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Random HVAC
Boiler room ceiling grid + insulation. The initial idea proposed by the client was to use foam board insulation, until I realized there was no way to get sheets of the stuff past the maze of pipes.
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Transforming sleeping loft
I <3 transforming furniture. You can configure this loft with the ladder on the left and railing on the right, or flip it. I think the trickiest part of this one was figuring out the sliding railing.
Herringbone tile foyer
Before:
The trickiest part of this one was figuring out the border. Not only were there were 5 doorways, 2 stairwells and an elevator to accommodate, but the location was an odd shape with wide and narrow sections. Herringbone looks weird when it’s in too narrow a space, so after much photoshop, laying out of tiles in different patterns, and sending some snapshots to a friend, I settled on a double border.
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Flooring, refinishing, and a handrail (oh my)
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Before:
Before:
Sometimes the most visually innocuous elements are the most daunting. In this case, safely getting a coat of paint on a drywall-enclosed duct running across a 2-story window, without falling to my death or disability on the stairs below.
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Arched bookcases in oak and ikea
The ask was twin arched bookshelves to go on either side of a bed, like the following reference photo. Howevere these were to sit on top of some existing nightstands.
We started with a couple ikea bookshelves. I have mixed feeling about this. While I think it can be an excellent timesaver to start with factory-made furniture and customize as you like, I personally dislike chipboard and laminate, and I try to avoid them if given the option. Each material has it’s own vibration, some more pleasant than others. I picked up a bundle of oak molding, wide enough to give me a few options for creating the “shell.”
Read More → Turning metal conduit into brushed steel pipe
I was recently shocked by the price of the brushed steel pipe I wanted for a project. Especially when EMT is so cheaply and widely available.
It’s a slapdash rig involving a couple of wooden plugs on either end of the conduit, one with a furniture bolt for my drill, and a cable pulled taut between, running inside the pipe. You can of course buy big chucks and lathe kits which would work more smoothly — this was a spur of the moment test.
Roofdeck refinish
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After:
The fun part here was coming up with a nimble enclosure to satisfy the OSHA requirement that any exterior work which generates dust be encapsulated from one’s hapless neighbors.
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French door restoration
Is restoring salvage pieces worth the effort? It depends.
What will the final finish be? | |||
| ↙ | ↘ | ||
Clear or transparent varnish or stain over wood | Painted | ||
 | | ||
Ok. Are there a lot of millwork grooves and ridges? | Go for it! | ||
| ↙ | ↘ | ||
Yes | No | ||
| | ||
Don’t bother. | Go for it! | ||
Kitchen cabinet fronts in walnut
Client wanted to match the kitchen to an existing mid-century modern credenza.
BEFORE:
+
The credenza:
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Window replacement
Nothing special, just a random story illustrating why this business is really nuts sometimes.
This window couldn’t be cleaned because something had gone wrong with the seal and the debris was IN-BETWEEN the panes of glass. So I ordered a new window.
The guy I hired to do the replacement ripped out the old window and threw it into the backyard. He spent 4 hours trying to get the new window in before throwing in the towel. The old window was in pieces in the yard, and unusable (How I wish I’d gotten a photo!). I wasn’t in town so I called in another contractor I knew to see if he could manage it. He said the window I ordered was for new construction and couldn’t be used as a replacement. I asked him if it could be modified to work and he said he didn’t think so, but he had a buddy who had some surplus windows, a few inches too short, but he could go pick one up and install it. The first guy could do the framing to close up the gap since it was too short for the opening. I said ok.
WTF.
Display cabinet lighting
Wish I’d gotten a before picture — of the two clamp lights plopped over 2 badly sawn holes in the ceiling of this cabinet. Oof. Here’s what I put together, which was obscured by a large cornice on the façade:
Radiator enclosures – dental office
Enclosures out of 3/4 ply with internal structure of metal studs and track, removable covers attached with magnets to studs, access panels for valves.
Start:
Design was by the architecture firm but there’s always a few things I have to figure out.
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Radiator cover support system
This was more of a repair, but the twist took quite a lot of thought. I didn’t want to rip the whole thing apart and rebuild, but the challenge was to not only fix the alignment and attachment of this incredibly heavy cover (3/4″ ply + 3/4″ cabinet doors + baseboard molding!), but ensure that access for anyone who needed to perform future maintenance on the radiator would be easy and safe.
The tricky part was anticipating the correct tilt that would keep the panel balanced on swivel casters, within the limits of the space behind it (which had pipes and electrical), while being easy to snap into place again.
Radiator cover with built-in shelving
The radiator was off-center in what looked like a temporary housing, and the ask was storage that looked symmetrical.
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