.

I drew up full plans to build new cabinets about one year ago, and they’ve been sitting (like many plans I draw) and waiting for me to start cutting wood. I had a full cut list, dimensioned drawings from every angle, and even a materials itinerary of all the hardware and woodware I’d need. I bought the hinges, the knobs, the little metal pegs that go into the holes that hold up the shelves, I even bought the custom cut mirrors !!! all about a year ago. This is one very procrastinated project. In my defense, I’ve been a little busy.

I constructed the two boxes to exactly the dimensions that I had measured a year ago and they fit PERFECTLY! How often does that happen in a woodworker’s lifetime? Not often, for me at least.

Once I knew they fit into place, I could start cutting the inner frame. Everything is going to fit together with lap joints, like the ones shown above. Nothing too fancy, just what works.

I’ve had these pieces of wenge, which is an African hardwood, just lying around from another unfinished project from long ago. I’ve probably had them for about ten years. Finally found a use for them, they are going to be the shelves and bottoms of my bathroom cabinets! Hooray for them. I used to think of wenge as a poor man’s cocobolo (a central American hardwood) but since then the price of wenge has increased. I only need a couple more pieces. There goes my play money for the month of April.

And yeah, I bought that light fixture about a year ago too. It’s simple and it works well for the room. I’m not terribly happy with the housing I made for it, I may have to re-do it at some point. I intend to paint these cabinets, which will conceal a lot of defects, but I’m still not happy with this top part.

So after the boxes were framed in it was time to construct the outer frame that goes atop it. The cabinet doors fit into this part, so it needs to be Perfectly Square and Flat. Lots of clamps and sand bags went into the making of this frame.

Some people get all offended if you look inside their medicine cabinet. Here I’m posting pictures of it on the internet! Look all you want! There’s tylenol, nyquil, deodorant, mouthwash, all sorts of embarrassing things in there. But I know you just came here to see the awesome cabinetry and how well that frame fit into the wall. Looks significantly better than the old Severodvinsk-bound cabinets.

Oh crap, I forgot to make cabinet doors. Well, I guess there’s next week.

Trap Door!

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Jef

Now it’s open…

… and now it’s shut. Check it out! Our very own locking* trap door storage, ingeniously located under the stairs. How many houses come with a trap door storage area? How cool is that?

That is eight cubic feet of storage space that was completely unused and wasted, and now we can hoard pirate treasure in there if we want to. When you live in a small house, storage space is really valuable.

That bottom riser needs to be replaced at some point. I used some T-111 cedar paneling that I had, which I think looks great, but the bottom one has kind of a defect on the right hand side that wouldn’t take any color. I’ll use it for now, but only because the alternative is to buy a whole 4′ x 8′ sheet just so I can cut a 5″ x 28″ strip out of it. Nah, I’ll wait until I do the rest of the stairs. It’ll work for now.

I’m telling you, whoever stapled the carpet down to the original treads was a madman. Staple holes galore. I could have put wood putty in the holes but then they’d stick out white instead of black. I think this way, the treads look finished but distressed, and not artificially distressed like what you pay extra for at pottery barn. No, this is the real thing. This wood was not only distressed, but beaten, mugged and left for dead.

So, the house has got a lot of different colors and textures going on and I think overall it’s working great. We don’t like everything to be matchy-matchy, we like to have a little variety of styles going on. Again, it’s a small house, and if we did everything in one color set and one style, it would dominate the entire house. A little variation is a good thing.

* so yeah, the trap door doesn’t actually lock just yet. Due to a math error by the designer (me), the key is about 1 centimeter too short to engage the lock. The beam ended up being a little thicker than I intended it to. Well, it’s not like that lock would stop anybody, and it’ll take more than a stiff wind to open the trapdoor anyway. It’s pretty heavy and manages to stay in place by itself.

So with this project completed and the weather outside getting nicer, I think I’m going to spend the next few weeks doing some landscaping and outdoor cleanup and just generally finding other things to spend money on. I’m anxious to continue remodeling up the stairs (you can see those atrocious wooden spindles in the above pics; they must die) but the next phase is going to be pretty big. It’ll probably turn the house into a war zone for six weeks. The more prep work I do before demolition, the smoother it will all go. So I’ll take my time before I get started with it.

Next: Front Door

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Jef

Before – old front door, probably taken from the set of the Brady Bunch. Its diamond shaped panes of glass were impossible to clean. From the outside, the wood was about the same consistency as year old driftwood found on the beach. You could carve it with your fingernail. But it was sturdy and sat correctly on the hinges and closed reasonably well, and it only had one bullet hole in it.

Yeah, time for a new front door. We commissioned a local artist and master woodworker, Todd Spalti, to make us a new front door. There are people who would argue that I’m a woodworker too and I can make a front door myself. Well, maybe si and maybe no, but Todd came very highly recommended and I completely trusted him to make a magnificent front door for us. Besides, I got enough projects of my own right now.

Check out his website. He does really great work. http://www.toddspalti.com/

The new door is absolutely amazing. Solid oak. No bullet holes. Clean lines. Clean windows! We got a nice handle and lockset as well, not to mention new hinges (completely devoid of rust, I might add). You may have noticed there is some new trim around the door, and drywall has magically appeared on the left hand side of the door. Yeah, we’ve been busy.

I’ve been working on the stair landing on the left. I really only wanted to do the drywall on that side but in order to rip out the paneling I had to rip out the stair landing too. Gee, may as well just work on that while I’ve got it all torn up.

And yes, that’s a hockey game on TV in the reflection.

We’ve oscillated quite a bit about whether to get new stair treads or work with the existing 2×10’s that someone sawed up and put down. They were really in horrible shape, having had carpet installed over them for decades. Whoever installed that carpet when nuts with the staple gun. Seriously, it was Beavis after two quarts of espresso, driving staples into every square centimeter of those treads. After I sanded them I didn’t think I wanted to use them, but after some dark stain I think they’ll turn out good. They definitely have the distressed look to them.

The garage is again full of trim pieces and windowsills and window aprons with stain and polyurethane drying atop their surfaces. I think I’ve got about half of the trim in the house replaced, which means I have half to go.

There’s the stair landing with temporary treads and a temporary landing. They used to be shelves in the kitchen cupboard. This is one of those instances where my packrat instinct to keep everything that might be useful someday paid off. They’re even sticky from whatever goop accumulated on them during their life as a cupboard. The stickiness makes them safer, less chance of slipping and falling out the adjacent window.

I’ve had this bronze keyhole escutcheon for about fifteen years, just waiting for a project. Hmm, what could it be for? Maybe we’ll find out next week…

Finished Side Door

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Jef

And here is yet another small fraction of the house that I’m not ashamed of.

The side door project is now complete. Fully complete. Typically, any project I do has some residual “punch list” items that I never get to, such as touch up painting or recessing the nail heads and filling them with wood putty or stupid stuff like that. But this project is one of those rare gems that I saw through to final completion. If only I got to invoice someone for my troubles.

Anyway, it is FANTASTICALLY better than the old door. Just look down a bit and you’ll see the Before Picture. This is a door we see and use every day. It welcomes us home from wherever our day took us, and it begins our journey into the outside world (or just to take out the trash). The old door was a cadaver, barely clinging to its rusty hinges, begging to be put out of its misery. Our new door is vibrant and cheerful. We’re very, very happy with it.

Here is the door being painted (which took about nine hours total, I think this pic was taken during hour three). We painted the inside only and left the outside stained wood. There’s a lot of detail in this door for the accent color to paint. We used two colors, a deep purple with a sort of lipstick accent color.

From the outside, more stately and less whimsy, but still a very attractive door.

And here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming, as I continue my way around the interior of the house, ripping out paneling and stair treads like there’s no tomorrow. Those stairs, and the closet underneath, are going to be a major challenge. I’m just doing the landing right now, a mere two stair treads worth of stairs, and it is very slow going.

The Actual Cost of a Salvage Door

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Jef

Salvage Door: $40, plus tax.

Ferry trip to get to the mainland and back with the door: $58

Gas: $8

Tool wear and tear: $5

Fasteners and miscellaneous hardware: $2.50

Doorknob and deadbolt: Free, just use the existing crappy ones so all the keys still match.

1×6 Douglas Fir planks: $112. (For that price, next time I’ll just cut down a tree)

Labor: Free, though in all fairness, in the time it took me to fix up this door I could have watched District 9, Gladiator, Season 6 of The Shield, the extended versions of all of the Lord of the Rings movies, Skyfall and Casino Royale.

Dowel: Free, I got dozens lying around for scrap.

The correct size dowel that you don’t have lying around and have to go buy at the hardware store: $4.35

22 Festool sanding discs: $16.50

Stain, primer, paint, and about 24 feet of frog tape: $54.67 (that frog tape is a little steep)

Cat in a sink: Free. Good luck washing your hands.

Solid brass hinges in Oil Rubbed Bronze (TM) that will never ever rust: $75.

Amount of sleep I’ll lose because the door is asymmetrical: 0.0 hours.

Using the old door for thrown weapons practice: Okay, that is priceless.

How much do I hate this door?

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Jef

It doesn’t close right. The veneer is peeling off. The plastic strip holding that awful stained glass window is permanently filthy. The hinges are rusted. Carpenter ants refuse to eat it. It gives me bad dreams. If we had neighbors, they would all make fun of us.

It was atrocious before, but now that I’ve refinished the area around it, it looks even worse.

I hate that door so much that I bought a salvage door that does not fit and promised myself I would do whatever it takes to make it work. The salvage door is too short, too wide, and in poor shape. But I figure maybe I can trim it down to size, add a little wood to the bottom to make it longer, and give it a little architectural detail and maybe it’ll be an improvement over the existing door.

Okay, let’s face it. a plastic curtain hanging from a rusty chain would be an improvement over the existing door.

First thing I wanted to do is fill that inset area with some planks to give it a little interest. I’ll put four vertical slats in its length, placing them over the rectangle of low grade plywood and making the door a little beefier and solid.

It’s time to attack them with a router bit and give them a nice border. I chose a cove router bit (quarter circle) since it goes with the existing edge in the inset. I had to shape the end grain too, generally a recipe for lots of splintered wood, but I’m desperate here.

One trick I use when routing against the grain is to take a sharp knife and cut along where the router will cut. It’s an extra step and it takes a bit more time, but it really helps avoid the exit wounds left by the router.

Nice, clean cuts. And I haven’t even sanded yet.

I considered a number of ways to fasten these boards to the door. I don’t think I can get enough pressure on them that glue will hold well over time (this is an exterior door, after all). I’m going to use pan head screws from one side, and put pegs in the holes. That should make a nice tight fit, invisible from one side, with some architectural detail from the other.

Back to the door. It had a weather strip around the outside that needed to go. It put up a fight, but when threatened with a knife it finally surrendered. Next weekend I’ll cut it to size and see if I can get it fitted and mounted.

Dining Area Wall

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Jef

Another 15 feet of paneling has been successfully replaced.

My drywall skills are getting better, I think. Can’t even see the seams this time.

That side door looks really awful now. I don’t think it’s going to last much longer before I cut it up into firewood. The veneer is peeling off, the glass is revolting, and it doesn’t even close correctly. I’d be better off with a sheet of plywood affixed to the door frame with duct tape.

Impatience is a Virtue

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Jef

Before, depicted above.

I can’t renovate the entire house at once. I wish I could, but I can’t. I have a full time job, a non-infinite supply of cash, and a one-person army to tackle all these projects. When I take down that paneling, it’s just me and a crowbar. When I cut sheetrock and screw it into studs, it’s only one guy measuring and marking and fastening.

Nonetheless, I am compelled to rip every sheet of paneling off the wall as fast as I can, to tear out every piece of old trim, and to exorcise this house of every remnant of its dated past, and revitalize it with something new and improved.

That’s not blood up there, it’s wood stain. (The blood I’ve shed on this project is much more than a few little spatters, but I digress…)

I drew up those plans in October. I took the paneling down in November. This was a small section of wall, about 15 feet in length, with one window and one door. It should have taken two weekends to take down the paneling, put up new sheetrock, paint it and install trim pieces. No. It’s been about six weeks, and I’ve been sick of looking at it.

Unfortunately, I’ve been working too many hours at my real job. They don’t pay me to renovate my own house, you see. So for weeks upon weeks, I’ve had to live with a garage full of trim pieces set on plastic sawhorses, waiting for their next coat of stain, or polyurethane. Waiting to have a purpose in life, one greater than getting in my way when I had to get a wrench or a screwdriver or something.

Like all my trim pieces, they are custom made. I had to join a couple of 1×4’s, which was a great excuse to use my heretofore unused Grizzly tenoning jig, to make a nice tight tongue ‘n’ groove fitting. Not many people put that much effort in finish trim, but I’m glad I did. The final product fits together very well.

Part of the trim is a band of wood that runs just above the drywall, and I decided to crenelate it with little wooden arches, holding up a small shelf. Gives it a bit of interest. Makes it look nice. And it multiplies the amount of time all this takes by seven.

With this house, I walk a fine line between getting it done as quickly as I can, and still doing the job the way I want it done. I could slap up some cheap drywall and nail in some pre-finished trim, but that wouldn’t be what I want. No, I have to do it the way I want, even if it takes longer to get it all done.

Quantity versus quality. It’s like my internal struggle of yin and yang, a battle of which cat will get to pounce on that red laser dot. Do I take the time to do things the way I want, or do I find a way to get it done quickly?

I finally caught a weekend in which I could work on the house a bit, so I decided to spend every waking moment finishing this stupid wall. I didn’t take many shortcuts, but I took a few, and I can settle for less-than-perfect so long as the job gets done. All the trim pieces have been stained and have two coats of polyurethane (yeah, I’d prefer five, but guess what? this project needs to just get done) so they’re ready to go.

Yeah, that’s another hockey game on in the window’s reflection. Finished pics tomorrow. This project, weeks in the waiting, is finally just about done. All there is left to do is recess a few nailheads, fill the holes with putty and put a little polyurethane on them. I installed the trim tonight while the paint was still wet. That’s always a little dicey, I could have waited until tomorrow when everything would be dry and I would be nice and rested. But instead, it’s all done tonight. Impatience is a virtue.

Shop Time!

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Jef

Got out of bed this morning and decided to make some sawdust. It’s been a busy week at work (which is a real, non-sawdust-related job) and I just needed some time away from the office, so to speak. Plus, I had just torn out a bunch of paneling inside and hung a couple sheets of drywall and needed to cut and fit a bunch of new trim pieces.

For the most part, I’m using finished hemlock for trim pieces. I don’t do much to them, just take slabs and slather it with some stain and polyurethane and nail it to the wall. It’s not real woodwork but it’s fairly economical — I have a whole house to trim and I don’t want to break the bank doing it.

However, I am going to sneak in some shaped and fitted pieces as I can. This time, I got to make a nice windowsill out of one of my favorite hardwoods: red oak. It’s kind of an involved process. I use a 1×6 to nail on top of the rough frame, but I band it with a 1×2 that I do some shaping on over the router. The result looks like a thick plank of wood with a little cove molding across the bottom. I attach the two pieces with wood screws hidden behind oak dowels that look like little buttons going around the band. You can see me drilling out the holes for the dowels above. I know, I know, I could have joined them with hand cut dovetails or run a spline down its length or tongue and groove or some other fancy pants joinery, but I simply don’t have time. I need to get this house finished while I’m still young enough to enjoy it.

The routed piece has some clean lines that give it a little interest. You can see the profile on the end cap above. That rounded cove at the base can be sanded by wrapping sandpaper around a wine bottle cork. If you need an excuse to buy a bottle of wine, there you have it.

Here’s the finished windowsill fitted into place with the other trim pieces around it. They’re just pinned in place with a couple finish nails, I’ll remove them to stain and polyurethane them in the garage. Oak takes a stain very well, accentuating the light and dark color with its alternating waves of smooth and rough grain.

Not sure if you noticed but it seems like every picture I take with the TV in the background, there’s a hockey game on.

Still a lot of trim to cut and fit, and sand and stain and polyurethane and install. Not to mention I need to get some mud on that drywall and sand it and topcoat it and primer it and paint it. Yeah, never a shortage of things to do around here.

Hidden Treasure

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Jef

As I have said before, when you open up a wall in a house you never know what you will find. Carpenter ants, beer bottles, stolen Mafia money, you could find anything.

This time, within this very wall, I found the architectural plans to my house! What a great find! The very blueprints drawn up at a time when the Beatles were invading America, the original detailed plans of this historic sea-view cottage, and hand drawn and annotated the way it was done in the days before ours.

Here you can see, spotted with spider eggs and beer stains, the master plans of the kitchen area, along with jumbled and nonsensical notes of what to put where and whether they maybe needed an electrical outlet.

The bottom half of the plans is the other half of the house, with the toilet and bathtub clearly detailed, as well as the space for the ‘closit’ and a general area to put the bed.

What a remarkable find.

Diary of an Orcas Island Homeowner

Category Archives: Renovation