(As a general rule, I would describe myself as a "cheerful pessimist," which means I expect things to go
Optimism as a point of view is just a little too rosy for me usually, so I'm a little surprised at having caught myself at it - - and also maybe a little gratified to find out I was wrong. All kinds of things still needed to happen before we would be settled down and moved in - - and lot of them are still evolving.
At the least, the continuing stream of little tiny projects (see earlier references to Fisher-Price and I think maybe also to Playskool) keeps me from becoming a couch-potato. And I've learned of a few more things to count as blessings, no longer taken- for- granted!
Limited space in our new bathroom demands that what space there is,
be used effectively. We needed to have some built-in storage under the
sink; the area is less than 24- inches wide and 16- inches deep.
I decided to put a set of small drawers under the sink, and some
shelves with doors below them. First I needed to cut "frame-sticks"
about 5/8 x 5/8 inch, from larger scraps left from construction (I think,
from one of the 3- by- 5 rafter-ends). These I jointed and glued into the
two horizontal frames shown. Then, I glued and clamped side- and
center- panels made from 1/4- inch plywood into place, creating a basic
"chest of drawers" box- frame. Here, sticks for the drawer side-guides
are clamped and glued onto the plywood panels.
shelves with doors below them. First I needed to cut "frame-sticks"
about 5/8 x 5/8 inch, from larger scraps left from construction (I think,
from one of the 3- by- 5 rafter-ends). These I jointed and glued into the
two horizontal frames shown. Then, I glued and clamped side- and
center- panels made from 1/4- inch plywood into place, creating a basic
"chest of drawers" box- frame. Here, sticks for the drawer side-guides
are clamped and glued onto the plywood panels.
Meanwhile, I've been cutting drawer-pieces from 1/4- inch plywood
stock. Here, drawer sides are getting flat "sticks" glued on their outsides.
Another piece will be added, with a gap in between, to make the slot
which will slide on the side-guides in the frame. Near pieces are for
lower 9-inch deep drawers. Upper drawer sides (near glue jar) are
less than 5- inches, because they must allow for the basin.
Here, drawers are complete except front-panels. The drawer on the
lower right shows the completed guide-slot. Just how the drawers will
slide on the side- guides shows pretty well on the upper- right drawer.
lower right shows the completed guide-slot. Just how the drawers will
slide on the side- guides shows pretty well on the upper- right drawer.
I found that aligning and gluing the drawer-fronts was tricky - as I'd
expected. I finally glued and clamped them with the drawers sitting
in their - hopefully - resting positions in the frame. The project's
final appearance depends on these fronts being lined up evenly.
Painted and installed, the drawers look OK and all of them track nicely.
I'm probably the only person who will ever notice the minor flaws.
The drawer-unit took 5 days to make and install.
The two upper drawers, being very short, tended to slide all the way
out of the cabinet and dump their contents - causing me to voice some
vexation. A clothes-pin is now screwed to the back of each drawer
with its tail set high enough to catch the underside of the tile edge -
so the drawers now only come out by releasing the pin.
Cabinet doors painted and installed a couple days later give a finished
look to the area.
The next project needed 32 clamps to be in use at once. Bernadette
kindly supplied me with a brand-new package of clothes-pins which
did the job just fine. Here is a 3- inch wide piece of 1/4 plywood, with
shorter pieces glued and spaces between them (white glue-stripes
visible). The spaces will be shelf-rests for - -
- a medicine cabinet, of course. We couldn't find one of them ready-
made to buy, but by now I was getting fairly handy with working
on small-scale cabinets.
Painted and assembled, it looks OK. The back panel is some left-
over from Kentucky, which I had cut for reinforcing material in our
shipping boxes.
The cabinet was sized to match a framed mirror we bought, and it
looks pretty "normal" as installed above the sink. It only took
about two days to complete this.
Some glue-joints (esp. corners) can't be clamped; and I had a hard
time finding small nails here. Finally I found a box of shoe-nails which
have worked out pretty good. The peso-coin shown for size, is about
the size of a US quarter.
What good is a bathroom without a warm shower? Not much.
Water heaters here are the on-demand (flow-through) electric type.
They're expensive and electricity is high, here, too. We decided to
try putting this 3-inch pipe in a grid on our roof. Within about 2 hours
of sun-rise, the water is quite warm, and HOT in the afternoon. It
stays warm a couple hours after sunset. We've had pretty good
success with our water-tower system, featured 2 issues back.
But so far, that's only the bathroom. A lot of other things have been
worked on meanwhile. Hard to believe this add-on shelf unit to the left
of the store-room door is less than 24 hours old. The main clue? Not
every single space on the shelves is full yet. That might take 48 hours.
This unit is absorbing the "put and take" stuff which has been occupying
my bookshelf (see "Totally ON the Wall" several postings ago) since
early in May. NOW, maybe I can unpack some books . . .
So far, we have been managing to unpack at a rate not TOO far ahead
of our available storage and immediate needs. But we still have about
20 of these shipping boxes to unpack and absorb. We'll see how it goes.
Also meanwhile, the night-table/ computer-communications desk has
gradually been evolving in the corner next to my side of the bed. This
space, while small, must accomplish a lot. Right now it seems like the
next "additions" will be 2 bookshelves on the wall to the left (above the
printer) to hold books which are currently- in- use or are "frequent
references," and a small cork bulletin-board for temporary notes.
The bed- frame shown in "Fisher-Price" a couple postings before,
has been in use for several weeks. So, "also in the meanwhile," I
have been building drawer-like "totes" similar in function to the
plastic ones which are often used for under-bed storage in the USA.
The plastic ones are also available here, but pricey, and they don't
fit "just exactly" the space we have. THESE take the place of'
a dresser-drawer set, which we lack space for.
I'm probably the only person who will ever notice the minor flaws.
The drawer-unit took 5 days to make and install.
out of the cabinet and dump their contents - causing me to voice some
vexation. A clothes-pin is now screwed to the back of each drawer
with its tail set high enough to catch the underside of the tile edge -
so the drawers now only come out by releasing the pin.
Cabinet doors painted and installed a couple days later give a finished
look to the area.
kindly supplied me with a brand-new package of clothes-pins which
did the job just fine. Here is a 3- inch wide piece of 1/4 plywood, with
shorter pieces glued and spaces between them (white glue-stripes
visible). The spaces will be shelf-rests for - -
made to buy, but by now I was getting fairly handy with working
on small-scale cabinets.
over from Kentucky, which I had cut for reinforcing material in our
shipping boxes.
looks pretty "normal" as installed above the sink. It only took
about two days to complete this.
Some glue-joints (esp. corners) can't be clamped; and I had a hard
time finding small nails here. Finally I found a box of shoe-nails which
have worked out pretty good. The peso-coin shown for size, is about
the size of a US quarter.
Water heaters here are the on-demand (flow-through) electric type.
They're expensive and electricity is high, here, too. We decided to
try putting this 3-inch pipe in a grid on our roof. Within about 2 hours
of sun-rise, the water is quite warm, and HOT in the afternoon. It
stays warm a couple hours after sunset. We've had pretty good
success with our water-tower system, featured 2 issues back.
But so far, that's only the bathroom. A lot of other things have been
worked on meanwhile. Hard to believe this add-on shelf unit to the left
of the store-room door is less than 24 hours old. The main clue? Not
every single space on the shelves is full yet. That might take 48 hours.
This unit is absorbing the "put and take" stuff which has been occupying
my bookshelf (see "Totally ON the Wall" several postings ago) since
early in May. NOW, maybe I can unpack some books . . .
of our available storage and immediate needs. But we still have about
20 of these shipping boxes to unpack and absorb. We'll see how it goes.
Also meanwhile, the night-table/ computer-communications desk has
gradually been evolving in the corner next to my side of the bed. This
space, while small, must accomplish a lot. Right now it seems like the
next "additions" will be 2 bookshelves on the wall to the left (above the
printer) to hold books which are currently- in- use or are "frequent
references," and a small cork bulletin-board for temporary notes.
has been in use for several weeks. So, "also in the meanwhile," I
have been building drawer-like "totes" similar in function to the
plastic ones which are often used for under-bed storage in the USA.
The plastic ones are also available here, but pricey, and they don't
fit "just exactly" the space we have. THESE take the place of'
a dresser-drawer set, which we lack space for.
Finally, also "meanwhile," we have been getting the farm property into condition for crops.
The "Filipino Pharm" is likely to be the next posting, showing what is necessary by steps to re- cultivate land out- of- use for perhaps 30 or more years. ONE of our purposes here is to become self-sufficient as much as possible, producing most of our own food while "hobbying" in learning cheese-making, sausage-making, meat-smoking, sourdough-culturing (see, we DO want to have some "cultural activities" here!) and honey
bee-keeping. Hard to tell when and IF all this will happen, but we will certainly have plenty to keep us active and challenged for quite some time.
We hope you are having a blessed and rewarding year- 2013.
Tim and Bernadette Larson, Philippines
We hope you are having a blessed and rewarding year- 2013.
Tim and Bernadette Larson, Philippines
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