Wainscoating is Done...For Now

The title says it all. The wainscoating is done...for now.

Yup, you heard me!!! The wainscoating is done - and let me tell you - it wasn't easy.

I had to cut some piddly parts on the table saw. Do you know how cold it is outside? Do you know how cold it is in the woodshop? It's about 8 degrees outside and about 10 degrees in the woodshop. There is no heat source in the woodshop yet except for a propane heater. Since I was only in the shop a few minutes each time I saw no sense in firing it up. I will say though, the saw was so cold, and I had to adjust it just so, my fingers just abut froze. The thumb and pinky finger on my left hand were so cold they were hurting!

BTW, we also got snow in the middle of the night so the place is blanketed in the white stuff. I feel for those in the northern states going through the worst part of the cold.

As stated, the half-wall of wainscoating is done for the most part.

Ain't it pretty?

Turned out better than I thought it would.

I just hope it looks nice once it gets a coating of amber shellac.

Okay, here is the end-cap.

While we're here I can tell you what I forgot to tell you yesterday about the problems that kept popping up.

The end-cap was no exception. When I took the measurements it turned out the thing was 3/4" wider at the base!! It was an interesting challenge to deal with. Not only was it difficult to cut the slats correctly, but the 45 degree mitered corners needed to match up.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a funky angle cut with mitered corners to match? I sweated the whole time. At on point the frustration set in so I had to take a break before finishing it yesterday.

Luckily, the corners look like a continuation of the beading.

As promised, here is a shot from the other side.

I did wrap around it with one slat, but plan to go no further until the new cabinets are installed. Since the sink's base cabinet will need to be slid out I didn't want the bead board to interfere.

And yes...the cabinet door is missing. I removed it to make it easier to work in that area.

Take a look down at the base. See that piece of pine? That has been attached in order to protect the end of the base molding. Since the molding will also need to wrap around, the ends needed to be cut longer for the future 45 degree cut.

The pine board is just screwed in for easy removal.

Here's the corner do-dad.

Look how tight that sucker is in there. It's going to be a pain to paint the wall next to it.

You can see where the plaster skim coat stopped (the white part between the window and the wall). It was way too difficult to get into that small place even before the wainscoating was put up.

The only bad problem that popped up today happened when working with the 4" section of top-molding.

It might be hard to see it, but there's a rounded topknot at the very top of the molding. This section is attached to the rest of the top-molding by a thin, curved section that isn't even a 1/4" thick where the top curve attaches to the topknot.

When attaching this small piece of top-molding that round topknot section broke off along the entire length! I'm telling you, this stuff is super fragile. Well, I did the only thing I could do - glue it in place. At least it's not noticeable.

And there you have it - all done.

Now I get to work on the project that will not be mentioned.......

Before I go though, let me pitch a product and give a tip.

When it comes to repairing nail holes, cracks, and gouges I use Minwax Stainable Wood Filler. However, for deep gouges, rotted areas and termite damaged areas I use a 'plain Jane' wood putty as filler and top it off with this stuff.

I highly recommend it.

Here is my tub of filler.

I'm sure your sitting there thinking "WT...?" when looking at the picture, but let me explain.

This stuff is not cheap compared to the putty I use. One of the problems is keeping it from drying out. So the tip...use a piece of plastic wrap!

What you do is smooth the remaining filler down, smash the plastic on top of it and then tap the lid back down. The plastic will keep evaporation down and make the filler last longer.

This little trick can also be used on putty as well as spackle/plaster. I even did this with the 5 gallon tubs of plaster and it really helped.

Well, till next time...

Cheers!
Larry