ListWise

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Almost Done!

I am so close to finishing the butler’s pantry I can taste it. I got the glass installed and re-hung the upper doors Friday and Saturday, and then installed the last of the hardware today.



Putting the glass in was nerve-wracking and time consuming. Because there is the possibility that the glass could break someday, it must either be installed with wooden stays that can be removed or with the more traditional glazing putting. I had wanted to do wooden stays, because it would take less time. Because of the way I made the doors though, there wasn’t enough room. I made the bevel on the front too deep and it did not leave enough room for piece of quarter round for the stay.

So I had to do glazing putty on the eight panels of glass. It seemed to take forever and I was afraid I would break the glass. And that glass ain’t cheap. Once it dries I will paint the putty with burn sienna oil paint to match the wood.

As with a lot of my cabinet making projects, they look good in pictures, but when you get up close it is obvious I’m not a trained cabinet maker. The upper doors are especially wonky. Most of the wonkyness is because of the hinges. As I said in an earlier post, every time I’ve ever mortised hinges and hung doors I’ve worked with loose pin hinges that could be separated. It was really difficult for me to hang these doors without being able to separate the two hinge parts.

I’ve learned a valuable lesson though. The hinges for the dinging room side are antique cast bronze hinges that don’t come apart either. So for the that side I’ve made jig to router out the hinge mortises. I’ve already done on pair of doors – or at least one stile from each door.

On the butler’s pantry side I completed the doors and then went to hang them. This time, I’m taking one board from each door and the first thing I did was mortise the hinges and hung that board as if it was a complete door. I now know that the hinge stile board is the proper height and the matching hinge mortises on the stile and face-fame match perfectly. Now I can make the rest of the door and only need to worry about getting the width correct. I hope the dining room side doors will go much more smoothly.

On the butler’s pantry side, the only thing left to do is a little touch-up painting and make the small door for the middle section. That door will need to wait until I do some more work on the dining room side, though. So for now, I’m going to stick a fork in this baby and call it done.

Thank God!

20 comments:

Jayne said...

Gorgeous! I really like the red and gold glass.

Anonymous said...

That Looks Amazing !!!

Shane said...

Are you purposely putting an image that *doesn't* work on here just to torment us?

Maybe it is just my PC

Anonymous said...

Congrats. It's beautiful and I'm very impressed :)

Jan Marie said...

I can't see it either. :(

There is just a little blue box.

StuccoHouse said...

Looks great!

Shane said...

Hm, I must be the only one using Firefox. After it appears everyone else can see the picture, I opened the link in Internet Explorer and the picture showed up. Your linkage must be messed up a bit as Firefox doesn't pull up the image.

Kristy said...

It looks great. This is what DIY is all about, there are many out there who wouldn't dare tackle something like this, so I congratulate you.

Greg said...

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Sorry about the picture. That was my bad, but I think I've fixed it. I had the slashes going the wrong way in the URL. I use Chrome now, and it dealt with the problem. FireFox did not, but I fixed.

C&C said...

Beautiful! It looks just perfect!

TrafRd said...

All that lovely wood and the care taken now painted over !!!?

Greg said...

TrafRd,

It wasn't easy to do, but it needed to be done. Some of the wood was salvage that had already been painted on one side. The idea is that the dining room side will be all clear finished wood. So the painted side is on the butler's pantry side. On top of that, some parts aren't redwood. The cornice is hemlock and there are a few pieces of fir here and there. Anything that will be seen from the other side is nice redwood.

TrafRd said...

Sorry, I take back the comment! It makes sense now.

Sandy said...

Beautiful!!!

Unknown said...

Greg, I have been following your blog now for nearly 2 years and have never commented, but I have to say that I think the job you are doing is amazing! Not only the fact that you are so meticulous and careful, but that you have been able to sustain the vision for so long. Keep it up, it is fantastic!

Greg said...

Mary,

Thanks, I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

i'm psyched. go you. i have a small two or three year project (handmaking everything to decorate a Godzilla Room, from lace edging to reupholstery, rug weaving etc.) and the satisfactions of the long haul are just beginning, after 15 months, to make themselves evident. one is racking up success in solving so many little pissy technical problems. there is a deep, sleep-better-at-night, karmic satisfaction from that. i hope you're feelin' it.

Greg said...

It is nice to have he bp side done, but I'm not feeling it yet - or maybe I felt it for a few minutes. There is a whole other side to do, though.

jake said...

Wow, I cant believe how far youve made it since this photo! Nice work!

-1916home.net

ck carver said...

I put a tin ceiling in my kitchen and mudroom and used wood crown in both rooms- I think the wood looks much better than the tin crown- I used a wider crown in the kitchen- As far as cost- It was more expensive for the wood-

Regards
CK
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Garland Texas