A very late progress update

Been slacking on my blog duties. There has been a ton of work done around here and none of it has been documented. Since the last update, the drywall sculpture around the bar is finished, the bar patio has been poured, roads to the shed and log yard have been graveled, final plumbing in the master bath done, coax cable (rgb-6) is finished to every room, and we've started hanging doors around Pinecrest Pub. I'll throw in some pictures but there's gonna be some gaps. Haven't been taking as many as I needed too so bear with me. I'll fill in the gaps later.

I also have to give a big Thank You to A couple people. My wife has been putting up with my shit and pitching in more than the average person would ever do. The other person that deserves the thank you is Bob Pryor. He's been slaving away on the drywall sculpture and I have to say, I understand why this isn't in everyone's home. There is a STUPID amount of labor in it. Hanging it is easy. Applying 4 or 5 coats of mud, sanding between each, then caulking it, and then looking at re-doing a coat or two of mud before you can texture it makes it a real job. Been 3 weeks or better of mud/sand/mud/sand...repeat. He has way more patience that I do! Looks great though!

Here's the patio slab forms up with gravel and re-bar in place.

Another shot of the same thing
And you can see what I think of this.....mud is on it's way and I need a beer or more.
Drywall progress. All the rock is up, most of the joints have at least two coats of mud on them.
Good shot of the bar and the progress on the drywall sculpture.
Kelly priming the walls so we can paint soon.
The walls primed.
Shot of the wall texture.
"Pryor Stomp" texture on the ceiling of the bar area.
More bar texture.
Wall texture, heavy knockdown applied by the master.
Library ceiling done with the "Pryor Stomp" texture.

Look ma....no doors.
Missing doors again....
Shit...there's a door.....
And another!!
Here's the brains of the outfit. This is called a structured wiring panel. It's the central location for all phone, data, and cable outlets. Inside this box is the biggest mess of wiring you have ever seen, unless of course you are organized and plan it out. We did and it's coming together well. I would like to tell you that it's a work of art inside but we're not quite there. I have to finish up the phone/data end before I reveal what's under the cover.

With another week of work under my belt it was time to go back to work on the basement bar. The duct work framing needed to be finished, the theater wall needed to be framed, there was wiring to finish up in the library area, and there was some other details that needed finished up before we put up the sheetrock. Once those were complete we started working on what Bob calls a "Sculptured Ceiling". This was one of his trademarks back when he was running his drywall company. It involves adding extra layers of 5/8" sheetrock in a pattern. Might sound easy but it takes some special materials and tecniques to get that heavy sheetrock to hang in places that there is nothing to nail too. The pictures below don't do it justice. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Here's how it looks after all the work...below it is pics of us doing the work.

Pinecrest Pub Progress--Sheetrock

I think I have mentioned more than once that I feel very lucky to have the friends and family that I do. Truly, this house wouldn't be here at all, and if it was, it wouldn't be nearly what it is today without the help we have received from these special people. Today we add one more to the list.

Bob Pryor is a friend of my fathers. They met in Missoula during school and from the sounds of their many stories, they were thick as thieves throughout their time together. As they went their seperate ways after high school, they lost track of each other and just recently made contact again. I had the great pleasure of going hunting with my father and Bob this last year and it was a real treat. During that time Bob found out that I had a bunch of drywall to put up and he offered to show me a thing or two. Turns out he owned his own drywall company for many years. Today he proved it.

A special thank you to Bob. Our basement has really started to look good.

Here's what it looks like now, and below are pictures of the work in progress.

Pinecrest Pub Taking Shape

Construction of the Pinecrest Pub has officially started. When finished it will have 4 different beers on tap, a full compliment of liquors, sodas, wines, and a built in ice-maker.

Upgrading the Wood Stove

After a year and a half of service, our Blaze King gave up the ghost. The intense heat that is created by having a constant fire fueled by pine finally caused the welds to split inside the stove. This left us without any ability to damper the fire and caused a tremendous amount of heat loss up the chimney. After doing some research online I stumbled across the Montana Stove Works website. Truthfully, I found a review of their Cera Stove and then had to search for them. Here is the website for those that are curious: http://www.montanastove.com/ The direct link to the Cera stove is here: http://www.montanastove.com/page12.html

The owner/operator is Fred Seton and he's been building Boilers and wood stoves for 30 years. And as a bonus he is in Montana (Troy). After reading through his website, reading the reviews online, and then finally talking with him, Kelly and I decided to spend the $2600 to purchase the Commercial version of his Cera Stove. He claimed that it would put out enough heat to shut off the furnace. That's a pretty tall order here given the size of the place but he insisted that it would not only do it, but that we would have to give up splitting our wood too!! Woohoo!! The stove has a huge firebox and can take 15" diameter logs around 24" long. The firebox isn't iron like we are used to. It is actually framed with iron, and then poured with a concrete type material that they call "ceramic refractory". The end result is that you end up with a firebox that can withstand at least twice the heat of iron and it has a tremendous thermal mass that will continue to radiate heat even after the fire is out. This is exactly why the Vermont Castings Soap Stone stoves are so popular (and expensive). Another benefit of the construction is that the higher firebox temperatures actually prevent creosote buildup due to a more complete combustion. There are a bunch of fancy words that describe this but the end result is that your risk of a chimney fire is much reduced.

Three weeks later the stove showed up. 785 pounds!! Made moving it interesting and getting it up onto the hearth a bit of a chore. Luckily I have a couple of buddies that are always willing to lend a hand. Pete and Bob helped us make quick work of the stove install and in no time, the house was warming up. Fred wasn't kidding either. Before Kelly and I got it figured out we had the upstairs roasting at 77 degrees. The only time our furnace runs now is when it's really cold out and we decide to sleep in too long.

A special thanks to Pete, Sandy, Bob, and Erna for helping with the install and thank you Fred. Your stove has more than delivered on your promise.

Here's the finished product, and the pictures below it show how we got here.