Gluesizing

I am not a good chronicler of all the stain-related experiments that Liz has undertaken. I’ve tried to keep up with all her variations, but there are times it gets pretty confusing to me.
I am not a good chronicler of all the stain-related experiments that Liz has undertaken. I’ve tried to keep up with all her variations, but there are times it gets pretty confusing to me.
Liz has so many different tests, with so many different products… I’m having a hard time keeping it all straight. When she gives me a recap of what she’s done, I tend to have to ask a lot of basic questions, to try to catch up.
It’s a lot of testing, it’s a lot of variations. It’s all kinds of impressive.
Liz had another day in the basement (or should I call it her laboratory). Today’s session involved her trying out powdered dyes – another approach to staining Douglas Fir.
Liz has been in the basement a lot lately, doing her mad scientist routine. She’s been methodically trying to figure out how to best stain the new trim we’re looking to purchase: vertical grain Douglas Fir.
SYP is still available, but it’s primarily newer growth. And it’s planted/harvested faster, and a result of that speed is that the grain lines are more spaced apart. To match the tight grain lines of old growth SYP, you’d need to either find reclaimed lumber or go fishing in rivers for sinker pine.
Liz, trying to carve out a path circa 2014. We eventually hired out the work to clear this area with a mini bulldozer.
It’s funny – I moved a lot of these bricks from underneath the porch to the driveway… and today, Liz wa moving most of them back. Circle of life, I guess. We’re used to having various shuffles, so why not one for the outside as well?
Bob helped talk me through the piece, and how I should build it. I needed some 9.5″ boards, and the standard 10″ boards from Home Depot wouldn’t quite cut it. So I bought 12″ boards instead, and had to trim them down to size.
It took me a little while to figure out the right sequence, but I eventually got the pieces together.
Bob was over today, getting the furnace prepped. He had come over while we were out to set the furnace in its final position… and man is it tight in there. Not much wiggle room at all. But it’s in, and it’s pretty much set in place.
We’re heading out of town soon, and we didn’t want to be a blocker for Bob’s work on the HVAC up here. The space is super tight (by design), and Bob can’t finalize the placement of the furnace until we mud, tape, and paintthe walls. Because once he puts in the furnace and ductwork, there’s no way we’re going to be able to reach the walls.
At this point… there may have been a mixing mishap. I ended up helping out some, cleaning a lot of the mud that splattered all over (and made its way down the stairs and onto the windows on the first floor).
It’s a Sunday, and Liz suited up to work on the mudding and taping of the furnace room. It’s a small space, and not really something more than one person can work on at a time.
Back at the house, we focused on getting some more drywall up in the furnace room. Not sure if I mentioned, but the stuff we’re putting up is fire board – similar to normal drywall, but just a little denser (and heavier).
We had an additional full sheet downstairs, but luckily didn’t have to go retrieve it. We were just barely able to use our remaining scraps to get the ceiling in.
We started to notice small drips of water, under the sink, over the few weeks. And then things got a bit more, and a bit more… to the point where we realized we needed a new faucet.
Up until now, we’ve had two different access points to this part of the house. With this furnace room now officially drywalled up… we only have one way in/out to the office area. I was describing this as us “going the long way around” from here on out.