The Project Blog

… due to low ceiling!

Actually, it’s not that low, I can just barely work with the tiles standing on my toes so it’s pretty much about standard ceiling height.  I ended up with 9 extra, calculated 57, ordered 60, all but two up, so clearly I received extra!

The tiles went in surprisingly easy, the border pieces were as simple as marking them and cutting them with scissors and popping them in.  I will need to paint the tiny braces on the side walls as they wont totally be covered by crown molding, otherwise, ceiling is done and ready for track lighting!

As they say, pics or it didn’t happen!

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Quickie update!  Got some more done on the ceiling this weekend.  Ran to the basement emporium (Lowe’s, I really do need to buy stock in that company…) and had them match a quart of flat paint to the ceiling tile, they hit it dead on!  I started making my way around the room painting the track with a regular brush, not very good, the brush just didnt hold enough paint to get good coverage.  So then I tried a sponge style brush I had laying around that was exactly as wide as the track itself, I’d have went to jail if it was a DUI test, ugh.  Back to lowes to get a wider brush, until I saw a cool little roller that would do the trick, only a couple inches wide so I wouldn’t waste a ton of paint cleaning out a pan, and the package itself WAS a pan, recycle baby!

I went around the whole room twice in the time it took me do to just a couple of rows yesterday!  And I also took the tile I cut the color match sample piece out of and cut it down to do two sections.  Pics show the end result and how well the track now matches.  Ignore the edge rail because it’ll be hidden with crown molding

Next up on the list will be to get the rest of the ceiling tile ordered and mount the track lighting to the grid after painting it to match too.

Won’t be long, this room will be ready for a party!

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Ok, so maybe not iron, but it’s metallic!

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve spent a few hours touching up some spots on the walls that showed a little too much with an eggshell paint on them and getting the ceiling border track up.  Today I got about 3/4 of the way through hanging the whole grid.

Started off finding center of the longest wall and set the laser level into plumb and level mode.  I hung the first two beams and it dawned on me I never bothered to translate the same center line to the other end of the room when I set up the laser.  So needless to say, there was a bit of a skew going on.   In the process of trying to move the two beams I had hung an inch or two to new hangers, one slipped and brought most of the stuff I had up crashing down, drew blood, so the room is officially mine (nothing new is yours until you scratch it or bleed on it!)

After getting the center line squared away, the track flew up pretty quick. Unfortunately no matter how I set the grid there was not going to be an even edge tile spacing on all four walls due to there being a couple of kickbacks on two walls.  Nothing some crown molding wont hide.

I popped in the two samples we’re looking at so we could see what it’s going to look like against the green.  The tile we’ll be using is a (thinner than I’d like, we’re talking water bottle wall thin, but crazy light) plastic.  This will serve two purposes, first is it wont be white, second is it’s not going to be susceptible to water damage if things go fubar on the 1st floor.

Next steps will be to get a quart of paint to match the tile so I can paint the track to match and figure out all of the lighting locations now that I know where the grid is.  We’ll probably do 6-8 small hanging lights over the bar and a few small spots to highlight locations on the walls for posters/art.

I’ll let the pics tell the rest of the story.

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… are you green with it?

I went last week and picked up enough ceiling supplies to get the bar room grid up.  Rather than mess around trying to cut in around the edges when I painted the room, I decided to go ahead and paint first.  I’d rather touch up dings than cut in clean around the whole room!

If you can remember back to this post, my sketchup plans had green walls in the bar.  The wifey and I stopped in Lowe’s and picked a couple of chips and had them make up the little tiny sample cans.  I threw a block on each wall and we opted for the lighter one (Chesterwood French Green.)  When I went back to Lowes, I grabbed only a gallon figuring as soon as I bought two, I’d only need one, and knowing that I was only buying one so I’d need two……. Now if I could just do that with lottery numbers!  Sure enough, I used a heavy nap roller and made it to the last 1.5 SMALL walls and the can was empty.  Fair enough, 2nd gallon bought, finished up, hit the other walls with a light 2nd coat, done.

Next up, ceiling grid!  Here’s pics of the paint to tide you over.

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Just a quickie update.

Spent most of the ‘basement time’ today not in the basement.  I fired up google sketchup and laid out the grids for the drop ceiling so I could build a materials list and price estimate.  Once the wife revived me from the sticker shock I found a couple of different options so I wasn’t using the pricey matte black tiles in the bar and game room too.  However I’ll still be using a different style in each room I think.  Probably a tan/beige vinyl thermoform plastic in the bar and a more standard commercial looking fiber tile in the game room as I assume it’ll see it’s fair share of stray pingpong balls, darts, buckshot, etc.

Once that tab of the spreadsheet was filled out, I went down and sanded and stained  the whole bar top.  Once it dries I’ll tuck it away until the ceiling is in and the walls are painted, then it’ll get put in place and glossed up.

Here’s pics of the dark goodness…

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… it is not, but it’s close enough to put a grin on my face.

Spent a good bit of time working on the bar this weekend.  Parts of 3.5 days equals all the back and side cabinets are stained waiting a coat of poly.  Also, all three legs of the bar top are cut and glued!

The plan to get the middle leg of the bar to fit worked out really well.  I worked on the end sections first, got them cut and glued and dried to act as their own templates.  I then set them on top of the rough middle section with scrap along both lengths to get them level.  At that point it was simple as scribe and cut!  Lining up the miter blade for 16 precision unique cuts was a pain, and in hindsight I should have done the same thing as I did on the ends which was glue 2-3 rows together so I only had 3-4 ‘rows’ to cut instead of 8, but oh well.  In the end I have only one annoying gap but it wasn’t enough to make me want to redo that board.  It’s not any worse than some hardwood floors I’ve seen.

The cabinets stained up rather well, though I’m a little irked at the trees they apparently used from opposite ends of the planet because a couple of edge pieces on doors and a couple of drawer fronts just stick out compared to their neighbors, perhaps with better room lighting it’ll smooth the differences out if a 2nd coat doesnt help.

Oh, and while Harbor Freight clamps are economical, they blow ass.  They do have a lifetime warranty, which I’ve used on one, but said replacement broke the first time I pulled the trigger tonight.  A couple others wont really hold very tight either.  I also broke the handle on my miter saw from there, but that probably had something to do with me knocking it off the workbench slap onto it’s head.

Here’s the visual aid section:

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With a 3 day weekend off work, I needed a haircut and to take care of some new fish I ordered online that fedex dropped off mid-morning in 20 deg weather.  So I called it a day at lunch and took care of business.  Beings that only lasted me about 2 hours, I took advantage of the time for some basement tinkering.

Prepping for assembling the bar tops I glued together the rows in strips of two or 3 for the long and short ends.  Not working on the middle leg just yet as I plan to get the ends done and cut, then I’ll sit them on top of the middle section to line up all the joints for marking and cutting.

After swapping out pieces of wood for less warps and cleaner joints and getting wood glue all over my fingers I decided I needed to sample the stain I bought last week.  I grabbed a scrap piece of flooring, the scrap from the filler piece I put between the back and side wall cabinets, and a rag.  I was pretty happy with the match to the vinyl ‘cheat sheets’ I used on the front, and just love the overall coloring the stain gives the Oak.  Comparison pics below.

While grabbing the glue at lowes I wandered over to the glass isle.  They can get special order frosted and colored lexan.  I asked the guy if they had actual samples on hand to look at and he said no, he also said that most of them are just clear lexan with a tint backing… bummer.  But, now I think what I’ll do for the light boxes is order up some true milk white plastic and back it with tint.

Speaking of tint, below are pics of the samples I ordered.  There is a translucent and an opaque.  I think translucent will be the way to go as the colors are a lot richer.  I just wish it came in a green/tan instead of blue/tan… I shall flex my google-fu and find what I’m looking for I’m sure.

As they say, pics or it didnt happen!

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I was bored today and spent some time on the internet looking for tips on seaming formica, etc.  I didn’t find anything super informative and started to talk myself into the fact that the end product would look horrible.

I googled around for images of wood bar tops and came across some ideas that made me go ‘ooo’.  One idea in particular was where people used simple wood flooring planks.  Most stained and poly’d them, one used a thick pour on gloss called Envirotex.  Sold!

So I trotted off to The MadHammers Opium Emporium (Lowe’s) and hit the stain section with a sample of the vinyl I used on the front of the bar.  I found a stain that would bring the oak cabinets pretty darn close to the tone.  Mission #1 completed.

Then I went back to the flooring section and was met with frustration.  This is because the only samples that matched the tone close enough in an Oak wood grain was the cheap ‘printed’ MDF type flooring.  Some of the hardwood samples came close, but were just not quite right, and they approached $100 for between 19 and 24 sq ft, meaning I was going to have to buy two boxes to have enough to cover 22-25 sqft of the main bar top.

I had a light bulb go off.  “Get unfinished and stain it to match you fool!”  Thankfully no one else was in the isle, cause I think I said it out loud.  I found one of the employees and asked if they carry unfinished flooring.  “At the other store across town” they said.

So across town I go, and straight to flooring.  I look… and look… and look… Nothing.  I ask an employee and he said “Yes, we hide it!”

He took me over 3-4 isles away from the main flooring area and there it was on an end cap, nicely stacked and bundled unfinished flooring and as luck would have it, OAK!  $50 a bundle, he had to go check the sq footage.  “19 sq ft” he said.  “Damnit!” I said and picked up two bundles.

I took one downstairs and got the long and middle legs laid out.  I”ll have a good bit left over but that’s fine because I can rip the tongues and grooves off them and use it on the rim of the whole bar.

I think I’m back to tile for the lower portion of the bar as I don’t want oak tops on top of oak cabinets.

Pics of the dry layout.  Here’s hoping I can pull off some descent cuts and get all three sections to meet up perfectly!

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OK, so there’s no screen to see, but I am throwing some light around testing bar ideas!

Spent a couple of hours down in the basement today.  I put on some more of the wood accents, got rid of all the empty slate boxes that were piled up in the corner of the bar, swept the floor, and cleaned up the crap collecting on the bar, and brainstormed.

First up was the wood accents.  The one I’d put up as a test was starting to pull away from the wood.  Apparently the peel and stick ’tile’ is more effective when it’s used on a highly clean (and probably treated) surface instead of the wood I’m slapping it onto.  I put a little bit of the adhesive I’ve been using on the slate on them for extra grab, here’s hoping it works better.

While I was doing the stick-em-up game, a couple of pieces of slate popped off the bar, and I was not amused.  It was then that I realized the rookie mistake when dealing with slate.  I was mindful enough to dust off the backs before gluing them up, but it would seem more wise to WASH the backs off so the adhesive isn’t sticking to a layer of dust.

I went around and tugged on pretty much all of the tiles, no others came off.  I’m sure they’ll all hold tight… until there’s a room full of people bumping up against them all.  Perhaps I should get an “In Case of Emergency” case with a caulk gun in it ready to go…

At that point it was getting on my nerves to see all the clutter around the room, so I did some cleanup.  While cleaning I had the thought for a mockup of the light boxes.  I went and dug up the two rope lights that were used on the porch pillars for Christmas and routed them in W patterns in a couple of the light boxes.  Then I took some leftover vapor barrier folded over 4 times or so to give a good milky opaque effect and tucked it up in front of the boxes.  While what we end up using will have some color to it like a stained glass, my goal was to see if one would be able to see the light bulbs from the source in the boxes.  Much to my dismay, you can.

Not sure if I want to stick with this idea or try other options.  The brightness is pretty much what I want.  I could paint the insides of the boxes white for reflectivity and build a lip on the front edges and put the rope behind it but I think the centers will be dim.  I could leave the plastic in there to help difuse the light more and put the tinted lexan up and run with it.  It’s just going to take some tinkering I think.

Let the pics speak!

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… New years eve party 201x should be fun in the bar

Yet another long week off between Christmas and New Years but beings I had to entertain the kids I really didn’t a whole lot of basement time in until today. I managed to put in a solid days work, well, after I rolled out of bed at like 10:00, thanks wifey!

I filled in the gap between the cabinets where they meet in the corner with a matching piece of oak.  I finished all of the tile on the front of the bar except for the angle cuts needed on one of the bends.  I also threw down the remaining section of counter top base for the back.

Then it was off to Lowe’s for some meditation in the tile and counter top isles with a side trip to the wood section.  We’re having a hard time finding something we like that’s not $10/sqft back splash mosaics for the counter tops (I’ve calculated roughly 70sqft of counter space to cover!)  I think we’ve eliminated using any variation of slate as it’ll take away from the front of the bar.  Glass tile is out of the question price wise, as well as aesthetically it just will not go with wood/slate.

I picked up a couple 4 sqft sections of 1/4 oak ply to rip down to fill in the gaps on the front of the bar (more on this later) as well as the exposed end then headed over to tile/flooring.  This time I not only hit the tile isles though, I also looked at the wood flooring section, then into no-mans land, linoleum… for an epiphany.

Beings this is a basement level floor and the fact that we’ve had more than our fair share of washing machine issues, HVAC condensate line leaks and kids splashing in the tub upstairs, all of which makes it’s way to the basement; hardwood and carpet are out of the question.  I’m not thrilled with the prospect of having to cut a million tiles around the bar, and the durability of slate used on the bar makes me shy away from using it on the floor too.  I liked the color of one of the fake oak peel and stick type flooring though, and the price is right, .98 sqft!  It’ll look nowhere near as nice as the real thing, but for now it’ll probably do the job needed for the bar and game rooms.  One other option that hasn’t been eliminated (priced) yet is to acid stain/dye/paint the concrete itself.

Then I hit the counter top section and looked at the formica samples to see if there’s anything that would hold us over until sometime in the future when we can afford to redo the kitchen and bar in granite or other manufactured product.  A couple of samples caught my eye that would complement the slate and faux wood flooring nicely.  Even better was the price point, a 4x8ft sheet can be had for under $100!

So I get home and hand the wife the flooring piece I bought… she giggled at me… wtf?

“Quick and easy” she says.

With a puzzled look on my face I say “I’ll still have to cut all around the bar laying it…”

“Oh, that’s the floor??  I thought it was for the strips on the front of the bar!” …

Leave it up to someone not standing in the middle of the forest to see the tree and tell you how to spend $7 vs $30 and a fraction of the time by not having to rip, fit, and stain wood inserts!  I went downstairs, sure enough, perfect fit!  I still had to cut a piece to bring it up flush, but the finish product nails the look I’ve had in my head since day one.

Here’s a couple of pics of the days work!

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