THERE'S NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT

It's in the genes.

 It has to be.

       Neither my older brother nor I fell far from the ELB III tree.

                           

OH, HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN

Even the best of men must resort to reading the instruction booklet now and then.

A BENCH IN PROGRESS

The framing for the bench seat covering the duct work in my studio

Seat as seen from the doorway

The front of the bench has 3 compartments for storage

Essential tools

A crude jig to create uniform lengths of bead board

Each board  is cut into 17 1/4 inch lengths  to face the bench

Painted bead board, salvaged from the side porch ceiling

Leveling the first board 

Two wires come out the front for electrical sockets

I'm lovin' the look of the authentically aged boards

SATURDAY

     Tomorrow is Saturday.  One of my favorite days of the week.  Of course 10 out of 10 people would probably say the same thing but not for the same reason.

    Tomorrow I GET to work on my old house.  Now mind you...this is not tongue-in-cheek or the kind of GET to Tom Sawyer would use when he was white washing the fence or that my mother used to use when I was a little girl and she would say, "Carlie I'm going to LET YOU dust today."  I am really excited about tomorrow because I GET to use my new tools and the new skills and tool tricks I have picked up these last 2 days.

    As a sneak preview...here is a beadboard trimmed out skylite in my new studio space.  It is quite good, if I do say so myself!

TOOL? TOY?

    Guess who has a new toy tool toy?  That would be ME!  We are beginning to do more detailed work involving trim.  The agenda the next couple of weeks includes building posts for the 2nd story using the one remaining post we found in the basement rafters as a template, constructing a bench seat to conceal the ducts crossing my studio, and trimming the skylites with bead board.  The new tool for these and other upcoming tasks is a cordless pneumatic nailing gun.

Ooooooooooo....AHHHHHHHHHH !

I have already taken this lovely for a spin, so to speak, and it is a blast.  Any one need something fastened with a finishing nail?  Is it odd that I am so enamored with tools?  Does anyone else out there share this passion?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

You've gotta respect a tool that can throw sparks like this...

(click here)

AND the women who can effectively use it!

My dear friend Taylor joined me for some fun this afternoon

"GOOD USE OF AN S.A.T. WORD, MOM"

Anytime I speak a word more challenging to spell or define than those in my 1st grade reader....

Ann ran.

A man ran.

A ram ran.

....my son has been known to say, "Good use of an S.A.T. word, Mom!"

    This renovation project has expanded my vocabulary.  Some of my newly acquired vocabulary have been made up words like fairytoon.    Learning new terms for tools (A sawzall is actually a reciprocating saw ),  and parts of a house ( 'Dash' is not only a punctuation mark or something reindeer do , and 'flashing' is not only something streakers do ) has had a positive effect on my vocabulary.  Hearing some of the subcontractors converse among themselves has, on occasion, offended my ears.     

    I hope to continue expanding my vocabulary in a positive way.  It helps being able to speak the language when you are in foreign territory.  It makes communicating with contractors, construction crews, and salesmen in the building trade one heck of a lot easier.

A-HHHHH ! THE SMELL OF NEW WOOD

  Perhaps insignificant to most, but the smell of new wood is a delight to me.  A fir is especially nice and we have recently put up new fir rafters on the 3rd floor which will remain exposed against the dry-walled and painted surface.

(new fir tongue & groove flooring)

   Today Donnie and I will finish replacing a section of porch flooring with new tongue and groove fir which we found to match the existing flooring.

And I get to use the nailing gun again!

NEW JOB + NEW TOOL = NEW SKILL

And by the transitive property.....happy me!

.....Am I remembering my elementary school math correctly?

My new heat gun  to be used in removal of 100 year old glaze. 

 

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

Completion of a recent project brought a huge smile to my face.  Our friend and general contractor Donnie said to me, "It doesn't take much to make you happy, does it?"  And, truthfully, I must say that is an accurate statement.  I have so enjoyed these past few weeks working on this house.
   We suspected, and the roof work revealed, that the sills of the four 7 foot windows leading to the porch roof were in need of serious repair.

 As with most of the materials used in the original construction, the wood used in the making of the sills is no longer readily available or reasonably affordable.
  Here comes the fun part... Instead of paying someone to mill the sills and door frames, we've done it ourselves.  Fortuitously, my brother owns a 10 inch planer which he has been kind enough to loan us.  We located 3 inch thick rough cut fir at a local mill and planed it down to 2 1/4 inches.  After a run through the table saw to form an angle, cuts with the circular saw to notch out each end, and a pass over by the palm sander, we have 5 beautiful new sills.

(primed and ready to install)

This beautiful finished product brought a tremendous smile to my face!

SEVERAL TENSE MOMENTS

  MANY years of water damage led to rot resulting in a basement window carrying the load of 3 joists.  Yesterday we undertook a major job...replacing these 3 floor joists and an exterior support beam. I say yesterday because that is when I became involved.  Truth-be-told, our general contractor Donnie has been mulling it over for some time and had done all the precautionary prep work days before.

 

Exterior molding removed and saved, stucco cut out, house jacked and braced from the interior, it was time to cut out and replace the joists and support beam.... 

YIKES!  Several tense moments ensued. 

Once begun, it was necessary to complete this fix to a certain point before the next day since rain and high winds had been predicted for the following day.

 So with the help of a spotlight, diligent workers,

and tandem screwdrivers,

we were able to leave the house secure.  PHEW !!!

MY FORMER LOVE

My reciprocating saw was not cut out (a nod to Wallace) to  handle this mammoth demolition job.  Last night it bit the dust...and after only 1 month on the job! Thus my former love has been laid to rest to make room for yet another infatuation..... the heavy-duty, industrial powered amped up version of my original saw.  Thanks goes out to Rick and Sheila at Lowes  who accepted my dead tool for a full refund/store credit even without a receipt.  I now own the Papa Bear of DeWalt saws. 

Of course it is 2x as heavy as the original 'ladies' version so I will likely defer to the guys when there is major demo to be done.

MY LATEST LOVE

I like tools.  To be specific, I like power tools.  This must be part of my genetic makeup passed down to me from my Daddy.  None of my friends (excluding Taylor and perhaps Julie) would have been excited to receive a power washer for her 20th anniversary and an angle grinder for a recent birthday (Thank you Lucius for the tip about that spark throwing tool).

I must say that my latest love is the reciprocating saw.  Not only is it moving this demolition project along more quickly, but I spent this sunny afternoon with it taking down monster bamboo.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE