Scary Cabin

More trim boards, more fill, primer, paint. We tried to get a bit of head start by doing some of knot filling at home so we could start the weekend with trim board primer bright and early Saturday morning. Genny spent a lot of time painting.

While the paint dried … we were able to continue with some of the trim upstairs. We continued working on dog cubby #2 by installing the inside baseboard and ceiling trim. The top horizontal rail wasn’t fitting right and in the process of trying to nail it in place, on nail decided to exit the wood and enter my finger. Not much blood, but it did swell up and was pretty stiff for the next couple of days. Yup, nailed it good! After more fiddling with that top rail we determined that there’s something funny going on with the roof at that point. It looks like the roof boards curl up making the outside about a 1/4 inch higher than the inside, and this is over a 32 inch span. The board is going to need a taper to get the bottom of it level. Everywhere else, things line up pretty good.

Having enough boards and getting them all painted on Saturday make Sunday a productive day. Other than the top rail for the one dog cubby, all four cubbies are trimmed and ready for doors.

We were also able the get the bookcase trimmed (mostly). If you compare with last week where we just installed the carcass, it looks much better with trim.

What you can’t see from the picture is that the last shelf trim board is not attached yet. We ran out of biscuts (one short). You also can’t see all the gaps that need to be filed and sanded.

And one more thing. We had been using the bookcase area as a temporary closet of sorts and hanging clothes there. That obviously won’t work anymore with the bookcase installed so we added some hooks on the wall on other side of the door so we still have a place to hang clothes.

Back bedroom

1. Dog cubby baseboard
2. Dog cubby outside trim
3. Figure out knee wall design
4. Knee wall door trim
5. Build/install bookcase
6. Install hangers for clothes
7. Install drawer carcasses
8. Install drawer boxes
9. Install drawer trim
10. Install baseboard
11. Trim wall to ceiling corners
12. Install conduit for ceiling fan
13. Build new ceiling fan mount
14. Install new ceiling fan

Front bedroom

1. Paint balcony door
2. Frame knee walls
3. Trim knee walls
4. Door for closet
5. Drawers and doors for knee walls
6. Install baseboard
7. Install wall to ceiling corner trim
8. Install conduit for ceiling fan
9. Build new ceiling fan mount
10. Install new ceiling fan
11. Install grill cover for vent fan
12. Install window blind

A few months ago (OK, maybe 7), I wrote about the challenges of getting a California King mattress into the upstairs bedroom. To accomplish that we had to cut away some of the balcony railing and hoist it up to balcony and in through the balcony door. That removable railing is proving to be somewhat useful. Because the home shop is better equipped, I built the carcass for the upstairs built-in bookcase there. We then transported it using the amazing Drabbits roof rack on our 4Runner.

Since it’s made out of plywood, it’s not real heavy and it’s only about 4 ft. wide and just over 6 ft. tall. It’s also angled on one side to match the angled ceiling. We can get this up the stairway; no problem, right? Wrong. It was close, but it not close enough. So down comes the railing again. We hoist it up and Genny was able to hold it there while I ran upstairs, grabbed it and hauled it up. Another disaster averted.

With the bookcase securely installed we moved on to more painting and knee wall trim. Since we don’t want to break with tradition, the knee wall trim is taking way more time than originally estimated. Waiting for paint, filler and glue to try is really slowing things down. However, dog cubby #1 is mostly complete with the exception of the tip out drawer and some final sanding and painting. Dog cubby #2 is well underway and is a bit easier now that we have a good idea about how we want it to go together.

So the key now is to get a stockpile of lumber and get it prepped. That way we can spend more time building and less time waiting for paint to dry.

Back bedroom

1. Dog cubby baseboard (one done, one to go)
2. Dog cubby outside trim
3. Figure out knee wall design
4. Knee wall door trim
5. Build/install bookcase
6. Install hangers for clothes
7. Install drawer carcasses
8. Install drawer boxes
9. Install drawer trim
10. Install baseboard
11. Trim wall to ceiling corners
12. Install conduit for ceiling fan
13. Build new ceiling fan mount
14. Install new ceiling fan

Front bedroom

1. Paint balcony door
2. Frame knee walls
3. Trim knee walls
4. Door for closet
5. Drawers and doors for knee walls
6. Install baseboard
7. Install wall to ceiling corner trim
8. Install conduit for ceiling fan
9. Build new ceiling fan mount
10. Install new ceiling fan
11. Install grill cover for vent fan
12. Install window blind

Watching paint dry. Also wood filler and glue. The upstairs trim work is taking a lot of prep time. The baseboard for the knee walls in the back bedroom are about 10 ft. 8 in. long. The boards that we have are 10 ft. long. Adding the extra 8 inches means biscuits, glue, and pocket screws. Then some filler, sanding and paint to remove the seam. So what seems like a simple things, takes a few hours start to finish. All the rest of the trim builds on top of the baseboards.

We’re using pine for the knee wall trim. Not clear pine (does such a thing exist anymore?) but pine with multiple knots. Getting these prepped requires possibly cutting to size, filling knots, and two coats of paint. Once that’s done we can start using the boards. because of all the prep work, actual progress seem slow. The sides and top trim for one of the dog cubbies are installed. As we work on one section, we do get a better idea of what needs to be done for the rest, hopefully it get easier and quicker.

The exterior trim is finished, well installed anyway. The trim along with the rest of the exterior needs stain but that’s another project for another day.

Back bedroom

1. Dog cubby baseboard (one done, one to go)
2. Dog cubby outside trim
3. Figure out knee wall design
4. Knee wall door trim
5. Build/install bookcase
6. Install hangers for clothes
7. Install drawer carcasses
8. Install drawer boxes
9. Install drawer trim
10. Install baseboard
11. Trim wall to ceiling corners
12. Install conduit for ceiling fan
13. Build new ceiling fan mount
14. Install new ceiling fan

Front bedroom

1. Paint balcony door
2. Frame knee walls
3. Trim knee walls
4. Door for closet
5. Drawers and doors for knee walls
6. Install baseboard
7. Install wall to ceiling corner trim
8. Install conduit for ceiling fan
9. Build new ceiling fan mount
10. Install new ceiling fan
11. Install grill cover for vent fan
12. Install window blind