Some deck boards actually fastened

Wednesday

Jon went up to apply finish to the boards. The oil finish said it should be applied above 45F, and the forecast was for a high of 47F on Thanksgiving. So we rearranged our holiday for the weather.

I started out with three hours of sanding. Boooring.

By the time I got o the cabin, the forecast had dropped, plus the can said it's supposed to stay above 45F for twelve hours, so that's not gonna happen. Time for a new plan. I remodeled the little cabin with drop cloths and heated it up to 70F. I stacked the deck boards in there for an hour and a half to warm them up.

I wasn't looking forward to schlepping 600 pounds of hardwood up an icy hill. Thankfully with the chains on the truckasaurus made quick work of the hill.

Finishing with a high-VOC oil finish meant two hours in a respirator. Sanding and finishing boring, but wow, this wood looks stunning.

Thursday

This morning began with some final adjustments on the deck foundation. I had to adjust the stair stringers; somehow I'd laid them them out wrong despite them being only two treads long. I protected the joists with some joist tape.

I added some waxy end-cut protection to the finished boards.

11:00am, and the sun is dropping behind the trees to the west. Winter in the mountains!

Finally I got started actually installing the decking. The first row always takes extra care, plus I was learning a new hidden fastener system.

I managed to get four boards installed before quittin' time. (Photo at top.) The finishing work paid off. The wood looks amazing. We'll have to take our shoes off before we go outside.

Comments

The trim finishing journey begins

The last time we installed wood trim (almost two years ago!), we sanded and cut the material inside the cabin (it was winter) and installed it unfinished. Finishing it meant taping everything off and applying three coats of finish in place. Removing the masking was frustrating (the finish glued it to the wall in places), and in other places the finish still got where it didn't belong. Now the cabin is full of nice, finished floors, cabinets, and counters. It's not a shop. So this time, I'm sanding and pre-finishing all the boards outdoors. Thankfully, there's still pretty nice weather; that black tarp garage heats up pretty well when the sun's out. Today I got the first batch of wood sanded and a coat of finish applied. Christina installed eight receptacles in the kitchen and great room. My mom came up to enjoy the warm ambiance of the not-yet-active wood stove.

Uncrating the wood stove

I drove up to the cabin today to meet a tree contractor. Since I was up there anyway, I took care of some other business. I got the wood stove out and ready to install on Monday. I vacuumed up the tiny particles of styrofoam packaging material from last year's roofing panels that would have been much easier to clean up last year. I put the bathroom outlet back into its adjusted place above the backsplash. I corrected my installation of the heat pump wiring with a pair of reducing washers. Now it's really done. I replaced the emergency brake battery system in the flatbed trailer. I bucked a bunch of old logs into rounds for firewood.

Odds and ends

I made progress on a bunch of little things today. I painted a fencepost in 12" segments and pounded it in at the property line, where the outdoor camera can see it. Now we can measure the snow accumulation. I worked on finishing up almost-complete receptacle branch circuits. The first one I worked on was a little mystery: all the receptacles were installed, but the power didn't reach past a certain point in the line. After some investigation with a wire tracer and watching through the videos we took before covering the walls, I worked out what had happened: two receptacles shared a stud bay, facing into opposite rooms. The plan had been to bring power up to one box, jump over to the other box, and continue back down to the crawlspace to the next box. We forgot the jumper. I couldn't fish a wire between the boxes myself, so that repair waits. Upstairs, installing two receptacles completed the branch. The bathroom vent hole in the tile backer board was a skosh too small. ...

Howell Cabin

Search This Blog