The back bedroom is done!

Last week I was able to get by the Corian shop and pick up our sink. The sink is a separate piece made of acrylic that you glue to the bottom of a sheet of corian to make a vanity countertop. Once you sand and shape the glue line, it looks like one piece.

The vanity top build

I took measurements and created a parts list for the vanity top. For this I was using leftover Corian from the front and back showers. As I went through and looked at what I had leftover, I barely had enough! But enough is enough. I cut the main vanity top to size and then cut out the build up pieces. The build up pieces are strips that you glue to the exposed edges that make the countertop appear thicker than it is. The sheets come 1/2″ thick, so with 2 more build up pieces, you have what appears to be a 1 1/2″ thick countertop.

Lots of clamps

With the material prepped, I glued all of the build up pieces in place. Fortunately I have a whole bucket full of spring clamps and I used just about all of them. While the build up pieces were gluing up, I cut out and fabricated the back and side splashes. As I finished buffing them, I checked and the glue was cured on the build up. Perfect. I sanded and shaped the edges and broke any sharp corners.

Mounting the sink

Next up is the sink install. I lay out the sink on the bottom of the countertop and center it up. After tracing around the flange, I remove the sink. I then layout for the thickness of the sink and mark that line plus a little allowance on the inside. This is the line that I cut to and for that I’ll use a jig saw. With the hole cut out, I set the sink back in place and confirm that I left enough “extra” all the way around. The next step is the glue up. The glue makes the pieces real slippery – they just slide around. Since the sink has to go in an exact spot, I hot glue pieces of wood to lock the sink in place. I then apply a lot of glue to the sink flange and stick the sink in place. A small clamp puts light pressure to hold the two pieces together.

Snow in Florida

Once the glue cures from the sink, I shape the edge where the countertop meets the sink using a big router. This makes it look like a winter wonderland in the shop – white fluffy sawdust everywhere! After this, it’s just a lot of sanding until you get to the fine grits and then it’s buffing to put a light sheen on the surface. Done!

The install

I dry fit the vanity top and was happy with the fit so I went ahead and glued it in place. Next, I checked the fit on the back and side splashes. The backsplash was a touch short. Guess I made my cut list wrong. I glued on a small piece, sanded it smooth, and was back in business. I glued the two pieces in place and then siliconed all the joints.

The faucet

Next up was the faucet. The faucet installation went nicely. I didn’t yet purchase the supply lines so I got a shopping list together and made a quick run to Lowes. Once I got back, I got the drain hooked up, connected the water supply lines, and just like that – a working sink! Hot was hot, cold was cold, and the water went down the drain. Perfect.

Thresholds

The next project on the list was the thresholds. These will cover where the wood floor in the bedroom meets the tile as well as where the wood floor in the bedroom meets the closet floor (there was a big gap from when we took out the old door from here). I used leftover pieces of pine siding and shaped and fit them in place. Once I was happy with them, I turned them over to Oceana who got a coat of floor sealer and two coats of floor finish on them.

Attic ventilation

The last project for the week was finalizing the ventilation to the attic space over the bathroom. Previously, we had issues with the A/C lines condensating in this small attic space. After lots of research, I figured out that it wasn’t the fault of the A/C lines, rather, the moisture in this space was from the roof sweating when the sun shined on it. But since this space was closed in with no ventilation, the moisture built up and condensed on the coolest surface – which happens to be the A/C lines. To solve this, I set up a fan system that’s ran by a humidistat switch. Once the moisture starts to build up, the fan kicks on to blow cool, dry air into the attic.

Cutting in the vents

I cut in a small vent over the closet door. From there, I ran ductwork from this vent to the fan, which I located near the access door to the attic. I then attached a piece of rigid pipe to the fan which will direct the cool air to the far side of the attic space. But this air will need somewhere to go once it’s forced into the attic space. I took down the attic access door and routed in some slots into the wood. This will allow the moist air a place to come out of the attic. As a bonus, the “exhaust air” comes out right above the intake on the A/C, so the moist air will come out of the attic and be sucked into the A/C unit where the moisture will be removed. Perfect. To get power to the fan, I ran a new wire from the front bathroom up into the attic space and added an outlet near the attic access door. Done!

The Teak update

Teak is doing good. He’s getting bigger nearly every day. He’s just over 18lbs now. He really likes playing in the water down at the lake. He bounces around and splashes a lot while biting all of the tall grass. Doing puppy things. Lacey really likes teak. I’ve never seen anything like it before. She’s scared of pretty much everything. You walk by her cage, and she runs and hides (unless she’s super hungry and knows you have lettuce). However, when Teak is around, she’s out and at the front of her cage sniffing him. He’ll even bark at her and jump/play and she just sits there. Oceana gives them supervised visits and they both just hang out and lay around together. There’s even been a few weekends where Teak was out of town with Oceana and Lacey didn’t eat any of her food until Teak came back. Craziness. Well, that’s all for this week. Thanks for following along!