649 6th

complete dining room

...well not completely done, but I can fake it with this photo!

With the help of our dear friend Jordan we got the entire shelving apparatus installed in the dining room today. The four upright metal poles have adjustable posts with feet that are screwed into the ceiling and floor (4 screws per foot). Meaning, it's not going anywhere. The oak planks and cleats match the installation of the open riser stair treads (jut off to the left in this photo). They feel tight as a drum and strong enough to be building support rather than shelving.

Oh, and we finished installing all of the low voltage tech lighting. Hard to see the fixtures in the photo. They have a lovely crackle white glass finish.

crown molding

Final pieces of molding in the dining room are going in-- the crown molding to be exact. Well, craown molding is a pretty fanciful term in this case. It's really 3/4" MDF cut into 8" strips to match the soffit drops on the second floor.

Not nearly as hard cutting around the beams as we had expected. We decided not to trim out where the chimney juts out. We liked the implied line that passes through without a ton of fussy molding.

stair finish

rack'em (in the name of cosmogonism!)

Here you see the drying rows of polyurethaned oak treads that perhaps as early as tomorrow will be installed as:

1. shiny new and 100% DIY stairs!!!

2. or the completion of a project that started long, long ago in a far away place...

3. or was it way over there that other time ago?

4. or will it be at last the conclusion to the VERY FIRST act of destruction-in-the-name-of-construction (that this property ever saw (under our watchful gaze))!?

(((stay tuned)))

installing window trim

Things were a little more slow going this weekend than we had hoped. Yesterday was sort of a bust, but today we methodically stepped through all of the routing and cutting that needed to be done for both the dining room and kitchen molding. Here's a time lapse of the Dining Room. It'll get a little caulk and one more finish coat of paint, now that it's installed

By the way, the music is a "Maps" tunes called "Don't Fear". One guy from Portland that the Genius side bar suggested to me-- all that Dandy Warhols I would guess.

primed

All of the remaining trim material has been primed and Michael's finishing up the last bit of sanding now (I can hear the orbital whine from where I sit). Tomorrow morning we break out the router table (in the back yard) and fabricate the various notched pieces we need. After that, chocolate brown paint is applied, cut them to length, and nail them up.

With the exception of the crown trim in the dining room this entire house could be finally trimmed out by the end of the weekend!

This little point and shoot digital camera I got recently has a time lapse mode. I hoping to document something good with that tomorrow.

back to the depot

It's been quite some time since we visited the Home Depot just down the hill from where we live. We went earlier this morning to get the remaining pieces of poplar we're milling into the remaining trim on the first floor. It was raining and about 9:00AM on a Sunday morning, we had the place to ourselves.

We had originally thought of using a hand truck to wheel it all back, but as it was pouring when we were ready to go we splurged and got the Jamaican van service (not really a service as much as a bunch of giys from Jamaica with vans). $20 to help you load, drive your home, and unload, the rain was all we needed to tip the balance.

Later in the day we realized that we were a couple of 1x6's short; so for the first time in MONTHS we went to the depot twice in one day. We must really be back in the reno business. We carried home four twelve foot pieces. Looking like a Laural and Hardy accident waiting to happen, we josseled our way home none the worse for wear.

dining blue

Love the color. Really enjoy the pleasure of painting new construction. Absence of molding is such a relief. Remarklably clean experience.

Looking forward through the stairs at split view of 1st and 2nd floors is going to be so hot when we're done. Very exciting.

Toby found a metal manufacture and is discussing specs and cost estimate for the dining table frame.

Ideas are popping. Toby has a great design for shelving that integrates the chimney-sides both upstairs and downstairs: floor-to-ceiling poles that will likely be ordered from same shop that makes the table. Assuming that order goes well.

oh oh oh what a ceiling

A picture's worth how many words? Patient work applying dark stain right up against old unfinished boards so as not to bleed all over their golden selves. The beams only got a light sanding, and I'm considering a second sanding just to the undersides; see whether there's something archeological hiding in all that grain.

Question remains whether the molding runs contiguously beneath the beams or sits flush to a common line slightly above the height of the lowest beam. In other words, single trim board with a dental notch for each beam or individual sections of board installed between each beam?

Leaning towards the latter option, but contiguous board keeps calling my name. The out of town wedding guests we're hosting this weekend have DIY expertise. Maybe pick their brains to break the tie.

spring has sprung

For the past few months we've been able to convince ourselves that we couldn't get any more work done in the house as there was no place left to make a mess. You know, too cold to work outside but since all of the rooms have a certain degree of finish we couldn't really stir up a lot of dust...are you buying it?

Until last week I don't think we had done a lick of work on the house since John and Aimee's birthday parties back in December. I guess we earned a bit of a break from the run up to the event, but I think the rest is over. I'm tired of having no bookshelves and no place to put away my clothes. It's time to get busy.

Before we could start anything new however there was one lingering project i sore need of attention; finish the floors. We had only put sanding sealer on the before the party and then never got around to do the finish coats. For a number of reason we went with polyurethane, not my first choice in terms of material but the durability own out in the end. Michael applied it in three thin coats over a two day period at the end of last week, giving the last coat 24 hours to dry sans cats and humans. It doesn't look all that plastic coated and finally it has a little protection.