Stephen's Personal Blog

Loving the Meditation room for yoga. Drop in a mix on iTunes and go. The song lists are timed to play slow songs at the ~25 minute mark giving ~10 minutes of cool down and relaxation. I’m loving it. I can work out in just light shorts – no shirt, no gym odor, no distractingly attractive females (good and bad), and it’s shorter than a class.

Monday, I worked out all sorts of kinks between the joints, small and large. Today, I got to stretch and relax more.

No that the room is basically done, I’m kind of out of projects. There’s stone to lay in under the pergola in the backyard, but we need rain for a few days to soften the ground. And I’m not that interested.

I’m really bored. So, maybe I’ll go to yoga class tomorrow night. It’s been about a month. Maybe, Gina will be nice.

Oh, this is probably the last post on this subject. I’ll throw some pics up for the out-of-towners later.

Update: pics

Last night I got an idea. There are several planks of flooring left over and a stick and a half of chair rail. Why not make a few shelves out of the scrap? It would not be hard and there’s plenty of material. The tools are still setup.

So, I got two 40″ boards and glued them back to back. This results in one 40″ long 1.25″ thick 8″ wide board. Then cut it in half, either equally or disproportionately. Saw off the teeth used to hold the blanks side by side and put chair rail around the edges. The chair rail turns out to be about 1 3/8″ tall, so there’s a slight overhang on a very thick shelf.

The colors of the floor and chair rail are very similar. It ties together the bamboo floor with the chair rail and puts it on the wall. An accent piece that joins the style elements of the room making it flow more evenly.

There are enough planks to do this twice and I might in order to pull the style of one room into the others. This room got a two color paint job with chair rail to duplicate the existing master bedroom, duplicating that style is one technique. I could put these shelves in a bathroom or bedroom to make the house seem like a whole project and not just pieces joined by a common foundation and roof. Thus, using another technique.

On the shelves, I’ll place a couple of picture frames that have almost the identical color of the light green wall. The picture frame plus shelves serves as a mini-version of the room, containing most of the style elements in the small that the room embodies in the large. A subtle suggestion to the observer’s subconscious.

A dark green Aztec ceramic calendar goes on the wall along with an antique green meditating Buddha on a shelf. In one corner about 6′ up a viney purple or green houseplant sitting on a quarter circle shelf overgrows and flows down and over. Taking advantage of the light and airness.

Blue bean bag in the corner to mediate on. A cycle machine against the wall facing an LCD TV mounted on the wall. Beside the cycle machine are two wall silver mounted speakers plus volume control connected to the stereo amp/iTunes laptop on the other side of the wall. Against another wall a narrow natural wood shelf that I built years ago to hold books, incense, etc. In the center of the room a blue or purple yoga mat can stay out all the time. With a couple of spares in the closet for easy access.

This is my mediation room.

Last night, Sara helped me put up the chair rail and repack the closets so that I have a living room again. Thank you very much Sara. It looks really good. Much better than the last time. It was worth doing over again and it’s much smoother to the touch than the previous molding.

This is a pine something or other (not chair rail) with a Natural stain and one thick coat of poly + steel wool. I tried 3 stains and this one was the closest match to the yellow bamboo floor color. The second was a Honey Pine + Poly in one can. It looks fantastic.

Here are the pics.

Here is one pic that happened to show the previous stuff on the wall.

I took photos today of the closets. The baseboards are in for both closets now and one closet has bamboo q round and the other is half done. Just one stick short. Tape is pulled, contrary to the pick. The shoe holders are painted the same brown as the master bedroom. In the main room, the trim and doors are painted. The nail holes are painted over, though I might dab around again tomorrow. The wood filler is particularly dark.

Funny thing.. Christopher should find this particularly interesting. So, I’m putting in baseboard in the last closet. Remember, the shoe holders were built in and I just pulled the trim off the front. The hold trim went above the old vinyl tile, 1/8″ thick, and fit perfectly. I added a 1/8″ of vinyl tile and we laid the flooring on that. The we laid the flooring, which is 5/8″. I though I would have to router the baseboard down, but I didn’t. Amazingly, the new baseboard is 3/4″ shorter then the original and fit in front of the shoe holders w/o any modification. I put in the other one yesterday and didn’t event notice. That is so cool. No routering. Just nail it on.

To do.. Is pull the painters cloth over the whole room and get the spots on the ceiling I missed. Put down one more stick of q round in the closet and trim paint and fill all those nail holes. Some of the walls need a second coat of light green and the baseboard/wall needs a touch up dark green. It is very close. I’m to the point were I need a list, because it’s just little disjointed things here and there and I could forget one really easily.

I’m really tired today and sore all over. The room is great. Lots of little things to clean up; caulk, wood putty, trim painting,.. There’s little clean up all over. Extra cut flooring, cut underlayment, boxes, things not in their right place, etc. And the floor in the whole house needs to be mopped. We tracked sawdust all over the place yesterday.

It’s almost done. Just not today.

BTW, bamboo chair rail seems really hard to find.

JMX Bamboo has chair, base shoe, stair, etc. $16/6′ The stair could be used as a shelf @ $69.
Bamboo n More has basic moldings like quarter round and reducer.

JMX shows up a lot. Not many choices so far.

BIG update. We laid the bamboo flooring today, including the trim and quarter round in the room. It is fabulous, but don’t take my word for it. The pictures are here. This morning it was clean concrete and tonight it is a finished floor. Including closets. The change is so spectacular.

Chris n Staci got here about 12:30 and we got started about 1:10. They left about 9:30. So, about 8 hours to rough in everything. The main floor took about 4 hours and the last row took easily an hour. It included lots of custom cuts around three doors.

I need to find a wood filler that is the color of bamboo to get all the finish nail holes. A bead of caulk in lots of places for tiny gaps on the baseboard. The closets don’t have baseboard or quarter round.

And Christopher gave me a great suggestion. To use a bamboo chair rail to really set it off. This is a fantastic idea. Now, I just have to find some online, because locally they have reducer, T molding, and quarter round only.

Anyway, I love the floor. Yay!

Everyone should have pneumatic nailer. It is so fun.

I’m still waiting on the flooring to come in. Did they ship it to the wrong city? Did the truck have an accident? Those things are fine, I guess. If they would just tell me. Supposedly, this stuff walked on a truck on 3/7. 6 50lb boxes of ~8″ X ~4′ boards. I checked on Sat. and they called yesterday. It should have been here on Sat. Let’s hope for today.

I needed the break. It was getting to be a job. Tonight, I’ll start up again and I look forward to having all of Friday.

Not a lot of things got done this weekend. In fact, I didn’t do anything yesterday. I got a pneumatic nailer and cleaned up the chair rail, built a small trim holder in the garage, and painted/sanded trim a few times. Christopher stopped by and showed me how the nailer works and I got a 25′ straight hose to use with the compressor. He also told me how to install the chair rail with a level.

Yesterday was not good. I got up early and went to get groceries and some air compressor accessories that Christopher recommended. I got a 10 gal tank and many quick connects. But the 10 gal cheap tank doesn’t have the right connections, at all. And I couldn’t unscrew it and I started rounding off the nut. To say, I was pissed would be an understatement. I set it to the side, but lots of other little things kept going wrong. To keep from ruining my projects I decided to do something else. When something little and annoying goes wrong every 20 minutes I can take a hint.

I checked on the flooring Sat., because I didn’t get a call. The computer showed that it was shipped on 3/7. So, any day now. The window sills are done and just need to be nailed down.

Christopher pointed out the problem of leaving the vinyl tile in place in the closets and causing a height difference in the floor. I think we’ll just put in the right amount of plastic under the floor and add or not add plastic in the closets. Two layers of vinyl and a small surface area. I think I can get away with it. We’ll see on Sat.

And he told me what saw to buy to cut the door frames near the floor. About the carpet to remove and how to prep the floor. I’m a little concerned that we might have to shave the bottom of the doors. The bamboo is tall. We’ll see.

Last night, I painted all the trim pieces. The chair rail needed some course and then medium sanding and wood filler in spots before sanding. I painted all the trim, even though I got more than I need. Maybe the next job will use it and I won’t have to break out the paint.

This morning I thought the baseboard, though generally very good, had some rough spots. So, I sanded it with the power sander. I’ll hit it with another coat of paint along with the chair rail and that should finish it.

And I put a bead of caulk around the windows. That will be painted over. Some windows are still really tight, but some have a visible gap between the frame and the aluminum. One more coat of paint and the windows sills and that part is done. Should be done today.

The baseboard can’t be installed till after the floor, but I thought I would cut and fit everything into place. So, that all we have to do it stick it on the wall. Today, I’ll install the chair rail. I already went around the room with the stud finder and put a piece of tape on the wall at each stud.

It occurs to me that with all this trim to install; chair rail, baseboard, and quarter round that I might want to get a pneumatic finish nailer. Lowe’s has an interesting write up about the different kinds. I’ve been using my compressor to blow the dust of the sanded pieces and now it will have another job.

Trim really seems to be a two person job. Maybe if I can quick nail it up that will help.

This Old House Magazine
DIY Network
The Flooring Lady
AOL Money & Finance Flooring: Fake Beats Real
BAMBOO FLOORING INSTALLATION GUIDE
Installation of Engineered Bamboo Flooring

The window sills are almost done. They are ready for the last spray of poly and I need some steel wool to finish and install them. The big holes around the windows are patched, though the window sill will over most of that up. The window frames are almost ready too. Needs one more layer of paint and to screw in the boards and cover the holes.

The room is painted, except for the trim color on doors, door frames, chair rail, and baseboard. It looks good. The boards for the closet are painted except for the edges and almost ready to go. The edge painting between walls and ceilings is finished. As is edge painting between walls and door frames.

Now, the to-do stuff.. Trim. Chair rail and baseboard have to be purchased, cut, and placed; though not installed. Touch up paint of each color goes everywhere after all the hardware is installed. Carpet and pad pulled up. Tack strips removed. Minor defects in the concrete patched. Flooring delivered, cut, and installed. Sound insulation/vapor barrier material purchased. Window shades purchased and installed. And the wood working station in the garage needs to be switched from painting to cutting with a chopsaw.

I’ll buy and the trim tonight. The El Camino has carried 12′ boards before, but trim is pretty floppy. So, I thought I would buy the pieces I needed, 12′ were I only had to otherwise 8′, and also buy a 12′ 2X4 or 2X6. Then use bungie cord to wrap the trim around the stronger board. And drive slower. I need 4 12′ chair rail and 4 12′ baseboard plus an 8′ chair rail and 2 or 3 8′ baseboards for the closets.

Everything looks good.

Busy weekend. I got a lot of stuff done. The window sills are cut, stained, and in the process of being sanded and poly’ed. They should dress the windows up nicely. The took a lot of time to make two boards. But most of the time was in setup. Half a day spent getting supplies. Then I pulled the El Camino out and cleaned out that side of the garage.

I saw a door at Lowe’s for $10 and picked up some saw horses to give me a table for $40. And the router+table was $100. So that was good. I just used on 1/8″ straight bit for all the cuts. Not great, but it will work. The 6′ piece got frustrating.

Sunday, I did clean up to get stuff off the carpet that will come out in a week and stained the boards for the windows. All the trim everywhere is pulled up. And all the short, custom fit pieces are saved. Hopefully, they can be used as templates to cut new boards.

Tonight, I sanded and poly’ed the boards again and painted the closet boards. And I taped off the ceiling/wall joint. Tomorrow, I’ll finish the light green top color, be done patching the holes I put into the walls getting the trim out and painting the bottom color.

That leaves the trim color on the doors and trim. Getting and installing the chair rail. Getting and cutting the trim.

It seems I’m running a little ahead of schedule. The floor some come in this weekend to sit in the room for a week to meditate. Then we install it, the quarter round, and blinds. Feels good. Done soon.

I went to Sears this weekend and got some decorations. Some $3-$4 frames that match the wall color. A green rug for at the door. Still looking for shades, though I have an idea of what I want now.

3/6/2008
Last night I stripped off the trim, made some holes in the walls, ordered the floor, peeled up the carpet. A nicely destructive night.

Tonight I need to clean everything off the carpet and get it out of the room. The padding is still there, cause the concrete is very cold. The carpet might be useful in strips around the house. Like in front of the backdoor. So, in the mean time I’ll hang the pieces on the wall of the garage for insulation, hah.

Christopher told me how to patch the walls and there is a big ridge of old paint along the wall where the trim used to be. When those things are fixed, I’ll paint the lower half of the walls.

3/7/2008
Last night I stripped off the trim in the closets. That was tough. Small, tightly packed pieces of 3 1/2″ X 1/2″ old cheap wood. Afterward, I cleaned off the carpet and I began to imagine what the room would look like when finished, how much time was left, and what order to do things.

The window sills should get created this weekend. They will take a lot of time and are a nice-to-have. What gets done this weekend is pretty much it. The walls need to be repaired and painted. During the week nights I can tape and paint touch-ups. I want to keep the carpet down while I can, because it’s warmer and softer. Next weekend I will pull it and all the carpet tack strips. This weekend is a bit of gravy.

I spent a while thinking of solutions to probably insigificant problems. For example, the windows are an old cheap aluminum. They need dressing up. Badly. So, I decide to attempt to put a wood veneer on the two most prominent pieces of metal that stick out. It took quite a while to design the process of making the veneers in my head.

Something like: cut a strip off the end of a 4′ board to get a rectangle about 1″ X 1″ X 42″. Router one edge down about 1/8″. The metal slides into the wood and the wood holds it like teeth. To make a channel in the rectangle for the metal drill many, many holes and chisel in a channel. Adjust to fit, stain, sand and poly.

They will hold themselves on and be fragile unless installed. However, they are a custom piece that should really make it pop.

Another thing is installing rope lights in the closets under the shelving. It bugs me that the closets would be so dim. I think it would help to staple an extension cord from the light socket down the wall and then connect to some 8′ rope lights also stapled to the wall.

I really like to make original ideas that ease the maintenance, enhance the look, use, and durability, add subtle detail, and demonstrate quality.

So, the agenda today is router table, window sill boards, and poly. This weekend I’ll cut the boards to fit and begin “painting” the sills and closet boards.