I've been waiting for days to finish the doors and shelves for The Secret Lair's kitchen. Need to get there around ten in the morning, to give D&L's batteries a chance to charge, but there needs to be direct sunshine because the rule of D's workshop is no heavy power tool use if the input voltage drops below fifty. This morning looked good and I thought I had plenty of time. I needed to cut about 2/3 of my pieces to final size, then run all the door edges through the table router. I got as far as cutting the last wood, looked up at the big LED display on the way, and just about then the first clouds of the leading edge of the afternoon storm crossed in front of the sun. The voltage immediately fell to like 49.2 volts. I just sighed, grabbed a broom, and started sweeping sawdust.
Had a nice talk about tile countertops with D&L, though. I thought I'd have to go to the big town about fifty miles away for metal edging, but D's got a great idea for using some really hard pallet oak he's been hoarding. So I'm basically set to go, except I'm not sure I've got enough plywood for the underlayment. Landlady offered me a sheet of OSB, which which she's got maybe half a dozen left from building the Meadow House. But every experienced person I mention that to starts shaking his head before I finish the sentence. "No, you really want plywood there." So I'm going to see if I can scrounge enough to piece it together: It doesn't have to be all one piece. Cement board goes on top of the plywood, then tile on the cement board. Gonna look kick-ass, and I'm in a fever to get'er done BECAUSE!
I still need four things before the Lair is Officially Habitable:
- Running water and drainage in the kitchen
- A functioning oven and stove (in a pinch I could go with my cookstove, which I've been using for over a year anyway)
- A cat ladder to the loft (to avoid the unpleasantness Click and I had this past February)
- A railing on the loft.
Everything else is aesthetics. And issues of storage, which will be a problem for an ongoing length of time but is not a show-stopper. I'm getting there!
3 comments:
Yay, Joel! Even though I realize you've been making progress this summer (in between Actual Paying Jobs, gods forbid), it's surprising and happy news that you can now count on one hand the number of "must" jobs to make the Lair habitable.
Do you still have that simple design for the loft railing?
Yup, and I've got all the materials. Just need to get to that item on the list. Much work left to do before I'd actually want to move in, but I can count the necessities on one hand. Still need materials for the cat ladder, but I have the money and can buy those at eariest opportunity.
How much of "the materials" can be substituted with natural materials from the desert around The Secret Lair?
Is the design of the "Cat Ladder" sufficiently flexible to allow for that kind of substitution?
I'm envisioning natural tree limb pieces glued and screwed together to make the "ladder" with a "landing" every two or three feet for Mistress Click to use as waypoints, Observation Posts and or rest stops.
I would not make the rest stops too large or {ahem} someone named Li'l Bear might decide it is for him to use as well.
Visions of LB falling off the "Cat Ladder" on top of Uncle Joel. Yikes!
OSB ... I guess you'll have to put me in the column that says "No, You really want plywood there." [as floor underlayment]
Unfortunately unless it is being used as a Vertical bulkhead [wall] OSB should be avoided at all costs. IMHO
It is one of the Least useful forms of wood products recycling. It is really only good for bulkheads. [walls] And even then only If it can be protected from ANY form of water contamination. [IE: do not use OSB in a bathroom or laundry room as the high humidity will delaminate it.]
IF the manufacturers would use waterproof glues it would be much more useful but then the costs per sheet would be prohibitive. Nobody would buy it.
Congrats on all of the progress you have made out there in the high desert.
I am envious.
Pats for the puppies and Mistress Click IF she will allow it?
stay safe,
gooch
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