Monkey House

I’m not allowed to post full-motion video of my wife, so I’ll have to learn how to edit a video before I start showing anything… I always manage to film her giving high-fives and stuff, thereby making an otherwise video a little more fun but a little less publicly-consumable.

The built-in was a relatively easy project, but we got great satisfaction out of it. The best part of it is that the Ikea “Komplement” drawers we picked were just shy of the full depth of the existing closet. If we had tried to just “hide” a dresser in there for extra storage, it would have been much shallower. We’ll get some good storage out of these suckers. Plus we went with cavernous shelves which will be good for storage versatility.

Here’s what you need:
- melamine boards, with 1 finished edge
- variety of screws (some long enough to go through melamine + drywall + grab a chunk of wall stud)
- a level and a measuring tape
- melamine heat-applied edging (optional touch to cover visible particle board edges)

Here’s the pics:
(left to right 1: final product; 2: brackets installed 3: just needs finishing steps)

In the final product there’s a top to the built-in that extends the existing shelf. There is also a toe-kick that gives it a polished look.

The project was relatively easy, but still took about 9 hours including snack breaks, watching some tube or internet here and there, etc. The general breakdown of how we approached it:

1. Measured from carpet to existing shelf to get height for sides of the “cabinet”. There’s no way we’d expect both to be the same, so we measured in EACH location and cut each “side” separately, adding a couple mm to account for carpet squooshiness.
2. Located and cut grooves so that the top would fit in and around the existing shelf and so that the bottom could go over the existing baseboards
3. Removed baseboard from right side so that cabinet side could go right into the wall
4. Screwed right side into wall. Screwed left side through the pre-existing “shelf” into the top of the side. This was unecessary and we ended up having to unscrew later
5. Measured where we wanted first (bottom) drawer to go, and added the rest of the slider brackets from there:
   1. used level on first bracket to locate where “back” screw would go; installed bracket
   2. used level to go across (not trusting measuring up from floor or down from top; dimensions are never square or straight!) to locate and install front screw of next bracket
   3. used level to locate and screw in “back” screw and installed bracket. Now we have a matching pair so we test-fitted a drawer. It worked!
   4. since the first pair worked, we now had a “base” for measurements. Measured all the front screw holes and installed brackets.
   5. using the level worked in the past, so we used the level for each of the remaining 6 brackets to locate “back” screw and finish installation

Test fit– all drawers work, but we wanted it less sticky.

6. Unscrewed left side and “tapped” left side into place before re-screwing through the top
7. cut and installed 4 “ledges” for our 2 shelves using a similar levelling technique. Why ledges? Can’t drill easily into that right side… might as well be consistent. You can see the front of the ledges in the “later” photos

We screwed up one of the screws somehow, or the cut for the ledge was crooked… either way, we decided to keep it as-is. Hard to notice.

8. put our 2 shelves on the “ledges” and screwed them into place also from the left side.

Now the whole structure is rock-solid and “built-in”

9. added the top (trickier than you think! No angles were 90 degrees, so we had to make a few cuts and eventually steal time on dad’s mitre saw for half-degree cuts in order to get it pretty tight)
10. re-installed some of the baseboard on the inside of the closet

Done!

Nothing much to report here.

The toilet we installed for our new powder room is cracked already. Hairline, but enough to be a worry and for a few wee droplets of water to get through. Gotta replace this before it becomes an actual problem.

Possible culprits?

1) over-tightening the lugs securing the toilet
2) the toilet always felt a bit tippy… maybe the bottom was uneven to begin with; either way, will make sure next toilet doesn’t exhibit this problem.

–

In other news, the built-in isn’t quite done yet. There’s still one more piece of lumber to paint tomorrow, and then pictures the day after.

Greg

I seem to be talking mostly about home reno on this blog. I assure you, there is a baby on the way. Due June 7, 2009, and I couldn’t be happier. Er, so, more about renovation!

The room that has become the nursery has a very large closet. Too large to have all the space wasted with just a long pole for hanging things on. Nosir, this sucker needed some shelving and/or drawers.

It had been suggested that with such a large closet, you could easily put a dresser in there. True, but a dresser isn’t very fun or very impressive. We’re some pretty skilled folks, so we figured, “Why not just make a built-in storage solution?” We like our Ikea Pax wardrobe, and were thinking about repurposing its drawers, but at the end of the day they were just a bit TOO wide at ~90cm each (with cabinet and hardware included, a total of 100cm width). So, we purchased 4 narrower “Komplete” drawers in white (“Komplete” is the Pax drawer/shelving line), and some sale-priced white Melamine to make a cab with.

Should be finished tomorrow, and pics will follow.

Greg

Finally it’s done.

Such a small room… but myriad problems. Here’s the final room. I’m sure it’s even humbler than some of you thought it would be.

As far as I can remember, here were the problems we had to overcome:

1. Drywall patching in 3 spots; getting it level and smooth was made difficult by the mesh tape. No more mesh tape for me for patch jobs.
2. Removing old baseboards… tile (added after the baseboards by previous owners) had trapped the finishing nails between tile and wall.
3. New baseboards. Not REALLY problematic, but walls are not straight!
4. Removing old vanity. It had been built in-place, so removal required some hacking and ripping in strategic (so as to not break plumbing) ways
5. Tiles (added after the original vanity by previous owners) were cut to fit the old vanity… new one not quite a good fit
6. Putting new vanity in required dealing with plumbing coming from 2 different areas (floor and wall) instead of just one (floor OR wall). Had to hack vanity apart inside.
7. Corner was not 90 degrees; had to use a flap sander attachment on a grinder to get vanity top to fit
8. Integral backsplash had a curve; needed to “carve” out a recess for the sidesplash tile
9. Broke a light fixture shade; luckily turning it the right way hides the broken side perfectly
10. Almost electrocuted myself changing the GFCI despite shutting off 3 relevant breakers. Next time I do a GFCI I will just turn off the whole house
11. Drainpipe was not quite a fit. Had to completely redo the drain
12. Braided water hoses kept “pushing” vanity top out of place. Had to cut pipes to be a perfect fit
13. Repurposed the faucet. It used thin copper pipe rather than having threaded attachments for the hose. needed to add adapter
14. Painting over drywall patches produced uneven texture; needed to repaint 1 wall entirely
15. Hiding the shims at the bottom of the vanity required something other than quarter-round. Used what was meant to be a doorstop strip as trim. Measured incorrectly more than once and ended up needing to splice a piece together! But it worked properly
16. Random leaky pipes needing tightening/re-attachment

The last problem is our toilet… not sure why but sometimes the overflow wants to kick in. But nothing seems to be overflowing. Gotta keep my eye on it.

Greg

You would think a powder room would be easy. Small. Only 3 fixtures (lights, sink and toilet).

But no.

It’s always something.

So we finally got the vanity cabinet and top all sorted out to sit in the non-90-degree corner, finally patched over our bumpy spots in the wall to (at last) produce a smooth surface, etc.

Then it was time to install the vanity top and plumbing once and for all.

Now, we’re not dumb… or at least not completely. We had mocked everything up, and felt that we did not need to redo the drain pipe. It was a tight fit, but a fit. However, after caulking up the vanity cabinet (using caulking as adhesive is not only the manufacturer’s instructions but also smart if you ever plan on taking the top off) and putting it in place we realized it wasn’t staying in the corner properly.

Only real possibility… our “tight” fit was a bit too much of a cheat after all. That 2mm we needed to “force” the pipes into alignment was 2mm too much. The only thing to do?

Off to HOME DEPOT AGAIN! (of course)

For the umpteenth time there, I was once again very lucky to find someone knowledgable. Y’know, I don’t care what anyone says about the “big box store” that is Home Depot… almost every time I go there I get excellent advice. Within minutes the guy had loaded me up with the parts I would need (PVC plumbing is cheap, so I decided to get all new stuff) and gave me the only lesson you really need.

The finished job (note that the P-trap (#3″ is symmetrical in reality… but the pipe coming out of the wall and the drainpipe coming from the sink are not at the same front-to-back depth):

All done

1. threaded er.. thingy… Coupler? for securing the chrome sink drain into the drain pipe
2. length of PVC pipe (1.5″ diameter? Whatever the standard is…) for this part and also #5
3. new P-Trap
4. elbow with nifty swivelly ball-in-cup thing for a wee bit of wiggle if needed… I don’t think I needed this fancy one; the measuring and installing is so easy you could use a regular elbow; but it was my choice
5. just for the purposes of the illustration, another length cut from the length listed in #2
6. coupler
7. PVC plumbing glue

So, I didn’t take a “before” picture, but look at the above and imagine: there was no #6, just a straight length of piping leading to an elbow like #4. So, the idea is to hack off to the left of the old elbow, going far enough to make room for both the #6 coupler and a length of PVC piping like #5. That’s the important bit… all other parts are more or less out of your control or arbitrary… the key is the length of piping at #5. Here’s how to get it right.

First, brief instructions on how to glue pieces of plumbing together:

1. Use some sandpaper to scuff the inside of the “female” parts to help with adhesion. (what I mean is the inside part of, for example, part #1… the pipe (#2) slips inside #1 and is held there with glue.)
2. scuff 0.75″ or so (it doesn’t really matter if you go more) around the outside of the piece being inserted.
3. Put a generous amount of glue around the inside of the female part and the outside of the scuffed end of the pipe being fitted
4. Push the pipe into the part you wish to bond to, and give it a quarter-turn or so (while still pushing in) to ensure positive contact and 360 degrees of glue

You’ve got about 10 seconds before it’s bonded!!! Luckily, it’s not rocket surgery, so it’s hard to mess up. If you do mess up, PVC is cheap, just get more.

Here’s the steps I took in measuring and gluing, remembering that the key is the length in diagram part #5:

1. Cut piping part #2 to length. The length is arbitrary. Just make it so that a decent length of the chrome drainpipe goes down into it and you have lots of up/down movement for positioning the assembly
2. Fit parts #1, 2, 3, and 4 together with NO GLUE. I will call this whole chunk the “P-trap assembly”
3. Put part #6 in place
4. by sliding the P-trap assembly up and down while pivoting the elbow (#4), eyeball the correct alignment of #4 with #6– the idea is to visualize where #5 will go once you cut it
5. tighten everything up so that it doesn’t move, but don’t go silly tight
6. measure from the edge of #6 to the edge of #4, which will be the EXPOSED length of #5
7. take the “exposed length” of #5 and add 1.5″. This makes up the “inside” length, since each fitting will only allow 0.75″ of entry. So if the “exposed” #5 is 3″, you need to cut a length of piping at 4.5″
8. cut the PVC piping to length
9. put this new length into the “mockup” and make sure it aligns the way you eyeballed it. Loosen everything up a bit, shuffle it all into place, and tighten. You should not have to “force” a single part of it. If #5 is the wrong length, re-cut

Now to get’er done for real:

10. Glue #1, 2, 3 in any order.
11. Glue #4, 5, 6 to each other in any order (but NOT to the original piping yet!)
12. Do a quick mini-mockup again with the 2 now-glued assemblies. It’s too late to salvage glued parts, but new ones are cheap if you’ve goofed up.
13. With the mockup still in place and all perfect, draw a horizontal line with white grease pencil or a silver marker or even a pencil (graphite is shiny) through the original pipe and also #6. When it’s time to glue, you will re-align the parts using this line!
14. Glue the #6,5,4 assembly to the piping, using the line you just made to recreate the proper alignment
15. Slide the #1,2,3 assembly up onto the chrome pipe, until you make positive connection between #3 and #4. Tighten the connection between #3 and #4.
16. tighten #1 onto the chrome pipe

Done!

Too much detail for a simple job? Maybe! Problem-solver types who enjoy puzzles could probably recreate the above steps quite easily and it wouldn’t seem like nearly as many line items. But some people learn with linear written instructions; hopefully this helps them!

Greg