I can't believe I finished!!

[Blacky's Boy]

For the past month I've been working non-stop (during the weekends) on my family room project. I ended up using some vacation time as well as the time off for Thanksgiving to complete the project. The walls and ceiling were painted so my main focus was the base board, crown molding, door, and stair trim. I had promised LOML to have this done for next weekend so that we could move all the tools out. My daughter's birthday party is this coming weekend.

So why am I talking about this in hand tools? Well, aside from (2) cuts I used my Stanley Miter Boxes for ALL of the cuts.

And I'm not sure if all that time spent beforehand using my hand tools helped but it seemed like the cuts came out MUCH more accurately than any project I've ever done. Even LOML noticed (which was a nice surprise)

Now (after the party) all I need to do is putty the holes and then paint. But that's EASY.

[jstraw]

Nice job. I almost made my deadline. We needed a new stove after lightning took out the old one. Since we need to take out the old stove, why not replace the old flooring. But, you better repair and repaint the ceilings and the wall first, so you don't have to worry about paint on the new floor. Since the trim is 1980 style and the rest of the house is original 1900, why not replace the trim while we're at it.

Started 6 weeks ago with a promise to have her stove and fridge back in the room by turkey day. We got the stove back in Friday and the fridge on Saturday. Close but no cigar.

[joemac]

No pictures- Didn't Happen.

Good on ya, getting it done for Christmas.

[Blacky's Boy]

This project started out 6 YEARS ago when my daughter was just about 3 or 4. She had used the powder room and left the sink running. It overflowed all over the butt ugly and outdated parquet wood floor. Needless to say the floor buckled. Our Home Owners Insurance covered the damage so we got a new engineered floor installed. Once that was done the rest of the room looked "out of place". So I ripped off the circa 1970s paneling (!) and tore down 3 walls to the studs. I bumped out the exterior wall (because there wasn't any room for insulation! No wonder this room was always cold!!!) and insulated it. Then it was drywall time.......

We repainted and it looked "OK" but I had plans to improve it. It was about then that bathroom tub leaked and ruined the ceiling! So that had to come down.And while I was at that I ripped down the remaining wall because no matter how I tried I could not cover the multiple dots of adhesive that the builder used to hang the paneling!!!

While I had the ceiling down and wall opened I ran several new RG6 cable lines to outlets around the room. I also ran CAT5 cable to the same outlets. These will be used to tie the Smart TV into my network and Media Server.

But I couldn't leave well enough alone. The room was ALWAYS dark so we added recessed lighting. That meant running new electrical lines. Since I was doing that I replaced ALL the outlets (because the old ones were JUNK!). And since the wall I had opened to the studs allowed me to access the outlets in the room next door, I replaced and rewired them as well. And I also added a CAT5 and RG6 run to there as well.

Drywalling the ceiling was FUN ( No, not really ). Thank God I discovered those drywall lifts.

After dry walling it was on to paint and then the trim.

Yeah, this was not your typical home improvement project. The "Snowball Effect" really hit hard on this. Couple that with the fact that I had to do this work (mostly) by myself and yeah, it took forever......

I told LOML that once this is done I am taking a couple months off

I'm sure that'll happen

[Carl Grover]

Your camera break?




carl

[Blacky's Boy]

This is about the best one I have on my phone.



The room measures 16' x 22'

[enjuneer]

Blacky's Boy said:

---

So why am I talking about this in hand tools? Well, aside from (2) cuts I used my Stanley Miter Boxes for ALL of the cuts.

---

Awesome! Now I have a new excuse for why the trim isn't done in my house. I don't have a proper mitre box yet!

About seven years ago, we started at one end of the house to gut and install drywall on all walls and ceilings (love those drywall lifts). New windows and doors went in at the same time. All of the rooms are now done, but I have a WHOLE HOUSE full of trim to install.

I'll tell the wife that I will start on it as soon as I find a nice Millers Falls 74 or Stanley 358.

Think she'll buy the story??

[joemac]

Now THAT is very nice. Very nice indeed!! You should be proud of a great job.

[Gregory of Sherwood Forest]

Looks great, Dom. The doors are beautiful.

The wife was just looking over my shoulder and got an idea (uh oh, if this turns into a project, you are in trouble, Dom).

I think you have all your mitering needs covered. One tailed and two handsaws? Decent ratio, that. You are gonna be soooo happy you ran all that extra line, usefulness abounds... until the next cable standard is written up, at least.

Congrats on a job well done.

[Blacky's Boy]

enjuneer said:

---

I'll tell the wife that I will start on it as soon as I find a nice Millers Falls 74 or Stanley 358.

---

The large Stanley Miter Box off to the center was a super nice surprise to work with. It was dead on accurate and had features that my smaller Stanley Miterbox didn't have. The bearings that the saw slides on were super smooth. It also has stops for holding crown molding and a extendable length stop for small cuts. And I loved the depth stop. Once that was adjusted I wasn't cutting into the wooden base as much.

BUT the smaller miter box (to the right) was able to stop on odd angles and hold them easier. The larger one would move if I tried to cut with it. I actually have the directions for the larger box and they say something about inserting a "brad" in a small port to hold it while making those cuts. Unfortunately the wooden base that came with this miter box is too big for me to access that port without making a new one. So I just switched to my smaller one for odd cuts.

Oh, one more thing. A sharp miter saw is a MUST. That made making these cuts a LOT cleaner with much less force required.