Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Caulking and Cupboards:

So a week or so ago, while me and my wife were sick, we conjured up enough energy to putz away at the house. Though we were sick, I decided that it was time to finish the caulking in the bathroom and also that we could maybe try to get the handles on the kitchen cabinets. we were having issues/getting sick of grabbing the doors by the bottom and fighting the drawers open for things.
With the caulk, I found a trick that works ok if you are not confident in your abilities to caulk. What can be done is that you grab a roll of painters tape and then put the tape along the bottom edge of where you want the caulk, and the repeat the same with the top. Like this:


Then caulk at the best of your abilities, then either take a piece of cardboard, or one of those 2 dollar "perfect caulk" tools and make a smooth caulk line. I would not recommend using your finger, it is messy and it creates a concave fill and sometimes wipes out more caulk than you want out.  Make sure as well that the paint is dry.. or you will be like us and repaint part of your project.

Quick trick to putting on cabinent handles:

I took a piece of plywood and nailed on some 3/4" square board on both sides in an "L" shape and then we decided where we would want the handles for the cabinets and then measured in on the jig and drilled two holes for the handles. we used a 5/32 drill bit for this even though it required a 3/16 for the machine screws explanation later.  On this part... MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE... you do not want to get this wrong because it will be on all of the doors.


So after I test fitted a handle on the jig and it lined up perfectly on the holes, it was time for the real deal. I used a C-clamp Vise grip and set the jig in place... and a good note; use a piece of scrap plywood on the back to keep the backside of the cabinet from blowing out.  We took our time and they all drilled out nicely.

after that we fitted the handles.. the screws were tight because of the smaller hole.. Then if the handle didn't line up nicely, we took a 3/16 bit and drilled it out a bit so we had some play with the screws.. worked out great.  We have gotten enough done upstairs... that I decided to start on the basement!!

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About Me

Living Our Lives in a Central Iowa City We have been married over a year and carrying on an adventure of crazy life with each other and documenting the chaos along the way