I knew when we bought our house nine years ago that the family room would, along with much of the rest of the house, need a remodel. The carpet was old and worn, the walls had heavily sculpted dust catching texture and the hearth was hideous. The lights were just fluorescent shop lights and were poorly placed. We started the remodel last winter and I am now closing in on it.

Here are some pics.

It all started with the harvesting of some Alaskan birch for lumber. Here I'm loading some logs for the mill.



Here's a load of birch ready to stack and dry. It takes about a year per inch to air dry lumber.



Here's a stack, tent tarped, stickered and drying.



The old hearth in all it's hideousness.



The new hearth. I still need to trim out the sides.



The built in book case. The face frames, doors, drawer and base boards are from some that birch. I haven't got all the books out yet and haven't settled on the exact arrangement of the shelves. My wife's discerning eye will be helpful with that.



More of the book case.

[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e103/mart-photo/IMG_1251Small.jpg[/img]

I just finished this today. It's my reloading hutch. Room for most of my supplies and gear and hopefully keep the bench clutter to a minimum.

[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e103/mart-photo/IMG_1256Small.jpg[/img]

I created a cubby for all my reloading and reference manuals.

[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e103/mart-photo/IMG_1255Small.jpg[/img]

We have done a lot of work. The ceiling had old acoustic tile which, when removed showed the drywall had never been taped or mudded and was only 1/2" instead of the required 5/8". Don't get me started on the wiring misadventures we found. We scraped the walls and floated them flat, textured and painted. I corrected the wiring issues, put up a new 5/8" ceiling, installed new lighting and windows, laid a tile floor and wrapped the glue lam beam in birch. I still have to trim the windows and there are a couple of pieces of furniture yet to build but the room is finally coming together. Pretty soon I can get pictures, antlers, skins and all the other man room stuff up. Thanks for looking.

Mart

Very nice work should give you many hours of enjoyment!

nice work! I really like the slate.

Very ambitious and it appears well worth it. Great job!

Great looking man room you have there, should be really nice looking with all the man stuff. Congrats and enjoy.

Thank you for showing us these pictures. You have dome a lot better than just well. It shows that you took time and put a lot of care into your work. I like the new look a lot. It looks even nicer since we know you harvested and dried the wood. It is truly a start to finish kind of project. You have every right to be proud of the work of your hands.

GREAT WORK Marty! Your skillset and patinece FAR surpases mine.

Thanks guys. I have enjoyed for the most part. It was pretty discouraging at first when one step led to another problem which led to another problem. Remodels just go that way I guess. Now it's all coming together. I still need to build a reloading desk. It will look more like a desk than a reloading bench. My presses are on a stand made from 3/8" plate steel, 18" square and mounted on a section of 2 1/2" steel tubing so that it turns offering a different side for presses, bullet luber, shotgun press etc. I plan to wrap the base (a steel tire rim) in walnut plywood so that it looks nice instead of having an ugly old rim in my new room. Thanks again for the kind words.

Mart

You have been busy...from logs to furniture. Nice job.

Wayne

Nice! Well done!

That bookcase and hutch is very cool.

Outstanding work!

Pretty nice. I think it is awesome how you can cut down a tree yourself and get nice lumber. If that was the case here, there wouldn't be many trees safe from me.

I get most of my lumber from tress when I'm cutting firewood. When I get a nice clean large birch I save a few logs over 10" for the saw mill. It keeps me in project lumber and I don't have to pay the exceedingly high local prices for hardwoods. We do have some hardwood suppliers locally and they are fair on their prices but it cost them considerably to get hardwood to Alaska. I don't fault them for the prices they have to charge and it's nice to have a source for hardwoods. It's also nice to be able to go out to my stash and pull out a few pieces for a project when I need to. Birch, cottonwood and spruce are about all we have locally. I miss the northeast where I grew up and it's amazing selection of hardwoods. I used to take those giant oaks, maples, walnut and beeches for granted. From a woodworking standpoint I was in woodworker's heaven back there. I do like the color of Alaskan birch and the way it works. Thanks again guys for all the encouragement.

Mart

Very interesting Mart.

Great work, thanks for sharing!

Thinking the same, for sure!

But theres no dead stuff hanging in the Man room......

Great work, Mart!

I love birch furniture. You make my attempts at a reloading bench look positively crude.

Ed

Sweat equity, good on you.

I will second that Scott.

looks good

the smallest bedroom in our house got converted to the


man room

and with all the crap I have in there, gun safe, backpacks, tents, sleep bags, stoves, hydration filters, books tapes, etc.


it's just what it say

man room

ain't room for two men in there at the same time!

I handcrafted my own desk too


it's a couple of 2x8's over twin filing cabinets, turns out not everyone is as handy as mart

mine don't look nearly as pretty as his


lordy I certainly hope the girls find me handsome


or at least one girl

Not finished yet. I don't have any mounts. A few antler mounts and lots of tanned furs, including a cougar. Once I get the windows trimmed it will be time to start getting some stuff on the walls. Mama says "get me a grizzly rug for the wall in the living room", so I've got my orders for this spring.

Thanks guys.

Mart

Very nice! What you have done looks great! Obvious you have worked hard and done it right. I would be embarassed to post pictures of my "man cave" right now...keep thinking I maybe I will get a snow day to spend some time in the basement one of these days to work on it, but hasn't happened yet.

That looks awesome!!!!
Heck, all that I have is a "Man Corner".

I am always envious of those of you with skills in woodworking, electrical and all other remodeling skill sets.

My father who was handy like this, died when I was young and I never got the tutoring.

I worry about retirement coming up because these skills would be so handy to keep a man busy.

Nice work - I always enjoy these threads where you show a project through its steps.

Thanks for sharing your project with us, Mart. I love the look of your birch cabinetry. You've got some real talent there! I love the light color and grain of northern birch.

And it must be totally cool to be able to work your magic using wood you've harvested yourself. Sorta like catching a salmon or trout on a fly you tied yourself, using feathers from a pheasant you shot yourself, or some such.

MJS-don't give up on the notion of learning how. My dad was handy with almost all building skills and taught me a little bit. Mom didn't want me to use the power tools cause I might get hurt you know. I helped a cousin with some construction/destruction and learned a little more. Helped a friend remodel my mom's house and learned a whole bunch more. Today I have a pretty nice shop (unheated unfortunately) with lots of tools.
Question-what does your mill charge to plank out the wood? We had an old fart with a woodmizer who charged me 50 or 60 cents a board foot. He's retired but a young fella in town bought his gear and I plan on him planking out a walnut tree that fell down this fall.
Before I forget thanks for the post. I really like posts like this.

MJS,

My dad was pretty handy but as a dairy farmer didn't get to use his skills except when absolutely necessary. The demands of milking cows and putting up feed took all his time. There was little time to take to educate a kid in carpentry. I learned most of my woodworking skill from Norm Abrams (New Yankee Workshop), and videos from a few other woodworking personalities. The rest, drywall, electrical and tile work I picked up from my contractor buddy. I help him with jobs frequently and get advice and help from time to time.

Most of it is simple math and trial and error. I make lots of mistakes that someone who had apprenticed in the trade would not. I have learned a great deal from my mistakes which just makes room for me to make new mistakes to learn from.

Don't be afraid to jump in and try it. It is not that difficult and you may surprise yourself with a new found interest. Beware though, woodworking is much like guns, there is much you just absolutely have to have, or at least think you have to have. It is every bit as slippery a slope as the one we go down with our guns and reloading.

And then once you have a handle on power tools, you will start getting interested in old hand tools. Man, there are tons of hand planes out there, for every imaginable application. I got started down that trail and haven't been able to find my way out of the old hand tool woods yet. Then there are chisels and hand saws. It never ends.

Mart

1096here,

The mill I use charges a flat $45 an hour. I deliver the logs to them on my trailer and they fit it into their schedule. I don't take stuff to them with the idea I am going to get it next week. My orders are small and they do a lot of big orders so I am happy to get the work done. They do great work, will cut whatever I want and they always remember my name and will take a few minutes to visit with me. They can cut a lot of lumber in an hour so I have no issue with the price. I think the largest bill I ever had was $330 and it took me two loads on my 12 foot tandem axle trailer to get it home.

I have talked with other sawyers with portable mills. Some wanted to make all their money in set up fees to come to my yard. I would rather haul to the guys I have been using and know it will be done right. I think 50 cents a board foot sounds a bit high but have never priced it out that way. The hourly rate works out to about 20 cents a board foot for me.

Mart

Very nice!

Are you worried about the bookcase cracking or splitting being so close to the heater? I know our insert really cranks out some heat.

Mike

The bookcase has been through the whole winter without showing any cracks or splits. I made sure the wood was down to 6% moisture before I started building and the largest portions of it are birch plywood. The face frames, door styles and rails, drawer front and the large shelf over the drawer are solid birch. I had a large oak hutch there for years and never had any splitting or cracking. I think if the piece was solid hardwood instead of plywood faced with hardwood it would stand a pretty good chance of splitting. Being dried properly also helps reduce the splitting.

Mart

You did a nice job with the finish in making the wood pop. Birch can be really nice.
Seems to me you should be looking to nab some beetle kill pine, too. Dunno if the Chugach got hit, but you do have some lodgepole around, if I remember right. That and lots of spruce.
I got some really nice bluestain in two miracle units of three-inch laths. Some Canuck mill, old LPP, kilned to perfection, milled splinter free, dead nuts straight. Made lots of cabinet doors and face frames out of it. Eye candy, wish I could find more without having to buy a whole unit.

Dave,

Just two coats of clear satin poly followed by a light sanding with 320 grit paper to smooth it up. Then a lightly thinned coat of the same poly applied lightly with a cloth. Finished off with some paste wax and some buffing.

We don't have much of any lodge pole locally that I'm aware of. I've heard of some around but never run onto it. We have a lot of spruce and I have done a couple of dressers from spruce I cut in my yard.

I have a line on two cottonwoods that are huge and solid. The owners want them down and they will make a ton of lumber for me. Most cottonwoods this big are rotten in the center but these are both solid. It's not maple or oak but it makes pretty fair lumber. One fellow showed me an entire set of kitchen cabinets he did in cottonwood. They were really very attractive.

Mart

Very nice, Mart.
I'm interested in the reason for the vents on the raised floor under your wood stove. Is there a place that warm air enters at the back of the stove? Louvers? A fan?
I'm interested because I'm installng a similar stove in my basement & like the idea of a raised floor.
Thanks.

The concrete board on which the tile is mounted stands off the wall with one inch spacers made from strips of hardy board. That creates some vertical channels behind the tile. The base has openings cut in the joist to allow air to flow to those channels. This draws cool air from the floor through those vents and as it warms it travels up those channels and exits at the top of the tile creating a bit of a warm air exchange with in the room. The stove does have a fan on it but we don't use it much. The stove puts out plenty of heat without it most times.

I do have to finish the fresh air return which I am working on. As I replace the old windows in the house it becomes critical that I allow for fresh air to enter for better combustion not to mention our own health.

I would like to replace the stove. There are much more efficient stoves available. This one was in the house when we bought it. I had a small Lopi in our last house and really liked it. I will get another Lopi when we replace this one.

Mart

Looks like a good idea, Mart. Would be interesting to hold a Kleenex in front of one of the vents to see how much air is drawn in, when the stove is fired up.
Thanks for the info.

I have blown out a kitchen match and watched the smoke. It does move slowly through the vents. I doubt a kleenex tissue would move. The air movement is only slight but it does transfer.

Mart

Good Mart. A little air movement is enough to draw off the floor & warm more room air.
You have wood-working skills, no doubt about that.

Thanks for a great thread! I really enjoyed it.