Studio apartment build project

Ha ha! Yes that weight lifting thing has been very useful in a lot of projects It's incredibly heavy so great for gluing surfaces, etc.

It’s coming along nicely. The laser cutting is really clean — wish I had access to that, but I have to do it all by hand.

Well, all walls are up now. Corners have been filled in with putty, and just waiting for minor touch ups. The next update will either be success or end of project as I'm putting in the floor. It will be actual wood flooring (i.e. not printed paper), and is delivered on 4 sheets to fit the room. Thing is from what I recall the adhesive is so strong that it fitting is a one-chance deal, either ok or disaster. So fingers crossed. Wood floor sheets are in the mail currently coming from the US.

Perhaps you can set the wood floor panels in place using a different, less instantly permanent, adhesive rather than peeling the paper backing off the sticky side of the panels.

davidd wrote:Perhaps you can set the wood floor panels in place using a different, less instantly permanent, adhesive rather than peeling the paper backing off the sticky side of the panels.

Good suggestion, Dave.

There are also sellers on Etsy that make a downloadable file of 1/6 scale “flooring” that you print yourself on card stock that you can glue down yourself without worrying about super strong adhesive.

It's looking really good so far!

Thanks for the great suggestions! I'll go for the real wood, primarily because of durability and it makes it a bit easier to sand in case of paint spill during the install of the baseboards. Also have door and window on order which is coming in from Ukraine. More updates after the packages arrive.

Great paint job on those walls!  

I like the idea of your real wood floors too - I'm planning some using a bundle of 3/8" x 15" wood strips and laying them down one at a time, but I'm not planning on sanding or a putting a nice, slick finish on the first project.  Hopefully, they will add to the stiffness of the base, since I'm using a piece of 5/8" corrugated cardboard for that to hold down the weight.

r3500vdp wrote:Thanks for the great suggestions! I'll go for the real wood, primarily because of durability and it makes it a bit easier to sand in case of paint spill during the install of the baseboards. Also have door and window on order which is coming in from Ukraine. More updates after the packages arrive.

Those are quiet good, I also have some wooden stuff from Ukraine seller on etsy. 

Liking your progress so far 

Looking good - I hope the wood flooring is just as you hope. Good idea going for pre-made; I made one by cutting individual wood veneer strips and it was an absolute beast to stick down and keep flat - it took twice the time as the rest of my whole project put together. Panels should be much more cooperative!

Thank you for all feedback. Really appreciate the help and advise. The floor is still on the way but door and window arrived and were installed over the weekend. As forum member Valiarde wrote, very impressed with the realism of the Ukrainian builder of these. Looks exactly like the door I have in our own home! After finishing the project, I'll have to have some kind of background for the window. Right now we're looking at my wife's bicycle, parked in the basement.

Looking really cool!

Nice. I have a number of items like the door (probably from the same maker). Neat stuff.

I agree, looks sharp.

Thanks!

Yes I agree, our Ukrainian builder delivers some very cool stuff, great craftsmanship.

Wow, these look beautiful! Very neat and clean and convincing!

And... the floor is in. That real wood is very nice, it feels like an actual wood floor. I had to use 4 sheets in total. Now as you can see there is a seam running from top to bottom. Unavoidable as cutting along the side edges is very difficult but it is strategically placed as it will be covered by bed and rug so it will be fine. I've already made a small start in the corner with the next step. Now if adding baseboards is similar to the real work, you may hear some light swearing going on for the next 2 weeks as I hate doing baseboards with a vengeance! With the floor and door added, the wall paint is now contrasting nicely and no longer looking white.

Looks good.

I agree, looks good. And I'm glad you thought of a way to hide the seam.

Nice work!

Oh that's already looking quite cozy! Beautiful wall color and floor! So.. baseboards, huh? Your cryptonite?

Diana wrote:Oh that's already looking quite cozy! Beautiful wall color and floor! So.. baseboards, huh? Your cryptonite?

Balsa wood would be a good item for that, easy to cut too

Yes the baseboards are made out of balsa so easy to work with. Lots of mitre saw work ahead, plus wood filler, sanding, masking, painting and repeating. But it's fun, glad to see it coming along. Thanks as always for all kind feedback, really appreciated it.

Also at the same time starting to plan out the room divider. More laser cutting.

Good luck with the baseboards (we call them skirting boards?)... the corners are the worst if you are trying to mitre neat angles. Looking good as the room emerges!

Admittedly the start was a little too slow for my enjoyment, but I am now getting very excited for every update! I appreciate your level of craftsmanship.

It's slow going at the moment. Good progress on the baseboards but need to take frequent breaks for sanding, paint drying wood filler and venting frustration, etc. On the room divider, I gave up on laser cutting, turned out to be a bit of a disaster as the fit isn't great and ended up applying more filler than Kim Kardashian. Now trying a new approach and have installed Blender and making a 3D model which my niece's husband will 3D print for me. Learning Blender is fun but not the easiest software in the world.

Very nice work, it's looking quite convincing!