Friday, September 19, 2008

Baja's Doors Pt 2

And they're up - and they might not fall down and kill anyone! I put the third hinge in, and with some more muscles and patience from Max, we got them up. Perfect they are not, but for my first door hanging, not so bad.

All done - except for the five holes I have to patch from putting the crossbar too high at the beginning... In the process we also discovered that Erin is definitely the best person if chiseling is required - those art skills can be very handy in home repair ;) The one I did to add the third hinge is definitely not up to her standards.

In progress:
From BajaDoors

Finished:
From BajaDoors


Slideshow:

The Room Formerly Known as Scary

So by now we know that the small room off the kitchen (formerly known as the scary room, now knowns as Baja's room) was fixed up. A lot of work went in it, and it looks very good! I've been remiss in the photos, so here's the slideshow:

Monday, September 15, 2008

Do the research FIRST

Otherwise known as - Baja's doors part 1.

So Baja's room had no door. In fact, it had a vaguely middle-eastern look, with its pointed top, and no frame. Therefore, hanging a door in the opening was not going to be a joy. I concocted a brilliant plan - I would find double doors, like closet doors, put some wood around the outside of the doorway, and hang the doors from the wood.

The first phase went beautifully - I found lovely solid wood doors on Craigslist, for free! It was the actual hanging that began the difficulties... First, when hanging the wood, I didn't measure correctly and the cross piece was too high for the doors - it would show and the doors would not sit flush with it. Remove, recut, replace. Result - five extra holes I must now patch. The doors were too wide. No fear, I bought a new saw blade, and cut them. Door 1 cut beautifully. Door 2 did not. There was some burning. And curving of the cut. And general annoyance. Door 2 is no longer quite so beautiful.

Then to the hanging - Door 1 again went nicely. Door 2 is just plain evil. Firstly, because the radiator is too close to the door, it won't swing open all the way (that's ok, I knew that), and in order to put the door on, we had to chisel gouges in the wood of the "frame". Luckily Erin is good at that. However, I then went on to display a large inability to line the hinges up, resulting in the bottom hinge deciding to pull out of the (not solid wood, particle board) door. And there's not really enough room to attach the hinges, since the door won't open all the way. Can't get the pin in if we take the hinges apart, and can't get the drill in straight if we don't. So the screw heads will stick out. But at that point it had been a very long day, and Max sensibly suggested we finish that door later, once we figure out how to reattach the hinge.

It occurred to me today that I should really look to see how many hinges I should actually use, after assuming that two per door is fine. In a (not) shocking turn of events - I should be using three for these heavy doors. And I didn't place them on the door correctly, having assumed that they should be equidistant from the top and bottom. Not so much. It won't be too much of a big deal to add a hinge per door, but the placement will stay. But now I have to go get more hinges before we can finish. Buying them all at once on Sun would have been much easier. Hence the post title... And really, at this point I should know better!

Pics and results coming soon...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Hmph.

Yeah, ok, so I've totally slacked on the posting. But that's because despite working diligently on the house, I really haven't done anything of note. I really really want to (the dining room is just begging for new drywall and some floor removal), but somehow all the little jobs just take too damn long.

So what have I done since last post?
1. Hung a shelf in the bathroom. Expected completion time: 15 min (counting the time to get the tools from the basement). Actual completion time: 1 hr and 15 min, after discovering that I couldn't drill into the wall I originally chose because there is SOMETHING impermeable back there...
2. Worked on Erin's wall. Expected completion time: 1 day. Actual completion time: you think I'm done? Let's not be silly. I managed to put up the last coat of compound on the drywall, attach one piece of molding, discover that the other really wouldn't fit, decide not to scream, and sand part of the floor where the cabinet was. It may never be done. In fact, I may rip it down in a year when I'm less frustrated and re-do it. Because I can see the crookedness and gaps, and I haven't managed to cover them in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. I am REALLY not up to cabinetry level yet. Yes, I know, practice practice, but perhaps I should have started with a small table or something.
3. Set up the new Hoosier cabinet in the kitchen. Ok, that actually worked out quite well. It looks very nice, especially with all the orphaned plants I keep acquiring on top of it. I may remember to take a photo.
4. Work on Mom's porch. Expected results: finish one wall. Actual results: put up 3 new studs. Sigh.

Also, the damn bugs won't go away. I called the super expensive exterminators back for a follow up visit, and they essentially told me to live with the bugs. And to stop killing the ones I see (!!!!!!!!) so that they can carry the poison back to the nest to kill the ones I don't see. Um - yuck. I mean, we only see one every now and then, they aren't everywhere, but it's still a little embarrassing when I turn the basement light on and then wait at the top of the stairs for 45 sec to make sure the bugs have time to flee...

The rugby season starts for real next weekend, so I've no free weekends until November. Hopefully I'll be able to get some real work going on some Sundays though, because I am determined to "finish" the dining room by Thanksgiving! I mean, the stove works now and everything! And I am so very tired of looking at its unfinished-ness. (I rather imagine Erin feels the same way about her wall.) And so the challenge is out there - finish the dining room by Thanksgiving or bust!