The Boss'

So, I haven’t posted an update in a while, which testifies either to our busy-ness, or my lazy-ness, or both. So we’re both busy and I’m lazy.

Grace got her cast off Tuesday, and everything looks good. She’s still favoring the limb, but the Dr said that is normal.

Colds are beginning to take root in our house. It seems early for that, but what are we gonna do? Jack had the worst of it with a terrible cough, and ended up needing a chest x-ray and nebulizer treatments.

I got to take the kids to a farm near town and they were able to ride a horse. It was so cool. The kids had a great time. The horse they rode was trained as a race horse, so just a little kick was all it took to get him to trot. Big fun.

We’re surviving over here with no TV. That’s not for a lack of people offering us they’re old sets. Folks are obviously concerned that missing out on all the goodness that broadcast TV has to offer. Truth be told we do miss a few things. Lindy will admit that she misses watching The Biggest Loser, and I miss watching golf occasionally. Also, PBS just started airing the new Ken Burns documentary “The National Parks”, so we’re missing out on that. So, I guess there are some shows that we’re doing without, but overall, I think it’s good to have eliminated its influence from the home.

School is going pretty well. We’re making tweaks to the schedule as we go along. Grace is enjoying her more active roll this year, and it’s working well to have the older ones each spend time with the younger ones for some period of the day.

You can also see from my last few posts that I’ve been hard at work on Emma’s Sleeping Nook. A wrap-up video of that should be coming soon.

This intersection behind the bookcase presented some tricky angles between the ceiling, walls, and around the pipe in the corner. I ended up making one large piece to cover the whole business. Here’s some pics of that.

Here it is, all nailed together and ready to be put in place.

I’ve still got some work to do on the storage arrangement next to the desk, but I feel pretty good about where it’s at. The next major phase will involve filling all the nail holes and applying satin poly to the whole thing. Not looking forward to that.

I’m making more progress on Emma’s sleeping nook. It’s been about 3 weeks since I cut the big hole in the wall, so I’d say things are coming along pretty well.

I’ve got the majority of the entry casing and bookshelf done. I haven’t put in the shelves yet, in part because I haven’t determined how I’m going to secure them. I’m also worried that if I put them in, Emma will immediately fill them with books. All of the wood is currently unfinished birch veneer but I’m planning to finish it with a satin poly.

I also had to come up with a vertical molding that covered the small gaps that I had when I put in the ceiling panels. No matter how hard I tried, I wound up with some small gaps at the corners where the large ceiling panels came together. What I finally ended up doing, after much hand wringing, was making sure all the horizontal seams were tight, and then vowing to return with some sort of molding that would cover the other gaps. I cut a 4” wide piece of plywood, and then turned it on edge, and ripped it so it was about 3/8” thick. I sanded this and slightly rounded the corners and, viola! molding! You can see it in the photo below. I have the same sort of 3/8” reveal around the entry casing, so I think the molding will look consistent, and not out of place.

You can also see the beginning of the shelves that will hold Emma’s books next to her bed. You will also notice the gap at the ceiling where I got the angle of the ceiling wrong. That will be covered with a molding as well that I have not yet designed.

There was also a tricky little piece that I had to make near the entry. The end of the rafter that you can see in the photo below interfered with the flat piece that wanted to fit in that space to cover the opening. I couldn’t simply create a dado to accommodate the rafter, because then you would see a gap where the pieces come together. So, I had to create a blind dado with my table saw. The piece that I’m holding in the photo below was the first one I made…ooops, I made the dado on the wrong end! The second one fit perfect, and accommodated the rafter end nicely. It’s the design and fit of pieces like this that make this project rewarding. It’s the sort of thing that the casual observer will never notice, but there is great satisfaction in getting everything to fit. (Or at least giving the appearance that everything fits;-))

Also, here’s a little sketch of what I’d like to do with the non-sleeping end of the nook. A small desk and some rolling storage.

Here’s how a nerd tries to get a handle on the daily schedule when they’ve got six little ones to manage. Windows Live Calendar! It’s a work in process.

I grabbed a couple of pics in the “school room”. Will is occupied with his toys while Lindy works with Emma. Grace is in the middle of the room working on something else.

Here’s a couple of quick photos that I snapped of the sleeping area that I’m making for Emma. I’ve begun putting up the plywood on the walls. 1” birch veneer plywood is obviously overkill for this application, but it’s something that I happened to have a lot of, so that is what we’re using.

Check out the photo of the panel that I cut that has the hole for the outlet. Only took me 4 tries to get it right! By number four, I was laughing manically like Clark Griswald in one of those National Lampoons movies. “Mommy, what’s wrong with daddy?” “Just ignore him honey, he’ll be fine.”

A few more pics.

This photo shows the trim detail. You can see that the plywood paneling IS the trim. I liked the look of the edges so much, I decided I wanted it to feature prominently in the design.

Here’s a little more design work that I’m doing on Emma’s sleeping nook. I’ve got the framing, insulation, and electrical work done. I’ve decided to fill in the door on the right and replace it with book shelves. This is a pretty quick model but dimensionally it’s pretty accurate.