Ikea Grip Hardware

I took a spare moment this evening to mount some hardware we picked up at Ikea over the weekend. I've always liked the simplicity of these pulls. They work and give a nice clean look.






These doors on the sink cabinet will get long handles for dishtowels. We have a long bar on the dishwasher, but it's a tall tub, so the dishtowels end up wiping the floor when you open the door. I suppose I could clean the floor more often...



BTW The blue espresso cup is a commemorative cup from the 2004 summer Olympics that my sister picked up. I love Athens. I spent a summer studying there, and it was one of the best experiences I've had.

1500 watts of power

Last Friday we had our electrician come by to check on our dimmer switch, which was running hot to the touch. Well, seems there was a misunderstanding about how many Tweak heads - ten (pumping out 75 watt PAR 30 floods) - we were running on the TechLighting rails.

We didn't have all the right parts when he first ran juice to the box, but thankfully we didn't blow anything until his return visit. To manage the power, he installed what I like to call the MacIntosh Dimmer. It's vented. It's not entirely black, I hope it didn't cost a small fortune, and it wasn't built in Binghamton, NY.

Oh, and he told us to just vent the hood out the side of the house and avoid messing with the old knob and tube..."it'll be fine, just don't mess with it." So the venting, yeah, that'll have to wait until spring.

Advice for Venting Hood?

Anyone out there have any advice on venting a hood?

We've started the job, and now I'm a bit stuck. We ran the duct work from the hood, but now are in a bit of pickle trying to get it through the exterior wall.

Our house has vinyl siding and I'm slightly concerned about how to tackle that. Cut out from the inside, trim away the vinyl from the outside, screw on the aluminum vent, then caulk like mad?

Should I wait until spring, when the weather is warmer?
Can I caulk in the cold?
Is there some special vinyl vent flapper that I should know about?

Supply List in hand:

• ducting standard 10x4 stainless box
• exterior vent = aluminum with a gasket flapper

We got it all at Home Depot...pretty standard, I guess.

Lights, Camera, a bit of hot action

We installed the last of the kitchen lights. Tweak heads, with PAR30 75watt wide floods. Dimmer of course. TechLighting line voltage. White. Bright.



Aerial view from high command.

Some After Pictures of our Concrete Countertops

The seam is logically located at a break, from cabinet to open undercounter storage. The open storage allows us to sit on stools and look out the window. We eat more meals in the kitchen sitting on stools than we do in the dinning room.

It doesn't auto-retract, but it's easy to use. Our water pressure is strong, so when you open the faucet all the way up, you get a super powerful jet. The hose extends long enough to reach the corners of the sink.





This secretary style cabinet will get a full door closing off the base. And that drawer front will get the finished piece installed. The one that's on there was just temporary. Funny how it's been like that for 6 months.



There's still lots to do. The center island/trash home is on deck, as are all the cabinet doors. We actually installed all the lights overhead, so I'll post more pictures of that soon. (It's now extremely bright throughout this room!)

Barn

So, I grew up with a barn. It didn't look much like this when I was growing up. It was mostly gray, and the boards along the bottom were sometimes missing. In 1998 our barn was saved. It's looked pretty much like this since then. I think it needs a nice new coat of dark red barn paint.

There's very little room for a barn on our urban lot. I'd like to have a place outside of the house to work - you know woodworking, bike stuff, guitar playin' - but I'm not sure I can fit it all inside what we've got back there.



So, this spring, I'm planning on building a workshop in the basement of our house. It will be small, but large enough for our needs. It'll have a dust collection system and air filtration system, and be closed off from the rest of the basement - drywalled, own circuits, etc.

But I wish I had a barn!