Category: Schneidering

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Living Room Shelving Idea

Painting over Christmas went well, with us finishing the kitchen, living room, dining room and bathroom. We are taking a small break before we start the hallway and the bedroom, probably in February.

In the meantime we have been looking for a shelving solution for the living room. Specifically we want something in the corner to hold a few books and decorative items. It is a small space; about three feet either side of the corner before the wall runs into the patio door on one side and a window on the other.

Kelly has developed a love for the Poul Cado Cadovius shelving/wall units. Unfortunately they are crazy expensive to buy and most are too large anyway. I have not seen one up close and personal but looking at images on the web I think the basic idea in fairly simple.

After a bit of paper noodling I think I know how to build a Cadovius inspired shelf . Here is what the real ones look like:

Here is a mock up from some scrap wood I had in the shed.

Obviously this crappy plywood and MDF trim is not what I would use, it’s just what I had handy. Even so I could exert 30+ pounds pressure and get a half inch bend in this sample shelf without splitting anything or having the metal rods pull out. Proof of concept verified!

Next is a trip to town to find some appropriate wood. Maybe Windsor Plywood will have something nice.

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More winter prep

This summer we spent a day cleaning the bbq and the smoker.  Wow.  We did not realize how much mildew was growing on and in them.  We did note how bad the bbq cover had gotten.  We now suspect that the covers actually made the problem worse.

I recently was lucky enough to have access to some salvage metal roofing.  I scavenged enough to be able to put up another rain shelter this time for the cookers.

I have one more project I would like to get to.  The recycling is currently in under a tarp roof in the back yard.  This is a leftover arrangement from when we bought the property.  The roof works fine enough but is really low, like 40″ low.  I have a bit of metal roof left and I think I will put a new, higher roof over the recycling.  It would be a good additional to the new gate I put in to shorten the hike when taking it to the street on pickup days.

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Winters coming

Since we have not built our car port yet I’ve been putting up temporary solutions to keep the convertible out of the rain for the winter.  Last year it was a couple tarps, some clamps, a lot of rope, my quick support poles, and a couple of trees. It worked, but not pretty.

This year it is improved. Still a temporary solution but a spent a little money  to avoid people thinking I was starting a new tent city.  I found a design some guys use at Burning Man called a monkey hut.  Pretty simply and surprisingly stable.  We’ll have to see what it does after the first big snow.

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Salvage Lumber

Someone I know asked if I could build them a firewood shelter using a big stack of old wood that was piled up beside their workshop.  This was wood left behind by a previous owner,  most of it milled on site from cedar and douglas fir trees.  Old Douglas fir trees.

The other request was to make it visually similar to another one they already had to avoid having the “shiny new” upstaging the “weathered old”.

I am not quite finished but I have managed to find enough wood to build everything except the rafters.  I had to buy new 2×6’s for those.  I even found a few lengths of fir 6×6 so I could mirror the beam in the old shelter.  Did I mention how heavy 6×6 douglas fir beams are?  No?  Ok, how does 220 pounds sound.  And no helpers 😦

I also got to try my hand at a scarf joint.  Now before you start I know it should by at least eight times longer than the width of the wood, and preferably 12 times.  Problem is I didn’t have enough 6×6 to sacrifice eight feet for scarf joints.  Most of the beam parts were supported by two posts, and only a small piece in the centre would be suspended.  Since this small piece is only 5ish feet long and will at most have to carry two rafters I decided to go with a very small scarf with dowel pins.  I made sure the angle of the joint would aid in supporting the piece.

  • Lifting the beam

Sure makes a guy wish for a 10″ saw and some better chisels.  One last note: did I mention how hard old douglas fir can get?  No?  Check this out ->

Count’em up.  One carbide tooth left and it’s burnt.  I actually broke two driver bits as well.

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There, that’s better

I’m not sure why the happened. Cedar siding on an old building. The building is actually pretty sound. Solidly built, no water damage and very little rot. I only had to replace the stairs and the deck rail top caps that had a bit of dry rot.

The only other time I’ve seen cedar siding buckle out like this was because of ivy growing under the siding. This almost looks like a tree branch was growing in it. After I took down the warped ones I noticed that they nested together very suspiciously. What’s that chance they actually put up warped boards?

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Live simply

Spent the last couple of days hauling away the contents of another estate.  This is the third one I’ve helped with this year.  There is something profoundly sad about loading someone’s valued possessions, items they picked out with care and thought and passion, and taking them to the landfill.

It feels like an insult.  Demeaning.

Many items are taken by relatives and friends.  Some items make it to local recycling or are donated to second hand charity stores. The lion’s share of the house contents however ends up  getting unceremoniously tossed into the back of the truck and taken to the dump.

You start to think about you own possessions and what will happen to them.  The fox statuette and whale milk pitcher.  The painting that was Kelly’s retirement gift.  The drawer full of watches I’ve been keeping (some even still work!)

Cleaning out someone else’s home can be a great eye opener.  It makes you really think about what you want to leave behind for somebody to deal with.  We have been downsizing fairly steadily over the past decade or so, quite aggressively at times.    We’ve gone from almost 4000 sqft of living and storage space to just under 900 sqft in the process. I like to think that in the end of days most of our belongings will find a second home and not simply tossed out.  Live simply and spare someone else the sadness and guilt of destroying the artifacts of a life.

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Long day

Another concrete day. These are always long days. We hand mix with a portable mixer. Usually we rent a six cubit foot gas power mixer which we did today. On the fourth load the main bearing died and we had to swap it out for a smaller electric mixer. I did sixty loads in six hours. 20,000 pounds. The mixer failure delayed us as well so the last few were done in the dark. Long day.

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Hmm, not sure about this one

Put together this cedar stave hot tub and built the deck and stairs for a couple over the Christmas season.  Tub comes in a half dozen boxes and you have to assemble it like a barrel, which I guess it sort of is.

It looks nice enough.  Has jets, a light, benches.  It reminds me of the wood fired tubs you can get except it has a standard electric heater and pump system.

The surprising part is it has virtually no insulation compared to your traditional fibreglass/acrylic tubs.  There is an 1/8″ foil backed thermal blanket between the cedar staves and the liner, same wrapped around the plumbing.  That’s it.  The manufacturer claims $60/month to heat.  I hope that’s true, glad it’s not my power bill though.