Sailboat Project Day

~ Chuck ~ 2 Comments

One of our family goals is to get the sailboat in the water by this fall.  Just one time in the water.   I have had a 1973 O’Day 22 foot sailboat for over 10 years and I have never had it in the water.  It is in the garage, and the trailer has lots of rot.  Too much rot to move the boat, so even if I wanted to get rid of it, I would need to repair the trailer.

The boat off the trailer on the stands

The first part of the project required lifting the boat off the trailer, pulling the trailer out from under the boat, and setting the boat down on stands.

The boys and I started working on the boat this afternoon when Susanna headed into work.  The goal for today was to finish this step of the project.  I couldn’t have done it without the boys.  Ben helped the first part of the afternoon, and Will the second part of the afternoon.    All three of us struggled to pull the trailer out from under the boat (one of the tires was very flat – made it even harder to move).  It took the three of us and the tractor to pull it out.

None of the usual complaining about being bored and not helping.  There was a period that I wasn’t sure that we would get finished today.

The next step is to clean out the inside of the boat.  Susanna is planning on doing that over the next couple of days.  Then we will evaluate the scope of the work remaining to get the boat in the water.

We even dug out the mast from behind the barn (the boys washed it).

We are all scraped up and banged up from the project today.  I’m tired, but I think Ben got the most banged up (not all of it was project related – a lot of scrapes playing around on his bicycle after a hard day working outside) – he got a good cut on the palm of his hand helping put the mast on it’s storage rack.

I haven’t forgotten my other projects.  I am still working on the kitchen island – but I can’t just have one project going on at a time.  I want to make progress on the boat before we break to paint the trim on the house in July (with Susanna’s sister, Rebecka’s, help).

Jumping into the next project….

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First mortise and tenon for the kitchen island

I’m at a good stopping point in the workshop renovation, so I figured I’d start using the workshop.  Tie to jump into the kitchen island project.

This morning I milled the legs from white oak.  I spent some time thinking about how I would make the mortises and tenons for the project (8 total each to attach the apron to the legs).  The last project I had routed the mortises on the router table, and made the tenons using the table saw.   I thought about it, but didn’t really want to go that route.

I didn’t really want to do all the mortises by hand either.  So I’m using the drill press to clear out most of the wood from the mortise, and then cleaning it up by hand.  I made a mistake with the first one.  I should make the tenons first – then the mortise.  I made the mortise, and had to make the tenon to match.  I cut the tenon by hand.  It didn’t fit right off the saw – but it didn’t take too much to make it fit – so I’m pleased with how it turned out.   I also decided to make them haunched tenons.  I also plan on pegging the tenons – hopefully they are long enough to make it look decent.  I guess if I need longer tenons, it won’t be terrible to do by hand – I’ve only cut one mortise and tenon that I’ll need to adjust.

One of the advantages of doing things by hand – I’ll work on one joint at a time.  No need to set up the power equipment and batch the joints.  I can also listen to music while I do the handwork.  It is much more pleasant than using the big power tools.  Don’t worry, I’ll still use my power tools.  I have no desire to rip a 5 foot long piece of white oak by hand.  Nor do I want to take the 5/4 white oak and mill it down to 3/4″ without using the power planer.

A Zombie Free Saturday Afternoon Walk

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Will guarding the gate

The rain stopped long enough on Saturday afternoon to take a walk down to the cemetery before dinner.  The boys brought their new toy bows to protect us from orcs, goblins and uruk-hia that were there to attack us.  I think that they must be more dangerous than the zombies and ogres that normally plague our walks.

This morning the boys started by fighting zombies.  Then turning into zombies – until they couldn’t find a brain in Tucker to eat.

It rained most of the day – which put a damper on our hopeful beach plans.  But a slow day is nice once in a while.  Will had a friend, Tyler, sleep over again last night.  We took Tyler home just before lunch on our way to the toy store – Ben had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon and needed a gift.  The boys spent their allowances eacg on a set of toy bow and arrows.

Ben guarding the gate

Will had been wanting to watch the “Lord of the Rings” movies again.  We had watched them two years ago (and skipped lots of scary parts).  This time, with Ben at a party, Will wanted to watch the entire movie (win-win, Ben got to play at a party and Will got to watch a movie that had given Ben nightmares previously).  It was a rainy day and perfect for a three hour movie.  And the movie explains the lack of zombies on our evening walk (and the addition of enemies from middle-earth).

 

Starting the next project

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I am feeling good enough with the workshop renovation to start the next project (using the workshop).  I am not quite done on the workshop – I still need to fix the trim around the new window and add trim around the other windows on that wall.  I also need to finish cleaning out the cut out area for the stairs (and finish the railing on the top).  However, I’ll treat those as separate projects and fit them in later this spring.

Kitchen Island by Asa Christiana - inspiration for my next project

The next project will be an island for the kitchen.  I was inspired by the island built by Asa Christiana (of Fine Woodworking).  I plan to change the plans – his project is a little too large to fit into our kitchen.  I will make the island a little narrower and probably a little shorter (he didn’t give dimensions).  The base will be made from white oak, not butternut and the top from ash vice soapstone.

I’ll have to alter the design for more than the size.  Our kitchen feels narrow, so a longer, think island would be better.  I’ll put an overhang on one end (short side) and not the long side, but I will try to do the carving details that he added, and may modify some of the details on the legs.  It will be my first attempt at carving – it will be a good challenge (and I do have the Fine Woodworking article to help me).

Will helped me pick out oak for the legs yesterday.  I’ll try and get the legs milled this weekend.

One Final Memorial Day Project

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Today was the big day for workshop projects. I had the window painted and ready to go this morning.  I didn’t find time to work on the workshop yesterday, so I set aside today to install the new window.

The window is big, 4 feet by 5 feet.  This morning I cut out the appropriate studs on the south side barn wall, and added a 2×6 header to support the wall.  Then I took the big plunge, cutting the hole in the wall.  There was no turning back at that point.  I had to finish the project today or leave a big hole in the side of the barn.

It was a hot day to be working in the workshop, but I got the new window installed.  It adds a lot of light to the barn, and when open it allows a huge cross breeze.  However, I am not totally finished.  I need to add hinges and trim out the inside of the window.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the project turned out.  I made the sill from a piece of white oak I had beneath the barn.   The rest of the framing was mostly pine.  I was even able to get the trim installed and painted this evening.

The inside view of the new window

I’m not sure how it looks.  That wall of the barn is leaning a little bit; I installed the window level (so it would open/close easily).  It is pretty obvious from both sides that the window isn’t square with the wall (the un-square wall).   I think if I ever reside the workshop, I’ll try to make the window less obviously out of line with the rest of the barn.  Of course I’m at a loss on how to do that, so if anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.   Maybe next time I should add the windows so they line up with the unlevelness of the building.

I also added a curtain inside (I had a curtain laying around).  It is a south facing window, so I want to try to minimize how much sun I get in the summer.   I love how much light it brings into the workshop.  That corner of the shop had been pretty dark.  And yes, as you can tell from the top picture, I still need to paint and trim the two top windows on that wall.

I painted the trim around the window “Concord Buff” from Sherwin-Williams.  I’m thinking about painting the house that color, and I wanted to see how it matched up with the brown (the window is painted the same color as the accent color on the house trim – “Rookwood Dark Brown”).  I don’t think the green shingles on the side are the nicest looking, but they work and residing the workshop isn’t in the plans for this summer.

Planting the garden (and other house chores)

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It is quiet during the day with the boys not here. That gives me a chance to catch up on chores. But I’d rather have the noise of kids running around and squeeze in chores on the edges.

I picked up (and planted) tomato, pepper and celery seedlings from the Sawyer Family farm. I also picked up a freshly slaughtered chicken – dinner one night for the boys and me.

I mowed most of the yard this weekend (a little left to finish next week). The yard is coming together. The garden is planted. The flower beds are getting cleaner (ok, still work to do).

I also covered the hole in the second floor of the barn where the original stairs had been. I am getting ready to install a large (4′ x5′) window in the south facing wall. I will hinge it so I should be able to get a nice breeze in the summer. I had to repair glazing on the window and paint it.

In addition I removed four of the glass storm windows and installed screens (I have only 3 screens, so I’ll have to make more this summer.

It finally feels like summer here. Now for pizza and beer while enjoying the evening from the patio.

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The raised beds for the garden

Saturday Night Out (and Sweden wins 2012 Eurovision)

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It is a rare weekend night that I am home and the boys aren’t here.  Even rarer now to have that and Susanna not working.  Last night was one of those rare nights.  In addition Loreen from Sweden won the 2012 Eurovision contest.  I think they hadn’t won it since 1918 or something like that. Sorry, not 1918, I’m thinking of something else; Sweden hadn’t won Eurovision since 1999.  Understandably, Susanna was pretty excited.  Also, understandably, as hard as I may try, I’m just not as excited as Susanna about it.

Anyway to celebrate the Eurovision win (for Susanna) and to celebrate a night we can actually go out (for me), we dressed up and went to Foxwoods Casino for dinner and drinks.  We enjoyed mexican (food and drinks), and I actually won $20 on the slots (yeah, slots, like lottery, tax on people bad at statistics – but it is fun sometimes just to put in $20 and see what happens – and going to a movie would cost just as much).

We came home to enjoy the humid evening on the patio.  We even dug out some of the sky lanterns we had left from last summer and lit two of them – watching them drift away into the night sky.  I think we will save the remainder until the boys are back (and for when Susanna’s sisters visit this summer).

Speaking of visits, it looks like both of Susanna’s sisters may be here at the same time.  That will be a change, from a household that has more males than females in it to just the opposite.  If anyone wants to find me that week, I’ll be locked in my workshop.   I have beer and water in there.  I just need to find a urinal and install it – I’ll be all set for a couple of days at least.

Enough random musings for this morning.  Time to drink my coffee and get moving on my day.