Bluebirds ? ?

 Yesterday evening when I pulled in the driveway in the VW as it was getting dark I looked up to the right at the corner of the house and noticed a gray spot on the lower end of the freeze board where it meets the gable end soffit return .  Hmmmm ?  Do I have some rot going on there ?

 Jumped up on the basement dog-house to get a closer look , and as soon as I had my head level with cap on the return , a gray flutter flew past my face . Startled me a bit but I guess that why we call those returns " Bird Coops " .

 Could not figure out what kind of bird it was , so later I poked my head out the upstairs window and spotted one very cold looking female Bluebird bedded down on the lead flashing of the cap .  Given the pile of droppings it was evident it has been making it home for some time . Checked the other " bird coops " on the house and there were as much droppings there too . Annie mentioned she had seen a pair hanging around the front of the house lately . . .

. . .  so I checked the soffit return on the front foyer and sure enough there was the male of the pair .

Given that it was rather cold outside we were baffled as to how they were still hanging around here and had not headed south with the rest of their kind . That there is about eighteen below zero Celsius for yous confounded metric canukiestanians .

So this afternoon I cut some one-by wooden triangles , added a front fence and wrapped all sides with Reflectex bubble foil wrap . . .

. . . and filled them with wood shavings inside . Put three of these up . Book says Bluebirds do use birdhouses so we shall see if this meets their approval .

Bookshelves and Barn Doors

 The next step after enclosing the lolly column in last chapter was to add a low set of book shelves.

This is the part where my knees remind me they are most unhappy

But the results are pleasing to the customer and builder alike

The view from the back hall 

As I need to mill a bunch of round nosings on the shelves I actually remember to bring my router .

Shelve extensions are added to the unit and nosings for the shelves carry over to help support them .

Once again the results are promising .

Ties things in together nicely .

Next on the list are barn doors . So I biscuit joint and edge glue a mess of 1 X 8 into three foot wide boards and let them set over the weekend .

The general idea comes together .

Install the rail for the doors .

 And do a preliminary hang of the doors now with the cross bracing installed .

Not half bad for a hack .

Make about a hundred and fifty plugs

Plug all the screw holes on the cross bracing .

Looking a bit stubbly there .

Shave all the plugs flush , sand and poly . One coat of sealer and three of polyurethane .

After most of the week spent sanding and polyurethaning in the garage the doors come back inside .

Everyone is pleased with the results

Still needs some tweaking  and assorted hardware to keep the doors on track at the bottom .

Most of the time it will live on the open position . The bookshelves will be painted white to match the rest of the trim in the space .

Considering that this was the starting point . . .

I'd say it looks a whole lot more civilized .

Onwards . . .

 OK where were we? Last post covered the project that got put on hold last December .

October 2020 we had installed the little special order transom window that took for ever to arrive because the first time around it was lost somewhere at Home-depot and they could not find it despite confirming to us they had received it .

By this October when I got the call that all the subs had done their bit with electrics , heat , plumb-ering drywall and flooring and I was able to come back and finish the job , it had been decided that the little transom would not do and we needed a bigger window .

 

 

 So I set up an abbreviated "office" and got busy .

  

Yanked the little transom window and installed one twice as tall .

And made it all pretty again .

So now we can move on to the inside and get to play with the trim .

The Atrium door also needs trim .

And the new fire rated entry from the garage also needs dressing up

So this time with the full "office" set up we go to task

Garage door gets trimmed out

As well as the new window I just put in

Atrium door gets extension jambs and trim too 

And some impromptu decorations 

Guest bedroom window get the same treatment 

As does the little box for the the transformer to the under counter lights for the kitchen upstairs

With a lid to hide the works

Laundry and furnace room doors get the colonial molding replaced for the fat 1X

As well as the little utility closet .

And then there is this ugly Lolly column holding up the steel beam . Need to dress that up some how .

So I built some structure around it to be able to attach things to 

And encase it in 1 X 8 pine

There that don't look so bad now

The steel beam to remain "au-natural" looks like it dies into the post now

 The toy storage cubby I built four years ago gets trimmed out to match the rest of the space

Along with baseboard all the way around .

Stay tuned for the next chapter in the saga when we build barn doors and book cases . For now my back decided to start acting up again so I need to give it a couple days rest .