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Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop

Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
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Thirdyfivepickup

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Nov 15, 2016
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Portage, Indiana
Thanks for the details about the under cabinet lights. We will put the information to good use.

I agree. I just purchased a home and its begging for some lighting... I've taken some good info from this segment of the build.

(and I know if I ever take build pictures to trim shims and make sure all screws are clocked. You people are brutal.)
 
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BB767

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Philo, IL
I agree. I just purchased a home and its begging for some lighting... I've taken some good info from this segment of the build.

(and I know if I ever take build pictures to trim shims and make sure all screws are clocked. You people are brutal.)

I know right, it's a tough crowd here!! But they're doing it for our own good Thirdyfivepickup. It's a tough love kind of thing. :D

I've glossed over some details during the construction phase that I'm going to go back now and fill in some more details. I've got more coming so check back here, I'm not done yet. :)

Thomas
 

AZpilot

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Sep 29, 2012
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Mesa, AZ
That LED kitchen light info is very timely. I am changing out my old yellow fluorescent lights.

Looking great as always. That Vette looks wicked awesome in front of the house.
 
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BB767

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The rope lighting I used inside the cabinet was...



...some purchased at Menards, Patriot Lighting. It comes in several different lengths, 6' (.9 m), 18' (5.4 m) 48' (14.6 m) etc. I'm also using it as indirect lighting behind the crown molding in the master bedroom and great room.



A suggestion before installation is to plug it in and let it warm up for an hour or so. That way it's much more pliable and you can make some tight curves with it if necessary. Don't forget to remove the paper tag that's attached to one end. Those little LED's are small and if the tag gets folded over one it might block the light.

Shown above is the lighting for the master bedroom getting ready for installation behind the crown molding. I needed 70' ( 21.3 m) of lighting to go all around the room so I put together a 48', an 18' and a 6' which gave me 72'. I just overlapped the excess. That's the crown molding in the background laid out.

Thomas
 

DoorBreaker

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Central N.Y.
Looking good, but only white light? Would have thought you would use color changing for mood lighting.
I have found only one drawback to LED lighting. You cannot use the common open style outdoor lights with them if you are in an area that gets snow/ice. They don't generate enough heat to melt themselves clean.
 

rjcsandiego

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San Diego, Ca
Dang, Thomas, you better hurry up. We will be heading in that direction for the Indy Vintage race weekends the second and third weekend of June. I think the T-70 will light up the car port
 

realvc

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Jan 7, 2011
Messages
394
Location
Lake Norrell, AR
I've thought about trying those rope led lights on my four post lift. It seems like they could be run them all the way around the inside edge of the lift.
The drop light type lights are always right in my eyes instead of shining on what I'm trying to see.
 

markviii

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east central IL
rjcsandiego - any of the cars will look good under the carport!

June 14-18 = Indy Looking forward to it! The June 8-11 event is a new one. Are you doing Sonoma on June 1-4? If so, that's a quick turn-around.

We're waiting to hear when the SDRC awards banquet is scheduled. It should be the last Saturday of February, so we'll be seeing you soon. Say "hi" to everyone for us.

Chris

P.S. It's darned cold here and Tom can't wait to move into the house with those heated floors. As it is, he's out there at least 8 hours a day working and enjoying it already.
 

BBChevro

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Jan 24, 2014
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Location
Brisbane, Qld., Australia
Hey Thomas and Chris, I just wanted to mention that the much travelled copy of Beltsville Shell has arrived safely in sunny Queensland - I was planning to accompany the post with a photograph, but the technology gods have not been smiling on that plan.

From what I've read (only about 20 pages so far), it's quite amazing how similar many aspects of small town life on the other side of the planet were to my own experiences.

I think I'm going to enjoy the read.
 
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BB767

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The Saga of The Brotherhood Of The Travelling Book Continues

Hey Thomas and Chris, I just wanted to mention that the much travelled copy of Beltsville Shell has arrived safely in sunny Queensland - I was planning to accompany the post with a photograph, but the technology gods have not been smiling on that plan.

From what I've read (only about 20 pages so far), it's quite amazing how similar many aspects of small town life on the other side of the planet were to my own experiences.

I think I'm going to enjoy the read.

That's good to hear it arrived safe and sound Mark. Great job.
I'll pass along to author Cary Thomas, your comments. He's very intrigued with the reaction from Australian about it. Didn't know if you might have a similar frame of reference and apparently you do!

All you guys there are doing a terrific job moving the book along in a timely fashion and keeping us informed as to it's where it is. It's just very cool to think about all the people who have enjoyed it and the places it's been so far. Kudos to Mike Oberst for coming up with the idea.

I've been diligently doing house construction even though I haven't posted much here.



The crate weighing 286 pounds (130 kg) containing the fireplace hearth was brought in from the barn to the garage to let it warm up and stabilize.



It's natural cleft slate from Sheldon Slate Products: http://www.sheldonslate.com/ located in Middle Granville, New York. That's a family owned business with 4 generations of slate products experience and is just 12 short miles from where I got the granite for the house and fireplace in Whitehall, NY. In fact, both the granite and the slate were shipped to me on the same truck.



All the prep work was done today today for installing the slate on the fireplace and I'm planning on setting it in place tomorrow. Stand by for that plus all the crown molding on the kitchen cabinets, master bedroom and great room is now done along with all the base trim being completed. I'll get some pictures posted on here.

Another long productive day with several things in the works, stand by for all of it.

Thomas
 
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BB767

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More Interior Progress II

Here are some updates:



This is the crown molding installed in place on top of the cabinets. (Still missing 3 under cabinet lights in this picture.)











Cutting the various angles on the corners takes time to get good miters, especially with natural wood trim. It finishes the cabinets off nicely I think and is well worth the effort.

Next was installation of these...



...acoustic panels on the great room ceiling.



They're 2" (5 cm) thick fiberglass panels wrapped in fabric and have hardened edges.



They were installed on the flat, upper part of the ceiling to help control sound in that room.



It's a large room with tall ceilings and unusual angles and that's where the home theater is going to be. I felt it needed something to control and help dampen sound a bit.



Besides working with large, somewhat delicate panels 18.5' (5.6 m) in the air...



... the panels needed to be precisely cut for all the lights and ceiling speakers. This was still a work in progress when this picture was taken and the panels photograph much darker than when viewed during the day. I'll get another picture posted with it all completed shortly as well as the fireplace hearth.

Lots going on. :)

Thomas
 

Grizz1963

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Rochester, KENT. UK
Artisan built house.

Your kitchen units, pretty much like every other square inch of this home you have built, is magnificent.

I built my own kitchen in this house in oak, and my previous homes kitchen, but they are absolutely pedestrian compared to the magnificence you and your team have created.

Added to the warmth of bringing yourselves and your furniture and life indoors, this will be such an incredible place, along with your various shops and outdoor spaces.

Rian, continuing to be amazed and grinning madly.
 

Boosted1

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Georgetown, KY
1 am post. You are working long hours.
The trim work looks great.
Maybe I'm jumping ahead a bit but seeing the kitchen makes me wonder what interior paint colors you will use.
I like how you have no white on the exterior.
Seems like some warm earth tone colors inside would be a nice match to your exterior.
Seeing the all white walls in the kitchen looks a little "institutional". Just my opinion.
 

markviii

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Location
east central IL
The only wall areas showing at eye level in the kitchen are the back-splash areas. This will eventually be the same 12" porcelain floor tile from the entry (only with a diamond pattern). I decided to keep it simple since all the outlets make it "busy" enough. Above the cabinets will be something - just not sure what that will be yet. I use to have decorative baskets displayed inn my former kitchen, but I think they'll look out of place in this house. All the other walls in the great room are an off-white. There will be pictures hanging on some walls in the future, once we figure out the permanent furnishings. There's actually very little "usable" wall area because of all the windows, so no place for a china cabinet or other things that set against a wall. Once the furniture gets in there, that's when the actual decorating will fall into place. It 's a work in progress.

Chris
 
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BB767

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Hearth Installation Competed

Now to follow up on the hearth installation on the fireplace.

A key feature of a Rumford fireplace is how shallow the firebox is.



Mine is 18" (47 cm) deep which is rather shallow compared with most fireplaces.
Because Rumfords draw smoke out of the firebox so well, you can build the fire nearer to the front of the firebox and it will still draw smoke up the chimney and not let the smoke waft into the room.
Circled in red is the area available to build a safe, smoke free fire in this fireplace. As such firebrick were placed in the hearth as seen above. The area beyond the opening would mainly be coals and not large flames.
Flanking either side of the opening are the cover vents for the outside combustion air vents. That's temporary blue painter's tape protecting the tops of them.

Now back-tracking a bit...



...the slate, which is what I used for hearth stones was 1" (2.5 cm) thick. We used those thin straps to move the slate into position so our fingers wouldn't be caught under it.



It had to be set and positioned on the concrete part of the hearth so that it would be just slightly higher than the finished hardwood floor. That's a narrow piece of 3/4" plywood to the left of the slate, used to represent the height of the finished hardwood floor.



Tapcons were set in all 4 corners of each piece of slate.



The slate would set on the top of the tapcons which served as height adjustment screws to get it positioned just slightly higher than the finished floor.



With the tapcons installed and all adjusted, the slate was removed and concrete was used to fill most of the gap under the slate.



The concrete was bought up to about level with the heads of the tapcons.



I've circled a few of the tapcons; squint and you can see 4 in each corner for each piece of slate. Mortar will be used on top of this new concrete once it dries to provide a proper bed to set the slate in.



The next day the slate was test fitted after the concrete had dried. Blue painters tape was placed on top of the edges of the slate to protect it when it's grouted later.



Each piece of slate in turn was then removed and mortar was troweled on top of the concrete to provide a bed for the slate. The slate was then re-installed and tapped down until it contacted the tops of the tapcons which positioned it at the proper height.



Once the slate was installed with proper gaps between it, the mortar bed was allowed to set up. Later, grout was tuck-pointed between each piece of slate and then struck to give a nice joint.



This is the hearth installed and completed, notice it's about 3/4" above the sub-floor. Later I'll use Murphy's Oil Soap: http://www.murphyoilsoap.com/home
to seal the slate. That will darken and richen it slightly and help bring out color in it. It will also help to prevent it from getting stained over time.

You can also see that the plug for the mantel, which was installed during construction, has been removed. I'm waiting for all other construction in the house to finish before I install the finished Walnut mantel.

With the hearth now done, that essentially finishes all the masonry work on the fireplace. Construction of a proper masonry fireplace is an enormous undertaking in time, money and material. There is no substitute for the visual warmth and presence that it brings to a room though. And in the case of this fireplace, it will bring actual warmth to the room as an added bonus. :thumbup:

If you're not saturated yet, there's more to come. Thanks everyone.

Thomas
 
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dpljmurphy

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Near Agnew WA
If you're not saturated yet, there's more to come.

Nope, not even close, keep up the hard work of posting: for myself (and I know for many others) it's great, inspirational, and fun. And honestly reading and participating in your journey always puts a smile on my face.

I'm hoping to start the shop build-out this year: i'll be posting it on GJ because of what you do. And yes the outlet cover screws will be clocked!

Thanks yet again,

David
 

stillp

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May 5, 2015
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Midlands, UK
Re: Hearth Installation Competed

If you're not saturated yet, there's more to come. Thanks everyone.

Thomas
Didn't you say something similar in your very first post in this thread Thomas? Haven't you realised yet, we want full and detailed updates on every single step?

Pete
 
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BB767

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It occurs to me that when I posted about finishing the hearth I didn't have any pictures of the slate from a good angle and all cleaned up, so...



...here's a better look at it. That's a piece of the hickory hardwood flooring in front of it to show what that will look like installed next to it.




You can see the subtle purple, variegated texture this slate has. It looks even better in person. Wait till you see it sealed with Murphy's Oil Soap which will really show it off.



This was 4 1/2 months ago, Sept 1 and now...



Installation of the hickory flooring will begin tomorrow at some point.....I hope. I've got a few odds and ends I'd like to wrap up first but that's the plan right now.

Again my thanks to everyone. What a great group of friends. :thumbup:

Thomas
 
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Knyte Tyne

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Apr 23, 2014
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Johannesburg South Africa
That moment when you get to finally sit down in front of a Finished Fireplace, With a finished House... Just like anything we make or create ourselves... its just feels so much Better and rewarding... I'm sure your looking forward to it in the near future! Almost there now? You should start being able to smell those burning embers...
 

stillp

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I'd never heard of "Murphy's Oil Soap" until I read Thomas' post #10509, but I saw some in a shop in Leicestershire today! Spooky or what?

Pete
 
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BB767

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.....

Just like anything we make or create ourselves... its just feels so much Better and rewarding..........

...

How true. The down side is we know where all the flaws are. :eek:

I'd never heard of "Murphy's Oil Soap" until I read Thomas' post #10509, but I saw some in a shop in Leicestershire today! Spooky or what?

Pete

That is quite a coincidence Pete. What are the odds? It's good stuff and is terrific on wood floors.

I put a cap full in with my car wash soap and it helps keep the water spots away.

I've heard that from another person too. I'll have to try it, thanks for the tip. :thumbup:

Thomas
 
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BB767

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Artisan built house.

Perhaps so Rian, a couple of days ago I did use...



...an artists brush to paint special mixed paint that matched the acoustic panels on...



...all the screw caps that were used to install the ceiling panels. The screw caps are white plastic caps which cover the screw heads.



The ones I haven't painted yet are circled, little white dots.



Once they were all painted they just disappeared, Taa Daa!!



I also had some spray paint custom mixed to coat the ceiling speaker grills and 2 LED lights that are in the acoustic panels.



Under the speaker grills, the speakers are black which darkens the appearance of the grills, but still, they are a lot less noticeable now. On the painted LED lights in back, only the lens are really noticeable, the outer trim rings blend in. The paint is drying on the square, air intake grill in the center. That hadn't been installed when this picture was taken.

It's all in the details............C'est formidable!

.......

Maybe I'm jumping ahead a bit but seeing the kitchen makes me wonder what interior paint colors you will use.
I like how you have no white on the exterior.
Seems like some warm earth tone colors inside would be a nice match to your exterior.
Seeing the all white walls in the kitchen looks a little "institutional". Just my opinion.

Yeah, you are jumping a little ahead, but that's OK. Some painting is going to wait until we move in and get a feel for what we want. It's so hard to tell what might look good in an empty house. As Chris mentioned, once the back-splash is installed in the kitchen there won't be much exposed wall area. It's basically a sea of beautiful, warm hickory wood. :)

I do agree that earth tone colors are much warmer appearing and don't doubt they will be used at some point in the house. Many thanks for the comments.

Artisan Thomas
 

oberst

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Thomas, I've been in the graphic arts trade for a long time, and I say with conviction: you made the right choice painting those screw heads with a Royal RG 150 chisel edge #4 brush. Lots of people might have chosen Winsor & Newton, but for my money, made in USA still has meaning. Nothing against the Queen or the Crown, but lets keep our jobs in the colonies, shall we? Nicely done, as usual. Those acoustic tiles are a great idea!
 
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BB767

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I may have missed it, but does your fireplace have a damper?

That's an excellent question Geezershop and no you haven't missed it and yes I do have a damper. I haven't backtracked on that detail yet but I may as well now.



There it is sitting on top of the firebox prior to installation. It's a Vestal: http://www.vestalmfg.com/ made in Sweetwater, Tennessee, USA. They are arguably the finest made and have been in business since 1946. The company is the world's largest producer of cast iron dampers, clean-out doors, ash dumps and fireplace grates. All my cast iron components are Vestal, made in the USA.

A damper is a critical component of a fireplace. It seals up the chimney when it's closed keeping warm room air in the house and you don't have a fire burning. It also regulates the amount of air that is drawn up the chimney when you do have a fire burning helping a fireplace be more efficient.



Here's a closer look at the back side of it with the blade removed.



Here the damper is just about to be installed in the fireplace. Since it's cast iron and exposed to outside humidity, you might note that I had it powder coated to keep it from ever rusting out decades from now. 100 years from now, someone will thank me for doing that. :)



The damper has now been installed and the smoke shelf is being formed on top of it. The gray angle iron is a lintel that is used to carry the weight of the brick and flue material above it since the damper is sloped and so close to the front of the fireplace. (Yes I had the lintel powder coated too.)



Here's a better view of how these parts interrelate. You can easily see how the lintel will carry the load of bricks above it since the front of the damper is sloped and unable to support any load.



This damper has an adjustable damper blade that is controlled by a worm gear mechanism.



Here the parts are shown joined. As the damper knob on the face of the fireplace is turned, it moves the worm gear and the damper blade with it.



The castings were rough so I used this selection of files and emery cloth to polish the drive gears so they now operated very smoothly. I also lubricated them with graphite spray lubricant. Steve claims I have the smoothest operating damper he's ever witness. ;)



This is the damper knob on the face of the fireplace.



This is a look up the chimney with the damper closed and here...



...is the view Santa Clause will get next year when, hopefully, he will come to visit. :D That's looking straight up my chimney with the damper wide open.

I trust that's helpful Geezershop and just think of all the additional test material Chris now has! :scared:

Thomas
 

Boosted1

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1AM post again. Wow!
This thread is awesome.
Chris & Thomas, your house is very impressive. Love the attention to detail.
Maybe my paint comment was a little harsh.
The backsplash sounds very nice.
I agree color choice can take some time, trial and error too.
Our kitchen has been 3 different colors since we moved in over 12 years ago.
Thanks for sharing.
I thoroughly enjoy following your thread/journey.
 

EvilEye

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Location
Piketown,PA
Thomas,

Your attention to detail is Great.

You helped me with my airco station a few years ago, and again thanks.
I had a contest with my 4 grandkids to see who could figure it out first.

I noticed that you put acoustic panels on the ceiling..

Who made them?? and where did you get them??

The Sportsmans Club I participate in just did a remodel of the main club house, and they built a great echo chamber, makes it almost impossible to hear with all the bouncing noise.

I think those panels will be the answer to help our problem

Your House will be a real HOME when its done , Good Luck

Thanks

Terry
 

1949 caddyman

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You know when I saw the acoustic panels with the white washers holding them up I thought, "no way they are leaving them like that". Looks much better now!
 
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