Tag Archives: Building

August 16, 2011 · 1:25 pm

Tacoma Rack Build

Surprisingly, I was actually able to reach my goal stopping point on a build in the allotment of time I estimated! With a little assistance from my Dad during the waning hours of daylight, I ended up packing it in well after night fall, and just minutes before the rain started.

The Tacoma Rack was a sort of shotgun project with little planning other than a napkin sketch from just about a week ago.  The primary aesthetic was to be determined by the type of wood I would be able to salvage from the property.  I was pleased to find a few old barn beams roughly the same dimensions and I began leaning towards the clear sealant timber-framed look.

After fully assembling the frame it was clear that the clear sealant would be a difficult decision as there were many varying ages and qualities of wood pulled together for the final product.  Currently I am researching a few methods and products of spray applied bed lining for a final surface coat.  But I didn’t want to get the old beams wet until they were sealed with something.

The remainder of this week I plan to sand, prime, and finish the lumber to hopefully have it completed by next week.  As long as it was fully assembled on the truck though, I couldn’t resist trying it out.  I was relieved to find that two full kayaks are capable of laying flat side-by-side, and the big 29er still fits on the bed mounts without a problem.

Of course to fully understand the load carrying capabilities I had to crawl up there myself and see how it felt…

…a bit high, but with the addition of a sheet of 4′ x 8′ plywood it would work nicely as a sleeping platform.

One last exciting recent development, crawling around in the rafters  of the barns this weekend searching for quality lumber, I managed to pull down an old push reel mower that has been stored up in the rafters for as long as I can remember.  I was pleased to discover it still worked quite well and will work great for the .12 acre lot our future home sits on.

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September 23, 2010 · 12:43 pm

How to Move Back in with your Parents: Step 1 – Build a new bathroom

As previously discussed, we are in the process of moving into the second floor of my parents house in an attempt at saving some serious dough with the intent to purchase our own home.  Things are progressing nicely, so nice in fact that I have not had the opportunity to capture the process in photos until last night, when I took another load down from our apartment in the city.  The photos don’t show much, but what you see does not actually reflect the amount of work completed.  Take a look:

Imagine a toilet where the box is and a sink where the plastic trash can is and there you have it!

The ceiling reveals the history of the old house, the location for the bathroom was once occupied by two separate toilet stalls to service the guests for the Flint Motel.

The original lath and plaster that was covered by everyone's favorite wood paneling. (we painted it as part of a previous renovation)

The toilet was salvaged from an outbuilding my parents owned and rented as a one bedroom apartment until this past year, and the sink I got for $20 from Craigslist!

The separate shower room isn't much to look at, but it will effectively double the number of showers in the house! (stand up shower stall again salvaged from the detached one-bedroom apartment)

In addition to a new bathroom, my wife is working on painting some areas upstairs to make them feel more personalized.  My parents are both being very supportive and helpful with this transition.  I am sure they understand the frustrations associated with growing up, getting your own place, getting married, then moving back home.  (It’s probably similar to the frustrations associated with raising two boys, getting them both through college, sending one to Utah, and just when you think the nest is finally empty having one move back in with you.)  Love you Mom and Dad!

More progress and final photos to come!

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September 7, 2010 · 1:08 pm

Separating a house

This past weekend I got to spend some time doing what I really LOVE…building stuff.  In an attempt to conserve funds and expedite the increase in our potential to purchase a home, my wife and I have decided to move back in with my parents.  However, we are not simply moving back into the room I grew up in, with the intention of sleeping across the hall from my parents, sharing a bathroom and every meal together.  The space we will occupying within the house is, for all intensive purposes, a completely separate dwelling.

The house my family lives in is very old, and quite large.  We have an old black and white photo of the house sometime in the early 1900′s with a horse-and-buggy tide out front and a sign hung over a secondary door to my childhood room that reads “General Store.”  The home my parents own has housed a bed-and-breakfast, general store, grocery store, a few residential owners, and a number of other uses.  As you can imagine, it is quite large.

Through the locust grove

Our family has never lived on the on the second floor.  All the bedrooms and living spaces have always been on the ground level, reserving the entire second floor for storage and entertainment.  Through the years my parents have owned the home there have been a number of wandering souls spend a few nights or weeks in one guest room or another on the second level, but there has been no functioning bathroom or kitchen, (since we have removed the 6 toilets from the previous use.)

Once we decided to move into this space we discussed the addition of a bathroom, attempting to utilize some existing plumbing and increase the market retail value for the future.  My parents accepted this proposal and this past weekend we took the first steps in creating an apartment-like space upstairs.  In fact, the available square footage on the second floor of the house is considerably larger than some of the apartments we have stayed in previously.

The Master Bedroom wing

I enjoy this work immensely and am quite please to be able to get back into it.  Another huge bonus for making this move is the ability to use my Dad’s workspace and tools for further construction projects!  I will try to document this process, but will have to be attentive, as we will be moving forward rapidly in order to try and complete the project by our move-in date.

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