AW so much progress! Now with PIP

[FoxInFiji]

Things are moving so fast with our remodel right now!  Sorry I don't have any pictures but I wanted to share.  We're in the last big push to finish the master bathroom and get the LR & DR finished in time to host Easter.  My dad has finally got his butt in gear and is making our trim!  We spent the whole weekend up there helping him plan down the boards and cut all of the pieces.  We have all of the big pieces shaped (baseboard, casing, apron, and header) with just the small detail pieces left to make (fillet, stool, and head cap).  It's all solid cherry and looking like it's going to stain up really nice.  Next weekend we're spending all of our time in his semi-heated shop sanding 3,200 lf of edges.  Not fun but it will be so worth it in the end. 

All of the painting is done except the pattern I'm going to paint in the master closet.  We've used 9 gallons of paint in the last few weeks!  We painted all of the ceilings and walls in the master bedroom, master bathroom, walk-in closet, hallway, living room, stairwell, and entry.  With all of that done DH has all of the new light fixtures hung and is replacing all of the light switches and outlets to white.  Everything is looking very fresh and clean.  The master bath sconces and flushmount from RH were the first thing I purchased for this remodel (long before demo every started) so it's awesome to finally see them out of the boxes they've been sitting in for so long. 

As of yesterday all of the new doors are on order.  No more blanket hanging in the master bedroom doorway temporarily!  We'll need to rush to sand, stain, and poly them when they come in a few weeks so we can install them before the trim.  The master bathroom vanities and storage cabinets are in the works.  The cabinetry guy has finished all of the boxes and is working on the drawers, doors, and side panels now.  The quartz people are on notice and will be able to come measure as soon as the bases all get installed.  I ordered all of the cabinet hardware for these pieces yesterday and I need to order the rest of the return air grilles today so we can put those up in time for the trim.  I also need to spray paint all of the baseboard diffusers ORB and install them before the trim.  DH has started of the wood cladding (stain grade plywood) for the kneewall between the tub and toilet.  We're building a hidden access door in this wall like we did for the main bathroom.  The shower fixture is installed (it's huge!) and all we have left to do is drill a few more holes for the handheld holder.

Tonight I'm going to finish moving all of the boxes, bins, and furniture out of the DR which has been serving as our storage area for the last 2.5 years.  We need to rip out the carpet in the LR & DR this week so we can install the new laminate.  This will also mean tearing out the bad tile job from the DR corner where the old wood stove was.  Yay that will finally be gone!  All of the boxes will be going in the spare bedrooms but we have to keep it away from the walls so we can install the new trim.  At some point I want to purge a lot of it but I don't think that will happen before Easter.  I'm also moving my dresser and boxes of clothes up from the basement (where we were temporarily living during the HW install) so all of my clothes will be on one floor again.  DH and my FIL are beginning the laminate install on Friday and we'll probably be finishing it late at night on the weekend after sanding with my dad and celebrating my FIL's birthday.  After that we need to buy, stain, and install the quarteround so we can fully move back into the spaces. 

[kitty]

I can't wait to see the pics! It is going to look great!

[ktzmoh]

I opened this excitedly thinking we'd get pictures! What a tease.

Sounds like it is all coming together really beautifully and I can't wait to have a look!

[bunnymendelbaum]

I cannot wait to see!

[Deleted]

Awesome! Yeah, I was expecting pics too!

[FoxInFiji]

Mar 12, 2013 10:51:42 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

I opened this excitedly thinking we'd get pictures! What a tease.

Haha sorry!  I still don't have my external harddrive back yet.  It crashed a couple months ago and I lost everything so it's at a clean room right now trying to recover as much as they can.  That's why I can't blog either.  I may have lost all of my pictures from the last 4 years ( ) but it sounds like they can recover at least a good portion of the files I just won't know what portions that will be yet.  So for now all of my photos are living on my SD cards since my computer doesn't have enough space to store them all and at least there they will be safe from any more crashes.  I do have some CAD drawings of our trim details that I made for my dad.





Window details.  From top to bottom: head cap, header, fillet, casing, stool, and apron


Profile details for each piece.  Top to bottom, left to right: head cap, fillet, stool, baseboard, apron, header, and casing


Note because of the cutout in the back and various shapes small mitered cuts will be needed to return everything to the wall.  The head cap, header, fillet, stool, and apron will have this and it will be done before staining for the best results.  Returns will also be needed for window jamb extensions behind the casing and extended fillet and stool sizes are needed for the different size windows. 

I told y'all I was a trim nerd! 

[Deleted]

Mar 12, 2013 11:10:13 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

I told y'all I was a trim nerd! 

I can dig it. LOL. Luckily our carpenter was very patient with me when I had him try on different trim combinations.

[simpsongal]

Wow - you are truly an inspiration!

I can barely drag my butt to the lumberyard to look at backband molding. Incidentally, it is so hard to find backband molding.

[Deleted]

Where's the plinth blocks? lol. I was so annoyed when I realized they forgot to add plinth blocks. It was too late when I noticed they were missing. I don't notice it anymore though. So, I think with or without would look great.

[FoxInFiji]

Mar 12, 2013 11:40:55 GMT -5 d0ri said:

Where's the plinth blocks? lol. I was so annoyed when I realized they forgot to add plinth blocks. It was too late when I noticed they were missing. I don't notice it anymore though. So, I think with or without would look great.

I really wanted those! But DH, my FIL, and my dad vetoed my down.  Mainly because we didn't have any cherry significantly thicker than 3/4" (and plinth blocks without much added depth look kind of silly).  Plus we have a lot of doorways tight to corners so anything wider than the 2 1/4" casing would have to be cut down anyway.  Besides I couldn't come up with a great plinth block design.  It was going to be the same as the baseboard with the 45 degree cut halfway though the top thickness only on a bigger block.  I originally wanted everything to be beafier but we had some already pre-made door casing pieces from an old jobsite my FIL was on that were the standard 2 1/4" width.  With the expensive cost of cherry these days we didn't want to waste those or create too much waste of the lumber we did have (anything beyond 3.5" and we could only get one piece out of each board).  So I scaled everything down to look good with that casing size.  In the end we had a lot of sawdust from having to plan all of the waviness out of the air dried pieces and very little scrap. 

[ktzmoh]

Mar 12, 2013 11:10:13 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Mar 12, 2013 10:51:42 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

I opened this excitedly thinking we'd get pictures! What a tease.

Haha sorry!  I still don't have my external harddrive back yet.  It crashed a couple months ago and I lost everything so it's at a clean room right now trying to recover as much as they can.  That's why I can't blog either.  I may have lost all of my pictures from the last 4 years ( ) but it sounds like they can recover at least a good portion of the files I just won't know what portions that will be yet.  So for now all of my photos are living on my SD cards since my computer doesn't have enough space to store them all and at least there they will be safe from any more crashes.  I do have some CAD drawings of our trim details that I made for my dad.





Window details.  From top to bottom: head cap, header, fillet, casing, stool, and apron


Profile details for each piece.  Top to bottom, left to right: head cap, fillet, stool, baseboard, apron, header, and casing


Note because of the cutout in the back and various shapes small mitered cuts will be needed to return everything to the wall.  The head cap, header, fillet, stool, and apron will have this and it will be done before staining for the best results.  Returns will also be needed for window jamb extensions behind the casing and extended fillet and stool sizes are needed for the different size windows. 

I told y'all I was a trim nerd! 

Ooh I need to take a cold shower after this post! In my fake fantasy life, I'd totally be a carpenter. This sounds amazing. I can't wait to see pictures, including lots of close ups of this gorgeous trim! I was so proud of my small mitered walk returns when I did the ridiculously simple apron on my bathroom window, but we used all off the rack trim and I don't think I'll ever be at this level

[FoxInFiji]

Mar 12, 2013 11:15:58 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

Wow - you are truly an inspiration!

I can barely drag my butt to the lumberyard to look at backband molding. Incidentally, it is so hard to find backband molding.

Yeah I would think you'd need a very specific size for something like that.  That is where having a dad who used to make custom milwork comes in handy. 

[FoxInFiji]

Mar 12, 2013 12:19:49 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

Ooh I need to take a cold shower after this post! In my fake fantasy life, I'd totally be a carpenter. This sounds amazing. I can't wait to see pictures, including lots of close ups of this gorgeous trim! I was so proud of my small mitered walk returns when I did the ridiculously simple apron on my bathroom window, but we used all off the rack trim and I don't think I'll ever be at this level

Ha!  Well I think you just convinced me I need to upload some of the non-trim pictures I took of my dad's shop this weekend.  He still has all the custom cutters he made for every kind of historic trim you could imagine.  Drawers and drawers full of them.  Then he has all of the display boards of the various crown, base, casing, rosettes, plinth blocks, etc. he made would make.  It was a lot of work but he finally got his shaper up and running.  It's a custom machine he made that cuts all 4 sides of a piece at one time. 

[davescatch]

WOW - I am exhausted just reading all this!!! It sounds amazing - you should be proud of all you've done!

[FoxInFiji]

OK I uploaded a bunch of photos last night off my SD cards. I'll start with the ones from my Dad's shop. Note don't mind the clutter and utter mess in the background. In the 17 years since my dad built my parent's house he has never used his shop to make trim from scratch like he had intended. So it has turned into the worlds biggest storage shed. When he sold his shop he kept a little less than half of his machinery and downsized to this 3,000 sf shop...bigger than their house.

We had 6 carts of trim separated out by pieces so it doesn't look like a lot of lf but here are the carts of the bigger pieces cut down to size.


My dad is the master of the puzzle that is cutting around imperfections. This is all he had left for scrap.



Planing the pieces down to size.



Now for some fun shots around the shop. Here are the old display boards he made up to show the "standard" shapes of milwork pieces. This one shows casing, baseboard, and plinth blocks on the end.


This one has crown, wainscoting & chair rail, and rosettes.


Here are the drawers full of the blades he made for his shaper. Each set has two blades along with a template for sharpening. Depending on how much lf he was cutting and what type of wood it was he would use different materials for the blades and template.


These drawers are massively heavy! My dad had to make this cabinet specifically to hold them. A close up of some of my favorites. #416 is a 9" long piece of crown molding made out of one piece of lumber for a Victorian home that was being restored.


#136 very intricate casing.


#704-705 a four piece waiscoting/wood paneling set.


Our in comparison very boring baseboard style LOL. But it will work well with the winged head cap we're putting over the windows and doors.


And just for fun some old polaroids I found of my sister and I at my dad's old shop. That's me "helping" on the right.


We used to consider my dad's shop my playground. As a very dedicated small business owner we were there a lot on nights and weekends. We would build horribly loopsided constructed doll houses out of scrap to take home and play with. Or nail 300 perfectly good nails into a board spelling out the word "Dad" as a surprise present for him. LOL those were the days!

More to come...

[emoflamingo]

Cool!

[ktzmoh]

What a fantastic post, thank you for sharing. I loved looking at those photos and hearing the story!

There is nothing better than glorious woodwork in a home and it's very cool to peek in at the skilled carpentry world.

ETA: Is your dad considered a carpenter? or is there a specific title for a person who creates the millwork? Sorry for being naive

[sratsey]

I love those pictures and all the blades!! I can't wait to see when it's all done. I think it's awesome that your dad is milling the trim work for you. That makes it extra special, IMO. So hard to find true craftsmen these days.

[pitterwoo]

what a cool post. wow, no wonder you have this trim stuff all figured out. Ours is so plain, it's another one of those things that I didn't think about changing until too late because I didn't think all the rooms would be going through such extensive renovation.

[heygrey]

I die. Your dads shop is something in my dreams.

My grandpa was a contractor and I spent many, many hours in his shop nailing together random pieces of wood. Two triangles nailed on either side of a square, with a little paint, made a dog. Kind of. I made at least a thousand of them, whatever they were.

[FoxInFiji]

Mar 13, 2013 12:37:59 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

What a fantastic post, thank you for sharing. I loved looking at those photos and hearing the story!

There is nothing better than glorious woodwork in a home and it's very cool to peek in at the skilled carpentry world.

ETA: Is your dad considered a carpenter? or is there a specific title for a person who creates the millwork? Sorry for being naive

No that's not naive at all!  There are very few people who do this anymore even back in the late 80's and 90's when we owned his business for 11 years.  Yes he's considered a carpenter.  There isn't really any better term for it.  But what he did was usually classified under "specialty milwork."  He did a lot of historic homes, churches, banks (not necessarily historic but fancy front desks, round window trim, etc.), and lots of odds and ends like custom humidors, replacement doors, or anything else made out of wood. 

My dad is a big perfectionist so he doesn't do any milwork anymore because he'd rather do it 110% or not do it all if that makes sense.  Also he doesn't like me to use the word "trim" unless it's really a plural use of various pieces.  If I use the word trim to describe a single piece he'll correct me with the right term (casing, stool, apron, etc.).  LOL

[prazenjc]

excited to see the final product! its projects like this that feed me.

[ktzmoh]

Mar 13, 2013 17:25:49 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

No that's not naive at all!  There are very few people who do this anymore even back in the late 80's and 90's when we owned his business for 11 years.  Yes he's considered a carpenter.  There isn't really any better term for it.  But what he did was usually classified under "specialty milwork."  He did a lot of historic homes, churches, banks (not necessarily historic but fancy front desks, round window trim, etc.), and lots of odds and ends like custom humidors, replacement doors, or anything else made out of wood. 

My dad is a big perfectionist so he doesn't do any milwork anymore because he'd rather do it 110% or not do it all if that makes sense.  Also he doesn't like me to use the word "trim" unless it's really a plural use of various pieces.  If I use the word trim to describe a single piece he'll correct me with the right term (casing, stool, apron, etc.).  LOL

How does he make the round window trim pieces? I can imagine a large manufacturer doing standard stuff, but I've always wondered how rounded trim pieces were made with custom trim profiles.

[FoxInFiji]

Mar 13, 2013 23:21:24 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

How does he make the round window trim pieces? I can imagine a large manufacturer doing standard stuff, but I've always wondered how rounded trim pieces were made with custom trim profiles.

Well you can make them a couple of ways.  For the average carpenter you would set up a routing table and route each side individually.  But my dad being the perfectionist that he is worries that future batches of trim won't have the exact same look.  We're only making the trim for the remodeled portions of the house (all 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and the hall).  Later we'll do a bath for the finished side of the basement and another for the LR, DR, kitchen, laundry, and entry when we get to those areas.  So he's planning to use the shaper with curved blade over a series of cuts...take a little bit off, run it through again and take a little more...until he gets the right shape.  To make things even more complex we need different size stools (the piece you're talking about).  We'll have different ones for select windows and another size for doors because it will act as a window jamb extension and we don't have all of the same style windows.  We may even be bringing all of those pieces around the windows with the returns or jamb extensions to our house, sizing them correctly, and then taking them back up to his shop to sand and stain.  My dad says the key to great looking trim pieces is gluing and nailing all of those little returns before you sand and stain not after. 

[ktzmoh]

Mar 14, 2013 10:18:33 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Mar 13, 2013 23:21:24 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

How does he make the round window trim pieces? I can imagine a large manufacturer doing standard stuff, but I've always wondered how rounded trim pieces were made with custom trim profiles.

Well you can make them a couple of ways.  For the average carpenter you would set up a routing table and route each side individually.  But my dad being the perfectionist that he is worries that future batches of trim won't have the exact same look.  We're only making the trim for the remodeled portions of the house (all 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and the hall).  Later we'll do a bath for the finished side of the basement and another for the LR, DR, kitchen, laundry, and entry when we get to those areas.  So he's planning to use the shaper with curved blade over a series of cuts...take a little bit off, run it through again and take a little more...until he gets the right shape.  To make things even more complex we need different size stools (the piece you're talking about).  We'll have different ones for select windows and another size for doors because it will act as a window jamb extension and we don't have all of the same style windows.  We may even be bringing all of those pieces around the windows with the returns or jamb extensions to our house, sizing them correctly, and then taking them back up to his shop to sand and stain.  My dad says the key to great looking trim pieces is gluing and nailing all of those little returns before you sand and stain not after. 

I should have been clearer (late night lol), I was wondering how they make custom profile trim to accommodated round windows or windows with arches like these domolding.com/media/img/gallery/standard_options/Arched%20Window%20Trim.jpg

In any case, it sounds like a huge project, but the result will be so beautiful. And how wonderful to have your dad doing that with you. My dad was an architect and I really loved growing up knowing he had designed and built our house - and also watching him design and build additions over the years. He always taught me to see the details and appreciate quality and the beauty of hand made homes. I wish I could afford that out here. 

[FoxInFiji]

Mar 14, 2013 10:58:26 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

I should have been clearer (late night lol), I was wondering how they make custom profile trim to accommodated round windows or windows with arches like these domolding.com/media/img/gallery/standard_options/Arched%20Window%20Trim.jpg

In any case, it sounds like a huge project, but the result will be so beautiful. And how wonderful to have your dad doing that with you. My dad was an architect and I really loved growing up knowing he had designed and built our house - and also watching him design and build additions over the years. He always taught me to see the details and appreciate quality and the beauty of hand made homes. I wish I could afford that out here. 

Oh sorry.  For round, curved, or gothic arch windows he scores the back of the piece...that is he cuts lots of semi-shallow cuts along the back but doesn't go though the sides...and then steams it while putting it in a series of big wooden clamps.  The clamps can be connected to each other with pegs or used separately so they can make an infinite number of curves as long as they have enough play for the height of the curve.  He would set them all up and slowly adjust them tighter every couple hours for up to a week.  It is also imperative that you pick a very good pieces of wood of the right moisture content, straight grain, no knots or cracks, and right species of wood (some wood bends better than others).  The casing itself is actually easier to bend than the jamb/jamb extension because bending in the x-y plane than the y-z plane.  Plus the jamb needs to be tighter curve than the casing.  For a small completely round window he would usually get by with two pieces of casing and four pieces of jamb because of that.  On a bigger window he could do two pieces of jamb.

That's so cool about your dad!  I always wanted to be an architect when I was young but I decided I was too good at math and science.  ;P  Now I work with them everyday and I'm glad I'm an engineer instead.  Buildings are fun but there are only so many finish details and wall sections I can stand before I'm sick of it.  HVAC is much more interesting and always evolving.   

[ktzmoh]

Mar 14, 2013 11:42:21 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Mar 14, 2013 10:58:26 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

I should have been clearer (late night lol), I was wondering how they make custom profile trim to accommodated round windows or windows with arches like these domolding.com/media/img/gallery/standard_options/Arched%20Window%20Trim.jpg

In any case, it sounds like a huge project, but the result will be so beautiful. And how wonderful to have your dad doing that with you. My dad was an architect and I really loved growing up knowing he had designed and built our house - and also watching him design and build additions over the years. He always taught me to see the details and appreciate quality and the beauty of hand made homes. I wish I could afford that out here. 

Oh sorry.  For round, curved, or gothic arch windows he scores the back of the piece...that is he cuts lots of semi-shallow cuts along the back but doesn't go though the sides...and then steams it while putting it in a series of big wooden clamps.  The clamps can be connected to each other with pegs or used separately so they can make an infinite number of curves as long as they have enough play for the height of the curve.  He would set them all up and slowly adjust them tighter every couple hours for up to a week.  It is also imperative that you pick a very good pieces of wood of the right moisture content, straight grain, no knots or cracks, and right species of wood (some wood bends better than others).  The casing itself is actually easier to bend than the jamb/jamb extension because bending in the x-y plane than the y-z plane.  Plus the jamb needs to be tighter curve than the casing.  For a small completely round window he would usually get by with two pieces of casing and four pieces of jamb because of that.  On a bigger window he could do two pieces of jamb.

That's so cool about your dad!  I always wanted to be an architect when I was young but I decided I was too good at math and science.  ;P  Now I work with them everyday and I'm glad I'm an engineer instead.  Buildings are fun but there are only so many finish details and wall sections I can stand before I'm sick of it.  HVAC is much more interesting and always evolving.   

Very cool! I figured it must involve steaming the wood somehow, and it makes that the jamb would be harder to do than the casing.  Thanks again for sharing! I feel like I just got a virtual TOH tour of a craftsman's specialty workshop!