The project continues. Every once in a while I get the urge to set some of this down on paper. When I looked back at what I had written, I realized that I had not done anything on the downstairs. During the last year (while the upstairs was not really done – see the pages on the vanity table and the mirror) we started on the downstairs. The downstairs consists of three bedrooms, a bath, the “Cave” (more about that later), and a Laundry room/utility room. The three bedrooms got new doors and new trim (baseboard and window treatment). The big effort went into the closets (which were huge – almost “walk in”). Here we got rid of the 4 ft byfold doors and used 3 ft pocket doors (the usable opening is virtually the same) and did some shelving as well as the closet rods. In one of the closets (closest to the outside door and across the hall from the Laundry) we stole some space to make a “Mud Room).
We took down the wall between the Laundry and the hallway (opened it up a lot) and built a room around the HVAC (noise abatement) and added a built in ironing board and new cabinets above the washer/dryer. The freezer (which took up a huge piece of the laundry room) went into a space under the stair landing. The walls in the laundry were covered with “Plybead” panel and the hall got wainscot using 1X6 Vee groove boards (the same as the kitchen.
The bathroom was redone with a new cultured marble shower and counter tops. It now has board and batten wainscot (like the half bath, upstairs).
This spring we moved into the carport. The decision was made to convert it into a garage. We took down most of the wall of the “shed” (really a catch all room along one side) and resurrected the adjacent toilet room. A wall was built on the water side with windows the full width and the driveway opening was reduced to accept a 16ft garage door (6' 9" high) (there was a steel I beam that I could not move). The plywood ceiling came down (we did some electrical work and plumbing while it was down) and was replaced with sheetrock. The walls between the house and garage got 5/8 sheetrock and the rest of it got some left over plybead. It looks more like a shop right now – but we can really get the four wheeler in and close the door.
Recently we finished a scrub sink cabinet in the garage. The sink came out of the old laundry room – we built a cabinet for it in the garage (the plumbing was routed out here while the wall behind the washer was being worked on). The steps were Rex’s idea and I liked it because the door could be hinged across the bottom. With the steps off I could slide up under the sink to make the plumbing connections without having to lay over an sharp edge. The steps can be taken apart if I have to get in there again and if the kids get tall enough so that they are not required any longer. The drawers are the full depth of the cabinet and have full extension drawer slides.
When we took the laundry sink (above) out of the laundry room, we left the plumbing. I bought a bar sink to go in that place and finally had an inspiration on the drive home one afternoon, on how to install it. To make the skirt bend around the corner I cut it into segments and glued it back together (it has a piece of Tee Shirt epoxied on the back side of the corner to give it added strength). The brackets were made from a piece of dunnage that I dragged home from the lumber yard. It took four trys to steam bend the trim around the counter top (out of 3/8" Oak – the radius is about 3 ½"). It worked out well – the sink is up off the floor so it can be cleaned under and there is a place to put the trash can.
The current projects include a work bench under the windows in the garage and a fold down king size bed in the “Cave”. Stay tuned for developments.
17 Oct 04
