Rob's Millwork Shop 3

An update on my progress in fabricating stuff for the new cottage....  I've been puttering away on this stuff over recent weeks, but haven't made any significant progress.  Hit a milestone today though....

In recent weeks I've mostly been focused on getting the cottage insulated and ready for the drywall crew to start.  That is coming along nicely... and has consumed most of my weekends.  I have been spending a few evenings at the shop, after work, continuing with my other projects.

I have one interior door completely finished and ready for installation.  I have the other three started.  The frames for the doors are done, and the jambs are built.  Mostly I've been waiting to find some antique windows to frame into these doors.  I have two antique windows that we found earlier this spring.  Both required a certain amount of reconstruction.  I have this refurbishing mostly complete, but I'm just not 100% sure that I'm happy with these windows.  I want to take a little time and look around a little more for some other options, before I continue with these doors...

In the meantime I've started constructing a freestanding pantry.  That cabinet, much like a wardrobe, is well underway.  The body of the cabinet is complete and I am currently working on the side panels.  I still have to build the cabinet doors, but hope to have this all finished over the coming weeks.

I've been working on the bathroom vanity for quite some time now and kind of put it on the backburner in recent weeks.  I had cut some willow branches to fit into the doors and side panel, but wasn't completely happy with them.  They stuck out a little too much, and I wasn't quite sure how to attach them.  I have now resolved these issues.  I cut some new willow branches a few weeks ago.  I flattened them under some weights for a couple of weeks so they would mount in a more flush position.  Then I weighted them down and ran them into our plastic forming ovens at the shop to dry them out and get them to hold their shape.  I now have a couple that fit better into the door panels.  These have been heavily lacquered and screw attached into the reinforced door panels of the cabinet. 
A couple of weeks ago I cut a small birch trunk on the way home from Nordegg.  I trimmed off all the small branches and split this in half.  I then applied a couple coats of lacquer in an attempt to seal the birch bark.  The outer layer promptly turned brown and peeled off like the skin of an onion.  I stripped this away and it left the under bark relatively secure.  This was lacquered with several coats and seems to be holding together.  It isn't quite as white as I would have liked, but still looks like birch.  I mounted a couple of these onto the side panel of the vanity tonight.

So.... the vanity is now 100% complete.  I will wrap it up and store it away at the shop until I am ready to take it out to Nordegg.  I can now focus my attention on finishing the pantry.  Once that is done, the drywall guys will probably be far enough along that I can get final dimensions for fabrication of the kitchen cabinets.  And... in the mean time... if we can find a couple more antique windows, then I will be able to continue with the interior doors.

Of course I also have the coffee table slab, which has also been put on the backburner in recent weeks, to carry on with.

Here are a couple snapshots of the finished vanity.  I will try and take a few better photos once I have all the surrounding junk and clutter cleaned up and out of the way.