Vanity Top II

Last pour! We might be getting there.

This time I used a plaster based setting drywall compound.

The sink mold, just before installation:

The plaster, combined with the use of hot melt glue, cut production time significantly, despite the extra details. It was a lot of fun.

That is, until stripping time...

See those hardwood wedges under the hammer? Custom made chisels. The plaster stuck just as hard to the concrete as it did to itself. Metal chisels can scratch the cement. Wooden chisels were OK.

You're thinking of water, aren't you? Yes, I tried it. Two messes instead of one.

Note: the plaster got painted with polyurethane as a sealer a few days before the cement was poured. Umm... remind me... what is the main ingredient in all those sticky things like spray-in foam, gorilla glue and PL-400? It wasn't... by any chance... 

polyurethane?

Nevertheless, it only added a day or so to the process, so I'm still way ahead of schedule. Next time, though, we find a better release agent! 

On to filling all those holes and polishing!

Front Entrance

Kitchen

I still haven't posted pictures of the kitchen counter tops. They're generally covered with cardboard, tools and material, or at the very least, dust. On the occasion that they're not, I don't have a camera with me.

 

But, the wood parts finally have finish on them. So you can have a tour of a bunch of bits of wood...

The finish is Waterlox. Chad, who is a professional furniture maker, instructed and supervised us on it's application. It was an educational experience, and resulted in the nicest finish I've ever participated in.

Details on an upper cabinet door.

This cabinet holds the sink. It's mainly made of maple, salvaged from a neighbor's tree.

The center panels are local orchard cherry, like the rest of the kitchen. The stuff is so pretty that we like to find ways to use little pieces of it, hence the design above.

Over time the blue streaks will darken into red. Sigh. Oh well, that'll be nice, too.

The jellyfish, a knothole formation that we found in a cherry stump. This kind of wood is so much fun to cut up. It's like an Easter egg hunt.

The front corner of the utensil rack over the stove. You can see the (very dusty) hood fan behind it.

Shelves that are going to be mounted on the end of the upper cabinets.

A little extra detail, because kitchens shouldn't be boring, should they?

Front Entry Bench

We've got a few more things done at the house. First, the bench:

The rocks are not as uncomfortable as they look. You hardly notice them.