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Carpentry

Sep 29
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Ideas for Installing Baseboard in a Straw Bale House

By Carpentry, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Installing Baseboard in Straw Bale House

Installing baseboard just prior to the finish plaster application

Baseboard is an excellent idea to consider for a straw bale house. It’s not just pretty and decorative, but perhaps more important, it’s functional too. The bottom of the plastered wall is delicate, and a bit of trim protects it from the inevitable sweeping, mopping, or chair leg careening towards the wall.

A couple of days ago, I just got finished installing baseboard in our straw bale house. Having gone through that experience, I have some new ideas for how to install baseboard trim in the future. Here’s what I did this time, and what I’m thinking might work in future projects, too.

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May 02
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Build Yourself Some Decent Sawhorses

By Carpentry, Woodworking, Design
Simple Sawhorse Plans

Build yourself a decent pair of sawhorses this year!

Everyone needs a pair (or two, or three) of sawhorses. It certainly helps if they are not wobbly and can stand on their own, and are beefy enough to support more than a box of matches. There are way too many subpar (or worse) sawhorses out there, and if yours look like they’ve been run over a few times… you deserve better, really.

On DIY and owner-builder construction sites, they are often the primary work surface for all sorts of carpentry work, and they are likely to be used as a ladder, table, a place to sit, a tool table… you get the point. They’re pretty essential, and if they actually work well — heck, you will likely be a more efficient builder.

I am happy to follow an existing design when I can, and these simple sawhorse plans fit the bill for our myriad building projects this summer. It’s nice to follow instructions sometimes, you know?
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Feb 11
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Axes We Love

By Carpentry, Woodworking, Wood Carving, Hand Tools
John Neeman Tools Goosewing Broad Axe

The very artful John Neeman Goosewing Broad Axe

I’ll admit, I spend perhaps an inordinate amount of time looking at images of axes. There’s just something about them. I think it’s their timeless functionality and dashingly good looks. Over the hundreds of thousands of years they have been in use by humankind, any number of styles, shapes, and sizes have been made to perform a variety of splitting, chopping, carving, and shaping work. It’s the sheer variety and the craftsmanship that I’m most attracted to, I think. Of course I love using them, too, probably more than any other hand tool.

To celebrate the axe and the people who continue to make them, here is a selection of 26 modern day hand forged axes made by a variety of blacksmiths that are beautiful, functional, and swoon-worthy.

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Dec 30
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2013: The Year of Chairs, Stairs, Workshopping, & Moving

By Carpentry, Strawtron, Woodworking, Homesteading, Natural Building Workshops
Spreading Seed: Living Roof

High up in the sky, spreading seed on the living roof of Strawtron

Now is the typical time to think back on the past year, and to try my darnedest to remember everything that has transpired. 2013 was a particularly memorable year, not unlike the others, I suppose. But this year has been pretty different in several big ways, too. Most notably, this year we decided to move to Berea, Kentucky and sell our two homes at Dancing Rabbit. But that didn’t stop us from squeezing in a few more natural building workshops before we left. Oh, and we had to wrap up a lot of work on Strawtron before we could even sell it. Somehow, we found a way to cram it all in.

Here’s a look at how events and projects unfolded in 2013.

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Nov 26
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A Heavy Duty Homemade Door

By Carpentry, Strawtron, Doors & Windows
Two Custom, Homemade Doors

Two custom doors in the second story of the timber frame house

The second story of our timber frame & straw bale house has shorter than standard wall heights. It is definitely standing height, but the beams (or top plates, more specifically) that support the rafters are at head height, and another curved tie beam is similarly placed. We have two door locations upstairs, one to access the north storage loft above the porch, and a second for the walk-out balcony on the west, so we were faced with having to size and build our own homemade doors from scratch. Since I have never built a DIY door before, I was fairly intimidated, but the process wasn’t that bad once I got started. What I came up with were some super heavy duty, insulated doors made with tongue and groove boards, complete with some burly strap hinges to support the weight.

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Nov 17
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how to build a diy wooden spiral staircase

Our Work is Done: Building The Roundwood Spiral Staircase

By Carpentry, Timber Framing, Strawtron

how to build a diy wooden spiral staircase

At last, I’m here to report that April and I finished building our wooden spiral staircase.  Over the course of five days, literally up to the day before we left Dancing Rabbit, we installed the risers and treads. The spiral staircase design came from our dearest Tom Cundiff, who instructed us on the layout over the phone and in person during our last Timber Frame Workshop. It took us a while to fully grasp the layout and the flow of things, but once we understood the principles, it went fairly smoothly. Well, the actual building was extremely physically taxing, but I digress.

And so this is our attempt at a DIY wooden spiral staircase. Here’s how we built it.

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Nov 13
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Nearly Completing the Spiral

By Carpentry, Timber Framing, Strawtron
Building a Sprial Staircase

Mortising into the dark of evening

The roundwood spiral staircase that we have been feverishly building for the last five days is about 98% complete. As we simultaneously pack for our trip to Berea, there are mounds of wood chips on the floor of the house, oiled slabs of elm causing the house to smell like a citrus grove, and aching backs howling for a good rubbing.

It’s been an intense project, but the results are stunning. I’ll reveal the full staircase soon, but for now, here’s another glimpse of what we’ve been doing. I can hardly believe it’s come together.

Nov 10
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Our Last (and Greatest) Task

By Carpentry, Timber Framing, Strawtron
Roundwood Sprial Staircase - First 2 Steps

First two steps installed… starting from the top, and working down

We have decided to take on our last and greatest task literally days before we leave Dancing Rabbit for Berea, Kentucky. In these final few days before we move, we are building a spiral staircase in our timber frame house. It is a rather foolish thing to do, but important, too.

We have literally 3 or so days left to try to finish the beast. And it is a beast, let me tell you. Drilling and chiseling 11 mortises in a roundwood post, making an equal number of stair risers with tenons, sawing/planing/gouging/oiling the 3″ elm slab steps… not to mention, having the wrap our puny minds around the layout has been quite the ordeal, to say the least. We are finally in the swing of things now that we have the layout firmly established, but the physical side of the work is still very intense.

Here are a few photos of what we are doing up until the literal minute we leave. Sometimes I wonder about these decisions we make…

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Oct 10
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Live Edge Siding: “It Sings”

By Strawtron, Carpentry
Straw Bale House: Live Edge Siding

Our recent live edge siding job on the north porch… here’s the west view

I’ve been meaning to put up some images of our completed live edge siding job for a long, long time now… so here they are. Finally! An individual walking by the other day commented on the siding, saying “it sings”… a sweet compliment, I thought. I would agree. I just love the stuff. The grain, color, curves, and contrast with the plaster on the other parts of the house are very pleasing. I have no doubt we’ll feature more live edge siding in future building projects.

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Jul 28
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There’s Beauty Under That Surface

By Carpentry, Strawtron

scrap-to-trim

For whatever reason, we have access to a lot of black walnut lumber around here. A lot of twisted, knotty, warped, split 1x black walnut, that is. Hell, at least it is cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for. The stuff is sort of a nuisance to sift through, and oftentimes, up to half of any given pile later becomes firewood.

But I have been using this stuff almost exclusively for making window trim, and baseboard, and other finish work. I’ve gotten a lot of practice picking through piles, and hopefully finding that one piece that will actually work. Under that sometimes ugly surface, there is some really gorgeous wood.

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