Piece O' Cake Blog

Piece O' Cake Blog

I am so very excited! Steve, with some help from Jeff, did a magnificent job. This table will probably be in this room until we are blasted out of the house.

Here you see the table set for eleven (the kids have smaller, colored plates). Dinner is in a couple of hours and we'll be opening presents before that. And the guys are going to jump in the pool! I hope your New Year's Eve is as festive as ours!

We read an article in Dwell magazine several months ago about Solatubes. These are small skylights made in Australia that are easy to install and that bring in an incredible amount of light. We found a distributor in the US and got one ordered so that the boys could help Steve install it. That's Jeff, Steve, and Chris (L to R) sorting out the pieces and doing some pre-assembly.

Holes had to be cut through the bathroom ceiling and - gasp! - through the roof of the house. I was in the garage doing a different chore so I didn't get a photo of the holes being cut. There's Steve, below, putting the bottom piece up through the ceiling. The boys are in the attic joining pieces and screwing them in place.

There is an amazing amount of light coming through the Solatube!

The unit came with flashing and instructions for how to nestle the outside part in the shingles. Steve is a big believer in asphalt caulk so to prevent roof leaks so he got back on the roof and sealed all the seams.

The dome is a hard, thick, clear plastic. The only thing that I'm concerned about is how it will hold up to golf ball or larger-sized hail. I may order a spare dome.

It's hard to get a good photo of this bathroom but that bright circle in the ceiling is the end of the Solatube and it is providing the only light in the room. Today is a cloudy day - it will be brighter on sunny days! I hope to order at least one more of these next year for our other interior bathroom.

Steve got a 4" x 4" post and ripped boards to fit the hollow center of the posts. He and Jeff glued the perfectly cut pieces into the center of each table leg to make them stronger.

They cut the ends to make them smooth.

I got home from shopping in Dallas with Celia and stained these lovely table legs.

They don't take the stain as well as the table top but that's OK with me and Steve. In fact I almost wish the table top had the same pickled finish - but it doesn't. Here's a nice close-up...

The square part of the legs are the top, the turned parts will be nearer the floor. Look close and you'll see that they are in 'pairs'. The top of the porch post was one pattern, and the bottom was a different turned pattern. I love it!

He has also been stripping the paint off of the porch posts that will be the table legs. This task is taking an innordinant amount of time but he's patient and thorough and he's making progress. Tomorrow they may be ready to stain.

And here is the tabletop with apron attached resting on two recycling bins. I've got this part stained. I may be able to start putting the polyurethane on tomorrow or Thursday!

Christmas-2011_11 copy

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

I hope each and every one of you has a merry Christmas! If you celebrate a different holiday - I hope you have a lovely celebration as well!

That's the very fine power planer in his hand (below). It's loud and it spits out LOTS of sawdust. You can set the depth of the cut. He's taking off 1mm.

Original article and pictures take pieceocake.typepad.com site