Good friend Logan Porter is currently on a bike touring trip from Des Moines to Seattle. He is documenting the whole experience on his blog called Road Thrill. Definitely worth checking out and following along. (He also might head down to Portland after Seattle, so he might need a backyard to camp for a night.)
It’s been awhile since I updated on the attic progress, and it’s certainly come a long way since the drywall and paint of a few months ago. I made a big push to get all the trim in place, as the electrician couldn’t get back in there without the baseboards in. We’d elected to have our wall outlets placed in the baseboard, you see. And I couldn’t hang baseboards until the floor was finished … so many dependencies in a project like this!
We’d intended to re-install the flooring we removed last summer. It was not the highest-quality Doug Fir, but it looked similar to all the “before” samples we saw in flooring showrooms sold as “reclaimed fir,” so we thought we’d save a few bucks and re-use the stuff we had. Turns out we didn’t have enough to use, and what we did have was covered in lead paint, so we had to come up with another option. Thankfully, our flooring guy was able to track down some gorgeous new CVG (clear vertical grain) fir locally, and we went ahead with that option. The material cost was higher (it wasn’t free), but the install cost dropped quite a bit since newly milled stuff is so consistent in width and machining, it requires less labor to install. And it looks amazing, as you can see from the photo below (the paintings are encaustic originals by Portland artist Amy Ruppel from her “state bird series.” The one on the left is Iowa’s Eastern Goldfinch; the one on the right is the Common Loon of Minnesota. I’m from Iowa, Sarah’s from Minnesota.)
From there, it was relatively quick work to get the baseboards in for the electrician, thanks to my Dewalt chop saw
One thing I will say – I’ve used pre-primed MDF trim (both standard and ultralight versions) throughout the project, and would highly recommend it, both from a cost savings standpoint (less than a third the cost of poplar), and also ease of installation. I mean, it’s pre-primed. What’s not to love about that?
Once the baseboards were in, I dallied a bit on finishing some of the other trim to move forward with a built-in Sarah had requested early in the project, a bench over in the corner she’ll use as a reading nook. I found a nice plan on finehomebuilding.com (a great resource for remodeling that’s answered many of my questions, and worth the subscription fee) that I used as the basis for my own version. It’s basically some 3/4″ poplar plywood, a piano hinge and some trim scraps. The whole thing went together in two hours, I’ll bet, and it was built in situ, so it fits the space perfectly (or it looks like it does with some caulk!).
Probably my favorite feature of the project so far, though, is the door that separates the bedroom from the bathroom (still very much a work in progress). We bought a door from the Rebuilding Center, a local materials recycling center for just $20, and it even had the original wavy glass when we brought it home. But, the low cost carried a hidden price: the door was covered in at least four coats of lead paint that had to be removed.
Fortunately, demand for green products is now common enough that there’s a non-toxic version of almost every chemical, paint stripper included. I put on a thick coat of something called Ready Strip
Once the years of lead paint were gone, I had a few other issues to contend with. In my attempts to get the glass out in one piece, I broke it, as well as the wood molding holding it in place. There were also quite a few holes left by the door lock hardware that had to be filled, as I had another mounting idea in mind. I did this with a few carefully placed dutchmen (re-using some of the old flooring) installed with the help of my mini router and a sharp chisel.
After a few coats of clear Seal-A-Cell, I moved on to hardware, which was surprisingly difficult to find. I’m not sure where I first saw barn door hardware used, but I thought its rustic look would go really well with the rustic door. I ended up locating it at a farm store nearby called Wilco, and it was among the cheapest hardware I’ve bought for the project (total of about $50). I am so pleased with the results.
Every cake needs icing, and every door needs its glass. Since I’d broken the original, I went out on a limb and tracked down some security glass, aka wire glass from Culver Glass, a local specialty supplier. But that wasn’t enough. My door needed a little more, supplied by an amazing Portland craftsman named Lee Littlewood, proprietor of Lee’s Better Letters.
Lee hand-painted the front of the glass to my specifications, using as inspiration my direction that “the type style should look like it came from a factory door, circa 1930 or so.” He did a few sketches on paper, then painted the type directly on the glass in black enamel. Once that had dried hard for a few days, he added silver-colored gold leaf to the interior of the letters, burnished on in a light circular pattern. No computers were used, except in the exchange of paper sketches. I could not be happier.
Well, maybe if the tile fairy finished the bathroom for me.
About an hour from Iowa’s capitol city of Des Moines, tucked away in a small Iowa farm town, a man named Robbie Pedersen has created something remarkable: a working woodshop and retail store, as it might have existed in 1875. While in Iowa over the holidays, Gabe and I took an afternoon road trip to Jefferson, Iowa to see Robbie’s shop, called RVP 1875.
Unlike today’s woodshops, there aren’t any DeWalt cordless drills to be found, and no corded tools, either. There are plenty of power tools, though, if you shift your perspective on what powers those tools. There weren’t many electrical plants in 1875, so all of the stationary tools in Robbie’s shop are powered by hand cranks, foot treadles, and yes, even bicycle pedals.
A modern (power-tool) woodworker would recognize most of the tools here, including his rare, hand-crank table saw. Turning a handle on one side turns both the small 7-inch blade and an integral power feeder. This thing looks pretty primitive, but the idea is very simple and elegant – a lever controls how much downward pressure is applied to the power feeder, which governs how quickly the wood is fed into the blade. Your hands never come near the blade, which is about as safe as a table saw gets, and because the workpiece is held down by the feeder, there’s no risk of kickback (not that it matters to the operator, who is standing safely to the crank side of the saw, nowhere near the danger zone in front of the blade).
There’s also a foot-powered mortiser, but unlike a modern mortiser, it doesn’t drill out mortises, instead shaving down the sides at a perfect 90 degrees to the workpiece. This is the start of the industrial revolution as applied to woodworking – machinery is taking the place of a skilled craftsman. Now any idiot can create a perfectly square mortise!
I’d seen Roy Underhill use one of these “portable drill presses” on his television show, “The Woodwright’s Shop,” but I’d never seen one in person. It’s designed to cut holes at controlled angles, and can be clamped to large timbers to cut mortises for timber-framing projects.
Robbie’s treadle lathe was enormous, almost 6 feet between centers. It looked like a good way to get a workout, but he explained that he just moves to a different task when one part of his body tires. Done with the lathe? Time for some sawing!
Speaking of saws … check out his saw collection. He told us that he has saws that are better for ripping walnut, and ones that work better for ripping maple. Some excel at cross-cutting tenons, while others are better for dovetails. Whatever his reasoning, it sure is a handsome lineup.
As Norm says, you can never have too many clamps, and Robby’s not short on those either. These are wooden bar clamps that look like they’ve seen quite a bit of use over the years. There are a lot of folks out there that collect things like this for decor, but it’s really cool to see these amazing tools in use, still being cared for and respected.
So what does Robbie Pedersen make with all these great tools? I guess if pressed I’d call them “modern antiques,” but that’s a little over-simplified. He makes furniture that looks like it was built by farmers, but with an artistry based in today’s world. I grew up in a house overflowing with Shaker and Amish antiques, and those pieces were intentionally simple, and showed their age through dings, dents and missing parts. Robbie’s pieces look rough, but intentionally so. The parts and pieces are assembled with an eye toward creating an aged effect, but not in a manner designed to confuse or trick. Instead, he selects distressed wood for its contribution to a piece’s entire visual appeal, and it’s a style that really works.
Each piece in Robbie’s showroom has a story, and he’s delighted to tell it to you. This hutch was one of the bigger pieces in his shop, and Robbie carefully described its construction as both a woodworker (noting the complexity of the arched door tops) but also as historian (farm houses rarely had closets and hutches like this contained the home’s clothing and linens). Robbie’s work as he sees it is part teacher, part woodworker, and he gives tours frequently to school children, boy scout troops and even senior tour buses.
If you’re in the neighborhood, RVP 1875 is not to be missed, but it’s a worthy destination unto itself. Come for the great tools (he even has some “users” arranged for sale), but stay for the history lesson and engaging personality. Thanks, Robby.
On the advice of my barber a few weeks ago, I added the film “In the Realms of the Unreal” to my Netflix queue, and it arrived a few days ago. I popped it in tonight, prepared for something unique, and that’s exactly what I got.
The film is essentially a documentary about artist and recluse Henry Darger, who gained posthumous notoriety for his maniacally rich drawings and paintings that illustrated his 15,000 page manuscript, titled similarly briefly, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. I say “essentially,” because Darger’s diaries and novel are brought to life by actors, and the narrator is child actress Dakota Fanning, an interesting choice given Darger’s fascination with young girls. I won’t elaborate on that except to say, it’s not what you’re thinking – Darger’s obsession is much more complicated than simple pedophilia, and not nearly as evil. Watch the film and see for yourself.
Darger’s work was intensely personal, drawing on his life as a devout Catholic, upbringing in an orphanage, and characters based on people he encountered in his real life. He was untrained as an artist, and used tracings and photographic reproductions to create huge watercolor paintings that illustrated his story about the battle for good and evil in an other world – this realm of the unreal.
A very interesting portrait, sad and beautiful at the same time, magically animated by talented filmmaker Jessica Yu. Well worth watching.
Darger’s paintings are now for sale by Chicago’s Hammer Gallery.
I’m not so good at reading German, but this sculpture by Yvonne Fehling and Jennie Peiz is pretty amazing.
In my other life, I am a graphic designer. In fact, I am the PR/Marketing Chair of the Portland chapter of AIGA, which is a national organization for graphic designers. So recently, I found myself pushing a design event on Portland art blogs, and I figure, the least I can do is hawk my own wares.
Tomorrow night (Wednesday), AIGA Portland is holding an event called The Urban Forest Project, which seeks to promote green, environmentally-friendly, design. In April of 2007, 25 local designers donated their time to create unique banners for the project, which hung from poles throughout downtown Portland. Tomorrow night, they’ll be unveiled in their second lives, as handmade bags, which will be sold to benefit a local non-profit called Friends of Trees. Shortly after, the remaining bags will be sold online, details to follow. Here’s a sneak peak of a one of the bags, based on a banner made by Chris Bell – they’re really pretty amazing.
SOCIO XV: Urban Forest Project Celebration
September 19th, 2007
6 – 9 PM
Art Institute of Portland: Gallery
1122 NW Davis St
Portland, Oregon
Doors open: 6:00pm
The event is free for AIGA members; $5 for everyone else.