I can't believe I finished!!

[cputnam]

Congratulations! Always nice to get to an end point.

[hbmcc]

Blacky's Boy said:

---

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 It overflowed all over the butt ugly and outdated parquet wood floor.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

---

Hah!! I remember you commiserating when I cried about our bathroom leak. The very same sub-work (less exterior doors) grew out of the moldy flooring and ceiling. We cashed out, because the remodel gears were already in mental overdrive.

Yours looks a lot better.

But then, there is a huge pile of gxx awful costly fir trim that needs to be installed at my place.

And, it happened twice to you!

I broke down and hired a plumber to fix the cause of our damage. There's an unrelated story floating around here about the plumbers....

[Skip J.]

Blacky's Boy said:

---

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.

---

My main project last year - the entire year - was to keep up with the new floor install over our entire 2,200 sf house... doing all the molding. Mostly 1/4 round, but some baseboard, a lotta t-track and various necessary trim as needed. The year before I did crown molding in the kitchen and dining room.

I worked my way up from the plastic box to a vintage miter box that I eventually wore out and now needs rehab, and about 1/2 way thru I bought the current model of Stanley miter box and saw. It works good but will not let me use without the detents for off angles. I'll probably rehab the old miter box before I do another job. The new Stanly saw is sharp and ok to use, but it rusts easily down here.

[Window Guy]

Dom very nice job you did there, and doing it right was the way to go. That wouldn't be the Engineer in you now was it ?

Great Job and you should be proud, and "kudo's" for the use of hand tool's I am in your camp there. It may be slow but IMO is so rewarding in a number of ways.

Steve

[Tony Z]

LIL (but to Dom and all others): it is easy to make jigs for those miter boxes to hold stock for cutting odd angles (very acute) as well as compound angles.

[Blacky's Boy]

Tony Z said:

---

LIL (but to Dom and all others): it is easy to make jigs for those miter boxes to hold stock for cutting odd angles (very acute) as well as compound angles.

---

OK, I'd love to see some of those jigs you are talking about.

[Admiral]

Very nice, but isn't TWO miter boxes a bit excessive????

BTW, I recognize the one on the right!

[MarvW]

Dom,

First off, good job, well done.... but.... those kind of projects are never completely finished. There is always some little thing that only you know of that will never get done. You don't need to tell us what it is. Keep it a secret. It's okay, we will understand...

[Blacky's Boy]

Admiral said:

---

Very nice, but isn't TWO miter boxes a bit excessive????

BTW, I recognize the one on the right!

---

Yeah, that's the one I got from you. I really enjoy using that and was thinking of you when I was using it.

The large one was from the CRAFTS auction 3 years ago. You know, back before it turned into a "Rabid Ebay Seller's Feeding Frenzy".

No, I'm still not royally whizzed off about that at all.....


(if there was an Olympic Event for carrying a grudge I'd probably win a Silver or Bronze medal)

[Wilbur Pan]

Great job, Dom! I know it’s always a great feeling when you finish a project like this.