Building

The absence of red-tape in the Dom Rep means that building pretty much anything you want is a breeze. A simple pencil sketch and a small fee gets you a building licence from the local council.

The project next door

When an opportunity to purchase the land next to my house came up, it was a dream come true. I'd been looking at plots of land because I wanted to build a new house.

It was a dense jungle which required some big machinery to clear. Luckily I knew a guy who had such machinery for hire.

After clearing the land, with the help of some local labourers, we repaired the damage we'd caused to the footpath and dropped the kerb at the same time, then dug out the footings and built the perimiter wall and gateways.

Meanwhile, my daughter, who helps with all of my projects, decided I was too slow and got straight onto building a house!

Next, in my garden, I made the two gates. A small entrance gate and a huge 7m x 2m drive gate.

This was my first attempt at making a steel gate and I was worried that it would warp, but it didn't. It turned out better than I'd anticipated. I made guide posts with 4 adjustable nylon rollers for the big gate.

It was heavy, really heavy. It took 4 of us to move it out of my garden to its location next door

Sadly, I never got to build the house which I'd planned. A change in my life circumstances coincided with an offer which I couldn't refuse. I sold the land to my lawyer. Although it was profitable, I'd would have liked to see it though to completion.

Extending my house

coming soon

Making my own kitchen

Although I'd made quite a few things with pine in past years, I'd never worked with hardwood before. I came across some African Mahogany in a yard one day and bought 4 planks to make a couple of bedside cabinets.

I'd had to buy quite a few tools to make the cabinets, and build a workbench/router table, so why stop at a pair of cabinets?

I bought a large delivery of hardwood ply and Dominican Mahogany (Caoba), some new router bits and set to work...

I started with all the base unit cabinet carcasses first. Instead of making long units, I made them in standard 500mm and 600mm so that I could change them around until I was happy with them, or replace one unit. I then made all the doors before starting on the wall units.

I opted for opaque glass panels for the wall units with LED lighting inside and under the breakfast bar, and up and downlighting. I finished with Green Butterfly granite worktops and splahback.

Making my own sofas

I never set out to make a sofa... it all started when my daughter, Angelina needed a toy box.

I already had a few sheets of plywood and some timber from some wardrobe shelves I'd taken out and replaced, so I thought I'd use them. After a bit of thought of how to make them not look like recycled wardrobe bits I came up with an idea of a dual purpose toy box, something that would look nice and be functional in two ways; a sofa toy box. Angie chose a material and we bought foam.

I made two more similar storage sofas for other people before realising that my own sofa in my TV lounge was looking rather tired. I invested in some tools such as a pneumatic stapeller/nailer, upgraded my compressor, I bought sheets of mdf, rolls of cloth, different types of foam, zippers and edging rope trim.

For my TV room I made a large 6/7 seater L shape sofa in three sections, two three seat sctions joined at a separate corner piece with integrated storage.

Starting with the outside profiles, I cut the shape from MDF then tied them together at my required length using 2"x2" planed timber and added support and stength timber where required. After adding the elastic cushion supports, I covered them with 30mm foam topped with a calico cloth then finished the carcasses with white synthetic leather.

I made the arms as separate boxes, which I screwed onto the carcasses after upolstering them.

Covering the carcasses wasn't very easy with people sleeping on the job!

I cut the seat cushions from 100mm medium density foam using an electric carving knife, filled the backrest cushions with bags of chopped foam in calico inner liners. I also used calico as dust covers for the underneath.

Making the cusion covers took me about three times as long as making the frames; a lot of repetitive work. I'd not done anything like this before, so learning how to use a sewing machine and how to make covers was an adventure. I don't think I did too bad. I Learnt how to make pocketed and concealed zippers.

I then went on to make two new sofas for my reception room. However, I cheated a little bit here. Before discarding the old sofas, I decided to take them apart to see what I could learn about how they were built. Once I got them down to bare wood, I realised that the frames were still in relative good order, and could be rebuilt. So, I replaced all the foam, cloth and trim.

After completing the kitchen I had a few planks of mahogany left, and an offcut slab of granite. From these bits I made a serving table with wine rack. Still I had a few pieces left to used it up making a cot for my soon-to-arrive daughter.

I was quite pleased with how the table came out. It was 100% mahogany, even the drawers, base and back. I finished it with linseed oil which really brought out the grain.

I used it in my house for a couple of years until a neighbour offered me £700 for it. As it was made out of leftovers, I sold it, intending to make a replacement, which hasn't happened yet.

Once again, I used the remaining left overs from the Kitchen construction to make the cot.

Instead of having a drop side, I made an adjustable height base. I finished it with a non-toxic laquer.

We still have the cot, now flat-packed. My daughter said we can't get rid of it; she wants it!

Once she grew out of it I had to make her a bed, a strange monstrosity, but something she wanted: A bunk bed with a double lower bed and a single top bunk.

As it turned out, I made everything she has in her room; the bed, a chest of drawers, the toy-box sofa, a desk and a chair.

mail@vicstewart.com