A First Coat of Stain for the Chairs

Before we depart for a week in Florida, I got the first coat of stain onto both chair frames. It stank, it dyed my arms brown where is splashed and luckily it looks great.

And now we know: wear long sleeves when staining

Sewing the Chair Covers

As I caught a cold/flu/sore throat bug, the wood shop was not the place for me this week and I didn’t really have the energy anyways. I’ve been working on the covers for the chair cushions; there will be 4 in total @ 24” square by 4” deep. The fabric I got is a textured neutral that feels really soft and the piping will be a charcoal grey. A few weeks ago the cat helped me cut out the fabric, very helpful of her I might add.

I started by sewing all the piping, 8 strips of 8ft each, 2 for each cushion. Then came sewing the piping to the 24” square pieces and sewing a 4” band between each set of square. Once complete I headed to my mum’s and serged the inside of each cushion cover. The edges of the fabric were shedding so much that the cat was eating the strips and even pinking shears wouldn’t do the trick.

All 4 covers are now complete and ready to be put on the foam cushions and had sewn in place. Unfortunately I have only bought 2 of the foam inserts and ran out of batting to wrap them in so the actual assembly will have to wait till after the Christmas season.

And now we know: the cat really like to eat the strings that fray off the edge of the fabric…wonder how bad that is for her?

Sanding the Pair of Chairs

Since the frames are complete, my least favourite step (and my husband’s least favourite) was next. With my new orbital sander, downdraft table and dust collector all running, I got to work sanding the chairs down. A few very dusty hours later they are nice and smooth and ready for stain.

And now we know: I still think the downdraft table is not quite right; maybe even less holes or a tighter seal where the hose comes in? There is less dust but still loses suction as you work.

Assembling the Chairs

The chairs are progressing well and are now mostly assembled. It was slow going as I only have 1 corner clamp so I would glue and clamp 2 pieces, wait an hour, add the screws, then repeat with the next 2 pieces. Despite that, all went very smoothly until I started attaching the arm support on the 2^nd chair. I’d run out of my standard type of 2 ½” screws and found a box a friend had left at my house. After pre-drilling the holes, I started inserting the 2 screws. At about 2/3 of the way in both of the heads just snapped clean off. Had there not still been a gap between the 2 pieces of wood, it would have been fine to leave them in place but unfortunately I had to remove them somehow.

I tried hammering the wood together, using an extractor bit to remove them and adding more screws to pull the pieces together but nothing worked. Finally after a few days of contemplation and frustration, I borrowed my dad’s reciprocating saw and just cut right through the screws at the point between the 2 pieces of wood. I re-glued the pieces together, added a couple of screws (NOT from my friend’s box) and it looked good as new.

Also complete are the inner frames for the seat and back of both chairs. Webbing will be attached to these, and then they will be screwed in place from the inside so the frame remains without any visible connectors.

And now we know: there are different quality levels of screws and the cheap ones are really terrible

A Home Made Downdraft Table

After the suggestion from the sales guy to build a down draft table, Tom wanted me to do so before I sanded again. Using pine 1x6’s I had on hand, I built a 24”x36” frame with a 1x3 lip inside. On top of the lip would sit the sheet of peg board, so it would be removable to clean out the inside.

On one of the long side, I cut out a round hole and inserted a port to attach the dust collector to. I think the purple duct tape adds a little class to the whole project.

On first use, the amount of suction was not as much as expected. I added a band of duct tape to close off some of the holes around the edges which helped a lot. It still needs a bottom added but I need to acquire a larger sheet of plywood to do so.

And now we know: when building a downdraft table there is a balance of size to number of holes to suction. I’m not sure exactly how you determine the ideal ratio and don’t think I’ve achieved it yet.

Dust be Gone

Well I caved and we got a dust collection machine. Some early Christmas money came my way and instead of the router table I’ve been pining for, we went for the dust collector. It was really unpleasant working last weekend and this was something Tom had really been pushing for. A happy husband = a wife free to spend quality time in her shop!

We went to the store with the intention of purchasing a dust collection machine, which attaches to tools and sucks up large stuff, and an air cleaning machine, to filter the small stuff out of the air. After a long chat with the sales guy, he convinced us only the collector was required and if it wasn’t enough, a canister/filter thing could be purchased for the top at a later date that would help even more with the small stuff. This was great for the budget; the estimated cost of $700 was down to $250!

So the dust collector and 10 feet of hose came home with us. After putting it together (harder than it had to be as the instruction were crappy) we had fun testing it around the workshop. It is on wheels so will be easy to hook up to any of the machines and is surprisingly quiet.

With a few hours left before dinner I worked on my chairs some more. Using my new pocket hole jig I drilled holes on all the frame pieces except the arms. The pocket holes would be visible if I used them on the arms so I will be trying dowel joints for those. Using a new jigsaw blade I finished the cuts in the corners of the back rails and I even got some assembling done. The 2 sides and the front are now attached for both chairs.

And now we know: the sales guy gave us the greatest recommendation; built a downdraft table for sanding. It’s a box with pegboard for the top and you attach a port on one side to connect your dust collector to. When you sand overtop, the dust falls into the box and is sucked up by the collector. What an amazing idea, I am building one asap!

A Second Gallery Wall In the Dining Room & Adjustments to the Chair Prototype

The side of the dining room with the Monet print always felt unbalanced to me. The other side has lots of photos all in black frames and the print couldn’t compete. I shifted it into the front room leaving a big black wall

As we have traveled a lot and I like the pictures to be displayed so we can remember the good times, another gallery wall was in order. More black frames were collected, more photos were printed and I finally got around to hanging them. I like how the black balances out all the black on the other side.

Additionally some modifications to my chair prototype were in order, first and foremost some bars on the seat so we could actually sit in it to test it out. Here it is with sample cushions on it. The one for the seat will be the final dimensions (thickness and width) but the one for the back is just temporary, obviously it is too small and thin.

And now we know: the angle of the chair is good but it is too wide and the back needs to be higher. Having wooden bars as the seat and back is not comfortable; there is no give even with the cushion on top. I’m going to look into making a seat using webbing.

Painting the Stair Risers and the Trim

Lots of taping and brushing was involved but these stairs are finally looking good. I went with simple white on the risers and trim to really make the wood pop.

Although the stairwell and upstairs hall still need painting, I did get the baseboards painted. Unfortunately this just makes it more evident that the doors, door trim and railings need a paint job!

And now we know: this is a clear example of how projects can cascade, you do one thing and notice another, and another, and another…

Installing Kitchen Blinds

The blinds are done and the cat was very helpful in the install process. She not only chased the cords and tried to eat them every time they moved, but she actually stole one out of the blind and took it to another part of the house to play with. It was not fun working with cords wet from Kitteh saliva!

After I installed the piece of wood in each window, I held the blind up and marked the height. I removed the wood and stapled the fabric over the top, then screwed the wood back in place.

The hardest part was finding the little piece of hardware that you tie the cord to when they are raised. I now know that it is called a wall cleat and is located in the blind section of the hardware store.

And now we know: although this time was complicated, I think any future roman shades I make will be much easier.

The First Step for Chairs

I spent Sunday in my workshop…not alone for once. My friend came over to use my tools, she is making a set of wooden blocks in a box for her nephews first birthday.

My project was the chairs, I got my plans out and began cutting. All the cuts are straight or angles on the mitre saw, but the back rails were the tricky part. For strength I designed them as one piece with a straight section for the back then turned 150 degrees to form the back leg. To save money, I was planning to get 4 pieces out of a 2x8x8 board. This proved hard to do; the pieces would have to overlap and could not just be run through the table saw. My friend suggested we stand on either side of the table saw and slowly lower the board down, allowing us to cut in the centre without going in from an end. It worked great and I was able to rough cut all the pieces, and then do a more precise cut once all 4 were separated.

Unfortunately 2 people with saws and sander going for 6 hours creates a lot of dust. We both spent the day with our noses running and I ended up with sinus pain for the evening. The next morning I got a nosebleed. I’m finally convinced that we do need a dust collection machine as my husband has been saying for the past few months.

And now we know: having someone working in the shop with me is fun but takes coordination of how many things are plugged in/turned on on each electrical circuit. Also black wood makes the nastiest sanding dust and gets on everything.

Painting the Front Room

I painted the front living room before we moved into the house and it has never been quite right. The shade of blue and the curtains were just slightly off and it bothered me to no end.

For the past month I’ve had paint swatches up on the wall, I started with blues and went through the whole spectrum from grey-blues to turquoises. I could never find the perfect shade that would go with everything and still be something I loved. Finally I went for what a really wanted; purple!

Unfortunately my husband was no so happy with this new direction; he flat out vetoed the dark red-purples and was very unhappy I was painting at all. He loves blue, never mind that almost every room in our house is blue as it is the 1 colour he agrees to easily. Still I went ahead and chose a grey mid tone purple.

My mum came to help me paint for the day and a few hours later the room was transformed. I am very happy with the new colour, it seems less matchy-matchy and more interesting to me. Tom just grunted ‘my living room is purple’ when he saw it. This really should have been a project done while he was away for the weekend.

I also tackled another eyesore, the upstairs hallway. The patching and spot priming had been done for a while but I was not looking forward to painting all those hard to reach spots. Turns out that paint and primer stuff was sh#t. It took and entire can to do 1 coat and it is super streaky. For the second coat I am switching back to the cheaper, yet less craptastic stuff. Another $30 bites the dust. On the positive going from cream to white has made it much brighter. On the negative the trim now looks even worse.

And now we know: I don’t actually know what is the point of paint and primer in one if you still have to do 2 coats and you wouldn’t have primed anyways? Same amount of work more cost.

Visit to the Wood Store

Off to one of my favourite places; the wood store. Too bad its hours are terrible, but anyways. I got up early Saturday and headed out with a friend. I was looking for wood for the pair of chairs I want to build, maybe oak cause it is hard with lots of grain but is cheaper than other species like maple. My friend was looking for a variety of woods in small quantities to make a block set with.

This was a very lucky trip for me, I wanted to spend as little as possible and it ended up being about $150 for all the wood I needed. We both started in the leftover cuts section, where the pieces are not full length, mostly 24” to 48” sections of all sizes and species. There was not enough 2x2’s in white oak, so I went with red oak and got all the pieces I needed except for the 2x8x8 to cut the back rails from. This I got from their stock and it was almost half of the total cost. Not only did we save a ton of money with the small pieces, but we could close the truck on our way home.

I finished 4 of the 5 items on my to-do list before I bought the wood. Seems pretty good to me and the last thing, which was to fix the latch on the bedrooms door, is not urgent anyway.

And now we know: it takes some time and pre-planning to sort through the cut pieces to get what you need but the amount you save is amazing.

Blinds for the Kitchen

At night time and in the morning before the sun rises you feel really exposed in our kitchen. There’s nothing like standing at the counter making breakfast in your pjs with crazy hair when your neighbour comes out to empty his compost into the bin.

Roman shades are nice, so I decided to sew some. Unfortunately I dislike following a pattern, so quickly veered off on my own path with mixed results.

I didn’t want horizontal stitching to show on the front of the blind as it would have detracted from the graphic pattern. After watching a tutorial on youtube, I was amazed by the power of jewel glue and glued the wood battens to the fabric instead of sewing them. It worked well and no glue seeped through the fabric. The ribbon with little rings got attached to the lining and I turned the whole thing inside out.

Somewhere around this time the cat tried to help and broke one of the wooden battens glued to the blind. More glue to the rescue and you couldn’t even tell. Luckily I then tested them and realised that because only the front fabric and not the lining was attached to the batons, the lining ballooned out when the front folded nicely. It is hard to describe but basically it looked really bad. More of the magical glue to the rescue; I glued the baton to the lining as well and was good to go.

Now they are sitting in the dining room, waiting to be hung. Why are they waiting? Well to be installed they need strips of wood at the top which I still need to cut and paint white to match the trim.

And now we know: there are some really rad sewing videos from the eighties on youtube; mauve and floral wallpaper everywhere!

Insulating the Eaves and Attic

Not a project to look forward to, but we sure are glad its done! When we took out the old blown insulation in July, we intended to put new stuff back the next day. Three months later it was still as empty as the day we cleared it out.

When we reached October and the weather got colder, nights were not pleasant in out house. We were already using the comforter and fleece blanket on our bed. It was time to re-insulate so our first free weekend we got into our suits and got to work.

In the eaves we put R22 between the studs with a layer of vapour barrier on top. Tom hung out in the hall cutting and I hung out in the crawlspace installing and stapling. After laying down R40 on the floor, the eave was done. About an hour and a half of work but it made a huge difference to the temperature on the 2^nd level.

The week before we hired a contractor to fix the bathroom vent so it actually vented outside. While he was up in the attic, he noticed a lack of insulation in some areas. So while I was in my suit, I climbed up there and added a little more insulation to the floor. It was really dusty and poorly lit, giving the whole space a kind of ethereal vibe.

And now we know: hanging out in a 2 foot high attic space with poor lighting and insulation floating around is not something I want to do again. It probably will be done because I am cheap and Tom is claustrophobic, but I will not enjoy it. Installing insulation in the eaves on the other hand was a lot less work that anticipated and a lot more pleasant when it was not 30 degrees out.

Installing the Door Jamb

The lovely jamb I built the previous weekend was all set and ready to be installed. I gave it a light sand and got to work filling in that hole.

I added some shims to level it out and tried nailing it in place. Unfortunately the edges started to split. Screws would have left giant holes, so I used a ton of adhesive and glued it in place. This is a low traffic area and I did add a couple of screws in a hidden spot at the back, so hopefully it will stay in place. It still needs to be stained or a clear coat added so it blends in a bit more with the existing floors.

And now we know: was not too hard to install and really makes a difference to have the gap covered up.

Cutting a Door Jamb

One of the things on my to-do-in-the-future-sometime list was to fill in the gap in the floor under the new door we installed in the upstairs hall. It has been sitting in this state for a year and a half now and looks pretty bad.

The gap is about 4 inches and both sides have the same wood flooring, so my plan was to patch it with left over maple flooring from the backroom install. When I test fit a piece I realized that not only were the pieces different heights, but the wood below was uneven and the flooring edges were not straight. So I ruled out the floorboards. Then I thought a pre-made wood jamb would work, unfortunately they only come 3 ¼” wide so that was too small.

A custom jamb it is! I used leftover maple from the dining table project, patched 2 pieces together, cut them down, angled the edges and created a lip along the underside edges. The final project is a little wonky, but once it is sanded and installed, you will never know.

And now we know: patching floors in an old house is never easy

Re-painting the Dining Room Chairs

I was kinda bored one evening and the different colours of the dining room chairs began to bother me. I had 6 originally that I painted brown and then I got 2 more but was sick of the brown so painted them black. I always meant to go back and repaint the original 5 (one had broken) but it was never a priority. Much to Tom’s pleasure, I got out the paint and set up shop in the back room. You can really see the difference when they are side by side.

It looks much improved with a fresh coat (or 2) of paint and now they all match nicely. They still need some bracing below though, some of the older chairs are getting rickety….

And now we know: matching chairs, what a revolutionary idea! Looks much better

Finishing the End Table

Before I can buy the wood to build my chairs I have to do the following 5 things:

1 – finish the little end table for the front room

2 – sand and paint the stairs

3 – patch the floor underneath the closet door in the upstairs hall

4 – replace the drawer glides on my dresser

5 – fix the door handle on our bedroom door

This list was part self imposed (giving myself a reward for doing all the less fun little projects) and part imposed by my lovely husband (he hates when I have a bunch of stuff on the go). So here I am on my first task, staining and clear coating the end table I built.

I used water based stain to match the end table already in the room. This time I found it almost opaque and the top turned out almost solid brown. All the detail of the herringbone pattern is lost. For the sake of completion I left it as is and put a coat of polycrilic on top…but one day I will strip the top and use a lighter colour or something.

It looks good in place, matching but not identical to the one at the other end of the sofa. If you squint your eyes you can almost see the pair of lamps on either table that I will one day be able to afford

And now we know: the Minwax water based stains now have to be mixed at the paint counter and seem to be much more opaque. I will stick with the oil based in the future.

First Steps to Building a Chair

I would really like to replace the turquoise chair in the back room with a pair of chairs. Couldn’t you image it as a nice little reading corner with comfy chairs and the windows on both sides? Unfortunately the kind of chairs I want are expensive, about $400 each. Not really in the budget right now. Instead I’ve been playing with plans to build some. Here is the first version:

Since it is hard to judge the comfort level from a plan, this project seemed to need a trial version first. $14 of cheap lumber later, I started constructing the frame. Immediately it became apparent that cutting the back angled pieces out of 1 piece of wood with a jigsaw or circular saw was not a fun idea. It was too imprecise for my taste and there was too much room for error. Also the circular saw was a hand-me-down and is ancient and I took it as a bad sign when smoke started appearing almost immediately…. I already have an idea of how to better design this part.

And now we know: I’m glad I did a trial version this time, I think the chair is a little low to the ground, even when the 3 or 4 inch cushion is added. I am still undecided if they are too big overall, at 24” wide and almost 30” deep, they see really large. Though there is the width of the cushions to consider.

New Throw Pillows for the Back Room

Over a year ago I sewed some covers for the 2 throw pillows that live on our sofa in the back room. At the time I picked up some pretty fabric that toned in with the cream and blues and was happy with them.

But suddenly they started looking a little bland, then I found a post online showing how to use striped fabric to make herringbone and then I found a nice red and white strip that was just the right scale. So I decided new covers were in order. Herringbone on one side and striped with a button on the other.

I think the room needed the extra colour and contrast on the sofa.

And now we know: always measure both pillows, even if they look the same size. Turned out one was an inch bigger and I will now be buying another form for the new cover.

Updating the Front Room Bookcases

We inherited these 4 old bookcases – 3 faux wood with gold trim that came with the house and 1 lower one from Tom’s aunt. Soon after moving in I painted them all white with melamine paint.

Over the past couple of years out book collection has grown and we’ve run out of space on our hand-me-down shelves. I chose to add an additional shelf to each of the 3 tall bookcases. To start I adjusted all the existing shelves so the openings were more evenly spaced, including drilling all new holes as the existing ones are never in the right place, and ensured they were aligned all the way across. I then cut 3 new shelves, sanded, primed and painted them.

Installation involved drilling more screws and then re-arranging all the books so they look good. A small and easy project after the table building adventure.

And now we know: they no longer sell melamine paint, I won’t miss the smell…