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Posts tagged with “remodeling”

Ten Rod Road: Episode 2

Some of you suspected the same thing that I did. And we were right to be suspicious. The reason I had so much trouble getting the real estate broker to accept my offer was because there was another buyer! Apparently, another investor was so sure the deal was done that he hired a structural engineer to evaluate the house and submit a report to the town stating the home was unsafe for habitation. That was the strategy! If the town issued an “Order to Demolish,” then they’d have to issue a permit to replace the existing home. But the “Order to Demolish” came to ME! Read the full article…

Ten Rod Road: The Journal of a Pro-Remodel

Not too long ago both of my wife’s parents passed and after about six months she took charge and decided to have their modest house fixed up and put on the market. A week later, sales agreements were signed with a 30-day closing date. Now the pressure was on to find a new place for her youngest brother who would need a new place to live.

My brother-in-law’s new place needed to be nearby, small, maintenance free, low cost and preferably not an apartment or condominium type complex.

As luck would have it, or at least that’s what it seemed like at the time, my wife noticed a “For Sale” sign in front of a very small property less than two miles from our house. Read the full article…

Making Louvered Doors

…with One Router Sled

I live in an old stone barn that was converted to a house in the 1950s. The master bathroom needed a makeover, so I gutted it in preparation for a complete overhaul. I wanted to build a new closet and separated toilet area, both of which needed doors. I decided to build louvered doors out of Mahogany, which would normally cost approximately $600 from an online supplier. Read the full article…

My New Home: Choosing a Contractor

Early last winter, after searching for more than two years, I finally found a new home in Oregon, outside of Medford, near the small town of Ruch. It took a long time to find this place because I couldn’t decide where I wanted to live and once I did, I had a hard time finding a place I could afford—a small, older home that hadn’t been remodeled. After the “big boom,” houses like that became pretty rare. Read the full article…

Circular-Based Arches – Part 1: One-Centered and Two-Centered Arches

I’ve toured a lot of historic homes and seen some extraordinary arches—door jambs, windows, passageways. In reading about historic architecture, especially Gothic and colonial styles, I’ve come across some beautiful arch work. But those once-common elements are not often incorporated into millwork today. Sure, sometimes the carpentry techniques are more difficult, and too costly, but the problem I’ve recognized is more one of design. Read the full article…

Building Custom Gates

Between 1980 and 1994 I moved ten times—one fixer after the other, and a few rentals, too (fixers aren’t always profitable, even for a carpenter). When I moved into my current home, I promised myself I’d stay a while, and one of the first projects I wanted to tackle was replacing the gates. I accomplished the first goal, but it took a while before I got to the gates. Read the full article…

Wooden Storm Door

Like many carpenters, I’m always looking for an interesting challenge. I like tackling something I’ve never done before—and succeeding. Not only is it satisfying to push yourself, but a satisfied customer means good word-of-mouth, which (hopefully) leads to more work. Win-win. This is exactly what happened when one of my best clients approached me with an interesting project. Read the full article…

Made in . . . ???

The problem with poor-quality foreign parts

Remember the term “Made in the U.S.A.”? It wasn’t that long ago that the phrase was often used by manufactures to instill confidence in the product they were promoting. By-and-large, American manufacturers have produced good-quality parts and materials. In my 25+ years in the trades, I can only recall a couple of incidents where we received a part or component made in the U.S. of such poor quality that it failed immediately after being installed. Read the full article…