sam's belt buckles ...

still time i think to get that special belt buckle christmas gift.

call or email ... sam@dorsetcustomfurniture.com

802 867 5541

classic vermonter below, or your custom design

click the photos to enlarge them.

numbered and personalized on the back

 

church railings

tah dah ...

 the church railings are now installed .. it was a bit of a process, as it's in the historic district and permits were required, but they are looking good.  there will be  a removable center section later ..

concept to completion

 existing rails, probably from the 50's?

photoshopped mockup

pattern test

build jig

 it was a process

 

final fitting before paint and installation

update on the metal shop

update, 8/3/13 ... except for the doors, we are weather tight

well ok ... i casually mentioned to our metal shop builder, scott thompson, that he didn't put the traditional pine bough on the ridge when he nailed up the last rafter yesterday.  so, today when sam and i came back from town, there it was.  it's a longstanding, worldwide, tradition, with a documented history going back to at least 700 AD.  it's been a tradition with all of our buildings, and i was glad to see it.  so, we're coming along now.  we should be in good shape and relatively watertight by this time next week ... here are a few pics of the progress.  click the photos to enlarge them ..

 walls

 the 30' TJI''s for the clear span .. long ones, and heavy ...

 makes for a nice open space though

 overview from goodwood lane

 with the daylillies

 concept

 gable walls with soffits and facias built on the ground

we needed to call in the neighbors to help stand those up as they are 30' long and over 12' tall.  our friends steve and kevin from holman studios and chris bowlen from bill laberge's shop came by, and we all played 'barn raising' for about a half hour.

 tah dah  !!

 home stretch ... plywood on the road side and some ply on the dormer roof ...

 

 all for now

here we go

 

 well, here we go ... new metal shop.  it started about a year ago.  we thought we were all set to go last summer, but the appraisal underwriters declared our property 'mixed use commercial' because our shop was more than a certain percentage of the square footage of our house and that threw us out of the fannie mae/freddie mac underwriting guidelines.  so, 8 months later, we have subdivided our 10 acres, and refinanced and now we're underway on a new metal shop for sam.  the photo above was yesterday around 8:00 am.  the digging and site work will be done by dydo and company.  noel dydo helped us dig our first house foundation in 1974 and we've been friends since 1971, over 40 years. 

 some scraping and digging and we're ready to extend the culvert which will allow us to expand the parking area.

 end of the day yesterday ... a little deeper than we thought we would get.  a little ledge on the back side.  about a four foot wall on the front.  good to go ...

 today, tony genier, of concrete professionals, arrived to form up the footings. 

 

 and they really are professionals.  they showed up around 1:30 and were out the door around 4:00.  finish it up and pour the concrete in the morning ...

lots of steps, due to the ledge

we're hoping that sam will be welding in the new shop by labor day ... the old one is about 12 x 24 and cramped, cramped, cramped.  it consistently spills into my garage and moving it to a new spacious building in the same area as the wood shop will be a huge benefit to us all.  progress updates as they happen ...

here's the concept via photoshop ...
update 6 7 ... concrete professionals ,i guess.  tony and his crew showed up yesterday morning to  pour the footings they formed up wednesday afternoon.  then they came back after lunch, stripped the forms and poured the walls at 4:00 in the afternoon.  gone by 5:00.  today they stripped the forms off the walls and were gone by lunchtime.  total elapsed time, footings and walls, and gone ...44 hrs?  rain was predicted today, so he had the concrete folks add some 'accelerator' to the footing mix.

VERY professional

 

 waiting for a couple days with new rain in the forecast to pour the slab

from up on the hill, looking back to the shop