Today we finished building the new legs for the north wall counter, cutting that counter 4 inches shorter, cutting down the legs for the south wall counter, moving the hearth a little bit, and reinstalling everything.
With the counters now at 33 1/2 inches instead of 35 the whole space feels bigger and more balanced. The change is a lot more dramatic than you’d expect from 1 1/2 inches in height. We both spend a LOT of time fussing over the geometry of every aspect of the space. If something doesn’t look right at first glance it’s probably not and should be changed. Same thing with seating, table, beds, counters, overhangs. Like I’ve said many times here, I don’t necessarily have the vision to know when something is going to be right, I just know when it’s wrong so I spend a lot of time rebuilding things!
I’m liking the black pipe cross members (if you didn’t see the last post these sleeve around all-thread and are finished with handmade square washers and square nuts) however, ever since I screwed down the hearth with plain zinc lag screws and washers I am realizing that this whole space would look fantastic with all of these details in galvanized and zinc. This would save me obscene amounts of time and effort scrubbing down black pipe and gun-bluing it. I never imagined that plain galvanized could look good as an interior detail but I feel like this space could pull it off perfectly. Definitely making a mental note for version 2.0.
A bit of a close call on the sink install – I forgot to leave clearances for the sink clips to hook into, but the trim router came to the rescue helping me carve nice little pockets for the hooks.
The new refrigerator fits under the counter, which is really the only positive thing I can say about it. I absolutely hate the poor efficiency and limited selection in small size refrigerators, which I’m sure I will rant about at length in future posts.
– Brian
