Walnut Trim

 

A friend of ours offered to sell us this walnut lumber which was milled onsite from a tree in her yard in town.

 

The wood had been air dried for several years and was in good condition.  It just needed to be planed smooth and cut to width. So we hired Todd Lee to do the planing.  (Note he also did the planing of the butcher block countertop described in another post).

 

Planed and in the house.  you can see the randomness of width which still needed to be addressed. I thought I would do this milling myself, but we realized it would really slow down the process and we already had plenty to do to finish up the project.  So, we hired another local guy with a cabinet making shop.

With a coat of polyurethane added, the final product really shines. The dark walnut highlights the light color of the pine windows.

 

 

 

 

 

Front Porch

In deciding what deck materials to use, we first compared conventional treated yellow pine, composite boards (plastic and wood mix such as 'Trex"), and sustainably harvested tropical hardwoods, such as Ipe. We looked at many considerations of sustainability, including initial costs, future replacement costs, energy spent on transportation, chemicals used in treating wood, the look and feel of the finished product, and local economics. We found a local source of white oak lumber for the front porch decking.  White oak is known as a "boat wood," which is rot resistant.



And it turned out beautifully!  Very happy with the results.

 

Butcher Block Countertop

We found an old butcher block on Craigslist which was in pretty bad shape...



It was 40" wide, 6 feet long and over 3" thick solid maple.  As you can imagine, it was quite a beast to handle.  Not sure the actual weight, but I'm guessing around 300 pounds.

It needed resurfacing,  not only because of the knicks and deep cuts into the top, but also because it was severely bowed and variable thickness.


We couldn't find anyone with a planer large enough to handle the whole counter top width (~25"), so we cut it into 3 manageable  widths and took it to our friend who planed the walnut trim and provided the front porch white oak lumber. Here is the result:


Again, with the help of friend, Tod, we milled these two pieces into the right dimensions.  Then joined them using a biscuit joiner, wood glue and clamps.

 

We also added a piece of walnut to finish the edges.  here is the final product. 

 

And the whole piece installed, with the copper bar countertop in the background.

 

 

Brick Patio

Starting with two pallets of bricks-- about 8,000 pounds!
We had already laid forms, leveled and compacted 4-6" of gravel
(chips and dust, aka 411's), and 1" of sand.



Then we got started, laying one pattern (running bond) along the pathway and another pattern (herringbone) on the patio area.  We needed to maintain the grade between the house and garage, then connecting to the driveway.  Luckily, we had lots of help from good friends, like Tod!

And Steve!

 

The finished product looks like this...

Detail of running bond, intersection with herringbone, separated by a solider course.

The patio--

Detail of herringbone pattern, with soldier course as border

Greg McKee, the Stucco Guy, did a beautiful job on the finish coat. More pictures coming up soon!

I love our new bathroom!

Bob, working on the kitchen counters.

Terra cotta tile with decorative Mexican tile accents.

Homemade Railing

The original design for our stairs and loft was a short wall, framed and drywalled. But we wanted to maintain the open feeling of the loft and the cathedral ceiling.  Our builder told us it would be very expensive, so we started looking into designs we could make ourselves.

In trying to maintain a modern feel to the house, we didn't want the traditional wood balusters with lots of ornate features. I had heard of using piping for railings and got some ideas online. Using copper pipe would accent the copper counter top we are installing between the kitchen and dining room.

I decided to test the idea first, before we invested too much into this experiment. Here is the "mock up" we did with only 3 of the spindles and rough framing lumber.

 

It seemed doable, so, after lots of consideration, sketches and calculations, we went for it...

Bottom rail set with pipe spindles inserted.

 

Setting the top rail of the first section...

 And I'm very happy, as you can plainly see.

And the first section of railing turned out very nicely! 

 Checking the bottom rail for a tight fit. Note: the use of the jigs which keep hold the rail at the same height every time.  I definitely have over-used that the term "jig" in the past week or so.

 Cathy cutting the copper pipe spindles.

 Drilling holes for the spindles.

 The finished product.
I'm adding plugs into the pilot holes I used to hide the fasteners. Each end of the rail is "toe-nailed" with 3" screws on top and bottom.