Construction Announcement!

[frederic]

Well, the summer blew by and I didn't touch my studio, so it remains dusty and unspackled. The contractors that remodeled our bathroom did such a darn good job, that I've contracted them to mudd/spackle my studio. $400 including all materials. Can't beat that. And there are a ton of nasty, oddball corners that I've already screwed up. Price includes fixing such things

So, by next weekend, I should have the studio completely done as far as major construction, and I can prime and paint it, then slap up the mouldings, then weld together the console table. I was so excited I've already cut all the steel for the table. What a huge pile!

After the table is done, down goes hardwood flooring. Love hardwood. Looks nice, smells nice, just really makes for a nice comfy room. I'll do that *after* I weld the console table as not to damage it. Already have the planking too

 

[fitZ2]

Hey frederic, how are ya! Cool, sounds like your other projects are done pretty much. Although I know how it goes. My list grows daily So does the trail of "unfinished stuff". Ha! Hey, what kind of hardwood flooring
are you using? Prefinished or unfinished? I'm so cheap my flooring is actually strips of leftover Birch ply, ripped down to 3/4", turned on edge so the endgrain plys are exposed, glued togeather in planks and resurfaced. REALLY hard surface, but looks absolutely terrific when finished with poly. I have a ton of scraps from cabinet cases, so might as well make use of it. Although, I've used a lot for my craft boxes. I have 50 or so in all stages of assembly.
I got turned on to industrial "tints", which they use to color lacquer or other solvent based finishes. I bought 4 ounces of each color, and 5 gallons of Acetone. I mix a couple of drops of a tint in a half gallon of acetone, and dip the boxes in different colors to make graphic finishes. Or simply rub the tint into the grain. Man, talk about BRILLIANT color . Or I tint some clear lacquer too, and overspray other colors. TOO MUCH FUN!! Well good luck with your console and finishing your studio. Keep us drooling with pics!!
fitZ

 

[Michael Jones]

That sounds great federic!
I'm trying to catch up to you, I'm just starting the sheetrocking process.

 

[frederic]

Michael - at the rate we are both going, you'll surpass me very quickly. For whatever reason, I'm still in "car mode". Though, the contractors are sanding the room today, so that will be primable before the weekend.

Fitz - doing well overall, minus the visit to the hospital for anaphylactic shock from a wasp sting. The bugger flew into my root beer bottle, didn't notice, took a swig, and it stung the inside of my mouth I originally was going to go with birch pergo, then decided against engineered flooring as chair rolling is going to kill it fairly quickly, area rug or not, but real hardwood was just grossly expensive so I kept waffling on what to do. That was until a week ago my cousin called me to let me know a lumber yard up by him was going under, and they were selling off everything dirt cheap, and wanted to borrow my truck to collect lumber for some of his projects. Took a ride up there to help, he was getting douglas fir 12'long 2x4's for about 50 cents a pop, four truckfulls. Somewhere between loads I spied a large pile of maple planks, and inquired... "take it all, $200 cash". <perk> Done. All in all its about 1200 sq ft give or take, I wasn't going to argue. So as a return favor, my cousin brought down his dado blades and we gerry rigged some fencing over my saw, and ripped grooves in one side, and a tongue on the other. I did some testing, and they fit together nice and tight too, I won't need that much glue. The maple boards are 3" wide, 3/4" thick, and random lengths between 3 and 8 feet, all cut straight and square, which is nice. The price was just too good to pass up, and even though I was really into the idea of birch, I can easily live with maple. Its a nice hardwood for sure. And, it fit into my cheapness

So once I prime and paint the place, I have to peel up all the yellow office tiles on the floor, skim a nice smooth foundation, then lay the wood down with thinset and my nailgun. I'll probably not stain it, and just coat it with polyurethane, though I haven't decided yet. I didn't want to leave the wood outside or in the garage, so I have it stacked up in one of the bedrooms, which I have to repaint since its about to become a nursery. So that's two bedrooms I've filled with crap that belongs in my studio. Glad my wife is of the tolerant breed.

And this saturday is "Dollar day" at a junkyard in PA, so that will be yet another truckload of e-bay sellable car parts sitting in the driveway for a few months. Yep, she's very tolerant. But this is how I pay for my studio, equipment, and other hobbies.

 

[Michael Jones]

I originally was going to go with birch pergo, then decided against engineered flooring as chair rolling is going to kill it fairly quickly, area rug or not, ...

What makes you say that?
I have pergo flooring in first floor of my house.
We have a home office in there as well (lots of chair rolling going on) and, so far, there hasn't been any detriment to the floor. It's been there for about 3 years now I guess.

 

[fitZ2]

Fitz - doing well overall, minus the visit to the hospital for anaphylactic shock from a wasp sting.

Anaphylactic shock?!!! Holy moly frederic. You ok? Hey, was it because of the location of the sting, or you are alergic to wasps? My wife is alergic, and got stung on the hand last year. WOW! Here arm swole up huge with blisters forming all over it for 3 weeks. She was told to buy an injection kit just for these local wasps. Apparantly, one more sting and it could kill her now. Another creepy crawley here is HOBO spiders. I hate spiders as it is, but I found out that late summer here, this place becomes a spider HAVEN! Good lord they were EVERYWHERE. Big ugly mofo's that hang where you don't see them at dusk. I've been bitten twice now, and they are NO fun. A huge golfball sized boil forms that has to be cut open to drain
I kill every spider I see now.
Hey, what a steal on the Maple. Machined it yourself huh? Cool! Actually, maple is MUCH better than Birch.
I just did a project in White birch, which is softer than maple. It came out ok, but I prefer maple. One clue though. DON"T stain it. Maple looks a lot better with a clear finish, and for floors I would go with a flooring poly. Probably satin. It'll brighten small rooms up, as dark floors make the room look smaller.
BTW, if I'm thinking of the same stuff, Pergo is a laminate, NOT a veneer. At least the stuff my brother in law used was Pergo I think, and looked cheap and crappy, like printed woodgrain. Hardwood planking looks GREAT, cause you can REALLY see the difference. Even veneer flooring looks phony to me. It's too perfect. Plusssss, I bet it will SOUND great too!! Nothing like solid real wood. I'm getting ready to resurface the old FIR flooring in our house. Man, this stuff is BEAUTIFULL. Now days, real FIR T&G planking is EXPENSIVE!!
I like the look of OLD stuff redone. It has character flaws, like me Well, good luck with the studio, cars, junkyards and your
wife!
fitZ

 

[frederic]

When I redid the downstairs half bath, I used pergo because it was easier, more convienent, and available on a sunday. That bath is about 5'x3', and I built a new subfloor since the prior one was rotted from 20 years of the toilet leaking prior to us moving in. Anyway, most of the edges of the pergo where the butt each other are starting to look raged, and this was done only three years ago. Might be because its a bathroom, but honestly, we don't use it very much. Mostly when we have company, as its on the first floor. I really expected it to look gorgeous for 10+ years...

So I figured if a little moisture is destroying it this fast, its not going to survive chairs, amps on rickety casters, and recorder racks moving around long term.

Maybe I'm just nit-picking because I really wanted real wood, from real trees.