Kitchen Tip-Out Trays

In an attempt to help keep my kitchen sink area a bit tidier, I recently purchased some tip-out-trays to make use of the fake drawer fronts under the sink (see below). They can be used to store sponges, brushes, drain stoppers, or other small items.




Without doing much research, I found the Rev-A-Shelf brand trays for sale on Amazon at the link below (Rev-A-Shelf - 6572-14-11-52- 14'' Polymer Tip Out Trays).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H46MF7O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

Instructions were provided with the trays for removing the fake drawer fronts and installing the trays. There isn't a whole lot to the drawer front removal; mine were just stapled in place. Once removed, you'll need to trace the opening onto the drawer front from the inside so you can determine where the hinges should be screwed in. I used a clamp to hold them in place while I did this.  Once you have the holes marked, you may want to predrill holes to make the screwing easier. You might be able to tell in the image to the left below that one screw is not in far enough. This is because there is limited space to get a screwdriver in the necessary position with the sink is in the way.  If I had predrilled the hole the screw may have gone in a little easier.  Nevertheless, there is some redundancy so it should be fine. The installation is simply a matter of screwing in a couple of screws, then you're done!

See below for the completed tray installation.  You can also still see my pencil markings where I traced the opening on the drawer front. The plastic tray is removable for regular cleaning. Pull-out is super easy and the hinges feel really well designed.  Now I just need to paint the inside of the drawer front white so I'm not looking at the unfinished wood.

Cedar Rain Bench (300 gallons of rainwater storage)

Ever since I moved into my new house I've been weighing the pros and cons of various different rainwater storage options.  There is the DIY 55-gallon drum setup that can include multiple drums connected together. Or the 500-1,500 gallon metal cistern option that would cost a minimum of $1,000 and be installed without any DIY required.  I have a very small yard that includes a narrow side yard on which I wanted to put the rainwater storage, so size/dimensions were also factors in my decision.  I ended up purchasing liners, a diverter to connect to the gutter downspout, and plans to build two cisterns/benches - one for a 300 gallon bench and the other for a 65 gallon bench. The products are called "300 gallon cedar rain bench DIY - 3 liners only kit" plus the "DIY diverter/combo kit" at http://www.secondrain.com/. The total cost was $258.78.  In total, I had four (4) 140-gallon liners, although the bench designs do not accommodate the full capacity of the liners. There were no reviews posted of this at the time but there were a few youtube videos about this product.  I took my chances!

With the two packages I purchased, I hoped to achieve ~500 gallons of storage in 1 long cedar rain bench and 1 small bench, assuming I would slightly modify the designs to take more advantage of the size of the liners. After reading through the plans for the long (300 gallon) bench, I quickly realized these are not easily modified. There is such little instruction provided I would basically have to start from scratch.  I wasn't up for that so I decided to follow the plans as written.  Luckily my good friend Brian came over to help me out!  See http://www.secondrain.com/cedar-rain-bench-tiny-house-nation/ for images of the 300 gallon bench.

I took the materials list to my local box stores to purchase the cedar.  Of course, they did not have all the items I needed, but I was able to get the 2x4s, 1x2s, screws, and hinges.  Then I drove 45 miles to a lumber store that actually sells cedar tongue and groove (t&g).  This was extraordinarily expensive and only came in 10' lengths (not 8' as the plans specify).  I live in a major city but this was the only place that sells this type of material.  My total spending on lumber alone was just over $400.  WOW.  Not such a cost-effective option after all.

Brian and I cut down the pieces and then painted them with boiled linseed oil.  This helps to protect the cedar from the effects of weather and is very safe for the environment.  It is time consuming but worthwhile to extend the life of your wood.

I'm not a master carpenter by any stretch of the imagination, but I do some woodworking and have a nice inventory of tools available.  I was excited that this project had already been designed and all I needed to do was follow the set of plans.  I figured I'd be done before lunch!  I followed the instructions closely.  The first thing I noticed was how sparse the instructions for the bench are. Very important details were not mentioned at all, and others were vague.  For example, the bench is made from cedar tongue and groove and the instructions do not specify if you need to cut off the tongue from the top/bottom pieces (except for one particular piece).  This seems to be quite important as the tongue is absolutely essential on some pieces and must be removed on others. Also, working with rough-cut cedar, the dimensions are going to vary a bit.  My cedar was about 1/8-1/4 inch thicker than what the instructions describe, so nothing fit together during the assembly stage.  I had to take many pieces apart and cut them down and reassemble.

Here are a few photos of the construction/assembly process:

And here is the finished bench.  It is really too tall to sit on as a bench, but I'm thinking of adding some stepping stones in front of it to add height and make sitting more comfortable.

The DIY diverter/combo kit was supposed to come with all the plumbing fittings needed for the small bench, which I thought I could source locally for the 300 gallon bench.  However, I found this to be far from accurate.  Firstly, the plumbing fittings needed are highly specialized and not widely available.  I had to order almost everything I needed online.  I'm not a plumber so I had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what parts were needed and what they are called. Secondly, the parts provided were far from sufficient for a single bench.  Specifically, the diverter comes with a hose connection, so you need to buy a hose to connect that to the bench. Also, the fittings to connect the hose to the bench were not provided, and I had to buy 3 adapters/fittings to connect a standard garden hose to the 1'' ID tubing, which cost $28 total.  The 1'' ID tubing is also not common and the two tiny pieces provided with the kit are completely inadequate to do anything with them. A 10' roll of 1'' ID tubing cost me $18, and 2 packs were needed for the 300 gallon bench.  In sum, all of the plumbing parts I needed to buy for the 300 gallon bench ran ~$90.

I still haven't finished adding the overflow tubing but here is a picture with the liners in place:

The first test of this bench happened to be during Houston's near 500-year flood event on Memorial Day 2015.  It started raining after dark and I went out to check on things. There was a large flow of water exceeding the capacity of the diverter and overflowing onto the ground.  Duh... a standard garden hose is not exactly capable of handling all of the flow from a gutter. This is another thing I hadn't considered - that I would not be able to capture all of the flow during a heavy rain event.  I intend to connect another hose to the second location on the diverter, but this is another expense and will still not accommodate all the water during heavy rain events.

The next morning this is what I found:

The pressure of the 300 gallons burst apart the t&g wall of the bench. Back to the drawing board.  The 2'' screws they have you use are simply not long enough.  Perhaps this was exacerbated by the fact that my rough cut 2x4s were slightly bigger than those per the design, so a smaller amount of the screw extended into the t&g.  I had to drain all the water I worked so hard to capture in order to repair the bench.  I cut down the t&g to allow for some expansion/contraction between boards and then screwed everything together from the front with 2 1/4'' screws.  It was also necessary to adjust the liners.  Although the instructions tell you to do this, there isn't a lot you can do when the liners are empty and since they filled up overnight, I wasn't able to adjust them when they were partially filled.

All in all, I have now spent over $850 on the liners, diverter, and supplies for 300 gallons of water storage.  This is quite a bit more than what I had budgeted and also a lot more than the $1-$2/gallon that rainwater storage should cost.  I still need to buy the materials and build a second bench to accommodate the last liner.

This project was a lot of work and not so simple as assembling Ikea furniture.  Hopefully SecondRain provides more detailed instructions and recommendations for sourcing the fittings in the future.

8/8/15 Update:

I have now completed the second bench. The design plan for this one was far more simple and also easy to modify (I made it larger) than the 300 gallon bench. The design provide by SecondRain was for 65 gallons of water storage. Since the liner accommodates up to 140 gallons, I went ahead and built the bench a bit bigger. 

In contrast to the 300 gallon bench, there are no hinges on this bench but the lid can be lifted on/off.  It is a very simple design using treated plywood and 2x2 framing.  Since I had leftover t&g from the 300 gallon bench, I simply screwed it over the plywood on the exposed sides to make it look nicer.  As you can see the t&g is oriented in different directions on the two sides shown below; this was simply the best way for me to utilize the leftover material.  

I attached a second garden hose to the downspout diverter to capture flow into this bench. The overflow from this one can then be directed into the garden or into the 300 gallon bench. 

Summary:

My total cost for both benches is just over $1,000.  Based on my limited use of them so far, I have found some difficulty using all the water because when it gets down to a depth of about 1 foot, it won't flow out of the hose.  I understand some people might pump the water out. Also, because the screen on the diverter is not great, a lot of dirt has accumulated in the liners and there is some algae growth since the benches do not block 100% of the light.  Overall, I would not recommend this system for rainwater storage.  

Wine Bottle Glasses

Not too long ago a friend and I tried one of the better restaurants in Houston, TX (Pass and Provisions), and I was joyfully surprised to be served water in up-cycled glasses made from old wine bottles. I have never found a good use for old wine bottles and generally feel very wasteful recycling them. Being that wine and upcycling are right up my alley, I started researching how to create these glasses myself.

First, I purchased the Diamond Tech Crafts G2 Bottle Cutter (~$17 on Amazon). From what I read, this seemed to be the most reliable product for creating clean breaks in the glass.  There are a few YouTube videos that help tremendously. The jist of it is: you etch one line in the glass using the apparatus to get a very straight line. Then you alternate between hot and cold water baths until the bottle breaks along the etched line. I used a bucket filled with ice water and a tall pot on a light simmer on the stove. 

It was pretty simple to follow the instructions on the bottle cutter to get a nice etched line. Then I would hold the bottle by the neck and alternate it between the simmering pot and the ice bucket at 30-second intervals. However, I had a very low success rate when putting the bottle in hot and cold water. The bottle tended to break at other points. Often, it was the very base that would fall right off before I got the bottle to break along the etched line.  Since my etched line was somewhat high on the bottle (for tall glasses), I also tried laying the bottle and spinning it in a wide pan of boiling water. 

In the end, what I found to be the best technique is: submerge the bottle to at least an inch above the etched line in the boiling water pot for a solid 30-40 seconds. Then lift the bottle out and submerge it in the ice bucket with minimal time exposed to the air.  Leave the bottle in the ice bucket 30-40 seconds, after which you should see a crack all the way around where the etched line is.  If you don't see the crack or if it is only partially around, you may need one more dunk in the hot water. However, at this point there is a low chance of success.  If you see the crack all the way around the perimeter of the bottle, slowly lift it out of the ice bucket and let the weight of the bottle cause the separation. You can provide a little assistance and pull the two segments of the bottle apart, and it will naturally break along that line.  

I found that if I did any more hot/cold treatments, my bottle would tend to break at some point of highest vulnerability. I also found that if I ran the hot/cold water over the crack like some recommend (rather than submerging it), I didn't get enough temperature change to cause a crack.

If you're worn out at this point, we are just getting started!  Yes, it is a labor of love. When you have your glasses, they are very sharp at this point.  You'll need to sand them down real good before you put your lips on the edge of the glass.  Emery paper is best, but sandpaper works also and an electric sander is best. I did this manually at first and it took a really long time.  If you can use an automatic sander to get the bulk of the rim sanded (120 grit works well), then you'll just touch up any deeper crevices and a 45 degree angle on the inside and outside of the rim manually. I wore a mask, goggles, and gloves to prevent small shards of glass from getting in my skin, lungs, or eyes.  It is definitely an outside project. 

Because of the time required and the low cost of manufactured glasses, this is not the kind of thing you do to save money or generate income. It was rewarding for me to find a use for wine bottles that would otherwise be minimally recycled. What I mean by that is, in many cities there is no way to recycle glass at a positive net energy balance. Many "recyclers" just crush up the glass glass for landfill cover material or mix it with aggregate for road paving. One can barely call this recycling. 

The glasses can be charming and I found it best to try to coordinate sets of matching colors.  

The bottle cutter positioned on the top of the bottle.

An up close image of the etched line:

A set of completed glasses. Notice there are two different sizes and several different colors.

Coffee Table Dilemma

For the past five years I've used a coffee table that I purchased from Craigslist.  Originally I was really excited to upholster it in burlap from an inspiration that I believe came from Rachel Ashwell.  It worked well for a while but because I have a cat, I had to reupholster it every 6 months to a year.  Worse, in the final days of my last laptop, I had to put it on ice packs to keep it from overheating, which then developed a leak of blue stuff on my white ottoman.  Needless to say, I had enough of that coffee table and was ready for something that required less maintenance.  I did a final re-upholstery of that table (see below) and gave it to my best friend Marisa.

My next coffee table inspiration came from Dan, from HGTV's online show DanMade. He made a very simple reclaimed wood coffee table that has a really dramatic impact.  See the image here.  I couldn't find wood of the correct thickness, but I had purchased the remnants of a table (with no legs) from a furniture warehouse sale and figured I would use that wood.  The effort required about 7 cuts with a table saw, some wood glue, clamps, screws, and casters. My finished table is below. I wish I had used larger casters, but they can be expensive and didn't want to end up spending a lot of money on this project.  Being on wheels; however, is probably the best thing for a coffee table, I don't know how I used to manage!

Wine and Liquor Bar

For the past several years I have not had a functioning wine and liquor storage area. I resort to putting liquor up on a really high shelf in my kitchen and wine bottles in a wine rack that is pretty but takes up a lot of space.  Despite much shopping, I haven't been able to find a cabinet that works well for my storage needs.  I finally found a really beautiful wine bar at Four Hands furniture warehouse, but it was over $1,000.  I believe it was from India but, unfortunately, I didn't take a photograph of it.  With that inspiration, I decided to build my own wine bar, using only found/reclaimed wood.  

Below are my measurements and a rough sketch of my planned bar.  I based the design on a rectangular piece of slate that I wanted to use as the bar top.

I also created a spreadsheet with my planned dimensions that was cross-linked so that any changes in a particular dimension would correspondingly update any other dimension that would be impacted.  I tried to use Google Sketchup for the design but at the time I had Windows Vista which was not compatible and I was unable to save any of my designs.  However, that program is pretty simple to learn and I would recommend using it if you can.

The most effort for this project was in putting together/laminating all the planks to make the sides and back of the bar.  A side image of the laminated boards is below.  After I meticulously cut each piece to exactly the same length, during the laminating process (i.e., using wood glue between the boards to attach them to each other), the pieces inevitably shifted and did not remain exactly flat on the edges.  I ended up sawing off the ends after the lamination process to make them all even in the end.  I recommend not being so meticulous at first and planning to even the edges at the end. 

A picture of the final wine bar and inside the cabinet is below.  I used drawer pulls from old drawers I found in a junk pile and the carved panels in the front cabinet were disassembled from the wine rack I had before.  Only took about 10 weekends!