Thank You stuart I appreciate your help!
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
Bravo, Frenchy! Are you out of camera-killing mode finally?
Any more images of your pride and joy?
I stopped out to Frenchy's house today and we figured out the whole posting picture deal. It was mainly a combination of a slow dialup connection and photos that were too large; once we got the pictures reduced everything seems to work now (since he doesn't have Irfanview or some other similar program installed, we used the method of having him mail the photos to himself and the mail program automatically downsized them.)
I'm here to tell you, folks, that Frenchy is a man possessed.... ;-) He showed me around, and that house is really something. I could maybe do something similar if I had twenty or thirty years to complete the work.
He hasn't been kidding about the amount of wood he has on hand, either - his basement and driveway look like a well stocked lumber yard.
Here's a photo I snapped today:
View Image
Edited 2/17/2007 4:29 pm by Stuart
Thanks. I noodled over to BT to see if there might be more photos there, saw this one. I haven't see any shots since ages ago; there's been a bit of progress since then! That place is really something...bet the neighbors are more agreeable now, too. <G>
Stuart,
I'm stuck again!
I tried to E-mail to myself like you showed me but when I click on browse it won't pick up the pictures.. what do you guess I'm forgetting?
Hi Splintergroupie!
Nah, Still kill 'em faster than I can buy them.. but if I get them on the computer I can now manage to post them.
Well, it was worth the wait, though that oak toilet seat has to go. When you get a free moment, you can whip out a nice, curly-maple one to match. <G>Congrats to Stuart, too, for getting you to this stage of digital magic.
splintergroupie,
ARRRGGGGHHhh!!!!
It's not over.. the curse of me and cameras..
Someone wanted to see pictures of the blackwalnut floor done with shellac.. so I took some and plugged my camera into the computer and all the magic smoke went on vacation,,
No matter what I couldn't talk it back in and to work again.
Figures, cameras are going to be the death of me yet!
Had to buy a new computer! grumble grumble grumble!
'at's OK, Frenchy. I don't think i can stand seeing any more black walnut ending up as studs! <G>
Nice looking place. Well (almost) done.
how about this?
some more?
Yay! I think you've got it!
Here's some more, I'm beginning to think I might have it figured out
Like I said before ! CAMELOT Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
That sure is some fine looking lumber. But is that a gap?!!! Better get the spackle bucket out and get it filled before you paint. ;)Andy
AndtE
Any gap is due to drying. Those timbers had been drying for 4 years before they went up and when they did you couldn't have squeezed a molecule in the joints.. I had to beat them together and really feared they would crack. I mean we're talking about some serious beating!
Very impressive project. A home with lots of caracter. Very nice.
Rehab.
And I thought I had a lot of wood in my house!! Outstanding house.
Ron
Fantastic, Frenchy!!!! Wow!
Oh, I guess it all must be mirrors and magic, right? 'Cause you did it with Grizzly tools?! ROFL. Really, Frenchy, you should be p-r-o-u-d!!!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Not trying to show off, it's just that I want to make sure I still can post pictures. please bear with me..
Really nice place, Frenchy, nice work. How do you manage to do all that and work too???
Pedro
ptu,
well there are 24 hours in a day, as Long as I let my wife sleep at least 6 she was content.. weekends I just worked. <G>
Actually working on the house was massively differant than selling.. when you sell you have to deal with rejection.. My way was to go home and make a timber ready to go up.. or put one in place..
Because I felt good I was able to sell with a positive attitude and building always showed positive results..
Actually I slept as much as I wanted to..usually 5 or 6 hours a night sometimes 8 or 10 on occasion even more..
But I started in 1998 getting timbers, I broke ground on labor day of 2001 and since then worked at it steady..
frenchy,
I'd be very surprised if hooking up the camera fried your PC, not likely.
Also, I did a similar routine for 3 years at our previous house. Worked a full time job and worked on the house after work and weekends. In my case it was the proverbial This Old House. Lots of demo and hauling debris to the landfill. Like you it was great therapy for me.
Best of luck in the new digs,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
I know Bob,
I Know it wasn't the camera, chances are in plugging things in I jogged a power unit in a way that brought in in contact with something..and shorted it out..
However if you knew my history with cameras you wouldn't be so sure.. I've probably killed more cameras in my lifetime than a camera store sells in a month!
It's rather ironic that the day after I figure out how to post pictures (with the help of Stuart I might add), I fry my computer plugging in a camera! :-(
frenchy,
You didn't try shellacing the camera did you? :-)
Are you telling me that the computer started smoking when you plugged the camera in? Or did it just hang up?
Computers aren't supposed to smoke (messes up their bytes) and they should only hang up the phone when they're done on the internet! That was a bit of digression.
Seriously, will the old puter boot up?
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
Nah the power drive smoked.. well it didn't actually smoke but something happened to it, I was able to save the pictures by taking the memory cards out and installing them in an older computer I have. I could have saved that computer by stealing the power drive from the older one but I have a teenage daughter.. she thinks anything more than two years old should be replaced right away. I mean dad how could you?All my friends have new computers! I mean you can't even...........
frenchy,
Power drive = hard disc or computer power supply? I was thinking if you had valuable stuff on it you may still be able to salvage it.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
I saved all the stuff I really wanted on a 2GB travel drive.. now the pieces are in pile that I'll haul off to the recycle center next time I go that way..
I admire your dedication.
Pedro
ptu,
Are you sure? I mean a more reasonable person might consider what I am doing insane. I mean fighting with City hall for 9 years, 38 trips to city council, planning commission, buying wood from a sawmill instead of a lumberyard, building a house that will withstand a level 5 tornado. Using lag screws instead of nails. Using hardwood when most houses are built with softwood, Building a house frame like most people build furniture.
Giving up a social life, a personal life, living with sawdust and construction debris for year after year, dealing with women who just want it finished and done with.
frenchy,
Now, you didn't give up a social life. You have knots.
Ray
Frenchy
No,you aren't crazy. I admire your dedication. It takes a strong will and an eye a long way down the track to keep going against the bureaucrats, regulations, permits and what have you to confab anyone. And then go home and do good work. Not everyone can do what you do, and keep sane, have a sense of humor, all that normal stuff, and your wife still loves you?. Good on ya.
I can't or won't do that, I escaped to the land of not to many permits, and no one bothers you to much about what you build, unless you want silly things like insurance. I worked 6 years on our house, and it is considered a cabin to an insurance company, because we aren't hooked up to town power,and we have an outhouse. They don't insure cabins. Thats okay, because you don't come up here and live in the bush, and worry about insurance, or town power.
Pedro
ptu,
Actually the work without permits sounds like heaven! but I think everybody should build their own home at least once!
It's really good for you both physically and mentally. I know one guy in my old squadron from Vietnam days who came close to going off the deep end.. Try as hard as he could he never got a break.. His wife left him for a Cop because she flirted her way out of a ticket. The company he worked for and made real sacrafices (they used to move him around the country wherever a location was in trouble they'd send him, his last job was in Visalia Ca), for closed down with no warning and left him without his last paycheck. He took the company parts truck in an attempt to get something for his efforts and stole fuel from company trucks at truck stops to get to his next job interview.
In western Wisconsin the truck blew it's water pump and he pulled off into some old abandoned farm house to sit out the storm that had hit..
Long story short he wound up getting the house for free, got a job with the local school district, totally rebuilt the house with tools and stuff found right on the premises, met and married one of the teachers and has kids who went on to college etc.. Now his life is great! Totally mortage free and no debt whatsoever!
Frenchy,
Great story, the therapeutic value of wood. Actually I think it gave him a chance to build something with his hands, and he found out he could. Selfworth and pride of capability. I'll bet it has turned more than one person around. Before I started on this house, my wood skills were focused around a chain saw and axe. I built the cabin we lived in for 25 years, but it was getting smaller every year, and we decided for a new house. We went from 576 sf to 1800 sf. We had enough money to hire the framing out( I still can't frame) and I figured I could do the inside. I had never done any thing fine before, but I said, I can work for $25 an hour, and hire someone for $35 an hour to do it, there was something wrong with that equation, or I can learn to do it myself. I said, those guys can do it, why can't I? I had way more time than money, the cabin still worked, the wife wasn't in a panic, so I gave it a try. We had two rules about the new house; one, no drywall, two, we don't move in until it is finished. I bought some wood, some books, made a life long friendship with Lee Valley, found patience, learned to read the instructions. I found a skill I didn't know I had, and I just might be able to ease old age a little, with bringing in a little money with out having a real job. I will probably never get to the skill level of most people here, but that's okay, some people like my work, its always better the second time, and I don't sit in my house looking around saying I wished I hada done that better or different.
There is more to wood than just wood.
Pedro
Amen Brother!
You're preachin' to the choir!
I guess it was no accident that Jesus took up the job as a wood worker!
Isn't it amazing what wonders can be done with wood? I mean my skills are definately sub par, You'll never see pictures of my work featured in this magazine, but I can still be proud of what I've achieved..
Like you my work is always better the second time I do it. Which is the real wonder of wood.. it's ability to teach people how to work with it and create stuff.
MY friend (I wish he'd let me use his name but,.......) found that thru creative use of materials at hand (wood) he was able first to survive thru a winter storm and later to create a nice home for himself.. That was his first real success since he left Vietnam.
There are probably many stories out there, might be an interesting thread. Viet Nam, and now Iraq will be the change of many people. Wonder why we keep doing war???
Pedro
PTU,
Because war can make a profit for some people.. the Dupont family was the big winners during Vietnam, The Haliburtons are the big winners so far during Gulf War 2
Follow the money..
He got most of the timbers for $25 a truckload. The rest he got free.
Frenchy:
IIRC from your BT posts, would this be a SIP house?
tufenhundel
SIP's above a ICF foundation, well partly I kept the old 12 inch block foundation under the original house new stuff is all ICF's
Big thanks to Stuart for helping out. A true Craftsman you are. Did you finish all of this during the 9yr battle with the City? If you have the uploading all figured out could I bother you to see a picture of the flooring you made? Even better if we can see the St. Bernard.
Thks
Brad 805
I was going to.. I took pictures and hooked up my camera to the computer and right about then the magic smoke decided to go on vacation.. No matter what I said it wouldn't go back in and continue to work..
Really a smelly thing too must have really left the place a mess!
stank like , well burnt lectrical stuff!
I went to Best Buy and spent a grand buying a new magic smoke box but I'll be darned if I'll try to post more pictures!
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled