Taking a step back in time

~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Okay. I’m not talking about that far back in time. Though, I’m sure my kids think that I witnessed the carving of the statue to the left in person (with a little encouragement from Susanna no doubt).

No, I do not lament for “the good old days.” I am a firm believer in the benefits of technology. Technology allows us to keep in touch with family and friends that are miles (kilometers for those in Sweden) away. I couldn’t imagine being able to do my job without using a computer. The Internet has made a trove of information (good and bad) available to us – I don’t think I could have so easily started my woodworking hobby without the resources available on the Internet.

However, I think nothing comes for free. With the Internet and computers we are given content. It becomes easy to become lost in the sea of content that streams into our houses through our computers and phones and TVs.

Susanna and I have been talking about that a lot recently. She has noticed that in her classes, the other students will get lost into their smart phones instead of talking to each other. All her class assignments are to be electronically turned in via the college’s online portal. I can feel the pull at work. It is easier to send an email off and forget about something, than actually call someone. I can see it in the boys- if we let them, their days would revolve around using their electronics.

But I don’t think work or even school is where the real problem exists. I think it is in our homes. The first think I used to do every morning was to check my iPhone. I would catch up on Facebook and email. Is my connection to the Internet so important that it is the first thing I check in the morning and the last thing I do at night? I have been starting to think that it should not be.

As a family we have been pushing to take a little step back in time – to when we weren’t so connected. We have started having “no electronic” days. Susanna has been leaving her phone downstairs at night. I have been (sometimes with more success than others) trying to avoid checking my email all the time.

Maybe our houses should be a refuge from the world that is overstimulated with media? Are we the only ones that feel this? What steps do other families do to limit the intrusion of electronics into their homes.

And yes, I do see the irony of spending my evening on the Internet typing on how I am trying to limit using the Internet and electronics at home.

Tools that I like (the saw bench)

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Ben's Saw Bench

Some of the most useful tools in my workshop are the tools that I have built. The “saw bench” is one of the tools that I use almost every time that I am in the shop. I have three currently in the workshop. One is sized for me to use when using a hand saw to cut lumber. Two are a bit shorter so the boys can use them. They are simple to build and used lumber I had sitting around the shop.

The primary purpose of the saw bench is to hold a piece of wood at the proper height for cutting. They are also good for using as a step stool to reach the top of the shelves in the workshop as well as a seat to sit on when taking a break.

They aren’t too difficult to make. A quick search on the internet will turn up a bunch of easy plans. I would suggest that a matched pair of these would be useful in any shop. The first one I made was built as a project in the first semester of the Hand Tool School. The last two were inspired from Popular Woodworking’s traditional saw bench article. I didn’t add the ripping notch at the end of the boys’ benches – I suspect that they will use them more like a traditional workbench for a while.

Copied from a Disston publication: Disston Tool Manual for School Shops, ©1927

Labor Day Weekend

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Painting the Front Porch with Ben

With the passing of Labor Day weekend the summer comes to an end. The sticky heat of the summer is pushed away with the brisk cool autumn breeze. We are adjusting to the school year routine. Soon the leaves will fall from the trees, and all my neighbors will spend their weekends clearing their yards of the leaves. I prefer to let nature take its course, and let the winter winds push the leaves around the yard until they settle either into the woods behind the house, a corner of the garage, or into my neighbor’s yard, where they will be collected and put in their proper place.

I like to think of it as being efficient. Some may call it lazy. But regardless of my future laziness, this weekend was anything but. Saturday we all made our final journey up to Six Flags amusement park. We even brought Will’s best friend, Tyler, with us (because it isn’t nearly exciting enough to keep track of just two boys running around a crowded park). The previous two trips made very long days – getting home well after the boys wanted to go to sleep. We learned this time. Once the boys started fighting on what ride to go to next – well fighting more than normal boys that age fight – we packed up and headed out to dinner. Instead of a 7:30pm departure (as in the past), we were at dinner by 5:30, and home by 7:30. Everyone was still exhausted, but it didn’t carry into the next day.

We decided on Sunday to not rest. The weather was pleasant. It seemed a perfect day to work on painting the porch. It would have been a perfect day to finish painting the porch, but there was too much left to easily finish, and we didn’t want to work that hard. The boys worked on painting their part of the project, with a little help from Susanna and me. They decided the paint rollers were much better than using the brushes. I decided that it was okay that we would have to use two coats on the porch floor to cover up all the white paint they dripped on it. Don’t worry, I’m not perfect. I only decided it was okay to use two coats on the porch floor after getting very frustrated with Will and Ben several times about how much paint they put on the rollers each time.

Will painting the front porch

I started painting the trim around Will’s window (Susanna argued that it would look better to have all three windows on that side of the house with trim painted vice just having the two bottom ones). On Sunday I painted the right half of the trim, then supervised the boys as they tried to see how brave they were climbing up the ladder.  Neither made it half way up.

Today I was going to finish painting the left half of the window trim (and no – I didn’t need Susanna to point out that having the entire window painted looked better than just half of a window – I figured that one out on my own). Of course, when I got up there, the scroll-work around the trim was falling apart and needed some epoxy repair. So, no painting the left half of the window today – and we will have to live with a goofy looking window until the weather allows us to paint again.

Today’s plans (in addition to the failed plans to finish painting the trim) were to get the boat out of the garage. The first step was to get the boat back on the trailer. It took nearly a whole day of work to get the trailer out from under the boat. I figured that now that I had experience getting the boat off the trailer, getting it back on would be simple. It wasn’t.  But it wasn’t as bad as getting the trailer out. The most difficult part of getting the trailer out was moving the trailer with a flat tire. But I had fixed the trailer, and a trailer with two inflated tires is much easier move than one with only one inflated tire.

With a lot of work we got the trailer back under the boat, and slowly lowered the boat onto the trailer. And the tire that I had repaired promptly went flat with the weight of the trailer on it. Needless to say, the boat is still in the garage.

After lunch the boys and I went out and got a new wheel for the trailer. This week, my goal is to replace the flat tire on the trailer with the new wheel. My goal is to get the trailer out of the garage sometime this month.

Tools that I like (Universal Bar Clamp)

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Univeral Bar Clamp

If you go to a woodworking store, such as Woodcraft, you can find a plethora of bar, pipe and parallel clamps from companies such as Bessey, Jet and Jorgensen. They range in price from $30 to $45 each. If you go to a box store, such as Home Depot, you can find a pipe clamp for under $20 (plus you have to purchase an appropriate sized pipe to finish the clamp).

When I took a woodworking class at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, they had rows of aluminum bar clamps. They were “Universal Bar Clamps” by the Dubuque Clamp Works company. You can buy the clamps from several online retailers, including Woodcraft. You can also save money and purchase them directly from the manufacturer (USA Clamp Company). The main page of the company’s website is not working, but the pages for the clamps works. I called them this week, and they said that they took the front page down because they were swamped with orders, but they will ship clamps if I order directly from them.

The clamps are great. They don’t have as much clamping pressure as a traditional pipe clamp, but they have enough for most purposes. I will probably use the pipe clamps to glue up the thick top for the kitchen island, but that type of glue up is the exception. The universal bar clamps sit flat on the workbench, and the aluminum doesn’t stain the wood. To top it off, they are made in the USA.

Several years ago I split an order of 10 of the longer clamps (48” clamps I believe – I don’t have one of them in front of me right now). The only drawback is how long they are. That is a lot longer than I need for most glue-ups. So, this week I ordered 10 of the 24” clamps to split with one of the guys I work with.

Another Tuesday Night (Cleaning the Workshop)

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Susanna has been working most evenings for the past two weeks.  She heads into work before I get home, and returns about when I would normally go to bed.  So, I’ve been staying up later than usual. So, I’ve been a little tired when I get home from work. The boys are at their mother’s house tonight and tomorrow night, so I was planning on taking some time to get ahead on projects in the workshop after dinner.

The back wall of the workshop - I need to rearrange and reorganize the storage on that wall this winter.

I couldn’t get motivated to actually make sawdust today; instead I spent some time cleaning and organizing the workshop. The shop is now about as clean as it ever gets – which means I’ll have to start working to make it dirty again.

I rearranged the workshop this year, and am in general very pleased with the layout. There are two problems with the shop currently.  The first is that I don’t have a good place to store the wood that I am currently using for a given project.  The  second is the back wall of the shop. I think I need to rearrange the storage on that wall a bit to make the space more useful.  I’m still not sure how I would arrange the back wall. Maybe I’ll move the lathe to the back wall, and move the storage shelves to fit where the lathe is currently.

The major improvement I made to the workshop storage this year was the hand tool storage wall.

I am still tweaking the hand tool storage wall, but overall I am very happy with it.  I’m also pretty sure I’ll continue to add small improvements to my hand tool storage as I use the workshop.  Tonight I added a second shelf on the left that holds my “guest tools” – or the loaner tools, so I don’t have to loan out my good hand tools.

The end of the summer

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Today is the last day of summer break from school. At least for me. Susanna has school today, so yesterday was her last day of summer. The boys start on Wednesday, so they get one more day. But they go to their mother’s house tomorrow – so for me the school year routine starts tomorrow.

Summer break is fun. No school. The beach. Long family vacations. Yet, This summer was a little too crazy, and I’m ready for fall. I think the boys are as well. I’m guessing Susanna would be happy for a couple more weeks of summer; I don’t think she is looking forward to the cool weather (I know, crazy – a Swede that can’t stand the cold).

I took today off of work to watch the boys. We worked on scraping and painting the bottom part of the front porch. I’m very pleased at how the house colors are turning out. It is a little depressing to think that we won’t be able to finish the painting until next summer.

The trailer parts I ordered two weeks ago arrived today. I need two u-bolts to complete the structural work. They sent the wrong size. The invoice had the correct size, but the box had the wrong parts. A little frustrating, but after a quick phone call, the company is sending the right parts. Hopefully they will arrive before next weekend, but I’m not expecting it.

Will has his friend Tyler over today, so the boys are pretty occupied. The weather threatens rain, so no more painting. I took the opportunity to organize the workshop a bit.

The front porch in progress:

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The Next Big Journey

~ Chuck ~ 4 Comments

The past couple of years with Susanna has been a wonderful adventure. We have traveled to Australia, England, Sweden, Denmark and up and down the east coast of the US. We have built a life here in Preston – we have learned how to make our blended family work with Will and Ben. We have made a home together; we tore down a shed and built a patio; we repainted several rooms, and are working on painting the outside of the house. We have done many trips to New York City. Susanna finished her studies in Sweden and started working on her degree here. She has helped me focus on my work in the workshop, and I have a workshop that is cleaner and more organized than I ever have (okay, maybe not right now if you walk in there – but it is still cleaner than it has been years ago).

Yesterday we decided that we wanted to take the next step in our adventure together. We are planning a wedding for next summer. I love looking back at how far our journey together has taken us, and look forward to being able to reflect on where our lives take us from here. Rarely anything worth anything in life comes easy, and we have had to work hard to get to where we are.  But I am thankful to have had her help through the difficult times as well as shared in the many joys of life. It seemed that three years ago, there was an ocean between the lives we wanted together and the lives we were living; but now it seems that we are both on the same shore, and can look back together at the long journey to this point.

Another Completed Project

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Will trying his saw bench out for size - it is a little tall for him, but he will grow into it.

Over the past couple of years I have learned that I am not good at finishing projects. Looking back at my life, it is something that I have always suspected about myself. It isn’t something that is always easy to admit to oneself though.  I love the thrill of starting something new, but usually anything worth doing takes long enough to finish that it is no longer new and exciting.  Once a project is no longer new or exciting it is easy to put it aside to start a new and exciting project.

I have done that when renovating my house.  Ben’s room took years to finish, and that with help and encouragement from both my dad and Susanna.

I have done that in the workshop.  This past summer I added the last remnants of several unfinished projects to the fire pit.  They included a carcase from a storage shelf I started years ago before moving to Preston, pieces to a bed I was going to build for Will or Ben, and a section of maple butcher block I had glued up for a carving board.

I’m trying to limit the number of projects I have going on at one time.  This summer saw a few too many.  Two projects in the workshop (an island for the kitchen, and a saw bench for Will), a push to get the sailboat in the water before the water freezes, and painting the house trim.  Thankfully, Susanna has taken over the painting.  Unfortunately, I am still waiting for trailer parts to arrive in the mail – which makes it tempting to start a new project. But, I’m trying to focus on finishing projects.

The pieces from Will’s sawbench had been sitting around the workshop for a couple of months.  The boys were gone last week, and Susanna worked every night, so I had lots of evenings free.  I cut the last joinery out on the sawbench and prepared all the pieces for assembly.  I could have finished it last week, but since it was a project I started with Will, it seemed better to wait until he returned to finish it.

This morning we assembled the bench, and now I have one less uncompleted project hanging over my head.  Now to move on to finishing the other projects I have going on before I start any more.

 

Porch Update

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The porch trim painting in progress

It has been a crazy busy summer. One of the big family projects this summer has been to paint the front porch. Susanna has been doing most of the work on the painting. Her sisters (Sofia and Rebecka) and friend (Linda) helped kick off the project, but I think it turned out to be more work than any of them expected.

The porch trim had been painted white, with the floor and ceiling (and base of the house) painted green. We decided to paint the trim to highlight the Victorian details in the house trim. I picked colors from the Sherwin-Williams historic color collection. The trim color is Rookwood Dark Green, with the accent color being Rookwood Dark Brown. Our plans are to paint the exterior of the house Concord Buff next summer, so the parts of the porch that are going to match the house color are being painted as well. So, for a couple of months the porch will standout from the rest of the house.

We have been getting comments about how nice the new paint job is turning out. Several people have stopped while driving or walking by to tell us how much better the house is looking. I can’t wait to see how the house looks when we are finished with all the painting.

The porch trim painted. The ceiling on the porch still has to be painted Concord Buff

We still have some work to do on the porch. It has only been painted down to the railings. I had talked to Will and Ben, and offered them each money to paint the bottom of the porch. Ben readily agreed. Will didn’t really want to paint, but then he decided he didn’t want Ben to get all the money, and agreed to paint.

With all the detail work on the porch, I suspect that painting the porch itself is about 1/2 of the entire house painting effort. We will attempt to finish painting as much of the trim as possible this year, and start with the walls early next year.

We have a couple house renovation projects in the wings to be started this winter – with the biggest being renovating the mud room and laundry room (which requires removing a chimney). I have also been making (slow) progress on the sailboat and in the workshop – I’ll write about that later. We also have some big events (personal) planned for next summer, but more on that later as well.

Will taking a break from scraping the porch. The walls below the railing will be Concord Buff and the floor will be painted Rookwood Dark Green.
Ben working on scraping the peeling paint from the front porch. After scraping the loose paint off, we will wash the prepared area with TSP and let dry prior to painting.