To save money, we will stain and the finish the oak trim and the pine ceiling planks. We'll do this in the driveway of our current house, storing the 5,000 pounds of lumber in a rented 16-foot storage box.
The oak baseboard and trim for windows and doors arrived. We spent much of that day and several hours the following day measuring individual pieces and cutting them to needed lengths.
2,800 pounds of 8" pine ceiling planking is stacked on the right, and the oak trim is on the left. Mike built the shelves in the storage box to store all this lumber after it has been finished.
We also bought 244 oak rosettes online to use on the corners of window and door trim.
We began staining the ceiling planks. First we laid two dozen planks on sawhorses, and Louise sanded to smooth rough spots and remove smudges. This photo shows Louise sanding by hand, but by the fourth day of work, we'd figured out that a random-orbit power sander was much faster.
After staining, the planks were hand-wiped to even the coloration. In the afternoon we sprayed water-based gloss varnish, let the planks dry for a couple of hours, then we put them back into the storage box.
Here a batch of stained planks are drying until mid-afternoon, when they will be varnished.
We're finishing about 28 pine planks each day we work on them. Only about six more sessions remain, and then we can start on the oak trim. Here the finished ceiling planks are stacked on shelves, with the remaining unfinished planks on the floor.
We finished another 26 planks.
28 more planks finished. It looks like we'll be done with the ceiling planks in three more work sessions.
We missed nearly a week due to rainy weather, but today we finished 28 planks. We're making good progress. Only about 32 planks remain.
All ceiling planks are stained and varnished, and stacked in the storage box.
In less than two weeks, we will move from this house to a rental while our new house is being built, so we can't begin finishing the oak trim until after this move. We'll have this and two other storage boxes moved to the rental property.
To prepare, we shifted some of the oak trim to the right side of the box so all of it would be more stable during the two moves to the new house. This photo also shows the braces we added to stabilize the stack of trim on the left. It's interesting that the quantity of ceiling planks now seems less imposing with most of them stored on shelves instead of stacked on the floor.
In mid-August, we moved into a rental house for 5½ months while the new house is being built. Here, we are staining and finishing the oak trim we didn't have time for before the move. Today the baseboard is done, and the window and door trim is well underway. Here is today's batch of trim. Most of these are 16' long, but only 8-foot lengths remain – about 35 of 'em. After staining, we'll apply a coat of tung oil to all the trim. But before that, we have 244 oak rosettes to stain.
We stained 244 rosettes today. We placed each rosette on a motorized turntable rotating at 20 RPM, and sprayed stain on it. After staining, we moved each rosette to our nearby utility trailer, where we wiped them all and left them to dry.
Today we sprayed tung oil on the window and door trim, and hand-wiped each piece. Next up: The baseboard, shoe molding, and rosettes. Fortunately, the weather forecast calls for moderate temperatures and no rain for the next five days – just about the time we'll need to finish.
We bought a Grex P645 23-gauge pin nailer to install the trim. This wonderful tool shoots headless pins that disappear into the wood, leaving only tiny holes that don't require filling afterward.
We sprayed tung oil on the 80 lengths of oak baseboard and hand-wiped each one afterward. Most of the baseboards are 16' long, but at least they're all finished. Shoe molding and rosettes are all that remain.
We sprayed tung oil on the 244 rosettes, and wiped them for a smooth finish. Only the shoe molding remains, and that will be done tomorrow.
We finished the shoe molding today, so all of the trim and ceiling planks (finished in July) are ready to be installed. Here is the shoe molding drying on our utility trailer.
We installed baseboard and shoe molding over the tile we laid in the mechanical room. The Grex pin nailer did a great job securing these.
The carpenters ran out of ceiling planks, so we ordered 30 more 8' lengths. They arrived today and we sprayed stain on them – outside with snow on the ground and the temperature a chilly 38°F. With any luck they will dry sufficiently for varnishing tomorrow.
Slightly-warmer and dry weather allowed us to spray varnish on the new ceiling planks. Tomorrow we'll deliver them to the house site so the carpenters can complete the kitchen bay ceiling.
The oak interior doors were delivered today.
Jeff, the trim carpenter, made good progress fabricating one stairway railing (started yesterday), and installed it. Lots of compound angles!
Jeff, the trim carpenter, and Tina, a helper, began installing the interior doors.
Jeff finished installing most of the interior doors, and nearly finished the handrails.
Mike installed baseboard and shoe molding in the three bathrooms and the laundry room so we won't have to do it after the toilets and washer/dryer are installed next week. This is the laundry room.
We began preparations for final trim-out. Louise filled nail holes in the basement door and window frames, while Mike glued mullions to the center of the double windows.
We hired two carpenters to install the door and window trim, rosettes, baseboard, and shoe molding. Later daughters Michelle and Miranda stained and finished with tung oil the doors and door frames. Finishing the windows will wait for warmer weather.
After the doors were finished, Mike installed the handles.
The remaining two storage boxes were removed yesterday and today. We emptied these boxes over the past two weeks, and now all our belongings are inside the house waiting to be put away.
Updated December 16, 2023