There is no job I hate more than thieving out a piece of flooring....except getting the new piece in.
But....if I had to do it, the A/C cranking would definitely makeitg easier.

I agree Chris! I get out to fish the surf a couple nights a week after work but, its been a crapshoot, as far as wind and wave height, trying to pick good days to take the boat out... ahead of time....and that my days off dont conflict with work schedules/closings on new homes. Forecast for next week shows lower winds and calm seas, so I will get out there. Company I work for takes good care of me....so I cant let them down when we're real busy.

Ha Yeah....it's a real PIA, and this flooring is white oak....pretty hard stuff...doesnt come out easily.....having patience prevents damage to adjacent flooring pieces. Guys coming in from working outside.....say brrrrrr its cold in here.:)

Just decided to redo the kitchen- I need you to consult.

Got a question? My advice is free....but not infallible.


Few months ago...I got a kitchen to install.. new house.
Looking at the plans I could see right away it was a a complicated design...big job with stacked cabinets and lots of optional bells and whistles. Usually we direct our customers to a kitchen designer we use all the time. He's not perfect but when there's a problem it is taken care of right away. But this customer wanted to save a lot of money by going to Lowes. I started noticing missing and incorrect items and plan discepencies right away ...I backed off installing and i brought this to my boss' attention and the customer was notified. Turned into a #^&#^&#^&#^&show when they tried getting help from Lowes.

I could see that whoever put this plan together had amateur level experience. Took weeks to get it all straightened out. House didnt get finished on time due to the customers decision to reject our designer to save money.

When not doing kitchen installs there are plenty of other projects.
A client renting space at the mill, wanted to find someone to assemble a project for them. No plans or instructions. Boss started to ask if it would get done that day. I interrupted him before he could finish his sentence, with a firm "No". He did send a guy over to help with all the fastening....I jokingly told him it was for a detention center.

Notice the "distressed" hardwood flooring. It is very pronounced....a little too rough for my taste......but you can probably repair any gouge or scratch with some stain and you're good. I also didnt like the location of the light switches and how they ended the backsplash there. The large crown moulding is popular but covers so much of the soffit...

Thanks. I just put a deposit on the cabinets last night. 11 weeks from them to come in. We like our design women. I need to decide on a contractor. I'm gonna do the demo myself and my buddy will do the electrical so I'm saving a good amount of $ there.

How many do you have???

A binder full.
I kid, I kid.


Nice work RMarsh, you do good work.

Thanks...I do my best, not as good as I once was.
The day I did the crown moulding in that kitchen, I struggled a little.
My eyesight is getting worse and my hands ache constantly with pain.
I wasnt 100% happy with the job I did with fitting the miters......but
the customer showed up the next day and praised the work....said "Incredible job on the crown moulding I love it...you're like a jeweler!"...never heard that one before.

Look familiar? I moved the frig to the left of the co
Attachment 67416

I don't do that many kitchens. I just finished one up that I started this summer. It was a full gut remodel. She got her cabinets from homies, Thomasville line. 30 inch tall cabinets with the two piece crown on top. The soffit part was rock hard maple painted white. That stuff is almost impossible to get a clean miter on the corners. Crown was tedious due to the fact that the house was from the 70s, truss roof, no strapping. We went over the old popcorn ceilings with another layer of 1/2 drywall. Had a bitch of a time to get the corners and miters to line up.

Been there Trevier... For the hardwoods, like maple crown stock, I have a designated 80T blade and set up a goof proof jig so I don't pooch the spring angle. Of course if the ceiling or plaster is off, well... then it's shim, cut, test fit, shim, cut, test fit, check how much stock I have on site.... And the cabinet manufacturers do not take into account for face frames that run proud of the cabinet's side panel, which is always fun to point out to a fancy kitchen designer that has sold the client on a fancy crown. ("Oh, I have never come across that before...") It's all problem solving boys.
Here's a kitchen I did not long before I had my knee replaced. Designer's plans were off by 3.25 inches on the height. She would not even show her face onsite until the counters were in....

Can someone smarter than me rotate these pics or tell me how?

when you open your pic , sometimes there is a little icon that has an arrow signifying that it rotates, do that until correct. I do it on my phone first usually.

I don't have much trouble with hard maple fascia, I actually prefer it. A Forrest Chopmaster 12" blade cuts it so smooth and chip free.
I have done thousands of feet of kitchen crown I don't even realize that others might struggle with it, I guess it comes natural for me. I take my time and do not rush it, sharp pencil marks are imperative. I also tend to sometimes use a beltsander on edge to semi-cope the inside miters or over-miter the outside to relieve the cuts so the profile points meet up clean.

I have gotten pretty good with the coping saw, and do not shy away from a table saw to remove material for the inside corners. Having a wide sharp chisel in your belt can help relieve some of the sins the plasterer/finisher has left on ceilings and walls.

The blade I used to do it was a brand new sharpened 80 tooth blade on my 12 inch slide. I had to tape the back edge when doing it so it wouldn't splinter out on me.

A Chopmaster blade has a negative rake on it so it tends to not even chip out the backside of veneer plywood. 80 teeth is decent but it depends on what grind the teeth are set, maybe a triple chip blade would be better for you or make slower cuts or invest in a Forrest, you won’t regret it.
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I do have a forrest blade. Not sure what model it is though. It's definitely a 80th one though.

Back at the kitchen and stair installs, after doing some rotted floor replacement at the mill that needed emergency repair, as in somebody or something is going to go through.
The newel posts extend down through the subfloor and are anchored into the floor framing from below.... rock solid.

Mitered nosing at newel post came out pretty good......cutting the nosing to fit around the newel posts is not easy...got to take your time.
The 35 pvc lampposts that I built in my shop during covid are all used up....most every house here sold preconstruction...the others sold as soon as they were finished.

Got a request to build a pair of "farmhouse style" driveway gates.
Located some heavy duty hinges that should do the job.
Important to remember to make a left and and right hand version....and not two of the same.:o

made some progress on these yesterday....going to hang them on pvc trimmed pt 6x6 posts

Nice, Bob. Lap jointed 1x on main frame?

Yep.... two layers of 1X6 pvc ...with tight fitting lap joints....laminations all pvc glued. Was concerned about too much flex in the pvc trim...but when all glued up together and doubled...its fine.

more stairs and kitchens

I'd love to live in a house with stairs built post building codes, nice detail on those. I don't quite get the single cabinets on either side of the vent hood though, that seems like a quirky design.

Appreciate your comments...I agree...I just install"em
very basic kitchens on these houses.
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Where is this development? Still up in forest park?
Different that someone went with dark kitchen cabinets as trend seems to be leaning towards white cabinets. Last few kitchens we done been white. Wife is makin me paint our 20k in cherry SChrock cabinets white. Criminal.
Where is micro? Drawer micro? We just did one in the custom kitchen we just finished with similar good Big fan of the micro drawer.
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Forest park is mostly done...only about.4 house lots are left ...we've spent most of the last year or two building smaller houses ...at Highland Farms in the north end of Fall River....around 40 houses...its all sold out.
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Nice clean work Bob, looks good to me.

redlite, paint cherry? AHHHHH:eek: :smash: :hs:

The trend for sure has been towards painted cabinets ....mostly linen white but also some greys and blues.
Still have some customers that like that dark stain...I dont....shows every speck of dust....and the tiniest of scratches!
My wife also ....wants the kitchen cabinets that i custom built 30 years ago...ash with a light stain ..painted now. Have you gotten any quotes or would you diy.???
Micro drawer is in the island cabinets on some of these kitchens... like you mentioned....most don't want the old combination hood fan microwave over the stove anymore....and put the stainless chimney hood instead.
Another option is a wall cabinet with an open shelf they make for the mw.
You can see it in the last picture next to the fridge.
Got another stairway to finish starting tomorrow....
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Rough framing....its got a few errors but correctable...ill set the upstairs newel posts and nosings first so they can do hardwood flooring up there.

Is it my imagination, or are the walls painted already?? :eek5:

Our painter goes in after the skim coat plaster is done and primes everything. Then paints all the ceilings white and gets just the first coat of wall paint on before we start the interior trim. Makes his job much easier when he comes back to do finish coat of paint.

Painted bath cabinets....its hard to see but there is a little gold colored paint in the crevices. Newel posts are set....i cut open the subfloor so the post can extend down and be fastened into the floor framing.

Skirtboards are in.....some risers and treads next.

To fit treads to the skirtboard....which is seldom going to be a perfect 90 degree cut...i cut them about half an inch longer...then scribe them. This gets the length and cut at once.