Stained Glass for Kitchen Cabinet

 We still have one kitchen cabinet to complete. We decided to do leaded glass on the face and sides of the upper cabinet, so we designed a simple pattern. Then Kristen drew it out on the glass while Tyler cut.

 Working together, the pieces were all cut out quickly.

 Then they were fitted in the door. We have only cut the pieces for the front two doors, we will work on the sides shortly.

 Next came hours of copper foiling for Kristen. It looks so pretty once the copper is added.

 And then another laying out of the pieces. We built a frame around them to hold them in place for soldering. We will get to soldering it eventually but we have been working on other projects and don't want the lead fumes in the air when Sam is around.

Stair Handrail

When we bought the house this is what the top return of the handrail looked like. It was a little strange with the handrail just terminating into a 2x4 that was spaced off the wall.

An additional spindle was turned matching the existing spindles for the space. 

In addition, a new section of handrail was created that was needed because the existing handrail was too short.

An old fir return piece was found at a salvage store to be used instead of the old 2x4. We had to strip the existing finish.

The baseboard cap was applied and the end was returned. The floor was sanded and the bottom board was also installed.

The wall behind the old 2x4 had to be filled with joint compound and textured.

The spindle, new handrail and return board are installed.

The whole thing is then painted up which was a little hard and should have been done prior putting the whole thing together. The new fir handrail should get darker over time once it is urethaned and exposed to the sunlight more.

Anniversary Gifts

A few more crafts - my anniversary presents from the last three years

1st Anniversary - Clock
2nd Anniversary - Cotton
3rd Anniversary - Glass

Stained Glass Window

The stairway has a big diamond-shaped window that looks straight at the neighbor's roof. So we decided to design and make a stained glass piece to add some charm and let in light while blocking out the neighboring house.