News from the Country Estate

Hihowahya,

Since the post in the summer time, we have moved again (in November), to another small apartment on the same road as our land on which we intend to build our house. Since the summer, many things have changed and many have stayed the same.

We're still trying to scratch a living from the coast of Maine like nearly everyone else around here. I am still trying to make money by putting pieces of wood together with nails and glue, but around here you do whatever you can to make it through the winter. I have recently considered getting a 'real' job, and I have even sent out a few resumes, but there still aren't a lot of jobs out there for folks without specific training (i.e. nurses, machinists etc.)

Last month, I spent a couple days splitting wood (with a hydraulic woodsplitter a Split-Fire 2260, which I highly recommend for its dual-action), and I sold one of our cars (the 96 Honda Civic with 250k miles). It sold in about an hour after I put it on the Craigslist. Somehow we found a way to pay off the Benz-omatic Wagon and now we're debt-free except for our student loans. (Don't even get me started on the American travesty of saddling the next generation with mountains of student loans getting useless degrees.....).

The Astro work van I bought in the fall is performing admirably, getting almost exactly 17.6 mpg on every tank, which is a spectacular improvement over the 10-12 I was getting with my Dodge Ram pickup. I may yet build a center console out of birch plywood, but for now, I like it the way it is. My only complaint is that the back doors leak a bit when it rains and I can't find anything wrong with the weatherstripping.... Maybe it will be a dry summer.

We've been doing a few things on our land. We finally cleaned up some of the debris from the trees that I brought down before Hurricane Irene and piled it into a big pile. I'm still deciding whether to burn the pile or rent a big chipper for a day. Thoughts?

The next step over there is to scrape enough cash together to put in a nice gravel driveway. I'm getting an estimate on it on Wednesday.

Since we got rid of one car payment, we thought it would be a good idea to take on another one, in the form of a shop/storage space down back here at the estate. Soon I'll be setting up my first shop. I am pretty excited actually to have a space to set up all the bigger tools all at once. And have a work bench......the possibilities are endless, as are the ways to spend time and money on them.

Once the shed is empty of tools and other stuff, we'll be outfitting it as rustic guest house for the summer and fall, so we'll finally have guest accommodations. We'll have to figure something out for facilities over there, but I think it will be great.

So with all that news, I'll leave you to whatever dreary or fair March weather awaits you.

-w-

Keeping busy

What use is being unemployed if you can't hang out, watch daytime TV and eat cheetos? I can't seem to catch a break with this 'unemployment'. We were back at it for a couple of days to put up this 24x36 high-posted cape. It took about a day to ferry the whole thing down there to Bristol, then another day with a crane to put 'er up. This morning we finished screwing down the purlins and put a couple of big tarps on the roof. We're short on tarp tatters, so we thought we'd put it up there ahead of some 60 mph winds (Hurricane Earl) and that would work nicely. Besides, I don't really get enough of being 27 feet up over a concrete slab.


After a quick lunch in my sweltering apartment, I thought, I haven't sweat enough today, so I'll go over the shed and work some more. I put in a little work bench. 38 and a quarter high, 30 inches deep and a little under 12 feet long. It should do nicely for some little projects for customers and our house project.



12 x 16 feet can feel quite small if there's too much stuff in it, but with some clear floor space, it feels just big enough. I'll have to stay organized.


Still not sweating enough, I decided to use the lumber loft for lumber, and I moved a couple of piles of pine boarding and some 2x8x 16' and 20' framing lumber up there to keep it out of the rain and out of sight.




We're watching the Hurricane tracks for Earl and hoping it doesn't get too wild here. Right now we're just in the 40 mph wind zone. If the seas are going to get too rowdy, we'll pull the sailboat ahead of it. Wouldn't want 'er to get swamped!

Progress!

Well, I got the roof on and a temporary door until I can build the sliding doors. Those roof overhangs look proportionally too big, but hey, its a shed and I gotta keep some wood dry.


Next, I re-glazed some old windows and screwed them in with some hinges so I can get a little airflow in the main level.


Finally, I got some hasps and locks on there so I can leave tools there without it being really easy for them to find new owners.

Roofing in Metal

So I have this prejudice against asphalt/fiberglass roofing. It goes like this: you can only use it as roofing once before you have to throw it away (by 'away' I mean 'into someone else's backyard', someone who can't afford to keep you from putting it there). Yes I know, some asphalt roofing gets recycled, but its a costly, messy process. Anyway, asphalt roofing is a mess no matter how you slice it, and its not even cheaper than metal. Metal has the advantage of being completely recyclable, it will outlast me, and when its finally not doing the job, my children can bring it to a scrap yard and get paid for it.

For my approximately 480 sq. ft. shed roof, I priced metal and asphalt side by side, and metal came out cheaper by almost 20%. The key with metal roofing is that you don't have to sheath the roof in plywood or boarding. You can simply strap it with 1x3's and screw it down. So, I ordered a bunch of 'burnished slate' colored metal roofing and went for it.


They even cut to length for me so I didn't have to buy more metal than I was going to use. (They won't do that for you at Home Depot or Lowes....)


This is a 'wear-gloves' job.


Predrilling all the sheets on the ground (and having square and plumb roof framing!) is the key to success, just make sure you drill the holes in the right spots.

More to come....

News from the Country Estate 8-24-2010

Is it really almost the end of August? What happened to the time? December--soon it will be December and everything will be covered with snow and the plow will be hanging ready on the nose of the Dodge....But until then, there's still time to enjoy what has been a perfect summer (for weather).

Saturday and Sunday, KT was out of town, seeing her sister off to college (Univ of Minnesota), so I decided it was time to take my first solo daysail out in Casco Bay. I had plenty of wind, and got to practice a lot of things. There seems to be chaos on board when you're single-handing--you only have two hands and one free knee to manage, sheets and halyards, and of course the tiller. So it went ok, not the prettiest bunch of tacks and jibes, but I found my way back to the mooring field after 3 and a half hours. After practicing sailing up to lobster buoys several times, I sailed successfully up to the mooring, stalling the boat into the wind right on top of it. Then with a debonair and casual manner, I strolled up to the foredeck, with all the rigging flapping in the wind, and seized the pin-buoy and the mooring pennant. I felt pretty smug after that....

After church on Sunday, I had the time to go up to Cushing to the Historical Society which was holding a small art exhibition in their barn. My friend, David Cadbury, was showing some of his recent work. He uses Microsoft Paint as his medium and creates pixilated images of coastline and other subjects. I had to stand back 20 feet to get the real effect. Neat stuff.

Over the last few weeks, I had the time to build a custom bed frame for some seasonal resident clients of mine.
The corners are of a reused 8x8 Douglas Fir timber. The rails are simply spruce 2x6's mortised into the corners and pegged with red oak. The slats are white pine. The whole thing is sanded and finished in beeswax and citrus oil.



The client will be using a latex foam mattress on the bed, and so they requested that the surface be made up of slats so the mattress can breathe. We'll see how they find it to sleep upon. I am offering to build similar pieces for $800-1000 depending on the materials and dimensions.



Progress on the shed continues, with the back gable all studded out and one of the four gable overhangs framed. Today I'm going to frame the loft door in the front gable and then build the rest of the overhangs. Rake and eave trim will go up next, then the metal roofing on thursday. Hopefully I'll have the doors and windows going by early next week. Then a paint job.

KT is back safe from her travels, and I am glad to have her home.

Thats the news from the Country Estate for this week.

w

Oot and a boot.

Winter is a great time to be out and about in Maine. There are no crowds, no traffic and no tourists from 'away'. I think the low temperatures and precipitation keep them away. But we find plenty of interesting things to do, vocationally and otherwise. I just created a new blog for my carpentry endeavors, you can see it here: http://woodandwagner.blogspot.com.


Here is part of a timberframe I recently had a hand in raising. All that snow presents some serious challenges to the project. If the trailer at right looks a little high that's because it is. The site was so tight that the crane truck drove in with that trailer and to get out had to pick the trailer up off the ground and spin it. Conditions were so icy that the crane and trailer got stuck on the way out with all of us behind it. There we sat for over an hour, idling, while a sand truck came to put down some traction.

These bunch from our snowshoeing jaunt yesterday at the Land of Goshen:


Wags, winter forest head shot. (Photo by KT)


KT, winter forest head shot. When the temperature is in the teens or lower, she opts for the artificial beard.

Birch among Pines.


If KT received a revelation from heaven while snowshoeing, I imagine this is what it might look like.


There is a fungus among us. In this case on a big dead pine trunk. (photo by KT)


The aforementioned fungusy dead pine trunk. (photo by KT)


Wavy ice on the streaming stream. (photo by KT)

Last weekend I got to go snowshoeing on Saturday with our friend Rob from Milwaukee. Then on Sunday, we got up in the wee hours and drove up to Sugarloaf Mtn to experience what many say is the best downhill ski experience in the East. I can say it was the best I've ever skied. I'll post pictures from that soon.

First Snow

Well its not technically the first snow for us here on the Country Estate, but its the first snow to stick. Amidst all the busy-ness I had time to take stroll in the woods on the land on the Egypt Road this afternoon after church:

View looking Southish along Egypt Road towards Ben Brook

A spot near the northwest corner of the property.

a stream about 300' in from the road near the northeasterly property line

Wags, himself walking amongst the trees.

Largish rocks.

Can you see the photographer's shadow?

Well, I've been all alone here at the Country Estate (boo hoo :( whilst KT is in Dallas for a conference relating to home visiting and parenting education. It was a consolation to know that it was cold there too. No sunny warm vacation for her!

Closed!

Ah yes, the perfect convergence of cash, attorneys, real estate agents, signatures and paperwork. A property closing. My dad has closed on a 27-28 acre parcel right here in Alna Maine. On the banks of Ben Brook and the Streaming Stream. As its steward, I am now soliciting the greater public for names for the new estate. What is an estate without a name?

What would Churchill have been without Chartwell? Bilbo Baggins without Bag-End? Elrond without Rivendell? Andrew Jackson without the Hermitage? Jefferson without Monticello? Washington without Mount Vernon?

and Wagner without .........?

The land has undulating terrain with exposed granite in some spots. Trees include Eastern White Pine, Eastern Hemlock, White Oak, Red Oak, Silver Maple, Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Apple, Cherry, Birch and many others. There are several small and medium streams and a big babbling brook. We'll be building in the Spring a 24x36 two story colonial and later on, a good size barn.

looking good

Here are few shots of the job looking good:

Stain-glass window in custom casing. I went to the trouble of getting brass screws to install it, so they could take it out to clean it, and they asked me to counter sink them and fill the holes with putty!

Long skinny bedroom with vaulted V-match ceiling, pine trim, and goofy track lighting and sconces.

We created this loft for them over the closet and the hallway.

-Boarded two sides of a timberframe today. I like to keep my connection to timberframing alive, even if I'm doing mostly restoration and remodeling these days.

-We'll be headed down to Connecticut for the Thanksgiving weekend. Hopefully my dad and I will close on the land by Wednesday and we can get serious about house planning/clearing/building.

-The weather continues to be perfect New England Autumn style.

News from the Country Estate November 13, 2009

Hihowahya,

-the days are still warmish (low 50's) but the nights are almost all in freezing territory.

-the aforementioned land which my father had made an offer on is now under contract. I am acting as his eyes and ears here in maine. checking on things like soil conditions and driveway permits. Closing will occur before thanksgiving. Yes, we are excited.

-I finally got the snow plow out of storage, only to have no snowplowing accounts lined up. I've got a couple of leads, but no signed contracts.

-A slightly used Stihl 066 chainsaw with a 24" bar (and a 36") is now in my possession-in anticipation of having to clear land for our house.

-I have been doing carpentry work for a company called Sustainable Structures for the last month and a half. We're just wrapping up a remodeling job on Westport Island, a few pics from the job:

Living room with vintage* maple flooring, insulation and drywall.

*this maple flooring was milled from hundred year old logs pulled up from the bottom of Moosehead Lake. I hear they used to do this in Wisconsin, but banned it because it stirred up too many toxins which had settled to the bottom of the lakes.

This Anderson 400 series 36" circular window will house a custom-mounted stained glass window which the home-owners provided.

This bedroom used to have a dropped ceiling below the transom window at right. We raised the ceiling and installed pine V-match to follow the roof pitch and created a loft space above the closet and hallway. We also added dense-pack cellulose and foamboard insulation as well as new trim, flooring, windows and drywall.

Today we laid the vintage* birch flooring in the bedroom. The birch seemed to be of much higher quality than the maple. It will really "pop" after it is sanded and oiled.

-We'll wrap this job up by Wednesday next week and jump onto another project on Thursday.