Finally introducing myself

[jrfuda]

Greetings everyone. I've been a member since fall of 2010, posted a couple of times, but never introduced myself.

I'm in the Army and returned to NC in August 2010 after wandering around the world for 9 years. Prior to that I'd lived in NC since I was 8 years old and am a 1995 NCSU grad. My profile photo is of myself, my wife (born and raised in Fayetteville, NC) and my two boys (5 & 7).

Coming most recently from Texas and living in a cookie-cutter house with almost no yard, we really wanted a unique place to live. My Dad and my Uncle purchased a poorly maintained circa 1900 (exactly 1900 according to the tax man) Colonial Revival house on 1.42 acres of land about 1/2 mile outside of Fayetteville's Haymount Historic District. The summer before moving back to NC, I purchased the house from them. They had done just enough work to it to make it livable, but it still needs work totaling about 150% of my purchase price.

Dad used to fix up rentals for a local realty and I'd accompany him after school and on weekends. He instilled a good work ethic and a "fix rather than replace" attitude in me. Because of the number of moves I've been making with the military, I had not been able to acquire much in the way of tools until we moved into the new old house in 2010 and had been relegated to just doing home handyman tasks and refinishing for most of that time. I had not done much woodworking since high school over 20 years ago but really want to get back into it now that I have a place that gives me the space to both set up a shop and display the fruits of my labor. I've been acquiring tools and getting accustomed to their use over the past 18 months (minus 10 of those I spent in Iraq) and was glad to see that most of the skills came back rather quickly. I've been doing much more reading and video watching than I have actual woodworking so far, especially given all of the big projects that have taken priority and balancing family time.

Now after getting a new roof, about 1/3 of my windows replaced and having a spray foam insulation guy coming next Friday (we're trying to make this old place as tight as possible because it leaks and eats energy dollars like crazy) I'll finally get to start my first project. I have a dining nook that was completely rebuilt during the window install that I am going to give a full-height raised panel wainscoting treatment. I'm not 100% certain on my wood choice yet but I am going to attempt to reuse some old pine paneling I've pulled out of another room. My plan is to rip the old tongue and groove away and build my panels, stiles and rails from what's left. It's got a beautiful patina - very cherry-like in color (though, of course, with pine grain) and there's enough clear stock that I should be able to do the entire nook without any knots. The nook is almost entirely windows, so there is not much square footage wise to do. I'm also planning a built-in book case and window bench in my boys' room to replace a construction-grade 2x lumber book case I removed for the window and insulation guys.

I have a contractor saw with a 3HP PC Router motor mounted to a cast iron extension wing/router table plus a smaller handheld router. I also have a compound sliding miter saw (which I've probably used more than anything else so far) a jointer and biscuit joiner. I have an old but functioning drill press and a not-so-good 3-wheel 14" band saw (the band saw and drill press were free, so I'm not complaining) and HF's 2HP dust collector plus a shop-vac for hand-held tools. All this is stored comfortably in my garage with 2 cars and a motorcycle, though I have to remove one of the cars to actually use the tools. I had an electrician put a sub panel in the garage when I first got here and have a 220 outlet for my saw and 3 more 30A 110 outlets for everything else... when I first arrived the entire side of the house was on a single breaker and I could not even run my circular saw without blowing the circuit.

So far - other than some rough carpentry work and a few outdoor projects (playscape deck firewood rack) I have not made much saw dust that's resulted in anything. Mostly I've been messing with pieces of wood and relearning old skills or teaching myself new ones (like making raised panel doors). Thanks for all the great advice I've gotten from anyone here and on the other sites.

Another thing - my yard was/is overgrown with trees - some that were dangerously close to and leaning toward the house. There's only so much firewood I can burn in a year, especially as mild as this winter's been. I've got 3 full (not face) cords of wood on the rack I've built plus another 3-4 cords waiting to be split and stacked (my splitter is a 30-year old DIY deal my Uncle built and is on its 3rd engine and 4th or 5th pump, but is still going). I recently had a large willow oak taken out and am considering having a sawyer come out and turn it into lumber for me, though I don't know where I'd store it.. Willow oak is red oak, right? Will it be worthwhile... maybe I should start another thread as I have questions on it and a few other trees in the yard.

That's enough rambling for now. Hopefully I'll be able to start adding some pics of my dining nook progress in a few weeks.

 

[red]

Welcome to the forum.

Red

 

[Joe Scharle]

Welcome aboard...
Stack nd sticker your lumber, and cover it with a tarp. By the time it gets to 19 percent (1 year), maybe you will have built a solar kiln. BTW, there are a couple of excellent carpenters on the site from Fayetteville. Just ask!

 

[skysharks]

Welcome John
We live close to each other, Like Joe said I am around and constantly doing projects.
Give me a shout sometime.

Mac

 

[jrfuda]

Thanks guys. I've considered the stack/sticker/tarp as well as possibly placing it in my garage which I keep at 35% RH with a dehimdifier (no rusted tools so far). Looks like Eric Fetz is my nearest Sawyer and offers a variety of services, so I will likely consult with him as well.. as well as on matching the profile to some old T&G pine I have to replace in the boys' room. Thanks again.

 

[RandyJ]

First of all, John, thank you for your service to our country!:notworthy:

Welcome to the group. Lots of nice folks here always willing to help. Don't hesitate to ask questions or offer suggestions.

And DON'T forget the pictures!!! We love pictures of tools, shops, projects, family, pets...pretty much anything!

Enjoy the site.

 

[golfdad]

:gar-BiWelcome John...great group here...sounds like you have found a great project and a ThankYou for serving our great country

Dirk

 

[ScottM]

Welcome to our family. Thanks for serving on our behalf.

 

[jrfuda]

Here are some photos of the house, shop and what I've been up to. These are all in my gallery as well. This is the house as it appeared before we moved in during the summer of 2010. The roof has been replaced as have about 1/2 of the windows. About 1/2 the shutters are missing as well now (they were non-funtional, a mix of vinyl and wood). I plan on replacing them with shop-made, raised panel, fully operational shutters (unless I chicken out and get someone else to make them). I'm also repairing the bases of the columns as they had been sealed tight and sustained a lot of water damage over the years. Several of the trees that were dangerously close to the house are gone now as well. So far it's mostly been demo, rough consturction and livibility repairs, but I will VERY soon be starting on some finish carpentry and built-ins. My goal is to do as much finish work as possible myself (and with my team of handy kin folk) and leave the heavy stuff to pros. The house is 3800 SF as is (plus 572 in the garage). Finishing the attic will give us another 500 SF and a mud room and bath addition will add another 400SF. The garage will also grow by another 500SF. This is a lot of space, but the layout of the rooms is difficult to change so there's a lot of wasted space - big odd shaped rooms but not really a lot of them. We have 3 bedrooms now and will have 4 or 5 (depending on code intepretation on one of the future attic rooms) when we're done. There's a "Parlor" in the front of the house that's nearly 600SF that really cannot be used form much other than whatever parlors were used for (receiving guests and keeping them out of the rest of your house, maybe?) that is the perfect example of the wasted space... We're hoping to open up the space between it and the living room, kitchen and dining room to make them more of one great room which will be nice for entertaining, when we ever get around to having time to entertain.



This is my garage shop. It's a nice sized garage that hold both our cars, a motorcycle, lawn tractor, yard vac (trailer) and all you see below. The tools are normally at the front of the garage, as it is very deep, but I have them out for the next couple of months as I have a lot of projects to complete. Everything is on a mobile base or hand portable. I have a Rikon 10-325 on the way to replace/augment the 3-wheeler in the picture. I have a sub panel in the garage with 3x120V 20A circuits and a 220V 20A circuit. I also have a window AC and a dehumidifier to keep it comfortable when I'm working and dry enough for tool and lumber storage. I need to work on some lumber storage as well as more shelves for hand tools, which will make it less of a chore to move the tools around. Part of the overall renovation plan is to expand this garage from its 22x26 dimensions to 41x26 which will give us ample space to park the cars and lawn stuff and have a nice sized dedicated shop space (19 x 26 of that space).


This is our kitchen nook after being mostly rebuilt (the walls were waaay out of plumb) and having new windows and a double door installed. I put the blocking in so I'll be able to put T&G boards in a sunburst pattern after it is insulated. That was a LOT of cuts!



This is the nook after it received 3" of closed cell and 2.5" of open cell spray foam on the ceiling. What little bit of wall needed insulation received an inch less of each. The roof and wall assemblies are over R30 and R20, respectively and should have ZERO leakage. I plan on doing full height pine wainscotting on the little bit of wall that is not covered by windows. I'm going to do everything in the clearest pine I can find (most of it recycled from the boys' room, see below) instead of going for something fancier both to keep with the period of the house (everything is pine except the floors) and save money. The boards I plan on using have an awesome patina on the unfinished side (which will be the new finished side) and I hope - that if I cannot maintain it I will be able to replciate it with some careful staining.


This is the boys' room before I destroyed it. The paneling went up when Kennedy was president (dated by newspapers used as insulation that were uncovered during demo). It was well finished but not put up all that well. There was no nailing surface near any of the walls so it was supported there by pieces of quarter-round molding. As you'll see in the next photo, the pretty paneling was covering up some poorly-repaired fire damage and an uninsulated roof. The unfinished side of the panels as a red/purple hugh to it. I think the finished side is a bit browner from whatever finishing they put on it.


Here is the boys' room after (during) demo. The fire damage is evident and some of the closeups would make you cringe. I'm lucky my roofers didn't make the thing collapse. I did a lot of blocking and reinforcing in prepreration for the same spray foam treatment the othe areas recieved... Don't have a pic of post-foam on this one, though.


Here's the attic after some demo and after installing collar ties that will be the ceiling when we get around to turning it into bedrooms(s) and/or office. My Dad and I marked, measured, cut and installed all 23 ties in 4 hours thanks to the modern miracle of the laser level (a Dewalt we mounted on a verticle 2x4 in the middle room at out desired finished ceiling height) and a SCMS. Becuase of the age of the house and the sag in the roof, no two ties were alike, but marking the right height with the laser at the get go made measuring a snap.


Here's the attic after getting 3" of closed cell spray foam. We did not get it filled to full depth yet as we did everwhere else as it would have interfered with leveling the floor where the rafters tie in with the floor joists. The existing floor is made of sagging 2x6s and will need to be sistered to 2x8s to level the floor and keep the ceiling below from cracking one new loads (people and furniture) are introduced in future living space. We will likely have to live with the sagging celings in the rooms below, which is minimally noticable and can be hidden a bit more with creative trim work, as truly leveling everything would require ripping most of the house apart - something you can't do to where you live, especially if you want to pay as you go versus taking out a big loan to do everything at once. My goal with the insulation is to get the old house as tight and energy efficient as possible. I once had a guy out that installed a high efficinecy wood burning insert in the house. When I asked him if he was going to put run the air intake so it would use outside air he said it was not necessary becuase "these old houses leak so much you should never have an issue." He said they would come back and run it the intake to the outside if I ever had an issue with smoke coming back into the house becuse I could not get the chimney to draw. One of my goals is to have him come back and do this.

 

[cskipper]

Welcome! We are glad you joined us.

 

[ScottM]

Wow John. That is very impressive. I can see where you free time goes.

 

[jrfuda]

This is a prototype raised panel assembly I made from pine I salvaged from demo in my boys' bedroom (used to be the ceiling). It was full 3/4" T&G knotty pine.

This is the first time I've put together such an assembly so it is less than perfect. I did not account for the raised panel bit exposing the biscuits (I'll put them further from the edge next time) and I used TB II to put it together - which set too fast and did not give me time to perfectly square it up (though it is very close).

The wood is about 50 years old. The reverse side was previosly finished when it was used as T&G paneling. If you look closely at the machined portions, you can see that the patina goes in about 1/16" - it even persisted after my sanding. Some of the cross cuts that are near the orignal cuts still show some patina as well.

I intend to pick through the pile a little better and get clearer pieces to use for full-height wainscoting in the kitchen nook, though I may cut the frame differently and use bolection molding to give the frame more depth when I actually build the wanscotting. I have a few more raised panel bits to try as well to see which one the wife likes the best. I personally like the hard lines on this one. 90% of the time I spent was setup. I think I could have turned out additional identical panels at about 10 minutes each as long as I made all the cuts and routes for each step at once - which I think means I could easily knock the nook in a weekend or two.