Nathen & Terra, 4-8-18

It has been too long since I have been working on the kitchen, and guilted into finishing by Mylinda, I took a day this weekend and went back to work on the kitchen.

My choice was to either work on the back splash or on the arch. I still haven't figured out what to do about the back splash so I went on to the arch. I figured that should be easy enough to deal with and ripped out the remaining arch.

This wall originally had a 4 foot and a 3 foot arch with a 19 inch wall in between them. My plan was to put one big arch about 8 foot 9 inches.

The 4-foot arch came out fairly easy (even with Janelle's help). This left the opening nice and large. I tried to talk Terra into just leaving the large extra light source in the kitchen, but she felt it would look more finished with the arch. So with that, I started to build the arch. The measurements worked out to make it 8 foot 9.

With that, one piece of OSB would not quite cut it, so I had to scab a small piece on the ends of the OSB. When I laid it out in the shop I had to use the floor due to the small piece that was added on to the end of the 8 foot section.

I had Terra help with this part. I stretched a string and tied it to a pencil. I had Terra keep moving further and further back until the arc would connect the three points I laid out on the boards. One was the center with 10 inches up from the bottom and the other two were each lower corner of the boards.

It ended up being a 12 foot radius that gave us the arc we were looking for on the arch.

Deciding how much to take out of the center of the arch was tricky. The 3-foot arch had 5.5 inches of rise in the center. The 4-foot arch had 6 inches of rice in the center. Using this ration of 0.5 inches of rise for every foot of length calculated out to be 8 inches of height in the center of the arch.

After drawing it and having Terra look at it, she wanted another 2 inches of height in the center. So the final was 8 foot 9 inches across and 10 inches of height in the center of the arch.

After measuring it, I took the jig saw to cut it out. I had to change the blade out on the jig saw. When I was working on the back splash I used the jig saw to cut out the electrical boxes in the cement board. I cut out three boxes. That exercise did this to the jig saw blade. It still worked for the cement board, but I didn't think it would do a very good job on the OSB.

Here is the final arch constructed before I hung it. I cut out both sides then took one and cut it down 1.5 inches on both edges and the top. This was so I could install some cut down 2x4s in the opening and slide the arch in from one side. The boards would make up the one face and I could screw the other face into the cut down 2x4s.

This worked surprisingly well.

I only put the arch in once. It fit and I simply screwed it down.

Even better, Terra liked the way it looked once it was hung.

Now I need to re-install the sheet rock on the walls and the arch and finish it from there.

Terra had some extra photos and so I am throwing them in here:

Here is Janelle and Rachel in their Easter dresses.

Kyle likes to make items out of wood. he decided to make a boat. I knew he was out in the shop in the evenings for about a week, but when I went to make the arch I had to move his boat and boat making supplies. The boat is not yet finished but it looks good none the less. Best of all, it should actually float when it is finished (even if upside down).

Terra took the kids and went for a ride down to the river. I don't know the story as I was not present, but it appears they had a good time.

I wonder how the bikes actually worked in the loose sand?

Mia was down from the north countries and talked us into joining here at the temple for Kylie's first experience. Here we are in front of the Tucson Temple.

This picture was left out of our Saguaro National Park hike. Janelle commandeered my hat because she (wanted some shade). She wore the hat on 3/4 of the little hike we were on. It looks like she has seen the value of transporting your own shade on top of your head while out in the sun. Perhaps I should procure another hat in a slightly smaller size just for her.

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