Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Last weekend was one of those times where it just felt like we weren’t making any forward progress on the project. At the time it felt as if we were actually going backward. Warren was rearing to get started on his cedar entryway after finishing the last piece for the main frame last week. He did manage to get all the wood for the braces planed and finished a couple of cute little ones. However, then he refocused his attentions to resanding and repainting the thirty-six braces of the main frame of the house…. for the THIRD time.

Hard-learned lesson: Storing timbers is a challenge in the Pacific Northwest

Actually storing anything is a challenge in the Pacific Northwest. We thought that after the last refinish we had our braces where they were out of the rain/moisture and had adequate airflow. Alas. In spite of the treatments we used and the meticulous care to which we stacked them, every single one of them was adorned with some level of stubborn blue mold and/or light water damage from backsplash. We treat our finished beams with Tim-bor Professional fungicide and pesticide solution. We also paint them with a 50/50 mixture of raw linseed oil and pure spirits of gum turpentine. It definitely helps with the mold and is absolutely necessary, but in this climate you have to take extra care and precautions for how you store them.

Thirty-six beauties resanded and painted for the third (and final?) time and stored under cover with good airflow.

Thankfully, Warren is taking care of it now and not when we’re scrambling to put the bents together. He always has good foresight. On the bright side, this is definitely the last time they are refinished before finding their final resting homes in the house next month! Very exciting.

Love the interesting pattern on this fir brace!

 Meanwhile, as Warren sanded away, I was back on milling duty. We tweaked the staircase design recently and thus did not quite have the right timbers for the job. I spent most of the day remilling reject 5x8”s into 5x5”s for the main structural posts that hold up the landings and the stairs. The rejects were either twisted or cracked or bowed or unsightly, so I didn’t have much to work with to start. After spending half the day remilling three or four of them with less than satisfactory results, I decided to scrap them and mill up a log we had lying around. These posts will be main focal pieces, so they must be first and foremost pretty. I tell you, the log I milled up turned into a beauty of a post that we’ll put in the main level staircase.

Douglas fir posts for our future staircase.

My remilling endeavor wasn’t completely in vain. I produced two gorgeous hemlock posts from a huge beam we were storing just in case something like this came up. I took a break from milling at this point so Warren and I could plane these two lower-landing posts into perfect 5x5”s. I was having some issues with the mill or the blades cutting straight, so I made them extra fat. Our mill is a trusty tool but by no means did we splurge on one with all the fancy bells and whistles. Our mill means business and has gotten the job done, but often when we try to take a big slice out of a slab (5 to 7 inches) it acts up and the blade dives down into the wood or creates wobbles at the knots even with a newly sharpened blade. It may be that we our pushing our mill a little too hard, or it could also be that we have had the blades resharpened one too many times and need to invest in some new ones. Anyways, I did not want it to end up too small so I wasn’t messing around. I maybe went a little overboard because Warren and I ended up planing basically 6x6”s into 5x5”s with our trusty planers. Wow! That was a lot of effort!

The hemlock posts are a beautiful set! I cannot wait to cut into them.

I was pretty pooped by this point, and Warren was grown rather tired of the monotonous task of sanding thirty-six braces, so he took a turn at the mill turning another log into my final post while I went in to make us some dinner. That’s teamwork!  

Other tasks accomplished on ye’ olde homestead last weekend:

- Warren made wedges for the second flight of stairs I have ready (just need to sand the wedges and we can put the stairs together!);

- finished the three joists for the lower landing staircase;

- Warren chugged away at the final CAD drawings for the upstairs staircase;

      - tilled the garden in preparation for spring. Planted a ridiculous number of candied onions as well as my first round of greens.

Tilling away on my good ol' New Holland tractor.

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This week I finished up those pretty little staircase posts, and Warren finished up his resanding project, so to treat ourselves we decided to take a break from timber framing this weekend to do firewood and a bonfire! This is one of our favorite chores (even 31 weeks pregnant). We bucked up all the trees Warren dozed last summer and tidied up an eyesore of the yard. We had some friends over for the fire crew and had a really productive and enjoyable time with them!

Finished hemlock posts.

Warren attacking a mess of the yard. Q the spectator.