A Bunkie with all the Comforts of Home

The Bunkie was already well appointed, for a bunkie.  With the renovations and a few new additions our guests will feel right at home -- in the country.

In previous posts we mentioned the changes in the loft:  a permanent ladder and railing.  Here are a few of the upgrades and features of the Bunkie:

A new Sofa Bed
We have replaced the old beat up sofa bed we had with a brand new IKEA brand sofa bed.  With one simple click the sofa converts in to a double bed.
Yes it is very comfortable!

Mini-Kitchen
While a new microwave is coming soon, the kitchenette, has a stereo (CDs and cassettes, radio), toaster (4 toast), coffee maker (5 cup), and all the dishes and cutlery you need. Also provided: Emergency light, candles, and cork screw (most important!).

Pop-up Table
We completed re-finished the folding table, giving it several coats of varnish.  The table comes with two chairs, and folds nicely against the wall when not needed.  Perfect for a cozy breakfast for two, if you must you can add another munchkin to the table to join you.

Keep Cool
While the bunkie is always cool because it is insulated well, having the door and windows open will change the climate inside.  So we install a new ceiling fan to mix up the air.  Not really needed but what the heck we had it lying around, might as well use it somewhere...

Plenty of Outside Space
The bunkie has two decks. 

The first is right at the door step, literally!  It provides wrap-around seating for like 10... and comes with a barbeque.

The second deck is a covered gazebo that can sit an army. It comes with a patio table and chairs for six.

Related Posts:  

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10 Tips for Installing the Kitchen Sink

This was my third kitchen sink that I had installed -- so it was becoming old hat...

But no time to become cocky!

Still it is important to be very fearful of what you are about to do... That is cutting a big hole in the counter-top that you just paid big bucks for and painstakingly installed. One wrong measurement, a slip of the saw and all that $$$ could be down the drain... so to speak.

Here are a few tips that make for a mistake free, prefect cut::

1. Use the supplied cutting template that comes with the sink. My advice is if one didn't come then take it back and upgrade to a higher quality sink (and supplier)
2. Mark the center line of the template and line that up perfectly with the gap between the two doors in front of the sink. Or if there is only one door measure to the center of that door.
3. Center the template so that the front and back of the template clear the support infrastructure for the counter-top (in the base cabinet). It is very difficult to cut through both the counter-top and the structure under it PLUS you would be weakening the support for the counter-top.
4. Draw the line around the template with a permanent marker - a nice 1/4 inch line... Believe me you will appreciate it with all the saw dust you are about to create...
5. Remove the template and use painter's tape to protect (the stuff that comes off easily) the outside of the line you just made. I would suggest at least 1-inch wide. This is so the jig saw doesn't mar the surface.
6. Dry fit the sink - but upside down on the counter-top. Does the sink have enough clearance at the back against the splash? Enough clearance at the front? Does it look centered?
7. Use a 5/8" or 3/4" drill bit to make pilot holes for the jig saw blade. Drill these holes on the inside of the line! Don't be stingy drill a hole in each corner...
8. Support the piece you are about to cut before it comes crashing down.
9. Make sure to have at least two jig saw blades - you are going to break at least one!
10. Wear eye protection!
    

Related Posts:
Installing a kitchen countertop: a few tips...
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Building a Poop Deck for the BBQ

One fun project was building this poop deck to house the BBQ.

We purchased one of those higher end (Not the top end) stainless steel BBQs, and it just didn't fit as well as the old smaller previous one...

...and for sure as it was at least three times bigger.

While the side deck is 4.5 feet wide, it gets cramped when the BBQ is there - where we wish to store AND use it...

And we didn't wish to have it under the Gazebo as we deemed that rather dangerous!

So I built a bit of an extension tot he side deck to house the BBQ.

As guests say - cute... I say practical...

;-)

10 Tips for Installing a Kitchen... Part 3/3

In the previous 2 posts we discussed the first 3 tips:

1) Understand what you need/want in the Kitchen
2) Design, Plan
3) Prepare the site

4) Understand your capabilities
5) Use the right tools
6) Shop around

Here are the last 4 tips:

7) Get Muscle
Unless you are superman,assembling and installing cabinets is a two person job, not necessarily a two man job, so yes a couple can do it. So get help... a wife, brother, son, or in law...

8) Be patient
It takes time to assemble the cabinets, and even more time to install them. Double or even triple your estimate. After all you do not wish to make a mistake with expensive cabinets. Be sure to measure twice, and READ the instructions!

9) Follow the steps
The order of assembly and installation is generally important very important.

• Do the wall cabinets first then the base cabinets
• Start in the corner and work outwards
  

10) Don't argue
My wife added this one. She thinks it is the most important tip!

Suppliers mentioned:
IKEA
Home Depot
RONA

Related Posts:
Cottage on the Edge: How to Make Quiet Kitchen Drawers!
Cottage on the Edge: Quiet Cupboard Doors!
installing a cottage kitchen
installing a kitchen countertop: a few tips...
the kitchen construction site
We Have Water!

;-)

10 Tips for Installing a Kitchen... Part 2/3

In the previous post we discussed the first 3 tips:

1) Understand what you need/want in the Kitchenen't living there 24/7 or at least not 2) Design, Plan
3) Prepare the site

Here are a few more tips

4) Understand your capabilities
Now you have to be honest with yourself with regards to your capabilities. Installing the various elements of a kitchen involves electrical, plumbing, woodworking, leveling, drilling, sawing, and lots of patience. If you feel you are lacking in one or more of those, don't fret just get help,

There are ways of doing the kitchen to get around some of these:

• Hire an electrician
• Hire a plumber
• Hire a mason
  
• Buy pre-built cabinets
• Buy a pre-built counter-top
  
• Get your handy brother-in-law to help
  

5) Use the right tools
The tools you need depend on what element you are doing and what materials you are using. But these are the key ones:

• Hammer
• Various screw drivers
• Drill with a set of drill bits, hole saw and screw bits
• level (4-foot and torpedo)
• pencils
• Jig saw
  

6) Shop around
So where do you buy the materials? Whether you use a big box store like RONA, Home Depot and IKEA or go to a specialty store (for instance for custom cabinets) depends on your budget and your levbel of DIY capability. Many of the big box stores catter to DIY and can suply the complete 'kit' necessary, and even help in the design -- and provide contractors to help in various parts of the job if necessary.

Because I am handy I was able to eliminate the cost of the labour, so much of my efforts were focused on getting the most cost effective cabinets - those that I could afford and at the same time my partner liked. We chose IKEA: they produce great looking cabinets that are both easy to assemble but affordable - not the cheapest but great value for your dollar.

Coming:
In the next post we discuss the last 4 tips

Suppliers mentioned:
IKEA
Home Depot
RONA

Related Posts:
Cottage on the Edge: How to Make Quiet Kitchen Drawers!
Cottage on the Edge: Quiet Cupboard Doors!
installing a cottage kitchen
installing a kitchen countertop: a few tips...
the kitchen construction site
We Have Water!

;-)



Coming Up:

Related Posts:

;-)

10 Tips for Installing a Kitchen... Part 1/3

We intentionally choose to have a compact kitchen for a few reasons, but the key reason was space. We wished to have as much room for people as possible.

This is the second kitchen I have designed and installed from scratch. Along the way I have learned a few useful lessons:

1) Understand what you need/want in the Kitchen
Before you start any designing or shopping be sure to gather all the information you need for making informed decisions on design such as:

• How are you going to use the kitchen?
  Gourmet meals or vacation fare - and remember you are going to have a BBQ...
  

• What appliances?
  (stove: gas or electric; fridge: ditto; microwave; dishwasher (ugh!); range vent)
  

• What size of appliances do you need"
  Remember this is the cottage - you aren't living there 24/7 or at least not yet...
  We choose 24" appliances - not only are they cute, they are very space saving

• What do you need to store?
  (dishes, pots/pans, glasses, mugs, dry foods, can goods, etc... and do not forget the small appliances: the toaster, kettle, Martguerita maker...
  

• Dealing with garbage and recycled material, and then is composting

• What can you afford? - the most important question!
  

2) Design, Plan
The best thing we did is get one of those designing layout forms. Those are those things with all the lines on them. You use it to layout to scale the design. We actually used an online layout tool that IKEA has. This works well if you are intending to buy your cabinets from IKEA.

But then there is a bunch of things you have to do:

• Get exact measurements for all the opening (doors, windows, etc) in the kitchen area. Remember this includes any molding around them. REMEMBER I said exact measurements.
  
• Decide what materials you want for the cupboards, the counter-top, the back-splash
• Where do need lighting including overhead, and under the wall cabinets.
• Are you going to have a valence on top and/or under the wall cabinets?
  

Then there is the triangle rule. That rule states that you should design the position of the fridge, stove and sink so that they form a triangle.

Coming:
In the next post we discuss the next 3 tips

Suppliers mentioned:
IKEA
Home Depot
RONA

Related Posts:
Cottage on the Edge: How to Make Quiet Kitchen Drawers!
Cottage on the Edge: Quiet Cupboard Doors!
installing a cottage kitchen
installing a kitchen countertop: a few tips...
the kitchen construction site
We Have Water!

;-)

Safe Water at the Cottage: Revers Osmosis - Part 3 of 3

The reverse osmosis system I used came as a complete system. All I needed to do was:

1. connect all the hoses
2. insert the filters in the appropriate cartridge holders
3. Install the system under the kitchen sink which consisted of a) drilling a hole in the counter for the faucet, b) installing the faucet, c) securing the cartridge set to the inside of the cupboard, and d) inserting a battery in the filter timer.
   

The Reverse osmosis system that I installed has a Five Stage Purification Process:

STAGE I: Sediment 5 Micron : Removes dirt, sediments, sand, and other physical particles.

STAGE II: Granulated Activated Carbon Filter: Reduces chemicals, such as chlorine, that may be in your water supply.

STAGE III: Carbon Block: Further reduces organics, odors, and other chemicals that might be present in you water supply.

STAGE IV: Reverse Osmosis Membrane: 50 gallon per day membrane removes 93-97% of dissolved mineral salts and other contaminants in the water supply.

STAGE V: Post Carbon Filter: A final polishing process that enhances and clarifies your drinking water.

My Supplier/Manufacturer:
Watts Canada

Related Posts:
Use the search on the Blog - search on Reverse Osmosis
;-)

Safe Water at the Cottage: Reverse Osmosis - Part 1 of 3

In previous posts I have outlined the various filters I have installed. At the risk of sounding like I went overboard - and I probably did -- I installed one final water filtering system under the kitchen sink.

The system is a complete system called a reverse osmosis water filter. In part 2 of this series I will describe how reverse osmosis - as well as the other components of the system -- work.

In the picture to the right you can see two facets running. The one on the left is delivering water filtered by the main filter system I have describe in previous posts. The facet on the right delivers water that is filtered through the reverse osmosis system.

The water from the reverse osmosis system has actually flowed thought 9 filters - 4 belonging to the house water filtering system and 5 more associated with the reverse osmosis system installed under the kitchen sink.

So which was cleaner water?

Well it turns out - I tested both - that the water through the main water filter system is prefect - not bad stuff at all.

So yes it appears the reverse osmosis system may have been over kill.

Still I get great reviews from visitors about how good the water tastes...

Coming Up:
In part 2 I discuss how reverse osmosis works

Related Posts:
Creating Clean Water: Adding a Sediment Filter
Creating clean water: ge household filter
We Have Water!
Creating Clean Water: UV Filters
;-)

How to Make Quiet Kitchen Drawers!

In the previous post I shared the discovery of a quiet cupboard door closing feature of IKEA kitchens.

Well the same feature is available for IKEA kitchen drawers. The beauty of them is illustrated in the video below.

These drawers have an accessory that attaches inside the drawers on the slides that take-over and dampen the closing of the drawer. The result is not banging of the doors.

Related Posts:
Quiet Cupboard Doors!
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Quiet Cupboard Doors!

We installed kitchen cupboards from IKEA. I intend to talk about the experience of installing an IKEA kitchen in a future post, however, I just have to share with you the neatest feature they have.

Actually I have installed an IKEA manufactured kitchen before and was quite please with the experience and the result so I did it again...

However this time around the cupboard hinges came with a mysterious extra piece, which took us a while to figure out. Truth be told we had to read the instructions to determine what they were let alone how to install them.

What were these mysterious add-ons? Well they act to damper the closing of the cupboards. You still need to get the cupboard doors to close but once they start the close these little babies take over.

As the short video illustrates the doors close softly without hardly a noise.

No more noisy, banging cupboard doors!

Gee! I wish I had discovered these things when the children were younger...

Coming Up:
In the next post we will illustrate the same feature for the IKEA drawers

;-)

All the Comforts of Cottage...

In my previous post I mentioned that it is getting a whole lot more comfortable on our weekend treks tot he cottage to complete the finishing touches on the inside of the cottage.

The weather has been fretfully cold these past few weekends - getting as low as -31 Celsius!

But with the baseboard electrical heating in, and working, and a lovely wood stove, it is quite comfortable. Top that off with an almost functioning kitchen meals are less like camping these days.

As you can see we have a functioning fridge and also a stove (hidden to the right). With no running water yet, we bring up a couple of jerry cans of water each weekend. It provides enough water for drinking, cooking and a few flushes of the toilet -- a welcome luxury for the better half -- yep! that's her in the picture....

Related Posts:

Installing a Cottage Kitchen - Oct 26, 2008

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The Kitchen Construction Site

The kitchen is still a bit of a construction site...

As you can see in the pictur:

• the cupboards are installed but the door handles are not.
• the countertop is installed but the sink is not
• the stove is installed but the range fan is not

Plus there are a few more finishing touches to complete:

• The trim around the window
• The side finish on the wall cupboards, and
• We hope to put in some ceramic tile as a back splash...
  

Coming Up:
We are up this weekend to hopefully complete some of these jobs and more...

;-)