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Well, I was watching Fox News this morning, and they had some NPR folks (Mara Liasson and some guy) and Bill Crystal on, and they were talking about McCain’s campaign, and Palin, and all the things that are wrong with his campaign, and pointing fingers right and left, and basically doing a post-mortem on the campaign that was McCain - Palin 2008. Yes, folks, when Fox News sounds the death knell for the republican candidate’s campaign, you know that it’s over.

President Obama … Get used to it … at least for a few weeks.

What we NEED to worry about is a worst case scenario … Obama gets elected … some wacko takes him out after a time … Biden, upon hearing that HE is to become president, has a heart attack, and Nancy Pelosi then becomes president … Ack! … Thppt! … President Pelosi????

So I’ve not been posting a lot lately, but I have a Legit excuse … I’ve been doing some of the grunt work for the carpenters.

Here’s what I did over the past few days:

I backplaned about 9 feet of plinth block.
I ran about 70 feet of soffit block moulding
I planed and ripped an 8 foot section of 7/4″ x 8″ into an 8 foot section of 5/4″ x 4 7/8″ exterior casing moulding for below the windows.
I set up my table router for some triple bead board, and had to make a new 4″ high fence in the process. I test ran one piece and didn’t do too badly. I’ll do better tomorrow when I’m not so tired, and have a better handle on bracing the piece against the router bit. I will need to move the fence about 1/16 forward before running the “for real” stuff. After running it, I will ship-lap it based on whether the beads are up or down. That’s easier than making a tongue and groove joint for a rookie like me.

Well, it rained pretty much all day today. I’ll take this chance, plus the fact that the weekend is FINALLY here (YAAAAYYYY!!!!) to get my blog caught up on what’s been done to the house.

Here’s how it looked at the end of yesterday. If you look at the left third of the main roof, you can see the lining hanging over the gutter edge.

They started relining the gutters yesterday … and I use the term “started” very loosely. I thought they would have done a lot more than they did, but apparently, that’s why I’m not the contractor, and he is. He figures it will take pretty much a full week to reline all of the gutters. The way he talked to us, I got the impression that they’d be here and gone.

I got some of the 6/4 stock for the casing extensions done yesterday, got the plinth backplaned, and got the plinth finials. I still have 12 feet of 6/4 x 4 7/8 to make.

The carpenters started in on the porch, sistering a bunch of the lookouts in preparation for putting up new soffit. I guess that will be done next week.

Here are some more pictures:

As the carpenters near completion of the north and west faces of the house, I must say it’s looking pretty good. I was very pleased to see the arch completed, and also the carpenter’s treatment of it. I like the way it looks.

Here’s another view:

I also like the window plinths, and think they’ll look really good when finished off with an ogee on top. They match the interior trim, and will provide continuity between inside and outside the house.

Here’s a close-up view:

The east face of the house doesn’t look too bad, so far, and we MAY not replace the wood on that side. We’re going to sit on that thought and ponder it for a few days.

Here’s another view:

The porch, however, is a different story, and a mixed bag. The crown across the front of the porch is in great shape. The fascia board is also in good shape, except on the west end of the porch where there are a couple of rotted / missing lookouts. At that point, it is cracked and sagging under the load of the porch roof. Fascia boards were not meant to be structural in nature.

And another view:

The box gutter floors are not looking good, and I worry we will need to rip them out completely and start from ground zero, but I’ll wait for the assessment of the carpenter on this one.

We’ll see what he says…

So, I am running some wood through my moulder for the soffit detail, when it dawned on me. I am running 14 foot long boards through a moulder-planer in my foyer. Picture this … before it goes into the moulder, all 14 feet are sticking out the input end. After it is passed through the moulder, all 14 feet are sticking out the output end. the moulder itself (feed area, not the support table) is about 15″. That’s over 29 feet of lineal space needed to run a 14 foot board. WOW! Yeah, I’m bragging, but not too many people can run a 14 foot board through a moulder in any room of their house, let alone the foyer. For those who are wondering, I could also do it in the living room, but that’s not a construction zone right now.

No pictures today, but the carpenters finished up the siding on the first floor front of the house today. Now all they need to do is work on the trim pieces. We’re going to use my mistake oak plinth blocks for the window plinths. They’re perfect for it.

I should be able to get some pictures tomorrow. I didn’t today because I had to hook up the carport light switch. Several people have commented on how nice the cypress looks, and that they’d be tempted just stain it. In a way, I would be also, but after having the mental picture of it painted, I’d have to pass on just staining it.

It seems as if the front porch was a lot smaller than we previously thought. I now have found more evidence that the house was originally an eastlake / stick style. We found shadow lines below the living room window, that indicate the same type of design as that of the dining room and the butler’s pantry. The big difference is that the living room window was initially smaller than it now is, and that the window was enlarged in the 1926 remodel. The front porch was likely only as wide as the foyer.

This picture shows the shadow lines:

Here are some views of the progress as of today. Enjoy!

This one shows the horizontal sheathing next to the diagonal sheathing. The horizontal sheathing was done in the 1926 remodel, when the Skinners updated the house. They did a remodel in the fashion of the day … Colonial Revival with an Arts and Crafts style interior… all the first floor mouldings were ripped out and replaced with New York Style Mouldings….

My sweetie and I can’t wait to see this lovely jewel with paint on it …. I’m hoping it’s a traffic stopper

These are a few pictures of our crazy cat as he fulfills his shoe fetish. He loves shoes, and the riper, the better. In these pictures, here he is sniffing, then accepting the shoes.

The exterior work continues, but we have some interior slowdowns to contend with … leaky sink and sink shutoff valve … I need to repack the valve stem, I hope I got the right packing. I hope I got the right size replacement valves with swage fittings. and I hope I can cut out the current kitchen faucet without too much difficulty.

What I’d like to know is who is the Einstein who decided that the faucet should be soldered in to place … with no hoses or anything. now, I have to cut out the existing faucet

As promised, here are a couple of shots of the beltline board I made, already up on the house.

The one I made is on the bottom course of the beltline.

This one is of the work that was done today. This shows the sheathing at the outside corner of the dining room.

This one is of the left side of the foyer. Note that the sheathing is horizontal here. That’s because this corner was squared off in 1927. before that it was the angled corner typical of many victorian styles.

This picture shows some shadow detail of the design that used to be below this window before the porch was enlarged in 1927.

Well, today I sort of found out. I re-created some of the beltline siding. It’s lap boards milled to look like shingles. The carpenter said that he couldn’t figure out a way to efficiently make them. While talking with him, he mentioned that it might be possible with a radial arm saw. So, I got to thinking, because I have a radial arm saw…

{WARNING: THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTION IS SOMEWHAT TECHNICAL, AND IS NOT GEARED FOR THE SPATIALLY CHALLENGED. PICTURES WILL FOLLOW, BUT THE ONE BOARD I MADE IS ALREADY UP AND LOOKING GOOD.}

I tried a few set-ups before realizing that the radial arm saw was limited in arm angle to 22.5 degrees, and for the V-cuts at the bottom of the board, I needed a 45 degree arm angle, 45 degree blade angle, and needed to be able to do BOTH angles. The saw wasn’t capable straight out of the box. I talked with the carpenter, and he mentioned a jig to set the angle. Bingo! I made a board to hold the clapboard at a 22.5 degree angle, with the arm also at 22.5 degrees, and started slicing. That took care of the first cut, but that was only half the V.

How to do the other half? My son asked if I had a hand held saw like the radial arm saw. Of course! My circular saw is capable of mitering a 45 degree angle. I found a piece of wood thick enough to properly set the depth of cut, and started cutting away freehand. A wood chisel to finish out the V, and voila’ !

{/WARNING}

My question, however, is how did they commercially manufacture that piece over 100 years ago?

Here are some pictures:
This is one of the problem boards, split almost in half.

Here is a close shot of the detail.

Here is the beginning of the restoration. I marked the new clapboard using the old one as a template, and then ran kerfs at each mark. This is the result after “kerfing” the clapboard. (sounds kind of naughty, doesn’t it?)

Here is a shot after creating the V and cleaning it out with a chisel…. this one is a test piece and was done with an old, dull chisel. The ‘real’ boards were cleaned with a ‘real’ chisel.

Here’s a comparison of the shadow lines that the new and old boards create … not too bad for a rookie, huh?

so … I need to make a total of 40 feet of this stuff. I’ve got an 8 foot section already made, and they put it up. I’ll take a picture of it tomorrow and post it in my next update.

The contractor is supposed to start on the gutters next Monday or so, and also on the carport roof. The stuff they’re putting on is supposed to have a 10 yr warranty, and the contractor said that he’s been installing this stuff for over 20 yrs, and has not been told of any issues with it. Here’s to hoping …

Well, all the guests are gone. I took the girls to the airport this afternoon. I’m tired. I need to go back to work to rest up from my vacation.

Last night was interesting. The girls decided that they still wanted to go out… to 4th Street Live. So, they decided that they would hurry up and eat and then get ready to go out. They were finally ready by a little bit after 10 PM. We got them there at about 11, with plans to pick them up at about 2. My sweetie went back down to pick them up, and they showed up around 2:15 or so. Needless to say, it was a late night for all of us, because I couldn’t sleep until they were home. When they got home, my daughter’s friend was a bit toasted, and my daughter was very chatty … and all I wanted to do was sleep. We finally got to bed around 4 or so. I set the alarm for 7:30 to make sure I knew when the carpenters got here. Then I went back to bed and slept until about 10. After getting up and getting some coffee, I started doing some work on the house. That’s a topic for a different post, though.

All in all, it was a nice visit with my daughter, but too short. I wish she could have stayed until Friday or later, but that was not to be. So, I’ll use the rest of the time to get stuff done and make some time with my sweetie …. I know … TMI ….