WEB DESIGN IN PROGRESS!: IMPORTANT!! IF THE LINKS DON'T WORK FROM THE TABS RIGHT NOW, RIGHT CLICK AND SELECT "OPEN LINK IN A NEW TAB". Greetings! If you have questions or comments, send correspondence to me, . Not all tabs work at this time as content has not been developed. When you do click on a tab that goes somewhere, you will open a new tab if your browser supports it.
Check out the VOLUNTEER tab for before and after pictures of my recent trip to Pearlington, Mississippi. With four of us from here in Charlottesville via the Building Goodness Foundation, a family of four from Vancouver, Canada who also volunteered through BGF, and twenty-something high schoolers from St. Louis who were staying at the Pearlington Recovery Center, we were able to complete TWO COATS of exterior painting on the Pearlington Community Center in three days. The interior is six thousand square feet and two stories high in some places, so, yeah, we ROCKED!!!
Here's our team below on left, standing in back from left to right, Alexander Milani, David McFayden, Charlie Strickland, Jack Schatzman and Tim Duke. In front, Katrina Milani, Nicole Milani, and myself. Photo on the right shows Charlie and Jack manufacturing the railings.
Click on this link for the Building Goodness Foundation.
VOLUNTEER TODAY!: There are plenty of opportunities in Charlottesville and the surrounding area to volunteer your time in either your specialized field or generally helping others. Check out the volunteer link to see what kind of projects Surface Elegance has participated in.
Meet Karen Kocik
Karen Kocik (aka Schaefer), started Surface Elegance in 1995 after 15 years of working in the computer field mainly as a software engineer, bus also as a technical writer and IT specialist. Learn more about Karen and family here on the family tab.
***Something FUN!
I will be posting the article in the near future, but I have the picture from The Next 50 publication. Click on the link below to see a part of my Sponge Bob collection.
Current Projects
Click on either of the "Projects" tabs above for a archive of client projects completed. Check out these photos of the most recently completed project.
Feel free to email if you have questions on products, processes or costs to do these projects. Send an email to Karen at the main website link. A direct link is not provided here to eliminate spam trolling. If you'd like to schedule a local estimate or consult, call me at (434) 531-4772.
Murphy Window Seat
Hey, I'm not a cabinet maker by trade but I do build dollhouses and construct other kinds of wood projects at home, so when I was offered the chance to build this window seat, I already saw the completed unit in my mind.
This project was actually completed in April. It's not the most recent but one that was a lot of fun to do.
Here is the way the space looked before. The clients had a nice table they used for the family off to the right of the picture. Besides extra storage and a place to sit and read, the window seat also served as bench seating when a large group was eating.
After measuring the middle window area, I constructed the center box at home first, including the lid and the center baffle for redirecting the air from the floor vent. On site, I constructed the side triangular sections, installed the baseboard, picture frame molding, new shoe molding, decorative trim on the lid egdes, and new white vent. The picture below shows the cabinet still needing some sanding, painting and caulking.
All three sections open for storage. Another mathematical and spatial challenge. If I had software for designing things, I could have had a blueprint for all the angles, however, there were some things that only could have been adjusted by trial and error with the pieces. I made the triangles larger and by moving the center piece and those two around, I was able to get a nice fit. I then cut the fronts of the triangles to be even with the center top and then add the decorative trim.
This is the center baffle that I built. It has a set of chambers that move the air up and out the front. It worked like a charm. I was looking for some HVAC element and it may be out there somewhere but nothing that would just hook into a floor vent and curve out to another vent in the front. I found one thing in metal that I could have modified but that was more work than simply constructing this box.
The triangle lids were also a challenge. I had to bevel the back edges so that they would close without rubbing the center lid. Also had to cut the hinge at the back area at an angle so that it would fit in the back area properly.
Finally a finished window seat. The cushions are being custom made to fit the seat. The Murphys were very pleased!
