Got a bunch of work done today.  All well within my comfort zone at this point.  We went to the hardware store and picked up a polyurethane, stain combo for the bathroom wash stand, paint for the desk, a router bit, halogen bulb and some other misc stuff.

When we got back I got the light working.  One of the contacts was pretty corroded so it took a bit of horsing around to get the light working but it works great now and the motion sensor is also working.

I finished up the base trim for the windows.  It all looks great, very classic look and I am happy with it.  I routed a nice round over on the desk, cut cord holes in it and then sanded it.  The wife stained the bathroom wash stand and it looks great with the walnut stain on the pine boards.

I picked up some more pine 1×4’s for the door casement extension and started working on getting the opening prepped for installing those.  I have to take the doors of the hinges to finish that so it needed to wait til tomorrow.  Really looking good in there now as we finish up these last details.

And more work was done.  On to tables and cabinets.

I got in a couple hours of work today before heading off to a meeting in Ashland.  It does seen strange that I only seem to manage about 3-4 hours of work on a weekend.  I keep thinking that I would get more time to work on the weekends but it never seems to happen.

Weekends always seem to be the days where I run around or spend half of the day doing errands.  I get way more work done during the week it seems but I suppose 5 days of 3-4 hours of work is a lot more that the 2 weekend days.

So we finished the door trim and the wife painted the squat box.  I had to re-adjust two of the doors before I put the trim on.  I am not sure if it was the humidity, temperature changes or the weight of the doors being on for a couple weeks but they shifted enough to start rubbing on the door frames.  I figured it was easier to fix that before I put the trim on that have to take it off to do it again.  Here is to hoping nothing changes requiring me to take the trim back off.

We finished up the crown molding tonight.  I am rather excited about this not only because we did it so fast but the fact that it looks rather nice.  Sure it is not perfect but I really like the look it gives the place.

I also had a realization tonight as we were working that I felt really comfortable working with the molding at this point.  I was measuring, cutting and nailing with confidence.  I have discovered that at the 75% completion point of any stage of this project, I begin to feel really quite comfortable with what I am doing.  It is usually at that point, I make a mistake.  It happened tonight but It was recoverable, the wife had painted a piece of scrap and I ended up needing it because I cut one piece an inch short.  Minor issue.

But the interesting thing about the learning curve is that it feels really good when you reach that peak of the bell curve.  The work becomes pleasurable.  There is witty banter, chatting about the next stage of the project, and work flows seamlessly.  I hope that when I finish, I remember the last 25% of each stage more than the first 75% because that first part is pretty rough.  The reward, however is worth it.

There are a few major things coming up now:

1. Door Trim
2. Window Jamb extensions and trim.
3. Building my desk.
4. Building the bathroom sink.
5. Finishing the lower kitchen cabinets – doors and drawers.
6. Building and hanging kitchen cabinet uppers.
7. Final paint on the trim.
8. Clean up.

I think most of this stuff should be done in a couple weeks.  Then I really need to get the bobcat fixed and ready for transport, because it will be moving time.

The wife painted an enormous amount of casement trim for all the doors and windows.  I putzed around and put up one piece of trim, then realized I could not do any more because I somehow missed a piece, or cut that piece for something else.  So I cut the piece I needed and she painted it.  While I was watching her work really hard. I managed to start doing some more precision carpentry.

I cut and fit some pine for the shower bucket window.  This was really good practice because it is the same exact process that I will be using for the jamb extensions.  I am somewhat impressed with myself since I am not working from any plans or guides.  I ripped down some 1×6″ pine to 4.5″ to fill the opening and used 1×8″ for the stool.  I will put some casement trim around it as well.  Just like a window.  Well, sort of, the stool does not extend like it would normally on a window because that would obstruct other trim.  Anyways, I managed to do all that cut, fit, nail and it all worked, looks good and it is solid enough to hold that 40 lbs of water when the bucket is full.

We also both started coming down with a cold.  This development may slow building for the next couple days…