Tag

Carpentry Archives - Page 2 of 4 - The Year of Mud

Oct 20
Love0

Preparing for Clay Plaster: Making and Installing Wood Trim

By Light Clay Straw, Doors & Windows, Resources, Clay Plaster, Carpentry

clay-plaster-floating-fiberglass-stucco-mesh-02

Light clay straw walls are a great surface for finishing using natural plasters. Because the straw-clay is tamped inside of a stud wall, you have a fairly flat surface to start with, compared to something like straw bale which needs a lot of trimming and often extra thick plaster to achieve an even surface.

Here I’ll give some tips and suggestions for how to prepare a light clay straw wall to receive clay plaster, using our recent outhouse project as our demonstration site. In this post, I’ll talk about how to make and install wood trim, which should be the first step in preparing your newly built wall to receive clay plaster.

There are a few tricks you’ll need to ensure a quality job. Read ahead for my method…

 

Read More

Apr 09
Love0

Big Wood Weekend

By Carpentry, Woodworking
Red Oak Wood for Riving Shakes

One of our big wood scores this weekend… great for riving shakes

This was definitely the weekend for big wood. Big scores of big wood. First we saved some massive red oak logs from a local establishment with an eye for turning these big beautiful lengths of wood into shakes for a roof. (If we manage to save enough of the logs, we may even use the shakes on the upcoming roof of our timber frame pizza oven shelter.) And then by surprise, we found a local fellow who was advertising massively wide slabs of cedar… perfect for the kitchen counter we want to build.

Both of these are the kind of thing we may only find once or twice in our lifetime…

Read More

Dec 13
Love0

SunRay’s Magical Treehouse

By Design, Photos, Carpentry
SunRay Kelley Treehouse

A ramp provides access to this funky little treehouse — I love how the underside of the roof catches morning light

SunRay Kelley may be one of the most “mythical” of the natural builders out there. He’s the builder known for saying the forest is his “Super Natural Store”, and his building designs conjure up feelings of the fantastical, magical, funkadelic. I had the privilege of seeing one of his creations in the making at the recent 20th anniversary Natural Building Colloquium at the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, NM — a whimsical treehouse nestled in ponderosa pine trees, featuring some signature SunRay touches. Check out the photos of this wild little building ahead…

Read More

Dec 06
Love1

This is One Sweet Natural Floor Finish

By Uncategorized
Rubio Monocoat floor finish: buffing

Our natural oil finish in the process of going on the new red oak floor

Well dang, I’ve been waiting many days for this moment. Right now I’m happily sitting in a chair on our hardwood floor. That doesn’t sound particularly thrilling without any context though, I know. So… after days of grueling installation and sanding, we finally got to put the finishing touch on our new red oak floor — a special natural oil floor finish, one we’ve never before used. The application was a breeze / dream, your choice of cliche.

Really though, the finish went on extremely well. Best of all, of course, is that it’s a natural oil finish. This particular product is linseed oil-based (no polyurethane or VOCs here, thanks), it goes on in a single coat, and it gives the hardwood floor a beautiful “natural” tone and low gloss finish. The particular natural hardwood floor finish that I’m describing here is Rubio Monocoat, which I’ll talk more about below. So far, I really like it.

Read More

Oct 13
Love0

Replacing a 2×4 Wall with a Timber Frame

By Carpentry, Timber Framing

We just accomplished one of the more exciting items on our remodeling to-do list — we raised a timber frame between the kitchen and living room. Before the frame went up, we methodically removed the original 2×4 wall. The intention here, of course, was to really open up the space and facilitate a better interface between the living and cooking areas, provide more light to the kitchen, and allow the heat of the (not yet installed) cook stove to move more freely though the house.

I’d say it’s lookin’ pretty good right now. I managed to capture a little video of the actual timber frame raising… watch the video above to see how smoothly the frame fits right into place in the opening we created by removing the stud frame. The video also illustrates some of the steps we took to ready the house for the new frame.

Click ahead for some photos of the new wall, as well!

Read More

Oct 22
Love0

A Fun Wooden Stair Railing Project

By Carpentry, Strawtron
DIY Interior Wooden Stair Railing 00

Using scrap wood to build this interior stair railing was a fun finish carpentry project

As I write this, the finish work is painfully close to complete on our straw bale home. The last leg of any project is the hardest part for me, as I’m so fixated on the end that the final push often feels like an eternity. But I digress. I had a lot of fun building this small interior stair railing in the second storey of our house. It was a great chance to do some finish carpentry and use some very pretty pieces of wood, many of which were scraps from other aspects of the house. No one will fall down the stairwell now, thank goodness, and this little wooden railing somehow completes the space much more nicely than I would have guessed. Check it out…

Read More

Oct 20
Love0

Installing Sweet Shelves in Your Straw Bale Home

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Carpentry
Decorative Shelves

Finished shelves installed in the straw bale walls of our house

Installing shelves in the straw bale walls of your home requires a bit of forethought. With some advance planning, you can design some pretty sweet decorative shelves that are quite sturdy and can be adjusted over time. Here’s a relatively simple plan we came up with to build strong, attractive shelving in our house.

Read More

Sep 29
Love0

Ideas for Installing Baseboard in a Straw Bale House

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Carpentry
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.

Read More

May 02
Love0

Build Yourself Some Decent Sawhorses

By Design, Carpentry, Woodworking
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?
Read More