At Home In The Woods

[dstig1]

Dave,

We love the trim guy.

At the bottom of the windows, instead of just cutting off the ends of the trim boards as 90 degree angles, he cuts 45 degree angles and attaches a small piece of trim at the end.

Sounds like you got a good one there!:thumbsup:

The small 45 deg piece of trim is called a Return. And yes, it is the proper technique, but as you note, many people would probably not bother and skimp on things like that. A good trim guy goes by the motto "let no end grain be left showing!" At least, IMHO...

But it sure does take a lot of time...

 

[dcyrilc]

Dave,
Trim work has been going on for 4 weeks. I don't mind that the trim work is taking a while. I believe all the doors and windows are done. The crown moulding is done. Baseboards just started. 2/3 of the baseboards were defective and will have to be returned Monday. All the bad ones were made in Brazil.

We love the trim guy. He takes his time and is very detailed. He's been here everyday for so long that he's almost part of the family. He has made himself at home in the garage where he has set up his workbench. He plays old-timey country music. Sometimes from our camper we can hear him singing in the house.

Here's some of the detail work he does. At the bottom of the windows, instead of just cutting off the ends of the trim boards as 90 degree angles, he cuts 45 degree angles and attaches a small piece of trim at the end.

We ordered jam extensions for our windows so that we have wood trim completely around the windows instead of sheetrock. If the window stool sits on top of the jam extension without any modifications to the stool, there will be a 1/4" deep depression x 1/2" running along the bottom of the sash (between where the stool and the sash . My wife saw a house that had the 1/4" depression and did not like it figuring it would collect dust and be hard to clean. So the trim carpenter routed out the bottom of all the stools so that when installed, the stool would sit 1/4" lower so that there would be no depression between the stool and the sash.

The trim carpenter made 45 degree cuts at all the outside corners of the crown moulding.

Here's the dining room/office. The trim carpenter moved an electrical outlet and one low-voltage box that were in the way of the wainscoting trim and patched the sheetrock. I'm thinking that most people would have just left a gap in the trim for the existing electrical boxes.

IMO these are the differences which seperate a craftsman from someone who simply does it for a living.

 

[Obed]

Basement Porch Concrete

The workers had a motorized wheelbarrow they could use to transport concrete from the concrete truck to the back of the house. When the concrete sub had told us that he would "wheelbarrow" the concrete to the back porch, I was thinking to myself, "That sure sounds like a lot of work." Now I understand.

 

[mkane09]

I REALLY like that outside corner on the crown molding. I've never seen it done that way. Classy. Isn't in interesting the difference in the subs that you've had work on the house? How'd you find the trim guy?

mkane09

 

[walleyed]

Things are finishing up very nice. Love the fireplace work. The stamped concrete and the trim looks great also. Almost there!!!!!!!!

We all need a wheelbarrow like that as we get older or is it as we get smarter. Guess I'm not old enough or smart enough yet.

 

[Obed]

I did some backfilling at the front of the house this past weekend. I put some blue styrofoam against the house to protect the black bituthene waterproofing material. I buried a couple of big pieces of concrete. The first big piece of lobsided concrete was a monster. It took me a long time just to get it on the FEL. Then when I dropped it into the hole, it ended up to not be oriented the way I wanted it. So I had to rearrange the concrete with the backhoe. Next, I dug a hole in which to fit the second piece of concrete. I hope I never have to dig in these spots because removing these large pieces of concrete would be a lot of work after the clay gets packed around and on top of them.

 

[Obed]

Here's a bunch of gravel that the original construction manager dumped on our front yard. I'm still sore about that. I scraped off as much as I could with the FEL and dumped it on the driveway.

I still have some fine tuning that will need to be done to the grading. I'll give this area some time to settle before I give it the finalylayer of red dirt and subsequently cover it with topsoil. My objective at this point is to get the grade to the point that we can get our occupancy certificate and move into the house. So the grade needs to drop away from the house by 6" for the first 10 feet. Also, the front porch cannot be higher than 30" above grade or we would have to put up porch railing. So still I need to add about another foot of dirt beside the porch.

 

[srs]

I did some backfilling at the front of the house this past weekend. I buried a couple of big pieces of concrete.

Obed, I know it's too late now (or is it?) but do you think this is a good location for the heavy piece of concrete to be buried here? Why I ask is if you ever plan to landscape the house which I'm sure you will wouldn't that piece of concrete be in the way of future bushes, plants, small trees, etc? I thought maybe the concrete piece could go in the area of the driveway where you had the water run off. Landscaping adds so much to the look of a home and a lot of people take short cuts in this area. My 2 cents. Keep up the good work!

 

[radioman]

Obed, I know it's too late now (or is it?) but do you think this is a good location for the heavy piece of concrete to be buried here? Why I ask is if you ever plan to landscape the house which I'm sure you will wouldn't that piece of concrete be in the way of future bushes, plants, small trees, etc? I thought maybe the concrete piece could go in the area of the driveway where you had the water run off. Landscaping adds so much to the look of a home and a lot of people take short cuts in this area. My 2 cents. Keep up the good work!

I agree. Its hard to tell what your future ideas and plan would be till years later. Also, I think its toooo close to house as ground is always constantly shifting, even though you cant tell, 10-30 years from now, it might be 6 inches closer to house then where you left it. Either you are a brave man willing to take the chance, or you know something I don't.

 

[Obed]

Stanley and radioman,
You make good observations. There will be at least 1 foot of dirt above the big piece of concrete. I hope that's enough for any scrubs we might put there. If not, I can dig up that big piece when needed although it wouldn't be much fun. The concrete is about 12" away from the retaining wall and is probably 3 feet away from the house. If that piece of concrete moves sideways 12", I've got other problems.
Obed