Project Updates

The chronology of these updates puts recent developments on top.

Update (01/26/07) -- The slate flooring is in and it looks beautiful! You can see pictures of it in the Great Room navigation tab.

Tracey and I did quite a bit of shopping, looking for the right tile for the room. I wanted to go with a random flagstone, but the cost was a bit too high and the fit would have been difficult (the floor would have been too high). But we found this slate and a fantastic "D" pattern that really works nicely. This was installed by "Danny's Tile Service" - highly recommended. If you call him, tell him Patrick sent you. No, I don't get a "kick back"!

Update (12/26/06) -- This update accounts for all the progress over the FOUR YEARS! Man, did I get lazy about updating this website!

OK. Where to start...well, now I can't really remember in what order I finished what projects.

So, the only things left are in the Great Room and these are:

Update (09/26/02) -- Six months later... The Loft railing is up!

About 3 weeks ago, all of the remaining pieces were finished (I went through about 2 gallons of the poly finish) and the whole rail project has been installed all the way around the loft.

The design, which integrated 6 inches on the ends of each shelf into the adjoining walls, made for some unbelievably sturdy railing. This won't break apart during the cowboy fight scene! It's assembled with galvanized decking screws, all hidden.

Next challenge: railing down the stairs.

Update (09/13/02) -- Ewwww! Friday the 13th.

Back to the Loft banister project... yeah, over the last couple of months what's been going on with that? Applying the finish by hand turned out to be a rather lengthy chore. The biggest hurdle was preventing drips and runs. I laid the supporting columns down on the floor, masking off the adjacent sides, applying the pre-stain, waiting, sanding and finally, applying the One Step Traditional White finish. You know, 22 pieces, each with four sides... ugh. I was doing "batches" of about 10 sides per day. Finally, I said "enough is enough!", I need a spray gun for my compressor.

I went out to Harbor Freight and picked up a pretty good HVPL, gravity-feed spray gun. I did some test pieces first; just to get the 'hang of it' and to get the settings right. I took a batch of unfinished columns outside and set them up on a workbench in the middle of the driveway apron. I shot the pieces with the pre-stain, sanded, and shot them with the poly. I used multiple light coats and my goodness! Why on earth didn't I start using a spray gun about a month back!? No drips, no runs, no errors.

...so, over the last month (barring a 'slacker' weekend here and a rain-out there) I've been finishing all these pieces with the saving grace of the compressor/gun. I just finished the top side of the last 10 shelves. Tonite, I have to flip them over, shoot the pre-stain, wait a day, sand and finish the bottom sides. Then, it's all back into the house for assembly.

All of the pieces for the 16 foot span at the top of the stairs were finished and that section has been installed. It looks great!

Update (07/24/02)

THE CURTAINS ARE DONE!

Wow! They look great! They close and cover the entire wall up to their 8 foot height. It looks like a theater in there. The sound deadening alone is phenominal. This insulation is superb. The A/C now has no problem whatsoever keeping up with the Austin summer heat. The room does take on an illusion of being cosier (smaller) with the curtains closed. But it gets bigger, like magic, just by opening them. I like it!

My mom worked non-stop, 12 to 14 hours a day for the entire week she was here. We couldn't keep up! Tracey was using her machine to sew the button holes (for the rings) while my mother did the rest (doing the measuring, building the widths, attaching the liner, pinning, basting and sewing the hems). Remember, my mother, she's the BEST! All I could do was install the rings and hang the curtains on the rods. Meanwhile, Tracey was going buttonhole-cRaZy!

On the sidelines, I finished the veneer of the banister project (300 linear feet of veneer applied). Now that project is ready for the polyurethane finish. I'm not looking forward to that work. Too much prep and sanding. Oh well.

I was able to postpone my mother's visit for a month so that I could get all the 'ducks in a row'. I ordered the fabric...it was the largest single order that this particular Calico Corners had ever filled. 216 yards. Not cheap. It took about 10 days for the store to receive the fabric from their supplier. Good thing my mom wasn't in Austin...waiting.

I did allot of research and shopping for curtain rings as well. You know, I needed about 300 of these just for this room. Have you ever priced rings? Ridiculously expensive! Then, I came across a great source. RubberMaid sells plastic shower curtain rings in a variety of colors that are perfect for what I needed. They're made to flex open and install over a rod that is mounted by its ends. See, with a traditional, wooden rod, you can take off the 'finial' (the sculpted, decorative end) and slip a ring right onto the rod. That would be much more difficult with my copper pipe because its ends are mounted to the walls with floor flanges. So, I really needed a ring that I could install without access to the rod ends. RubberMaid to the rescue! For about 17 cents each (the traditional, wooden rings were about 2 dollars each) I bought all of the Sage colored rings that both of the local Linens and Things had in stock.

I finished the last 2 rods, which were for the patio doors up on the wings of the loft, about 3 days before my mother arrived.

Update (06/12/02) -- I got an e-mail from my dad stating that mom was planning on driving out from Tucson on 6/18 to beging working on the drapes/curtains for all of those sliding doors in the great room. Yow! I didn't have the curtain rods up. I didn't have any fabric. I was in a mad scramble.

Looking at the odd shape of the great room, one realizes that standard curtain rods won't work. But I had a plan. This plan has been "cooking" for a year. Now it was time to implement. I took some 1" copper plumbing pipe, attached it to the back wall, 8 feet up and curved it around the room above the doors, strategically attaching to the wall with a floor flange every now and again for support. The side doors on each side of the room are situated under the "wings" of the loft. One of the rod supports one each side of the room is fabricated with a "t" fitting that runs vertically up into the ceiling under the wings. In the floor directly above this support, on each side of the room, I cut a hole. Then, I ran speaker cable through the curtain rod plumbing and on over to the fireplace hole, which has no fireplace, but is actually a finished recess where the entertainment center will eventually be. The curtain rod plumbing terminates from each side of the room through 90 degree bends into the wall just above the entertainment center recess. The speaker wire is completely hidden and now I'll be able to position left and right surround speakers up on the loft wings.

This project took quite a bit of work. I learned how to bend copper pipe to 22.5 degrees. Of course, I sure did waste quite a few pieces while learning what NOT to do! By the way, if you ever do find yourself needing to bend copper tubing, be careful in your selection of tube *manufacturer*. I bought all of the 10 ft. pieces that Lowe's had in stock and had to go to Home Depot to pick a few additional 10 footers. The Lowe's tubing was made with a thicker wall and was bendable. The Home Depot tubing, however, is a thinner wall and simply buckled. The Lowe's tubing was about $3.00 more per tube. I *thought* I was getting a better deal from Home Depot. WRONG. "You get what you pay for" held true once again.

Update (06/05/02) -- I picked up a few different stains and polyurethane finishes to try out. I really like the light color of the birch as it looks in the unfinished state. I thought I'd try out some clear coatings; a semi-gloss and a satin. Neither of these looked right, however. They had a tendancy to yellow the birch to the point of looking like cheap pine. I went back to the store and picked up some Olympic "One Step" in a color named "Traditional White". This turned out to be perfect.

It was highly recommended that I use a pre-stain. I'm glad that I followed this advice because it makes a world of difference. I knew nothing about finishing wood, but I have a friend here at Tivoli (Vitek Boruvka -- yes, the nationaly famous autocrosser) who explained a few things to me. I didn't know about the way that wood reacts to finishes... with the fibers "popping up". The pre-finish causes the fibers to pop up, but then you sand them flat, starting with 120 grit, moving to 220 grit and then on to 600 grit. At this point, the wood will take the final finish and look like glass! The whole process of getting a great finish takes quite a bit of time, but the end result is well worth the effort.

Right now, I can't even estimate how long this finishing will take, but it's going to be l o n g.

Update (05/25/02) -- There was one last detail that I wasn't quite sure how I was going to finish...how to treat any exposed edges of plywood. Fortunately, I'm hardly the first to need a solution for this and I found the perfect one. I found 25 foot long rolls of 3/4 inch wide white birch laminate, pre-treated with an iron-on type of glue backing. I needed 300 feet of this (12 rolls). That's allot of ironing!

Update (05/15/02) -- Tracey has finished priming the upstairs bedrooms, their closets and the bathroom. She has also finished the final color coat of one of the two bedrooms (the one that'll be my studio). She's still trying to decide on a final color of the other bedroom (the one that'll be her "study/office").

Update (0?/??/0?) -- I picked up a load of hollow core interior doors for the upstairs doorways. These won't be installed until the painting is done.

Update (04/25/02) -- All of the components of the loft banister project have been cut. There were no less than 111 boards that needed to be fabricated out of the birch. I have been assembling the columns that support the shelves. Each column is interrupted by the middle shelf, so each column is sort of like two, individual, half height columns. There are 22 of these in all. Each of these half columns is assembled by gluing four boards together to form a box that is 16" tall and 6" square. All mating cuts are 45 degree cuts and the finished columns look very nice. I'm using some cool 90 degree clamps to hold the glued boards together while the glue dries. Each of the 22 columns takes a day. I leave them clamped for a full 24 hours so that the glue sets up optimally. As of today, there are only three columns left to assemble.

I did buy a nice Sanborn air compressor and a brad nailer. So far I've only used it to install the casing around the attic access door. Sure made that overhead work a breeze.

Update (03/28/02) -- The loft banister project is coming along nicely. Now I need to get an air compressor and a brad nailer.

Update (03/18/02) -- The attic access ladder is installed. That made it much easier to continue hauling "stuff" up there for storage. I still need to trim it out with casing.

Update (03/02/02) -- I mocked up a small section of the banister shelving. It looks pretty darn good! I'm going to go ahead with this project using the nice birch plywood.

A significant part of the Great Room project is the loft above it. I had purchased all of the balusters and railing to build the banisters which run along a 70 foot span overhanging the floor of the Great Room below, but I've decided instead to back off and think about this for a while. So...I returned the banister supplies to Home Depot.

One idea that I have is to build open shelves along the edge of the loft. This would be much easier than a traditional banister and look really cool. It would also be useful as the house really ended up with so much glass that I don't have many places to put furniture. So why not make the banister be a set of shelves? I think nick-knacks (things like antique bottles) will look great displayed on this.

Another idea is to build "half walls"; short, 34" tall, framed, drywalled and painted walls with some type of sculptured openings.

I've seen some very interesting wire railings on extravagant decks. Enticing.

I looked into metal railing. Ouch! Very expensive.

Maybe I'll end up with some combination of these various ideas. I don't know yet, but I'm really under no pressure to make a decision, so I'll take my time here.

Update (03/02/02) -- Well, since the installation of the blinds was the last reason for having that home-made scaffolding, we broke it down. The room looks HUGE without that two story "tree fort" in there! 150+ drywall screws holding that Humpty-Dumpty together. Some of this wood will now be used in the garage for shelving and work benches, some of the wood will be used for attic decking and some was used for prototyping.

Update (02/23/02) -- The mini-blinds are in! Very techno-cool. Remote control...[drool] Blinds go up! Blinds go down. Blinds go up! Blinds go..."PUT THAT REMOTE DOWN!"

Update (02/19/02) -- There may be hope for staining the floor. The concrete stain expert stated that my floor was salvagable. They would have very little trouble cleaning the remaining paint off of the floor. I'm still awaiting the quote.

Update (02/18/02) -- OK, it has been too long since my last update. No excuses. The "double row of drapes" idea is out. I've ordered 4 Hunter Douglas, motorized mini-blinds that are controlled via a wireless remote. These are for the four high windows. The 8 sliding glass doors will be covered with drapes. My mother (she's the BEST, really, your momma don't come close!) is visiting sometime later this year, and she and Tracey (I think Tracey is getting in on this) are going to fire up some sewing machines to make these.

I'm meeting today with a concrete stain contractor to see if the floor can be stained. The tricky part will be cleaning the paint off. I've given up. I hear that it can be done with a floor buffer and some abrasive compound. We'll see. Later today I'll know.

Update (10/01/01) -- I'm hoping to be able to finish the concrete floor in the Great Room with a concrete stain to make it look like marble. To do this, the floor first needs to be very clean, so Tracey and I started to clean the floor. (The floor was coated with blow-by and fall-out from the drywall texturing process as well as oil-based paint from the trim work that was sprayed in that room by the builder during the process of installing the trim in the finished areas.) This cleaning started with a garden hose, push broom (for scrubbing) and a shop vac. We spent several days just getting the water soluble texture up. That was the easy part! The oil painted areas are much more stubborn. I tried a couple of chemical strippers and was still left with paint that has permeated the surface. The combination of Softscrub, applied with a wire brush bit in a drill seems to be the most effective, although very slow and labor intensive.

Update (9/??/01) -- We went to Lowes and picked up a couple of ceiling fans. These fans are finished in a faux patina. I had to make my own down-rods to drop these fans down 6 feet from the ceiling. For this, I just used 3/4 inch galvanized pipe from the plumbing section. We picked up some brown primer spray paint and went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some acrylic paint that was the same blue/green color as the faux finish. I primed the rods and then used a sponge to apply the acrylic color. The end result is indistinguishable from the finish on the rest of the fans. The fans have lights and are adorned with metal ivy leaves. We found long, plastic vines with these same leaves at Hobby Lobby and I wrapped them in a spiral fashion down the down-rods.

All of this work was possible because I still had the homemade scaffolding.

Update (9/??/01) -- I waited so long to update here that I don't remember the date that we actually painted, but...The top coat is finished!!! First, we built a large scaffold out of plywood and 12 foot 2x4s. Then, we spent a great deal of time (I think an entire week at 2 hours per night) masking the windows and doors. I rented a sprayer from HomeDepot. I donned a set of disposable overalls (with a hood), put on a mask and gloves and began spraying...the ceiling first. I would spray the area that I could reach from the platform of the scaffold and then Tracy and I would drag the scaffold part of the way across the room so that I could continue spraying. Once the ceiling was done, I worked my way down the walls. In about 4 hours, the room was finished.

Update (8/03/01) -- The primer coat is done! I'm looking into renting an airless sprayer to do the top coat. That roller work was, well, just that...work!

Update (8/03/01) -- With the exception of the closet under the stairs, the primer coat is done!

Update (7/28/01) -- Well, the painting has begun! We've started to paint the Great Room. I measured and calculated about 3200 sq. ft of drywall to paint. That required 15 gallons of drywall primer and 10 gallons of top coat (color). It'll be High Hiding White, just like the rest of the house. We've almost finished the primer coat. 15 hours later, the only area still left to do is about 300 sq. ft. of the high ceiling; where it's 20+ feet up. I was able to paint a bit of the high ceiling from the loft, but trying to get pressure to the roller while holding it out at an angle, 12+ feet in front of me was almost impossible. Now *that* was a workout! I actually tried attaching a 15-LB weight to the handle end of the pole as a counter-balance. That works, but then reloading the roller with paint is a bear. The only way to do this is going to be standing 20+ feet below, pushing straight up on the roller. Yeah, my extension telescopes to that height. It's kind of funny. The paint pan is sitting on the other side of the room for the reloads.

Hey, and when I get done with the primer I get to start all over again...with the top coat!

The Great Room, including the Loft, is so big and has so much glass that the new AC can't keep up with the summer heat. Whatever the temp is outside, subtract 10 degrees for the inside. At least, it works out that way in the heat of the bright, sunshine of the day with the 90 to 100 degree temps of Austin summers. Covering the windows will help significantly. I was thinking about installing 2 rows of drapes; a high row for the entire 2nd floor and a low row for the entire 1st floor. I looked into that to see what I'd need, but I've discovered that it would not be flexible enough to justify the expen$e.