Like most folks, the past year has been a mess and a challenge. Spent the better part of the spring and summer trying to protect jobs, keep my sanity, and juggle life. My light at the end of the tunnel was a 18mo leave, which I sold to the wife as “Practice Retirement”. Lol. Well low and behold, 18mo turned into more like 7mo, and I’m scrambling to cram as much “retirement” I can into the next two months. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the time and to have a job to come back to. When I do, it will be back to school, another base, and a different piece of equipment. More than likely September before I come up for air.
One of my “18mo Projects” was to finish off a portion of a pole barn. Wife has her sewing room, so I figured 70yds from the house was sufficient distance for a mancave. I finished the electrical in the coldest part of winter (temps -35F) and ordered up all the supplies before the prices got too crazy. If you think ammo is expensive, have you priced a 2x4 lately? Finished electrical:
First item was to remove the interior metal on the corner I wanted to use. I shrunk it down to about 12’x18’ because I still want to put a decent sized workbench in. The building is 40x48.
I wanted rustic. I didn’t want to have to sell my other testicle. I found a small mill in rural northern WI that had rough sawn 12”x1x16’ pine designed for board and batten. I drove down, took a look and it was exactly what I was looking for. As an added bonus, the 78yr old owner was a hoot and a half. I drove away thinking “board and batten” was the way to go and had enough on the trailer to do the job and then some.
Once I got it back, I stated having second thoughts. Maybe “board-on-board” was the way to go. Maybe nickel gap? I spent two evenings with booze and cigars moving wood around and scratching my head. In the end, I decided to do the nickel gap and also use the left over roofing felt I had put down below the rough oak floors in the house 15 years ago. It was sweet revenge as the wife had never let me forget there was a roll sitting against the wall in the basement collecting spiders. Ha! I won!!! How fitting for the mancave.
Now how to finish the wood. I’m far from a sandals and granola type, but wanted to do something “different”. I had poked around the web a bit and found a way to naturally achieve the finish I was looking for...which was weathered barn wood. Using regular black tea, along with simple distilled white vinegar (that had #0000 steel wool added for a few days) I found the answer. This process is amazing. You simple brew the strongest damn tea you can imagine. I used 8 bags per pot. Then, you just slop the stuff on the wood and let it soak in, not being delicate in the least. You let it dry overnight, then do the same thing with the white vinegar/steel wool solution. The iron oxide(?) solution reacts with the tannin in the wood (boosted by the tea) and almost immediately begins to gray the wood. When it’s dry, you have a unique and beautiful piece of wood that looks like it’s been sitting outside for 20 years. The only downside is you smell like Italian salad dressing for 3 days...but hey...it’s worth it.
Next step was to put up the felt paper, cut and put up the boards, and rip and apply some trim. Wife got enthused once I started making salad dressing. She helped with the walls. It was nice to have extra hands. Half the time spent on the electrical was dreaming up “dead men” to hold stuff up while I scrambled up and down the scaffold. Her help was a joyous reprieve. That was pretty straight forward. I just had to make sure all my rough saw marks were going in the same direction. (Anal retentiveness is a b!t@h. Lol)
Now for the 6x6 beams that would make up the pergola structure. Same thought. No traditional oil or water stains. Something different. I came across “Shao Sugi Ban”. Translated from Japanese to Midwest US it means “Ya burn it wit a torch.” So I dug out my weed burner and a BBQ tank of propane and went at a post, not quite sure what I’d end up with. After it was charred, I scraped off the burnt material with a wire brush. (Note to self: this is an outdoor activity from here on. It’s a bit messy.)
I have a bourbon barrel I picked up in Lexington a few months back. Plan is to make a table. While I was at it, I torched the pine disk I’m using as a table base.
So here we are. I need to finish charring the other posts, then assembling the pergola. After that the plan is is to put down a laminate floor, and also build a small bar off the wall that has the pink insulation. I’ve accumulated enough stuff over my career to decorate nicely. It will all come out of the nooks and crannies we all put such things for such a time. I’m not sure if I can get it all done before I return to work, but I’m sure gonna try. I’ll keep updating this in case anyone shares my strange sense of construction fulfillment.
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Originally Posted by entropy
