I completed all the woodwork on the bay window unit today. I won’t play conquering hero either. With the weird angles and different depths of the windows, the embedded convection steam radiator, and more than a couple of measure-once goofs, I was very lucky to get through this without a major screwup.

This weekend, I completed and installed that removable grill in the center of the windows. This was also a bit of work. There are seven boards and two store-bought but modified red oak grills in that face panel, all of them biscuited together with waterproof glue. I wanted no chance that heat and steam from a leaky air valve would cause problems with that lamination, as it did in the dining room cabinet. I was going to do some router scroll work between the grills. I caught myself just in time. It would have exposed those embedded biscuits.

Because the panel needs to be removable, I used some old-style cabinet spring catches. Sometimes a 99-cent solution is the best.

By the way, the convection works! Tonight turned very cold again so the heat is cranking. I checked the convection with a cigarette but you can actually feel the breeze from the top vent.

I also added an additional trim detail to the windows: a standard door stop strip that I tarted up with a fluting bit. You can’t really see it in this picture but I think it helps frame the windows a bit better. My flash photography skills suck but, trust me, it looks nice in the daylight.

One thing I definitely want to do is something about those stark white aluminum windows. Once the woodwork is stained and finished I’ll probably paint them, color matched to the trim.

Next up: the drawers and doors for the cabinet, the doors for that “attic” cabinet over the closet and the frames for that window into the hallway. I probably won’t get to the stained glass for the cabinet and window until this summer. While stained glass is basically just wood joinery using broken glass, it’s a completely different design mindset than woodworking so I’ll wait to do all the glass projects at the same time. A couple of those jobs have been on my to-do list for at least three years.

I’ve always maintained that this room reno would take me seven months. Well, it’s Month Seven and I still have a lot to do. Besides the woodwork finishing, the two big projects looming are finishing off the closet interior (cedar, clothes pole, shelves in back) and laying down the new floor.

I hope it’s finished by May. But then what will I blog about?