Year: 2021

Stair Newels and Railings

December 31, 2021 / Matt / 1 Comment

In addition to the stair cladding, I also needed to do the newel posts, railings, and balusters. We’re going to have stained red oak newels and railings, and iron balusters with some spiral pieces to tie thematically with our front door. I did a bit of online research and started ordering the parts I needed. I got the newel posts from the same company that made the stair treads, we ordered balusters from a couple of companies, and the railings are from Home Depot.

I also did some research on how to mount these things, since no one wants a newel post that wiggles around. There are a few options, but I ordered some fasteners and set to work from the top down, figuring that since I needed to learn how to do this I didn’t want to start on the most visible and used section of the stairs.

I have a “half newel” that goes against the wall in the attic, which connects a horizontal railing to the newel post at the top of the attic stairs. Almost immediately, I ran into trouble, since the only wood behind the wall to anchor the half newel to was on the other side, meaning I needed screws longer than I had. I moved onto the newel post, figured out where that was going to sit, drilled a hole in the floor and screwed in the giant lag. I figured out the correct height for the newel if the railing is 42″ high and centered in the top portion, then cut the newel post to the correct height. You have to cut a hole in the side of the newel at the bottom and another one in the bottom. The newel fits over the lag bolt, then through side opening you put in a little curved piece and the nut. It’s a total pain to tighten the nut through the little hole with a wrench, and if your height isn’t right, you can’t get the wrench in or out. Finally you glue a little oak circle called a bung into the hole in the side. When we sand and finish, it should mostly disappear.

I had to notch cut the newel at the landing where it met the stair and the next challenge was attaching the railing. I bought “Zip Bolts” which are these little cams that fit into a hole in the bottom of the railing to screw down onto a bolt in the newel. These work well once they’re in and threaded, but getting them attached is a hassle. I also discovered that I shouldn’t tighten the newels down before I install the railing, since then you don’t have any room to fit the railing onto the bolts on either end, but I did have to tighten the newels down so I could get an accurate measurement of the railing length, so I wound up tightening, loosening, and then re-tightening the newels to get them situated. The angled Zip Bolts for the stair railings in particular were a frustration because they were so difficult to tighten into position that they would snap off and need to be carefully removed.

Progress continued slowly. I made a jig that simplified finding the spot on the newels to drill for the railing, and Dean helped get through a few more newels with his impact driver that sped up the bolts. Because I didn’t have room to get the attic railing in with the newel already tightened down and the wooden bung already glued in, I had to buy a variation of the Zip Bolt that had a little keyhole piece you screw into the newel. Then another cam-bolt in the railing can extend into the top, the railing slides into position, and then you can tighten it down. This worked eventually, but like everything else required a lot of trial and error.

The last two railings as I worked my way down were the first floor to the landing and then a horizontal railing on the first floor where the basement stairs will eventually descend. These were tricky because they were each two-part railings. Because the newel on the landing was aligned with the next run of stairs up to the second floor, it was set back from the front edge of the landing, meaning the railing had to change to horizontal before it connected to the newel. I worked this out by laying the railing on the stairs, cutting it to length and then attaching the short horizontal piece. Everything looked great until Sarah and I lifted it into position and it was short by a couple of inches. Some inspection revealed that I hadn’t accounted for how high off the step the bottom of the railing was: that needed to be the same height at the top of the railing where it connected to the horizontal piece. As a result, I’d cut the long railing too short.

Fortunately, I still had one long railing left for the horizontal run on the first floor, which was shorter. That meant I could swap the pieces around and not waste a very expensive piece of wood. The second go went more smoothly and I got the railing installed. The horizontal railing has a quarter turn on the end where it connects to the newel, so that was also a two-piece, but a bit simpler to fit. At least, it seemed that way until I realized the half newel against the landing column wasn’t square and I’d cut the railing down to the shorter side. I managed to get out of this by cutting the railing at and angle, and then fudging the end that ends on the stair newel off center by about a quarter inch.

With all the newels and railings installed, I went around with wood fill, sand paper, and a random orbital sander. I got all of the holes plugged with bungs, flush cut them, touched up with yet more wood fill and sanding, and it was pretty much ready to varnish. At that point we needed to switch gears to the second floor to attic stair edging I mentioned in my previous post, since it made more sense to do that and then varnish everything at once.

Getting Closer

December 28, 2021 / Matt / 1 Comment

I’ve been working on the stair railings, and I’ll have a post about them hopefully soon, but there’s been a bunch of other things going on we should get caught up on. For starters, we got our countertops! Sarah and I went shopping for stone countertops for the kitchen as well as the three bathroom vanities. We learned that while there are lots of installers, they all buy from distributors and the distributors won’t sell directly to you. We did some online shopping and then visited two different local distributors and figured out what we liked and didn’t. Unfortunately, the distributors only give you a pricing scale with no way to extrapolate how much anything is. We were able to estimate roughly from that, but it wasn’t until we went to our installer to pick out some remnants for the bathrooms that we finally got a quote. It was –somewhat predictably– more than we’d hoped (or budgeted). The granite we wanted for the kitchen wasn’t in stock and wouldn’t be for a while, so we went with our second choice. We bit the bullet and they came out and finalized the measurements and got it all installed about a week and a half later.

We started hollering at the GC to get the plumber, electrician, and trim guys out. The doors for the trim were a couple weeks out, but that had come and gone. Then they delivered the trim but it was still another week before they finally started work on that. After weeks of trying to get the electrician out, he showed up for a few hours and hooked up some lights, but apparently doesn’t want to put in the fixtures, outlets, and switches until everything else is done, which is really frustrating.

The plumbers, on the other hand, were able to get the sinks, showers, and toilet all working, which is exciting. We now have more than one flushing toilet! this morning they picked up the port-a-john that had been beautifying our back yard these last months. They still need to wrap up the freestanding tub in the master bath and the kitchen appliances, but plumbing is otherwise basically done.

Next up the carpet guy showed up. We’re carpeting the attic as well as the stairs that go up to it. Unfortunately, he said we couldn’t wrap the carpeting over the hallway and stair edges like I expected and Sarah decided she didn’t think that would look nice. After some back and forth, we decided to make an edge of hardwood that will match the first and second floors, so she’s been working on that. The carpeting is supposed to be installed next week, along with the glass for the master bathroom shower.

The HVAC installers got one of the two AC condensers up and running, the unit that runs the second floor and attic. They put all of the vent covers in and we realized the drywallers were a bit sloppy around a couple of them and we need to add a bit of mud, which I picked up today. They needed a part that they ordered to finish the other unit, but it’s been a week or two so I need to follow up and hopefully they can wrap things up.

The trim guys started putting in doors, door and window casings, and base molding. There’s definitely some things we’re going to touch up after they leave, but we’ve had them fix the more egregious problems, like installing the bi-fold closet doors upside down, or getting two of the doors mixed up, installing a door in the attic bedroom that swings the wrong direction, and then saying they need to exchange the remaining door for one that swings the other way. I was able to solve that dilemma when I went to turn off the light and noticed the switch was behind the door. Today they fixed those things and then started installing the tile backsplash in the kitchen. Then a whole bunch more boards showed up for them to continue on trim, since they’d chewed through the initial batch already with a lot of the house still to go.

Once Sarah finishes up the attic stair and hallway edging, I can varnish that along with the railings and newels and then install the iron balusters. We’re closing in on being able to move upstairs, and as exciting as that is, I really wish I could get all the contractors out of the house so we can take a deep breath. A few more weeks and I think we should actually be there.

Stove Gas Line

December 17, 2021 / Matt / 0 Comments

This was a relatively small project. I’d left it on the back burner for a while, but since I was waiting for some (more!) deliveries to move forward with the stair railing project, I decided to knock this one out. Back when we had temporarily (several years) had the washer and dryer on the first floor, we ran a gas line up to it, using the segment that was future-intended for the stove. This meant I had an existing hole in the floor to run through up into the wet wall. The nice thing about the wet wall is that there’s room inside to work.

I bought a recessed box for the gas valve a while back, partially since it looks cleaner, but mostly since it would allow me to cut a big hole in the wall to handle the pipe connections. When I cut an exploratory hole to dial in the position, I discovered there was a stud a bit closer than I’d hoped, and the pipe came up in the middle of the wet wall, so it was about six inches back. I also realized that the electrician had run a conduit just above the sill plate horizontally, which meant I couldn’t have the box configured vertically as I expected.

I made the hole the correct size horizontally, and with it enlarged, started reaching in with pre-doped fittings and putting things together. I worked out that the vertical pipe could first elbow toward the wall, then turn again into the box. II hadn’t bought all of the required fittings, of course, so I did have to run back to the store to pick up more.

Fun times with a pipe wrench and my arms inside the wall.

With parts in hand, I got everything put together and tightened down. I ran everything in 3/4″ since it’s a big stove and I’d rather have more than I need than not enough. I put in the appropriate sediment trap in the mechanical room below the branch, since there wasn’t room for it higher up. The last step was to fit the box onto the pipe, add the valve itself, and then secure the box to the wall.

I had the benefit of being able to get into the wet wall on the other side of the wall from the radiant access panel, which will also give me a way to test everything with the gas sniffer before I turn the branch up. We have shut off valves on each branch, so we can easily shut off just that section if there are any leaks, but I was pretty liberal with the pipe thread sealant, so I’m fairly confident this time around.

Kitchen Cabinets

December 6, 2021 / Matt / 0 Comments

After my sister Jessica helped us assemble the upper cabinets and Dan helped us get them hung, we realized we needed to adjust the height to match the full height cabinets. Dean came over and after helping get the full height pantry and refrigerator cabinets assembled and in place, we got the other upper cabinets down and rehung. Dan returned and he and Sarah started assembling the base cabinets.

Now that we’re up to this point, let me take a step back and fill you in on how we wound up with these cabinets. Our GC told us he had a great “Amish” cabinet maker that would make and install beautiful custom cabinets, which sounded great right up until we got a quote. I’ve mentioned in previous posts about the struggles we went through trying to control costs on our loan, and this was one of the items. We started looking at “ready to assemble” cabinets (RTA). Again our GC had a recommendation, but just looking at their website I wasn’t thrilled with the finished product. I wanted custom cabinets, I just didn’t want to pay for them! The other thing I got stuck on was inset doors and drawers. I don’t know why, but I really like the look of it and most of the RTA cabinets don’t offer them.

However, I found a company, Cabinet Joint that not only sells inset door and drawer RTA cabinets, but they’re fully custom, real wood and plywood construction, whatever finish, species, and door style you want. They’re not cheap either, and we have a big kitchen with a lot of cabinets, but it was thousands cheaper than the first company, about 30% less.

Sarah and I went over colors and finishes and settled on a warm cherry stain for the kitchen, a dark chocolate color for the powder room and linen, “ashen gray” for the main bathroom vanity, and “shale” for the master bath vanity. We placed our order back in July, but there was a twelve week lead time until they arrived in October. Since we still didn’t have our floors installed, we couldn’t do much with them until that was wrapped up.

With the floors done, we switched to all cabinets, all the time, since trim work is supposed to start as soon as our interior doors are in. There are a lot of cabinets, and each one needs to be assembled, glued, stapled, door hinges and stops installed, drawer hardware screwed in, then it gets attached to the wall, doors are attached, drawer boxes are put in and the drawer fronts carefully attached. Finally the toe kicks and knobs and pulls complete the job.

There are two big pantry cabinets in the corner of the kitchen, then the main run starts with the refrigerator cabinet, a smaller full height pantry, and small upper and base by the stove. After the stove, there’s a corner cabinet with upper, two wider cabinets with uppers, the sink base, a gap for the dishwasher, a trash pull out, and a double base cabinet. Finally, there’s a buffet with three more base cabinets. As I said, it’s a big kitchen. If you weren’t counting, that’s about nineteen cabinets, plus the three bathroom vanities and a linen cabinet.

The bank loan pays for things as they are completed as part of draws, but the cabinets needed to be paid for up front. As a result, I paid for the entire cabinet order out of pocket, and then got about half reimbursed by the bank. We’ll get the remaining balance reimbursed once when everything is done, so even though we don’t have to have all of the drawer fronts, toe kicks, and hardware on for trim to start, we want these complete so we can get that money back. We’ve bought a lot of stuff for the house over the last several months, and some of it has been floated on credit cards pending that check.

Not everything went completely according to plan in this process. The videos say you can rest your stapler at an angle and it will be perfectly aligned, but in our case this led to staples poking into the back of the cabinet. The linen cabinet didn’t quite fit into the alcove, so we had to remove the drywall on one side, plus it’s a bit short and so we’ll have to cover the opening at the top with trim.

I carefully cut the plumbing holes and installed the main bathroom vanity and then realized it wasn’t centered under the light, so I had to move it three inches over, which meant cutting a bigger hole in the back. Fortunately all of my other plumbing holes worked out pretty well. The master bath vanity doesn’t exactly match the spacing of the lights, so we’ll probably offset the sinks to align with the light instead of the vanity doors. It’s a 72″ double vanity with drawers in the middle and I’d originally planned for it to be 24″+24″+24″ and instead it’s more like 30″+12″+30″. Oh well.

We’re very grateful for all the help we got in this process, Jessica drove up all the way from Lafayette for the day, Dean and Dan both came over multiple times, and Dean lent us some really useful tools. I learned quite a bit in this process, made some handy jigs for installing hardware, and think I’m well enough versed that we’ll likely build our own closet organizers.

Hardwood Flooring

November 18, 2021 / Matt / 2 Comments

Back when we started this project, we decided we wanted hardwood floors. The house had hardwood floors originally, but they were too far gone to save. For one, they didn’t go through the whole house, as areas like the kitchen had been torn up and replaced with plywood at some point. Next, we were changing the floorplan, so we couldn’t leave them in place. Perhaps most importantly, they were buried under layers of laminate floors, full of nails, and had been refinished so many times there wasn’t much left. We pulled the original floors up as part of demo and had a fun time trying to give them away.

We had the new floors done professionally and thus didn’t have to do much, but there were a few items. First, the GC dropped off a stack of unfinished red oak tongue and groove planks. We met with a few different contractors until the GC settled on the third and they got to work almost immediately. The started with the second floor and laid everything in a few days. Like most contractors, they gave us a timeline that was only loosed correlated with reality, but by this point we’re fairly used to it.

Our biggest worry throughout the install was that they were going to put a staple through one of the radiant heat pex lines. They said they’d installed over them before, but this contractor also said they preferred not to use only glue since the boards sometimes pulled apart if you didn’t put staples at the end. Despite the knots in our stomachs, they managed to complete the whole thing with no puddles or leaks.

Of course, that’s not to say it was perfect. The first issue was on the landing, where they installed a bullnose edge around the outside perimeter. Rather than a mitered return, they just had the unfinished edge of the bullnose sticking out the side of the landing. Since I was already working on the stairs at the time, I noticed this and used some of the remaining bullnose left out to redo the piece myself. Could I have asked them to redo it? Probably, but our experiences with contractors to date have made us a bit jaded about how certain things will be taken care of, and we prefer to just do some things ourselves and save on hassle.

Next they laid the first floor, which mostly looked good except where they put bullnose around the opening for the future basement stairs. Where the bullnose met the base of the column, they just skipped over the column, I assume because it will be mostly covered by trim. But it won’t entirely be covered in trim, and you could certainly see it if you were coming up the stairs, so here again I just redid the section myself, cutting out a small piece of the existing bullnose, cutting back a miter where the new piece would fit the corner, and then making a piece to fit around the column and fit into the corner. This didn’t turn out completely perfectly, but it was close enough that some woodfill made it blend in. I glued it and clamped it until everything was set.

They finished laying the floors on Monday, but then didn’t return. We contacted the GC, who said they were going to finish the floors at the end, when everything else was done. That’s not unusual, just not what we’d expected, and it presented some challenges around things like appliances being delivered. So we said ok and started making plans to get the cabinets assembled and installed.

Then the GC contacted us to let us know they actually would be coming back to finish the floors starting on Monday and they’d finish up Wednesday. We kind of roll with the punches and adapt to the situation as it comes, so we shifted to finishing the stairs so that they could finish the treads when they finished the floors.

Monday they sanded and put down more wood fill, Monday evening Sarah and I went up and added some woodfill ourselves to some spots they missed, and Tuesday through today (Thursday) they put down three coats of varnish and buffed. I think they’re done and aren’t coming back, but I’m not certain, nor do I know how long I’m supposed to stay off the floors. They’re mostly dry at this point, but generally I believe we’re supposed to stay off at least 24 hours. I managed to get all of the above photos without walking on the floors, mostly because the attic and stairs to the attic will all be carpeted. We’ll see if they come back tomorrow and, assuming they don’t, we’ll start on base kitchen cabinets this weekend. Our interior doors are on order and supposedly about two weeks out, so we have that much time to finish the cabinets before trim starts.

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