Oh boy, we've got some catching up to do...

Since we last spoke, I've taken on quite a bit. Some light construction around the house and a whole lot of woodworking, both here and at the school. Let's back up to December.

Back in December, my Dad came down from Salem to help me with some of the kitchen.

Dad was able to help me get the drywall up both in the bathroom, kitchen and kitchen ceiling. The interesting thing about a ceiling with heating coils is that it is substantially thicker than one sheet of drywall. Unfortunately, not quite as thick as two sheets of drywall. In the picture above, Dad has some of the exposed coils covered in mud and has a lot of joint compound around the perimeter of the drywall where the wall and closet used to be.
Early in January, I finally got to milling down some lumber that a client had brought to me to make some massive salmon fillet boards.








 Glue-up finally got started in June.

January also held the opportunity to build a jig to cut half-lap joints on my router table.


I spent some time steelhead fishing (unsuccessfully) with Bill and learned how to make his version of brownies.

Press an entire batch of chocolate chip cookie dough into a 9x13 baking dish. Layer Oreo and Nutter Butter cookies on top. Pour an entire batch of brownie mix over everything. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Absolutely amazing.

January also held the opportunity to re-work some furniture from college into something a bit smaller and more useful to me now...namely, reducing the height of the wine rack by about 12 inches.







February was mainly a few trips, the acquisition of pole vault pads for the track team and gobs of pictures of the kiddo.

In March, I whipped up a new storage solution for the air tools in the shop at school.


I also started working on the pad cart for the track team in earnest.








Toward the end of May, I finally got around to replacing the top to my workbench at home with something a little better than the OSB that was there before. A bit bigger to boot.

I'll get a picture of the final product from the couple soon.

I was also honored with the privilege of being the best man in my best friend's wedding. I also got to make the "guestbook" and the groomsman gifts as well. 

Once school got out for the summer, I was able to finish the texture and paint for the new kitchen wall as well as paint the rest of the living room. Most recently, I purchased a table saw, got to see an original Enigma encoding machine, built a drum sanding table for my drill press and got the corbels almost finished for the kitchen island. 

That's a good start...

Call For Other Shop Teachers

I'm currently at a conference with 1400 other teachers and I am having trouble finding other shop teachers.

There was a list of Twitter hashtages and "shop" wasn't in any of them. I would love to collaborate with more shop teachers and would love this conference to possibly help with that.

Any help?

Countertops

Now, in my last posting, I was talking about this island I built for the kitchen. Casters, cabinets, turkey, etc...

Truth be told, I suffer from a disease called, "shiny object syndrome." It's more common than you may think. We ended up cancelling school this week because of snow and ice. This left me with a week of time at the house with nothing to do but several dozen projects around the house. The obvious choice would be to work on the kitchen island, so naturally I attacked the bamboo in the back yard again.

Pre-Cutting

When we moved in, the bamboo was thick and slowly encroaching upon the lawn. I cut it back to the fence two years ago and it seems to have returned because of the bamboo behind the fence. My hope is that by cutting the bamboo in sub-freezing temperatures I might be able to kill it by freezing it. We'll find out soon enough.

Post-Cutting

If the freezing method doesn't work, I have a jug of concentrated Crossbow that might do the trick. I've read that it's essentially impossible to get rid of, but I need to try.

Okay, where were we? Oh year, kitchen island. 

Before I attached the new countertop, I had to build up the substructure so that I could attach some decorative molding to the outside edge. I used some 3/4" pine on edge that I cut to final thickness so that the substructure would be level enough to put the particleboard on.

Other than ripping stock on the radial saw in the garage, I did everything with hand tools. It ended up being faster to use a tenon saw and a bench hook than marking and walking to the garage to use the miter saw for every cut. 

One of the base cabinets, has two angles that would have proven to be tricky had it not been for a sliding t-bevel. (For any of my students reading this, the sliding t-bevel is the thing in the middle of the picture with the wood handle and the metal stabby thing on one end.)

After the corner section, it went pretty quickly.

If I had to do this again, I would have added some extra sub-structure between the two cabinets in the center, I think it would have made the panels line up a bit better.

Once that was done, I had to cut the panels to size and attach them. Attaching them was not all that bad. I had decided to chalk lines for the substructure to begin with but later decided that it was just a bit faster to just eyeball it and drive lots of nails. 

Unfortunately, the two panels used for the top didn't end up quite as perfectly flush as I had originally hoped. I had originally thought about using a belt sander to sand the ridge out, but ended up using a card scraper. It didn't originally occur to me to use the scraper, but I wanted to avoid getting too much dust in the kitchen.

The screws actually hold up a piece of pine underneath the panels. The seam had no support underneath so there was quite a sag, I fixed it with something out of the scrap bin. 

It turned out that the card scraper did the trick quite well and only took me five or six minutes to level the entire seam. 

Next was the scary part. I had about $170 into the laminate top and I knew that if I set it down on the top after the adhesive was down and it was done wrong, I'd be out that money and three days worth of time. With some careful planning and some help from Lucinda, it went well. The adhesive really "stings the nostrils" once the can is open. I worked as fast as I could, but it stank and it was inescapable. 

With the adhesive down, it was time to lay the laminate. It went down quite easily. I didn't have a "J-Roller" (I'm still not sure what one is, but Bob Vila says to use one.) so I ended up using the chamfered edge of a 2x4 that I had in the garage from a previous project and a lot of pressure. 

After some quick routing with the trim router, it was as done as it was going to get for a while. 

The (almost) finished product

Kitchen is Closer...

It's been long enough now, that I don't really remember where I left off. So I suppose we'll start with the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

In anticipation of moving the pipes below, I cut out a section of drywall in the bathroom to expose the pipes from the back such that the plumber would be able to move the angles into the wall.

We wanted the pipes inside the wall as we're putting a cabinet where they are currently. The only problem with the plan was in my quest for somewhat perfection. In wanting the saw cuts to be straight, I attached a strip of plywood to the wall to act as a straightedge. Unfortunately, when I sank a screw into what I thought was a wall stud, I had in fact put it into a section of 3/4" copper pipe...which happened to be the main water intake for the house...with no valve between the hole and the street.

So after putting the screw back in so that it would slow the leak, I waltzed outside and shut off the main at the street...Lucinda called the plumber.

As it came to pass, the valve that was in the wall near the hole (among being a mess installed in 1965 the likes of which the plumber had never seen) prevented the plumber from an easy fix. He ended up having to cut out a section of pipe with a reciprocating saw and installing some pex and a couple of shark bites.

After this mishap, it would actually take about a week and a half to get the plumber back to the house. Apparently, he had other work to do...or something like that. In the mean time, we had the electrician to the house to do all of the work for the kitchen, this included:

• Moving a thermostat as well as the 220V power associated with the ceiling heat for the living room.
• Moving the overhead lighting switch for the kitchen to the other side of the room.
• Moving the electrical runs for the microwave and the range.
• Installing a new run to service the washer and an outlet next to the newly moved switch.
• Getting me to crawl around in my attic enough to bruise most of the front of my body and feel like I'd been in a street brawl for several days.

The highest point of our attic crawl space isn't actually tall enough to get a blue rubbermaid tub through if it's upright. I can barely be any higher than prone when I'm up there. Crawling 18 feet back and forth through it sucks, but it beats the crap out of paying the electrician to do it for me.

Okay, cue the plumber:

The left is with the drywall up in the kitchen. The right is before the drywall went up in the kitchen for the wall and the ceiling. If you notice, there are a few wires hanging down from the ceiling. That's right, when I pulled the crap down from the walls in the ceiling it took a bit more ceiling with it than I had hoped and I ended up exposing a section of the ceiling heat coils. What does that mean, Mr. Longo? It means that my life just got a whole lot less fun and a whole lot more work...ey.

Basically I have to slap mud up onto the ceiling and embed the coils into it. Then it's a game of mud, dry, mud, dry, mud, dry, until I've made up the almost 5/16" of mud that the coils were in to begin with so that the ceiling levels match. Boo.

Oh well, onto the island! We were told that if we were going to have a stationary island in the kitchen that building code said we would need to have a couple of outlets. As we didn't want to put in a post or try to trench in our cement slab foundation, we opted to not have a stationary island. Fortunately for us, the code doesn't apply to things on wheels!

I found locking, rubber wheeled, ball bearing, 125# casters on sale at Harbor Freight for $3/ea so I bought 12 figuring that if we were going to have more than 1500 pounds spread over the whole thing at some point that we may want to re-evaluate what we were doing with out lives.

For starters, I had to attach three cabinets together and build a sub base for them.

Now, the sub-base was needed as these are three upper cabinets that we were re-purposing as base cabinets. As the upper cabinets are shorter than base cabinets, I needed to build them up to match height with the two base cabinets we were using. As you can see above, I used some pressure treated 2x6 that I ripped down to final width on the radial saw and then simply attached it with screws. What you can't see are the casters that I added to the base. 

The casters weren't quite tall enough to just attach to the base of the cabinets, so I had to improvise. I found that the thickness of the 2x6 was just enough to get the caster to clear the sub-base, so I screwed two casters to a section of 2x6 and then attached that to the sub-base...instant fix. 

Once that was all done, I had something I could work with:

I attached casters to the larger base cabinets in the same fashion. The section of countertop you see on the far end of the island is from the original countertop. It went away. 

This is where I was essentially at Thanksgiving. We were able to share a wonderful meal with my Grandfather and his girlfriend who drove down from Renton, Washington. 

By the way, there were only five of us for dinner on Thanksgiving...the 16 pound turkey was more than sufficient.

Time for an Update

If you've noticed, I've been somewhat dormant here for some time. School has started and I've become fairly absorbed in working with students as a teacher and Athletic Director. Fall seasons are now behind us and I'm finding myself with a few spare seconds here and there so naturally I'm trying to fill them in with something.

We have a plumber and an electrician scheduled for this coming Friday to finish all of the "stuff" that I'm afraid of with the kitchen remodel. I'll be posting some pictures shortly of where we are to this point. Not much has changed in this venue except a couple of small items now moved and some more drywall gone.

Some things change. Houses get remodeled, kids get bigger, teaching staff changes, life goes on. Some things don't change. Friends are still there for you, family still cares, students come in the door in the fall and leave in the spring (and the time in between is filled with 12 and 16 hour days with many weekends filled working with kids to boot).

As an educator (soapbox time) I will, from time to time, reflect on what it is that I do for a living and what it is that got me to where I am today. Ultimately, I would not be teaching had it not been for the teachers who had a positive impact on my life growing up. In many cases they were like parents to me. For those that I was close to, thank you. For those who had an impact upon me (there are more than I could count, I think), thank you.

If you had a teacher that impacted you in a positive light, let them know. Track them down. Send them a note. If you went to a big school, you might think they don't remember you. You'd be surprised.

Anyhow, I've had kiddos here in the shop working for the last 45 minutes so I think I'll attend to them a bit more closely.

Long Time Coming/I've Been Busy

Since we've last spoken I've taken on a number of projects. Well, to be honest, there have been two or three, but two main projects. The first is the demolition of the extraneous sheds. The second project is the kitchen remodel.

To start with, let's talk about the router table's progress...

I managed to make the drawer sides for the table. Just not anything else to finish the thing.

The ends of the sides are rabbeted and the bottoms all have dadoes for the bottom. I just haven't done any of the final fitting or assembly yet. Nor have I built the faces for the drawers. Or the doors for the router space for that matter. I'll put this into the, "stuff that I really should get done, but will get around to at a significantly later date, or at least when I next think of it and have time nor anything else better to do" column.

Next is the demolition of those pesky sheds. The first to go was the chicken coup. I'll give you the general lowdown with pictures. 

As you can see, the front of the thing was the first part to go. With the help of my good friend, Patrick Rocchio, I was able to get the rest of the coup down in about two hours. We were able then, to cut up a good amount of the parts and throw them into the dumpster. I really wish that I would have gotten a picture of the dumpster, as the overflow was fairly amazing, but I'll deal. 

All that remains of the coup is a small pile of debris that I think that I'll throw on top of the next dumpster for an even more epic picture. 

Now, between the chicken coup and the remodel a couple of things happened.

First, I harvested the potatoes out of the meager garden that I keep.

We really like potatoes, and they grow fairly well here, so there you go. 

Next, Lucinda went to a conference.

The car pictured above didn't belong to us when she first left for the conference. Dave (aka "the Davemobile" aka "1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo") is still sitting in front of the house, but not for too long. Please don't tell him, he wouldn't take this news well. Neither am I for that matter...

Now, I'd like to say that this was something that I could hold over my wife's head for the next forty years, the new car was planned for some time. We knew that the Jeep was on its way out and that we needed to get something else. We wanted a crossover SUV, but couldn't afford the one that we wanted, but decided that the sedan was big enough for the car seat we have and hopefully another sometime in the future. Plus, the mileage is so much better than anything we drive right now.

Dave's engine has been cutting out lately, which isn't really that big a deal unless you are driving on a freeway in heavy traffic. (Note: This didn't actually happen, just a for instance) I'm in the process of cleaning out the Jeep and will likely take him into donate him to a charity whenever I get sick of paying the insurance.

Now to the remodel. 

Lucinda and I decided a while ago that the wall between the kitchen and living room needed to go. Our living room is lit by two wall sconce fixtures on either side of the fireplace and two floor lamps. This just isn't enough. The resulting feel is that of a cave. Not like a Taliban cave, a nice one. You know, a cave with couches, television, nice stereo system and cookbooks. 

After much thinking, we decided that the wall mounted cabinets in our kitchen could be re-purposed for use as base cabinets to help create an island.

In the picture above, you'll see a variety of things. You'll note that the counter top is a complete mess. You'll also note two different colors of wall and what looks like a 2x4 peeking through the wall. This is actually a long opening. On the other side is a separate 32" x 5' frame that was nailed in place after someone screwed something up. The stove is currently under the white box microwave.

We removed all of the cabinets then I got to work tearing out drywall. Lucinda felt that she wanted more to do with the remodel than, "designated fragile item out of the cabinet wrapper" and picked up the reciprocating saw and got to work.

For having never used one before, she did pretty well. 

For now, we're at somewhat of a standstill with the remodel. I removed all of the wall studs that I thought were safe to remove to open things up a bit more. There is too much electrical to really do any more for the time being. I'm fairly confident that I could move the 240V outlet for the stove and move the other outlets for the microwave and aux, but the switches and thermostat are things that I really don't want to tackle. Plus, if the place burns down, I want it to be someone else's fault. 

In the meanwhile. I think that I can find enough other things to do around the house. Picking up another 10 gallons of paint while I'm at a conference in Eugene Monday will help. 

Until next time...

Oh, It's You...How Have You Been?

Surprisingly busy actually.Let's backtrack from where we left off and move forward to where I finished up today.

Last I posted, I had just figured out what to do with the upside down center divider: shims.I cut them out of scrap oak that I had from the project...problem solved, problem staying solved.

 I know that the two shelves on the right are lower, it just ended up that way. This single bookcase holds all of the books that were on the two old ones, plus a few.

After the bookcase was finished there was a short break. Next, I decided to re-organize the garage before I started building the cabinet for my router table top.

As you can see, there was a lot to re-organize. I think that I like the new layout a bit better. The only hitch is that the 240V outlet for the radial saw is on the opposing wall from where the saw is now. I think that I'll deal for the time being. 

I built the top for the router table almost two years ago and am just now getting around to building the rest of the thing. The idea was a cabinet with a compartment for the router that I can add dust collection to later and then a couple of drawers to hold the routers and accessories.

I cut two dadoes and a rabbet on each one of the sides of the case first (I had cut three of the case parts at the school a few weeks ago).

 I used the new router with the plunge base for starters. Second, I used an aluminum, clamp-on edge guide and a top bearing pattern bit. They worked all right, I suppose. I didn't like the pattern bit too particularly well with this set-up as it took some chunks out when I accidentally tipped the router a little.

The case ended up turning out all right all things considered. I put together a face frame with the Kreg Jig and attached it using the same method. It strengthened the case quite a bit.

Got the drawer slides installed, pilot holes drilled to attach the top. Got the top on and put it where it's going to reside when it's finished.

Not too shabby for a start. Tomorrow, drawers, faces and doors for the top. Oh, and the back too...