Monday, July 18, 2011

Bathroom Shelf - Part Two

In Part One, I talked about how I sanded and stained the wood portion of this shelf.  Then I made it sound like I went right out and bought a can of spray paint.  The truth is, I did this project over a week's time, doing a little bit here and a little bit there.   For instance, I sanded the shelf with the belt sander and then removed a layer of sawdust with Mineral Spirits, then went out to run an errand while the board dried. But it wasn't until the weekend that I got around to sanding with the palm sander.


If you really planned it right, you could get this project done in 24 hours.  The time to sand it depends on how anal thorough you are and it only takes about 15 minutes for the Mineral Spirits to dry.  The Polyurethane takes 6 hours to dry though I really like to let the last coat dry overnight.  The Wood Finish I used to seal the underside takes about 15 minutes to dry and then a few hours to cure but you can work with the other side in the meantime.   Finally, the spray paint dries to the touch in 15 minutes.  After 1-2 hours you can handle the painted item and it is fully dry after 24 hours. 

To spray paint the rack, I had to fashion a manner in which to hang it so that I could paint without causing a mess, inhale the fumes and reach every part of the rack.  The common area of my condo building near the dumpsters was a perfect location. 

A wire coat hanger and a piece of old chain I had lying around did the trick.  I strung the chain around a rafter under the deck.


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This was a lot of fun.

 
Even though this part of the rack will be covered by the shelf and not really seen by anyone, it is a good idea to spray paint it thoroughly because the spray paint is also a rust guard. Since this will in all likelihood end up in the bathroom, a high moisture area.





The shelf came out looking really nice.  Now I need to figure out where exactly to hang it.


Finished Product


Bathroom Shelf - Part One

A few weeks ago, we picked up this shelf at a yard sale.  I neglected to snap a before picture but essentially the wood shelf was attached to a metal frame. The frame had some rust and the shelf certainly needed sanding, but otherwise it was a solid piece. The metal rack had some hooks which made me think it would be a nice addition to our storage challenged bathroom.  I figured we could hang wet towels on the hooks and roll dry towels on the shelf.

At first the lady wanted five bucks for it.  Figuring it would make a nice form & function addition to our cramped bathroom, I reached into my pocket for the money.  Then the lady noticed that someone had written $3.50 on it, so she sold it to me for that price instead.  Go figure. 

Sanded Shelf
It was probably a little overkill, but I sanded this board three times.  First with a belt sander to do the heavy work of removing all the imperfections that time will do to an unfinished or worn piece of wood.

Next I used a palm sander with slightly finer paper to give it a good consistent sanding so that it was smooth to the touch.

Finally I used my Craftsman Nextec Multitool to get to the grooves on the curved part of the shelf (picture the shelf laying flat, this would be the front and back as opposed to the top or bottom.)

Of course between each sanding, I used some Mineral Spirits to clean away all the micro saw dust.  After that, it was a matter of applying some MinWax Polyurethane.  I used Bombay Mahogany Gloss 480 and applied two coats to the front and top. 
Topside with Polyurethane

Underside with Wood Sealer
On the underside, I applied some MinWax Wood Finish (Natural 209) just to seal the wood.

While that was drying I went to work on the metal frame.  With some steel wool, I worked out the rust, also removing some of the black paint.  My next step involved a trip to the suburbs.

Sidebar: Like other urban centers, graffiti is a relatively big problem in Chicago.  Our aldermen, in their infinite stupidity wisdom, decided to ban the sale of spray paint within the city limits.  This had reduced the amount of graffiti by no measurable levels since gangbangers and taggers have cars.  It does however make the law abiding citizen drive out the Home Depots in the suburbs to get a can of spray paint whenever they need to repaint their lawn furniture.



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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Jumping through hoops

A guy and a girl can have sex and end up getting pregnant.  Assuming they opt to keep the child, no one disputes that they are going to conceive another life form.  However, if they participate in some style of wedding ritual, there is a chance they could go through the entire process and ceremony, only to have someone say the whole thing is invalid.

Someone might come along and say "well your marriage isn't recognized because you forgot to provide proof of baptism," or "you didn't check the box that said you have never been married before," or "there was an error on your marriage license."

So far we have still on target for completing all the hoops we have to go through, but they keep adding new ones.  Last week we met with a priest to go over some of the requirements.  While there, we managed to check off Canical Talk with Priest.  However, he threw a new one my way that wasn't mentioned in November when we first met.

Apparently since I'm technically a member of another church -- one that wasn't available anytime near the century date we wanted to get married -- I have to get permission from them to get married in another Catholic Church.  You'd think this would be a slam dunk.  After all, what if I wasn't a member of any church here in Chicago, like my fiance? 

Getting the form filled out from Church1 for Church2 is not a big deal.  Having to jump through this hoop makes me wonder what other hoops will come along.