Friday, May 22, 2009

A Gift




This pen is a gift for someone else to give. Hey, its a commission! It is made from Myrtal wood with some nice coloring on it. I picked through the pile of wood for this. It has been too long since I turned anything and I need to get back into it. There is no power yet to my shop, and a long extension cord to the garage. Neither is conducive to my wood working.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

A new roof


Brian and Dennis came over and helped put the roof on yesterday. They came late enough that I had all of the shingles but two bundles up on the roof, which is almost 1 ton, at 330 lbs a square, 4 bundles to a square and 6 squares for the roof. As you can't see, it matches the house in color. We were able to use an air nailer which helped with speed and we were done by about 2 pm, for the most part. I acted as the gopher, getting materials, supplies, running up and down the ladder and cutting shingles with a dull razor blade. No matter how many times I replaced the bade, after one cut it was dull. I finished the last half ridgecap after Brian and Dennis left. Without their help it would have taken me a week and I am indeed thankful.

I picked up the cut shingles and wrapping this morning off the ground. And I was moving slowly as I was sore. There are 2 vents on the back side let let hot air out. I still have 2/3 a box of nails, as there are 7200 in a box, and we used about 2100. You can by nails in bundles of 600, but they end up costing the same amount.

It's Mother's Day and I have company, so I need to finish.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Finally, another entry.





Okay, I've been dragging my feet. Here is a shot of the shop with a skin on it. But, this is the only side with plywood on it at this time. I had to put it on to install the door and locks. With any luck I'll be putting shingles on it this weekend. The crew is ready, I just need to order the materials. I'll be punching a hole through the wall for the electricity too, now that the wall is there. The wind kept lifting the tar paper and I've been going up and re-stapling it down. Of course when the tar paper is not laying flat the roof leaks.

I've included shots of our dogwood tree and wisteria. A final shot shows you why a wisteria should not be trained to go up a deck.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.