Sunday, July 21, 2013

Edges

A brief visit to Clarebelle this weekend because the weather was horrible!

Just enough time to take the clamps and masking tape off the edges of the bench top, clean them up and slap on a coat of varnish. I hope you agree that the end result looks pretty good!

In full sun, the contrast between the golden Silky Oak edges and the Rosewood tops is quite striking!

In a more subdued light the contrast is still marked and the two timbers sit well together.

A close up showing how the different grains and textures compliment each other.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Lights, Kitchen and Clean Windows

All weekend on the carriage with an overnight in comfort really moved a few projects along. Firstly, I got some lights installed.

One of the lights and its switch

The lights themselves come from an old WA carriage (I think) while I managed to get the switches from an old wares store.

Both lights on at night
While the intention is for them to be bedside reading lights, they put out enough light to adequately illuminate the whole room! A big thanks to Sol from the Finescale Modellers who wired them in for me.

I also spent some time clearing out the bathroom area in preparation for getting some work done there.

On the back of this bulkhead you can see the wiring for the lights.
 It's a small space that is difficult to photograph but, when finished, will have a composting toilet, shower and pull-down sink in the corner.

Still some stuff to move out!
 Then it was time to turn my attention to the kitchen area.

Masking off the edges
Lots of finishing and detailing jobs to do here. This weekend I put the edges on the bench tops. These are Silky Oak which should offset nicely against the Rosewood tops. First I masked up the top edges. I did this for several reasons, not least of which was to be able to make a mark on the Rosewood that I could see! The masking tape also helps protect the Rosewood's fine finish while fitting the edges and was instrumental in working out how to cut the most accurate angles.

The edges held in place by masking tape and clamps. Photographed at night!
The edges are glued in with bisquit joins for added strength. I've left them taped and clamped in for the week to really strengthend the joins before revealing them.

Another odd kitchen job was installing the slide out bin.

In the open position under the draining board
This required two hefty supports underneath to raise it up over the kick boards.

There were several other small jobs but probably the most significant was cleaning the windows on the northerrn side. This is a job probably best appreciated from the inside.

The winter sun now streams in the cleaned windows.
Last year I sprayed this side of the carriage with a sacrificial anti-graffiti material and the over-spray onto the windows created a frosted look.Now we can see out again!

So that's it for another week. My intention next weekend is to spend a day putting in some basic framework in the bathroom that will allow the wiring-in of some more lights for both the bathroom and the dining area.





Sunday, July 7, 2013

Drawers

Intermittend heavy showers meant some restrictions on what I could do this weekend but I was able to get a set of drawers installed. Most of the time was spent carefully setting up the side walls that the runners are mounted on - they have to be just right for the drawers to work properly.

Closed
The drawers themselves are kits from Bunnings and I hate the white draw fronts. In time I will replace them with something bespoke that fits into the design of the rest of the kitchen but, for now, these will have to do.

Open
Also managed to run the gas supply for the stove out through the floor so that the gas bottle is now outside the carriage and started to set up some blocks for the sliding waste bin to stand on.

Next weekend I'll be on the carriage by myself staying overnight so I should have much more to report next week!