Scubaddict

A couple of nights ago, our quiet evening of lounging on our motor home futon/couch in front of our 15 inch TV watching Monday night football was interrupted by high winds whipping through our tall fir trees. We tried to ignore the sounds of fir cones and small branches striking the metal roof on our house and shop but soon we were unnerved by loud cracking sounds, as if a whole tree was breaking in two.   We rushed out of the coach to see 10-12 ft long branches scattered around the driveway but luckily no tree trunks!   We also decided this was a good time to put the 10×10 ft pop up canopy away before it decided to take flight. 

That night I started thinking about what might happen if one of our big trees decided it was done fighting the wind.  Would we be lucky enough to have it drop on part of the property that we still need to work on or would it rip a hole in our brand new house?  If you are a simple homeowner in our city, it is VERY difficult to remove hazardous trees from your own private property.  There are permits to buy and arborists to talk to.  And if you’re lucky enough to receive approval to remove a tree there is also the requirement that you will have to replace that tree with a similar species in a quantity greater than what you just removed.  Here’s an example:

3 years ago we wanted to remove 1 large Cedar Tree (26 inches in diameter) that would be just 12 feet away from Ben’s new shop roof.   We filled out the permit forms, talked extensively with the city arborist and at the end of the day we decided to keep the tree.  The main reason for our decision?  The city wanted us to plant 27 NEW trees on our property of like species to replace the 1 we wanted to remove.  It was the MOST absurd thing we had ever heard!   If I were to count up all of the mature trees that are currently on our property, I think I might have a total of 21 – 23 trees.  The only way we could possibly fit 27 more trees on our property would be if we planted seedlings and cut them down within 5 years, begging the question “Why bother?”.  

And the craziest things about our city?  If you are a developer and want to put in a new Walmart or ticky tacky housing development, you can go ahead and flatten 10 or more acres of land with apparrently no replanting plan for the 100’s of mature trees that are removed. 

I guess we’ll just get to build Ben a bigger, better shop someday if that big cedar decides it’s time to stop fighting the wind….

Now that all 13 of our interior doors have a protective finish on them I thought I would share a few tips of the things I learned during my journey toward completing this part of our home build. Some of these things are actually listed on the can instructions, but I believe they need more emphasis, and my other tips, well….

1) While applying polyurethane, NEVER take a break to pet the cat no matter how affectionate they appear to be. This is just a ploy by your cat to permanently attach some of their DNA to your project, because no matter how careful you are, cat hair will soon be landing on any wet surfaces like metal shards to a magnet.

2) ALWAYS mix the product before you start applying it. I KNOW they mention this on the can but for some reason I thought a brand new can would not need to be mixed and I have one door in our house with a glossy finish on one side while the rest are all satin finish. Eventually this glossy door is going to drive me nuts and I’ll end up refinishing it but for now we need to keep pushing forward…

3) If 2-3 coats are recommended go for 3 coats. You won’t be disappointed. I also have one door that mistakenly ended up with 4 coats of poly, and it looks amazing! If I only had more time…

4) ALWAYS protect your hands and your lungs. Even if you just need to sand down one little spot, put those gloves and mask back on! All it takes is a few minutes of inhaling dust and you’re more susceptible to colds & allergies. I also made the mistake of not always wearing gloves when applying the poly or cleaning my brush and now I’m having to nurse a rash on my right hand. Just take the time and protect yourself from these chemicals!

5) Fast Drying Polyurethane is not! The can says “allow 4-6 hours drying time between coats…” but even with a dehumidifier running, I would need to wait at least 24 hours before sanding down the first coat. I don’t know if this is because I live in Seattle or if this is just the nature of the beast. If the poly appears gummy when you sand it, walk away and check back in 6 more hours. You’ll just make a bigger mess of things if the poly isn’t completely dry.

6) Spend the money, buy a good quality brush and then take care of it. I suspend my brush in mineral spirits after each coat of poly by hanging the brush from the hole at the end of the handle. The used poly floats down to the bottom of the container overnight. Then, all I need to do is wipe the excess mineral spirits off with a Shop Towel and I’m ready for the next coat. Works like a charm!

7) Resist the temptation of applying a more than a SUPER THIN coat of polyurethane. I know that for some of you out there, this is probably a no-brain-er. But for me, a thicker coat seemed to look so luxurious and glossy, until it started to puddle and/or drip. Plus a thicker, drippy coat means more scrapping and sanding in between coats, aka more work. I finally figured out at door #8 or #9 that the beauty of this product comes out in multiple coats and not thick coats. Again, this is one of those things that you can read on the instructions on the back of the can but I still had that Ah HA moment one evening when I realized “Oh… You meant THAT thin of a coat”…

So now that I have all of this experience, I look at some of the first doors I finished and see spots I want to sand down and apply one more perfect, thin coat. But this will need to wait until someday, down the road, when I don’t have full page of To Do’s that all need to be completed within the next 30 days.

Over the last few weeks, when I wake up early and enter our new house to complete a few tasks before heading to the office, I am in awe of what we’ve accomplished and how far we have come. I’m also starting to realize that someday, very soon, we will be finished to the point of being able to move in and spend time enjoying our house without having a task to do! I know Ben is frustrated that we will need to circle back and redo all of the things that we are temporarily putting in place to pass our final inspection but maybe that’s exactly what we need for each other.

A good friend of mine made a joke this week that Ben and I might not get along so well if we didn’t have a project to work on together.  This comment made me think a bit… We spent our first 3 years together building Ben’s wood shop, we were married in July 2001 and 30 days later we broke ground on our 5 year remodel. We only had one year in between finishing our Tacoma house and starting on our Bonney Lake project. Do you see the trend here? I don’t want our marriage to be like that weird Winchester House in San Jose where the owners felt like they had to keep adding onto the house or they would perish!  

There are SO many things that I am looking forward to doing once we finish building our house.   Piano & Guitar lessons are at the top of the list and starting an organic vegetable garden is something we’ve both talked about for years.  My biggest hope for 2011 is that the only thing we will build together is our friendship… and maybe a green house for our new garden :0)

Just me... working on interior doors

Ben enjoying some "Grandpa Time"