The Great Carpentry Project
Dec. 11th, 2022 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aSo we got back from the Bay Area two weeks ago Saturday and had to immediately dive into prep for The Great Carpentry Project.
This is is the second big project we had planned for the house, following on from our solar power install (which got done relatively promptly in 2020, despite the pandemic). The goal was to set up a complete built-in shelving system in our Family Room, with some additional shelving in our offices. It's a pretty big deal because most of our books and games have remained boxed since we moved here (not helped by BoardGameTable's game-shelves Kickstarter, which is now 10 months overdue, clearly in part due to COVID challenges ... but it's had some negligently lackadaisical communication throughout that I have to assume that's not the whole problem, but that's another whole story ...).
When things had settled enough in 2021 we tried to get someone out here, but after the people I finally found failed to show up to give a quote twice, I gave up, and then we ended up reflooring the offices and fixing the tile flooring in the family room, and so that put off the shelving work for a while, and then we ordered cabinets as the foundation of the shelves, and they showed up way at the end of their delivery window (e.g., 4 months) and then there was a missing box (and speaking of grotesquely negligent communication, Home Depot never told us it was missing and being shipped late except in limited ways when we quizzed them directly), and that actually took two more months to get to us. So we *finally* had all our parts not long before we left for the Bay Area for Thanksgiving.
I *did* by that point have a Kapaa company in my back pocket who was happy to work with us, though they were slightly expensive on T&M and also wanting to charge us for the trip out to our side of the island from Kapaa. So I dropped them a line just before I left, and while we were in the Bay Area they said they could be out here the week after we got back.
So the Sunday after we got back we had to get all our cabinets rearranged to make sure they were in the right place and we had to double-check on how we wanted all the work done ...
And then we waited.
W., our carpenter from Kapaa, showed up a week ago Wednesday. Setting up all of our cabinets was two days' work, and it was nice to see our scattered cabinets become an actual cabinet system.
The shelving atop and above the cabinets has been six more days work and isn't done yet.
I say six more days, but we're on Kauai time. The start many day's been a bit late, and there have been a few half days. Like I said, Kauai time. We saw it when we were working on the solar-power install in 2020, and there's just no reason to get bothered about it, because that's how things go. It's kind of subpar when we're paying for transport out from the other side of the island, but *shrug*, it's silly to get worked up about the facts of life.
W. seems quite skilled with his carpentry work, which is great. (Also a nice guy, and a fan of fantasy, science-fiction, and comics, which is all a plus.) He was also able to help us finalize our plans, which is exactly what we wanted an expert for.
We'd hoped for true floating shelves, to really keep the rooms as open as possible. W., however, is quite serious about making things are supported (in a way that seems rational and based on his skill set), so we compromised on shelves with vertical panels coming up from the sides of each shelf. It gives them a good coherent look. And we avoided any back wall for the shelves, which should keep them fairly open.
There was lots more design work, like use of plywood for the shelves, with real-word nosing on the edges to make them look good (which is how my dad and I designed my comic-book shelves back in 2020). And cleats on the walls to support each shelf. They should be very sturdy and support the weight.
As of carpentry day eight (which was last Friday), most of the shelves are in place, with the nosing still to be finished and installed, plus a few stray shelves still to be done, like the ones in Kimberly's office, plus a few in one corner.
It's going to be a little more expensive than I'd hoped, and is definitely taking more time, but not horribly so in either case.
The next question will be how the amount of shelving compares to the books we have, which is a pretty broad question because I don't know how the cabinets at the foundation of our shelves are going to be used (either how well they'll work or if it'll make sense to use them for books); I don't know how much shelving we need (as we got rid of so much when we moved); and I don't know how much we really have! So I'm looking forward to getting things on shelves and seeing how it all works.
Hopefully next weekend. W. won't be back until Tuesday, but he's estimated three days to finish things up: one to install the first set of nosing and preparing the rest; one to install the rest of the nosing; and one to finalize little details. Fingers crossed. I'd *really* like to be shelving things by next weekend.
And then we have a bunch of other details needed to finalize our Family Room. Probably a love seat and a chair, maybe a table, some cushions for the bench we arranged in one corner. I think it'll be a nice library/sanctuary/family-room when it's done.
Thrilled to see it move forward after almost three years of waiting.
This is is the second big project we had planned for the house, following on from our solar power install (which got done relatively promptly in 2020, despite the pandemic). The goal was to set up a complete built-in shelving system in our Family Room, with some additional shelving in our offices. It's a pretty big deal because most of our books and games have remained boxed since we moved here (not helped by BoardGameTable's game-shelves Kickstarter, which is now 10 months overdue, clearly in part due to COVID challenges ... but it's had some negligently lackadaisical communication throughout that I have to assume that's not the whole problem, but that's another whole story ...).
When things had settled enough in 2021 we tried to get someone out here, but after the people I finally found failed to show up to give a quote twice, I gave up, and then we ended up reflooring the offices and fixing the tile flooring in the family room, and so that put off the shelving work for a while, and then we ordered cabinets as the foundation of the shelves, and they showed up way at the end of their delivery window (e.g., 4 months) and then there was a missing box (and speaking of grotesquely negligent communication, Home Depot never told us it was missing and being shipped late except in limited ways when we quizzed them directly), and that actually took two more months to get to us. So we *finally* had all our parts not long before we left for the Bay Area for Thanksgiving.
I *did* by that point have a Kapaa company in my back pocket who was happy to work with us, though they were slightly expensive on T&M and also wanting to charge us for the trip out to our side of the island from Kapaa. So I dropped them a line just before I left, and while we were in the Bay Area they said they could be out here the week after we got back.
So the Sunday after we got back we had to get all our cabinets rearranged to make sure they were in the right place and we had to double-check on how we wanted all the work done ...
And then we waited.
W., our carpenter from Kapaa, showed up a week ago Wednesday. Setting up all of our cabinets was two days' work, and it was nice to see our scattered cabinets become an actual cabinet system.
The shelving atop and above the cabinets has been six more days work and isn't done yet.
I say six more days, but we're on Kauai time. The start many day's been a bit late, and there have been a few half days. Like I said, Kauai time. We saw it when we were working on the solar-power install in 2020, and there's just no reason to get bothered about it, because that's how things go. It's kind of subpar when we're paying for transport out from the other side of the island, but *shrug*, it's silly to get worked up about the facts of life.
W. seems quite skilled with his carpentry work, which is great. (Also a nice guy, and a fan of fantasy, science-fiction, and comics, which is all a plus.) He was also able to help us finalize our plans, which is exactly what we wanted an expert for.
We'd hoped for true floating shelves, to really keep the rooms as open as possible. W., however, is quite serious about making things are supported (in a way that seems rational and based on his skill set), so we compromised on shelves with vertical panels coming up from the sides of each shelf. It gives them a good coherent look. And we avoided any back wall for the shelves, which should keep them fairly open.
There was lots more design work, like use of plywood for the shelves, with real-word nosing on the edges to make them look good (which is how my dad and I designed my comic-book shelves back in 2020). And cleats on the walls to support each shelf. They should be very sturdy and support the weight.
As of carpentry day eight (which was last Friday), most of the shelves are in place, with the nosing still to be finished and installed, plus a few stray shelves still to be done, like the ones in Kimberly's office, plus a few in one corner.
It's going to be a little more expensive than I'd hoped, and is definitely taking more time, but not horribly so in either case.
The next question will be how the amount of shelving compares to the books we have, which is a pretty broad question because I don't know how the cabinets at the foundation of our shelves are going to be used (either how well they'll work or if it'll make sense to use them for books); I don't know how much shelving we need (as we got rid of so much when we moved); and I don't know how much we really have! So I'm looking forward to getting things on shelves and seeing how it all works.
Hopefully next weekend. W. won't be back until Tuesday, but he's estimated three days to finish things up: one to install the first set of nosing and preparing the rest; one to install the rest of the nosing; and one to finalize little details. Fingers crossed. I'd *really* like to be shelving things by next weekend.
And then we have a bunch of other details needed to finalize our Family Room. Probably a love seat and a chair, maybe a table, some cushions for the bench we arranged in one corner. I think it'll be a nice library/sanctuary/family-room when it's done.
Thrilled to see it move forward after almost three years of waiting.