So in the end it took three full months, working most every weekend and a few days during the week, before we were finally able to finish putting up the walls! With the help of our good friends, Brian and Lynne Astroth, we finally got the last walls put up over Labor Day week end- the very last little piece of tongue and groove having been put into place on August 30th. (Yes, I’m that far behind on my posts! 😦 )
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- Dave works on building doors for the knee wall closets in the guest room
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- frame done and hinges attached, he places a couple of shims on the floor to raise the door frame slightly up off the floor before attaching it
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- once the frame is positioned properly, he attaches the hinges to the wall
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- and the door closes perfectly. Yay!
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- now for the tongue and groove
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- door facing, done
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- next, Dave cuts a couple of pieces of wood to create a door closure and attaches one piece vertically along the front of the door
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- he then attaches the second piece horizontally on the door frame
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- he leaves the screw slightly loose so that the horizontal piece can be swung vertically to allow the door to open
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- and another door is complete!
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- with both closet doors finished, the guest room is now done!
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- now onto the linen closet, located on the loft, just to left of the second floor bathroom
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- before framing for the closet walls, Dave decides to cut into the Durock wall of the shower in order to built a bump out for a soap shelf (the back of the shower is adjacent to the side of the linen closet)
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- after cutting out a segment of the Durock, Dave constructs a wooden frame for the bump out
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- the newly constructed bump out from inside the shower
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- Dave then moves on to framing the linen closet walls…we’ve lost about half of the space due to the HVAC vents and return
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- now for the t & g walls
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- an opening is left in the back of the closet in case we ever need to access the junction box all the way in the back of the space
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- Dave then builds a removable door panel to cover the access space
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- linen closet, done!
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- Lynne and Brian check out the inside of the cabin before heading out to pick up stones…it’s been a full year since they’ve been down and we hadn’t even cleared the lot yet at that point!
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- while Dave is inside finishing up the closet doors, Brian & Lynne (who, amazingly enough, volunteered for this job) and I head outside to round up all the large rocks we can find to use for future landscaping…we are about ready for final grading to be done and don’t want them to be buried under all the red clay when that happens
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- the efforts of our labor, several hours later
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- rock collecting done, we put Brian and Lynne to work inside
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- excellent, Brian, you look WAY more official wearing a tool belt!
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- Dave gives Brian a quick lesson on cutting the t & g
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- next, Brian learns how to angle the end of the board
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- no stranger to carpentry, Brian is soon ready to man the saw on his own
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- Lynne goes to work helping Dave attach the t & g to the walls
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- Dave shows Lynne how to use the staple gun to attach the t & g
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- I think Lynne is having fun now that she has the hang of it!
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- another wall complete-excellent job, Lynne!!!
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- oooo…..we’re almost done!
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- Lynne and Brian watch as Dave cuts the FINAL piece of t & g
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- after checking to make sure it fits, Dave writes the date on the final piece
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- our last little piece of t & g, dated 8/30/14, ready to go up
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- as there is no way to staple it in place, Dave uses a bit of construction adhesive to attach the last little piece
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- and there it is…the very last piece of the giant puzzle
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- the basement stairwell now complete, all of our tongue and groove walls are up….FINALLY!
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- gotta love a friend who will willingly pick up a broom to clean for you!
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- very tired and grubby, Dave, Lynne and Brian pose for a photo on the front steps before we take off
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- Lynne and Brian are still smiling so surely we didn’t work them TOO hard
With Lynne and Brian helping Dave finish the walls, I had to find something else to do. After looking around I realized that we still needed to wire a few of the electrical outlets on the main floor and most of the outlets on the second floor as well, so I donned our “electrical” tool belt and went to work.
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- my tools…
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- first step- make sure there is NO power coming into the outlet!
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- next, I pull out the wires…this outlet ony has three wires but some have five- two black, two white and a ground
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- using my electrical pliers, I strip about an inch of the coating off both the black and the white wire
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- grabbing the tip of each wire, I use the pliers to bend each of the ends
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- the ends should all form the shape of the letter j
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- I start with the black wire, which always attaches to the gold screw- if you have two black, you use both screws, but since there is only one here, I just use the top screw
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- after hooking the black wire around the base of the gold screw, I then tighten down the screw
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- flipping the outlet over, I then attach the white wire to the silver screw and then the ground wire to the green screw
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- and there you have it… all wired and ready to go back into the wall
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- the wiring is easy-peasy, pushing it back into the wall is really the hardest part!
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- one down, ten to go…
Once the walls were finally in place, the next big task was to finish the trim on all the doors and window frames. Dave knocked those out fairly quickly as they were all pretty straight forward. Even the trim around the double wall of windows in the great room proved to be much less of a problem than anticipated!
The arched window in the upstairs bathroom, however, was not straight forward and thus required a little more ingenuity. After mulling it over for a few days though, Dave figured out just how to tackle it.
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- first, we cut away some of the t & g along the top of the arch
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- next, Dave places a piece of trim between the two window sections
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- in order to be able to bend a board to line the underside of the arch, narrow slits are cut about 3/4 of the way into the board, about 1/4″ apart
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- Dave continues to cut the slits along the entire board
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- it’s now somewhat flexible but must be soaked in water before bending too much
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- Dave uses a wet towel to soak both sides of the board
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- while the board is soaking, Dave attaches a few pieces of wood to the existing arch so we will have something to attach the arch trim to
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- after letting the board soak for awhile, it’s ready to be shaped into an arch
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- once the wood is flexed and inplace, Dave places shims underneath to get it to make just the right arc
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- hooray, it worked!
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- now onto the window sill
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- Dave places a shim under the sill to make sure it’s level
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- once it is level, he uses the staple gun to attach it into place
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- next for the side trim
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- and now we’re ready to tackle the outer arch!
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- Dave attaches a 1″ x 4″ to the floor to make a compass arm that will allow him to draw the correct arch that we will need for the outer trim
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- after drawing the underside of the arch, he measure to see where the top line should go
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- having made another hole in the board, he puts the pencil in and swings the arm along the plywood, drawing the upper line of the arch
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- both lines drawn, it’s time to cut out the arch
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- using the jigsaw, Dave cuts out the template for the arch
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- using the plywood template as a guide, Dave cuts and then sands two mirror pieces from a 1″ x 12″ board…the finished arch will be formed from these two pieces, along with a keystone center to cover the seam
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- all three pieces finished and ready to attach to the window frame
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- hooray, both sides fit!
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- and there you have it!
the coleman cabin 
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