Weekend Update - The Grand De Dusting

We had a successful weekend on the house we finally got the kitchen de-dusted and Chris did a very impressive job replicating the trim on the two windows that we added. I spent Sunday night shellacking the wood, a process I am not going to do again that dyed shellac is a total and complete pain in the ass to work with but I committed myself early in the process and at this point I just need it to match. I'm going to see how dying the polyurethane or using the dye to make an alcohol stain works with the pine in future projects I also want to tame the color a bit as it turned out a bit darker when brushed than I intended. Anyways on to the photos...

Plaster

First off I will answer the question why in the heck did we decide to plaster in the first place. The first and totally impractical reason is that I just happen to like it. The second and much more practical reason that we decided to try plaster is that it has the benefit of of a flexible depth, which is very handy when transitioning from new wall surface to the old. If you have ever attempted to compensate for a difference in surface wall heights using joint compound you will know what I am talking about.

We decided to use a veneer plaster system we were able to find blueboard at our local home improvement store as well as Diamond Veneer Finish Plaster. However the prefered method is not to use just the finish plaster but to have a basecoat in between. Of course they didn't carry the basecoat so I went on a wild goose all over town. The moral of the story is don't screw around with the home improvement stores when you can go right to the building supply place.

The plaster turned out ok, it was hard work and although in general I improved on every wall I did I have a long way to go I ended up having to sand high spots and fill the low spots with spackle. Would I do it again? Yes, but I'm going to need awhile to recover.

Let there be light

Just a quick post. After a year the kitchen now has light again!!


The two lights in the center of the room are actually on a 3 way switch so we no longer have to trapse through the kitchen to turn on the light. Instructions for wiring a 3-way with two lights can be found here http://www.electrical-online.com/3wayvariation6.htm. Despite being a more complicated design then the last 3 way switch I did this one actually worked on the first time. I am beyond trilled! I would also like to praise the ideal drill attachment for use with drills my hands hurt now I can only imagine how much they would have hurt without the help of that attachment.

December / January Kitchen Progress

Progress is still slow on the kitchen but rather than making a huge push and burning out we're taking a more steady approach.

What's New... Well the back door is back in it's rightful place after a $200 + Electric/Gas bill I didn't think we could afford to wait any longer. Unfortunately I didn't get the frame completed like I wanted to so we'll need to take the door off the hinges again here when it gets warmer out to finish up.

I found matches for the vent covers that we have in the downstairs kitchen and bath. I'm not sure if they were original to the house or not but I think they are well suited anyways. I was able to get three but I'm still keeping my eye out for one more for the office so all of the downstairs will match. The one on the right is the original from our house and the shiny one on the left is one of the ones I got off of Ebay. I'm leaning strongly towards repainting the ones I got from Ebay as they have a little rust on them and they aren't quite the right color.
Also the kitchen has some new insulation and is missing a rather large swath of wall when the outlets and backsplash are going to go.

I am also looking into Veneer Plastering to fix the missing pieces of wall that we have obtained over the course of this project however I am having some difficulty coming up with materials in this part of the world. I have a call into a local plastering company I'm hoping that they will be able to point me in the direction of a supplier.

New tools... Whoo hoo

Just got back from Menards where Chris and I bought each others Christmas Presents I bought him a laser level.
and he got me a detail sander
I'm about to head downstairs to test it out and hopefully get the kitchen door finished up. the manual sanding definitely put a damper on the speed of that project.

Snow is starting to fall here

So begins my ambitious task for the week. I figure if I write this up here there will more of a chance of completing it.

Hmm remember the kitchen door from oh May. With the impending doom aka cold weather it needs to be back in it's place ASAP

Monday - Finish applying poly to the edges of the pantry door. [edit: -- Done]
Tuesday - Reinstall hardware on the pantry door and bring upstairs. Apply shellac to the dining room door kitchen side. [edit: -- Done]
Wednesday - Apply 3 coats of poly to the dining room door kitchen side. [edit: -- Done *Only used 2 coats of Poly]
Thursday - Reinstall hardware on dining room door. Bring kitchen hallway door down to the basement. Remove glass and begin removing paint using the heat gun. Sand door frame to kitchen.
Friday - Finish removing paint from kitchen side of door by heat gun and chemical strippers.
Saturday - Remove varnish from hallway side of door. Begin sanding kitchen side of the door
Sunday - Shellac door frame. Finish sanding and clean up workshop.

Plumbing woes

For some inexplicable reason when we shower on the second floor the plumbing leaks in the basement. At this point in the game I've come to expect these things however this one has me nervous.

It's difficult to see in this picture but the plumbing from the upstairs shower comes into the basement by the blue arrow to the right side of the stack. The leak is occurring on the left side of the stack under the downstairs tub drain where we have rigged up the bucket. I'm thinking that no matter what it ends up being the remaining galvanized waste pipes will probably be getting the heave ho.