Lights. We picked hand-painted lights from Schoolhouse Electric. We are very happy with these lights. The code requires pin-base fluorescent lights, so that is what we put in. We purchased some bulbs that have a warmer color temperature (2700k) than most fluorescent lights.

Flooring. We chose to put in Marmoleum. It is a completely natural, green product. Made from linseed oil, wood flour, jute… you name it -if it is natural, there is a chance it is in our flooring. This is sort of a fifties pattern that we chose to hide dirt and dog slobber.

Cabinets. I’m getting the hang of making cabinets, and I have a pretty good system for doing so. This photo shows the curly redwood that I acquired from Humboldt County. The face frame wood is vertical grain Douglas-Fir. This is old growth, likely reclaimed from one of my many wood-hunting excursions. Side Note: Douglas-Fir was named after David Douglas, a Scottish botonist, who coincidentally died in 1834 [some say murdered] by falling into a pit containing a bull [some say the bull fell in after Douglas] -in Hawaii. When my wife and I were on the Big Island in Hawaii, we visited the Parker Ranch, where Douglas met his death. I asked about this tale, and the guide said that most people suspected foul play.

This sink is a fireclay apron front sink. I had to scribe the curves to fit a face frame to it. Not an easy task.

The walls in our house are not at right angles (to anything). The floors are not level. The cabinets all have to be custom-scribed and fitted to each wall and each other. This is a photo of my #4 Stanley plane.  I use it to plane off small amounts of the frame to fit the cabinet against a wall. I hand-sharpen all my plane and chisel blades using waterstones. It is a tedious process, but rewarding. The blade I’m using in this plane is made by a company on the North Coast of California, called Hock. I’m a huge fan of Hock blades. They also make Shellac, which I use to French-polish my guitars.

As you can see, we (my loving wife) painted our new rooms a pear-green color. Very cool. We love it. You can also see my dog, Beryl, leading the way through the mess. I put the dishwasher in a week ago, and then I decided to put up molding and a shelf above the kitchen sink area before there was too much stuff in the way.

I used VG Doug-Fir for this as well. I used a 16-ga nail gun to secure these to the wall. I pocket-hole screwed the whole frame together, sanded and finished it prior to nailing it up.

There is the final product, sans a few details. The shelf is a piece of a reclaimed door that I acquired from Oxnard, CA.

We put the sink in tonight. We also put in the drain flange. We also put in the cabinet to the right of the sink, which happened to be 1 inch too deep. Somewhere, my math went haywire, and so it added another hour to the project.

It is amazing what you’ll find in your sink drain sometimes. That is all for now, but I’ll update this more frequently than I have been. We just bought a fresh load of plywood for the next installment of cabinets. I’m going to try and hook up some water and drainage to that sink tomorrow. First time in months.

Our sewer line is broken. It is the shits.

We hired a guy to jackhammer out our patio, but discovered that underneath our patio, our sewer line was disintegrating away, and sewage was seeping into the earth below. After getting a quote to repair this bad boy, we decided to get a new line installed to the main line on the street -trenchless style. This is not a cheap thing to do. In fact, it is one of the most unexciting things to buy, because you can’t even see the results, nor would you want to.

A lot has transpired since last post. Our tankless water heater was installed without enough clearance to the ceiling, so we had the plumber move it into the attic. We also had an inspector come out and he pointed out all the things I needed to do to pass the first inspection (like adding “nail plates” that protect the wiring and plumbing from being screwed into). I finished the final touches to the wiring in the laundry room and secured all the plumbing to make it up to code.

We’re adding a sink, and this is the supply, vent, and fixtures to secure it all.

This plumbing wall has been somewhat of a nightmare. It was originally two depths of wall, and one side (the deeper) housed the massive vent pipe that went to the roof. We replaced that pipe with a smaller version and firred the wall out to allow enough room for all the gas and plumbing pipes. This wall has been through a lot in the last two weeks. On the other side of it is Molly’s bathroom tile work, so we had to be extra careful not to break it. In fact, we chose to not replumb that part of the whole-house “repipe” job (did I mention that we decided to repipe our house?). But, during the repipe, a couple of tiles broke.

Broken tile, and a broken heart.

So, to fix the loose pipes in the wall (which caused the broken tiles), we had to cut a hole into our bedroom wall. This was not a fun thing. After we cut the hole, we had a plumber repipe these fixtures and secure them. Notice the burnt lath from “sweating” the pipes -it set off the fire alarm.

After our major plumbing fiasco (between the water heater being installed twice, broken tiles, hole in the bedroom wall and broken sewer line) … our contractor came with some insulation and slapped it up.

I began wiring the kitchen side of things, with CLAW.

Leaving only dust behind…

Tomorrow, we have the plumber fixing a few things and adding a water valve for a fridge icemaker. We don’t currently have an icemaker in our fridge, but I thought it would be smart to put one in while we have the wall open. We have a drywaller coming to “rock the lid” as well as the walls. We got two bids on the sewer line replacement, and decided to switch to a new plumber for the job. We are currently unable to shower or use any water inside the house, as our drains simply flood our demolished patio. The good news is that we passed our first inspection, so we can drywall and stucco… so.. we’ve got that goin’ for us.

Okay, just for perspective… this is my bulldog, and she is a short dog.  She is under the deck near the opening I used to enter the underworld (under our house).

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Here is our new PEX water pipes, plus a new vent and drain pipe for our new sink.  Oh, and my fingers peaking up from under the house.

I spent about an hour and 40 minutes under the house wiring two new circuits.  Not exactly fun, but it could be a lot worse.  This photo is me exiting my 1:40 stay in the underworld.  Note my LED light, it rocks.

This is me in the regular world.  I roll around on the grass to get some dirt, bugs, and cobwebs off my Coveralls®.  I ran some Romex wire, 12-3, the length of our house, hammering staples into the floor joists, then installed a junction box that divided the multi-circuit 12-3 wire into two 12-2 circuits, with three 12-2 wires off it, routed them up into the kitchen for the dishwasher & garbage disposal, plus an outlet circuit.  That is why it took 1:40.  Plus, I was inspecting the new plumbing job, which, is another story…