Very Cute Dogs
Author: Chuck
2011 in review
A quick review of what I did last year (and I’m sure I”m forgetting things as well) in no particular order:
- Started posting on this blog more regularly (it is really a journal for me to use and look back on what I have done, but posting it on the internet gives me more incentive to write).
- Went to Six Flags with Susanna, the boys, Mark & Jessica, and Sarah and Nick.
- Drove to West Virginia for a family vacation.
- Visited Washington DC (on the drive to WV).
- Took the boys to NYC to watch the Lucia concert
- Spent a very fun week in San Diego with work.
- Replaced the front shocks and brake lines on the jeep (with lots of help).
- Got a new car.
- Did lots of hikes in the woods with Susanna and the dogs.
- Visited NYC several times.
- Went camping twice with the boys (once with my dad and once with Susanna) at Selden Neck State park.
- Went to Australia
- Visited Stockholm
- Did a 5k fun run with the boys and Susanna. Also did a second 5k fun run with Susanna (without the boys).
- Visited with family (many holiday dinners at my uncle’s house and had both of my parents visit).
- Did hikes with dogs on Sundays.
- Watched a good friend fight a very serious illness – and thankfully survive and regain his health.
- Planted a garden with Will and Ben.
- Stressed that Susanna had to deal with the hurricane by herself while I was in Australia (thanks again to everyone who stopped by to help out).
- Purchased a canoe (and repaired the seat on it).
- Took an underwater acoustics course at NUWC.
- Replaced the battery in my iPhone.
- Switched from a long distance relationship to having Susanna live with me.
- Found and lit sky lanterns with the boys.
I did lots of projects around the house (I had lost of help on some of these from Susanna and my dad):
- Painted the barn.
- Finished Ben’s Bedroom (complete renovation).
- Painted the dining room.
- Painted the living room (including a new ceiling and wiring)
- Added railings to all the stairs.
- Painted the porch trim.
- Built a patio.
- Refurbished and installed a bunch of storm windows.
- Installed a high-bay light in the workshop loft.
- Built shelves in the garage and workshop.
- Built a compost bin (a good way to get rid of not-so nice red oak).
- Improved the compost bin so Targa couldn’t jump in it.
- Improved the improved compost bin when Targa figured out how to jump in the improved one.
- Used the hose on Targa twice after he figured out how to get into the improved improved compost bin so that he no longer wants to jump in the compost bin.
- Repaired a window with Will (one that he broke by accident)
- Had the roof replaced.
- Cleaned out the storage loft (mostly).
- Got a piano (and had it moved into the house).
- Purchased a couch for Will’s room.
I also worked in the woodshop:
- Built two shelves (one for each boy).
- Built a fence for the router table (after watching Mark struggle with the crappy existing 2×4 oak board used as a fence).
- Submitted my desk design to the Design Matters Blog for a design critique (and got lots of good feedback).
- Built a lumber rack (pile) in the garage for the red oak I had cut in the spring.
- Built a shoe rack for the mud room.
- Built a finishing table for the basement.
- Built breadboards for Christmas.
- Built a bunch of wooden swords and guns for the boys.
- Built a storm window for one of Ben’s room.
- Took a class on saw sharpening.
- Made a saw bench.
- Drove to western Massachusetts with Susanna to pick up a trailer load of cherry boards.
I also left a couple of projects unfinished at the end of the year (but I’m doing better than in the past):
- The living room crown molding.
- The storm window for Ben’s room (needs paint).
- Finish cleaning the storage loft.
- Repair the keys on the piano.
Small Projects
I completed several bread boards last month. They were Christmas gifts, so I didn’t post any pictures when they were made. Actually, it wasn’t just a project that I made. The boys assisted as well (mostly sanding). However, they each made one by themselves (with my help – I did the table saw work, but they did use the router table and drill press with assistance). They were actually a pretty simple (and quick) project to complete. I constructed them from maple and sapele and finished with an oil/wax mix, and purchased dipping cups to go with them. My initial thought was for them to be the right size for sliced bread and an oil dip. However, the dipping dishes wound up a little small for that (next time I should get the 4oz dipping dishes). Maybe they will work as sushi plates.
We recently picked up a piano. Ok, so we didn’t pick it up recently, but it took a couple of months to get it moved from the garage into the living room. It still needs to have some of the key tops replaced (I have them on order) and get it tuned (I’m leaving that to Susanna to arrange – I don’t play and can’t really tell the difference between an in-tune instrument from an out-of-tune one). A new piano meant we were short a piano bench. I decided to make a quick build piano bench out of red oak (and yes, I’m finally getting low on the red oak collection that Rob Sawyer and I picked up two years ago – but not to worry, I have a whole tree worth of red oak drying in the barn that should be ready for next summer).
The design is pretty simple. Four legs, aprons to support the legs, and something to sit on. Basically a piano bench. The only design feature is tapered legs (on two sides).
First step was to mill lumber from the rough oak. No problem, I even found some thick stock so I could make 4 legs that were 1 1/2 inches square without gluing up.
The next step was to cut the mortise – I used a straight bit on the router table. I used stops for the start and finish of the cut and cut no more than 1/8″ in depth on a pass. However, I didn’t like how close the mortise was to edge of the leg (I was being lazy and didn’t want to drill another hole for router table fence to get the spacing right). And once the mortise is cut… well… one is stuck with the location. So back tot he lumber pile for another piece of thick oak. The original 4 legs are in the fire pile, and I made 4 new legs (and no more than 2 minutes to adjust the router table fence). They turned out nice. The only thing I would do differently next time is do a better job measuring where the router bit started and stopped cutting (maybe get the mortise closer to the top of the leg).
Next, I cut the tapers on the legs. I don’t have a tapering jig for the table saw, so I used the jointer to make the tapers. I don’t remember where I exactly I found the technique (maybe wood magazine?), but it requires two passes on the jointer – the first by starting the cut at the 1/2 way point of the taper. It wasn’t a perfectly clean cut, but not bad at all – only requiring a little work with the smoothing plane to finish. I finished the legs by hand planing chamfers on the bottom of all the legs.
I milled and cut the aprons to length. Then, I cut the tenons on the table saw (using a dado stack). Then the top and bottom shoulders were cut away by hand. I rounded over the ends of the tenons with a chisel and cleaned up the shoulders. I did a dry assembly, checked for square, then everything went back to the bench to be cleaned up (smoothing plane then cabinet scraper and finally a light sanding by hand).
Finally tonight I did the glue up. The joints came out pretty good (this was the first time I made mortise and tenon joints not in a class). This week I will apply a dark stain and finish the piece. I plan on cutting a top out of plywood, and Susanna will cover it with padding and fabric (to make a padded seat). I did set aside oak to make a plain top if the padded seat doesn’t work out (I’m worried that the pad may make the seat too high).
What would I do differently next time? I would start the tapers lower on the leg. I think one of the tapers actually ends under the start of the apron. The mortise and tenon joints are pretty tight, but not perfect. It wouldn’t take too much time to add some shape to the front and rear aprons, and that might make the bench stand out a little more.
Next project: Maybe painted bookshelves for the library/study. I’m trying to figure out the best way to use a single sheet of plywood to make as many shelves as possible.
A new living room…
Susanna had the week of Thanksgiving off from school. The boys were at their mother’s house for the holiday and long weekend. It seemed like a great time to start another house project. It was supposed to be a quick repaint of the living room.
The room started as a wonderful sponge-painted purple with green trim. The ceiling had a piece of drywall over a corner where the plaster is in bad shape. The ceiling fan and light had no switches. Yes, the light had the original knob and tube wiring hooked up to it.
I figured if we were going to repair the ceiling, I may as well run new wires (and add switches) to the ceiling light. Susanna decided she didn’t like the patched wall under the bay windows. So, early that week we took a hammer to the walls under the windows. After I punched a couple of holes in the wall, I left the rest for Susanna to finish (while I ran wires). Soon, the project became more than just a quick weekend project.
On Thursday morning I got some of the new wires run. I had to cut a couple of extra holes in the ceiling, and one in the wall. Thursday afternoon we took a break and went to my uncle’s house for dinner. Then Susanna dragged me to see the new “Twilight” movie. That was painful – it was more fun to put the drywall on the ceiling. We decided to not do any black Friday shopping, but we did drive by the Best Buy to see the line around the corner 5 hours before the store opened up.
The electrical work was challenging. It took all of Friday to finish the wiring. I put in two three-way switches. The only challenge was to make sure that the fan had power all the time (and only the light was switched. I ran regular 14/2 wire to the first switch – but had to run two 14/2 wires between the switches (two for the switched power, one for the always on, and one for the neutral). From the second switch to the light I ran a run of 14/3.
I also took the time to put in a fan box in the living room, and ran new wire to the dining room light – but no switches to the dining room for now.
Susanna spent Friday adding insulation under the bay window. a couple of cans of foam sprayed on the bottom, and then R-13 batts of insulation to fill the rest of the cavity.
On Saturday I headed out to Home Depot, rented a drywall lift, and picked up 8 sheets of drywall to do the ceiling. We spent all day putting up the ceiling and covering the section of the wall we had removed. It is nice putting drywall up over plaster – you don’t have to worry about where the joists are – just make sure the screws hit the lath. I also made the mistake of cutting out a square opening for the fan box. The round cover from the fan didn’t cover the corners of the box. Time to get out more joint compound (and later change my mind to put in a ceiling medallion to hide holes).
It was pretty clear by Saturday night that we weren’t going to finish painting that weekend… so the mess in the house would be around for at least another week. We talked about painting the floor. I suggested that I could sand the floor and refinish it this weekend. Finally by last Friday we decided to not do anything with the floor, and cover it with a large area rug until we could have someone refinish it this summer (as well as the dining room floor). Sometimes it is important to just finish the project and regain your life – an old house can be one long project with no start and no end.
Sunday was spent putting up the joint compound, sanding and more joint compound. The following week was spent putting up joint compound, sanding, priming and painting. We finally finished the painting last Sunday (a week later than we had originally planned).
The room is mostly done. The furniture is in the room. We still have to hang up paintings, and I have to put up the crown moulding and install a ceiling medallion around the ceiling fan. But the room looks great. All the outlets have been upgraded to a new 20amp circuit (Ben helped me fish wires to all the outlets on the first floor – now there are two 20 amp circuits for the first floor – not including the kitchen and bathroom circuits).
A wild and crazy weekend (almost… ok, not quite)
A weekend without the boys. They went over to their mother’s house on Saturday morning. What to do? Maybe a weekend full of parties, drinking, and other adult entertainments? Or a night out dancing? So, to make full use of the free weekend, Susanna went to NYC to volunteer at the Swedish Church, and I took a saw sharpening class (taught by none other than Matt Cianci of the Saw Blog). Yes, I am a dork (hey, someone had to be on the math team in high school).
I spent Saturday morning putting an iPod adapter into the new (to me) car. Then drove to Rhode Island for 5 1/2 hours of saw sharpening. There were four of us in the class, and we got through sharpening a single rip saw- it was a lot more work than I had expected. I’m still working on a crosscut saw I started on Sunday. It would help to have a better saw vice. But at least I have one sharp rip saw. Not that I really want to rip lumber by hand (that is why I have a table saw).
I don’t exactly remember, but I’m sure that we decided to go out and be crazy on Saturday night after Susanna made it back from the city. Oh, no, wait, I must be thinking of someone else. We hung out and watched some TV and went to bed early. I had to get up early to clean up the workshop so Mark could come over and make some sawdust and construct a cribbage board/box. On a bright note (pun intended) – I did get one of my 400 watt low-bay lights installed on the second floor of the barn. It is brighter than the sun. I have a second light. I’m afraid to hook it up. Not sure the circuit breaker can handle it. I also don’t need to wear sunglasses in the workshop at night
Susanna and I finally did take some time to ourselves that afternoon. We took a nice drive down to Niantic, had lunch at Skippers Seafood. We enjoyed the unseasonably mild weather by walking at the beach, followed by a nice drive up to Middletown and back – exploring a couple of the smaller stores on the way.
Design Critique
I’m trying something new…. I submitted my library table/desk plans to the Design Matters blog by George Walker (author of the Design Matters column in Popular Woodworking Magazine as well). It was posted today as the November design critique post. Hopefully I can use some of the critique to improve the design over my first SketchUp attempt.
Second set of shelves completed
I completed the second set of shelves this week and installed them tonight. The shelves are made from red birch (a very light colored wood) and the back is from sapele (much darker red/brown).
The spray finish is getting easier to work with – that is I am getting better at using the spray gun.
Now to move on to the next projects….
Google Translate
I love reading about what I do from the Google Translate version of Susanna’s Blog. My weekend project of making shelves for the boys turns into, “Chuck carved a couple of shelves to the child.” A couple of weeks ago, we went to pick up some cherry lumber because, “Planks are his collection of objects.” I love how Google turns what is no doubt a well written piece of literature into a comedy of words….
The next project
Susanna and I decided to have a low key evening, watching episodes of House, M.D. I did get the last coat sprayed on the Ben’s shelves. Okay, I really hope it is the last coat – I know I keep saying that. I think I had the spray gun set to spray too much. The next project I’ll try it on a lower setting.
I had started to draw out the next project. Or rather the next tentative project. I’m never 100% sure of the next project until I actually start it. I am currently planning a desk (library table?) for the study. It will be simple – the low height to support typing won’t allow drawers. I am planning to make it out of red oak and will try to find a way to make the wood dark . Tonight I put the project into SketchUp. Here is the first look at the drawing. Please feel free to comment and critique. I’m not sure the legs fit right (they seem a bit heavy). Click on the pictures for a larger image.
Weekend Shelves (one done…)
I completed the first of two shelves for the boys. I had destroyed one of the backs with the router when I was cutting the dadoes for the shelves – destroying the last thick piece of birch I had – which delayed the finish of the second shelf.
I searched the barn of lumber and found a few options – from white oak (similar to the birch) to sapele (dark reddish brown). After consulting with the customer (Ben), I decided to go with the sapele for the back. I kept the birch for the shelves (they were milled and sanded), which adds contrast.
On Friday I got the final coat of varnish sprayed on the 1st set of shelves shelves. I’m still learning how to spray, so it took a little more spraying/sanding than I hope in the future. But the spray finish is great – it dries to sand/recoat in 30 minutes, cleanup is a breeze, and it builds up a finish very quickly. The only concern I had was the “cool” color that water based varnishes typically have (compared to the warmer color from a oil based finish). I solved that by using a fist coat of dewaxed shellac. The shellac also solves the problem of raising the grain when using a water finish. I was able to hang the shelves on Friday afternoon (which would never happened if I had used an oil based wiping varnish).
On Saturday I finished the construction of the second back. Sapele is much easier to use than the birch. The birch is hard (difficult to scrape and use hand tools on). The sapele is a dream to work with. This time (with a new router bit), I built the proper jig for routing the dadoes – they turned out much better than on the first set of shelves.
Today I sprayed a final (rather almost final) coat on the second set of shelves. I found a run in the finish, so I may have to sand and recoat the top section again tomorrow. I spent the afternoon with friends driving to New Bedford, MA for a visit to the New England Demolition and Salvage store.
My next project is to finish the exterior storm window for Ben’s bedroom. I have most of the material milled and ordered a router bit to cut the rabbets for the storm windows/screens. I plan on assembling the storm window with pocket hole screws – it will be painted – so it should go together very quickly. Just in time for the really cold weather. After that, I am planning a desk for the study (a simple table out of red oak – I don’t think I’ll put in drawers). I was going to try to draw the desk in SketchUp tonight, but it is getting late and I decided to write instead.