Landscape 2: the Fence

We went board and batten because it's relatively inexpensive, fits the house, and we could build it ourselves (mostly). It starts with the footings. We had our landscapers pour the footings. They are heavy duty (2 feet deep), and doing it this way I feel good knowing that if a post ever rots it can be swapped out easily.


Al helps me set a post.


Posts all in, stained and cut to level. Once the top rail is on it'll be 6' high.


All pieces got stained before assembled. Hopefully that gives the fence a bit longer life. Here are the boards laid out on the bottom rails, ready to drop in once the top rails are routed, stained, and cut to length.


Pre-battens.


We're going to put battens on the inside as well once the landscaping is done. We also still need to decide on the gate (slab or board and batten) and put boards in at the bottom between the posts.




I'd like to thank our friends who volunteered to help us get the bulk of this up the first day. Thanks Danny B, Missi P, and BDC!

Up next, exposed aggregate concrete patio...

Landscape 1: Demo and Salvage

We're doing it, finally. The yard is getting tackled. We've completed demolition of the items that needed to come out, and saved what we could. 

Sorry pink concrete, your day has come. To those who feel it was a shame to tear this out, we had no choice. This was poured above grade and caused drainage problems for our den. It had to go. See ya!


We had it in the backyard too.


The view from the inside has changed.


These are good bricks. This is a stack I started a long time ago. The rest of the walkway bricks were pulled up and saved. We'll use them to make a new patio in the back yard, which I'll cover with a pergola hopefully this summer.


An old bottlebrush that was planted long ago too close to the house came out. The lesson here is to remember how big things can grow when you plant.


And down.


Careful with that bobcat, Carl!


Puppy on a barren landscape.


With the fence down and everything leveled, I could take a shot from the sidewalk. Our neighbor Al, an original owner, said this is kind of what the neighborhood looked like when he moved in, before all the fences and trees.


Up next, the new fence...

Master Bath Vanity

Before I get deep in it with a build out of kitchen cabinetry, I decided to test myself with a vanity for our master bath. Before this we had a pedestal sink, which was fine except it had no storage, and we are into storage these days.

I ordered the sink from ebay. It was the right size and shape for what I wanted to build. The legs are from trusty Ikea. The faucet is Hansgrohe. I used the 3/4" birch plywood for the cabinet and doors.

It starts with a plan. It was all in my head until I had the sink and legs in hand, then I could sketch out exact measurements. It was nice leaving the computer out of this project. Sorry computer.


Once again, the courtyard becomes the workshop.


You can see where I'm going here with the pulls. Doors both get a 45º angle cut on the back side where they meet at the top. The panel above them gets one facing out that aligns with both the doors.


Put together. I drilled the holes for the legs before finishing it, so here's a leg test. Okay so far.


Then I dropped the sink in to make sure there wasn't a catastrophic mismeasurement. Still okay!


Now we finish. I've been working on replicating the look of aged lacquer on birch plywood. I've tried a few different things, tung oil, shellac, stains. Tung oil is okay, but seems to work better on solid woods where it can really soak in deeply. Shellac is nice, but a bit too orange. Stains have the same issue as tung oil, in that they just don't seem to penetrate or have enough effect. This time I used Minwax's Polyshades in Pecan, satin. My theory is that most of that warm amber glow on the vintage cabinetry I've seen in the neighborhood is the lacquer yellowing, not a stain or the color of the wood per say. This stuff actually has the color in the polyurethane, so the color sits on top of the wood. I like the way this took and will probably do the same thing again next time.


I used these hinges. They're full-overlay, fully concealed and flush mount. They were easy to install and close nicely.


Installed! The plumbing only took 2 trips to the hardware store. They guy helping me said it would probably take 3.


Sink and faucet.


While I had the table saw out, I ripped a couple matching shelves.

11' x 21'

It's not a lot of space. Especially when you want the space to function as a designer's work room/laundry room/storage room/carpentry workshop. Here's the list of stuff that went in:

• 4' x 6' work table
• 4' long closet
• 7' long closet
• laundry with utility sink
• surfboard rack
• snowboard gear and other recreating supplies
• all cleaning supplies
• all the tools including the tablesaw
• essential clutter, cause it's gotta go somewhere

After sketching out several variations, it was decided that the work table going perpendicular to the room about 4' from the garage door was going to work best. This allowed the 2 closets that are on the same wall to be as long as possible. The short wall has all the laundry gear, and we went vertical with some shelving to get all the cleaning supplies in one space. It feels a little strange sharing this with the world, as it's not really showy-type stuff. But I thought it was worth sharing because when people ask "how do you live in a house with virtually no storage space?", well this is how. (This in conjunction w/ a massive drop at the goodwill).

The flooring is a coat of epoxy over a rough grind of the slab. This was done when the floors were polished. The lighting is the same track lighting as the Lanai.

Overview.


Designer's side.


Closet construction was based off the original closets in the bedrooms.


Carpentry/storage/surf side. Painted pegboard is cool.


A utility sink from the local restaurant supply shop was only a bit more than the cheapo utility sink at the big box store, but way more solid. Pine boards with a quick coat of polyurethane are cheaper and feel better to me than particle board shelving.


This door still has it's original coral color paint. I couldn't bring myself to paint it.

Nightstands - (prototypes?)

While we scrimp and save for our landscaping I've had some time to test my carpentry skills. I wanted to start with a set of nightstands for a couple reasons. First off, neither of us remember ever having nightstands. The thought of getting the books, clock, phones off the ground and up to eye level seemed very luxurious. Secondly, I wanted to see what I can do because I am considering building all the kitchen cabinetry.

It spent an afternoon designing and purchasing materials. The next day the pieces were cut and assembled. The following day they were sanded, stained and finished. Having built this first set I have a few ideas of how I could economize the process and improve the results... which got me thinking. What if I did a small run of these to sell on Etsy or some site like that? It's kind of a fantasy of mine to be able to do this for a living, but a little test run of ten or so might be fun if I can gauge enough interest. I would need to be able to sell them for around $250 a piece/$500 per set. Customers could select the cubby color, and even send me the paint to use if they wanted. Please leave any comments regarding the design, potential price, possible interest, or anything else really.

Having completed these and watched a lot of the DIY network programs lately, I am now leaning towards building the kitchen myself.

Here they are.


Legs attached with glue and counter-sunk screws. If I were going to build these to be disassembled and shipped I would need them to be bolted on instead.


Grain.


Back panels drop into a dadoed groove during assembly.


Birch plywood and rabbet joint.


Adjustable glides keep them from teetering.


They work!

Guest Bath

It's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and this one really came down to the wire. We have family coming in from out of town today and we just wrapped up painting last night. This was another major one as far as DIY'ing goes. We had a plumber do the rough-in plumbing and install the fixtures, but other than that it was all us. I gutted it, replaced some water damaged 2x4's, fixed some more suspect wiring, hung cement board in the tub surround and greenboard elsewhere. The lady of the house insisted that the tile go all the way to the ceiling, so there was a lot of glass tile cutting to do (since the ceiling is at a pitch). It took four days to install the tile and one long day to grout it.

There wasn't much original in this bathroom when we bought the house, so we had somewhat of a blank slate. But, we did have the original bathtub and ended up really designing the whole look around that. When shopping for tile we came across this glass mosaic gradient. We thought it would look great around the original blue tub. It sort of feels like water splashing, which we thought was fun and felt right for the place.

Once again I neglected to take photos from the start. So we join this project having already done all demo, plumbing rough-in, electrical, and hanging of the substrate. Here's the tub surround.


A nook was mandatory. The plumber had to do a few extra turns to make this possible. You can see I had to level it a touch.


That's a lot of tile...


"I want the tile to go all the way to the top".


And done.


I like having the old distressed concrete in here. I don't want everything to be new.


Here are a few shots peeking in from other areas.

Done, Done and Done

At this point, we can finally check off a few rooms as "done". The master bedroom, guest room, and office are all done. After we had the floors polished I had to install baseboards, then repaint. Next on the list is the landscaping in tandem with the guest bathroom.

The guest room:






The office:




And the master bedroom:






Dining area also is done: