Monthly Archives: January 2012

Guest Post: Ethan from ‘One Project Closer’ Talks Workbenches

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Today we’re lucky to have our very first guest post by Ethan from One Project Closer.  I’m totally impressed by the quality advice Ethan dispenses below.  I’ll be building a workbench sometime next month (hopefully) and I’ll be incorporating every one of his tips.  Check it out!

I feel like the workbench is the focal point of any shop because that’s usually were most of the action takes place. If I’m gluing the pieces of a new woodworking project, I’m at the workbench. If I need to use my vice or bench-grinder, it’s on the workbench. It’s also where I go for fresh batteries. I share all this because a good workbench can make such a huge difference. I would know; I’ve used good ones and bad ones. This guest post is going to focus on what I think makes a good workbench, and I hope you’ll add your thoughts too.

Mount a Power Strip

I mentioned that my workbench also doubles as a charging station. Manufacturers keep introducing new battery technology every couple of years, and that means I’ve got at least 5 chargers going at any one time. To keep all these batteries fresh and not tie up a bunch of outlets, I’ve mounted a power strip to the backside of my workbench. I’ve also seen power strips mounted on the underside of the workbench so that you don’t have a bunch of plugs protruding off the back. Either way, it’s very convenient and inexpensive to add one.

No Recoil, No Sagging

When my wife and I purchased our home, we inherited a simple workbench made from 2×4′s and plywood (which I later disassembled). Unfortunately, whoever made it didn’t bother to fully support the plywood and it sagged in the middle. Even worse, when I would hammer something, the entire bench would jump! The best solution I’ve found is to ensure your workbench is really well supported, and I recommend a torsion box design. Basically, you can create a torsion box by sandwiching the 2×4 supports with plywood. I’ve made two workbenches that feature a torsion box, and I’m amazed at how solid they feel.

Replaceable Top

This is a suggestion that I haven’t implemented yet but plan on adding to my current workbenches. Given enough time, the top of your workbench is bound to get stain, glue, grease and who-knows-what-else all over it. For that reason, consider adding a layer on top that is easily replaceable. Materials like Luan and Melamine are great for this application.

Mobile

Casters are another really easy add-on that I recommend. Pickup a few 3″ casters and you’ve got a mobile workbench that you can move as needed. Just make sure they’re rated for the appropriate weight. Whenever I need to break out the miter saw, I wheel the workbench over by the garage door to minimize sawdust in the workshop (a.k.a. garage).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are tons of different workbench designs and styles out there, and I hope you’ll share what makes your workbench unique. What features do you love about your workbench?

One Project Closer is a website where Fred, Kim, Jocie, and I share home improvement how-to’s, tool reviews, coupons for DIY centers, and crafty projects. I hope you’ll stop by OPC for resources like installing hardwood flooring, crafty gift ideas, and more. We also provide a list of discounts for home improvement stores like this Home Depot coupon page. Swing by and say hello!

Grand Plans Update and Our Icemaker-Paradigm Shift

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How about that for a post title!

Well folks, it’s been seven weeks since we started on our Grand Plans!  I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone.  We still have a few small projects left on our list, but here’s what we’ve accomplished to date…

1.  Add chair rail molding to vestibule (how-to post here and odd angles post here)
2.  Enhancing our crown molding
3.  Caulking and filling nail holes
4.  Painting, painting, painting (Vestibule, Family Room, Morning Room and Kitchen)
5.  Adding hardwood floors to our living room (post 1 and post 2) and family room

we’ve since added to the list…

6. Paint the Dining Room 

We realize that we should probably add some sort of home tour and maybe a layout so you can see where these rooms are with respect to the house.  We promise to post one soon.  As far as the dining room goes, we’ve decided to do some exciting work in here…  that’s all I’m saying for now.  You’ll see next month!  We’re not starting any new projects until after our daughter’s birthday party.  We added this room to the paint list because it looked too bare compared to the adjacent rooms.

We also finally got around to running a hose from our water supply to our fridge’s icemaker.  Can’t believe we waited this long.  Already. love. it.

This little water outlet thing was behind our fridge.  We never actually ordered this, but our builder put it in anyway.  We think they goofed.  If they hadn’t put it in, we would’ve probably never added one ourselves.  It’s not difficult to do, it’s just that… Lisa and I aren’t icemaker people.  This is our second side by side fridge with the water and ice dispenser and up until now, we’ve never even thought about adding it.  Frankly, we’re bottled water people.  Not just plain bottled water, but bottled, purified water.  We don’t go with that hippie, crunchy, spring water stuff.  We prefer the taste.  Consequently, we have about ten empty plastic bottles throughout the house at any given time.  The water line changes everything.  Now, that it’s there, we use it constantly.  Major paradigm shift.

We actually hooked up the hose because we thought it would be convenient when we have company.  We didn’t realize we’d use it for the tea kettle, the dog bowl, washing my hands, filling up water balloons…  Ok, so I don’t wash my hands with it… but I could.

Making the connection was as simple as pulling out the fridge and attaching the line to the fridge and the wall valve.  It’s also a great opportunity to clean the floor under the fridge.  It’s pretty much a lost city of gold/dog treats for Finnie.

Once the hose was in, Finnie checked for leaks.

The only annoying thing about hooking up this line is the cleansing. We had to flush the system, by running about 4-5 gallons of water and then dumping it out. I also threw out the first two trays of ice. Still beats Brita.

Have you added something minor to your routine that changes everything?

Our Quasi Free Area Rug

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Remember this old thing? That’s our old wall to wall carpet in our family room. We ripped it out when we installed our hardwood floors. This carpet has a seam in the middle that made removing it into two movable section fairly simple. Lisa and I initially thought about just scrapping these pieces, but we weren’t thrilled with the idea of throwing out two barely used sections of quality berber. That’s when a little light bulb went off above Lisa’s beautiful head. (I don’t actually remember whose idea it was, but I’m getting major husband points by assuming it was her idea.) Way to go Lisa! ;)

We decided to take the sections over to a local carpet store to have them cut down to a smaller size and edge bound, essentially turning them into two large area rugs! Despite the fact that we are in love with the look of our new floor, we knew we needed to have something down on a day to day basis for the baby.

Here’s how we’ve been coping with her play area setup since the new floors went in…

That play area is necessary for a few reasons. First, it allows us to put her down when we’re in the middle of something to keep her from getting hurt. Second, we often hang out with her in there when we don’t feel up to chasing her around the house. Lastly, it gives us a place to hide from the dog!

Currently, the play-yard is resting on a comforter so as not to scuff the floors and make it more comfortable for the baby.

The very same day we started on the floors, Lisa and I ran them over to the carpet store. The two sections were so long I had to bend them in half and to fit in my Jeep and they still stuck out the tailgate. It looked like a giant enchilada folded in half.

Picking them up when they were completed was much easier. They had been cut down to size.

Before I heaved this massive carpet upon my shoulder like Atlas (haha), we threw down an area rug pad. The pad is a foam like net that has a rubbery feel to it. Totally grips the floors. One concern we had with this rug was the underside. Most area rugs have a soft backing. However, wall to wall carpet, which OUR area rugs started out as, has a stiff nylon grid on the back that may not play nice with our floors. Thus, the pad should eliminate any scuffing by keeping it still.

Another issue we had to deal with was impressions left by the end tables and couches. We googled methods for dealing with these and most responses mentioned applying steam from a hot iron and using a stiff bristle brush to work the compressed fabric free.

Lisa used the next best thing, her Haan. She made a few passes with this steaming vacuum and held it over the spot for a few seconds. After she moved it, I just worked the spot with my fingers being careful not to burn my hands. It worked pretty good, although the carpet now looks a little disturbed in that area. I’m sure it will settle down over the next few weeks or so.

Overall, we like it. Kind of weird to spend all the time putting in the hardwood only to throw back down the same carpet, I will admit. We’re planning on removing it for company, so it’ll be in and out quite often.

How much did this cost us? The carpet was free… well, we paid for it during the build, so I guess it isn’t really free. The edge banding cost $2 a linear foot (total perimeter) for a total of about $80 per rug. The floor pad cost about $45 per rug. So, that’s $125 for a huge, quality Berber area rug. Best part is, we know where it came from! No weird surprises or mystery stains!

Have you ever re-purposed anything you initially thought about throwing away?

Our Kitchen

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Believe it or not, Lisa and I are just getting over our brutal weekend a couple weeks ago where we installed hardwood floors in our family room!  I think my last splinter just came out.  I had about a dozen of them AND I was wearing gloves!  It was ridiculous.  I had three bandaids on my hands for a couple days.  Anyway, while we were resting up for the last two weeks, we’ve been taking our time and doing some painting and picking up some furniture.  The whole reason we’re doing all of this work over about a month’s time frame is because we’re preparing for our daughter’s first birthday party.  Lisa will be blogging all about that soon enough so stop by early and often! 

We finished up the painting in our Family Room and Kitchen a few days ago.  We still have to paint our Dining Room and finish up some trim in the living room… Oh and Lisa just added painting our powder room to the “Honey Do” list before the party… among other things.

We thought this would be a good opportunity to post about our kitchen, since we’ve never formally posted about it yet.  Lisa did a couple posts about her plate walls here and here.  I also just assembled our daughter’s rocking moose in our last post in our kitchen, but we never actually discussed it yet.  We DID feature a couple pictures of it on our Home Build Page, but that was taken before we moved in.

So, here it is… all painted and ready for prime time.

Couple things I’ll mention. We opted for an upgrade package with the builder that included the Bordeaux stained cherry cabinets with the double wall mounted range. The double oven is sweeetttt and I barely use it.  Lisa, however, frequently uses both.  She roasts in one while simultaneously bakes dessert in the other.  It makes holiday get together’s more efficient from her stand point.  And if she’s happy, I’m happy.

Our countertop is a laminate.  I know what you’re probably thinking… you don’t have granite?  Well… we decided to invest our purchase dollars into some items we KNEW we wanted but didn’t want to go through the hassle of adding later.  For example, we got some surround sound speakers installed into the family room ceiling.  WELL worth it.  We thought about maybe skipping it, but I dreaded the idea of running that speaker wire after the fact… what a PIA.  Plus, we weren’t thrilled with the price that our builder wanted for granite.  We had just put in granite in our first home so we know what the going rate is…. and we thought the builder’s price was a bit much.  We’ve seen a few of our neighbor’s granite counters and they are definitely gorgeous, but we just decided to wait on this one.

We have a growing list of improvements we want to make to our kitchen, but we’re in no hurry.  We’d like to eventually add that solid surface counter.  The microwave isn’t vented to the outside, so it just recircs into the kitchen.  We have visions of a stainless steel or brushed nickel range hood, not to mention a backsplash.  If we get a range hood, the microwave will need to be relocated.  I do want to be clear about something because I don’t want this post to come across as whiny or picky or something…. Lisa and I feel extremely grateful for all the we have.  We’ve been very blessed.  At the end of the day, our house… this is just stuff… what’s really important to us is our loved ones, our friends and families and our relationships with them.  We’d be happy in a teepee (as long as I can get the Flyers on CSN anyway!).

Check out these photos:  Can you even tell the room is painted now?  This is what I like and don’t like about this paint: at times it’s very subtle.  Other times it’s noticeable; nice and cozy.  But you can barely tell it’s painted in these photos.  To see it, you really need to show something bright white for the contrast.

In our home, on a day to day basis, the kitchen island is a catch-all.  If you can’t find something, first place you check is the island.  Before company comes over, I take a shovel and clean it off so it looks like a nice place to have a glass of wine and read a magazine.  Just kidding about the shovel…

Lisa has all of our wine and champagne glasses in there.  We generally only use two at a time and even then we rarely drink.

My favorite part is near the end of the island…

This is where we keep the cookbooks. Surprisingly, these are mostly MY cookbooks. Back in the day, I used to cook quite a bit. Then I bought my first house and I only had time to DIY… cooking got back burnered (pun). I’ve got a few Jamie Oliver books, a Bobby Flay. My current favorite is the Anthony Bourdain Les Halles Cookbook. It’s a good read, even if you’re not into actual cooking. If you’re a fan of “No Reservations,” this book is filled with his edgy and comedic personality and you’ll definitely enjoy it.  It’s like “Kitchen Confidential” with recipes.

Lisa mostly cooks her family staples from memory. Anything new that she tries, she mainly gets from the food network or allrecipes.com.

So that’s our kitchen.  Any changes in your kitchen that you’re planning?  Do you have a solid surface that’s not granite?  What are your recommendations?

Assemble an Ikea Product without Losing Your Mind

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Yeeeppp.  Like most DIYers, Lisa and I are big fans of Ikea products.  My first bedroom after college was ALL ikea furniture (It’s currently our guest bedroom digs).  For Christmas, my mom bought our daughter the Ikea Moose Rocking Chair.  We’ve put off assembling it for a few weeks with all the floor projects and general grand plan happenings, but yesterday I made some time to finally get it built for her.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to mention some tips that I use when I’m building some Swedish modular furniture.

1.  First things first.  Find a flat area where you can open up the box.  I need to do this on the countertop because Finnie will be stealing half the package if I don’t.

2. Next thing I do is go thru the entire box and sort all the pieces out. I’ll leave the screws and small metal bits in the bag though. You basically want to make sure nothing is missing or damaged. I also throw out all the plastic foamy wrap stuff.

3. All Ikea products are designed to be assembled without glue.  However, most of them come with wooden dowels. I ALWAYS glue wooden dowels. I feel that it adds additional strength to the dowel joints, especially for something that my daughter will be sitting on. You wouldn’t want to use wood glue on something that you may need to take apart in the future. For example, you probably wouldn’t want to glue together a huge shelving system that needs to be broken down when you move out of your apartment.  Not a good idea.

4. Once I get into the actual assembly with the fasteners, I pay careful attention to the holes on the parts.  Almost all of Ikea products have mirror like parts, so it’s easy to accidentally screw part A into part D, when A was supposed to go into part E.  They usually have minor differences to distinguish between them.  I always double check the procedures before I start gluing or screwing something together.  Keep an eye on the wood glue too. As you tighten down on the screws, the glue will want to squeeze out of the joints. It can be wiped off with a damp paper towel.  Also, it’s a good idea to sort all the screws into little piles to keep them organized.

5. Whenever I start connecting major parts together, like the red seat to the bottom rails, I make sure I get each screw started before I tighten any one down all the way.  You can see in both photos above that feature the screws that I have ALL of them in at once.

This will go great in the baby’s play room!

Do you have any Ikea survival tips?