Descending Ashtray

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. I got a new blade for the trim work, a Freud 80-tooth. I considered the Forrest Chopmaster, but couldn’t bring myself to buy yet a $130+ blade. I love my Woodworker II on the table saw, but I just don’t use a chop saw that often.

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 and followed that with a thicker coat of elbow grease. It wasn’t a walk in the park, but it was nice to work without gloves or mask on and the stuff actually smelled pretty good.

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.

A little while ago I was working in the shop and the compressor kicked on, like it normally does, but after running normal for a bit, it suddenly changed to a crazy explosive banging noise. I quickly unplugged the machine. After doing a little dissecting I soon discovered that the piston shaft had snapped in two!

This is an amazing video. Hopefully after seeing this, one of the tool manufacturers will send this guy something safe to use. I really hope his daughter isn’t behind the blade’s path – looks like he’s crosscutting with the wood right against the fence, a great place to pinch it and have it kick back.

Well, the clock is ticking away, but it feels like the attic work is finally moving forward again. The rough stage turned out to be a little trickier than I thought – there were a few things I didn’t know needed to be done (fireblocking the wall at the level of the tub surface), and a few things I thought I did right, but didn’t (used caulk to seal the shower pan membrane as a book recommended, but should’ve used the manufacturer’s supplied sealant).

But, we passed on electrical, plumbing, framing and that pesky shower pan. It even holds water without leaking!

As we await a new opening in our insulation contractor’s schedule (they’re blowing in expanding closed cell foam), I’ve started thinking harder about the finish surfaces, and it’s this I’ll share today.

Here’s a poorly-done aerial view of the bathroom, looking North toward the new window. I’m planning on wrapping the tub sides and the vanity cabinet in some reclaimed Douglas Fir floorboards that I ripped up in the demo phase. The main floor of the bedroom will also be Fir, and it should tie the two areas together nicely.

The vertical surfaces will be either painted a kind of blue-green color, or covered in 3×6″ subway tile. Horizontal tiled surfaces (including the shower basin and floor) will be in some cool Ann Saks penny round tiles that Sarah picked out. I’m hoping they are forgiving; I’ve never tiled anything before!

Here’s another view of the vanity I’m making. The top surface will be a black paperstone (looks like stone, made of recycled paper, and can be cut with woodworking tools), with an undermount rectangular sink. The cabinet beneath will have one large door, and three drawers on the right side. I’m still working out the mechanics of this, but I want it to have a really clean look with as many unbroken horizontal lines as possible.

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.

This afternoon, I think I finally completed the framing of our ongoing attic remodel. Now that there’s a child on the way (coming April 30), the clock is really ticking, and I’ve been trying to devote more time to the project. Here are a few photos of the work thus far.

This is a view of the shower. This was one of the trickier aspects of the project, not from an actual framing standpoint, but in choosing how the shower pan was going to work. I went back and forth between purchasing a pre-made, pre-pitched urethane pan or creating a traditional mortar pan in situ. After reading a few articles in Fine Homebuilding and watching several videos, I decided to go with the traditional mortar pan, mostly from a cost standpoint. The urethane pans look pretty simple to install, but they are very costly (mine would have been around $900), and I am always a little hesitant to go with the newest of new materials. Foam just seems like it could fail after a few years, having a bit of flex to it. Mortar has been the standard for at least 50 years, and who am I to argue with tradition? The doorway will get a hinged glass door after tile goes up. Haven’t decided whether I’m going to tile the ceiling above the shower yet. Any thoughts?

You know that old adage, “Measure twice, cut once?” Yeah, I should have applied that to the framing of the bathtub. I carefully calculated all the measurements for width, accounting for the width of a full piece of tile for the tub ledge, thickness of the cement board, declination of the North Star … and still came up several inches short the first time I framed for the bathtub. Second time was fine, though. When laying in the tub, you’ll be able to view the sky through the skylight above. At the bottom right of this photo there will be a vanity for the sink.

Here’s Sarah standing in the bathroom doorway. We’ll have a vintage wooden door on a sliding track here (not hinged). The bedroom closet is to the left of Sarah. I think the closet doorway will have a curtain rather than a door, although I sized both doorways for a 30×80 door just in case.

At the opposite end of the attic from the bathroom will be our bed (left side of this photo, where the garbage can is). There’s quite a bit of room down here, and it should be fairly spacious. There was an existing toilet vent to the right of the big window, so rather than move it, I framed a little wall around it that will contain a simple built-in cubby. A little inset box in that wall will house some sculptures, I think, lit by an overhead low-voltage light (still need to talk to the electrician about that, though).

I’m going to call for an inspection tomorrow. I have been pretty conscientious, and am hopeful of a pass, but we’ll see. The kneewall on the right side of the photo above is new; replacing an original kneewall in approximately the same place. I had intended to leave the original kneewall exactly where it was, but it was built resting on top of the subfloor, which I didn’t think was safe. After jacking up the roof, I re-built it, and moved it forward a few inches so that it would be sitting on some floor joists instead. I doubt they’ll have any problem with that rationale, but they may have issue with my stud spacing in the wall: 24 inches on center, which was how the original wall was built (each stud supports a roof rafter). I replicated the old spacing so I could have room for wider built-ins, but they may not like that. Cross your fingers!

Thanks to all the friends who pitched in to get us this far: Andrew, Thom, Tyler, Dan, Bruce, Greg, Nicole, Amanda, Becca and Blu. You, too Porter-Cable FR350A Framing Nailer. And let’s not forget you, DEWALT DW716 12-Inch Double-Bevel Compound Miter Saw. Couldn’t have done it without you guys.