Staining Baseboards

I have finally completed cutting all the baseboard for the TV Room. I can't say I'm thrilled with the job I did on the coping corners. I only needed to cut three corners. Some look better than others. Thankfully, they are in the corners and they are dark.

I'm starting the staining process today. I've just painted on the wood conditioner and I'll begin staining in about 15 minutes. 

I'm staining the smaller boards today. If everything goes well, I might be able to devote some attention to my two really long boards...but I doubt it.

Above is the only picture I remembered to take during the staining process. The good news is that I was able to get all my boards treated and stained. So that gets me that much closer to having the baseboards ready to go.

We are planning on refinishing the floor this coming weekend. It's the Fourth of July so we have a three day weekend. I will probably have a four day weekend, which is a whole day better.

Once the floor is completed, we will be really close to finishing this project.

I am pretty happy with my efforts to match the north facing board with the curve in the floor.

I ended up making three passes to get it where I was satisfied. The final pass closed the gap even more than shown above.

Baseboard Part Deux

I think I have solved the baseboard problem.

I took my construction pencil and laid it on the floor with the lead up against the baseboard. Starting at the left end where the gap was really big, I drew the pencil along the board and created a cut line that followed the contour of the floor. 

I then used my jigsaw on the board, cutting right to the line, which created an arc that presumably matched the bow in the floor.

It worked! The board now sits much more snugly and flush against the floor. I ended up doing this procedure twice and I have gotten the left side to where the base shoe covers the gap. I might run it one more time to really snug it up.

I'm happy.

TV Room Base Board Predicament

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the baseboard I have milled for the TV Room.

The problem is shown above in the picture that shows the problem.

There appears to be a high point in the floor that does not allow the baseboard to lie flush to the floor at the left edge.

The other edge is not much better. However, the gap is small enough that the base shoe would cover it.

The gap at the left end is an inch high. The base shoe slides right under it.

I am thinking the way to solve this problem is to mark the midpoint of the board where the high point is and cut a straight line from the corner to that midpoint, about half an inch from the bottom. Then I would continue the cut at a slight angle towards a second mark further down the board and then straight for the bottom corner at the right end of the board.

I am essentially cutting a crude bow to match the floor. The base shoe will then hide the bow cut and the gap.

It doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be better than it is.

The Hunt Begins

I found a junk box at work that had an assortment of promotional items in it, including a rain gauge to place in the yard. I screwed it to a fence post on Friday. Upon checking it this morning after yesterdays' rains, I measured .35 inches of moisture within the capture tube. Isn't that exciting!

It looks like it could be another day of rain but we don't care as we have begun the hunt for a couch in the TV Room.

We went out yesterday and found the style we are looking for although not the color or price range. The couch pictured above is basically what we are looking for. The two sides recline. The seat in the middle does not. This one was priced at $1,500.00.

We found a couple more, equally as nice and comfy at a furniture store close to us on Monroe. They had a similar couch that reclined electrically for 700 bucks.

We are going to continue the hunt today. Since we are a good ways off from finishing the room, we are not in a panic to buy.

Dumpster Day

It is a rainy wet Saturday so my plans to work outside are in the dumpster. I had a good mostly rain free day yesterday which allowed me to get several of the baseboards cut to length for the TV Room.

I decided to work on a minor little problem that popped up. When removing the plaster and lath walls, we left a chunk of plaster at the bottom of the wall. While it was close to being flush with the floor, it was not flush with the wall. The baseboards would not have fit up snugly to the wall.

So today we chipped out the plaster. It turned out to be quite a mess. However, it is done now and one more impediment removed to being done with this two year project.

I think my next move is to start sanding the floor. We are saving the main sanding for Fourth of July weekend but we can get a good head start by sanding the edges of the room. Since I have a couple of hand sanders, it should be no problem.

We are heading out shortly to look for a new couch for the TV Room. The La-Z-Boy store sent us a flyer concerning a sale that ends today. Probably not the best time to start looking. We're not even sure what we are looking for. Only that it reclines, is at least a three seater and is no more than eight feet long. Cup holders would be nice, but not mandatory. It's going to have to be comfy because I plan on logging a lot of time in this unit.

Baseboard Duty

I spent the bulk of my day milling the baseboards for the TV Room. Here is what we ended up with.

They're not fancy but they do have a passing resemblance to the baseboards on the rest of the main floor. 

My next project is to cut the boards to length and then get them stained. But first, a trip to Costco.

A Note to Our Scumbags

Victims of the Riot

It looks like we are an unhappy casualties from the riots last night.

Susan was preparing for her run while I was mowing tonight when she called to me and pointed to the front garden. I walked over, not sure what she was pointing at, only to discover our cement bench was missing.

This was the unfortunate scene. Our poor tin man just hanging there.

And this is what was taken. That bench was heavy so we figured someone must have really planned on taking it. They must have driven up and quickly loaded it into a vehicle. 

Scumbags like this are why we can't have anything nice.

We've brought the tin man in until we can replace the bench.

Historical Review

A week ago on Memorial Day, a man named George Floyd was arrested by Minneapolis Police. Three cops stood around while a fourth pressed his knee into the handcuffed man's neck. After about five or six minutes, Mr Floyd was dead.

Demonstrations started in Minneapolis the next night and turned to rioting. The rioting has spread to L.A., New York, Portland, San Francisco, Madison, Wisconsin, and last night, Spokane.

The protest started earlier in the day and was peaceful. It remained peaceful for a couple of hours. The crowd started to disperse when some anarchy supporting shit heads started damaging property. A bunch of storefront windows were shattered and the idiot crowd threw bricks at the Police line and the Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Susan and I had just finished streaming a TV show when we came upon the local channels with "Breaking News". Channels 2, 4 and 6 were all reporting about the situation in downtown.

A curfew was in place for the downtown core and people were told to go home. A lot stayed around for a long time.

I finally went to bed around 11 and tried to keep a wary hear to the night outside. Of course, I fell asleep and the night passed peacefully.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of nights.