Category: Powder Room

Posted on

Mastering the Router

I mastered the router!

Here lies the vanquished router.

Well, maybe “master” isn’t the correct description. How about “conquered”? In any event, I got it figured out and created a decent-enough rounded edge for my window stool! (Stool is the actual name for what most people, including me, call a window sill. The sill is the name for the similar part on the outside of the window).

Anyway, yay me!

The reason I’m proud is that I bought the router over a month ago and it has sat since then waiting to be magically figured out or for someone to come and show me how to use it. Neither of those things happened.

I was intimidated by the router because the assembly instructions were written by a non-linear thinker, and certainly it did not come with instructions on how to use it. So it sat in its brand new fancy bag. But today I got at it and viola! It is not beyond me!

On the sofa with a cup of coffee is a great place to try and navigate crappy instructions.

I’ve got a coat of shellac on this practice stool and once a few coats are dried I’ll attempt to fasten it to the window jamb, to see how it fits.

Here’s a squared off kind of edge. I’m going to just do a bullnose for the actual stool.

That’s also going to be tricky, because ass-hat builder built the jambs and they suck. The bottom jamb has a 30′ angle, so there’s no flat part for me to mount the stool. If I were a true carpenter, I would build a 30′ matching wedge for under the stool, but that is not within the realm of my abilities. So, some other ‘fix’ has to be worked out, I’m just not sure what it will be yet.

Not only is the jamb at a 30′ or so angle, I had to hack off glued-on trim so that the window will open and close. Ass-hat put the trim on so tight that the window doesn’t work.

As with everything in this addition, the window stool is far from perfect, so it fits right in. Yay!

The actual stools are going to be from original fir from my grandma’s house. I’m so happy to be able to use it.

Posted on

Powder room door

I’m using doors, windows, trim, and flooring from my grandmother’s house (which is now abandoned). This is the door for the powder room, which is a pocket door.

Since the doors are shellacked, I merely wiped down the door and added a couple of new coats of shellack and it looks wonderful.

Before
After
Before
After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I installed it (definitely a two person job) and discovered that the effing builder had used drywall screws too long for the pocket space, such that when the door slid into the pocket it was scratched by the screws.

 

 

 

 

This is a 100 year old door, in mint condition. It survived 100 years of use in a family of 5 and my builder scars it with his effing malicious idiocy.

So, I had to dig out the screws from the already taped/mudded drywall and replace them with shorter screws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an effing idiot.

 

Posted on

Main Floor Powder Room

I have been working on the main floor powder room for some time. The powder room is quite small. I wanted it so.

I’m not a carpenter, as I’m sure is clear by now, and I take lots time to figure out how to do something and then make many mistakes, so I take lots of breaks to psych myself up to keep going. Sometimes those breaks can be for weeks or more.

Here are some photos of work I’ve done to date:

Wallpaper and vanity light. Light is LED from Lowes.

 

Wallpaper closeup.
Wainscoting is painted Storm Cloud Grey, from Benjamin Moore.
Wainscoting – Storm Cloud Grey – and wallpaper.
This is where the toilet will go. Floor is dark grey luxury vinyl. It extends out of the powder room, into the back door area.

I’d like to say the room is almost done, but aside from the obvious of installing toilet and sink, I have other finishing tasks to do:
– the window frame – is inset, so I have to build an ‘extension’ frame of some kind, and then put on header and casings.
– “crown” moulding – I haven’t caulked this in yet because I probably have to remove the piece that sits where the window header will go.
– vanity – this is going to be a dresser I had when I was a child, so I have to drill holes into it and modify the back to accept the plumbing etc. I find this intimidating and I have stress about otherwise destroying a perfectly good antique dresser.
– pocket door – for the life of me I cannot hang it by myself. It will not go onto the sliders. I’ll have to round up someone to help.
– door trim – can’t be completed until the pocket door is in. Then I have to shellack it.
– after the fixtures are in I can install soap dish, toilet paper holder, towel rack etc. I purchased those from Rejuvination, so they’re ready to go on.
– switch plates – I bought some fancy white ceramic and chrome ones, but noticed only after I’d bought them that I will also have to change the actual switches to white, in order to match. Right now they’re builder’s beige. I can do it myself, but not prior to ‘inspection’ of the electrical and I don’t want to pay the electrician to change them.
– blinds or curtains – I might try and install plantation shutters (as I call them in the frigid north).
– hang a fern
– hang something art-like; pictures or posters etc.

An example of the blinds I’d like (and similar to what was on the original part of the house when I bought it):

I’m also looking for a toilet like this – square with detail, but not elongated. I can only find elongated ones, which is why there is no toilet installed yet.