The soybomb roof... Pt.2

 This is the state of the roof just after the kitchen was finished.

 This parapet wall was nice.  But dangerous. A friend actually fell of this roof at one point.  (not on the deck part mind you)

 


  

 As soon as we had access to the roof, i had put a tomato plant (and then planter) on the roof.  The success of this plus the realisation that it's easy to grow stuff led to a series of planters being built.  This eventually evolved into what the roof array is now.
the tree was added because the roof was brutally exposed during the hot summers here in Toronto.  We didnt want to put up a tacky umbrella that would blow away either.  So we put in a tree. worked not too bad

The soybomb roof... Pt.1

When the first denizens of soybomb moved into the new HQ at 156 bathurst, one of the first interesting things discovered was that the roof above was a flat 3000 square-feet surface.  The downside was that there was NO access.  We had to place a rickety home made 2x4 ladder off the rickety fire escape to get up there.  Dangerous AND annoying.  Then to our eternal happiness the landlord (who is an all-round AWESOME dude) had forced air units (for heating and cooling) installed on the roof.  This was a bonus becasue the first winter was a brutal experience.  Hot water rads hooked to a 70 year old boiler that NEVER seemed to work.  The next and immediately obvious bonus, was a trap door to the roof that was installed above the stairwell.  It turns out that by modern code, roof units have to have constant access to them.  this requires a trap-door if there isn't already an opening in place.  This meant that WE had constant (somewhat) easy access to the roof now!

The first thing we did was set up a rickety ladder ( i see a trend here) to the trapdoor and hangout!  Then after much observation i noted that while it was awesome to hangout on the roof, we didn't want to puncture the 70 year-old roof's tar membrane by crunching a stone through it with our shoes and have a drip onto any of our varied electronics!  So we started designing a patio.
As luck would have it, i acquired about 60 or so 10' 4x4s leftover after a factory pit-forming job.  These were placed on 12" centers straddling 3.5" wide 2" thick slats of Styrofoam.  The Styrofoam absorbs the weight place unevenly upon stones that sit proud.  So that rather than pressing the stone down into the roof, it is instead absorbed into the yielding body of the Styrofoam. Voila!  Now with the 4x4s placed on 12" centers, there was on average only a 7.5" gap between them.  this is Far less than the usual 14.5 " gap usually present in deck and framing structures.  This means we could get away with using a cheap inferior and easy to replace decking.  We used 1x3 spruce strapping.  Cheap and plentiful.

We thought we were lucky getting an overcast day in the middle of summer to do this.  It turned out to be very hot and muggy for one (thus the lack of shirts!), and it urns out that cloud cover does little to stop UV.  The UV index for that day was STAGGERING!  All of us burned.  Some badly.  And I NEVER burn!

Nate (on the right) is one of the original residents of soybomb.  Adam (middle) moved in after Nate moved out.  Suzanne (right) moved in shortly before that.

Deck is taking shape!

I bet Nate is browner in this pic than in earlier ones!
also... the damn cheap nail coils kept jamming!

The slats used for decking were sealed on the bottom side before being fastened to the 4x4s. The idea being that if the pieces were completely sealed, they would have a much greater longevity than they would otherwise. Given the lower quality of the boards, this was a necessity.  After the deck was completely clad, it was sealed over the entire surface including nails + holes.  This sealed the boards completely against moisture (for a time)

Kumiko (the cat) comes out to appreciate the work performed by her servants.

Soybomb Kitchen pt.10 (99.9% done)

 One of the first things done when the kitchen was finished was to have a  themed get-together. Which involved samurai movies, sake, and a gigantic spread of vegan sushi.

 somewhere behind all that food and stuff is the Glass back-splash.

 More or less finished kitchen.

Soybomb Kitchen pt.9 (finished?)

 After much debate, I was allowed to affix my magnetic knife holder to the wall in that spot.

 Life without a back-splash.  It will eventually be a 3 part glass back-splash with painted back.  Holes cut for outlets.

 One of the crappy old fridges turned fake stainless steel.

 Suzanne showing me how to use the sink. I gotta admit, i never quite learn :)

Soybomb Kitchen pt.8

 The ramp got turned into a door-painting factory!

 as did other areas of the space...

 so many doors and drawers!

 We did a lot of work with those shelves...  They are originally really nicely grained mahogany bi-fold doors. We sanded them, Spackled them sanded them, Clear coated them.  Only to decide that it was way too much wood for one wall.  So we painted them to match cabinetry.  I like how they turned out.

 you can see the cleat on the wall for the last shelf.
all the shelves are attached to the wall at the rear, and suspended by cable from the ceiling at the front.

 The cable was probably thicker than i needed. i tend to over engineer.  but it had some memory in it, and it need to be weighed down while the glue dried on the cleats overnight.

details of the island.

Soybomb Kitchen pt.7

 The wall treatment was a 3-part project.  First the wall had to be furred out to make it plumb.  Then there was a layer of dense and strong flooring sheets. (thats the stuff with the darker reddish tone)  5/16 thick but more rigid than 3/4 plywood.

 Then some mahogany door skins were glued and tacked to that layer.  These had a real nice grain and the overall wooden backdrop acts real nice counterpoint to the concrete, steel and grey cupboards with a warmth prevents the kitchen from feeling too much like a mad scientist's lab.

 That pipe in the corner is actually a roof drain from the flat roof that exists on the building.  there was no moving it. A bulkhead would have intruded too far into the kitchen making an unsightly symmetry.    So we painted it.  was a pain in the ass to work around though.  Every step of the way.

 2 layers.

 That grey bullhead in the corner houses an electrical panel. It is made of a durable plywood.  And thus the section missing a cabinet as we needed access.

 Faucet installed!

Damn pipe.