Fireplace

We have always wanted a fireplace in our living room. Our living room isn't very big, but my remodeling project presented a nice opportunity to add one. It, also, allowed me to learn and exercise new skills. I had never installed anything like this before, and the veneer stone presented a challenge.

You see, I am comfortable with laying tile on a floor. Been there, done that - and did it well. Installing large, heavy blocks of colored cement on a vertical surface is different. It's not a precise. It isn't as pretty, quite frankly. Much like the differences between rough and finish carpentry.

I prefer finish carpentry (not trim work, though). I, also, prefer tile work to stone.

So during this task my mood swung from fear, to confidence, to drudgery. Fear of, "can I do this?" Confidence - I am doing this. Quickly supplanted by, "how much longer am I going to have to do this?"

Before I started, but after I wrestled several hundred pounds of blocks into my living room, I started having second thoughts. I could have tiled the surround. Built a wood cabinet. Maybe learned to stucco. When it came time to do it, I just did it.

What I didn't quite appreciate was how dirty the work was going to be. It's bitterly cold out, so I had to mix and clean up indoors. I had to wet saw indoors. I had to chip stones indoors. Concrete dust made my skin rough and my hair like straw. It was all fun, once. The novelty wore off quickly. The second, third, fifth bucket of mortar, and complete clean up, just became work. There was no way out but through. The way to be done was to get done.

Like rough carpentry, I was never quite pleased with the fruits of this labor. I can see the mortar there. That stone isn't straight. I can see the cut line over there. When you've devoted several weekends to something, you don't want lackluster results. You want to Mona Lisa, you need the Sistine Chapel.

What I got was a fireplace.

And a few hundred pounds of leftovers.

Two Little Steps

Another small step in my remodel project - the stairs leading from the front hall into the family room.

I removed the ruined carpet only to discover that the treads, at 10-1/2 inches deep, were almost flush with the risers. My initial plan to paint them wouldn't work. So I bought a couple hickory treads, 11-1/2 inches wide, finished them with water-borne urethane made for floors, and installed them. Also touched up the trim with some Duration in Extra White.

They aren't terrific, but they are certainly better than before.

Piano Room Remodel

 Done.

The piano room (aka the living room or front room) remodel is complete.

This is the least-used room in our house. Even still, the carpet was shot. The original paint was tired. The curtains were dusty and had never been cleaned. It needed to be updated, with new colors and better materials.

We settled on solid wood. Our basement is dry, heated and air conditioned, with its air continuously circulated throughout the house, so our house is a fine candidate for wood floors. We are lucky to have a flooring mill about an hour away. I spent the better part of a year ordering and examining flooring samples from all over. I taught myself what to look for and how to tell quality from junk. If I have a fault, it's that I can study a topic to death.

Once we settled on solid flooring, that I would install myself, we had to pick a species and finish. Brazilian cherry is all the rage, maybe to the point of being dated. Acacia looks nice, but doesn't grow tall, resulting in many short boards. But, really, one of my fears was having a couple tons of wood dropped off at the end of my driveway, in whatever weather, for me to deal with. Bah. For us, a local mill with local products would do just fine.

So off to Sheoga we went to look at flooring. We have a lot of cherry in our house. Cherry kitchen. Cherry master bathroom. I like cherry. It's easy to work with and dimensionally stable. My wife, however, thought it was "too red" and chose hickory, instead. Character hickory, with knots and veins and what-not.

I chose the paint color (Temperate Taupe by Sherwin-Williams). The ceiling got painted white.

So, for $1000 of flooring and a few hundred in tools, paint, etc. we have an entirely new room.
I have the rest of the house to attack, in a similar manner, this winter and spring.

Battleship

The lights come on with an audible "click." I was already awake. Waiting.

"Every day is an adventure! Every meal a feast! Every paycheck a lottery! Now get out of those racks."

Ah yes. I am on board the USS Little Rock. A Cleveland-class cruiser converted to a missile cruiser and flagship. The latter means that there is additional superstructure, replacing a few guns, to tack on Admiral's Quarters a deck below navigation.

The Medina Guides spent Saturday evening through Sunday morning on the ship, moored next to the destroyer USS the Sullivans and the submarine USS Croaker. The Sullivans were five brothers, serving on a ship in the Pacific fleet during WWII. They were lost off Guadalcanal. The destroyer was named after them. The submarine took out the ship that took out the brothers.

We weren't there alone. We were fifty-eight, but there were over two hundred hands on board, mostly scouts.

The weather was cold and wet, so whatever comfort the ship provided was welcome.

The overnight included a simple dinner. Hands-on exhibit of firearms (I was drawn towards the Enfield and the BAR - familiar to me only through video games). Three different movies in different rooms. Lights out at 10:30, lights on at 6:30. A simple breakfast and your run of the place for as long as you'd like.

I loved being able to explore. After the movie, I struck out on my own and quickly found myself alone. I wanted to find my way to the bridge. That's how I discovered the Admiral's Quarters, the map room, and the bridge. It was odd being up there, alone, in the dark, with the cold Buffalo wind whipping past the windows. I could see some of the city lights, but it wasn't a good vantage for a cityscape.

I could easily imagine what it must have been like to serve on her during wartime. I was glad it was only one night, for me.

Steve's Bed

For the last couple months, my project was to make a bed for my son to last him the rest of his life. It needed to be sturdy. I wanted it to have storage. It should be neutral to go with many decors, but interesting on its own.

I had the basic design. Two boxes for the sides, simple head and foot boards, toe kick frame underneath to prevent things from rolling under the bed. I was planning to make it from poplar and plywood, painted with a black and white motif. Jeff convinced me to make it from brown, wormy maple. It's harder than poplar, interesting in its own right, and less expensive.

Steve already has a maple changing table, so it would kinda fit in. Not an exact match, but he likely won't be taking his changing table with him.

Because of its solid design, I made the bed in five main pieces: two side boxes, head board, foot board, and frame. The boxes overhang the frame and are kept aligned with blocking along the inside edge. The boards have threaded inserts match drilled to through holes at the box ends, so the boards are bolted from the inside and no hardware shows from the outside. Each box is designed with three compartments, the middle one having a shelf at mid height.

The maple is finished with a light stain and several coats of acrylic. Lighting sanding it by hand using 320 grit made for a smooth finish. Steve still needs a bed that is easy to clean.

Overall, it was a good project. One that I am very proud of. It was, also, a real pain to do the final assembly since the inserts have a way for not setting in perpendicular to the wood face. Matching those up blind, while on your hands and knees and hoisting an eighty pound box with one hand made for good exercise but left me surly, too. It was quite the work out to move those pieces up two flights of stairs from my basement to his room. I didn't have the luxury of doing the box assembly upstairs, like I did for my bathroom, because these pieces were bigger and required more woodworking.

Hope calls it Frankenstein's Bed due to its massive, Gothic styling.

Now it's done and I can start worrying about my next project - reflooring and painting the house. I already have the wood on order and am scheduled to pick up my first batch in a couple weeks. Yikes!