Not much to report of late, just piddling around finishing up some leftover jobs. Put all the handles on the upstairs bathroom cabinets. One thing you'll find out is that most handles come with 1" screws for 3/4" thick door fronts, whereas drawers have an extra layer of material (3/4" drawer face and 5/8" drawer front) which are screwed together. So those short little 8-32 machine screws are worthless. Off to the hardware store, where the selections are 1.5" and 2". The first size is too short and the second is too long--great! Last time I got the 2"screws, cut them down to size, freshened up the screw threads and went at it. Took frickin hours to do. This time I got smarter. Bought 1.5 inch flat-head machine screws and counter sank them into the back of the drawer front. Can't even see them this way. At this rate of learning, I could build a second home much faster--like in 98% of the time its taking for this one.
We had a brief warm spell this afternoon. Temps hit 50°F, the sun came out, and it wasn't raining. That means its time to paint something. Well I whipped a coat of oil-based paint on the shed corbels, hung the window trim (already painted in the garage), and touched up the nail heads. An hour well spent, then the wind came up, sun went away and the wind chill went to about 40°F. Time to go inside and work on the bathroom mirror.
I'd had a brainstorm on this one. When we ordered the upstairs bathroom cabinets from Discount Cabinets of Washington, I bought 2 extra pieces of trim that matched the cabs. At 3/4" x 3" and 8 ft long, they were long enough to make a 32" x 60" beveled mirror for the bath. Groves Glass in Port Hadlock seems to have good prices on mirror, which they get from a supplier in Seattle. The mirrors go for material plus 20 x cents an inch for beveling (1" wide). So the bill for the mirror came out at $92 with tax. I think the pre-finished trim was about $32 a stick ($4 a ln ft), so the total cost for the mirror was about $150. Compare that with anything you can get on the internet (and ship it) or locally and you will have saved several hundred dollars. Don't worry, those saved dollars will evaporate quicker than acetone on a hot plate.
I've just about cleaned up all the small stuff, so it's time to dive into another major job. My superintendent (dare I call her "boss") is wanting to finish either the fireplace wall (rock, mantle and tile) or the den (built in cabinets, mantle, and 36" high fir wall panels). I'm leaning towards the fireplace because A) its less work, B) it costs less, and C) you'll see it from the kitchen and living room, so there is visual impact.
So, the fireplace wall it is. I had the mantle all figured out and even drawn on the computer, but I forgot about getting approval from my supervisor. We had a little dialog about it last night, and this morning when calmer times prevailed, she suggested an alternative that was an improvement on my design. Instead of a traditional fir mantle piece (built up from 1x material), she'd like it to have fir legs, a corbel at the top and a thick glass mantle. Seems too easy, but I know it won't be. More drawings and a new materials list. Oh did I mention that the glass mantle will probably run $500 for material only. Time to fertilize the money tree.
Anyway, it looks like I'll start by putting the tar paper up on the wall, stapling the wire mesh to it, and laying out the mantle location on the wall as a guide for the Eldorado stone.
It comes in 4-16" sizes, everything from long rectangles to squares. Its laid up with dry joints (no mortar between), so all you have to do is butter up the back sides and slap them onto the wall. I watched Frank Ward do the entire belt line for the exterior. So how hard could that be. We'll have to put tarps and cardboard on the finished floors to protect them and keep the mortar off all the other finished surfaces, but hopefully it will turn out just fine. If I get it finished in <138 days, I'll post some pictures of it.
The presence of the orthoclase feldspar distinguishes this rock from a diorite. Conversely, granite contains significant quartz and there's nary a speck of it in our counter top. Case solved, but who gives a rat's ass but me and Ren Thompson.
