Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Nick's Two-Car Detached Vdub Garage

[nicholam77]

Can I have more details on the thickness and height of the stripe too?

** Scratch that, started painting mine this morning and made the stripe just under 4ft from the floor, with the stripe itself being 4 inches wide, thanks.

Sorry for the delay, I know you already started, but out of curiosity I still took a look. Mine also was around 4 ft from the ground, with thickness at 6 inches.

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The main reason for my placement was to encapsulate the main light switches. Thought it would look good. The other electrical boxes around the walls didn't line up but I wasn't feeling OCD enough to go to the effort to move them.



This is the vinyl baseboard product I used, from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R3X10G/?tag=atomicindus08-20

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I highly recommend it. They have other colors, too. I thought it might be difficult to work with since it comes all rolled up but it is very bendy and supple. Easy to conform to the walls or in my case uneven floors. On Amazon you can see other people seem to buy a specific adhesive to go with it. I just used Liquid Nails and pushed it on with my hands. In retrospect some sort of rubber roller would have helped, especially since Liquid Nails is kind of thick. It turned out fine, though, and I love the way it looks and provides a pretty good seal to the floor if you have a gap between your wall covering and the ground.

 

[Welshie]

Excellent, thank you! I estimated from your pics it was about 4ft, and I was going to do a 4 in stripe but might do a 6 now.

I got some self adhesive baseboard from Menards!

 

[Welshie]

Nick. One more question (sorry), how many coats of the blue stripe paint did you put on? I've put 2 coats on of red so far as it's still thin enough you can see the paint underneath.

 

[nicholam77]

Nick. One more question (sorry), how many coats of the blue stripe paint did you put on? I've put 2 coats on of red so far as it's still thin enough you can see the paint underneath.

No problem. I believe I did 2 coats of the blue. Before that I had primed everything and taken the white and the gray to the center of the line. So really it was 2 coats of blue on top of the other paint, but it sounds like you may have taken a similar approach. I don't think needing more than 2 coats is out of the ordinary though. Sometimes it just depends on the colors you're using.

Are your walls wood or drywall? That might make a difference, too. My plywood walls soaked up a LOT of paint so each coat was a hefty coat. It might also depend on the brand of paint you're using. In my limited experience I've noticed that some paints are better than others. Personally I like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams brands.

I assume you're using a roller and not a brush? You could try something like a small low-nap (1/4"?) synthetic roller for better, more even coverage. A paint store could direct you towards a good roller to use.

Otherwise, just keep adding more coats until you're happy with it. Nothing wrong with that (except additional work)

Not sure if you have a build thread but feel free to post a pic here of how it turns out!

 

[Welshie]

Thank you. I'm using drywall and have out 2 coats of primer, then 2 coats of top. Yes I think I'll just have to stick extra coats on if I need to. The stripe is being applied with a 1/4" roller so maybe my paint isn't that great. More coats it is!

I don't have a build thread yet. I have debated adding one just because I've had bad experiences online before, so am somewhat reserved when it comes to posting personal pics.

 

[nicholam77]

Last night I got a little bit done on the router cabinet build. I ripped the sides and bottom pieces to width on the table saw, and then used my larger crosscut sled to safely cut them to length:

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This sled's fence is not in square, so over an 11" cross cut, one edge of the board was about 1/16" shorter than the other. My small sled is dead on. Having a larger capacity sled is super useful though for trimming larger pieces to length as my miter saw can't handle that much depth and the table saw can be more accurate anyways. I'll have to correct it somehow. But not a big deal for this build.

Once they were cut to length and more manageable (shorter), I was able to use my smaller crosscut sled to cut some dados for one of the support shelves. I used a stop block on the sled fence to dictate where the dado should end and just incrementally slid the workpiece over until it reached the stop. It worked very well and once cleaned up with a small chisel the dados were a nice tight fit and didn't take long to make.

To assemble I used these plastic positioning squares and some F-clamps to hold everything together and square while I drove screws.

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Pic of the dado. Nice and tight:

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This is where I left off last night:

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It should look something like this when finished and mounted to the wall:

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Overall pic of the shop:

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My sawhorse and door setup works well for the table saw and provides plenty of outfeed, but I store those pieces in the shed, and I want a more compact setup I can keep in the garage and set up and break down the table saw quicker. I always park the cars in the garage, so I'm looking for as many ways to make turning it into a "wood shop" as quickly and efficiently as possible. Otherwise it's too much setup and clean up to work for a short time (which sometimes is all life allows!).

Lastly, the bathroom tiler has started. Yesterday he put in the slate flooring:

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Today should be hanging cement board and starting the subway tile.

 

[CombatNinja]

Slate floor looks awesome. That is going to be one heck of a little bathroom when it's finished.

 

[nicholam77]

Slate floor looks awesome. That is going to be one heck of a little bathroom when it's finished.

Thanks! It's a fun process, but it's also been a little anxiety-inducing for me working with the contractors. I get caught up in small details and sometimes I worry it won't be done up to my standards unless I do it myself. It's awesome to have professional help because it goes so much faster (and I have no experience with tile for example), but even professionals have a tendency to take shortcuts sometimes. I made one design compromise the other day but I'm trusting that the tile guy knows his stuff.

Originally I wanted the tile to wrap around and into the window jamb for a frameless look. I don't want a curtain on it, since there will be no main shower curtain (just a pane of frameless glass as a splash guard). They convinced me that there wasn't enough jamb to do a good tile job and not enough space on the left side of the window to make it work aesthetically with the staggered subway tile. I understand that, and we live in Minnesota with temperature extremes and a lot of humidity in the summer, so there's bound to be expansion and contraction on an exterior wall. I have seen it done before online, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea. Not wanting the tile to fall off or not be attached well or look bad, I agreed to have the window trimmed out.

They trimmed it out with wood, which obviously is not good for inside a shower, so of course they are telling me to put a curtain on it, which I said I didn't want to do.

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It might come down to that if there are serious issues, but I think first I'm going to try to seal it really well with caulk, and paint multiple coats of a good oil enamel paint or some marine paint.

I've also heard of some topical hydrophobic sprays (like Rustoleum NeverWet), but I assume these would need to be applied periodically which is sort of a pain.

I am hoping the above, combined with diligently wiping the window dry with a wash cloth after use will be good enough.

If anyone has suggestions on how to treat it to protect it (other than using a curtain) I'd love to hear!


Yesterday the tiler said he was going to have the handy man contractor put in an "oak board" as a threshold piece where the slate meets the hallway as it is much higher than the old little ceramic squares were.

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I had leftover flooring from our other floor work, and I need to make one for the kitchen and front door, too, so I said I'd do it. This way I can be sure it's white oak and since it's an actual piece of flooring it will match. I also have the sealer and finish that was used on the rest of the floor.

I ripped it to dimension on the table saw and gave it a 20º bevel on the nose to soften it. Then hit it with an orbital sander.

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The slate was not even across the threshold so I used a small MDF shim to bring up one side.

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A small detail but likely one the handy man would not have accounted for.

Test fit:

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After I got it positioned right I tacked in place with 18 gauge brads and applied some sealer.

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I'm happy with the way it looks and it sure is great to have the tools to do little things like this, because if I left it up to the contractor I'd probably end up with a piece of red oak with no bevel and not installed level.

Oh well, on the home stretch. Tiler should be finished by the end of the week.

 

[Jhil653]

I am hooked. Just joined to get idea hoping to better organize my own shop. Question for you. Where do stow all of you clamps when not in use. I have looked at your pictures and can’t find them.

I am always trying to figure out a way to use my table saw, miter saw and other tools with out taking hours to set up.

Usually by the time I get everything set up my kids want to play or we need to go somewhere and need to clean up.

Your garage is definitely inspiration!

 

[CombatNinja]

That wood trim around that window would scare the **** out of me in a shower. Don't they make windows specifically for such applications?

 

[sawduststeve]

Hi Nick
Can you find something like this^^^ for around the window. I’ve been using it awhile to glaze dg units with, its better than standard acrylic
and is still over paintable.

Your bathroom is gonna be sweet.
Good luck
Steve

 

[nicholam77]

I am hooked. Just joined to get idea hoping to better organize my own shop. Question for you. Where do stow all of you clamps when not in use. I have looked at your pictures and can’t find them.

I am always trying to figure out a way to use my table saw, miter saw and other tools with out taking hours to set up.

Usually by the time I get everything set up my kids want to play or we need to go somewhere and need to clean up.

Your garage is definitely inspiration!

Thanks for the kind words. Keep looking around Garage Journal as there are so many awesome threads on here. It's a bit extreme for the average person but if you haven't checked out LilScorpion's Tooling (Re)Organization thread you definitely should. Lots of great ideas in there on space and efficiency.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381487

I have some more ideas for my own future organization that I'll be trying to implement when I can, including dust collection, power/vac/air drops from the ceiling, and some pop-up or collapsible workstations.

As far as clamps... I really don't have that many yet. I just put my small clamps (a few 3 inch C-clamps, some small 6 inch Irwin quick-clamps, and some 6 and 12 inch Bessey F-clamps) in one of the drawers of my Craftsman bench for now.

As far as larger clamps go I just have two 24" pipe clamps and two 24" dewalt quick-clamps that I'm borrowing from my dad. Those are sitting on the floor right now.

I've been meaning to pick up some longer bar clamps from Harbor Freight and modify them with a solid wood core. At some point I'd like to make a clamp rack out in the open, I'm just not there yet

That wood trim around that window would scare the **** out of me in a shower. Don't they make windows specifically for such applications?

I hear you. I'm worried about it, too. They do make vinyl encased windows. Not sure if they are specifically for shower walls but would probably be a good choice. The thing is, I was expecting the existing window to be tiled in, and got thrown a curve ball with the contractor and had to make a relatively last minute decision, which I hate to do. They convinced me this was the way to go, but after sitting on it for a few days I wish something else had been done. The tiler also did a sloppy job overall (I'll most likely get to that in a subsequent post), so I had to have an uncomfortable conversation with him last night and right now I'm just trying to salvage the job overall. It's super frustrating.

With the exception of the plumber, I haven't had a great experience so far. It's a learning experience for sure, as I haven't dealt with that many contractors before, but overall I've been disappointed in the quality of the work and ability to follow directions. Unfortunately I work 9am-6pm so I can't be home to babysit them and make sure they are doing things right.

If the window falls apart I might re-trim it out with vinyl PVC boards, hopefully something suitable for a wet location, or if it's really bad down the line maybe I'll have to try and get a new window in there.

I'd just delete the window, but my house has a pale yellow vinyl siding and I don't have enough leftover from the previous owner's to fill in the window if we had gotten rid of it entirely. And I haven't been able to find a matching product at the big box stores so I'm not sure where they got it from or if it's even in production still.

 

[nicholam77]

Hi Nick
Can you find something like this^^^ for around the window. I’ve been using it awhile to glaze dg units with, its better than standard acrylic
and is still over paintable.

Your bathroom is gonna be sweet.
Good luck
Steve

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into it and see if I could source it in the US.

Maybe a silly question but could it be applied to the entirety of the window casing and jamb surfaces or just the gaps/joints where it meets the wall like a normal caulk?

With some quick research I saw there might be a paint version that could be applied to the whole wood surface perhaps?

https://www.caparol.de/en/product-r...n-silacrylR-technology/muresko-silacrylR.html

Not sure if this is a different product entirely but it looks interesting, I'll have to look into it further. It says it's "weather resistant and water-repellant".

 

[sawduststeve]

Nick, the silacryl is just a better than average gap sealer.

You could leave the window fitted , pull off all the internal trim, put in a small subframe and board over with water resistant board level with the wall and tile straight over. You would never know it's there.

If you were really clever, you could build in an inset with a secret loose back panel which could be removed, 007 stylie, and open the window.

steve

 

[isonic]

In other news I now have a bathroom wall and door:

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Had the door custom ripped to 26" to accommodate future 1-piece toilet we want. Looks like there will be plenty of space.

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I had the bathroom contractor leave sheetrock off the interior for now so I could do some electrical things (moving the bathroom fan switch to where the light switch is in a double gang box for one). Might add another switched outlet for future under cabinet vanity LED lighting.

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Great thread! I read through it over the last week or so and love the work done so far. One question with your current bathroom remodel. Any thoughts/consideration given to using a pocket door in place of a standard hinged door? Just curious.

 

[nicholam77]

Great thread! I read through it over the last week or so and love the work done so far. One question with your current bathroom remodel. Any thoughts/consideration given to using a pocket door in place of a standard hinged door? Just curious.

Thank you!

Re: the door

I actually did think about a sliding pocket door at one point, but decided against it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there are two other doors in close proximity (that lead to two bedrooms off the same connected hallway) and I liked the idea of them all looking the same style with the same trim and hardware. Second, I figured most of the time you're in the bathroom you have the door closed anyways, so a standard hinged door wouldn't really be taking up extra space when occupied. Thirdly, I know you can get little latches for sliding doors, but they are more feeble, I kind of like the idea of security that a regular "latch and strike" hinged door provides, especially in a bathroom. Lastly, a pocket wall and sliding door would have been more complicated for our contractor to build and install (I think??), and quite honestly I'm not sure if his carpentry skills would have been up to the task. I could have done it myself probably... but my wife doesn't like me to overcomplicate and take 3x as long to get something done if it can be helped

In the end it worked out as the 26" door allows for plenty of clearance with the toilet, and enough room for a full size towel bar to the side of it when in the open position.

 

[nicholam77]

Nick, the silacryl is just a better than average gap sealer.

You could leave the window fitted , pull off all the internal trim, put in a small subframe and board over with water resistant board level with the wall and tile straight over. You would never know it's there.

If you were really clever, you could build in an inset with a secret loose back panel which could be removed, 007 stylie, and open the window.

steve

Oooh I like the idea of a 007 secret panel!

Last night I discovered that the contractor used pine for the jamb extensions, but MDF for the casing! MDF! In a shower! I have MDF casing on my doors in the hallway and I told him to use a similar dimension and style and I think he literally bought the exact same product at Home Depot.

Anyways, the tile is already in (they butted the tile up against the casing and then caulked around the window vs. tiling up to the jamb extension, sealing, and then affixing the casing over the tile). Seems weird to me, but this is what I'm thinking I'm going to do:

I'm going to remove the MDF and pine bits that the "handy man" installed, and redo them in water resistant PVC board. Essentially the stuff that's used for exterior trim sometimes, usually when a house has vinyl siding. It's also paintable, so I should still be able to seal it, and then use a good oil-based primer and marine paint. This way only the vertical window itself will have wood bits, and it actually has somewhat of a hard, white, coating on it. I'm not as worried about the window, but the jamb and casing create multiple horizontal ledges where water will catch and sit. I still plan on diligently wiping it down after use, but I think having those components PVC instead of wood/MDF will good so they can't rot.

I'm going to complain to my contractor, but I think I'm just going to try and implement the fix myself. They've done enough questionable things so far that my level of trust has really been lost.

 

[Steveodle]

Great thread! I read through it over the last week or so and love the work done so far. One question with your current bathroom remodel. Any thoughts/consideration given to using a pocket door in place of a standard hinged door? Just curious. [emoji106]

Use 2×6s for your pocket door, there's a kit that is much better than trying to use standard framing 2x4s.

If you do nothing right,you'll do nothing wrong!

 

[nicholam77]

Anyone else have issues with hoarding wood bits?

I always have a hard time throwing away off cuts, thinking I'll be able to use them for a little cleat or some other purpose down the line without having to go to the store. But I've run out of room and they end up just getting piled up in bins and on my workbenches.

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It's something I want to try and be better about considering my small space, as it's not easy to throw a board on the miter station quick when it's piled up with other wood. I'm finding that still, in the "shop's" current state, it takes me too long to set up everything for woodworking and break it down and clean up all in one evening after work. Makes projects like the router table take forever. I did, however, finish the bones of the cabinet last night and hang it on the wall.

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It's not the nicest looking thing yet, but I think I will paint it white and maybe add a face frame to hide the plys.

This thing is HEAVY. I lagged screwed it into the wall resting on a cleat, so hopefully it isn't going anywhere!

Here's a sneak preview of the bathroom tile and shower fixtures:

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The grout is a medium gray, and it doesn't come across as heavy in person as in the pictures.

One thing I didn't consider when placing the recessed light in the shower is that the chrome rain head would reflect it back up onto the ceiling, so it kind of makes a funny square of light.

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All of the shower fixtures are the Delta Vero line. The pressure balance trim has independent volume and temperature controls (so it will remember a temperature each time you turn it on), as well as a temperature stop or lock. The diverter is separate. The plumber needed a part and still needs to finish up.

Here's a look at the shampoo niche:

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Overall I was pretty disappointed in the tile work that was done (in the shower - the floor looks fine), including the niche. It probably doesn't come across in these pics as I'm trying to present it in a good light, but it just could have been much better. I'm a firm believer that quality is in the details, and there was definitely some sloppiness going on.

I'll get over it, though. In the end when shampoo bottles are in there and the pane of glass is up, it won't be very noticeable, or at least only noticeable to me.

A pic of the toilet (exciting, I know)

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Hopefully this weekend I can get my **** in gear and either start making the vanity cabinet, or get some painting and finishing touches installed.

 

[nicholam77]

I picked up a bunch of hard maple boards for my vanity build and planned out the cuts and what board will be used for what component.

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It will be my first major woodworking project in awhile. Should be fun and interesting learning experience. Now that I've had some experience with construction / trim carpentry / shop jigs, I'm more comfortable with being accurate and some do's and don'ts. But still inexperienced at woodworking overall and I haven't really made many "furniture" quality items, aside from the fireplace mantel and small cherry end table you can see in the above pic in the living room. Neither of those turned out perfect, but I still love them and love that I made them.

I am hoping the bathroom cabinets will be my best project yet. Hopefully I don't screw it up!

But the cost and options for customization were very attractive to build vs. buy in this situation, because I wanted something the looks sort of bespoke instead of store-bought. Plus with the small space, pre-fabricated vanities were disproportionally priced and limited options were available.

I'm hoping to get a start on it this weekend.

 

[sawduststeve]

Hi Nick,

It's a real shame you're unhappy with the builders, we all work hard for our money and there is nothing worse than thinking it should have been done better
Perhaps an obscure glass shower screen will hide the problem a bit.

Good luck with the bathroom cabinet, it'll be fun and a worry at the same time, because
if you're not happy with it , you'll think you should have just gone and bought one.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...w.garagejournal.com/forum/hamb/attach/jpg.gif

This one I made for our bathroom.

Steve

 

[nicholam77]

Hi Nick,

It's a real shame you're unhappy with the builders, we all work hard for our money and there is nothing worse than thinking it should have been done better
Perhaps an obscure glass shower screen will hide the problem a bit.

Good luck with the bathroom cabinet, it'll be fun and a worry at the same time, because
if you're not happy with it , you'll think you should have just gone and bought one.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...w.garagejournal.com/forum/hamb/attach/jpg.gif

This one I made for our bathroom.

Steve

Yeah, the shower tile was really the worst part, the rest of it was fine. In the end it will be okay and with all the other elements in place nothing will stand out or ruin the project. But I did actually make the tiler redo most of the bullnose pieces because they were so misaligned, as well as pop out certain tiles in the middle that weren't flush. It was definitely worth it to offer him the opportunity to try and correct it. It's still not perfect or what I expected out of a professional but certainly better. The shampoo niche shelf is put in crooked, the gapping is inconsistent across the board (he didn't use any spacers and just freehanded the whole thing) so some grout lines are wider than others. As you go up the walls the courses creep a bit so they aren't perfectly level. He didn't miter the larger bullnose pieces in shampoo recess. Just kind of amateurish stuff and no finesse, precision, or attention to detail. Unfortunately I didn't realize I needed to tell him things up front like "I want the grout spacing to look consistent" and made the assumption any competent person would do that automatically. I've never done tile before but I honestly think this shouldn't have been that hard a job and if I had a tile saw I probably could have knocked it out and done a better job with my dad's help (although it probably would have taken 3x as long).

The cabinet you made looks fantastic and high quality work!

I hope mine turns out that nice. It will be natural wood and no paint so nowhere to hide imperfections. But... I am confident I will get it to a place where I'm happy with it.

 

[sawduststeve]

I've been rumbled.
Paint can hide a multitude of sins.

 

[nicholam77]

I've been rumbled.
Paint can hide a multitude of sins.

Ha! It's so true. I wasn't implying you're work had any "sins" to hide, by the way (I assume that's what you mean by "rumbled"). I'm just worried about my own skills. I'm used to relying on caulk and paint so my poor excuse for trim carpentry looks halfway decent

So making a piece of maple furniture has me a little nervous... and I've already run into some minor difficulties which I'll address in the next post.

 

[nicholam77]

Hope everyone in the U.S. had a good Labor Day Weekend. Mine was certainly productive, so here is a long overdue update. I've been swamped at work, and was out of the country (in Lithuania!) for my brother's wedding for a bit, so I haven't posted lately. Might need to post in several installments but here's some of what's happened.

Bathroom Vanity Build

First I did layout on all the boards, picked which boards would be used for what, and cut them to rough dimension with a circular saw.

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Then I ran the pieces for panel glue-ups through the table saw. I quickly realized my all-purpose Dewalt blade that came with the saw did NOT cut through maple as nicely as it does plywood

There was a little chip out and I couldn't get tight seams. I don't have an edge jointer or hand planes or a router table setup yet so I was relying on the table saw to get good edges. This proved very frustrating and I don't think I got it perfect, but good enough. I just used the rip fence. Part of me wonders if making a "straight edge" / "jointing" jig would have helped get a good reference edge.

To make the table saw suffice I ended up making a trip to my local Woodcraft (first time, what a cool place!) to pick up a Freud Thin-Kerf Glue Line Rip Cut blade for $60. Expensive, but I figured better that than a crappy looking panel glue up!

Here's my VW on the errand:

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I think now would be an appropriate time to point out the BBS "Lip Stickers" I added recently. +10 HP each.

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Sadly with all the effort I've been spending on the house and woodworking, the car has been neglected a bit lately.

Anyways, here is the new blade installed:

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It worked much better. Then I composed and test fit the panels before glue-up.

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The actual glue-ups were challenging for me. I'd only done panels one time previously so I don't have a lot of experience. The boards were not perfectly flat, and I didn't use any cauls, but probably should have. Instead I used some F-Clamps at the seams to try and keep things flat.

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Here's a look at a finished glue-up:

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To even things out, I spent time with my two new best friends, the belt sander and the orbital sander.

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With these I was able to massage the seams flush. Unfortunately it's difficult to sand the whole panel down evenly, so generally it resulted in "valleys" where the edge joints are. Not really visible to the naked eye but definitely felt moving your hand across the surface. This doesn't really bother me though... I kind of see it as an imperfection of a hand made item.

Next I trimmed the panels to final dimension. I ripped both sides, and then used a crosscut sled and a crosscut blade to do the other two sides. I had to make a new sled to do this, as my other ones where too small.

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Bottom sheet of the carcass is birch plywood, so I added some edge banding to the front:

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Once all the pieces where cut to final I pre-drilled them with the Kreg jig.

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Assembly was all done with Kreg pocket screws. I didn't use any glue -- I hope this wasn't a big mistake, but I didn't think I'd be able to control the assembly enough with parts sliding around. I used a lot of clamps and stop blocks to help me and it was tricky enough without slippery joints. So hopefully Kreg screws are as good as they advertise and my design used enough to hold fast!

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Fairly square!

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I kept some Sketchup drawings and excel spreadsheets with dimensions handy to reference throughout the project. I always measure against the parts, but it's good to have a "cut list" and visual reference.

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Next I build the support piece for the small drawers. I did not make these drawers -- I ordered them from a cabinet company. I wanted the dovetailed joints and that's beyond my skill level. Those are the only thing I'm not making myself as part of this build.

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Using a stop block for repeatable cuts:

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Glued and brad nailed:

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This will attached to the top inside of the cabinet. Here is the progress at the end of the weekend:

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[sawduststeve]

Nick, great work fella
A quality sharp blade will always give good results, the more teeth the better for fine work. It's been awhile since I've had to sand a panel flat by hand, but I've done a few, so well done with that.
Keep at it, it's gonna look great.

Steve

4 x wheel stickers please, I could do with the 50% extra hp.

 

[driftpin]

Looks good so-far. I suggest you work next time w/the carpenter's glue and the kreg screws, as the box when dry will be strong enough to dance-upon, not-that you would be doing that...

Pics of a laundry/pantry from knock-down cabinets, 3/4" plywood sides, solid panel doors in Shaker-style, before the granite countertop install. My superintendent wanted an 'up-close' look. Kreg screws and lots of carpenter's glue. A damp rag for excess squeeze-out clean-up works well, and insures fully-glued joints. Running the Kreg screws home squeezes out the glue excess. The Kreg adjustable jig made it a snap to drill all the screws for the panels. They also were doweled.

The ledgers for the upper cabinets were removed once the cabinets were screwed into the CBS wall behind the drywall, using construction screws and fender washers.

 

[nicholam77]

Nick, great work fella

Steve

Thanks, Steve!

Looks good so-far. I suggest you work next time w/the carpenter's glue and the kreg screws, as the box when dry will be strong enough to dance-upon, not-that you would be doing that...

Wow, your cabinets look fantastic! Your superintendent must have done a good job overseeing the project.

I believe you about the glue and that I probably should have used it... next time I guess

I think what scared me off from the glue was trying to get things perfectly square. Even dry clamping was tricky because some of my panel glue ups were bowed and took some coercing to screw in straight.

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In fact it's one of my main concerns going forward. The drawer face is the face of the cabinet, and won't have anything structural to flatten it out. I picked the flattest piece to be the drawer face, but it's bowed a tiny bit since. My "shop" isn't climate controlled and we have pretty humid summers here in Minnesota so I'm fighting that.

I doubt it does much structurally for the joint overall, but I did put some glue on the screws themselves before fastening. The hope was it would work it's way through the screw hole and threads and make it less likely for the screw to back out or loosen over time. I have no way to prove that though so it may have been a waste of time.

Fortunately the cabinet will only really have to support it's own weight. There will be a vessel sink on top but that's not too heavy and the content in the drawers will just be small, light items, like toothbrush or spare hand towels, that sort of thing. Since it's floating I'll be resting it on a cleat when lag screwing into the studs so it's not installed under stress.

Anyways thanks for the tips!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

I just came across your thread, and read through the whole thing. Awesome work! You seem to enjoy similar DIY projects to me and have the same OCD complex I have hahaha. Nice job on all of the work in the garage and house. I've been getting sidetracked from garage work with house work lately as well.

Keep it up, I'll be following along.

 

[Xti04]

When we built our house we had tile shower issues too. They laid our tile in the wrong orientation, and put the band way too high. Dealing with the contractor he said I picked the tile guy, which I guess I did because I told him his first guy was too high. Looking back the lesson learned was if I cant do it, i better learn how because people in the construction industry have a much different scale of whats acceptable than I do.

 

[nicholam77]

I just came across your thread, and read through the whole thing. Awesome work! You seem to enjoy similar DIY projects to me and have the same OCD complex I have hahaha. Nice job on all of the work in the garage and house. I've been getting sidetracked from garage work with house work lately as well.

Keep it up, I'll be following along.

Thanks, Mr. Roboto! Glad you found it. I remember yours was one of the early threads I read through when I first joined up here and am subscribed to it as well. I might have to go back and re-read it now that I'm farther along so I can steal some ideas. It's a great space you have - not that I do a ton of car work but I'm jealous of that lift. As far as house work getting in the way... it can happen! Like right now I just want to finish my router table and a million other things but apparently I started a bathroom remodel a few months ago and my wife desperately wants me to finish it.

When we built our house we had tile shower issues too. They laid our tile in the wrong orientation, and put the band way too high. Dealing with the contractor he said I picked the tile guy, which I guess I did because I told him his first guy was too high. Looking back the lesson learned was if I cant do it, i better learn how because people in the construction industry have a much different scale of whats acceptable than I do.

Couldn't have said it better. It was definitely a learning moment for me for sure. Probably 90% of people out there don't notice or don't care about sloppy work but for those of us who are detail-oriented or have higher standards it's tricky. I think going forward I would only use someone I really trust and has done work for a family member that I can verify. And to go over the project in detail before agreeing to it and making sure they are on board with every aspect (like tiling the window returns for example). I got in a tricky situation because my wife's family recommended this handy man guy who has his own set of subcontractors. He was okay but certainly not a gem, but I really wish I had just gone out and gotten individual people for each task that I trust instead of just relying on his network. And I'm certainly not saying all contractors out there are bad or I know better than everybody. The plumber on this job was GREAT I thought for example. But you're right, there are definitely "professionals" out there who cut corners and do mediocre work.

 

[nicholam77]

Amidst the woodworking this weekend I was able to hit Cars & Coffee on saturday morning. It was a great turnout. This pic makes it look small but there were well over 500 cars and probably 5,000 spectators. It's a huge event here.

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Back in the bathroom -- I re-cased the shower window over the weekend. As others pointed out it just felt vulnerable to me. Here is the original contractor's work for reference:

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So I popped off the MDF and replaced it with vinyl PVC. I left the pine jamb extensions in place but covered them with vinyl PVC strips as well. The PVC boards were glued to the cement board backing with Liquid Nails construction adhesive and nailed in with 18 and 16 gauge brads.

I rabbeted the outside edges of the casing so they sit on TOP of the tile instead of butted up against it. Previously the MDF casing didn't have much of a reveal and looked awkward. Now it looks like a proper window (in my opinion), and won't rot. Once sealed with caulk and painted with a good marine primer and paint I think it should be pretty resilient.

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And the shower fixtures are in.

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I put in the medicine cabinet and sconce, as well.

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[Mr. Roboto]

Thanks, Mr. Roboto! Glad you found it. I remember yours was one of the early threads I read through when I first joined up here and am subscribed to it as well. I might have to go back and re-read it now that I'm farther along so I can steal some ideas. It's a great space you have - not that I do a ton of car work but I'm jealous of that lift. As far as house work getting in the way... it can happen! Like right now I just want to finish my router table and a million other things but apparently I started a bathroom remodel a few months ago and my wife desperately wants me to finish it.

.

Very cool man thanks for the kind words! Have to warn you, though, the last few pages are all about the front portico I built on my house

 

[nicholam77]

Got the main drawer box done over the weekend. My brother-in-law has a planer so I had him plane the drawer sides down to 5/8" because I am using Blum drawer slides and that's what they specified.

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1/4" birch plywood bottom held in a dado, pocket screwed the front and backs.

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I ended up cutting out a "U" in the back drawer face for where the drain plumbing comes out of the wall. Not sure 100% how this will line up yet, especially with the trap, but it looked like there might be some interference without doing this so I went for it.

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Cutting the "U" was a bit challenging, because my dad's old jig saw broke the last time I used it and I haven't had a chance to sort out what's wrong or buy a new one. I ended up using my crosscut sled to make a number of cuts in the center of the waste material, and then a combination of a chisel, large drill bit, and coping saw to get a rough line.

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I don't have an oscillating spindle sander so I ran to the hardware store and picked up one of those sanding drums you can attach to power drills to sand down to the line. It worked okay. I'm obviously not a commercial wood shop and certain tools I just wouldn't have a use for that often but sometimes specific tools are hard to replace. This task made me wish I had a bandsaw and oscillating spindle sander.

To hide any uneven-ness and give it a more 'professional' look I hit the "U" with a 1/4" roundover bit on the router.

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All in all I think it turned out pretty well.

Because I am using Blum Movento drawer slides I picked up one of their drilling templates. After seeing how it works I don't think it's 100% necessary but it definitely made it easy to drill the required holes.

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One annoying thing is the jig comes with the gray plastic template and a stop collar for a 6mm drill bit, but does not include said 6mm drill bit. How hard can that be to include in what is already an overpriced accessory? Also, you need a 2.5mm drill bit, which is not included, and a proprietary 2.5mm drill bit extension piece, which is sold as part of a separate kit. IMO everything you need should be bundled together, and not so expensive. I just got some extra long 2.5mm bits on Amazon without the extension piece. We'll see how that works. I snagged my template on eBay for $25 but I've seen it go for $60 or more and it's astonishing that at that price it doesn't even come with everything you need.

In the meantime I drilled the 6mm holes in the back face of the drawer:

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Here are all the components in my basement getting finish applied:

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Lastly, check out this Orb Weaver that's been hanging around my front door building massive webs. It caught a few bees.

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[rmgaiss]

Very nice. I, too am a vw fan. I have 79 Super Beetle Convertible, a 78 Bus, a 74 Kharmann Ghia, a Jetta diesel wagon and a toureg diesel. I like what you've done with the place.

 

[nicholam77]

Very nice. I, too am a vw fan. I have 79 Super Beetle Convertible, a 78 Bus, a 74 Kharmann Ghia, a Jetta diesel wagon and a toureg diesel. I like what you've done with the place.

Thanks! That's quite the line-up you've got there...

 

[nicholam77]

Blum issue

So the other night I was testing my drawer with the Blum runners and I'm running into an issue. Is anyone on here that sees this a Blum expert and can help?

Essentially I got the Tip-On Blumotion modules which allow the drawer to be opened with a simple touch, while retaining Blumotion soft-close. What is happening is if I open the drawer by pushing on it, then upon closing it requires a lot of extra force to reset the Tip-On triggers. Meaning you can't just give it a shove and "send it home". If I open the drawer normally by just pulling it, then soft-close works as expected with no resistance.

Check out this YouTube video for example:

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In the first open/close, I use Tip-On and have to push the drawer shut. In the second, I pull it open, and am able to just give it a shove and let momentum take care of the rest. If I attempted this when opened via Tip-On, the drawer would actually bounce back out at me.



I called Blum support and they told me that I need to put stuff in the drawer so it's heavier. Well the Tip-On units I got are the lightest rated for drawer assemblies 0-44 lbs. Obviously it's not zero, so I asked what the approximate threshold might be for it to work properly, and they couldn't tell me and were not very helpful.



I put my drill, impact driver, quart of finish, and two 10-inch drawer slides in the drawer box and it didn't change anything. I'll try something heavier when I get home from work but honestly in real-life-use I was probably just gonna put towels or a hair dryer for my wife, not something super heavy.

What's odd is in official product videos they show the soft-close working when opened via Tip-On.

Frustrated because the whole piece of kit was expensive and I went to great lengths to build the cabinet opening and drawer box to their exact specifications. I know it's a long shot but help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[nicholam77]

Well, I put two 10 lb dumbbells in the drawer and got it to work semi-consistently. Still need to have pretty good velocity to get it to work. Seems silly to me that it requires 20 lbs in the drawer to function as advertised. Likely I won't have that much weight in it so I guess I'll just live with having to push it closed.

 

[Homebody]

Wow, Great thread! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Great pics and use of space! Who said home ownership isn't fun?

I'm sure I missed it, but what are you using to take the pictures - especially the close up ones? They're incredible!

Thanks for sharing your work!

 

[nicholam77]

Wow, Great thread! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Great pics and use of space! Who said home ownership isn't fun?

I'm sure I missed it, but what are you using to take the pictures - especially the close up ones? They're incredible!

Thanks for sharing your work!

Thanks! Glad you have enjoyed it so far! And yes, home ownership is fun. Not all the time. But I do enjoy working on it.

Regarding the images, all the more recent pics are just my iPhone 8 Plus, either using portrait mode or switching to the telephoto lens and getting close to the subject. After I read through Gregor's Moto-Mecca thread I was in awe of the imagery and how it tells the story, and what high quality images for a forum journal. Obviously an iPhone is not the best camera out there, and pretty limited by focal length and sensor size, but leveraging the new Portrait Mode is my feeble attempt to try and make *some* some of my pictures a little more interesting to look at.

I do lightly edit them individually using the native Photos iOS app. By lifting the "Shadows" and crunching the "Blacks", it brightens the overall image making it look more balanced while still allowing contrast. Then I usually desaturate a bit as the default processing is pretty bold. Trying to make it look a little less Smart Phone-y.

Check out this before and after to see what I mean:

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Especially at night it's hard to take evenly exposed pics because my shop lights tend to wash out light surfaces like the wood and then the sensor crushes the darker areas. Lifting the shadows helps correct this and make it look *more* natural.

I own a Nikon DSLR, too, and I'm certainly not saying an iPhone with faked depth of field replaces a quality sensor and lens, but it sure is a lot more convenient, both in terms of not having to worry about a nice camera in the garage getting all covered in sawdust, as well as easily offloading them to my computer.