Building a Modern Day Craftsman
Web Log of the construction of the Cullman Cottage
This is my
web log of the construction of a modern day Craftsman Home
The
Cullman Cottage
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The Web Logs
Days 1 through 68
* Days 69 through 162
* Days 170 through
280
Days 283 through Day
307 * Days 319
through 350 * Days
351 through 403
Day 346 * Days 420 through Day 448
* Days 546 though Day
662
* Days 663 though
Present
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NEW! Photo Page Index
7/26/04 Day
283 SHAFTED AGAIN!
Two
things I knew going into building a house but have I have had to learn once
again.
1. NEVER EVER
expect anyone to show up on time or when they promise. It simply doesn’t happen
2. Second never pay them till the job is done! You don’t have any leverage to make them
come back. (See above comments)
We
went to the cabinetmakers shop to check up on the cabinets to see what is going
on. To our surprise the shop is empty. I mean cleaned out. Nothing
there! He was supposed to start on
our cabinets this week too! Now we are looking for new cabinetmaker and my
lawyer is looking for my old cabinetmaker.
I
am still trying to get the Heating and Air people to show up and finish up the
job they started. They were only two weeks late coming to install the thermostat
and firing up the unit for the first time.
They brought the grills for the return air and ceiling vents but didn’t
install them. Then I found out the drain line is not properly installed and the
unit is leaking into the emergency drain pain instead of the drain line as it
is supposed to. Still waiting on them
to come and fix that one. See #2 above.
It
is appalling at lack of service and commitment that I see in the construction
field. If I ran my business this way I would have been out of work years ago.
8/2/04 Day
290 Movin' on…
Slow but steady progress. The spiral stairs came in
and I have them installed. Started on Friday and finished up on Saturday. I
have wanted to see these in for months now. It’s so nice not to have to climb
the ladder or walk around the house!
We are installing the cement board underlayment for the ceramic tile in the kitchen, baths and laundry room. Actually we are have them installed and just have to fill the joints with mortar and tape them. That is a one job I am really glad to see done! It’s not hard but just no fun.
My
wife has found someone to trim the interior of the house that she really likes.
He is available to start Monday, one week from today. However I still have a
bunch of work I need to do before he can come. Not sure I can get it all done
this week. I need to install the wood wainscoting in both baths and make the
wall paneling for the dining room and install it. Makes me tired thinking about
it.
8/7/04 DAY
295 A good week!
I have spent all but one day working on the house. I
have the wood wainscoting installed in the guest bath. I also got the
bead-board wainscoting installed in the Master Bath. Plus the last of the
cement board is in place in the Master Bath shower. I had to remove the drywall they installed and replace it with
cement board for the ceramic tile. I didn’t think of that originally so they installed
drywall.
Yesterday
I bought 11 sheets of birch plywood to panel the walls in the Dining room. I
have to cut them to size, stain them and then apply a finish coat to them. I am
thinking about spraying the polyurethane on. I have never done that but I think
it would be much quicker and should make a better finish.
Today
I think we are going to start laying the kitchen floor. If we can get it done
in the next few days we can have the stove delivered and put in place.
8/8/04 Day
296 Stupid, stupid, stupid!
That’s how I felt about 8:30 last night. We laid the tile in the kitchen. We had finished up and were double checking where the cabinets would rest.. We laid the tile first so that the cabinets would rest on the top of the tile and look as if the tile ran under the cabinets.
As I was double checking everything it hit me…..I forgot to allow the two inches for the toe kick under the cabinets!!! That in effect made the cabinets 22” wide and not 24” My tile was an inch short! Stupid stupid, stupid!!
8/10/04 Day
298 Columns started!
I had planned on working on the wood panels for the
dinning room today but ran into a snag. The stain that looked so good on the
test panel didn’t look anywhere near as good on the actual wood I bought. So I
had have some more stain mixed and I didn’t want to cut up the wood till I was
sure I could get the colors I wanted.
Since
there wasn’t must else I could work on (that’s a first!) I decided to work on
the tapered columns for the front of the house. First I built an
extension/table for the planer. All my cypress I bought for the columns is
rough-cut wood. Then I started to make
the jigs for cutting the compound angles on the columns.
The
first one was easy. The second one was a bit more difficult however. Third
attempt worked perfectly. I then sawed two panels as prototypes to see if it
would fit together as I expected. It worked so I must have learned something in
all those Geometry classes I took.
8/14/04 Day 302
Third times a charm?
The stain for the dinning
room walls has been a challenge to my patience but it looks like it was worth
the wait. We had a sample color we really liked. We had it mixed to match a sample our previous cabinetmaker had
made. We tried it on a piece of plywood we were thinking of using on the walls.
The color looked great but the wood looked awful against the maple we are
building the cabinets from.
I tried some birch plywood and the wood matched well
but color was awful. My friend at the
building supply mixed it for the birch and it looked great. So I buy quart cans
of the different colors of stains and get home and start to mix them. As I am poring
the last can of stain in the bucket I notice (to late of course) that’s it’s a
different color than the previous one.
I went ahead and tried it and it looks awful! I go back to the building
supply and all the cherry stain they have is the wrong color. Apparently it all
been labeled wrong at the factory. Bad news is it going to take a couple of
days to get replacements.
I got the replacement stains yesterday and
this batch looks great! I stained all the wall panels and I am very happy with the
color. Tomorrow I am going try a second coat on a sample piece and see how it
looks. Once it is dry I am going to coat the sample with half in Amber Shellac
and half in clear shellac and see what looks the best.
Since we getting close to the end I am
getting to work on some details. Today I built the two traditional Craftsman
shelves for the front doors. I think I posted many months ago that the company
I bought the doors from wanted around $150 each for these. I spent $20 on tools
that I will use over and over and made them from some scrap lumber that was
laying around and a couple of hours of my time. Quite a bargain I think!
Today’s Photos
8/16/04 Day 304 Oh dear! No deer, the four
legged kind.
For the second time tonight
I found deer in my pasture. I have seen them a few times off an on since we
bought the land. Twice this spring I have seen one chase my dog across the
yard. Turned out she was protecting her fawn.
One night last week as I was leaving I decided to
shine the truck lights across the pasture and saw 5 does. Tonight there were at
least three in the pasture. Maybe more?
I am beginning to think that they graze in my pasture every night and go
to the pond/mud hole for water.
8/19/04 Day 307
I stopped for lunch and thought I would update the progress. Yesterday I mounted the mantels on the front door and painted them.
I just finished spraying four coats of shellac on the panels for the Dining room walls. The first couple of panels had a run in them while I learned how to set up the gun. The runs were easy to brush out and they turned out pretty well. It took four coats of the clear shellac to get them to looking like I wanted.
After I eat I am going to start back on the columns for the front porch.