Today was productive and I’m really pleased with these so far.
I have 2 cabinets as done as they can get before they are painted and mounted to the walls. Both have pieces that don’t get attached until they are on the wall, so those have to wait. I have the pieces cut for, them, though.
I’m just a little bit floored. These are all straight. They sit level. All the edges are within a light sanding tolerance and even that is only in a couple of places. I half expected these to be slightly off kilter as I had some issues with the drawers for the recessed space, but that isn’t the case with these. Possibly because I’m working with larger pieces and those not completely straight boards can be pulled into square a little easier than you could on the smaller drawers.
Whatever it is, seeing these go together so nicely is making me absolutely giddy.
Another trip to get the pieces for the cabinet I forgot to plan for is in order before I can start the next piece. The plan is to run out either tonight or tomorrow morning, so hopefully it doesn’t delay me too much.
Do you see how utterly nasty my walls are at the moment? Everything in my basement is covered in sawdust. I have a feeling I’ll be cleaning sawdust off of everything for years to come. I’m not even going to show you how horrible the recessed area looks right now.
It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t change things up, yet again. I don’t think I can get through this project without at least another dozen changes.
This time, it’s really just changing my order/process going forward. The first plan when I was getting ready to start the cabinets was to paint all the pieces first. I decided that there was too much material that would end up in the scrap pile for me to do that, so I shifted my plans to cut first, then paint.
Today I decided I still didn’t like that idea, so I’m changing it again. A big reason for that is I really wasn’t thrilled with the fact that I thought I was ready to paint, cleaned up all the dust, only to realize I’d forgotten to cut a piece. Then it was that I realized I still needed to sand everything, after cleaning up a second time.
So I said forget it. The cutting, sanding and building process will be a non-stop mess and I really don’t want to screw up the paint on the finished cabinets. That and the cabinets have to be set on the underlayment that covers the entire floor before I can mount them and I really don’t want a paint mess on that.
Instead, I plan to get everything built and ready to install before I do any painting. That way I can just paint all the cabinets at once. It will be a little harder because it means doing some edging, but I think it will be the better option overall.
There is a very real possibility as well that my messier parts will have to move to the garage soon as some of these get built because I’m going to run out of space to work.
Between the changes, a few mistakes I had to fix (I’m frustrating the hell out of myself with my scatter brain that makes me forget things I really shouldn’t), all I managed to get accomplished today was the base corner cabinet. Even that isn’t completely done as I still have the wall side to build, but I have to work that around the access opening and I ran out of time today.
For a really simple start to the cabinets, this turned out pretty decent so far. The fact that it sits square has me giddy. I’ll have to make a supply run before I can get started tomorrow because I somehow forgot even more than I thought I had yesterday.
Really, it would be more accurate to say it has been several days of “one of those days.”
I think I mentioned before that we’d had water come in one of the bedrooms from the roof. I finally got around to calling insurance about that and set that ball into motion. That was prompted because I needed to call them about ANOTHER issue.
That issue is thanks to the landscaper/mower that our neighbor hired to mow his lawn. Guy somehow managed to mow over the access for the water shut off, something that is covered by what looks like a mini manhole cover. A nice solid chunk of metal. Instead of it damaging the mower, the mower apparently managed to shattered that sucker.
The result was pieces went flying and one managed to slam into our garage door, leaving about a 3 1/2 inch gouge behind.
Garage Door Gouge
We have custom doors because our builder screwed up when framing the foundation and made the opening on one of them too small and a standard door wouldn’t fit. This is already a problem for replacement or fixing, but it turns out that these doors aren’t made any more so we can’t even get a replacement panel. These are metal with a foam core, so it isn’t like you can just patch that. We have to replace the entire door.
The custom design adds a massive cost (something we only paid a small difference for originally because the initial problem was the builder’s fault) and we are looking at a couple thousand dollar repair. All because some jackwad ran a riding mower over a metal manhole cover instead of going around it.
While there is a chance our insurance can get either the mower’s or the neighbor’s insurance to pay for this, I’m not optimistic. I doubt the mower has any kind of insurance (doesn’t look like he was from a company) and the neighbor is apparently having financial problems and is why he is finally bothering to fix up a property he has been renting out for the last 10 or so years. It’s probably going to come down to everyone putting the blame on someone else and no one taking responsibility. And that’s why our insurance company is involved.
I’m immensely grateful that neither of my kids were heading out to the car at the time or that no little kids were outside playing at the time because someone could have been killed. That isn’t an exaggeration. That chunk of metal is really heavy and could have done so much more than damaging our garage door. I’m shocked that the mower had the power to throw it as hard as it did.
I’m pretty sure it narrowly missed slamming into the back window of the kid’s car. Granted, that probably would have been a cheaper fix.
I have to talk to the adjuster and see what they are willing to cover or not on this. Considering we still have the issue with the roof to deal with and the cost for the rest of my materials for my basement, this is going to be a VERY costly year. Seems par for the course for us as our air conditioner went out just a few weeks after we had our windows replaced a couple of years ago.
Joys of home ownership.
On the craft room front. I have my stain color down. FINALLY!! The color in the photo is WAY off. This is a much cooler gray than what it looks like here.
Final Stain Color Sample
The larger piece in the above photo is a floor piece. The smaller piece is my sample. I still have to do a top coat, but I’ll work that one out later. I think I’m going with a clear poly, so it shouldn’t change it much. Even if it does a little, it should still work.
Today, I started cutting the pieces for the lower, back wall cabinets.
Set Up For Cutting Cabinet Materials
Trying to get these much larger pieces cut has been a bit of a pain, but I pulled it off with a little help on the biggest pieces. So far, I have the pieces cut for the corner cabinet and the first shelving section.
I realized when cutting the pieces for the shelf that I somehow missed adding the pieces for the second section to my layout, so I goofed that one. Thankfully, they are all smaller pieces, so I’m just going to get a smaller sheet or two of plywood for those instead of dealing with another huge one.
For now, I’m going to work on painting what I have cut and getting those put together before I move on to the next segment.
This post is only for those that find wearing masks to be useful and isn’t intended to debate the merits or efficacy of masks.
These instructions are based on my personal trial and error and the design modifications are intended to work for me and my Hubby. They are based on the original design found here.
I take no responsibility for any efficacy or lack thereof of this design.
I had needed to make a couple of masks for Hubby a couple of weeks ago and did some digging around on the internet to find a pattern that I thought would work well. There are so many different ones floating around out there it is hard to weed through them all to find one that works best.
After making a couple of these for him, I decided that I needed to have one or two for myself as well as make a couple more for him so I wasn’t scrambling to get his washed and dried when he needed to run an errand.
One of the things that I liked about this pattern is that the design creates a “pocket” in the front that you can put some type of filter in to give you added protection. I’ve seen a variety of things suggested for this purpose including a folded paper towel or even a coffee filter. If you are interested in using this, I recommend doing your own research as to what it is the best practice to use for that. The same recommendation goes for fabric choices.
I just used scrap fabric that I already had on hand, which this project was ideal for using up some of those scraps. All are basic cottons often used in quilting. If you feel that the fabric you have or want to use is too thin, you can very easily just add another layer of the “Face” piece if needed.
Face Mask Project – Lining Layout
You really only need the 3 pattern pieces if you layout your fabric in two layers, alternating right and wrong sides. You can use the same fabric for the front and inside or different ones. For these, I used different ones, but I’ve done some for Hubby in the same fabric.
Face Mask Project – Outside Layout
Using Hubby’s original finished masks as a base, I had to cut this down a bit because it ended up covering my ears instead of resting on the side of my face in front of my ears. I cut off about a inch and a half from the ends of the original “Face” and “Cheek” pieces and slightly changed the top angle so that it narrowed to about the same width as the original.
Face Mask Project – Sewing Seam Width
Face Mask Project – Sewing Seam Width
I sewed the seams at what I consider “foot width” in that you line up the edge of your fabric with the point of the sewing foot. That works out to be about a 1/4″ seam. At this point, I’m following all the instructions on the original design up to the point where you are attaching the face piece to the mouth and cheek pieces. This is where I made a more drastic modification.
When I made the original ones for Hubby, we discovered has “floppy” ears that just folded over when he tried to get any elastic over them in the back like the original design calls for (and many other options and designs are similar) making it impossible for the mask to stay on. To fix the issue, I made 2 straps of elastic that ran across the back of the head and neck instead of the loops that go over the ears. To get it to fit him, the top piece was 10 1/4 inches and the bottom was 8. Putting together mine, I ended up with about a 1/4 of a inch more for both since the sides of my mask were shorter.
Face Mask Project – Attaching Elastic
Unless you are really experienced in sewing, this may be the difficult or confusing place as the right sides of all pieces have to be pinned together in the correct order or your pocket doesn’t work the way it is supposed to. Once it is turned right side out, you want the central mouth piece to be the top layer on the inside (shown below when finished), but you need to pin the elastic in place first. You can either rely on pins, or you can run a seam along the elastic to hold it in place (as seen above).
Face Mask Project – Inside Pocket: Finished
I just pinned the outer edges of the face and cheek pieces with the elastic in between first, then gently folded them back so I could put the mouth piece in place, pinning the center seams before going and pinning the overlap (and I JUST realized that the below image is incorrect as this is the one I goofed on. That mouth piece should be pinned underneath the cheek pieces. See, I said it could get confusing!)
Face Mask Project – Pinning Front To Back With Elastic
This part was a bit of a pain to get right because those elastic lengths are shorter than the face piece, so it wants to bunch up the fabric when you go to pin the pieces together. I had to be careful to make sure the pieces laid smoothly so I could pin the front seams together and then line up the sides in an overlap to create the pocket. You have to be careful as you sew to ensure that there is no bunching at the point you are sewing. There was a lot of shifting where it was trying to bunch so I could work in a smooth area.
Face Mask Project – Double Seam Elastic
Once I sewed the entire piece together, I went back and added a secondary line on each end to ensure the elastic was double secure since this is where the most stress is going to be put on the mask as it is worn. I then clipped any corners that were too large and would bulk up when turning.
The last thing is turning this right side out, which that lovely pocket makes incredibly easy as you have nothing to close up after you turn it. If you have any corners that didn’t fully turn, you can the eraser end of a pencil (anything narrow and not sharp) to push the corners the rest of the way out. You might need to finesse your seams a bit to get it to lay correctly, or if you prefer, iron it so the seams are crisp.
Face Mask Project – Finished
These aren’t completely perfect as I wasn’t going for any seamstress awards (even had to pull out at least one seam and redo it), but they are functional. As I said earlier, it is a great project to use up some scraps if you are already a sewer. If not, you can reuse old tea towels or articles of old clothing that would end up in the trash because of stains or holes in odd places if the fabric is the right type.
Face Mask Project – Final Result (My Masks)
*I apologize for the crummy photos. I took them with my phone in less than ideal lighting down in my studio. Hopefully it is enough along with the original design and instructions for you to do your own if you are interested.
We have been in this house for a little over 15 years now. I have spent the entirety of those 15 years irritated as hell at myself that I didn’t demand a better design in the laundry room. It is plenty big, just a little poorly laid out so that there is a ton of wasted space.
Hubby and I discussed having someone come in and do some work, including building a pantry cabinet and adding a couple of other shelves. We even started looking at people to do the job. Then we realized that getting our back door and framing around said door replaced couldn’t be put off another year or we would potentially have it fall out of the house because all the wood around it is rotting out. Have I mentioned that our builder did a shit job (I’ve lost count of the major issues we’ve had in this house)?
I did some math (yes, it actually hurt to do the math part) and some planning and decided I could hold off on a bigger project for a while if I could just get the shelves in because attempting to keep everything on the tiny little counter or the floor just wasn’t working. Those issue get made worse every time laundry is done since both BG and I hang up a huge portion of our tops and other things rather than dry them in the drier.
So I really had two different issues to solve. The first was shelving to get some of the stuff off the counter and floor. The second was figuring out a way to expand the room for hanging clothes up.
Laundry Room Project – Before Clothes Drying area
Again, this space is decent, but it isn’t well used at all. I did some research and found an expandable drying rack that you could mount to the wall. Once I got it ordered, I discovered it has the same problem as most wall mount products. It does not take into account that the wall studs you need to mount it to aren’t in the location you need. To fix the issue, I got a large 10 inch wide board that I cut to length, painted and attached to said studs. I was then able to mount the rack to the board without any worry that this is going to get ripped off the wall the second a couple of shirts gets hung on it.
Laundry Room Project – After Clothes Drying area
The fact that this is expandable means that I can keep it against the wall when I don’t need it or if I have something long that needs to be hung up.
Laundry Room Project – After Clothes Drying area
Expanded, this gives me probably close to twice the space, if not more, than what I had before. It also means that there aren’t shirts hanging off of every available surface on laundry days, including laundry baskets and over the small step ladder I have in there. That leaves barely an inch of space to get to the washer.
Laundry Room Project – Before Sink Area
Ignore the mess, that is part of the problem, as you can see. This is the second part of the project. I wanted a small, shallow shelf directly above the sink for all the smaller things I use most in that area. Detergents, stain removers, a couple of cleaners and a few other small bottle type things. I also wanted a much deeper shelf higher up that would span the entire space so that I could store some bigger things, often the back up items or bulk items I use to refill smaller bottles (like cleaners).
Laundry Room Project – After Sink Area With Shelves
The smaller shelf is only about 8 inches deep and only goes across the space above the sink. It was fun attempting to get it to work with where the studs were, but I managed to pull it off. The higher shelf is a 12 inch deep shelf and needed additional support in the middle because it is much longer. I did use a support that can hold a bar if I decided I still need a bit more space for some shorter hanging things in the future (BG’s dance clothes would be perfect for that space).
Both of these were made with really inexpensive lumber that I just painted with my trim color so it would blend with what I already have in there. I probably need to caulk up a few places (where the screws are and a couple of bigger gaps in board seams), but for the most part this is completely done. I am going to add a no slip liner to the smaller shelf to help protect it. I was also able to get it all done in a day, painting, cutting and mounting all boards. I do still really want a cabinet in there, but this is already a hundred times better than the mess I had before.
As with pretty much every single project I work on, I now feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. It also means that I didn’t get to read because it did take all day. At least the temps dropped a bit so it wasn’t crazy miserable in the garage while I was working.
The next project is going to be that back door, but that is way outside my DIY ability and I have some great guys scheduled to work on that in August.
