Category: Projects

May 10, 2021 – Framing Basics, Know Your Foundation Materials

May 10, 2021 /

I know that I want to keep this project on course by continuing to provide ‘how to’ information and not just a status report on my projects along with editorials. So, I thought that I would do a mini series on framing. I don’t claim to know everything but I think I know the fundamentals and I think that I know enough to help the layman or uneducated make better informed decisions. So, what is there to know about framing with respect to materials?

The first thing to know is your application. Is the project outside or inside? Will it ever get wet or touch the ground? Is it going to be load bearing? How is it going to be constructed?

Let’s start talking about ‘Outdoor’ versus ‘Ground Contact’ pressure treated lumber. Depending on what part of the country you live in, some of these products may be more or less accessible. Pressure treated lumber has only been around for about forty years or so, so good building practice is always in order and trumps appropriate materials.

You will see at the home center materials marked ‘Outdoor’ lumber. These are wood species that naturally rot and insect resistant like Redwood, Cedar, Cyprus and some exotics. Depending on the species and grade, they are often significantly more expensive than pressure treated. They are also not grade stamped for loads and spans. For those two reasons, their best uses are fences, decking, railings, outdoor furniture and other non-critical applications.

Pressure Treated is usually hemlock in the west or southern yellow pine in the east. These are treated with a solution of what is called ACQ or Alkaline Copper Quaternary. I won’t get into the science of it all, but that treatment helps defer wood deterioration. You can often times identify the materials by their appearance because they appear green or dark brown.

A better way to tell is that the material is stamped or tagged.

I am old enough to remember the big switch from CCA to ACQ in wood treatment which happened in 2004. The reason I bring it up is fasteners. You see, you cant just use any old fastener and expect it to last. What can happen is a galvanic reaction between copper (in the treatment) and iron (in the fastener) will corrode the fastener into nothing.

For that reason, all fasteners should be hot dipped, galvanized or coated (with paint, not vinyl). But not marked ‘bright’ or electrogalvanized which looks very shiny. The same goes for screws. The good news is that is all sorted out now, so if you buy new fasteners you wont have incompatibilities. I still have fasteners from before the switch, so I need to be mindful of where I put them to use.

There are a slew of plates and connectors and other things depending on what you are doing may or may not be necessary. And frankly, it is beyond the scope of the basics. They are referred to as ‘Simpson Ties’ and there are good reasons to use them for hurricanes and earthquakes and even rot protection.

Lastly, pressure treatment does not absolve good building practices. I have seen (and have) many rotten fence posts because water cannot leave the post when encased in concrete. Another thing I do is treat cut ends with canned preservative when using outside because the treatment does not penetrate completely through the board.

End Your programming Routine: There is a lot to know even to get started. Knowing your conditions and application will enable you to get help in selecting the proper materials if you have questions.

April 28, 2021- Floor is done, can I afford the rest?

April 28, 2021 /

I am not going to go on about the cost of materials. I will say that plywood has gone up 20% in the last month; other building materials as well. I found a good deal at the local ‘discount’ building materials location. This is 3/4″ MDO overlay plywood. It couldn’t be more perfect for my application since I am not planning on putting a finished floor, I am running out of headroom.

I have a few things I can do before buying materials again but my next major move is to buy framing lumber. I can start prepping my door for painting and cutting to size. I am also planning on removing the insulation around the duct work in favor of a more attractive solution like rigid foam. I can also start working on the rough wiring as well.

Today is going to be quick with some pictures of progress. I am moving slowly because I am trying to buy materials as I need them. I am also spending one to two hours a day working on the project, as soon as work ends usually.

April 12, 2021- The Great House Controversy

April 12, 2021 /

I have talked about my home some over the years. But, I don’t think that I have talked about the controversy. Within the county, the date built is listed as 1893. However, talking with a previous home owner it was his belief that it was built in 1873. The theory to the age discrepancy was that was when the first record was recorded with the county. It was his belief that this house was the original structure on the NE corner of the city and that all of the lumber was milled from the site. There is an older house on the block (1846) but it was moved from a different location in the city I was told.

What I do know is that this house has been extensively remodeled and almost none of the original detail remains. Both the exterior and the interior have been removed and replaced. The major model occurred in the late 70s. The original lap was replaced with T111, the windows were replaced, the plaster was removed, knob and tube wire was replaced with Romex and insulation was put in the walls. All changes that improved the livability and moved this house into the next century.

In 2016, we needed to paint the house. There was some rot in existing T111 and today’s building practice (and code) would not allow for replacement so we chose to add Hardi-plank on top of the T111. Subsequently, people started coming out of the woodwork that had a history with this house. We heard it was a boarding house in the 1950s and college apartments in the 1960-70s. One of them was the previous homeowner who brought us a whole stack of photos from before, during and after the remodel in the 1970s.

Because of the photos, I can see that the house is balloon framed. That is where the structural members span from ground to roof. That was a common practice late 1800s. There are two reasons why that practice has fallen out of favor. One is the quality of lumber is not the same as it was one hundred years ago. The second and bigger reason is that in case of fire, there is nothing (what is called blocking) to prevent the fire to spread between floors at a rapid rate.

Another potential clue I have seen is that the framing lumber is true to dimension and often rough sawn. Rough sawn means that it came from the mill without running through a planer. But, true to dimension is a bigger clue. I ran across this document while I was doing some quick research on the subject about the history of the lumber industry. It appears that lumber standards were adopted in 1902 for the west coast. Interesting, but not helpful if trying to figure out the year built before the standard or even milled on site.

I am still looking for the smoking gun. One thing I found while cleaning up under the house was this ‘Halls Catarrh Cure’ bottle. It definitely has an interesting story, if you are interested. My research indicated that it was from the was the 1890s period, but still not conclusive.

Maybe the best piece of evidence I have to date is this floor covering scrap. When we removed the carpet for my wife’s office space last fall, it exposed a jute backed linoleum.

I forgot that I took this picture until yesterday when I was chatting with my son about what I was going to do for a floor in the new office. He was telling me that a local lady was giving away used linoleum and I was trying to understand what he was saying. Strangely enough, I realized that we didn’t have any linoleum in our house and neither do a lot of people we know currently. Again, this is not conclusive, however I do believe that I could date the pattern, it would be a more solid indicator of age.

Finally, the county historical society does have a collection of photos. I have casually looked and have not found a photo of my particular house. I do believe that I can make an appointment and dig in more seriously, but I haven’t prioritized it over the other many other things I have to do. It might be as simple as just asking the question and having one of the curators point me in the right direction.

And so the controversy continues. Will it ever be resolved? Who knows, but I enjoy finding little things like this.

April 6, 2021- Maintenance Today

April 6, 2021 /

One thing that people who don’t run a website might not know is that it actually requires active effort. Everyday when I login to the dashboard to begin writing, there is a Health summary on issues that are outstanding. Some are warnings and some are actual issues.

Today, I wasn’t able to login to the dashboard to write. I had some issues with the SSL certificate. It seems like every two months, there is some kind of problem with SSL. I suspect that if I ponied up some money, that I wouldn’t have this problem and probably wouldn’t have to make changes.

I bumbled my way through fixing the problem. I also found some suggested improvements, which I also made. One nice thing is that even though I know very little about Linux, I can usually search and find some answers on the internet. Even platform and provider issues there is usually some help.

Since I dont have time to generate a more material today, you will have to settle for a picture of my progress on the office project. It is slow, but moving one small piece at a time.

The next step is to remove the drywall to the right of the desk. I am going to frame around the block so that I can insulate properly because believe me, it is cold down here. More on that later.

April 5, 2021- The Wire Monster

April 5, 2021 /

I am trying to figure out where to go from here. It is increasingly difficult to prioritize the time to write, balance family time with work and accomplish all the other tasks that need to get done in life. More specifically, to what end? I didn’t start this because I was bored in life, I started to try and build a career replacement.

Maybe I didn’t use my time as effectively as I could have when I had it. I certainly was slow to get my domain started and branch out. I am not aggressive about the business aspects. The truth is, I have discovered that I really don’t want to participate in social media. I find the interaction a chore and somewhat detestable.

I guess that I would compare social media to shopping at Costco. Many people I know like to shop at Costco. There are some nice things about it, but high on my list is consistency of availability. I never know if what I want is available. I never know if what I want to see on social media is available and I don’t want to spend my time ‘shopping’ just to see.

Just like other social media, my branding has been a little all over the place. I suppose what I was trying to accomplish was interweaving life with skills. I have not been consistent with my delivery of good skills based content and have wandered quite a bit, particularly since I finished my remodel. I am making no promises here, but since I have a project going on, I should take advantage of the fact.

Since I spend a lot of my workday being cold, getting heat is a priority. I was looking at my subpanel trying to figure out what the unmarked breakers were and what space I had available. The upper left 20A 240V breaker was wired to a baseboard heater that is no longer installed and the target of my interest. But further to that, why did I have so many 240V breakers?

I found that I had one 20A 240V breakers un-used and one 30A 240V breaker empty. On top of that, there was some curious wiring. One leg of the bottom right 20A 240V circuit was tied to a relay and two 12V transformers that didn’t go anywhere. My speculation is that this has been an electrical free for all.

The DC wiring I think was for an internal vacuum system but I really don’t know. There is also heat tracing on all of the piping in the basement has not been connected since I have lived here. Maybe that is the reason? I was going to cleanup everything, but ultimately I decided to disconnect and remove all of the low voltage stuff. I have lived here over sixteen years and never knew or needed it, it is not likely I was going to miss it.

So, I have my circuit for my heater and I have space to add an office specific 20A circuit and I simplified my panel. I have built my Bill of Materials and made my cost estimate. It is almost time to really get started.

March 8, 2020- It’ll do for now

March 8, 2021 /

I suppose that you could say that this is my second official weekend since I began my new job. While working for Amazon, I don’t think that I had an entire weekend but I did have blocks of two consecutive days off, I just never really knew when they would be. We would get our schedule for the next week (starting on Sunday) on Friday. I pretty much kept every kind of planning in limbo.

So, now that there is some normalcy, I am feeling the pressure to get stuff done when I have the time. It is also the appropriate kind of stuff that needs to be done like I finished pruning the apple tree on Saturday. I needed light, I wanted reasonable weather and I needed it to be done before it starts budding out, which is coming fast. One more thing about that, I haven’t done that job in probably over ten years, it took a lot more effort than I remember or expected.

I have stated that building an office is a priority. I can’t build an office if I am spending all of Saturday pruning and all of Sunday with the family. I talked about pruning already but my boys have a campout this weekend with the Boy Scouts and despite all of our previous efforts, they still don’t have adequate gear. We had to get that sorted out before next Saturday because they need pack weights and meal plans to be made, etc.

For the last couple of weeks, I have been working off the dining table. That works to a point, but we need that space to eat. That means that I am daily setting up and tearing down. I have also added an extra monitor to my routine because the workspace on a single laptop display is not good for comparing two documents or having a meeting and viewing other documents at the same time. For productivity reasons, I needed an office sooner rather than later.

I decided last week that part of what was holding me back on starting was that it was such a mess in the basement. Stuff is piled everywhere. One thing that I have to do during the rainy season is make sure that anything that could get damaged is off of the floor. That leads piling stuff on stuff to protect our precious junk. It is not just that, it is also I am the only one who manages anything in the basement. It becomes the refuge everything that has been rotated out of service, but still has value including nick-knacks, clothes, seasonal items, etc. I cant even start until I have room to start and I have no room to start.

Sunday night, I started clearing the way and just organizing. I thought that if I could just clear enough space to work, it would also help get me motivated to continue. The other bugaboo is that the basement is essentially unheated. It is tempered by being mostly underground and there is some leaking heat, but too cold to want to sit for hours. I figured that would also push me to work faster. Here is what I came up with.

After sitting through my first one hour meeting, I knew that I was going to have to make some changes to the heat situation. I have a sweatshirt and a jacket on as well as wearing a hat. My upper body is OK, but not my legs and feet. I have a baseboard heater that I salvaged out of the apartment remodel that I was planning on using in the office, but I need heat now. I also have an empty 240V circuit that had a baseboard heater in the bathroom which I removed years ago because the bathroom has central heat now.

I quickly wired the baseboard heater under my computer table to see if that will make a difference, I think it will but I need to be more in front of the heater and not to the side like I am currently setup. So, more junk organizing to come. I may also need to add some deflectors to keep the heat originating under the table and not defusing in all directions.

I will want to shut-off the heat at the circuit breaker each day because a baseboard will continue to heat if the temperature drops below a minimum level, nominally 50 degrees F. I also want to get a thermometer down here to monitor the daily temperature swings with and without heat. My ultimate office plan includes insulation, so this heater will be completely adequate for that use but there is no way for it to warm a leaky basement. Right now this is only a comfort measure.

December 16, 2020 – Light and Indoor Painting Tips

December 16, 2020 /

Recently, I was helping my wife paint her office. We were painting after dark with artificial light. It was also white over white. I was trying to use the ‘force’ to make sure that I did a good job. Everyone knows that it can take a long time to master the force.

You would think that when you are painting a very similar color over another, that you wouldn’t have to be that careful when painting. That is not exactly true because depending on the lighting situation, the spots telegraph through. When painting with artificial light, the glare masks the missed spots or really light spots.

I really prefer to paint in natural light to begin with, but that is not always a surefire solution. I noticed when painting the lighter over the darker, I needed the artificial light to see the spots I needed to touch up. The point that I am trying to make is that you will probably need to use different lighting conditions to validate your paint job is the best it can be.

When it comes to paint, I can provide some tips as well. I hold a pretty tight opinion of exterior paint but for indoor the brand is not as critical as long as you accept some things.

  • Indoor paint has must less performance requirements than outdoor paint. I would keep the price above $25/gallon and you will get a decent product.
  • Cheaper paint uses more cost effective materials. So, in that $25/gallon range you are likely going to get a PVA (or blend) versus and acrylic. Excellent scrubbing capability but will yellow when exposed to UV light.
  • There is a place for solvent based paint on the interior. That is woodwork and cabinets or things that are going to be touched frequently. Without an absolute cure time of several weeks for waterbased that paint tends to stay gummy.
  • The paint job doesn’t have to last a lifetime. You might want to change the color or sheen after ten years. Plus, who really scrubs walls anyway?
  • I like the look of flat paint the best, but plan to touch up spots periodically. The pigments used in flat paints don’t reflect light as well and also tend to absorb dirt on contact.
  • To mask or not mask opposing surfaces is a personal choice. I find it much faster to cut in with a brush carefully than to mask in most cases. I would mask when spraying, but those people are probably not reading this. Windows included. I can scrape off glass with a razor faster than masking for sure.
  • Buy quality tools and supplies to do the job. There is very little overall cost to the project in a $5 brush and a $20, but with proper care, the more expensive one will last nearly forever and do a better job.
  • Off-white masking tape versus blue or green. The off-white is less expensive and uses a solvent based adhesive. That adhesive can get oxidized and leave residue or not adhere properly. If used fresh and removed quickly it can save some money but not if you are going to leave it up for a month (potentially)

This is a good starter list of tips. I think most people know how to do this but maybe you learned something too.

December 11, 2020 – Recycled Floor, Good For the Planet and Good for the Wallet

December 11, 2020 /

Maybe I will sound like a broken record but I am not going to apologize for how busy I have been. Between working 10-12 hour days, my wife wants her office done. Not only that, but there is a lot of Christmas stuff to do and I am trying to carve the time out. The frequency of blogging is suffering a little temporarily.

Two years ago, the room in the picture above was our walk-in closet. It was originally a small bedroom that we commandeered when our kids were born to move upstairs with the rest of the bedrooms in the house. As they have gotten older, we wanted a little distance and moved back into the master bedroom which we previously converted to a TV room. We did a swap and now our bedroom is now the kids TV room.

I took down the wire shelves and filled the holes and fixed the worst of the crappy drywall job that was done. We replaced the carpet in the TV room, but we were trying to save some money so we came up with the idea of reusing flooring that I removed out of the apartment this last summer.

Originally, I was going to save the floor because we were out of dumpster space and I was in-between donating it or maybe building an office so that I had a dedicated place to work. I also had some new planks that I had reserved in case I ever needed to do some patch work. After being installed for twelve years, I figured we probably didn’t need to hold on to a bunch of extra material.

I promised that I would finish the floor on Thursday because I worked today (Friday) and tomorrow. So, that is what I did. This floor cost me $30 to install because I didn’t have enough underlayment.

Now, we have a little clean-up to do. I didn’t handle it with the greatest of care when we decided to replace it. There is a little paint slop on it because we didn’t remove the floor as soon as we should have out of the apartment once we decided to replace it. It’s going to clean up though with an hour or two of effort.

Before I finish, I wanted to take a minute and recommend Habitat for Humanity as a source of used building materials. It is not my go to source for things, but sometimes it is a really good value. For instance, I bought a partial spool of wire, still 100’s of feet for $3. I am going to use that to build an AM antenna soon. I have bought windows and electrical fixtures when I really didn’t want to pay a lot for them. You need to go in with an open mind, but really they have almost anything you need including appliances and lightbulbs.

Another idea I have heard about is people buying used insulation. It comes from old commercial jobs. There is also architectural salvage places that save details and period craftsmanship for people that live in old homes (like mine). Bricks and other stones are resold, I haven’t personally seen this other than on This Old House.

Hopefully, I have inspired you to make something new again. I know that I personally took pleasure in clearing up some space in my basement and I think that it looks nice too.

December 9, 2020 – 6AM Christmas Tree Decorating

December 9, 2020 /

It is probably an understatement that I have been busy lately. I just came off of three days off and I barely had a minute to do anything other than the the things I have committed to. We are working on my wife’s office, selling trees at the Boy Scout tree lot, yard work and other seasonal activities.

For those that know me, they wouldn’t be surprised if I admit that I am kind of a Grinch. That being said, I am also a traditionalist. I am not happy to put up outside decorations or inside for that matter. But, I will never give into the artificial tree movement for the reasons that it is not right.

We have had the tree in a bucket of water for over a week now. Because getting the tree up requires my muscle, the only time I had to do it was before work, so I started working on the tree at 6:30AM.

Because I live in Oregon, natural Christmas trees are normal. I didn’t see an artificial tree until I was a teenager at least. I know that a lot of people live in places where you can only buy a tree from a lot, because it was shipped in from somewhere else. However, I thought that I would provide some tips about Christmas trees just in case.

Getting a wild tree

I have done this a number of times. I would have to say that far and away, this is my favorite tree activity. Permits can be purchased for $5 from the US forest service. You go up to the national forest and you find a tree (that is in the national forest boundaries) and you cut it down and take it home. They will provide you with a map and some suggested locations to get started.

  • Check the weather. Early snow can make access difficult to impossible. Nobles tend to be at high elevation, above 4000′ are are the first to lose access.
  • Plan for adventure. Bring supplies like lunch and drinks and tire chains as well as saws and straps to get that tree. But also think about sleds and possibly campfires. This is an outing more than a to do.
  • Don’t push it if you start to see snow. This can turn deadly if you don’t respect mother nature.
  • Wild trees are spindly and sparse. If you are into that, then your in luck. Some varieties like Douglas fir can have pretty wimpy branch strength.
  • There are some limitations. Trees have a slot window (bigger than, smaller than Y) for harvest. They must be a certain distance from the road and stumps need to be cut to the ground. It is surprising how big trees really are when you get up to them versus at a distance. This can make the hunt challenging, but rewarding.

Going to a tree farm

This is typically our go to. You go to a place that grows a lot of trees and you cut it or someone else does. Often times they are geared toward the younger family set with Santas or tractor rides and such. Think of it as the Christmas version of the pumpkin patch.

  • Dress for the weather, the fields are often muddy and wet.
  • Help is usually available to bale the tree so that it is compact for travel. They can help load it or secure it to the vehicle as well.
  • I find this a little monotonous. You can most likely find the tree that you want, size, variety and look. But, they all sort of blend in together after a while.
  • This will likely be the cheapest tree to buy. You are not paying the fuel to go into the mountains and you are not paying the lot mark-ups.

Tree lots

Press the easy button on getting a Christmas tree. Pull in, look around, pay and go. My boy’s Boy Scout troop operates a lot every year. We spend a fair amount of time working the stand and plenty of people buy trees that way. We did this year too.

  • For best selection, go early in the season. If you are looking for something larger or a particular variety, it pays to buy early. The business aspect of this leads inventory to shoot for the biggest sellers and to sell out if possible.
  • Price shop for the best value. There are very few options in our small town as most of the competitors have gone away over the years. But I have seen a range of prices that vary from “I can’t believe someone would pay that” to “we don’t even buy them at that cost”.
  • Most tree lots are fundraisers for programs (in our area). It doesn’t feel so bad to pay more when I know the profits are supporting good causes.
  • Tree lot trees can be cut over a month ago. If you live somewhere outside of the pacific northwest, tree cutting for Christmas trees begins November 1 for destinations like California and Panama (really? Yep). I can say for our tree lot, I saw the trees cut and then I hauled them to the yard that day.

I was going to go into tree care, but this is already getting long. So, I will save it for another day. I hope that if you haven’t gotten your tree and you don’t have an artificial one that you will get it this weekend. I think our stand will be out of trees by the end of Sunday.

November 24, 2020 – Mantel Project is Complete, More Have to Want it

November 24, 2020 /

I finished my mantel project on Sunday. I kind of fell off of keeping track of my hours and I definitely didn’t hit my target date. I suppose if you are keeping up with the theme, I didn’t really want to.


I had other things that I would rather do. I had bids that I needed to get out. I had interviews to attend, I had blogging I wanted to do. I had other things that I had to do like hanging light fixtures, moving furniture for new carpet and assembling new furniture.

As with all projects, I ran into some things that didn’t go exactly as I expected. I was going to use a special router bit to make the 45 degree miter stronger, but I found the setup to be way too fussy without a proper router table. I also found that the air dried fir was too brittle to precision route an touchy joint. Those kind of derailments made me pause for a new strategy and that kind of pause put the brakes on momentum of the project.

To be truthful, I am looking more forward to the table that I am going to build next. I built this one first to get it done because the next project is going to be significantly bigger. I will need to do some more planning to get a more accurate estimate of how long things are going to take. One thing for sure is that I am not going to have the kind of time that I had previously.

With the holidays approaching, there is always significantly less free time. I also took a seasonal job delivering for Amazon. I may be working four to six days a week doing that for now. I think it will allow time to keep looking for a replacement job and writing but there is only so much time in a day and week for doing projects.

This is a job that I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, it is my lowest, post college degree paying job by a long shot. But, it is a four ten hour shift a week, turn it off when you clock out kind of gig. It is going to bring in some money consistently and there are worse jobs for less money out there. Believe me, I have been looking.

I have always thought that I would be interested in a job driving. I can download my playlist, listen to my podcasts and get paid to do so. I will talk more about my experience later, but I am thinking that this could be fun for a while.

If you were to ask me what my favorite job was, I would tell you that it was when I was a student janitor my senior year in college. Many people could find the downside in being a janitor, but I actually liked it, a lot. Beside the obvious benefit of getting some spending money, it forced me to budget my time effectively because I worked every week night. The best part was getting away from my complicated cerebral calculus and high level science projects and spend three hours a day sweeping, mopping and doing event setup. I lost twenty pounds, stayed focused and got paid.

I am hoping that this job will be a motivator with some of the same side benefits. In the mean time, I still have some days to do my own business if I get any or work on projects.