House Trim Project

[Rick Lucrezi]

It was sugested to me to post here the progress of the trim finnish. Actually its the whole house. So I started on the stairs with wainscott and it is the hardest part of the whole house so I wanted to get that out of the way. I have been collecting material for a long time which has been sitting in the den area since we moved into the house. The house is big so no real problem but the LOML really wants the wood gone. I have been buying whatever comes along in good deals so its a matter of using what I have. Some cases I would prefer different wood but. So I will post a few pics of what I have started and keep a log of the progress best I can. I have been working some pretty long days (14 hours) so havent had alot of time for the computer.
So here are a pics of my mock up for door trim, and the stair well with the pine. More to come.

[keith ouellette]

That looks good. You didn't mention it but i am guessing you milled those pieces yourself.

What you said about storing the wood in your den was funny. A while back I was going to put the wood I needed for a dinning room table in the dinning room. We didn't have a table yet so it seemed harmless to me. My wife pitched a fit. "what if the table never gets built and I'm stuck with a dinning room that looks like a lumber yard?" was her biggest argument.

Turned out she was right. That was over a year ago. I couldn't work in the shop due to illness ( It was hard enough to put bread on the table, the one we didn't have) and the project wouldn't have been done. I'm glad it worked out different for you.

[Rick Lucrezi]

Thanks Keith, sorry to hear about your illness. Hope all is well now.
I did mill all the pieces, and its been fun. I played with several ideas and made quit a bit of saw dust and kindling. So I finished making the newel posts and bases, I made some plinth blocks, a box (cabinet) for the stairwell, stair stringer trim, got started on the chair rail and started on designing a inlay for the landing. Here are some pics, the cabinet for the stair well, and a before and after of the newel bases at the bottom of the stairs (notice all the wood in the back ground?)

[Rick Lucrezi]

Trying to fiqure a way to put all the pics in a folder and post the url so folks could go look that way. Once I fiqure it out it will be quiker for me.
Here are the newel posts. The main posts (pic 3 and 4)have a 4x4 which is ancored at the floor. You can swing off those and the rest will have a 4x4 that is bolted to the 6x12 behind the pine.(pic 2). Still working on ideas for the windows, I have lots of oak 1x4 so was thinking of staining the oak dark and placing them behind. Wife wants stained glass, and if I do that I am going to make low voltage light so the post light up.

[Rick Lucrezi]

Pics of the plinth blocks and the stringer trim. Took as long to load and resize as it did to make the stuff. Wew.

[Rick Lucrezi]

Added chair rail and stained the windows of the newel posts

[Ron Brogan]

Rick:
I finally joined today and your posts are timely for me. We are in the process of building a new house that was adapted from a Craftsman bungalow plan. Our trim is similar to yours and a stair rail around the open stairwell is next on the list. You mentioned anchoring your Newel posts with 4x4. How did you do that? I stuffed the areas beneath the post locations with glued and screwed 2x6 chunks with the intent of using the screw mounts; or screwing and gluing wood blocks to the floor for base blocks. Kinda sounds like you did the latter.

Your house looks great and I share the pain of your efforts. We moved in about a week ago and it is NOT finished. It has officially transitioned from a house under construction to a "hobby house"

RonB

[Rick Lucrezi]

Rick:
I finally joined today and your posts are timely for me. We are in the process of building a new house that was adapted from a Craftsman bungalow plan. Our trim is similar to yours and a stair rail around the open stairwell is next on the list. You mentioned anchoring your Newel posts with 4x4. How did you do that? I stuffed the areas beneath the post locations with glued and screwed 2x6 chunks with the intent of using the screw mounts; or screwing and gluing wood blocks to the floor for base blocks. Kinda sounds like you did the latter.

Your house looks great and I share the pain of your efforts. We moved in about a week ago and it is NOT finished. It has officially transitioned from a house under construction to a "hobby house"

RonB

Hi Ron, Welcome,

I have a radiant heat slab so I couldnt nail or bolt anything. I used subfloor adheasive and glued down preasure treated lumber for everything. I sood all my walls on that including the posts. The posts are also bolted through the wall which is the closet. You can literally swing off the two posts. The other posts are a differen story.
I can swear by the subfloor glue now as well. I had a couple walls that I decided to move after only a month or so. The wood itself tore away and left the glue and what was left of the sill plates still stuck to the floor. I had to chisel the glue up.