Sunday, August 21, 2016

Overhead? No, over sink

We built and installed the overhead compartment (minus door).
The frame is made from 1"x.5" maple strips.
I made 3 axis box joints for each corner.

We also made wall coverings for above the window, above the cabinet frame, and for the hollow floor in the cabinet.
The floor is hollow because we are mounting a surface mounted over-sink light on the cabinet bottom.

It's still way to early for drinking, but all those pieces are really getting shellacked.

Got it all mounted up:

The door still needs to be built. It will swing down on a piano hinge, and have magnetic latches to keep it closed.

A better view of the panels above the window"

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Sinking to new lows


It's been a while since the last post. We've been building the half bath's sink and cabinet, and enjoying getting interrupted by life...like spending almost a couple of weeks trying to get the old stuck clutch out of my motorcycle.

Anyways, here's what we've gotten up to in Building Annie.

We took the panel previewed at the end of the last post, and mounted it:

Then we built a windowsill. First leveled out the sloped sidewall with a ripped 2x4. Glued and screwed to the frame.

Then made and mounted the maple sill.

We found a nice piece of melamine covered counter at a recycled building supply. Cut it to length. Dry fitting it:

It leaves a bunch of space behind the fridge. We decided that we could use it for a storage compartment, without screwing up adequate ventilation for the fridge compressor.
Starting to fit pieces of this jigsaw:

With the curvy window frame and van wall, nothing was straight. It took an excessive amount of time to cut and build up the odd shaped box walls.
We made dato'd corner trim pieces, and glued stuff together.



I was getting really frustrated with the slow progress, and was beginning to not give a hoot.
Fortunately we have a friendly neighbor who did give the hoot I so desperately needed.

With courage restored, I finished up the compartment. Eventually I'll be putting shelves in there.

Next, we built the rear wall of the area under the sink/counter.
An important goal here is to allow everything to be disassembled if we ever need to remove the furnace. Since it sits under a weight bearing support for the fridge (necessary to minimize wasted space), it's not possible to pull the furnace straight out like the manual suggests. Instead, we'd have to remove it via the bathroom.

Then we built a cover for the furnace and the cabinet's kick panel.
The cabinet will have sliding doors.


We cut the holes in the counter for the sink and faucet.

We had a piece of material left after cutting the counter down to size. So, after mounting the sink, we turned that remnant into a sliding shelf. We also incorporated the upper glide for the cabinet doors

The shelf has a push/push magnetic latch and some foam weather stripping to keep it from rattling around.

Made a cabinet shelf:

And installed the counter.
The counter shelf is closed:

And is open.

Reinstalled the throne:

Finally, the chairperson of the aesthetics committee checked out and approved the new chair.

Next up, we will put a small overhead cabinet over the counter, build the wall behind the driver's seat, and build the bathroom doors.