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Better than Plumb
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History and pitfalls of baluster spacing
The rest of the job went OK until I nailed in the last baluster. Because the newel post was in the way, I held the nail gun at a different angle. Whoops.
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Escaping through back doors
Our art director, Bob Goodfellow, calls these solutions “back doors," the tricks of the trade that help you escape when you’re trapped by a problem. Bob knows a lot them. He used to be a boatbuilder, and then moved on to stairbuilding. His knowledge of woodworking is one of the major reasons that Fine Homebuilding is as good as it is.
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What’s right with this picture?
The phone rang just as I was getting ready to leave work last night. The caller ID told me it was Mark, a guy I’d been avoiding for a week. Mark is a builder in Vermont, a longtime reader, and a former author for the magazine. He had previously left me a message saying how disappointed he was with the photo on Fine Homebuilding’s current cover.
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Painting stairs is no fun
Last weekend, though, I spent two days with a paintbrush in hand, priming and first-coating as much as possible. I learned how tedious it is to paint risers, cutting in against varnished treads.
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The Greenhorn Construction Company
A half-dozen of us from the employment agency were working at the condo project, doing odd jobs to finish up the construction. We shoveled and raked and threw debris in the Dumpster. Behind the condos were small storage sheds where I nailed on my first roof shingles. I remember one of my fellow workers watching me, then saying, “Slow down. We’re getting paid by the hour.” I was so naïve as to be shocked by the suggestion.
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Going solar
As the price of oil rises, you don’t hear as many complaints about the high cost of solar power, but you still hear them: “Solar is too expensive. It doesn’t make sense. The payback period is too long.”
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Recycling windows is a leap of faith
Saturday was the first day of summer, and I finally took down the storm windows in the living room and swapped them out for screens. The windows are casements with interior storms and screens, so it’s an easy-enough chore. I don’t have to drag out a ladder. I actually look forward to this semiannual ritual, this changing of the guard, because it makes me think about where those windows came from and how they got here.
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New gutters for an old house
1 commentSo last year when I took down the plastic gutters to have my house painted, I never put them back up. It was time for new gutters, and of course, I lusted after copper, which you see a lot of in this part of Connecticut.
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Me and my big mouth
A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in my office when the phone rang. We have those caller-ID phones, so I looked to see who was calling. It was the president of our company. She seldom calls me, and she never calls to chat. So naturally I assumed the call must be about something bad, and I considered not answering it. But of course, she knows where I work. I answered the phone...
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Advertising complicates things, like my life
1 commentI’m having a bad week. It’s my own fault; I understand that. I let the little things, like emails, get to me.
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Garage Progress
We're making good progress on the garage shop at the project house. Drywall is hung, carriage doors are installed and the new front facade has been painted. read more
About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
