Week Three Update

I’m going away for the weekend, so here is a quick update for my fellow ATers.

Done this week:
- found and bought aubergine paint for the kitchen chairs
- started stripping the table
- installed the last bits of beadboard in the dining area and painted them
- painted inside the radiator cabinet
- installed some of the new catches on the sitting room cupboards (just one to do, but that is hidden behind a pile of wood right now)
- cleared some DIY junk from the kitchen

No pics, though, because everything is a complete mess. I’m also having second thoughts about how I’m going to decorate the table. I was going to do an ink drawing on the top, but having put the table in place and sat at it for a while, I think that might be too busy. So I think I’m just going to stain and wax it and keep it plain.

The best thing, though, is that during this past week, I have felt like I’m on the home stretch. I can see it all coming together.

Still havent ordered the floor tiles, but will do that first thing next week.

Kitchen cupboards

These are the cabinet doors I made last weekend. It took all my spare time this week to make the frames and fit them properly. It was like doing an impossible 3D jigsaw at times, but I got it done. There is also another cupboard under the bit of worktop you can see at the front of the picture and a little pull out larder on the other side of the cooker.

If you click on the picture, it will take you to flickr, where you can see notes showing what is hiding behind each of the doors.

I won’t be doing the base boards until the floor is down, but I plan to make them as little drawers on wheels to squeeze even more storage space in.

Craft Interlude

While waiting for my wood to be mitred (which is now done - the door-making factory opens for business in about an hour), I decided to to a quick knitting project. This is the result.

Edit: it has been pointed out to me that the above could be read to mean that I knitted it in a hour. Unfortunately, I am not superhuman, and it actually took a couple of evenings.

This week’s goal

I have decided upon a goal for this week - to get all the cupboard doors made and into position.

Today, I gathered all the wood I need. This involved diving into a barn to pull planks from a Jenga-style pile of rusty nailed floorboards whilst nettles nibbled at my ankles, followed by a more civilised trip to the hardware shop to get some bits of pine.

My plan does depend on whether the Man With the Power Mitre Saw is available, as there is no way I’m hand trimming and cutting all those floorboards. I’m going to ring him tonight and also do all my final measurements. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be able to get a little production line going and hopefully finish by Sunday.

That’s the idea, anyway. Watch this space if you enjoy seeing well-laid plans go completely pear-shaped.

Cupboard door prototype

This is a prototype for the kitchen cupboard doors I am going to make. This is a drawer front and I plan to make all the cupboard doors for the base units in this style.

The wood is some old hardwood floorboards that I client of mine kindly let me have. I’m going to see them later on today and will pick up a load more to do the rest of the doors. The inner panel is just stained and varnished plywood, with an extra bit of softwood to raise the level of the handle.

I’m actually very pleased with how this turned out. I think it will go well with the rest of the kitchen and won’t look too new against the old spice drawers.

The picture doesn’t do the colour of the wood justice, but it gives a general idea. The colour of the wood will probably change as I oil it, anyway - hopefully to a warmer colour. Oh, and the gaps in the top mitres don’t show as much in real life, either!

Apartment Therapy Fall Cure

The ‘Fall Cure’ over at Apartment Therapy starts tomorrow. As the Apartment Therapy book was the thing that got me started on this whole renovation project, it seems fitting that I join in with this 8-week home blitz (although, naturally, I will be doing an Autumn cure).

My aim is to finish all the big work on the kitchen and sitting room by the end. This is a list of what I still need to do:

Cupboards:
- Make doors (I’m waiting for the glue to dry on the prototype as I type) - DONE
- Fit doors and frames - DONE
- Install bin and flippy thing under sink - DONE
- Sort out cupboards so everything has a home - DONE
- Paint inside radiator cupboard - DONE
- Fit clothes drying lines / hooks in radiator cupboard - DONE
- Replace catches on cupboards in sitting room - DONE

Walls / ceiling
- Second coat on walls in kitchen and sitting room - DONE
- Paint ceiling in kitchen and sitting room (ugh) - DONE
- Fill in old electricity cable holes (DONE) and touch up beams with Sadolin - DONE
- Fit remaining bit of beadboard and paint - DONE

Floor
- Re-measure floor in sitting room and kitchen - DONE
- Order cork tiles - DONE
- Level floor in kitchen - DONE. Sort of.
- Tile floor
- Install new skirting boards throughout.
- Build and install baseboard “drawers” in kitchen

Understairs cupboard
- Make new door for cupboard - DONE
- Build recycling centre - DONE

Furniture
- Paint kitchen chairs - DONE
- Strip kitchen table - DONE
- Stain and varnish/wax kitchen table - DONE

Other
- Do lots of work to make money to pay for food to sustain me and buy materials for the above
- Weed out and put away DIY stuff (hurrah! for when that moment finally arrives)

I think that’s eveything. I have left out a couple of things, like reupholstering the chair in the sitting room and finding a rug, partly for financial reasons and partly because I think that would be stretching myself a bit too far…

The slacker returns…

OK, so I haven’t made great progress, but I haven’t been completely idle, either. I have been working on the window end of the kitchen and have finished above worktop-level. Next up is to make some cupboard doors.