And then there's the other thing that's consumed our time since Friday afternoon. You ever have one of those projects that: a) you didn't expect to have to do and b) seemed impervious to all your best efforts? This is one of those stories.
Our upstairs sinks had been backing up lately and wouldn't respond to anything we tried (including running an auger down the ventilation shaft for the kitchen sink), so we called a drain cleaning company that we've used before. This was going to be a one-hour job, max.
The first thing that deviated from the plan was that the guys wanted to auger the drains from inside the house. Not so unusual--you take off the trap below the sink and snake the pipes--except that they had gone through the ventilation shaft before and that's what we were expecting. Oh well, no big deal, right?
If you haven't had this done, especially when a company uses a motorized/power auger, it spins pretty fast and when the guy retracts it from the pipes it can spray the greasy gunk that had been in the pipes around the inside of the cabinet. But the tech was diligent and used some cleaner to disinfect and clean up the mess. That's when our problem started.
He used a product called Fabuloso. We now refer to it as "horribloso" or "terribloso" because it smells awful. Even worse, if you have any sort of sensitivity or allergy to chemical solvents and perfumes (as we do), then this stuff puts a vice around your head and makes it hard to concentrate. Here's how we left the house that first night, despite nearly freezing temperatures. We had multiple widows open and every fan we owned was in use.
For five straight days (ever since the drain company left around 3pm on Friday) we have been working to evict this stuff from our house. And when we say "straight" here's a recap of our efforts (many of them informed by tips picked up from the Internet):
- we scrubbed the insides of the cabinet with soapy water and separately with baking soda (only later did we read multiple places that the odor-absorbing properties of baking soda are a myth)
- we've sanded the insides four times, this seemed to help the most, the physical removal of the top layer of plywood
- we've applied many rounds of products to neutralize the perfume--hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, cheap vodka (that was a mistake because it caused a headache), and Borax
- we put on clay paint (because that is supposed to absorb odors) but that also was a mistake and was the cause of the fourth round of sanding
- we lit a Febreeze candle inside that added a vanilla smell to the overall miasma
- we're trying a number of odor-absorbers: charcoal, kitty litter, cut onions, and newsprint paper
- we also had short-lived efforts with a bowl of vinegar and coffee grounds (again, both noted for odor-absorbing prowess)
So where does that leave us? The smell is still with us but has eased somewhat. Here's how we leave the sink overnight with a host of odor-absorbers behind those closed doors.
Oh, and if that we're enough, the jostling from the drain company (taking off/putting back the trap) caused the seal where the drain connects to the underside of the sink to leak.
Taking off the silver ring (called the locknut) right below the leaky gasket required a specialized tool. This was part of the five trips we've made to Home Depot in the past four days.
On this replacement drain you can see the locknut more clearly and the little handles that the tool above is made to grab. The black ring above it is the gasket that had to be replaced. The drain company ruined ours when they overtightened everything when putting the parts back together.
There are a number of sites and videos on how to replace a sink drain. It's not overly complicated. If the sink's already installed (as in our case), you detach the plastic pipe, loosen the locknut, and lift the old strainer out of the sink. For installation you basically retrace your steps after first putting a good amount of plumber's putty around the strainer to make the seal on the inside of the sink. Once everything is tight you just trim away the excess putty.
Some putty naturally comes through the bottom and you remove the excess.
Then tighten, tighten, tighten the locknut and that pushes the gasket up to the sink to form a second seal (along with the putty).
This has been a Jeckyll/Hyde week, so we'll split the projects into two types.
In good news, we got a lot done on a couple projects that have been nagging at us for some time. You have to step into the Wayback Machine to remember when we first installed this floor in the studio. Nearly three years later and we finally got around to replacing it, something we've been meaning to do ever since we tore up the counterpart in the kitchen. The prefinished maple just didn't work in this house. It's too pale and jarring when seen next to the warm original oak.
As always, an early step was to buy the necessary parts. In this case, a little more than 200 square feet of unfinished white oak plus a transition strip to the dining room and shoe molding. Once finished every room in the house will have white oak.
Then you demo. We didn't have as much time for this job so we contracted out the demolition and installation of the new floor with a company we've used for many jobs. They always do terrific work.
Half-way done by the end of Saturday.
And here's the completed floor by around 1pm on Sunday. Far faster than we could have done it. Not that we'll get off completely because we'll do the sanding and finishing.
One thing we did while this work was going on was to tackle an overdue outside project. Almost exactly a year ago we installed galvanized steel handrails for the front steps. Most of the progress was captured here, and the final result is here. The bummer of the thing was, though, that the rail on the right side came undone, the one of the left was wobbly, and overall we decided that we just didn't like how this project turned out. As a wise man once said, "Do it right the first time." That's an approach to home renovation that we're still trying to grasp.
Here's what our sad little handrail looked like as of last week. Lonely, paint chipping, unsteady...basically it was a mess.
This time we wanted to make a wooden rail because we tend to like that style better. Once the design was set we needed to get the impact drill back out to make holes in the concrete for the metal bases that will hold the posts.
We made holes just slightly bigger than some nails and used epoxy to attach the plate to the steps and the nails to the insides of the holes where they could serve as anchors.
All that done, it was time to make the various wooden bits. We found a nice douglas fir 4x4 at Home Depot in the lumber aisle. This looks much better than pressure treated pine.
Once the posts were attached to the bases with a few screws we measured the distance and angle before cutting the two side pieces. We cut the first one a little long and kept trimming it until we got it just right. Then we made a duplicate. We carved these pieces out of an oak 1x12 that we had planned to use in a different project.
We added some more of the 1x12 oak to be a top piece and voila! We need to stain all the pieces and we're contemplating adding some vertical stiles between the posts, but it's mostly done and looks much better than the old steel one.
On this remarkably mild weekend, we had some time to move the bookcase project to the next, indoor stage. Mostly this consisted of giving everything a good sanding and then drilling out the holes for the connections and shelf pins. This required the use of the specialty drill bits that came with the two Kreg tools.
Here's the one that clears the hole to attach pieces together.
You can see in the closeup that it has a smaller part of the bit that makes the pilot hole for the actual screw. The wider part clears space for the head of the screws.
Then it was a matter of figuring out where we wanted to put/hide the screws, clamp the pieces in place, and drill the holes. This is the underside of the bottom shelf.
Next we cleared out slots for the shelf pins. We put the center hole in the spot that will make the shelf exactly midway up/down and added options an inch above and below according to the guide.
The two panels on the sides will be bearing a lot of the load--attaching to the legs and top--plus having the pin holes, so those boards look a bit like swiss cheese. The three holes at one end are for screws that will hold the top.
Finally, we decided to get a little fancy. The two shelves are exactly 11 inches, which is the depth of the whole case, so they'll be flush. However, we left the top at its original 11.5 inches width to create a small lip. A squared off lip didn't seem right, so we experimented with the router to see if we could get something better. Here's the edge before:
We used this bit, which creates a 45-degree angle. The round wheel at the top acts as a break. The bit won't go any further once it hits the wood.
However playing with various depths for the router bit create different looks. The shallower/smaller cut on the left happened when we set the bit at a certain height. We got the cut on the right by lowering the bit to 9/16 of an inch. That seemed to be right.
Here's the bit installed at the desired depth.
We used that scrap strip of pine along the top as a brace that would let us keep the router level (rather than tipping away from the board if it wasn't there).
And here's the final result. Now it's onto staining!
Once we'd identified the plan, we used the day off to get started. We decided that first step was to identify all the cuts that we needed to make. The old "measure twice, cut once" works a lot better if you actually know your measurements.
All those pieces will find homes on this design. The shelves will be 18 inches wide and a standard 14 inches high. The top and bottom will be fixed but the middle shelf will float. We'll probably give ourselves a few options so we can move that shelf up or down by an inch. You never know when you'll get some oversized books. Across the bottom on the front will be a flat piece that will mirror the decorative pieces (rails) at the top and bottom on the sides.
With this all set we surveyed the field. In case you've ever wondered, this is roughly what a bookshelf looks like au natural. The widest board (1x12) will be the bottom, top, and middle shelf. The 1x10 resting on top will make the sides. The 1x4 next to it will be the three rails. And we'll use the four 2x2s for the legs. All of this is poplar because we find that pretty easy to work with, it holds paint/stain well, and tends to warp less than pine.
One thing we wanted to make sure was that the legs are exactly the same length. We hit on the idea of binding them together and cutting them as a unit. We used a couple clamps to hold them in both directions. The resulting cuts did exactly what we wanted, which was nice.
After we cut all of the boards to the right lengths, each of the pieces was too wide for our design, but the table saw (set to the right widths) made quick work of that problem. Here's one of the 1x4 pieces being trimmed to 3 inches high.
And voila! The legs are on the right. The rails come next. Then the two sides. And across the top of the picture are the shelves and top.
Everything's ready for a thorough sanding. Then we'll drill out the various holes for the screws and shelf pins before staining the individual pieces. We've discovered it's a lot easier to do it that way than staining after assembly. Stay tuned and by all means do try this at home.
