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Custom Porch Enclosure

Sandee had been talking for a few years about enclosing her porch. Other projects came first; and then she got a quote or two but they were quite high. I wasn’t really up to taking on a large project like this so I didn’t, until one day I said OK, I’ll draw something up… and the rest is history. The price was really a fraction of what others were quoting… surely not as professional, but I thought it worked out pretty well in the end.

Before: The 2 biggest complaints were the wind (it gets very windy in the winter especially) and the afternoon blinding sunlight. Rain and snow were also considerations. Every season, furniture has to be stored out of the weather, etc.

My proposal was to add a little bit of roofing over the open stair area and then enclose all of it with wood and glass panels.

After we ironed out the details, I set to work adding 4×4 posts for roof and doorway framing:

Next I started building frames out of douglas fir 2x2s and 3/8 fir plywood, all primed with primer/sealer, and painted both sides with exterior paint.

It was slow and steady work, custom making each part, filling, sanding, painting and installing it, but I slowly made my way around the perimeter.

This was followed by exterior doors, glass, and hundred of mitred sticks (framing trim). (Please do not ask me to cut and paint another stick in my lifetime)

Painting took the longest of any part of the job, I think. I’m not super fond of painting but if I have to do it, I do it!

Turned out pretty nice! Took a big chunk of the summer too.

Window re-framing

Jake asked me to fix up a front bay window that had weathered for many years. There were some large gaps due to rotting wood, plus it just looked bad in a few areas.

While I was chiseling off some of the wooden trim, I cracked a pane. That sucked, but it wasn’t too hard to replace, and luckily Abby Glass was able to cut a new piece for me that day. I was told that it might fog up in the future, but as several other panes were already fogging, I wasn’t too concerned.

I filled gaps with spray foam and cut a new curved shelf and otherwise fixed things up as best as I know how.

(almost) Good as new 🙂

Closet shelf re-do

Carol asked me me to look at re-doing some closet (pantry) shelves.

Before:

We settled on new melamine shelves with a pine nosing. Carol measured out the heights she needed for various custom items.

Re-grouting bathtub tile

I’m not an experienced tiler and don’t pretend to be, but I have done a few backsplashes, and the odd floor and shower bit. In my own house the grout in the bathtub tile was quite old and was stained with black stuff that I had bleached once but not very well and it just bugged me. So I decided to try to re-do it. Here is the “before” picture. I think if you zoom in you can see the dirt a bit. The soap dish and the caulking needed help too.

I scraped out the old grout with my two-dollar exacto knife. I went though a few blades and I got tired so I didn’t scrape the back wall (the one that doesn’t get wet). I know, there are other tools that would work better, but it did the job.

Next I mixed up some grout I had laying around from another job – not quite the same colour but close – and squished it in with my float.

Lastly I cleaned off the excess and added a transparent white silicone caulk. Maybe you can’t really see the difference, but it looks a lot better to me!

The only issue I see is that the grout changes colour when it gets wet. Apparently this is normal, but I don’t think the old grout did so much. I did try using some expired sealer on it but it didn’t do much. It looks good when it dries again.

Adding facing to built-in bookshelf

Stacey and Joe asked me to look at a built-in bookshelf they had that wasn’t working for them – just showing too much clutter. I suggested covering it with doors and drawers. We went ahead; they asked to match their kitchen style cabinets but in black… it was a challenge but it turned out well.

Luckily the bookshelf was square; however the wall and ceiling weren’t quite level so I had to consider that in sizing the doors.

Here are a few pictures of the process. I made my own doors out of MDF and painted them. It was a bit more of a process than I expected but turned out well.

Making doors and painting part of the bookshelf

Painting, sanding, re-painting, re-sanding, re-painting…

final look

Set Build: Curious Incident of…

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This is an interesting play about a neurodivergent protagonist as he tries to solve the murder of his neighbour’s dog, and encounters some other mysteries as well.

Set design is by Hayley Bamford.

It is playing now until May 25; tickets at gallery7theatre.com.

The build happened over a week and a half, with some help from three volunteers. It was a very simple set although I still had to plan how to build it so it could travel. Note to self: measure the inside doors of the auditorium next time you assume they are the same size as the outside doors…

The set designer spent some serious time painting the set and backdrops. It looks fantastic!

Platforms, boxes, and stairs:

Joined platforms, stairs, and railings:

Canvases: I made 5 frames – 2 large ones, and 3 huge ones! Then looked at a couple of youtube videos to learn how to stretch canvas on them. It seemed to work out! Hayley took care of priming and painting them, luckily for me! The biggest ones are 9 feet x 9 feet.

Load in:

Replacing 6×6 fir beams

Byron hired me to replace some rotten beams on the south side of his house. The top ones were the worst; the others had a few soft spots but were pretty solid so I patched them a little bit and left them. I did have to replace the main horizontal beam and the 3 pieces above it.

I bought 6×6 douglas fir posts and cut them to size. To make the curves I cut them down to 4×6 and then glued a 4×4 post to them, then cut them out with the bandsaw. I sealed everything with Kilz 3 exterior primer. It will be painted properly later.

Hot Tub Steps

A customer installed a brand new hot tub two summers ago and had used it only once, due in part to difficulty getting in and out.

She had the steps that came with the tub, but no handrails. I asked if I should build something sturdier, and she replied, “post-haste.”

Here is the result:

I used pressure-treated hem/fir lumber and then coated that with 3 coats of spar varnish. Normally I wouldn’t use varnish over fresh PT, but this customer had some success in the past on other small pieces, so we’ll see how this one does. (It’s a preference for look over functionality)

Seussical Set Design & Build

I was asked to design and build the set for Seussical, produced by VTT at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre for their Spring Musical. It was an interesting challenge. I started designing around Christmasstime when I had some free head space. I came up with something like this:

And then when the time came to build, I made some set pieces on casters, and a stump:

Then some 2D trees; and painted the rented vinyl floor with the director’s vision:

Next I worked on the staging and some larger static set pieces:

I spent some time fire-retarding some things that would be hung close to the hot lights: paper mache stairs, and clouds. I self-tested samples of both the plywood and the paper mache to see how they would handle flame. They both seemed to survive 10 seconds of a blowtorch 2 inches away, and the samples that were treated did burn slower. (the one on the left) Both pieces self-extinguished, which was reassuring…

Then it was time for load-in! Parent and venue helpers were great!

There were a few fixes and changes after that but mostly things worked well.

The lighting design by Victoria Bell was incredible. In fact it added so much colour that the director decided to repaint some of the coloured set pieces to the off-white of the stage, as it was a bit too much to take in at times (especially with the colourful costumes too!) It was a good decision and balanced things out. Basic painting was done by myself, but most detail and colour was by the director and parent volunteers.

It was a wonderful show; superbly directed by Keri Smith and with great tech, stage management, acting, choreo, singing, band, costumes, etc, etc. It was my first exposure to Seussical; I do enjoy the silliness, as well as the way some important themes rise up.

_{photos by Galit Mishaal; Directed by Keri Smith; Costumes by Laura Meyers; Lighting by Victoria Bell; Choreo by Nicole Stevens; Set Design by Andrew Potts}

Set Build: Sound of Music

I recently finished the build for Gallery 7’s production of Sound of Music. It was two full weeks plus a bit; we had quite a few volunteers helping as well. It is mostly flies that drop down in different configurations to set the scene. Tickets available until March 24 at www.gallery7theatre.com. (Many shows have sold out so far.)

Design is by Jeff Kiers.

Here’s a few pictures from the build process and also a few from tech week.