Monday, December 29, 2008

Lofty Trim Project

We got busy again - want to finish the work in the loft & move on down to the next level. Seems like time is running out, but that's the way it goes when you want things to be done...

Phil first installed the cedar ceiling trim & then worked on the windows.

These photos show all the trim finished with a couple coats of tung oil applied. We are using tung oil on all the cedar trim - it brings out the colours (reds, yellows, purples) & is a little different than varathane. We will probably have to re-apply the tung oil in a few years after it's all been exposed to the sun & has had a chance to season & fade a bit.














This is just a close-up of the detail at the ceiling peak around the central ceiling beam.








This is the trim around the glass art piece installed in the wall. I was pleasantly surprised that Phil made the trim so large - he just needs to trim it out on the other side of the wall - which should be tricky....don't know if we have a ladder tall enough for him to reach it easily!!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Lofty project

We have decided to work top to bottom for finishing projects. That means getting the loft dirty, dusty but complete.

We worked on the storage door covers (refered to as hatch covers also). There are 4 - 2 on each side of the loft. This storage space is great for items that are needed only a few times a year & once we start to condense our boxes, we should have enough left over space to install some built-in-drawers in the next few years.

Phil framed in the holes with the knotty pine we used on the ceiling, but I liked the look of the stain we used on the fir doors, so I put on a light coat of stain before a thick coat of varathane.

Gives it a bit of the old farm house look....

(as you can see, my storage space is already crammed with items that have to be either donated else where or find a proper home in the living space....)




I love the finished look! We had some left-over cabinet handles from the kitchen that we installed onto the doors & once they were dry, we popped them in place, with a small wood latch to keep the doors from popping out of the holes.



Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Winter Projects

Well, Christmas is almost upon us - I'm sure we'll find a tree in a day or two to complete the indoor decorating...

We have a bit more time on our hands for some of the larger projects & I think we'll be able to finish most of them before work starts back up again towards the end of January.

We brought in Mike again to help with the installation of the wall caps on the half walls. They were a bit tricky & we were sure appreciative of Mike's help - even though he was frustrated most of the time. I guess there were issues with the thickness of the drywall, warping in the walls & tight angles to be figured out. It didn't help either that we have some curved corners that make for issues when trying to get the wood square against it. But Mike & Phil did a fabulous job & all the wall caps are now installed.

Mike & Phil fitting the wall cap in place.








We ran out of the fir we were using for the wall caps, but Phil found an extra piece at another renovation project to fit. It's fir, but just with tighter grain. This section is up in the loft.

We are waiting for a few extra bits of finishing trim work around the stairs before we get into varathaning & sanding. We should be able to start that up just before New Year's & have it done before we leave on a road trip out to Alberta to visit the neice & nephew.

Our last project before we obtain our 'occupancy permit' was installing the railing on the other side of the stairs going up to the loft. This one had some design issues (Phil's idea versus mine), so I think Phil did this one while I was working this past week so that I didn't disagree & create a more difficult job (ha, ha, ha).

We didn't feel we needed a hand rail all the way up the wall, so there is just the hand rail in the opening seen here.

We have some of the spindles attached to the wall cap (at the bottom end of the stairs) & then in the middle, the spindles are attached just like on the other railing. The spindles towards the top are attached to the ceiling.

In order to further secure the spindles in the top portion, Phil attached another short piece of fir along the ceiling edge. Looks pretty good & it's definately not going to fall down any time soon!

Phil is just making plugs to go into the screw holes & then we'll start the finishing sanding & varathaning.



Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas & a Blessed New Year!