I don't have much of an update, and I didn't think to take any pictures yet, but rather than pay someone, I've finally caved and decided to mud the ceiling in the "L" Room myself. I did 3/4 of the scratch coat a week or so ago, and then ran out of mud. I bought more mud about a week ago, and I finished the scratch coat a few days ago. That brings us to today, where I did the first topcoat on the seams and corners.
It actually went really well, and I attribute that success to some new tools. I watched a few drywall videos on YouTube several weeks back, and they always make it look SO Fast and EASY. I mean, it's not HARD by any means, but there's a lot of technique involved.
What blew my mind though, was the corner trowel.
Some of the best DIY videos I've found (including the detailed ones I used as a reference to install the new vinyl siding on the garage) are from Shannon at House Improvements (one of his videos is below).
In this drywall video, you see him use the corner trowel at around the 3:10 mark.
I don't know how I went so long without even knowing that this tool existed. For YEARS now, I've been tediously doing my corners mostly (or partly) one side at a time, because a regular trowel always leaves an odd edge in the corner. I've also been doing most of all my drywall with only a 6" trowel (which isn't really wide enough for finishing coats).
So after having watched a few of his videos, I decided to invest in both a wider trowel, and a corner trowel. These range in prices, and I went with an inexpensive set at around 10$ each trowel.
Today was my first time using both, and wow! What a difference! The job went faster, the joints are smoother, and the corners and joints look wonderful!
I think I can probably get away with just another light pass, some light sanding, and then I'll be ready to paint! I've already had the wall paint bought for months now, and I still have leftover ceiling paint, so I have pretty much everything already on hand.
Showing posts with label Tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tools. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Garage & Upholstery
It's been quite a while since I've posted any upholstery "Projects of the Month", so I thought I would share these two pieces with you guys. These are both from the same set, and both were horribly butchered and just awful. They took a lot of work to restore, and the before vs the after is so shocking you'd swear they're not even the same pieces of furniture.
I won't be re-posting all the photos here, simply because there are over 120 photos and a lot of text, so I will just post a before and after of the chair to whet your appetites:
Chair Before:
Chair After!:
Here are the links to the chair, and the matching settee (the settee was done first, and you should see that piece first since there are details done on the settee that are not shown again for the chair).
http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.ca/2014/04/fully-restored-eastlake-settee-red-toile.html
http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.ca/2014/04/fully-restored-eastlake-chair-red-toile.html
I'm also not sure if I ever shared with you guys the beautiful antique sofa that we redid (also for the same client, who has a ton of antiques). I really loved how this one turned out, and there was a lot of work involved in that one (so many coils to string, plus some frame repairs):
http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.ca/2014/03/wonderful-antique-sofa-bold-orange-dark.html
In that post you get to see me and my boss, Pierre, covered in feathers after we had to redo the seat cushion. This is the finished sofa. I love the fabric, and it would have looked great in my living room.
***
As for house renovations, I'm currently working on repairing the 28 foot long exterior wall of the garage. For now, I'm just cleaning up, and making room to work. Some of you who have been reading for a while will remember that a good section of this wall (almost half of it) is completely rotted and almost ready to collapse. You can see how much of a sag there is in the roof in this photo from my bedroom window. Compare the roof line to the siding on the neighbour's house.
I actually measured the sag of the roof last night, and it's surprisingly not as bad as I had thought. The lowest dip (the part shown above) is about 2 inches low.
Just yesterday, I was able to finally get rid of the old washing machine that was in the basement washroom when I first bought the house in April 2010. I had wheeled-it up into the garage with a dolly, and it's been sitting there for the past 4 years. I wasn't sure if it worked, since I hadn't used it, but I knew the motor worked. I hated to just throw it away or have it scrapped, so I saw an ad for a local guy who picks up and sells used appliances. I contacted him and told him he could have it for free if he picked it up, so now it's finally gone!
I also bought a wonderful vintage Craftsman joiner on Thursday. I usually don't have much luck when it comes to nice old tools, because they are HEAVY, and difficult to move (remember that I don't own a vehicle). Since my Mom's latest car is now tiny (she went from a mini-van to a hatch-back to a small car) I'm pretty much on my own with these things now. Luckily for me, I took a chance and asked the seller if he'd be able to deliver it, and he was more than happy to drive it down (from just out of town) if I was interested in it. He even said I could plug it in and test it out, and that if I didn't want it, that it was okay as long as I'd help him load it back in his truck.
:D
So he came down and I was really happy with it (it's in excellent shape and works well - it just needs the blades to be sharpened), and the price was great.
I've wanted a joiner for a while now. I would have preferred something larger, but larger is just harder to move around, and I don't really need it to be much bigger.
It's a pretty small machine (maybe 3 feet long) but it's solid cast iron, and with the stand and motor, it probably weighs close to 100 lbs.
For those who aren't familiar with woodworking tools, this is a tool that is used to trim (and square-up) the rough edges of boards. It is extremely useful when you want nice flat square edges to glue several boards together. It can also be set to trim at an angle, and you can do fun stuff with it, like tapered legs.
More garage updates soon.
I won't be re-posting all the photos here, simply because there are over 120 photos and a lot of text, so I will just post a before and after of the chair to whet your appetites:
Chair Before:
Chair After!:
Here are the links to the chair, and the matching settee (the settee was done first, and you should see that piece first since there are details done on the settee that are not shown again for the chair).
http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.ca/2014/04/fully-restored-eastlake-settee-red-toile.html
http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.ca/2014/04/fully-restored-eastlake-chair-red-toile.html
I'm also not sure if I ever shared with you guys the beautiful antique sofa that we redid (also for the same client, who has a ton of antiques). I really loved how this one turned out, and there was a lot of work involved in that one (so many coils to string, plus some frame repairs):
http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.ca/2014/03/wonderful-antique-sofa-bold-orange-dark.html
In that post you get to see me and my boss, Pierre, covered in feathers after we had to redo the seat cushion. This is the finished sofa. I love the fabric, and it would have looked great in my living room.
***
As for house renovations, I'm currently working on repairing the 28 foot long exterior wall of the garage. For now, I'm just cleaning up, and making room to work. Some of you who have been reading for a while will remember that a good section of this wall (almost half of it) is completely rotted and almost ready to collapse. You can see how much of a sag there is in the roof in this photo from my bedroom window. Compare the roof line to the siding on the neighbour's house.
I actually measured the sag of the roof last night, and it's surprisingly not as bad as I had thought. The lowest dip (the part shown above) is about 2 inches low.
Just yesterday, I was able to finally get rid of the old washing machine that was in the basement washroom when I first bought the house in April 2010. I had wheeled-it up into the garage with a dolly, and it's been sitting there for the past 4 years. I wasn't sure if it worked, since I hadn't used it, but I knew the motor worked. I hated to just throw it away or have it scrapped, so I saw an ad for a local guy who picks up and sells used appliances. I contacted him and told him he could have it for free if he picked it up, so now it's finally gone!
I also bought a wonderful vintage Craftsman joiner on Thursday. I usually don't have much luck when it comes to nice old tools, because they are HEAVY, and difficult to move (remember that I don't own a vehicle). Since my Mom's latest car is now tiny (she went from a mini-van to a hatch-back to a small car) I'm pretty much on my own with these things now. Luckily for me, I took a chance and asked the seller if he'd be able to deliver it, and he was more than happy to drive it down (from just out of town) if I was interested in it. He even said I could plug it in and test it out, and that if I didn't want it, that it was okay as long as I'd help him load it back in his truck.
:D
So he came down and I was really happy with it (it's in excellent shape and works well - it just needs the blades to be sharpened), and the price was great.
I've wanted a joiner for a while now. I would have preferred something larger, but larger is just harder to move around, and I don't really need it to be much bigger.
It's a pretty small machine (maybe 3 feet long) but it's solid cast iron, and with the stand and motor, it probably weighs close to 100 lbs.
For those who aren't familiar with woodworking tools, this is a tool that is used to trim (and square-up) the rough edges of boards. It is extremely useful when you want nice flat square edges to glue several boards together. It can also be set to trim at an angle, and you can do fun stuff with it, like tapered legs.
More garage updates soon.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Patching Old Siding
This entire ordeal started off with just wanting to move a light switch over about a foot.
This whole area deals with the heating "stack" for the upstairs "L" bedroom, which runs next to the living room door and next to the front door. I took down this drywall stack so that I could fix the botch job they did. First, they were covering a light switch, which I'm sure isn't legal, since you need to be able to access it, and there was a really hideous "access door" at the bottom.
This is the best views I have of it:
I love demolition. Can you tell?
What a botch job.
Really?
Note where the hole SHOULD have been made...
And just so you realize the true butchery of this whole thing, this is how it looks from the bedroom. The register does not even fit in that hole.
So the reason that this repair got so complicated is because of the large patch that I decided to remove in the porch. For months (or nearly a year at this point) I had been wondering what was behind it. I don't have any good photos of it, but it was an OBS boards, screwed down and painted white.
The reason I removed it, is because from this spot, I had clear access to the wires/plug/etc to move and rewire the new switch.
Once I had the switch moved, I re-packed the wall with insulation.
SO much better.
But now I had a huge unsightly hole right at the front of the house, which has a glass window porch. Not good.
So I got the work making some patch pieces. In this whole process I discovered that the original siding is cedar! I love cedar (smells wonderful and doesn't rot easily).
I made the boards on the table saw only. The only other tool I used was a sander, and clamps.
For most people, a table saw has limited use, but to a cabinetmaker, there's all kinds of great things you can do with one, including cove mouldings. To make cove on a table saw, you need to match the curve of the blade to the profile you need. You need to run your boards through the blade at an angle. The angle depends on how narrow or wide your cove will be. You ABSOLUTELY MUST use guide blocks on both sides to do this. You must also do it in several light passes. You CAN go through the blade even at 90 degrees for a very shallow curve, but you have to go much slower.
This is the best shot I could get of how to match the curve by eye.
Guide blocks, secured in place by clamps.
Next, I had to remove the lip, and create the rest of the grooves/cuts, which was pretty straightforward.
Sanding wasn't too hard since I was using pine. If you are doing this with hardwood, it will take a lot of scraping/sanding to get a nice profile.
All that's left now was to install them. I found that the profiles matched better when lining up the curved cut rather than the bottom edge, since many of the bottom edges seemed irregular (paint drips, small chips, etc).
A bit of latex silicone on the joints, a bit of putty, and a quick coat of paint, and you can hardly see the repair! I did do a bit of sanding over the joints also.
This whole area deals with the heating "stack" for the upstairs "L" bedroom, which runs next to the living room door and next to the front door. I took down this drywall stack so that I could fix the botch job they did. First, they were covering a light switch, which I'm sure isn't legal, since you need to be able to access it, and there was a really hideous "access door" at the bottom.
This is the best views I have of it:
I love demolition. Can you tell?
What a botch job.
Really?
Note where the hole SHOULD have been made...
And just so you realize the true butchery of this whole thing, this is how it looks from the bedroom. The register does not even fit in that hole.
So the reason that this repair got so complicated is because of the large patch that I decided to remove in the porch. For months (or nearly a year at this point) I had been wondering what was behind it. I don't have any good photos of it, but it was an OBS boards, screwed down and painted white.
The reason I removed it, is because from this spot, I had clear access to the wires/plug/etc to move and rewire the new switch.
Once I had the switch moved, I re-packed the wall with insulation.
SO much better.
But now I had a huge unsightly hole right at the front of the house, which has a glass window porch. Not good.
So I got the work making some patch pieces. In this whole process I discovered that the original siding is cedar! I love cedar (smells wonderful and doesn't rot easily).
I made the boards on the table saw only. The only other tool I used was a sander, and clamps.
For most people, a table saw has limited use, but to a cabinetmaker, there's all kinds of great things you can do with one, including cove mouldings. To make cove on a table saw, you need to match the curve of the blade to the profile you need. You need to run your boards through the blade at an angle. The angle depends on how narrow or wide your cove will be. You ABSOLUTELY MUST use guide blocks on both sides to do this. You must also do it in several light passes. You CAN go through the blade even at 90 degrees for a very shallow curve, but you have to go much slower.
This is the best shot I could get of how to match the curve by eye.
Guide blocks, secured in place by clamps.
Next, I had to remove the lip, and create the rest of the grooves/cuts, which was pretty straightforward.
Sanding wasn't too hard since I was using pine. If you are doing this with hardwood, it will take a lot of scraping/sanding to get a nice profile.
All that's left now was to install them. I found that the profiles matched better when lining up the curved cut rather than the bottom edge, since many of the bottom edges seemed irregular (paint drips, small chips, etc).
A bit of latex silicone on the joints, a bit of putty, and a quick coat of paint, and you can hardly see the repair! I did do a bit of sanding over the joints also.
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