Magical land pollution

You'd think that I would do more posts related to carpentry, but this is my happy place, where I get to live in a magical land dancing with faeries and sprites, jokingly dubbed "the other woman" by my wife. So far, construction has not been given a key.

That is, until now...

Thanks to the regime change in the oval office, and in spite of the economy being in the crapper, the government has money to burn on tax incentives for energystar qualified home improvements. Just goes to show you that you always have money to spend on what you really want.

The tax credit goes like this: credit for 30% of unit cost for certain windows, doors, heat pumps, water heaters, and there's even a roof that qualifies in certain colors.

You can get the rebate until the end of 2010, which still seems like the distant future to this child of the eighties. So get saving, let's all join hands and save the polar ice caps.

Gloucester Town Hall

Here are some cool pictures of a cool project that I was fortunate enough to be involved in. It was very fun... and very high. 160' to the top, I think. I actually had to work on that little ball thing under the weathervane, which means that I have, at one time, been the tallest man in Gloucester, MA. The company running the project needed someone adept at jerryrigging, so they called me in. I put on my top hat and went to work.


If you look at the detail pictures, then at the finished pictures closely, you can pick out where each of the zoomed in sections are located.


These finial are solid mahogany, and almost three feet tall. Notice the glue bottle. The unpainted siding is spanish cedar. You can get a feel for how big the tower really is by finding them in the finished picture up top.
Funny little windows, eh?


This is the balustrade close to the top.
This section is to either side of the clocktower.
The above column bases are roughly 42" tall, and weigh about 60 lbs. They are made out of Mahogany. Notice my hammer in the middle bottom for a size reference. We weren't quite finished with them in this picture.Here is the same section after we finished and while the painters were working their magic.
This one is the very bottom most gable in the first picture.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself doing this work. It challenged me daily, and helped me gain confidence as a carpenter. Maybe I' m not a hack after all?

A work in progress

I don't normally take too many pictures during construction, but here a few. The above is a locker system: drawers below and coatracks with doors above, which I still have to do. The upper part will have rosettes and fluted trim between the doors, with a large crown above.
The center cabinet is for pc towers, desk space on either side with pencil drawers, then lower cabinets/open shelves above. The big ones are pull out shelves on the left one, and a kind of coat pantry with shelves on the right. Everything has a beadboard back, and will be painted a creamy color, then antiqued. Rosettes and fluted trim will be on the bookcases, and crown will wrap the entire thing.

So just in case you've been wondering, this is what I do to pass the time while I listen to Arturo Azurdia III's Hebrews series.

A "Workin' Man's Hands"

My latest war wound, obtained today on the battlefield of the Cirome driveway, not fatal, but it sure stings when I get soap in it. Vinegar smarts right much as well, and it's none of your business how I know that.

Why do I post this picture?

Because as uninteresting as it may be, isn't a blog a little window into the life of the blogger?

So welcome to the life of my hands. From wrist to fingertip, today I counted eleven "boo-boos" in various stages: "almost scars" all the way to "oozing that weird clear liquid", like this newest one. Depending on what type of work I've been doing, I may have twenty or so. Many times, I have looked down to find a 1/2" wood splinter sticking in my hand. Sometimes I just leave them.
What are they gonna hurt, I'm probably 10% wood by now anyway. My dad always said I had a wooden head.

Just in case you're wondering, this is what it looks for a brand new cat's paw to slip off a nail while your hand is on it. At least I still have all my digits, even the double ones...

Check out my company project blog to see what I have been doing for the past week. I'm doing an update on it tonight as well.