Door project on shocking hold!

Bill Lantry

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Hey, folks,

Well, here's the way things work in Williamdom (or should that be Lantrystan?) ;)

So, long story short, I got the cabinet cathedral doors mocked up, using some scrap poplar and sycamore I had lying around. They came out pretty good (yes, I have pics, but not here). By good, I mean acceptable. By acceptable, I mean that in spite of all the tearout and blade burns, they hold together as doors... ;) I at least solved most of the structural and conceptual problems... now I just have to make the execution better.

Anyway, I just had one more step before I started on the real ones: Installation. So I drilled a hole in a piece of scrap, made sure it was right for the hinge, and went into the kitchen to test fit... and that's when the trouble started... :(

Doorlink asked me to help carry the mop bucket down to the basement. My best advice: if *your* darling ever asks you to this, run away fast! ;)

So I get down there. The reason the mop bucket was making the trip was that I'd discovered that young Daniel, who is allergic to mold, had left a few boxes of opened cookies under the sofa (the basement is where the boys' gameroom -PS2, etc- is located) and they'd gotten moldy. It's also a big storage room, home of over-tired furniture, etc. "Help me move this couch", she said. Yuck on the tiles underneath it (hey, when you're blasting monsters, who wants to worry about housekeeping?). Everytime I moved something, more yuck. We may be food for worms, but old hidden empty boxes of crackers in a damp environment are food for mold. Eventually, I'd moved every piece of furniture, every box out of the room, and got the first good look at the room since we'd moved in.

Now, I have to explain that we got the house at half the market value a few years back, precisely because there'd been a flood caused by a water company mistake. The homeowners took the settlement and went on an extended vacation to mexico, and when they got back they sold the place. So I *did* know that this room was a problem: half the cieling was ripped down, the wall board was missing in several places from the damage inspection. I took a hard look at the remaining paneling, and realized it was soft near the bottom. Ripped it out with a hammer and my bare hands, and clouds of what I can only believe were mold spores came billowing out. At that point, I was ready to rip *everything*, and Doorlink was ready to authorize purchase of however many building materials it would take to fix the problem.

So all the rest of saturday was taken up by moving and ripping. Sunday morning was prep work and the despot, sunday afternoon was putting down the underlayment for new tile. I've got weeks of work in there by the time its fit for human habitation in there. Suffice it to say her kitchen doors are on hold.

Anyway, there will be much work done while I have the walls open (rewiring, new lighting, etc.) We'll need a builtin dehumidifier (do such things even exist?) I can drain it out the back wall... I just want something I can turn on and not think about). The room is 16 x 25, so there are many opportunities for builtin furniture. In fact, the space is so big, it can be my minishop while I build it back up.

If any of you have any good thoughts on what kind of builtins should be there, they would be much appreciated. I need to move fast, because she wants her kitchen done by her birthday in mid-september. Yikes!

All this leads me to wonder whether I should invoke ancient english poetry: "So always this middle-earth fails and falls" or something more modern like, say, 19th century french: "Such is the daily news from the whole world." Geez, Louise... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
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We'll need a builtin dehumidifier (do such things even exist?) I can drain it out the back wall... I just want something I can turn on and not think about).

Bill,
My folks always had a dehumidifier running in the basement when I was a kid.

It is very easy to set them up so you can "forget about it"... They just positioned it with a hose such that it drained into the sump pit. Voila. They are in a new house in the city now, without a sump pit. No problem, they just run a hose to the floor drain. Voila again. They NEVER need to empty the dehumidifier.

Their humidifier came with a drain pan that already had a threaded connection on the bottom of it. Hopefully they still sell them as such. Otherwise you'll have to MacGyver one.

As for built-ins... It all depends on what you are using the space for, and how old are your kids. Personally, I have four young kids and we never seem to have enough storage. So I would think about a wall of closets. If it is to be your TV room - then how about ceiling-mounts for the speakers?

Have "fun".
 
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Hi Bill, :wave:
what ever cabinets you build, I would first build a toe kick to support the cabinets. I have done this often and in a place where it gets damp I use pressure treated pine. Use either 2x6 or 2x4 to get to the height you want. It is also very easy to level the toekick then just sit boxes on top and they are all level too:eek: ( will wonders never cease):rofl:
Good luck Mop Man:D ( never go with a woman with a mop):rofl: :rofl:
Shaz
 
I think they have ones that can plumbed into the drain system and controled by a wall mounted controll. But then again I might be wrong, this happens alot.:rolleyes:
 
You know, I used to be faster. Spent four hours laying tile last night, and got maybe 20% of the room done. Yes, part of that was chasing James... and I took out an hour for dinner, and there were certain problems that should have been solved before I needed to stop to rectify, but even still... in four hours, I should have been able to lay the whole room and start thinking about grout! This must be what 50 looks like... :doh: :dunno:

The good news: Doorlink went to costco and found a dehumidifier that I can mcgiver. Under 200 bucks, so not bad...

Don't have a sump pit, and don't have a drain system of any kind on that floor of the house. We're on a slope, so the top floor is about the same level as the street, the middle floor is on the level of the front of the house, and the basement walks out to the back level, which is dirt, and soon to be covered with many cubic yards of mulch. I'm thinking of just running the dehumidifier hose under the mulch to the fenceline. Not pretty, but neither would be trying to rig a pump system all the way up to the next floor... :(


Shaz, when I redid Joseph's room last year, I tried the toekick/stand thing. But I tried to line up stand and cabinet so it looked like one seamless piece. Big mistake... this time I'll either recess or plan for lots of trim...

Jason, I need to find some special project down there that will allow a new tool. A nice sawstop... or maybe even one of those low end grizzly sliders... ;) What I really am going to need is a drywall lift, but it's hard to get excited about something like that... ;)

Looks like i'll be tiling till midnight. At least I'll have company... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Most HVAC supply house sell a pump that they use for the AC condensation. It is usually about $40. It has a reservoir which when fills it starts the pump it can easily lift 4 feet. This could be an elegant solution to your problem.

Greg
 
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