Fixin' up the Bungalow

Survived the Home Tour.

Home Tour Visitors
Originally uploaded by gizmodyne

The Bungalow Heaven Home Tour came and went last Sunday. Over 1000 people came through the house and we had an overall great experience. People were very complementary of the work we had done. Our friends and family came over in the afternoon and we all enjoyed a drink on the new deck.

On to a slower pace.

Our Custom Bungalow Style Fridge.

If you have followed my blog, you know that I had a massive hole in the kitchen wall.

The project is made from recycled douglas fir.

I painted the stainless fridge trim of the fridge with black epoxy paint.

After the fridge install, I was left with a gaping hole above it.

Here is the finished shot with the area trimmed out. Brass pulls.

I am very happy with this project!

Fridge Panels Part 2

Fitting the doors
The doors are held on with a piece of metal trim that protrudes from the sub door of the fridge.

I decided to use a method where a 1/4” backer board is inserted into the trim and then my doors are screwed into place from the back.

I soon realized it is much easier to fit my doors when the fridge doors have been removed and are laying flat.

In the above picture I had already fit the freezer door. I did not take photos of this but you will see the entire process on the upper doors.

I reattached the door to the fridge box.

You can see a center line in the above picture. I sized the freezer door with the desired side reveal of a 1/4.

Aligning the beadboard
My goal was to align the beadboard of the upper doors to the freezer door. When I built the upper doors I made them roughly half the size of the lower door. Each door contains a full piece of beadboard that I could reference to the center line of the freezer door.

Here are both untrimmed fridge doors resting on the installed freezer door. The centers and horizontals are perfectly aligned, but the edges are too wide on the uppers.

I marked the overhang.

Then I trimmed the edge.

I had earlier built a prototype door (basic frame cut to exact size).

Based on the new reference edge of the outside, I came back and trimmed the interior edges for the size of the prototype.

Installing backer panel
I cut 1/4” baltic birch to the specified size.

I then persuaded the panel into place.

Note: Unsafe stool standing.

Rabbeting the doors
The doors are rabbeted to create a 1/8” relief. This allows them to recess into the panel. I set up a single flat bottom blade and carefully nibbled the distances.

TEST BLOCK

Rabbeted doors. Rabbet on top, bottom and right edge.

Then I held the pieces on temporarily with clamps…

... to check the reveal…

Looking good.

Next time
I fancy up the backer board and start finishing. Plus making stainless steel trim go bye bye.

Fridge Panels Part 1

The Hole in My Kitchen
For the past two years we have lived with a hole in the wall of the kitchen where the fridge was. I was going to turn this into a pantry, but we decided to put the fridge back in.

We found a fridge that would accept custom panels. It is 36” wide. and only 24” deep to the doors.

We had to cut back one stud in the wall to accommodate the depth and reinforce the floor for the weight, but the hole/nook is ready for the fridge.

Design
I drew up several designs in SU and settled on the one on the right.

The panels are beadboard with domino-ed bread board ends.

Preparing Stock
I have documented this process several times in my dishwasher and cabinet progress, but here goes.

All stock is reclaimed fir headed to the dumpster and acquired for free from local construction projects.
I comb it with a metal detector and cut to rough length. Time: 2 hours. Cost: Free

I re-sawed all stock in half on the bandsaw.

I left the stock to acclimate for a few days.

I did not take any shots of the stock milling process but it is well documented on my other blogs.

Joinery
Using the table saw ran grooves on both sides of the stock to accept splines. (no pic) This time I sized the grooves to accept 1/4” plywood. Much quicker than milling 1/4” stock.

After crosscutting, I ran the center v-groove on the rounter table using a 45 degree bit. I set up the table with two fences. If the board were to kick away from the first fence the groove would get off center.

The grooves left by the bit are fuzzy in fir, so I ran the edge v-grooves on the table saw. These are really just half of the groove, but look like a full v when two pieces are set edge to edge.

Here is a picture of the milled b-board with grooves.

The breadboard ends are attached with dominos. Here I set the layout for the first piece. I need to trim the edge of the panel, so I placed the domino off center.

I reinforced two of the lateral joints on each of the upper doors where the door pull would stress the joint.

Here is the large freezer panel during glue up.

Afterward I trimmed it to fit and exactly center the beadboard pattern (more on the math involved here next time).
It was freezing in the shop this morning (for So. Cal).

Final shot: Glue dries on a fridge door panel.

Next time
Fitting the panels on the fridge

Home Tour Madness and the Deck

Originally Published at www.lumberjocks.com/gizmodyne

Home Tour Madness
In two weeks (April 26) our house is going to be featured on the neighborhood home tour. Over 1000 people will be walking through…. gulp.

I have a to-do list longer than my arm.

I’ll give you more details on that later.

Item 50: Build Deck
Previously we had a crummy set of dilapidated stairs leading to our back door.

After some poorly planned landscaping we ended up with a dirt circle. Seen behind me in this picture. On the upside it was a good place to finish furniture.

We hired a contractor to build the foundation of the deck, but I wanted to have a hand in it, so I decided to lay all of the decking and install built-in benches.

Hidden Deck Fastener System Thingies
We decided to use Eb-Ty deck fasteners and avoid holes in the top of the deck. They are fairly easy to install.

1. Cut biscuit slot at joist intersection.

2. Drill screw into biscuit.

The real evil thing is fixing bowed decking. For that I used a Cepco BoWrench: Very cool tool that hooks onto a joist and lets you straighten out boards.

So the deck laying is easy, but time consuming; about two sixteen-footers per hour.

Benches
I drew up a plan for built-in deck benches based on a drawing from the Sunset Deck Book.

I tested a few locations.

I notched out the 4×4’s to sit around the beam….

...and bolted the heck out of them with 1/2” carriage bolts.

I did something new this project. I printed my Sketchup Drawing’s full-size, glued them onto plywood and made templates. Very cool use of Sketchup.

Template for Rails

What’s a project without a new tool? My new Ridgid OSS smooths the curves.

I spent many nights working on this project. Here I am last Sunday under the flood lights. The short rails were attached with deck screws covered by plugs. The long rails were attached with pocket screws.

I built a little jig to hold the top pieces at 6” cantilever.

Plywood spacers set the distance between boards.

More night Work.

!!
in the rain.

Almost done now… Just need to finish the plugs.

Deck ends have been cut square after this picture was taken

Next up
Refrigerator Panels.

Won't you be my neighbor?

Buy my neighbor's house.
Originally uploaded by gizmodyne

My neighbor's house has been a rental for years. It is finally for sale. They are asking $590,000 but I bet you can work something out.

It actually has some great details but needs exterior paint, a garage, a driveway and lots of TLC.

Bonus. You get to live in historic Bungalow Heaven next to a guy who will help you with house projects. Plus we are quiet.

Write me for the listing. I get no cut, I just want to live next to nice people.

Refinished cabinet

Refinished cabinet
Originally uploaded by gizmodyne

Here are the finished results of the cabinet refinishing project started two years ago. Custom hinges and all. Check out my lumberjocks site for more details.

Live Webstream: How to Stain Douglas Fir.

I am going to do another informal broadcast tonight at 8:00 p.m. PACIFIC. I will demonstrate my technique for staining douglas fir. Staining fir is my specialty, but I am a slob. So come take it all in. Sorry for the late notice and late time East Coasters. :)

Sign up for a ustream.tv login so I recognize you.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gizmodyne

Recap of the last year and a half.

How does this happen? I have been working in off and on on the house projects since summer.
Last time I wrote here, we were just having the floors done.

Living Room
Here is the after shot.

Looking back the other way

The inglenook

Dining Room
With the addition of the Stickley Table we hosted a great Christmas Dinner.

Kitchen
I built and installed the custom dishwasher panel

I stained and installed the remaining doors and drawers for the kitchen cabinet.

Stained and installed a swinging door.

I also stained three of the original cabinet doors which I am standing next to in the above photo.