Marching On

As some of you guys may remember, my house was built by idiots and occupied previously by idiots as well. I’ve been working on redoing it since we moved in and finally after several idle months, I feel well enough to get back to business.

Today was a beautiful day, work was slow, and it felt pretty damn good to have the saws out and making a mess. 

The staircase was interesting. Everything about it was done wrong. I went down to the bare stringers, and even they looked like they were cut by blind children. 

Mrs. Conductor wanted these deco pieces she found on Pinterest rather than a traditional skit board. Got them cut out, painted, and today I started the install. Tomorrow I will finish filing gaps and maybe get as far as paint. The bandsaw has already covered the money I have in it. 

And yes, this foyer was at one time pepto pink in it entirety ?

Nice work Travis, you made the trim boards yourself? Great work man.

Looks great dude !!

Nice work.

ChrisK wrote:

7 hours ago, ChrisK said:

Nice work Travis, you made the trim boards yourself? Great work man.

Thanks man. I had a 4 or 5 of them and I used one as a template to make the rest. 

She found something similar on Pinterest and even though these aren’t exactly what she found they’ll have to be close enough. 

I’d never done a staircase before this one as I came to learn, most other people hadn’t either. I had a guy come to help me who had supposedly done them before, but he had less of a clue than I did. It didn’t turn out too bad. I wanted to bring the bottom step out enough to do a squirrel cage, but it just wasn’t in the cards

If I’d only known, I could have sent you these 🙂

SetBuilder wrote:

3 hours ago, SetBuilder said:

If I’d only known, I could have sent you these 🙂

Lotta help now ?

I got the original few when my wife’s family shut their lumber yard down. I was over there picking up other shit and figured they were close enough to her Pinterest find to meet her approval. Problem was that I needed 12 and they only had 5 left (one of which I broke). The first ones I cut out I did in 1/4″ before I realized it was actually 3/8″ ?

I couldnt find 3/8″ ply at either big box, so I planed down a 1×12 and went from there. So I had a bit of practice by the time I made the ones pictured. Definitely not my first attempt 

Conductor562 wrote:

15 minutes ago, Conductor562 said:

 

Lotta help now ?

 

I got the original few when my wife’s family shut their lumber yard down. I was over there picking up other shit and figured they were close enough to her Pinterest find to meet her approval. Problem was that I needed 12 and they only had 5 left (one of which I broke). The first ones I cut out I did in 1/4″ before I realized it was actually 3/8″ ?

 

I couldnt find 3/8″ ply at either big box, so I planed down a 1×12 and went from there. So I had a bit of practice by the time I made the ones pictured. Definitely not my first attempt 

They came out very nice, I never saw that detail before.

Looks Nice!!

Great Job!!

Here’s an early 1/4″ blunder piece. As you can see, I got a little better as I went. I was tempted to order a scroll saw, but I got by with a 1/8″ bandsaw blade 

Here’s another gem. I was finishing up the trim in my daughter’s bathroom and encountered this:

That’s no optical illusion. It’s a 79 degree angle. I’ve seen off corners, but this was way the hell off. 

Made a 39.5 degree miter. I felt dirty even cutting it. It looks surprisingly less awful when finished, but I’ll always know it’s there ☹️

Today I got the new crown up. What pain in the ass. 18′ ceiling in the foyer. I made corner boxes which not only look nicer, but made the process a lot easier. Poor bastard in the pick is a neighbor. It was a bad week for him to be off all week on spring break. In exchange for his help, I’m going to make his wife a couple of end tables. 

I decided last minute to go across the front of the fireplace. The old crown skipped this step and terminated on each end of the brick. These ended up being the only miter+bevel cuts I had to make. I’m glad I went this route as in the end, it really gave the room an extra touch of class. I don’t have any before pics, but it’s amazing what a difference a little extra effort made.

Looks great.

Have to say I hate crown. Not the looks, but installing it !

I’m not crazy about it either. They foyer was a pain in the ass. We used 16 ft pieces, but we had to use a seem in all the spans. 17′ 20′ etc. I’ve never went up and down a ladder that many times in a day before. 

I’ve got enough left to do one of the bathrooms, just haven’t decided which one. The upside is that it’s no longer laid out in my shop. A 16′ x 12′ or so section right in the middle magically opened up, lol

Great work man! Sadly those interesting corners seem all too common on a lot of old houses.