Headboard Progress

I haven't made any progress on the headboard in close to a month. The combination of rain and other activities has really slowed me down. I hoped to work on it today but I'm not sure I will because of the rain again. It's not that I can't work in the rain, but it isn't particularly pleasant. Anyway, I thought I'd put out a brief update on what I've got so far. I updated the design slightly to avoid the baseboards and to allow us to add crown molding later if we want. I also made my plans more detailed as you can see in the picture.

The previous picture didn't even show the tables which I have completed building. They are 14 inch squares made from four pieces of oak. Just for these little pieces, I used a planer, miter saw, jointer, biscuit joiner, and sander. They turned out looking great; I just have to figure out how to attach them now.

And last but not least, I've already put up most of the boards. Compared to the two that are left, these were fairly easy but it did take some time to get them up there straight and evenly spaced. I used keyholes in the backs of the boards placed so that I just needed to get two level rows of screws in the wall with the correct spacing. It took some time and diligence but worked perfectly.

More Garage Lighting and Upcoming Projects

E and I have decided that our next big project will be the "headboard" for our bed. I put that in quotes because it isn't exactly a headboard but I can't think of a better description either. It's actually more like wall art over and around the bed. Confused yet? The picture below is a rough sketchup of the design.

There are actually a few details missing. There will be small tables on each side of the bed cantilevered out from the boards there and some pendant lights that hang down above the tables. Again, hard to explain but we hope to have it done soon so I should be able to put up some pictures. I've already got the middle boards ready to be stained. I cut keyholes in them for hidden mounting to the wall.

The reference to more garage lighting is that I installed two more lights in the garage like the others. I wired them to the existing switch so I can get some pretty good light in there. The motivation was that we are in a pretty rainy season but there wasn't enough light to stain wood with the garage door closed. There is plenty of light now!

The other "upcoming project" I'm actually just about to go do. Because of tree roots, there are some steps in our sidewalk and the community association has been complaining. There is a whole frustrating story there because the steps in our sidewalk are nothing like some of the others around the neighborhood. We figure that someone on the board must live on our street. Anyway, I bought some concrete and I'm going to try to build "ramps" like the association requested. We'll see how it goes.

Kitchen Makeover: Part II

Elizabeth and I have done a lot of work on our kitchen. Like I said in Part I, we really didn't like the kitchen when we moved in so we started making changes immediately. However, there was some fairly significant design changes to make, so we started off slow (again, see Part I). I am now going to start talking about the major changes. Unfortunately, we did not document the work very well in pictures but at least you can see the results. As a reminder, I've put in a before pic.

The first thing E and I did was refinish all of the cabinets, doors, and drawers. We wanted them to be darker than they were so we just did a light sanding job and then put a couple of coats of a darker stain on. Next, Elizabeth's dad, Kim, helped me to tear out the old countertops, all of the old tile, and the drywall that was behind the tile. He and I then reinforced some of the joinery in the wall with some 2x4 and installed some undercounter lighting that I rewired with appropriate wire so that I could run it through the wall and connect it to the existing switch for the sink light. Lastly, we installed tile backerboard for the new tile that would be installed.

E and I then had Silestone countertops put in along with a new sink, faucet, and cooktop we had purchased. Of course, I then had to figure out how to adjust the plumbing to work with the new sink layout and I had to hook the new cooktop up to the gas line that we had run. We also had a professional do the electric conversion from a hardwired 240V to a 120V plug for the new cooktop. Here are some pictures of the work and results and there are more in the House Album.

Finished Coffee Table

The coffee table assembly was not particularly difficult. I just cut the wood down to size and rounded the corners slightly. I then used a drill press to drill the appropriate holes. Of course, hole placement is very important so I used a jig to help with that.

I bought the 1/4" polished aluminum from a metal place on I-45 but I had to buy a 12 foot piece and cut it down. I used a hack saw which was a nice workout. Of course, I then assembled the piece and stained it but I couldn't get the stain off of the aluminum so I had to cut four more pieces to replace the ruined ones. Oh well, lesson learned and the finished product looks great.

Ottomans

After a little distraction, it's time to get back to documenting my woodworking and home improvement projects. The one I'm going to start talking about today is the coffee table and ottomans that I built. Elizabeth had gotten this idea to build a glass-top coffee table with room for four ottomans to add more sitting room in our living room. She picked out the fabric she wanted to use early on but we hadn't settled on a table design. Since the ottomans were pretty much figured out and because I wanted to have them built before starting the table (for final dimensions), I went ahead and built the ottomans.

The boxes are made of 1x2 stock with 1/4" plywood sides and a 3/8" plywood top. I put this all together with brad nails, a hammer, and a nail set to countersink the nails. This wasn't too bad for the first box but after four, I really wished I had bought a nail gun. The legs are made from four pieces of 2x2 oak that I planed and glued to make a 3" leg. I then mitered angles and cut them to length to match our sofa legs (though smaller of course). These are fastened to the bottom with screws.

Once the boxes were done, E took over. She cut and glued the padding, sewed and stapled the covers, and covered and attached the buttons. These were a lot of work but I think the results were worth it. I'll talk about the table design and show the results later.

Need a nap? Make a bed.

Well, this seems like an appropriate time to write about the bed that I built. I am supporting the STS-121 Shuttle flight by providing engineering and analysis support for my company's Laser Camera System which is being used for on-orbit inspection of the Space Shuttle. Unfortunately, my shift is from 2:30 am to 11:30 am, so I am pretty tired right now and could use a nice bed to lay down in...

This project was my first real woodworking project as well as part of my motivation to pick up the hobby. E and I knew we would need a new bed when we moved into the house and we had found some beds we liked but they were all extremely expensive dispite being quite simple in design...so I said "I can make that" and a hobby was born. The bed is a pretty simple platform made from pine stock with stained oak on the finished surfaces. The pictures below show the platform and what it looks like with the bed made (it seems this picture was taken before the last board was attached so ignore the little gap).

The basic form is pretty simple with 2x6 pine creating a frame including a middle beam for support and 1x4 pine used for the slats. The slats are held in place by slots routed in the ends of the boards and dowels embedded in the side pieces (there are some detail photos in the projects photo album). The thing that makes the project interesting is that I wanted to be able to take it apart but I didn't want exposed screws or bolts so I created T-slots (see right). By using these slots and embedding the nut in the footboard, I was able to hide the fasteners but maintain the ability to dismantle the bed in the future.