More Homesteading

The final part of this voluminous data-dump is the remodel of the front house. The place had a wonky foundation. It had been sitting on cedar posts for 90 years or so, and those had long ago rotted below ground level. The utility room was also an impractical little eyesore that felt like a cramped sauna. Not exactly the place I want to do laundry. And, in my opinion, the place kind of needed another bathroom and a covered porch. So that's what I built.

Here's the demo:

I salvaged as much of the old wood siding and framing as I could. Had to bag and dump all the asbestos that was on the back. After that, the foundation crew came in and leveled the place and poured piers for the addition. That's not very exciting to look at.

Here it is all framed and sheathed. You can see a little bit of the salvaged siding at the bottom there. Sanding and painting all that stuff wasn't my favorite thing to do.

But I did it.

And wired it. And ran vents. I did not plumb it, roof it, frame it, sheathe it, or insulate it. I left that to the pros. I did drywall, float, paint, tile, and cuss it.

The porch got lights and a fan. It's a nice spot: a square, shaded space with an open view of the garden.

The inside is actually a little tight for good photos, but here's what I snapped before the tenants moved in:

The mud room (utility sink, medicine cabinet). the occasional white tiles in the floor make a map of part of the night sky in the northern hemisphere. Yes, I'm a dork.

And the bathroom. The tub is refinished. Epoxy on the inside and I sealed the outside with a shellac that I dyed to look kind of like oxidized copper.

This is taken from where the washer/dryer is. Again, a little narrow, but the ceilings in there are 12 feet tall. It doesn't feel cramped.

A few other things happened outside, as well:

Laundry-to-landscape plumbing.

Divided the shipping container by getting the welders to move one of the doors to the back and part of the back wall to the front. Then I framed a wall inside. Viola.

And it was a good year in the perennial garden, as well. Tons of monarchs and tons of fruit so far, except the nectarines and peaches. Those are recovering from last year.

But yeah. I built some stuff and the city said it was OK.

And once I felt better, I felt compelled to work on yet another construction project

So after recuperating from the ER, I made a bucket list. I've been chipping away at it fairly steadily. I could stand to accelerate my progress a little bit, but that's another story. The point of this post is that the necessity for this next project came into focus, so being the determined guy that I am, I saved up, worked on a small project for my own humble abode (honestly, this was in the works while I was still at the Witte), and then went ahead with the planning, permitting, and construction.

First the interior design stuff in my place:

Poplar "butcher block" type slabs that I laminated together with biscuits and dowels, Piano hinge, and some mahogany table legs that I found for cheap at a thrift store.  Like I've said before, I like having something pre-existing to work off of.

Oddly, at this stage the place seems both small and empty. I wanted the built-ins to feel built in, so I made that happen:

And I'm sure you can guess what's coming next:

I'm a little proud of that piece of handiwork. It's part cabin, part tiny home, part mid-century inspired bachelor pad. kinda.

It definitely made the space more functional and fun. Only took a few weekends and lunch breaks.

Next post is the remodel...

There was that year that I went back into the museum business

For about 10 months from 2017 into the middle of 2018, I stepped back from my regular job and worked as the carpenter at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. In the end, it all came crashing down as I got burnt out working two jobs in two cities, and ended up in the ER with a still-undiagnosed infection that caused a fever of 104 and spots. My suspicions lead me to believe it was related to digging into the composted sewage that the front lawn's soil is made of. But I'm not positive and I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just glad I have a little spare time again these days. Here's what I did in that short time at the Witte...

For the Gathering at the Waters exhibit, the designer wanted curved walls and pedestals. So we made them. We couldn't mess up the oiled oak floor, as the walls were temporary, so instead of notching metal plates, we made a giant compass and cut curved plywood plates. It turned out pretty well.

 We used the same process for the pedestal and railing here. The intermediate sticks weren't perfect. In retrospect, I would've suggested dowels through the posts.

The corners of the railings are all half-lapped, as well.

 

The pedestal here is one piece, as you can see below. It didn't really need to be, but it was lighter that way. It was still by no means light.

 Those half-lapped corners. The curved ones were a wee bit stressful to do, since they were custom milled by yours truly. Always make spares...

There was another exhibit of Fiesta dresses (Fiesta is a spring festival that I've only ever seen in San Antonio. Well, in Austin when I was younger, but they stopped for some reason). The fixtures we made for that were kinda cool:

There was the octagonal pedestal and railing that went in the octagonal room

And then there was the Jewel Box/Storefront Window that was pretty fun to do:

I had to scribe notches around the moulding there. I think it turned out alright.

I got to make some regular pedestals and a little bit of furniture as well. The job definitely had some fun moments.

But in the end it wasn't the best fit. C'est la vie. Next is the continued construction post for late 2018/early 2019...