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Yesterday was the Fall Equinox. A big day for pagan sun worshipers and Passive Solar enthusiasts. We are now half way through the solar cycle. As the days get shorter, the shadow line cast by the roof creeps higher. By the middle of December the south windows will be in full sunlight. 
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We don't have a separate dining area so we designed a fairly large island that could seat 5-6 people for casual entertaining. To cantilever the granite top out from the cabinets we are using counter top support brackets from Centerline Steel.
Since the IKEA cabinets don't have backs, we added a 2x6 knee-wall to support the cantilever brackets.   TW designed a cool hidden compartment where we can store an eight foot folding table inside the island. We call it the Island Hideaway :-) I think we now qualify as full-fledged IKEA Hackers!
The Jasper Jeep Fest was this weekend. Over 1000 Jeeps showed up to partake in the festivities.
 The countertops, sinks and cooktops are in. We are ready to finish the plumbing next week. Installing granite is definately not a DIY project.
 We've been reading a lot about modular kitchens so we are only installing two built in induction 'burners'. These are commercial units from Vollrath. We also have two portable, counter-top units that we can move around the kitchen or take them out on the patio.
Another major milestone this week... the granite hearth, window seat and countertops are in. The hearth and window seat were done in Black Pearl. 
It's hard to believe that it looked like this just a few months ago... 
It is hard to believe that summer is almost over. We spent the entire Labor Day weekend designing the railings for the interior stairs. This has definately stretched my ability as a DIY builder to the limit. We went through eight revisions but I think we have a workable plan. When it's done, it will look something like this:  On the exterior, we are using a simple and inexpensive railing system made from electrical conduit and pressure-treated 2x4s. For the interior, however, we wanted something more refined. We decided to design the system using square aluminum tubing with an oak hand rail. The entry and stairs are complicated. There are three flights that transition between four split levels. We realized that the actual construction will probably require a lot of 'adjustment' as its built so we wanted to come up with a design with a lot of flexibility. We decided to use 80/20 which is like an "Erector Set" for grown-ups. 80/20 consists of heavy duty extruded aluminum struts and a mind-boggling variety of joints, connectors, hinges and fasteners. You can build anything from a table to a robot with 80/20.
We are using 2"x2" struts as the posts for our railing system. Although 2x2 would be too small for wood newel posts, the 80/20 aluminum extrusions are much stronger than wood. Each face of the 2x2 extrusion has two channels that accept sliding, screw-in fasteners.... no welding or drilling required.
Round electrical conduit would be too difficult to attach to the sloped sections along the stairs so we decide dto use 1/2" square aluminum tube for the horizontal 'balusters'. To meet code, the balusters must be spaced at roughly 4" so we will need about 450 feet of alumium tube to build 50 feet of railing The posts will be attached to the concrete floor with 80/20 floor plates and the square tubing will attach into the channels on the posts. At least that's the theory!!
I've been watching "Extant", the new futuristic Sci-Fi drama on CBS from Steven Spielberg starring Halle Berry as an astronaut who returns to Earth after an extended space mission. Molly (Halle Berry) comes back to find herself pregnant with an extra-terrestrial life form and her husband built an android son while she was gone (and I thought I had a bad day!). But I digress... The kitchen of the future is a copy of neoTerra (except for the lime-green toaster)! I wonder if Mr. Spielberg is a fan :-) neoTerra  The future in Extant  |
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