Album Study 1D (B.C): Willie Nelson - 'Red Headed Stranger'

Album: Red Headed Stranger
Artist: Willie Nelson

Submitted by: B.C.

Year: 1975 (18th studio album)

US Billboard Peak: 28th (1st in US Country Albums)
Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums: 183rd

What I know of Willie Nelson is more of the contemporary media potrayl of him.  The tax evading, pot smoking, living off the land outlaw who wrote classic songs like "On the Road Again" and the one about how he can't wait to get on the road again.  He also stars in one of my personal top 10 movies, "Wag the Dog" as basically, himself, or what we are led to believe.

I was very surprised by B.C. selection for this seeing that he has never mentioned Willie Nelson to me before.  Granted though, our talks on music are far and few due to my lack of knowledge on the subject, or as B.C. says "Matt hates music".  A false hood I may never live down that was spawned from a drunken diatribe where I mention that "live concerts tend to bore me and I hate how they go on and on".  This is where B.C. formulated that I "hate" music.  When he submitted this album he did say that this is not one of his top 3, but a bonus B.C. addition that cannot go unmentioned.

As soon as I saw the cover I instantly got a feeling that we would be taken back to the outlaw days of cowboys and such.  The track listing also peeked my interest as it showed a pattern of repeating themes in the track names, calling back to a track called "The Time of the Preacher".  I began listening to the album and was instantly drawn in by the smooth western country style ballad that Willie Nelson belts out along side the classic instruments of the genre. With a heavy feeling of traditional folk music with a western sound, Willie Nelson immediately begins to tell the story of our main character known to us as the Preacher and his love who left him for another.  Through the ballads we see the transformation from a man torn apart by his lost love into a man with rage as he becomes a mysteries ruthless gunslinger only known as the Red Headed Stranger.

Side A tells the tale of this western ballad in a traditional folk style.  Its music style paints a picture of a western scene sitting around the camp fire on a desert evening as our singing cowboy tells the tale.  The majority of the music is the sound of western twang produced with traditional "country western" instruments.  Interwoven  with these classic sounds are contemporary guitar riffs and grand piano chords, but blend in with the simple western style.  Side A tells the story arc of our red headed stranger, Side B continues the style of folk music.  Ranging from love ballads to the classic rinky dink upright piano songs pictured in many western film saloons.

I equate this album and summarize it as a western lullaby.  Willie Nelson grabs my attention with the bizzare story of lost love and croons me to sleep underneath the western stars.  The sounds of his guitar and stories of years past fill me with emotions that are still familiar and meaningful today.  I truly enjoyed this album and continue to listen to it frequently.  I look forward to hearing more Willie Nelson music and how diverse it is from this great album.

Album Study 1C (B.C): The Beatles - 'Abbey Road'

Album: Abbey Road
Artist: The Beatles

Submitted by: B.C.

Year: 1975 (11th studio album)

US Billboard Peak: 28th (1st in UK)
Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums: 14th

I think almost everyone knows of or has heard a Beatles song.  As John Lennon once said, "We're more popular then Jesus now".  Growing up listening to the oldies radio station and the traditional Sunday Beatles Brunch programming, I am very familiar with much of their catalog.  The old pop culture question, "Elvis or Beatles" was a true statement growing up as my mom is a loyal Elvis Presley fan and never cared for the fab 4 from across the pond.  There for, I have never heard a Beatles album from start to finish.

I wasn't surprised that B.C. had a Beatles album on his list, I was more surprised it was only 1.  I put this in not knowing what to expect.  I knew Abbey Road was a prolific album and probably one of the most recreated iconic album covers ever, but I didn't know where it fit in in the world of historical albums.  I didn't know where in the Beatles career this was.  I knew it was past their "pop" British invasion years and closer to the more prolific time where they redefined music.

As I started to play the album several songs from my past popped up.  "Come Together", "Something", "Octopuses Garden".   I wasn't overly impressed as a whole, wondering "who am I to judge the Beatles?"  It just seemed to be a collection of great songs.  The lyrics are solid, the songs have a heavy Blues guitar influence with the heavy riffs, picking and slides, but I questioned what makes Abbey Road so great.  And then Side B hit.

"You Never Give Me Your Money", a classic song on its own, ends with the sounds of crickets and my ears tune in to the unique sound addition to a music album, this cricket transitions us into "Sun King".  I begin to get lured into this stream of medleys as the the next 14 minute are tied together like an audible stage performance changing sets and scenes before my ears.  By the 3rd song I'm over whelmed with audible joy.  THIS IS WHY I DID THE STUDY!  The concept of an album formed through the parts (the songs), building onto each other to tell the story and emotion as a whole.  By the time the 6th song was in, I was completely emotionally pulled in, almost to tears of joy listening and feeling the music.

This 14 minute sequence of intertwined songs bring us through the 3 acts of a play in my mind, introducing the characters of the world, the challenges and triumphs of our adventure.  It even ends with an orchestrated fan faire, as you would hear during the closing credits.  Like a curtain call, many of the lyrics and melodies of earlier moments in the story take another bow during the conclussion.  As the curtain goes down and the lights come up, they tack on one last joke track just to lighten what to me was an emotional roller coaster of sound.  A near perfect ending in the same vein as the usher cleaning the last of the crowded theatre or Porky Pig saying "That's all folks".  The performance has ended.

I really want to listen to this on original LP as I listened to it as a CD rip so I got track skips between many of the tracks.  As I said earlier, this album is why I did this study.  To really learn what music has become and appreciate the work of "the album" and what it means too so many others.  Abbey Road is definitely in a special place in my heart and will remember as I drove through Illinois that memorial day in 2016.

Album Study 1B (B.C): R.E.M. - 'Fables of Reconstruction'

Album: Fables of Reconstruction
Artist: R.E.M.

Submitted by: B.C.

Year: 1985 (3rd studio album)

US Billboard Peak: 28th (35th in UK)

R.E.M. is a band I've known about for years.  One of my good friends growing up worships this band and when I ask him for his 3 favorite albums, I will be shocked if there is less then 2 R.E.M. albums on it.

What I personally know of R.E.M. is mostly through my good friend, but it is that Monster was their big commercial album just short of  when they performed with the muppets of Sesame Street singing Shiny Happy Monsters.

The first time I listened to the album I found the monotonous tone of Michael Stipe to carry on with little inflection and tone.  From track to track the lyrics seemed muddled and over whelmed by heavy guitar riffs and crashing drum cymbals.  I trudged through it, feeling as if I heard the same song again and again with little change.  The song Wendell Gee was a breath of fresh air until I found out it was the last on the list.  I felt robbed.  Not only of the value of the album, but of the huge pedestal my friends have put R.E.M. on.  Even after my second consecutive listening, I saw no real difference in my thoughts.

I took a step back and waited a few days to give it a third listening.  After being rested and clear minded I gave it a 3rd listening and focused on the lyrics.  Listening to and then later reading through the lyrics, you find the theme of lethargic anguish of the individual and of the stories of their travel.  The lyrics paint a tapestry of the individuals our traveler has observed.  

The feeling and images I see as I listen keep pointing towards a train (many references to engineers, trains, engines on various songs).  The beats give me a visual as a country side passing as the traveler writes the lyrics of his travels.  The music, which I found sounded quite contemporary for a 1985 album, keeps the momentum going and only eleganty changes pace.  This too reminded me of the movement of rail travel.

I don't know if I truly fully embraced this album, but I do believe that the more R.E.M. I hear, I will look to this album as a reference point to when the band diversified their sound.  Though this album didn't 'knock my socks' off as being great during the first few listenings, I enjoyed and look forward to hearing more of this band.

Album Study 1A (B.C): Squeeze - 'Singles - 45's and Under'

Album: Singles, 45's and Under
Artist: Squeeze

Submitted by: B.C.

Year: 1982 (compilation)

US Billboard Peak: 47th (3rd in UK)

I knew very little of Squeeze going into this album.  I even saw them live once at Summerfest with B.C.  What I knew about Squeeze is that they were a diverse 80s pop band from the UK who had a few chart toppers.  The other thing I knew was Jools Holland was a member.  I found out from B.C. when I was telling him about this show I saw called 'Later......with Jools Holland'.  B.C. replied, "he was a member of Squeeze".  This conlcudes my background knowledge of the band.

The album 'Singles, 45's and Under' is a compilation album released by Squeeze in 1982.  I wanted to avoid compliation albums in my research, but I asked my subjects to give me their 3 favorite albums, not to give me the 3 best albums that fit into my strict rules.  This compilation is an album of all their singles from the late 70s to early 80s, hence the title 'Singles, 45's and Under'.

The album starts out with heavily synthesized tracks.  The heavy beats and poppy synthesized riffs, started to wear on me.  The songs seem to keep with the same theme of unequated love and nonchalant courting intertwined with the repetitive synthesized back beat.  As the album progresses you see a shift.   By 4th track, the edge of the synthesizer is not as prevalent.  Though the songs underlining theme stays the same, the vocals and musicians start to take the forefront.

Though it is a compilation album of previous singles, I found the way that the tracks were selected showed a solid progression of the sound of the band over the half decade that these tracks were taken from.  Even during the second listening, many of the songs where I originally questioned B.C.'s choice in music, I found myself singing many of the lyrics later on in the day.

Album Study 1 (B.C.)

Subject:     BC
Albums:     Squeeze - Singles, 45's and Under, REM - Fables of Reconstruction, Beatles - Abbey
Extras:       Road, Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger, Bach - Brandenburg Concertos

BC is a friend of mine who has an incredibly diverse music palette.  A free lance critic, he has always been one to point out much needed improvements and vocalize the unsolicited suggestions.  It was no surprise that when I asked him to give me his 3 favorite albums, he came back with 5.

I will be posting a short review of each album throughout the week.

Music Album Study: Summer of 2016

I decided to fire up the old blog this year to document my summer study. My study is based on what peoples favorite music albums are and my thoughts on them. I came up with the study earlier this spring after I transferred all of my CDs to MP3s. During this time, I realized my CD collection is abysmal. The reason for this, I never really got into music, so I never knew what was good.

My History:
I never really listened to music growing up. My parents listened to 95.7 FM "The Oldies" and mixed tapes consisting of Elvis, Moody Blues and usually that one rare new one hit wonder they thought was catchy. My first cassette tape was "The Best of the Monkees" as I enjoyed their comedy hijinx from their pop culture rebirth in the mid eighties when their shows hit syndication again. As I grew up I began to watch more an more movies and television, that was my medium of choice growing up.

In the 90s, when I purchased a CD player, I began purchasing movie Soundtracks. With my ongoing love of cinema and film, the listening of their soundtracks painted a picture in my head and brought up the memories of the said movies.

By the mid 90s I began to purchase random CDs of what ever was popular at the time. Purchased because I heard them on the radio or my group of friends liked them. I never really listened to the full albums and mostly just cued up the radio hit and nothing more. By then I was in my late teens, I really hadn't heard much diverse music and really hadn't even attended a real concert. To many, this is unheard of, but again my passion was movies. I had attended several festivals, unique screenings and countless midnight shows of classic movies at local independent cinemas.

In the late 90s Napster had come out and I just began to download the popular singles and "classic" oldies that I grew up with. I then focused my attention to comedians and started to purchase their CDs at whatever store had them. There was no real cohesion to my collection but just a random spattering of songs. I pretty much listened to movie soundtracks, comedy CDs and the occasional jazz/blues CD.

For the first 10 years of the new millennium, I drove more for work so I listened to talk radio and occasionally the top 40 stations. This was what kept me away while driving and kept me mentally engaged.

The Birth of my Study:
The Fall of 2015, my trustee steed (a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan that drove me over 250,000 miles for work) was rear ended by a service van and "totaled". This wonderful machine had an internal hard drive that you could copy all of your CDs to. There was no need to carry them around or plug in a Ipod. With the purchase of a new vehicle I had to go through the process of transferring all my CDs to MP3, a procedure that most of the 1st World did 10 years ago.

As mentioned before, during this process, I noticed, "My collection is abysmal and I don't even know what to do". I could open an ITunes account and just start downloading random stuff, read Amazon reviews and just start getting stuff, continue to listen to top 40 and just start buy albums. None of these options appealed to me.  I wanted to learn to love music like many of my friends do and that's how I came up with my summer study.

The Study:
Not only do I want to learn about music and start to love it.  I want to engage with people to discuss what the album means to them, the music world and others. I would look to my friends and family that love music. Part 1 of the study: Ask my friends what their top 3 albums are and borrow them to listen to.

My study will be on how the album is made. How the artist(s), producers and those involved made and formed their album. I don't have much of a music background or vocabulary, I grew up in film. I watched movies as a kid and studied films as a student. That is my vocabulary. The structure, story and flow of a film is my vocabulary, my background, my knowledge. The story arc of a film is intriguing and the way it is crafted by an auteur is what I like. Does that structure carry over in the production of an album. What albums are "solid" or "tight" in conveying their message. I can enjoy a movie and say "as a movie, that was bad but I enjoyed it, it was fun". I can see a movie and go, "not my thing, but followed a good structure." Is this true with an album? Part 2 of Study: How is this an album in its entirety. What message do they convey. As mentioned, with my limited vocabulary on music and albums,

I don't want to pre-saturate myself with knowledge. This is a learning exercise, but the learning will be through the music. Part 3 of my Study: Is to take the album for what it is. A collection of songs by an artist or group that was produced as an "album".

Pre-research:
-Members of the band during album
-Year of album

-Basically everything you would find on the jacket of the album.

Extra research (but not necessary):
-Where it was on the Billboard Rankings
-Where Rolling Stone ranks the album on their all time list (only the number, I will not read the review)

-Where this album is in relation to their bands other albums (first album, last album, reunion album, new drummer, etc). 

I want to avoid reading official reviews so as to form my own ideas.  I will go in with only that I know my friend likes this album, and what cumulative knowledge I've  absorbed on my own (I know who the Beatles are, I can't change that.  I've not listened to a lot of music growing up, I didn't just come out of a comma).  The only ancillary research I may do is if I see an outstanding theme in an album,  I may want to do a little research to confirm it (i.e. there seems to be a lot of synthesizer on this album, when was that invented?)

So to recap:

Part 1: Ask my Friend/subject what their 3 favorite albums are and borrow them, and listen to them

Part 2: How is this an album in its entirety?  What are its themes.

Part 3: Is this a great album?

Use these to help find my own ear for music and branch off.

The Process of the Study:

I will listen to the suggested 3 CDs.  I will try to listen to them in their entirety.  No breaks or listening in sections.  I will listen to the albums at least twice and then post my findings.

I will leave my subjects relatively anonymous.  I won't go into detail on who they are, but maybe just give personality traits that our pertinent in their selections.  I will most likely use their nick names that only people in our circle will know them by.

I'm posting my findings for basically myself.  They are so I can see what I like and what I don't like and maybe just log my findings.  This is why I don't have comments turned on.  I don't care about your input, if you hate my thoughts, buy me a drink and tell me in person so we can talk about music.  Another option is to start a "Matt is dumb blog".  Don't post your "Mat is dumb" thoughts on my blog. The only hope is that my test subject don't read this and influenced by what previous people listened to.

After listening to the test subjects albums, I will delete the files if I don't like the music and if I like them, I will buy them and add them to my collection.  I have great respect for copy write laws and the business side of artistry.  We can debate the pros and cons of it for another day.

If a test subject picks a album I already listened to, I will simply just talk to them about my thoughts on that album.  The point of this exercise is find out from others what they like to help me decide what I like.  I want to like music and I want to enjoy music.  Lets see if I can learn that with this study.

Bar Built-in: Day 13 (poly shelves and cabinet frames)

This week, I'm back to work at my job and I work on the cabinets at night. I have quickly found out that after a whole day of work, I have very little time or energy to work on the built in. Thank god I'm in the final stretch. I through on another coat of poly on the cabinet frame moldings and shelves and went back to helping clean the house.

Bar Built-in: Day 12 (cabinet frame and more staining)

With the towers in place and the shelves stained and drying, I began working on the cabinet frame moldings.

I'm using solid red oak, I bought four 2" x 1/2" - 8' pieces. I originally was going to go with 1" thick pieces, but I found the 1/2" pieces looked better. Unfortunately the 1" pieces are all on sale, bu the 1/2" pieces aren't, so its a wash between the 2.

Using a miter saw and cut the pieces to length and dry fitted them in place. I'm not using any mitered cuts but going for the more craftsman style of framing. All the pieces are cut and I drill pocket holes into each one.

And yes, the boards don't come pre-stained, so I lay them next to the shelves and put the stain coat on. I'm glad that I am only doing one coat of stain. I wish I got the poly stain in one, but I really like the way this stain is looking.

Bar Built-in: Day 11 (installing towers and running lights)

With the backs of the towers dried I put 2 coats of polyurethane on throughout the night. This let me tack it in place this morning. Now you should let poly dry for ~24 hours before normal wear and tear, but seeing that its the backs I I won't be touching it for another 24 hours, I thought it would be okay.

To apply the backs we check the squareness again of the towers. With the back in place we tack one corner, adjust the squareness of the tower and tack the other corners of the back in place. By now, not only should the tower be square, but it should be pretty damn sturdy too boot.

I place the towers on the toe kick and plumb it up with a level. Once I have it in place I use drywall screws to hold the towers in place. With a screw going through the back into the stud, and a screw going through the side and into a stud, it should not move.

With it in place, I measure the shelf length and depth that spans across the towers and cut the bored from left over stock (you could get away by buying a 2' x 4' 3/4" MDF oak veneer). With the shelf, I put the right support on the right tower for the shelf that spans the two towers. I check its level and tack it down with 6 nails (I switch out the 1 1/4" nails for 1" nails seeing that the support is 1/2" and the tower is 3/4" and that is too close for comfort.). With that in place I put the shelf on the right support and set a level on top of the shelf. Now I can adjust the shelf to make it level. With it in place I mark on the left side to see where the support goes. I then tack that as well. The shelf is level. I do the same with the 2nd shelf.

If you noticed, the shelves in the above picture are not stained. So back to the gloves, stain and brushes.

I've learned when you build two towers that have a shelf connecting the two and put them independently in a basement poured in the 50s, on a rec room constructed in the 60s, nothing will be level without double checking it. I get to quadruple check it because I need to take the towers down to run the lighting cable behind the shelf.

With all the wires ran now to the center, I attach them and zip tie it together and plug it into the outlet that the wine cooler will use.

Bar Built-in: Day 10 (cunstruction)

Well the day I've been looking for is here, the day I get to assemble the pieces and see it come together (that and the day I get to try out the finished product). The big pieces are cut, sanded, stained and coated with polyurethane.

I attach the top and bottom of the main towers to one side. With them secure with the pocket screws, I flip the side onto the other long side and attach it forming the main tower. I do the same for the second tower.

I then take the middle shelf measure out where the wine rack dividers go. Putting the shelf face down, I then take the dividers in place and screw them in with the pocket hole screw. This gives it both a secure connection, and you will not see the fastner. If I were to nail it to the shelf you would see the heads. Even if I sunk them puttied them, I think they would still show. When both are in place, I take a 2x4 cut to the width of of the middle wine space and clamp it to the wine rack as a support.

I then take the main tower and lay it face down on a table and slide in the wine rack with the shelf. Using shims I get the wine rack at the right height (I want it set in at 1/4" to give it a better look). I square up the tower by shifting it properly. To see if its square I measure the tower from corner to kiddie corner. If the two measurements are the same, it is square.

I then use my nail gun and nail 1 1/4" nails into the wine rack and shelves.

I took several pictures showing the details of pocket screws and assembling. The pictures looked cluttered on the blog so I tried the video slide show feature on Picasa.

As careful as you are and no mater how well I lined it up, I still missed quite a few nails and they shot through to the other side, missing its target. This happened because 1, I wasn't use to where the nail came out of the gun, I used the free nails that came with the gun which were softer (so the first flaw they hit, they bend into another direction).

Once it is secured, the towers are done.

With the towers finished I can measure the 1/4 oak veneer plywood for the backs. I had enough left over from my last project to do one of the towers, I then had to go to the store to get another piece of 1/4 to finish the other back. With both measured and cut to fit in the back grooves, its time for my second favorite thing to do...... stain. 15 minutes later, I wiped the excess and waited for them to dry.

While they are drying I begin to build the toe kicks. I then used 2x4's to make toe kick. With the 2x4's cut to 9 1/2" I then used shims where it was necessary to make the toe kicks level. Once they were level I used deck screws to drill them into the walls sole plate or stud.

One of the supports could only be drilled into the sole plate and did not hold onto well due to it being kind of rotted. It did hold though, but what I should have done is connect both to back 2x4 and then screwed that into the sole plate. The face of the toe kick will have a piece of 3/4" oak veneer nailed to the front when it is completed.

Bar Built-in: Day 9 (more poly)

Woke up and the poly is not completely cured, but is much more durable. I tested this in an area that won't be seen by people (inside the wine slots). I slowly rub the tip of my finger nail in an area and see if my nails left a mark. One area that had a little thicker area of poly, caused a mark, but another area didn't. I flipped the sides of all the parts and began to apply the first coat of polyurethane.

When I stain or apply polyurethane I like to have a bright work light on. This helps me to see where the coat is applied and where it hasn't. In a normally lit room it is almost impossible to see where the poly is applied, except at an extreme angle. This become labor intensive to constantly change your POV to see where the poly is. With the work light shining on the pieces I can easily see if the coat is too thick or too thin. Especially when you apply the first coat, the poly does not like to evenly coat on the tacky finish of the stain.

I'm pretty much going to wait another 5 hours and then apply the second coat. this means I will probably be able to begin assembly tomorrow morning.

Bar Built-In: Day 8 (stain and poly)

Today was staining and polyurethane day. Finished staining the remaining parts that I didn't get around to (top where I was going to cut the hole the recessed lights, and the toe kit front) and began putting poly on the remainder parts.

If I were to do this again, or recommend anything to people, I would I would have put on 1 coat of poly before nailing the wine supports to it. Applying polyurethane to each of the supports and in between them is quite tedious, plus the foam brushes kicked up some foam/bubbles with all the quick brush strokes.

I do see that applying poly to all the individual supports would have been tedious as well, but I probably would have used a spray poly for the first coat, nailed them down, then painted on the second coat of poly when it was tacked down.

I did all the main surfaces, waited 5 hours (the can said 3-4 but it didn't appear to be dry enough at the 4 hour mark) and applied the second coat. I was hoping that after another ~5 hours I could flip the pieces and do the reverse side, but I found that even though it was dry it had not cured. I wait over night to flip and apply another two coats. One of the main reasons I wanted to do the all in one polyshade. I do think this will give me better results though.

Bar Built-In Day 7: (Nailing)

Feeling even better today. Went to Lowes today to buy the cabinet lights. I purchased the same set of lights I bought for my kitchen cabinets. I've read some threads on them that people don't like them or that the controller goes bad. I've had mine on my cabinets on for almost a year and had no problems. The only thing I don't like is that the heat causes the covers to pop off. I say the cover pops off about once every 2 weeks. Of course we also leave ours on from sundown to bedtime, so an average of 5 hours in the winter. My friend Chun, who also installed them, has not experienced the problem as often as me.

The lights cost about 35 bucks and you get 6 puck lights with xenon lamps, enought wire, power block and a touch controler. Its hard to find all of that for under 35.

For my cabinets I did a surface mount on the bottom of the cabinet and was looking forward to doing a recessed mount with my bar built in. I couldn't really do this with the cabinets because that would put the lights into the cabinet where I would store my dishes. The way I planned my built-in, I can easily do it because there is nothing above the light. Awesome. Until I opened the packet and read the instructions. "Cut a 2 1/8" how for recessed lighting". Who has a 2 and 1/8" hole saw? I have a 2", I have a 2 1/2" but nothing in between. That would cost 12 bucks for a hole saw that I will only use twice. Looks like surface mount again. I will worry about that when I start assembling.

Wine Rack Assembly
Ok, yesterday I said how much I like using the pocket hole jig. My 2nd favorite is the air driven finishing nail gun. If you don't have one and plan to do any trim work, or doing small projects (i.e. spice rack, small boxes, apolstry work, picture frames or anything involving finishing nails or brads) buy a nail gun and compressor kit. I got a nice little kit for christmas last year and I absolutely love it. From the first time I pulled the trigger I was amazed how well it worked. From the feel of it, to the sound it makes, to the great job it does driving the nail in, it is great. I built a spice rack without a nail gun and it honestly took me 3 times as long. You have to line up the work, sometimes clamp it, sometimes predrill. Tap, tap, tap, tap, shit. (that's if you bend the nail) Then you have to go out of your way to carefull pull out the nail. Chances are it bent because you didn't drive it in straight, which means that the next nail will follow the same path.

Now granted, the more you do wood work, the less chance you will have this. You will become more skilled and controled, but I work in IT and Projection Services (fix film projectors). I do not see myself leaving my job make a living doing carpentry anytime soon (unfortunately). I use this as a hobby or escape from the rut of work, might as well enjoy it.

I'm now going to space out the wine rack supports and nail them to the dividers.

The supports are 3 1/4" apart and 4 inches off the bottom of the divider. On the main cabinet sides I need to start 4 3/4" from the bottom to compensate for the thickness of the bottom. To space them out evenly I toock a 2x4 and cut a piece 3 1/4" long. With this spacer I can put it up against the tacked down support and then put the next one down in place for nailing.


3 1/4" spacer in place.










Laying them out and tacking them down.

Bar Built-in: Day 6 (more staining and pocket holes)

Feel better today, but still a little stuffy and tired.

Stained the other side of the bar towers and stained the first side to the wine rack dividers and am letting those dry. I'm hoping it will be dry enough to flip tonight before bed to stain the other side of the wine rack dividers. Once it has dried I can start nailing the wine rack holders to the boards. One step closer to final assembly.

Once I stained the sides I went to work on the toe kick. I was going to build it entirely out of 2x4s but I decided I will use some of my left over 3/4" MDF for the front and make the sides of 2x4s.

I went out to the garage to cut the 2x4 into 9" pieces and I quickly learned that the miter saw, if left in the cold, will cause the trigger to stick. This will leave it in the on position until the strength of the switch can force itself in the on position. The saw is thawing in the kitchen.

Pocket Holes
While the saw is thawing I decided to drill the pocket holes into the top and bottom parts of the towers.

I love pocket holes. I will go out of my way to use pocket holes and even make building decisions to accomodate pocket holes. They are strong, versatile, durable and I paid 40 bucks for a jig.

Their are 2 large makers of the pocket hole jig, Kreg and Wolfcraft. Kreg is one of th leaders in pocket hole jig and carpentry tools. With that leadership comes a price. Wolfcraft also makes the pocket hole jig. I purchased the Wolfcraft jig after doing some lengthy research. My results were that Wolfcraft makes a quality product and also sells their jig in a kit that included: jig, special drill bit, stopper, driver bit and a handful of screws and plugs. The whole kit cost 40 bucks. The cheapest Kreg kit was 60. That included everything except the screws but included a clamp. I could also buy everything ala carte for Kreg for the same price, but Wolfcraft comes with a case to hold everything. Mendards carries both and Lowes carries Kreg in their stores. You can buy all of Kreg stuff from the Lowes website. I'm starting to see them show up at Home Depot now too. On another side note. I was at Menards the other day getting the veneer banding and stopped by the pocket jig ailse, Kreg now has a kit including everything the Wolfcraft kit. Infact, it is in an identical case, just with the Kreg blue instead of the Wolfcraft green.

The jig and bit lets you drill an hole on an angle allowing the screw to have a tight grip on the opposing board, but remain hidden. I applied 1 in each corner of the top and bottom board. These pocket holes will be facing the very top and the very bottom of the cabinet so that you won't be able to see it.

Bar Built-in: Day 5 (final cuts, edging and oh yes....staining)

So, I'm still sick, but I will get this done. I had to finish up some cuts in the garage before I could work inside today. I've found that having a cold and working in 10 degree weather tends to cloud the head. I had to measure and remeasure more then usual, but everything seemed to go okay.

Now earlier I complained about how the cordless saw was borderline useless. I found the battery drained way too quickly and the saw couldn't keep up. Now I took one of the batteries and charged it all day yesterday and used it this morning. It worked great, I was able to complete all my cuts with absolutely no problem. I'm using the cheap charger that came with the saw that has no indicator on it, so its hard to tell if the battery is full charged. I think the batterys need to be trained.

After finishing all the cross cuts I took all the boards into the warm confines of the basement. Laying them out on the saw horses, I relabeled the boards on the very ends so that after I stained them I would still be able to identify the pieces. I lightly sanded the sides of the boards and got them read for applying wood veneer edging.

Veneer Edging
When I first did my book case I was very skeptical about wood veneer edging. I didn't think it would look too good, and more importantly, I didn't think the glue would hold it. I figured I would have to apply wood glue, clamp it awkwardly, have to clean up glue residue and all in all just really hate the process that would end in poor results.

When applying the veneer you will need the veneer a sharp utility knife, a J roller and an old iron you never attend to use on cloths again (we would also except "a new iron that you never attended to use on cloths in the future"). For the most part the whole process won't ruin the iron but it will tend to get scratches, glue reside and a few burn marks on the base. None of which will look good transferred to the your clothes.

I'm applying veneer to the wine rack area of the built in. This area has the sides of the boards exposed. The other areas of the built in will have moldings, but I want to make it easier to take out and insert bottles.


The sides are 3/4" MDF and the insides are 1/2" MDF. I had 3/4" veneer left over from the bookcase project. I applied that to the sides of the 3/4" MDF and then hauled my sick ass all the way to the hardware store. When I got there, I found that they did not have any 1/2" red oak veneer. Infact, it looked like they didn't even make the stuff. So I bought a roll of 3/4".

Applying the veneer is pretty easy. You first want to heat up the iron to a fairly low setting (cotton is best). While it is warming up, roll out your veneer and measure 1" longer the the length you need. You then work from one diretion to the other. I use my left hand to to center the veneer while my right had follows with the iron. I apply light preasure as I work across the edge. You don't want to keep the iron in one place so as to not burn the veneer or cause the adhesive to bleed through.

Once you make it all the way across, use a utility knife to cut off the excess on each side. You then want to use your J-roller to apply preasure to the edging to seal the glue with the edging. Once its applied, use a fine grit sand paper (180) to clean up the edging. You then have the lovely faux appearance of a solid oak board, at MDF/Plywood prices.

Now for my case with the 1/2" board and a 3/4" venner you want to do the same steps, but then take a fresh razor blade and carefully shave off the sides. Now they do make a special cutter that will do it, but that little uni-tasker costs 18 bucks, so I kick it old skool. Now you have to be carefull with shaving the veneer by hand because the grain will split easily. If you do by chance split it, you can easily iron it back in place. However if you take a chunk out, say a few spirtual curse words and start over.

To remove the botched venner you basically do the application in reverse. Right hand applying iron moving backwards while left hand lefts scolding, gooey veneer. I find muttering to myself eases the pain.

Staining
With the edging applied, I started staining. Like I said earlier, I'm only doing one coat of stain and two coats of polyurethane. I put a coat on the pieces and will let them dry over night before I flip them and apply the single coat to the second side.



Day 5: finished cutting the boards, applied veneer edging and began staining.
cost: 2.41 for more veneer edging

Bar Built-in Day 4: (sick)

So the sickness won today, on my birthday. I had my furnace, that was installed last month, inspected today. Took less then five minutes with no problems. I then had to go into work for a meeting and then after lunch the illness took over. Felt very fatiqued and took a nap. For my birthday I went to see The Wrestler at the Ridge (I'll blog about my opinion on it later) and then went to Elsa's for wings (another blog entry about my future wing marathon is for another day).

So day 4 was a bust.

Bar Built-in: Day 3 (ripping, routing and cross cutting)

My dad and I went to buy the wood for the built-in. I bought a 8' x 4' - 3/4" MDF with red oak veneer (main part and shelves) and two 4' x 2' - 1/2" MDF with red oak veneer (wine rack partitions). I learned a few things today in getting the board with my dad's van. It is easier to strap the board to the roof of a mini van then trying to wedge it inside. When it's 10 degrees outside, driving at 35 mph make it equivalent to -40 when you use your hand to hold the board in place.



I took the 8'x4' and cut off the main height of 68 1/2". I then took that piece and rip it down to four 11" pieces.



I used my new Ryobi cordless saw that I got for christmas and learned 1 1/2 cuts into the project that cordless saws are borderline useless. Maybe the battery is not to its full potential, but it doesn't seem to cut it. I still have my dad's 20 year old Craftsman saw and finished ripping the side. I am charging the battery over night to see if I can get another kick out of the saw. I bought a special blade for that saw that was made for plywood and MDF. The only blade I have for my dad's saw is a ripping blade, so if I crosscut with it, it will chip the edge of the veneer. I did this all in the garage because MDF kicks up a lot of dust.


I went through the 4 boards and picked how I wanted the four pieces to go. I inspected the sides to see what were the good sides and what bad sides I did not want seen. Once the orientation was chosen, I put a 1/2" x 1/2" rabbeting bit and set it to a 1/2" depth on my router. I then ran it across the sides to put a grove into the back of the sides to set the plywood backer in.

I took the other half of the 8' x 4' board and ripped out two 10 1/2" x 11 1/2" (middle shelves) and four 11" x 11 1/2" for the top and bottom of the cabinet.

It was a short day, but the weather and my oncoming cold are slowing me down. My goal for tomorrow is to finish cutting the boards, drill my pocket screw holes, and put down a coat of stain on all the large pieces. While its drying I will begins construction of my toe kicks.

Day 3: ripped down sides, top and bottom and routed backing
Cost Today: $67.21

Bar Built-in: Day 2 (staining wine rack)

I started staining the wine rack pieces. I'm using Minwax Red Mahogany oil stain. I used this stain on our kitchen cabinets. I'm thinking of only using one coat though after seeing the first results.

I first applied Minwax Prestain, on each piece with a foam brush. The prestain opens up the wood and allows the stain to evenly coat softer woods. Even though I am building a majority of the cabinet out of oak veneer, the wine rack is constucted from premolded pine moulding.

The prestain takes 15 minutes, then you have to wipe off any excess. You then have to apply the stain within 2 hours. I started applying the prestain and only got through just over half of the 84 pieces before the 15 minutes were up. I decided to start wiping off the excess and begin staining.

Prestain (15 min, wipe) + First coat stain (15 min, wipe) + 6 hours + Second coat stain (15 min, wipe) + 24 hours + First coat of Polyurethane + 4 hours + Second coat of Poyurethane.


Staining is not an exact science, I say this because an exact science has expected results. If you are starting to do staining there are a few things you should know.

1. The color of the stain represented on the can, has no representation of the stain you will put on your wood the first coat.
2. The longer you let it stay on the wood, the darker it will be.
3. The more coats you put on, the darker it will be.
   

For my kitchen cabinets I did 3 coats. First coat sat for 45 minutes, then I wiped off the excess. The Second coat was put on for 45 minutes, then I wiped off the excess. And the Third coat was put on for 60 hours. After 60 hours the stain cures and 2 coats of polyurethane was applied.

I think I'm going to do 1 coat for 15 minutes with 2 coats of polyurethane. Maybe 2 coats. I don't want it as dark as my cabinets so it will blend more with the faded wood paneling in the basement. My kitchen cabinets were made from yellow pine so the grain is less prominant. This built in is oak, so I want to really accent the knotty grain.

Bar Built-in: Day 1 (prep work)

So today I started building. Next week I start the real work of the built in, but I want to get some prep work out of the way.

Day 1 of the project (14 days until I want to complete the project)

I bought the wood for the wine rack. In the moulding section they had pine stopper molding that measures 1/2 x 3/4 - 8'. These sticks will hold the wine bottles (7" pieces) and the glass shelves (10 1/2" pieces) in place. I will need 84 7" pieces and I want to stain them ahead of time. I bought 8 sticks and took them to my parents house to use their electric miter saw. I cut them to size in no time.

Dawn and I then went through the 84 pieces and sanded them. Seeing that I didn't have any latex gloves (thought I had some leftover from the kitchen project, but I don't) we decided to prestain and stain tomorrow. We probably won't get to it until Tuesday because I'm helping my dad prep the bathroom floor for our tile project. We laid them all out so that we could get to prestaining right away.


With the added time, I wanted to start to remove the baseboard inside the bar. I'm going to build the toe kick out of 2x4s. Seeing that it is a basement the floor is pitched to the center. I'm going to have to angle my toe kick so it fits the contour of the basement. The baseboards are made out of 1x4s and I quickly learned that they are in there really good.

Using my small crow bar and hammer I was only able to pull off one section, that was starting to rot anyway (again, basement floor), and pull off the quarter round corner trim. I'm going to borrow a larger crow bar. These 1x4s are nailed with some large penny nails right into the sole plate of the wall.

Day 1: cut the wine rack parts and sanded them
Cost Today: $25.01

Bar Built In: Design

The Begining:
Our house has a classic Wisconsin 50s wood paneled basement. A small bar is in the corner and fits our needs. My wife and I have a healthy love of alcohol and the art of mixology. Since I was 21 (give or take a couple years) I have collected, tasted, and enjoyed the art of mixology. Years ago, when I was in a small studio apartment, a friend saw my alcohol collection and said he hadn't seen such a collection in a private residence since he years in his fraternity. I paused to think I might have a problem, but then accepted it as a complement. Its not like all the bottles were empty (I hid all of those under the couch). I wanted to build a built in, behind the bar, that would not only display many of our fine liquers and distills but to show off many of our unique drinking vessels and tools (all comes with the admiring of mixology).

Like most projects, it spun out of control. I went behind the bar and measured the area behind the bar to put in some shelves. Then I thought, what if we lit it, and what if we put some glass shelves, and what if we made room for my German beer boot, or my martinin glasses, and who can forget shaker, or some of Dawn's painted wine glasses. Sure there was plenty of room under the bar, but what is the point of having cool drinking accessories if you can't show them off. So I set out, restricting myself to under 100 dollars (very early in the planning I up'd it up to 150).

The Designing:
Couple years ago I found out about a program called SketchUp from one of my "do-it-yourself" websites. Its a simple 3D program that lets you generate 3D structures in a simplistic way. Over the years, I used it more and more and now use it for all of my projects to plan out and design my ideas. It gives me time to work out new ideas and think about my projects when I'm not ready to build or don't have money to build.

I've made several different versions of the bar built in, changing things here and there. My goals in the design were simple:

1. Make 2 shelves to hold a majority of my bottles. Making sure Belvedere (favorite vodka, that is also the tallest) sat comfortably on the main shelf.
2. Hold those 2 shelves up with 2 lit towers, with glass shelves to display accessories. Making sure that my German beer boot is properly displayed.
3. Build it so my wife's and my wine fridge can fit under it (awsome wedding gift from a group of dawns friends).
4. Build it out of no more then a single 4'x8' 3/4" mdf with oak veneer.
5. Keep it under 150 dollars.
6. Have it fit the decor. Not too modern, not too classic bar look (I love the look of intricate wood bars. The dark carved wood setting the backdrop a rich oak bar below a tin ceiling. That will not be possible in this cave of paneling).

This is my final design:


It fits almost all my requirements. I wanted to better utilize the space below near the fridge, but to make it easier and fit 1 board, then this is what I had to do. I'm not huge into wine, but Dawn is, so I figured if she needs more then 48 spaces and a fridge then I can build her a seperate wine rack like what Boye did (co worker who built a really nice wine rack for his healthy addiction). I actually used his style of wine rack then an clumsier one I designed in an earlier version.

The Finishing:
I want to stain it as I go along because I think it will be easier to stain the larger pieces and the smaller intricate pieces a head of time instead of finishing all at the end. The basement is a maple/pine paneling. I want a bit of a cherry look and Dawn wants a darker look. So we will be doing a darker stain. I did several tests with different Minwax products and I was extermely suprised and how nice the Polystains looked. However, the color wasn't what I wanted. I decided to go with the Mahogany stain that is left over from my kitchen project. I however won't do as thick of a staining as I did with the kitchen project.

The Final Planning:
So we have the plans, I have the stain selected, and I took the week off to work on it (January 26th, my birthday, to the 30th). I think I can complete it in under a week. I will also be helping my dad tile my parents bathroom floor. We've never tiled before, so this should an exciting week.