Wood, Fire and Whiskey...The Mancave Chronicles

[entropy]

Done for the day. As usual my mind wrote work orders my body can’t cash...lol. Damp, cloudy, and upper 30s here today. Wears you out. As you can see, the scraping created quite the mess. The timbers are actually a bit darker than they appear in the pic. I stood the two I charred yesterday up last night against the wall to see how they looked. That’s a much better color depiction. Wife says she likes me better smelling like burnt wood than Italian Vinaigrette.

Probably not much going to get done tomorrow. I need to make a trip to get longer lag bolts to affix the timber’s to the walls. Also poke around at flooring samples. I’m just putting off the inevitable of drilling into my floor to mount the plates for the posts...

[Odin Bravo One]

That is very much how to office came together. Fortunately for me, it is an office, not a man cave, so it got to be inside the house........

[entropy]

Nice! So did you just do board/board overlap for the walls then? Whatever you did, it came out very well. What are the panels on the wall that the toys are hung on? I’ve seen that before, but it sparks a further idea in my brain.

I need to come up with something to protect and cover my smaller knick-knacks. That’s way down the road, but as someone else pointed out, there’s going to be dusting to do out there...

[Odin Bravo One]

That’s just regular ol plywood, with a top layer facade. This was used specifically so I didn’t have to concern myself with hanging heavier shit from only places I had studs. The entire wall is a stud...... we also insulted this room, ceiling and all four walls, as it isn’t connected to the central air/heat, so we had to install a mini-split to address the humidity and temperature concerns. Used Sheetrock for the ceiling.

The panels are “Tactical Walls” based out of VA. I don’t know if they are still called that though....... since my interactions with them, the husband and wife owners went their separate ways, and I believe she maintained control of the company, and may have renamed it. They still make the same shit, along with other items, but it’s expensive for what it is, and especially so when you see behind the curtain and what it costs to make....... I’m happy with them, but I don’t have much room to expand, and as you can see, virtually no room to add much more than a pistol or two.

[entropy]

Great idea on studding the entire room. I agree on the prices of some things. I had a buddy that just redid his garage. Just the mid-priced cabinets set him back close to $4K. He admits they’re nothing special. The nice stuff goes for like $10K. For Pete’s sake, that’s more expensive than most kitchen cabinets. I think the companies prey on guys and their workrooms. They jack the prices up on stuff knowing that their thought process will be “Well I just spent $XXXXX.XX on the old lady’s kitchen/bath/etc so I’m building my damn work room!”

....at least that’s how it went for me...😳 lol

Hopefully get some posts up tomorrow. I have to go to the local lumber yard to pick up a few more 2x’s for bracing the posts. I forgot about that. I’m running out of kidneys to sell...

[Odin Bravo One]

Something to consider: if the wood doesn’t need to be pretty, and can have some imperfections, consider “Cull lumber”. Every place has an area where they put the shit that doesn’t meet spec, or isn’t up to par aesthetically. I buy all of our company lumber from the cull piles. Pennies on the dollar, and in a lot of cases, the only thing out of spec on something like a 2x4 or 4x4 is the length. Instead of 16’, it’s 15’7.25”....... for what I’m doing with it, who fucking cares? Your needs may not be suited for cull lumber, but I’d look to see where that possibility exists. Lumber prices are forecast to stay at record high levels for some time to come still. Good news for the lumber companies (and stock holders ) but bad news for people trying to build shit.

A load of “cull lumber”, purchased by the lot/bundle versus piece by piece, and haggling over the price is encouraged.



This, and a similar sized load ran us < $300 total.........

[entropy]

That’s a great idea. I tried another yard for just such a plan a few weeks back. I came up empty handed but did manage to get a 4” long piece of some kind of twisted nail into my right front tire. So much for that idea.

Story:

I did that several years ago with the oak floor I’m looking at as I type this. I had found the stuff collecting dust in a local wood flooring shop. Someone had ordered it, chickened out, and stiffed the guy. Odd lengths, chatter marks, knarly gaping knotholes, you name it. I asked the guy how much was there. He replied “Gee...I dunno...at least 3000sqft.” I told him I buy it. He asked me at least a half dozen times if I knew what I was buying. He reminded me that there was going to be a fair amount I would have to cut or just cull. Yep. Not problem. Took it home and stared at it for a few weeks. I did a search on the internet (this was around 2004) to get some ideas. The web sure wasn’t as “full of ideas” as it is now. I stumbled on a guy in NC that dealed in reclaimed lumber. Some of the pictures on his site were remarkable and just what I wanted. On a whim, I gave him a call. I started out the conversation (literally) with “I have a question, but let me say in advance you are welcome to just hang up on me.” I think that got his attention. After telling him what I had and what I wanted to do, I asked him for advice. He indeed could have hung up on me. He didn’t. Instead, he pointed my in the direction I needed to go. On his advice, I put down felt roofing paper instead of rosin paper. I got myself a quart of epoxy, and experimented with mixing colors. With the epoxy/color mix chosen, I spent a week on my hands and knees filling the worst of those voids with the epoxy, filling it to crown over a tad. After sanding the floor prior to finishing, the epoxy was left flush with the floor. I chose to use ebony stain to tint the epoxy. The result is what looks like onyx where there was once holes. I didn’t do to to all of them obviously. The result was phenomenal.

That gentleman I spoke with was named Mark Bowe. He now has a TV show called “Barnwood Builders”.

Here a pic of the floor. It’s not the best, but you get the idea. The best part has muddy paw prints from the dog all over it. Things are thawing out up here and it’s the usual mess.

[WDR]

There is something to be said for putting things together with your ideas, and your own two hands. That stuff looks great.

I want to build a shed, but I'm not sure my recent shoulder surgery is gonna let me do it this year. I've put it off for several years because of money issues, and not having an easy way to pour concrete in the back yard (too tight to get a pour-a-yard in there I think). Now lumber prices are sky high, but we have more freedom financially. My wife thinks I should just hire it done... but I have a hard time not doing things myself.

The last one I built with my fathers help turned out great, even painting and finding shingles to match the house as close as possible.

[entropy]

I was talking this morning to the guy at the local lumber place. He stated that the average modest single family home has increased in price $40K-$60K due to lumber. I cannot imagine building a home in this environment. Most all of the land that was for sale up here has been sold the past year. This includes parcels that have been for sale as long as I can remember. The only problem is folks bought up the property and now there is nobody to build. The guy that put up our pole barn told me he was booked beyond 2021 before this past Thanksgiving.

My lunch break is over...back to work!

[Coyotesfan97]

That’s a great idea. I tried another yard for just such a plan a few weeks back. I came up empty handed but did manage to get a 4” long piece of some kind of twisted nail into my right front tire. So much for that idea.

Story:

I did that several years ago with the oak floor I’m looking at as I type this. I had found the stuff collecting dust in a local wood flooring shop. Someone had ordered it, chickened out, and stiffed the guy. Odd lengths, chatter marks, knarly gaping knotholes, you name it. I asked the guy how much was there. He replied “Gee...I dunno...at least 3000sqft.” I told him I buy it. He asked me at least a half dozen times if I knew what I was buying. He reminded me that there was going to be a fair amount I would have to cut or just cull. Yep. Not problem. Took it home and stared at it for a few weeks. I did a search on the internet (this was around 2004) to get some ideas. The web sure wasn’t as “full of ideas” as it is now. I stumbled on a guy in NC that dealed in reclaimed lumber. Some of the pictures on his site were remarkable and just what I wanted. On a whim, I gave him a call. I started out the conversation (literally) with “I have a question, but let me say in advance you are welcome to just hang up on me.” I think that got his attention. After telling him what I had and what I wanted to do, I asked him for advice. He indeed could have hung up on me. He didn’t. Instead, he pointed my in the direction I needed to go. On his advice, I put down felt roofing paper instead of rosin paper. I got myself a quart of epoxy, and experimented with mixing colors. With the epoxy/color mix chosen, I spent a week on my hands and knees filling the worst of those voids with the epoxy, filling it to crown over a tad. After sanding the floor prior to finishing, the epoxy was left flush with the floor. I chose to use ebony stain to tint the epoxy. The result is what looks like onyx where there was once holes. I didn’t do to to all of them obviously. The result was phenomenal.

That gentleman I spoke with was named Mark Bowe. He now has a TV show called “Barnwood Builders”.

Here a pic of the floor. It’s not the best, but you get the idea. The best part has muddy paw prints from the dog all over it. Things are thawing out up here and it’s the usual mess.

You’re floor looks great. It’s good to know Mark Bowe helped you out like that. Barnwood Builders is one of my favorite shows.