Wood Countertops Anyone?

Not many people think about wood countertops when designing their new kitchen. There are a lot of choices including the ever popular granite, solid service like Corian and laminate just to name a few. Wood is becoming more popular than ever due to the endless possibilities when it comes to species and appearance. I personally have a wood top on my kitchen island and love it as it adds a warmth and a bit of country charm to our house. I wish that was my island in the first picture but mine is the one to the right which I made from scratch with some reclaimed douglas fir that I found. Wood countertops come in a variety of wood styles including butcher block, plank, rustic and exotic with each offering it's own benefits. The bottom line is don't just think granite or laminate, think outside the norm and think wood. Below are just a few examples of what you can do with wood.

Nice example of a wood plank countertop with a farmhouse sink. Traditional white cabinets with oil rubbed bronze hardware and faucet.

Here is a butcher block countertop, perfect for preparing food. This requires regular maintenance to keep it in good condition but will always show wear due to being used as a prep surface.

This is and example of some very old reclaimed wood in it's rough state. These planks would be planed down on the surface and the edges then joined together to form one countertop. The finished product is below which happens to be a bathroom vanity top. This is my style. 

This is an example of using an exotic wood to bring out the endless possibilities of wood countertops. Here you have Cocobolo, look that up if you want, with an oil finish. Very unique and striking.

Tough Job

I was heading outside at work today to start some spring clean up and thought wow this really is a cool place to come everyday. The drive up to the house, the ever changing landscape, the peace and serenity most of the time and a great staff I get to work with. This is where I get a lot of inspiration and knowhow for projects at my own house.  I thought I would share some photos of where I work, unfortunately for my family a bit too much. I know it looks rough but someone has to do it. Come visit sometime, you'll be amazed at what you will see.

HILL-STEAD MUSEUM PHOTO ALBUM-LINK

Bathroom Remodel Completion

In this post I will share some of the finish materials that I used to complete my bathroom remodel. Be sure to check part 1 and 2 first.  Again, the shower was by far the most time consuming so I actually completed that last so we could have a working sink and toilet sooner rather than later.Here you can see the tile floor which is a chiseled edge 6X6 porcelain tile in a neutral beige color with a grout to match. The tile is laid on a cement board by a company called James Hardie who also makes fiber cement siding for the outside of you house. I find this product superior to other cement boards as it is easier to work with, is lighter and does not crumble on the edges like wonder board.

HARDIE CEMENT BOARD 

For the toilet and sink I chose products from Kohler. Nice clean traditional lines with a bit of elegance. The toilet is from the Memiors collection and has a round front rather than the elongated because of the small space as this provides a little more room in front of the shower door area. The sink is from the Devonshire collection in a pedestal version with a Delta faucet. The faucet is a bit victorian but I really like the look of it. The cross handles are an option that you have to choose when ordering and they give it the traditional feet. On the walls is a engineered beadboard product with a nice custom two piece cap. The beadboard is from Lowe's and the cap moulding is from Sanford & Hawley. I have listed the links to all these products below. Check them out.

KOHLER TOILET

KOHLER SINK

DELTA SINK

SANFORD & HAWLEY BUILDING PRODUCTS

The shower door is from a company called Basco who make doors, enclosures and glass for showers. I ordered it from FW Webb in Hartford, a plumbing supply store. The great thing is it is custom made to your opening so I was able to complete the tile around the door and then measure to get a nice fit. It is available in several finishes and is semi frameless so there is no metal on the top or bottom. Once again I ordered black, I think it was around $400 but I love the look. The link is below.

BASCO SHOWER DOORS

Below are some finished project pictures which you can click on to zoom in. I made the medicine cabinet and wood niches in my shop out of old pine. Check out my furniture page for other items I have made. If you see something you like I could make one for you. The light over the sink is a stock item at CT Lighting Center in Southington. BATHROOM VANITY LIGHT-Link

 Check out Bathroom Remodel Parts 1 & 2 in previous posts for the complete project. 

BEFORE

BEFORE

SHOWER BENCH

SHOWER CEILING

SHOWER TILE FLOOR AND THRESHOLD

SHOWER NICHE

TOILET AND WELL USED BOOK

NO SHOWER DOOR YET

BLACK SHOWER DOOR

NICHE

MEDICINE CABINET AND LIGHT

NICH 

SKYLIGHT-See bathroom remodel part 1

POCKET DOOR

Linking up to Metamorphosis Monday @BNOPT

Snow Mold

Tis the season for snow mold on your lawns. It appears as greyish white patches and can effect small or large areas of you lawn. It is usually harmless and is due to the deep snow pack we had all winter. Now is the time to rake it up and remove the dead grass or thatch to allow the healthy grass to thrive once it comes out of dormancy. Check out the link below for details on snow mold and treatment.


SNOW MOLD INFORMATION- LINK

Bathroom Remodel Part 2

This first picture is a little taste of the finished product. Be sure to check out Bathroom Remodel Part 1 first. I am going to start by detailing the construction of the shower. There are different ways to build a walk in shower however I chose to build my own custom pan and tile the walls and ceiling. You can buy pre-made shower pans which you just set in your opening, hook up the drain and tile the walls, pretty easy and saves a lot of time. These pans are one piece and typically feel spongy or hollow if they are not set in concrete. There is also a company called Schluter and the make a whole shower system which consists of the pan materials, drain and waterproofing for the walls. The link is here. SCHLUTER-KERDI. This product was just coming onto the market when I did my shower but is now very popular and I would not hesitate to use it. Like I said I chose to make mine totally from scratch. I mixed concrete for the base, added a waterproof liner, put cement board on the walls and tiled. This is more work but the end result if done right is a shower that will not leak and will last a long time. The book at the top of the post is one that I myself own and could not recommend more. I used the book and the author's website extensively throughout the project. I will give you very basic info but the book gets into great detail. The link is below. I just checked the site and he now has a book exclusively on the Schluter shower system.

John Bridge Tile Site and Forum

DRAIN AND BLOCKING

The shower construction starts with a few important elements that are sometimes overlooked. Do you see the blocking in between the studs? You need that to tack the top of the pan liner to secure in properly. Also the drain height is crucial and needs to be raised up off the plywood deck to accommodate the thickness of the wire mesh and first layer of mud. You can also see the curb or step at the entrance to the shower which is made by stacking 2X4's and securing them properly.

TAR PAPER AND WIRE MESH

This is a shot of the tar paper and wire mesh laid down over the plywood deck. It is cut to fit, slipped under the drain and tacked in place with a hammer stapler. This mesh allows the first layer of mud to adhere to the plywood and gives it strength. Don't skip this step or it is sure to crumble.

PRE SLOPE DECK MUD

The next step is the first layer of what is called "mud". The mud is mixed very dry almost like wet play sand and packed down. This first layer is formed to give you your slope of 1/4 inch per foot so the water heads for the drain. It will be about two inches thick around the edges and taper down to less than an inch near the drain. The fact that it is so thin at the drain is why you need the wire mesh. This photo is actually of the shower I built in our new master bath but it is the same thing. 

PAN LINER

Then comes the pan liner which is a 40 mil PVC material, there are many different manufacturers but mine was made by Oatey.  They also make the drain assembly. The liner is cut to extend up the walls at least nine inches, neatly folded in the corners and wrapped over the curb. It gets tacked in place with staples ONLY at the top edge and the outside of the curb. Any staples down low or on the inside of the curb and it WILL leak. One thing missing in the photo are little pre-made corners that go on the curb and are sealed with PVC cement. The exploded view link gives a very nice picture of the steps involved in making a water tight shower pan, check it out!!

Shower Pan Construction-Exploded View

Oatey Shower Pan Liner and Drain

CEMENT BOARD AND FLOOR TILE

It is at this point that the cement board is put on the walls and is run down over the pan liner to just shy of the first layer of mud. Now you are ready for the top layer of mud which is mixed a little wetter than the first. This is troweled on over the liner and follows the same slope created with the fist layer. This layer will hold the cement board in place at the bottom since you can't use screws on the lower nine inches. The level is brought up just below the top level of the drain to allow for the tile thickness as you want the top of the tile even with the top of the drain. After the tile is down if all was done correctly there should be no pooling of water anywhere in the shower, pooling water means mold development. This is what it looks like after the tile is down. The red stuff is a waterproofing material which is used on the seams of the cement board after they are taped and cemented.

NICHE AND SHEETROCK

I decided to add a niche to hold soap, shampoo and the many products my wife clutters the shower with. Again this had to be thought out prior to construction as the opening had to be framed out. This was a pre-formed unit made of an molded plastic and is recessed into the wall and flush with the cement board. I purchased this from Tile America in West Hartford and is made by the Noble Company. I also installed a small bench made by the same company, however I don't have any pictures of it being installed. Basically the bench is screwed to the wall, filled with mud, sealed and tiled. You can see it in the finished photos soon. The link below shows all the shower product the Noble Company makes.  You can also see the moisture resistant sheetrock installed.

Shower Niche and Bench

WATER PROOFING

In this photo you can see the niche with the waterproofing applied and the inside tiled. Also the wall tiles are starting to be installed as well as I had put paint on the bathroom walls.

These are few photos of the finished shower including the bench. The final post on this bathroom remodel will be all the before and after shots. These will include fixtures, floor tile and finishes. Stay tuned.

BENCH WITH LIMESTONE SEAT

TILE CEILING AND SHOWER HEAD

TILE FLOOR WITH DRAIN AND LIMESTONE THRESHOLD

COMPLETED TILE



Bathroom Remodel Part 1



WHOA, UGLY



Here we go with some pics of our small, very small full bathroom upstairs before I began the demo. The room measures a staggering 5'X8' and in that space was crammed a bath tub, toilet and corner sink barely big enough to wash your hands in. I remember my father doing this room over and installing the grey fixtures so I am thinking it must have been around 1980 or so, which explains the color. It was in desperate need of a total gut down to the studs as there was only sheetrock and some sort of panelling in the shower area. Needless to say there was a lot of water penetration confirmed by mold, wet sheetrock and water staining on the framing. Having decided to take it down to the studs this offered me the opportunity to redesign the whole space and change the layout. The biggest change was that I did away with the tub and put in a stand alone shower and at the time this was our only full bath. Usually you don't want to eliminate a bathtub for fear of hurting the resale value of the home but I had been thinking ahead. I was fairly certain at that time I would be adding on the the house with another bedroom and bath, which is exactly what has been done. Anyway now I have a walk in shower, toilet and full size sink all in that small space and within proper building codes.

VERY VERY BASIC-CHECK OUT THE LIGHT

This was one of the most challenging projects due to the fact that this was our only place to shower. I actually set up a very crude temporary shower in the basement in which I bought a small waste pump to get the drain water up to the main drain. I have to send out a huge thank you to my wife for putting up with this for five months. When you are doing projects yourself on nights and weekends plan for it to take longer than you think it will.

DEMO

One other major design change was the natural lighting. In the picture here you can see a small casement window located on right exactly where I wanted to put the sink and medicine cabinet. By removing it this gave me the much needed wall space however with any habitable room code says you need a source of natural light. Can you say skylight. That is exactly what I did, install a skylight with a little help from my roofer friend Bill. It was a Velux brand which I bought at Lowe's and is manually able to be vented. If I did it over I would have gotten the one with the electric opener as I had to buy a special pole to reach the darn thing when I want to open it. Note the old green cast iron drain pipe in the corner. All new plumbing was needed. Below are links to Velux brand windows and a good skylight install.

VELUX SKYLIGHTS

SKYLIGHT INSTALLATION VIDEO Very basic but identical to my installation.

ROUGH-IN

I wound up having to do some reframing of the interior wall that had the tub on it. A couple of the old studs actually started rot from all the water penetration plus the whole wall was out of plumb. It was easier to reframe it than try to repair and modify what was there. One thing I have learned is sometimes it is easier, cheaper and faster to start from scratch. You can see some of the electrical and plumbing rough-ins, the shower will be along the back wall. Again this was a total gut so I have installed all new plumbing and electrical. The old drain pipes were cast iron which were replaced with PVC and I installed all new copper supply lines. I also pulled out some scary looking electrical wires which probably dated back to the 40's.

SKYLIGHT OPENING

Here you can see some more electrical in the form of a recessed can light. Since there will be insulation covering the housing in the attic it needs to be rated as such. This would be the one you need. RECESSED LIGHT HOUSING I chose to go with the 4 inch as I like the more modern look of the smaller light. Just behind the light housing you can see the framed opening for the skylight tunnel and on the back wall the new PVC drain pipe.

FRAMED SHOWER ENCLOSURE

Since the room is so small I did all the rough in work first then as you can see here I framed the wall which will enclose the shower. It is small in width but the code minimum of 30 inches and about 48 inches long. Remember that new drain pipe on the back wall, well that actually projects out into the footprint of the room so I could not run the shower the full 5 feet in width. There is some dead space to the right of the shower so I framed out a little niche which you can see better in the finished photos in the next post. In this photo you can also see I have removed the wall from the hallway leading into the bathroom. That will get reframed as well to accommodate a pocket door.

The next post will focus on the shower. I built a custom mud shower pan, added a preformed niche and tiled the ceiling and walls. Lots of info and ideas to share.

Connecticut Home Show

DONE FOR THIS YEAR, CHECK BACK SAME TIME IN 2012

Connecticut's largest home show is coming next weekend. Check out the link below and enter PROMO CODE --COURANT for a 20% discount on tickets. I have been to this show and there are a ton of vendors in attendance with endless amounts of info.



CONNECTICUT HOME SHOW

Dining Room Remodel Part 2

Be sure to start with Dining Room Makeover Part 1.

Back to the dining room with the wood flooring install. After ripping up the green carpet I found very worn and patched wood floors. They were to far gone to be refinished plus and were the very boring 2 1/4 inch red oak. I'm guessing these were not original to the house but were put in in 40's or 50's as that species and size was the norm and still is to some degree. Home owners now are leaning to more exotic woods in wider widths. Needless to say the old floor came up and I put down 3/4 inch sub-floor over the original 1X6 boards that were nailed to the floor joists. This built up the height a bit but it actually matched to level of the kitchen nicely once the new hardwood was down. After much research and debate I chose to go with Wide Plank White Oak flooring in a random width pattern. The boards range from 3 inches to 7 inches wide and I was able to get them in long lengths of 5 to 10 feet. I don't care for the look of short little 2 or 3 foot long pieces as some of the boards I received span over half the room. The random width takes more time to install because you have to plan it out so you don't wind up short of a certain width at the end and so you don't fall into a pattern. You want to wind up with a nice random patter across the whole room which I was able to do and not have two of the same size boards next to each other. I must say it really looks nice! Be sure to click on the pictures for a close up view.



NO FINISH



As far as the appearance of the floor I went with a Country Grade which has some small knot holes, worm holes and a more varied color. It really fits in with the whole plan for the house and the decor. Again I don't care for the perfect looking floor, more the rustic look. For the finish I also went against the grain, that is a bad joke. Seriously everyone is using polyurethane on their floors, I used Tung Oil. It is actually from a Tung tree and it produces a beautiful water resistant finish. There are some companies that sell a tung oil finish ready to apply but I chose to go with a 100% pure tung oil and thin it down with mineral spirits. A 50/50 mix is good. I put on three coats but the beauty of it is it gives the floor a

 somewhat matte finish meaning there is very little shine to it. Again the rustic look.



VERY CLOSE TO WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE NOW



After a few years you can go right over it with another coat to make it look brand new then do it as often as you like to keep the floor looking new forever. The tung oil penetrates to wood and lets the floor patina or age over time. Once you put a coat of polyurethane on it covers the wood which won't allow the floor to breathe and needs to be sanded off in order to re-coat. I have included the link to the supplier I bought the wood from, I can't say enough good things about company. It is actually one guy who gets his wood from a mill and has it made to his specs, it is good stuff. Check out his website for tons of info and prices. You will be surprised how cheap a unique looking floor can be. Be sure to look for the info on Tung Oil.

Wide Plank Flooring

Below is the link for the details on Tung Oil. I purchased mine from Maher's Paint and Wallpaper


Hope's Tung Oil

When I remodeled the dining room I started replacing the heating grilles with new cast iron ones more in keeping with the character of the house. They are definitely more expensive that the cheap ones at Lowe's but these are very high quality and look amazing with the wood floor. We have a lot of black accents in our house so these fit in nicely. The link to the company is below. I ordered right from the factory.

 Reggio Register Company

This wall sconce I bought from Connecticut Lighting Center in Southington. It was a special order but not too expensive, $90 or so. The big box stores just don't have things like this that are hand made. They also have a very nice selection of fixtures in stock ready to go. I have purchased many items and am very happy with the quality and service. The link is here. Lighting Fixtures

My wife and I would always stop in antique stores whenever we saw one. Now that we have three kids that really can't happen anymore, maybe someday in the future. Anyway we picked up this red sideboard and the chandelier over the table. The sideboard we really just use for displaying more antiques, I think we paid $200 for it. The chandelier we paid like $30. You never know what you will find at an antique shop.





Below are a few pictures of the completed room. Enjoy and I hope you have gained some knowledge and ideas for your projects. 



POCKET DOOR PULL



STAIRS COMPLETED

POCKET DOOR AND PANTRY

LOOKING IN FROM LIVING ROOM

TABLE FROM PIER 1

BEFORE(two rooms)