Gameroom French Doors Part 2

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We finally have the french doors permanently in place.  The tweaking took several days for several reasons.  One being the house is old and the opening was slightly askewed and the other is that we are not the best nor fastest door installers.

There is one thing we noticed right away that we love. It's the fact that you can open both doors and it makes carrying in and out larger items so much easier.  This opening is smaller than the standard opening for exterior patio doors.  Standard openings are 72" X 80" for your typical sliding or french door exterior opening.  Our opening is 60" X 80" which is an entire foot narrower.  

The old doors were sliders which meant that the open side was actually less than 30 inches and more like 28 inches.  That is OK for walking through but we are using this as our workroom which means we are hauling items in and out all the time. Now with the flick of a finger we can unlock the fixed side and have nearly the full 60 inches.

After screwing the door in place we could move on to the exterior trim.  We decided to trim out these doors to match the front entry door.  The front door exterior trim is a 2X6 trimmed down to 5 inches.  So the first thing we did was to take 1/4 of an inch off one side to get a nice crisp edge.  After that, we measured off 5 inches and cut.  We prepared all 3 trim boards at the same time so we didn't have to keep adjusting the table saw.

Now  that the boards were all the same width we measured and cut the side pieces first.  We attached them with 2 finish nails at the top and bottom.  Then we moved on to the other side and did the same.  I held the top piece in place while R marked it with a pencil.  The top board was nailed in place with two finishing nails at each end.  

Now that the pieces were all in place we went back and added 2 more finishing nails every foot on both sides of the boards.  In some places we needed to shim out the trim so that it would be level with the trim board that was next to it.  This house is sheathed with various 1 inch thick lumber and over the nearly 100 years some of it has bowed, cupped, and shrank so we use wood shims to make the trim boards lay nice and flat next to each other.

We finished up by countersinking all the nails.  The proper depth is to sink the nail head into the wood to the depth of the width of the nail head.  In the spring we will putty those holes but for now it is far too cold. 

Tomorrow we will install the door handles that I purchased from House of Antique Hardware.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle

1960's Craftsman Table Saw Refurbish Part 3

If you are new to this project click on the links below to read.... 

Part 1

Part 2

Today was beautiful.  Sunny and about 50 degrees.  We carried the saw base outside and put it up on saw horses so R could sand the base and enjoy the sun at the same time.  But first we had to glue the two top pieces together to form one top.  

Once that was done R got busy using the belt sander to remove decades of dirt and oil off of the old wooden base and

I got busy shoveling snow off the deck.  Despite the above freezing temps and full sunshine, the snow just was not melting fast enough for us. 

After sanding was completed, R cut some little pieces to fill in around the legs.  

This is purely for aesthetic purposes just like the trim piece that we added afterwards.  The trim piece was left over from the flower box tune up that we did to spruce up the backs of the flower boxes on the deck railing.  BTW I ordered 4 more flower boxes from Dave Ciliberto of Ciliberto Woodworking in Vermont. Dave has built all of my window/flower boxes and he does a great job.

We were one piece short on the little trim piece that we added to the base.  But that is OK because I need more for the new window/flower boxes, so we will just add 3 feet to my lumber list and pick up enough to finish the saw base and the new window/flower boxes when they arrive.

By 3PM we had our coats off and were wearing just sweatshirts AND the snow was still hardly melting.  I just couldn't let this afternoon go by without painting something.  I look at it like this,  if it is warm enough to paint then spring has sprung and goodbye winter.  So I used the air gun to blow off any residual saw dust and then opened my quart of Royal primer/paint from Ace Hardware and put the first coat of paint on the saw base.  The base will need a second coat tomorrow but it already looks so much better.

What do you think?  

Tomorrow we will add that last piece of trim and I will give the entire base a second coat AND then I am going to prime some shutters.  R will probably spend the day cutting the new top to fit and then sanding the new top.  Saturday's mail brought both of the products that I purchased to restore the saw table.  More on those products later.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle

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Better Than New + Scrap $$$

While I was stripping the staircase I came across several areas that had paint and caulk deep into tiny crevices. I tried using my putty knife, my scraper, and even my dental tool pick but I still was unable to get all the residue.

In some areas all I managed to do was make the crevice bigger. So I hauled out my tiny Wonder Bar and removed the piece that was keeping me from getting to the dried up paint and caulk.Here is a photo of the pieces after they were sanded.
The sanding of the newel post revealed the original carpenter's pencil mark that he used to align the trim. Thanks Mr. Carpenter.
The joints are now tight and the the trim is straight.
The other pieces of trim that I removed were these two flat pieces that were attached to where the staircase meets the ceiling in the first floor hallway. I stripped and sanded both pieces and the first piece went back into place without a hitch. The second piece was another story.
One of the problems was that we were both trying to stand in the same place, on the same step, while one of us held the wood piece in place and the other held a pneumatic air nailer. As hard as we tried the piece just would not lay flat. After much debate we came to the conclusion that the piece was about a 1/4 inch too long. This would account for why there was a gap and why it was chock full of caulk.

R trimmed off an 1/8th of an inch and we tried again. The piece was still too long so he trimmed another 1/8th of an inch off the piece. This time it fit perfectly. But by this time my arms were so tired that I could no longer raise them in the air to hold the piece in place. Thankfully we have a full array of clamps and we were able to clamp the piece in place. Now that piece is better than new.
Yesterday I trimmed back my Pink Diamond hydrangeas in front of the dining room windows. This gave us access and space to work on the coal chute door.
Last year I was able to remove a lot of the thick peeling paint with a putty knife but the remaining will need to be removed with our portable sand blaster. But first we needed to shovel the dirt away and decide how we will keep the dirt from returning.The concrete pad has sunk down and pulled away from the foundation wall about 2 inches. We thought if we dug down deep enough we could lift the whole piece up into place. R dug down 12 inches and did not find the bottom of the concrete. We decided at that point if we ever did find the bottom that it would weigh far too much to move.
On to Plan B, which is to leave it alone and slope the dirt away from the concrete pad. We will use large rocks to build a mini retaining wall along with some landscaping fabric to hold back the dirt when it rains.

If you are wondering what is that piece of sheet metal that is attached to the center of the coal door......well we don't know. We speculate that based on the size that at sometime in the past they cut a hole and installed a dryer vent. Now why oh why couldn't they have at least placed the opening in the center of the door? We are hopeful that once it is painted and the hydrangeas grow back that no one will focus on the ill placement of the sheet metal patch.

FYI.....R just returned home from taking a load of scrap to the scrap yard. Scrap metal is currently $250 a ton which is high and should go down as the summer approaches. R sorts out his copper, aluminum, and brass because that pays more money. He received $65.00 for his semi precious metal and $133.68 for miscellaneous metal for a total of $198.68. Not only does this put money in your pocket but it keeps good recyclable metal out of the landfills.

Just the other day I was watching Modern Marvels on TV. They were showing how copper is mined and refined. The initial cost along with the amount of energy that is used is staggering.