Sunday, June 7, 2015

Songs From Sterling Forest

Let me bring you songs from the wood:
to make you feel much better than you could know.
Dust you down from tip to toe.
Show you how the garden grows.
Hold you steady as you go.
Join the chorus if you can:
it'll make of you an honest man.


-Jethro Tull, 'Songs from the Wood'

Saturday, Norm and I spent a great deal of the day at Sterling Forest with Lars wrapping up as much as possible of the interior. Anything that he needed his table saw or major equipment for had to be done by sundown yesterday. 

By-and-large, we succeeded.
Here, Catch!
Check out the trimwork Lars did on the arches. He actually FREEHANDED the scrollwork:
Mmmm, Gingerbread!

Norm surveying the progress:



Here's a wider shot of the interior, at the very end of the day, after cleanup: (Lars took this one)

So by the end of the day, closing about 6 days of work (not counting rainy days), the following was accomplished:


  • 99% of the wainscot paneling is up
  • Shelving has been completed
  • Closet has been installed
  • Sink hole was cut
  • Benches finished, including seats that lift on piano hinges
  • Underbed storage hatch/table finished and installed with a piano hinge
  • 80% of the faux copper ceiling installed
  • Back window roofing on
  • Fore and aft trimwork attached.
A couple of things are yet to be completed, but Lars is planning on coming up for a day or so to our house in a week or two to finish up


  • Complete battery installation
  • Wire outlets
  • Wire and install the reading lights
  • Complete the ceiling installation
  • Install sink plumbing (? Norm might do this.)
That's the last of the major construction, though. After this it's FUN STUFF!!!!!


My Faire Lady

While Norm and Lars fussed about the vardo, I decided to make myself more useful by making myself more scarce. While I'm not bad with a hammer, I am slow and would need lots of direction in order to help out. Seeing as we were operating under a time crunch, I felt that I would do the most good by keeping myself out of the way. 

 During the first part of the day, there had been some activity when the faire performers met in the tourney field for figher-practice. Also, the 'Spartan' athletic event was going on in the ski area adjacent to the faire, so there was quite a bit of swishy-thwack going on, accompanied by dubstep and dance music from the event loudspeakers. 

However, as the afternoon waned, things started to quiet down, and I took the opportunity to walk around the empty, quiet faire. 

Usually, when attending, there are so many people, and so much going on, that I don't really see the buildings or grounds. At least, not the details. And the place is amazingly detailed. A lot of care has gone into many of the boothes, and people have planted gardens around them. 

Here's some shots I took:


The view from the Lundegaard boothe's balcony
Lars!


From the back balcony, across the lake. A tree has fallen in Larr's backyard, which had to be winched back up. I don't think this view is usually so clear. 

Beautiful weathervanes. 
When all was said and done, we packed up the remaining building materials, hitched 'er up, and drove home.Stopping for dinner meant we got home about 10PM. 

Sunday

So today, Norm was determined to get a coat of paint on the trimwork right away, so that it could be sealed against the weather. I really had to think about what color to paint it. So far, we'd used a cranberry red for the vardo walls, and indigo for the trim. I also have a gallon of metallic copper paint, intended for the 'accent' color. Well, I realized that if I followed the 'logical' path and painted the gingerbread the 'trim' color (indigo), it wouldn't show up very well. There'd be almost no contrast between the gingerbread and the blue paint behind it in the under-arch. 
Consulting with Norm, we decided that we REALLY wanted the trimwork to pop. It's beautiful and deserves to hit people right in the eye. So we're painting it the metallic copper. 

Here's a picture of the gingerbread with a coat of the copper on it:
While this was going on, I ran some errands to Home Depot; specifically, getting the clearcoat that needs to go over the copper paint, and a good brush for it. I also polished up the copper sink. Not exciting stuff, but necessary.

Next: Stain and Seal? Electricity? Sewing Projects?

Stay Tuned!