Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

I sure am!!!
I've had hoses split. I've had sillcocks crack!
You should be equally special given where you live


BTW, it doesn't look like any damage was done. Hoses all put away now.

 

[Baymule]

Nothing frozen here! Maybe February.

 

[Bruce]

It would be quite the weird world if you had frozen ground before we do!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @Bruce,

I saw where Long Island had a tornado. Do you get any bad weather to speak of up your way?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

Depends on what one considers "bad weather"

We've never had a hurricane though Tropical Storm Irene did a number on the narrow valleys in the state 10 years ago. She came right up the state, dumped a LOT of rain and lots of areas got flooded. We lost parts of roads, entire bridges, etc. I think we may have had a tornado or two but so small as to be pretty much non events.

We DO get ice, that is bad weather whenever it happens. We had a BIG ice storm in '98, power out all over the place for days. We got lucky, it would come back on occasionally, enough to keep the house from getting too cold and the refrigerator cold.

And we get snow. On 2/14/2007 we had well over 2' of snow in about 12 hours. Only time I've ever been stuck and that was < 1/4 mile from my house. It had taken nearly 3 hours to get that far. Our road hadn't been plowed since about noon and it was 7 PM when I got there. Once the frame of the car is up on the snow, there is no powering forward I had picked up a neighbor out on the main road, he'd been waiting 2 hours for a tow truck, had given up and was walking home. He was super cold so when it was clear we couldn't get the car moving he walked home. DW and DD2 were shoveling the driveway, he sent them up the hill with their shovels. With the snow cleared in front of the wheels about 30' I was able to get moving and with gravity assist made it down to the house. Took another hour to shovel the road and driveway so I could get the car parked.

Have you been affected by tornadoes? I assume any hurricanes that hit TX would be down to tropical storms or depressions by the time they get to you so not too bad.

 

[Bruce]

I made it up to low 50's, warm enough for me to work on the latest "in the house" project out in the barn workshop. Not supposed to get much over freezing tomorrow or Sat so I fired up the stove for the winter.

 

[Bruce]

OK, in house project. Finally got around to trimming a window. Chose the hardest one, bathroom window. Took a lot of time, and a couple of remade pieces, the non rectangular ones of course. Bummer when the router skips.

The carpenter had put 3/4 OSB around the inside of the shower so grab bars could be put anywhere (not that I've installed any) and decided to run it all the way across the west wall. In hindsight I wish he had stopped at the edge of the shower, a slight return there would have made my finishing life much easier. The exterior walls are SIPs with 6" insulation and drywall on the inside. Thus both the door and window are recessed by not only the 3/4" OSB he added but also the drywall on top of it.


You might note that there wasn't a great attention to detail getting the cutout in the OSB or the drywall to fit tight to the window or door frame so first I had to clean up the foam insulation and cut the OSB and drywall so there would be a flush surface.

Then I padded out the gaps with appropriate sized pieces of pine. Of course the depth from drywall to the window isn't any more uniform than the side and top gaps.


Since the family decided on natural vs painted wood, all trim will be red birch. Thus I had to stain the window frame. Fruitwood on pine seems to be a decent match for red birch, haven't found any stain called "red birch". Sill and interior trim installed. The left side trim is wider at the top than it is at the bottom to match the wall.


Sides, top and apron installed


The trim was installed with my battery operated DeWalt 18 gauge brad nailer that I got for Christmas last year. WAY easier than pre-drilling hardwood and fastening it with finish nails as I did in the prior house 25 years ago!

The door will be "interesting" since the strike is inset a fair bit from the wall face. I'll need some sort of metal plate with a curve on it so the latch doesn't bash then drag along the wood padding trim. And, of course, the hinges extend partly across the door frame on the other side. And you may have noticed that there isn't much space for trim between the door and the beam above it.

 

[Alaskan]

OK, in house project. Finally got around to trimming a window. Chose the hardest one, bathroom window. Took a lot of time, and a couple of remade pieces, the non rectangular ones of course. Bummer when the router skips.

The carpenter had put 3/4 OSB around the inside of the shower so grab bars could be put anywhere (not that I've installed any) and decided to run it all the way across the west wall. In hindsight I wish he had stopped at the edge of the shower, a slight return there would have made my finishing life much easier. The exterior walls are SIPs with 6" insulation and drywall on the inside. Thus both the door and window are recessed by not only the 3/4" OSB he added but also the drywall on top of it.
View attachment 88239View attachment 88238

You might note that there wasn't a great attention to detail getting the cutout in the OSB or the drywall to fit tight to the window or door frame so first I had to clean up the foam insulation and cut the OSB and drywall so there would be a flush surface.

Then I padded out the gaps with appropriate sized pieces of pine. Of course the depth from drywall to the window isn't any more uniform than the side and top gaps.
View attachment 88240

Since the family decided on natural vs painted wood, all trim will be red birch. Thus I had to stain the window frame. Fruitwood on pine seems to be a decent match for red birch, haven't found any stain called "red birch". Sill and interior trim installed. The left side trim is wider at the top than it is at the bottom to match the wall.
View attachment 88241

Sides, top and apron installed
View attachment 88242

The trim was installed with my battery operated DeWalt 18 gauge brad nailer that I got for Christmas last year. WAY easier than pre-drilling hardwood and fastening it with finish nails as I did in the prior house 25 years ago!

The door will be "interesting" since the strike is inset a fair bit from the wall face. I'll need some sort of metal plate with a curve on it so the latch doesn't bash then drag along the wood padding trim. And, of course, the hinges extend partly across the door frame on the other side. And you may have noticed that there isn't much space for trim between the door and the beam above it.

Very nice!!

 

[Mike CHS]

That can be a lot of work but the results are worth it.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Have you been affected by tornadoes? I assume any hurricanes that hit TX would be down to tropical storms or depressions by the time they get to you so not too bad.

We have had little bad weather (i.e., storms) this year. No tornadoes near us, no bad wind storms, and after early July, hardly any rain. This is the driest I have seen in the 3+ years we have been here.

Regarding your carpentry work, it looks beautiful! Where did you learn to do such work? Did you learn from others, learn on your own (trial-and-error), or something else? There are times when I wished I knew how to do those sorts of things. I can do basic hammering and drilling, but to plan out a project like that, I shudder to think what it would look like!

Senile Texas Aggie