Almost there!!!

It's been a productive week in the Robert's household....I started working on the counters, we got the wood cladding and pendant light fixture installed and I made a phone shelf.

The counters came back from Peter at Wunderland and were levelled enough to use so I then started the process of joining the planks together.

First I had to make the edges straight and true to be able to join them together seamlessly.  I laid it out several times and measured carefully to figure out what portions of the boards were the best looking for the counter.  I aligned them so that when we did the cutout for the sink some knots and other not so desirable areas would be cut away.

I had decided to use the biscuit joiner for this project.  I must say it might be one of my fave tools.  Super easy to use, super accurate and super fun!

The biscuit joiner is a tool that cuts out 1/2 elliptical slots from the material to be joined.  You do this on both pieces and then insert a "biscuit" which is an elliptical shaped piece of wood that you glue into the slots.  It's hard to describe, but the pics below may show how it works easier than me trying to write it out....

 

 Dry fit boards together and mark where you want the center of biscuits to be                                  

Set depth of slots from top edge.   I did 2 rows, 1 at 1/4" down and 1 at 1 1/2"

  

Line up the marks with the joiner and make the cuts..repeat with all marks

First row done!  Adjust the depth setting and repeat for the second row.

 

 Put glue in slots and insert biscuits

         Put both pieces together and tighten clamp to hold while glue dries

It took some time to get it done perfectly and I almost wanted to be sick while joining them in case it didn't work and they didn't line up...but that's the beauty of this joiner....it made it so simple to align them perfectly.   They came together really well and I mixed up some sawdust I saved, from cutting the wood, with some glue and used it as a filler for the larger holes in the top.

While the counters were drying, we cut and installed the boards to go along the nub wall in the kitchen.  This was the section the previous owners cut out from the old exterior wall and now was an awkward bump in the plan.  

I had gone up to Ed's place to get some boards for this purpose...and out of this pile picked a few great ones....Here is the opening before

And here it is after.

  I love the way it adds so much warmth to the space and the way the light fixture looks on the wood.

While Fred was installing the light and boards, I installed a shelf for the telephone message center that I had made out of an old wooden ladder and a piece of old barn board.I love the metal hardware detail on the ladder.  This shelf will be the perfect spot to hold our phone and iphones, ipad etc while charging.  I am also making a chalk and cork board to hang above the shelf so it can be message central! 

Told you it was a busy week around here!  The kitchen is really coming together and now all that's left is the wood counter and sink....plus a few little finishing touches.