So That's Why Picture Frames are Expensive

With 4 National Park posters to frame...

... and another 2 purchased (Chris and I have a rule that we only get these posters from parks we've been to)

(found here)

(found here) ...Chris and I headed out to see how much it would cost to get 6 16x20 frames. The answer? Not cheap. Man, picture frames weirdly cost a lot. Not technically a lot, but for it just being 4 pieces of wood joined together with a piece of glass on top I wanted to barf when I saw the $45 price tag at Michaels. Even with the coupons they always have, it was going to be nearly $150 just in frames. Chris was especially flabbergasted and looked at me and asked, "Why don't we just figure out how to build them?"

FABULOUS idea!

And so started a new adventure in building.

We made a practice one in MDF (only a $6 investment). We measured things out to see what length all the sides needed to be

We went for a 3/8"-ish reveal all around the border of the artwork, and once all the lengths were cut...

...we used the dado stack on the tablesaw and cut a rabbet out in the back (the groove the artwork and glass would sit in)

Next, we consulted the router bits to see what kind of detail we would cut into the edges

I settled on a Roman Ogee

We left the interior edge alone because the MDF stock came with one rounded edge, and after we used the router table to cut the other side we used these right angle brackets called V nails to attach everything together

And then, we were done!

Neither of us was super thrilled with the edges of the MDF (they can tend to fray)

But because this was just our $6 test run, we weren't too broken up about it. We were pretty sure however that we had a pretty good system worked out for putting them all together so we headed out to HD and bought 3" poplar stock for our 6 frames - for a total of $60.

With our stock purchased the first step was using the dado to cut the rabbet in the back

Next, we used the router table again to cut the outside pattern into the stock (we switched things up and used a Double Roman this time around)


This time around we had to cut the inside as well (poplar doesn't come with a rounded edge, damnit.) So we ran it through the router table again to make the inside edge rounded over.

At this point we cut all the stock down to the lengths we needed

We could have done that step before, but with 6 frames and 4 pieces per frame that would be 24 runs with the dado, the router on the outside edge, and the router on the inside edge. Cutting the lengths down after all that work was done made things go a lot faster. We cut 4 pieces for the first frame, made sure everything lined up correctly, then used that set as a template to cut all the other wood for the remaining 5 frames.

Once all the lengths were cut down we sanded and patched (some areas needed to be patched where knots were)

Next, we set things up to get assembled

We ran a bead of wood glue on all the ends

Used the same hardware...

...and it was a working frame! When we flipped it over there were small gaps in the corners

But by running a small amount of wood glue into that gap and sanding over it, sanding dust filled in the gap and fixed in place because of the bead of wood glue we'd ran over it

And then, the frame was complete!

We repeated the process 5 more times

The next day I laid everything out...

...and did some minor sanding here and there and then painted everything with one coat of primer and two coats of glossy white (the same white on the corbels and fireplace surround)

Oh, but we're still not done.

THEN we went and got 6 pieces of glass from HD. They were sized a bit wider than we needed, but not long enough which we found out after we already cut down the first one, whoopsie. So we returned the other 5 pieces of glass from HD (the first one only cost $5) and we called a local glass place and got 6 pieces cut at the exact size we needed for $25 total.

We brought the glass home, placed it in the frame, dropped in our artwork, cut a piece of cardboard down to size for the backing and used a handy tool called Picture Frame Pliers Chris bought online (for $11) to insert glazing points to keep everything in place



We repeated the process for 3 more frames (we're still waiting on the other two NP posters we just bought online a couple days ago), and then brought everything inside

I think they look really good, especially considering we've never built picture frames before. The total: $60 for poplar, $25 for glass, $11 for the glazing tool, less than $1 for the glazing points (we bought a big pack of them), and $11 in practice materials ($6 of MDF, $5 in our first piece of glass) = $108. All in all we didn't save much, but, we now have 6 frames that are built to the perfect size we want them to be, and if we want to build any frames in the future (and I've already thought of a few), we've got the tools to do it, so it'll just get cheaper and cheaper.

The upside? We learned a new skill and the frames are pretty :)

We're just waiting for those last 2 prints to arrive and then all 6 frames will go up!

P.S. Seeing those lovely floors still get me all excited, eeeee!!!!! :)

Maytag Refrigerator: You Suck

I finally conned Chris into writing another post for the blog :) Here it is!

when we got our new maytag frig we were pretty psyched about it. lots of space, stainless steel, etc. alas, 14 months later there was a leak underneath it. my first guess was that it was something having to do with the connection between the valve and the frig. upon inspection, though, it looked like it was coming from a tray in the back. so, we looked into getting it fixed under warranty, but the manufacturer wouldn't stand by their product. over $1,000 spent on a frig and they stand by it for a year? i've purchased window tinting for my truck with a longer warranty than that. c'est la vie.

of course this all came up at a busy time on the house so we called in a service company to take a look at it. $75 later and it was revealed that there was a crack in the plastic evaporator tray at the back of the frig.

according to the tech, this tray was once made of aluminum instead of plastic. unfortunately it looks like maytag thought it was more important to save $0.40 on a plastic tray than it was to go with durability and longevity. so we forked over another $50 for an overpriced equivalent replacement (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005B48UY8/ref=oh_o03_s00_i00_details).
it took about an hour to take out the old one (once we had all the right tools and got the frig lifted properly) and replace it.

we reinforced it a bit with duct tape just for good measure.

[thanks for the Christmas present mom!]

thanks for nothing maytag.

And side note from me, Meryl: I would like to note as well that Maytag continues to send us invoices indicating they would like to steal our money and have us subscribe to a "new" warranty, however, when I called them they said that we weren't even permitted to be registered for a new warranty because a service person has come out to look at our fridge but the warranty letters still keep coming. Assholes.

A New Meaning to my Favorite Painting

My favorite painting is by Gustave Caillebotte. As an art major in college I took just a few art history classes, but my absolute favorite was a summer school class I took at Cal about Paris in the 19th century. In that class I fell in love with Impressionism and though Caillebotte wasn't necessarily and Impressionist (or a very prolific artist) he was a huge patron of Impressionists and his few paintings are among my favorites. There is Rainy Day and the Bridge of Europe, but my absolute favorite is The Floor Scrapers

Something about the beauty in their work and dedication made me fall in love. The crazy thing is I fell in love with this painting 9 months before we ever found our house and moved in and started this crazy renovating adventure. I guess I just knew floor refinishing was somehow in our future.

As a birthday present 2 1/2 years ago Chris got me a print of the painting and it's been hanging in my art room ever since

I still always look at it and marvel at the beautiful floor shavings, the gleam on the floor and the joy in their work. And although we didn't have to refinish our floor by hand (thank GOD, although I bet it's certainly a lot less dusty) I can now add a new layer to my appreciation of this painting





Who knew my loves of art and home renovation would collide in such a laborious way? Thanks Gustave Caillebotte. And of course Chris for gifting me this now absolutely beloved painting.

My Accidental High

Well folks, the poly on the floors has been applied and it's looking marvelous, hooray!!!!

Saturday morning we broke out the Fabulon to seal the floors

When we sealed the kitchen floors we used a Minwax poly and we thought it sucked, so we tried Fabulon which Chris had heard good things about.

Our lambswool applicator was too big for the paint tray

So of course we used a spare organizing tub and lined it with plastic and poured in the Fabulon

Worked like a charm!

Then it was just a matter of applying the poly. I used a brush for oil-based paints to apply it around the perimeter of the room and in all the narrow nooks and crannies that the lambswool wouldn't be able to get at

And Chris used the lambswool applicator and started from the front of the room and moved his way back

It took about 45-60 minutes and when it was done the floor looked like lacquer

And I started acting like an idiot.

Because we're very responsible renovators we used a heavy chemical in the house without using our masks, and while the smell and fumes didn't seem to cause Chris much discomfort, I got a roaring headache, felt a little nauseous and felt pretty dumb as well. Why people sniff glue I have no idea because I felt like I couldn't form a complete sentence and it was not pleasant.

We spent the rest of the day outside and then up at my dad and Wendy's and returned home to a house that didn't smell horrible that night (we left a few windows open and brought the fan inside to help blow the air out).

The Fabulon requires a 24 hour wait between coats, so late Sunday afternoon we returned inside for round 2. This time, with masks. First, we screened the area with 100 grit to sand out any minor imperfections, and then we moved around the room to look for any places that needed a bit more sanding (a stray hair or piece of dust)

Then we just repeated the application process for round 2: I moved around the room with the brush while Chris applied with the lambswool.

We also set up the plastic zip walls again and taped plastic down to try to keep out the smell from the living area of our house. We closed off the doors to the office from the hallway (the office and front room are connected) and put a towel under the door to keep the smell away from the rest of the house. Then, we left the laundry room door open to the backyard and set up the fan so that hopefully the air got blown out the front room, through the office and out the laundry room back door. It seemed like a pretty successful negative air set-up as you can see the air being sucked out of the front room from the pull of the plastic

The second time around I was a lot less high. I guess using your masks and properly ventilating really does wonders... :)

Earlier this morning I went to see how things were looking 36 hours later and the floors look great!

Yay!!!! (and that photo is a pretty good representation of the stain color.)

It's glossy and beautiful (we used a semi-gloss finish)

Chris walked around in the room last night to inspect how things were looking, but we'll hold off on moving anything substantial in for another week or so to really let the poly cure. I'm so glad the flooring adventure has finally ended successfully! Hooray!!!!

NOW We Can Check it off the List

Saturday night we headed up to my dad and Wendy's to finally check the cabinet off the list, yay!!! Since we installed the cabinet my dad found matching baseboards at HD and installed them, so all that was left for us was building and putting in a cover for the subwoofer

Chris built a simple frame

And he stretched white fabric screen across it. After, he installed metal brackets on the back that would help the cover slide into the opening and hold in place with magnets.

When we got to their house Chris drilled out 4 holes, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom

And then slide some powerful magnets into the holes he drilled (the magnets were super fun to play with because they were so strong - they could find the nails in the subfloor below the hardwood floors!)

Once the magnets were in place, Chris just slid the cover into place and the metal brackets on the back were held in place by the newly installed magnets, and poof! the job was done!!!

That little eyeball is an infa-red sensor so that my dad and Wendy can change all the channels and settings, etc. with the remote despite all the components being behind the cabinet doors

My dad and Wendy pushed the TV further back into the cabinet so you can see more of the counter top and so the TV doesn't look like it fills out the space so much

I'm super happy to be able to finally call this project done for dad and Wendy because it took us a loooong time to finally hop to it and get it built for them. They only stared at plywood subfloor, patched drywall and cords hanging everywhere for over a year...

It's been quite an amazing transformation from the old fireplace and weird nook

To now having two (totally awesome) built in cabinets :)

Thanks for being patient with us dad and Wendy :) and I'm so so so glad the cabinets turned out so well! :)