Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Compared Shots

Instead of posting another set of photos of people putting in trim, trim, milling trim, cutting trim, and or varnishing trim its about time to have some comparison shots.


Upstairs Windows

Upstairs Windows

Sun Room

Sun Room

Basement Stairs

Basement Stairs

Basement Stairs



Great Room Entrance

Great Room Entrance

Front Door

Front Door

Sun Room Windows

Sun Room Windows

Utility Room

Utility Room


Original Real Estate Photo

Monday, September 19, 2011

Window work

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     It was one of the best work weekends in quite some time as far a getting trim knocked out.  Doug, Amber, Lynch and Carly took shifts sanding and varnishing various window parts.  It was dry enough too that we could get them turned around from start to install in about two hours.  So it was a combination of quick turn around times and having all the universal pieces ready to go that allowed us to get 167 pieces installed.  We fell a little short of the goal (getting all the windows done), but there are only about 40 pieces to go and most of them are made and sitting about.  If things go well this up coming week then we will have the windows finished up by Tuesday night and most of the baseboard in by the end of next weekend.
    The goal date is to have the interior done enough (I will still need winter projects) to be moved in by the end of October.  Where we are now it looks like this is fast becoming a reality.  There isn't too much raw woodworking left to do, so we will be filling and sanding cracks, gaps and countersunk nails for the first week or so of October.  After that its detailed drywall repair and lots and lots of cleanup.


Doug Varnishing the Table Top

Putting Sashes in the sun room

finishing up the stair Sills

Lock mortised into bedroom door

Bedroom door handle

Master bedroom windows finished
Plates for bedroom door

Signing the table

First layer of trim

Second layer of trim

Table drying


Still Drying

Yet another picture of varnished wood drying

Great room windows done



Third round of trim

Five pieces left to put in

Adding Top Plates to great room windows
One more piece to go

Finished product

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Wood Icing

The past week has certainly had its ups and downs with pieces not fitting, drill bits snapping and to top it off the motor to my table saw burned out Friday night.  Needless to say it was a frustrating start to any work weekend.  I ended up at Lowes Friday evening since they are apparently the only box store around anymore that sells decent tools and contractor grade saws.  To be able to call it a "Table" saw then it really should have a table attached to it, not a 12" by 12" top that weighs 40 lbs.  The last thing I want is to have the thing flip over while ripping out a board.  I say I decided to get a porter cable saw, but really that was the only one on the floor and not "special order" so the decision was more along the lines of taking a two to three week break from working and paying freight costs or just getting the floor model.   So far it is working great and has a bit more power to it than my previous saw.
By the end of the weekend we were back into the swing of things and accomplished a decent amount of progress with Amber sanding and varnishing blanks and Lynch planing down the blanks I ripped out of our raw oak.  Despite our best efforts we were no where near what I had hoped to get done, but that has only happened once or twice since the start of things two years ago.  The current goal is to have all the windows trimmed out by the end of the weekend so base board can be installed next week.  It may be doable depending on how much we can get done during the day or evenings.  It looks like we have a little over half of the window pieces installed now.

Hanging Closet Doors

Putting in Top Trim

Stained Glass Framed and Installed

Casing Stairwell windows

Kitchen Windows Done

Looking through The glass

Top plates ready to go


Door Uprights

Entry to the Bedrooms

Working bathroom with hot water

Transition in and closet trimmed

Knobs

Study window 8/9 done

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Labor days

     It was an extremely productive weekend in retrospect, but we didn't make a much flashy progress as we had initially thought possible.  For the greater part of the past two weeks work has consisted mainly of either running lumber through a plainer, then a router, then a sander, to finally be varnished.  Looking at the piles of finished trim lying about the house I think that about three quarters of it is made and sitting around waiting to be installed.  I had hoped on getting a huge amount of it installed over the long weekend, but the loose ends I tried to tie up on Thursday night ended up spilling over into all day projects on Friday.  Between the crew of Lynch, Doug, Amber and myself we ended up getting the kitchen counter bolted into place, the sink working, a dishwasher installed, a garbage disposal installed, the bathroom vanity installed, the bathroom sink hooked up, the shower and bathtub fixtures installed, and the hot water heater operating by Saturday morning.  With those things out of the way the slow process of installing trim began.
    To install it we start at the door frames and work backwards through a room until reaching another door frame.  That means that the trim around all the doors needs to be in before the baseboard can be cut to size and tacked in.  Most of Saturday was spent installing door casings as well as the exterior wood work.  On average it took me about three hours to get all the casing for a door finished and it just so happened that the entry room we started in has more doors than all the other rooms of the house combined.  By then end of the weekend though I had figured out a system that works for me and at least in my mind speeds up the carpentry.  The goal by the end of this weekend is to have all the windows in the house done.  It is one of the first points in the project where it really is starting to look like a house, which is certainly exciting for everyone involved with the project.


Making the dining room table

All the doors are hung

Clamping in an apron 

Transition pieces installed

Sink getting worked on

Dishwasher hooked up

Garbage disposal hooked up


Making the corner blocks

Corner blocks being installed on the brick face

Trying unsuccessfully to mount a register

Bathroom sink up and running

Bathroom Vanity Installed

Putting Trim on the door casing

Fully trimmed out door casing

Connecting spaces

Baseboard in entry room

Front door Casing and trim completed 

Base Trim In kitchen
Piece by piece

Kitchen sink up and running

Still more sticks of trim curing