Well, it’s not done, but the space definitely exists now! Todd Thurgood was the framer. Who could ask for more? Perfect work. What you see here above grade was a 4 day effort for a three man crew.
The permit was issued, and last week, the site was excavated and footings where poured. The coordination between excavator, footings contractor, and foundation contractor has been great. We have made quick progress at the start! Currently the foundation forms and steel are set. We anticipate pouring the foundation walls tomorrow.
I had once dreamed of building a timber-framed woodshop, but time and locale prevent it. Design for a residential class framed shop are complete, and plans have been submitted for building permit approval. Yes, this will be my largest building project to date! Features:
- 30X28 work space
- 14X28 storage space
- Lots of south window light
- Exterior complements existing house
- Radiant floor heat
- dust collection system
- 11′ ceiling height
- Usable attic space above
Choices. A man always has choices. Well rather than choose golf over bicycling, or bicycling over golf … I combined the two.
Questions. A man always has questions. Where do I rate on the eccentricity scale? Is there anyone else in America riding an under-seat steering recumbent, towing a trailer, loaded with golf clubs while commuting to work?
I ordered the trailer from Nashbar a couple weeks ago. It arrived on Friday, and went out for a couple of shopping trips on Saturday. It rides smoothly, and is generally not noticed. I found that I do notice when:
- Riding uphill
- Riding downhill at better than 20 mph
- Encountering side winds
On Sunday I rode to Swan Lakes Golf Course, played 9, then continued on to Home Depot for some shopping. Today (Monday), I rode to work (5.5 miles). After work I rode to Swan Lakes (4 miles). I practiced at the driving range, and then rode home (6 miles).
Since it’s been a long winter without much bicycling, I can feel it. It was a workout.
I can’t say how long I’ve been practicing Marian McPartland’s Twilight World. Months and months! The transcription is 8 pages long. For some time now, I’ve had pages 6,7, and 8 memorized. But I’ve been stuck on page 5 for quite some time. I suspect that practice technique (or lack thereof) are to blame, but I have been stuck! Finally yesterday morning was breakthrough. The bottom 3/4 of Page 5 works without referring to the transcription.
I have a lot to learn about memorization, and I still find it somewhat frightening … because honestly, once it is done, the playing of the song is some kind of miracle.
I wish I could get into another musicians head, and see how he or she thinks!
Despite it all, my memorized repertoire is growing. I need to tackle the top bit of page five with rigor, and see if I can speed the process along. Twilight world is such a beautiful tune, I’m not bored with it, but it would be nice to grow the repertoire faster!
Good grief.
I accidentally deleted the previous post, thinking I was deleting a comment. Where is my backup? Well … I didn’t contact my webhost.
I copied and pasted from the cached version that Google had, then updated the post date using mysql.
Here’s the google search I used to find the item:
site:blog.duanemcguire.com sketchup
Google seems to know just about everything.
I had the good fortune of attending a one day class on Google Sketchup on Thursday of last week. Good fortune, yes, because without some guided instruction, Sketchup was rather intimidating. In six hours, I learned far more than I could have on my own.
In the new house, I’m certain that pianos will move in and out from time to time. As such, I wanted a ramp from the garage floor to the kitchen. (This is the best route into the home for a piano) Commercially available aluminum and fiberglass ramps are prohibitively expensive, so I decided to build a wooden ramp specifically for this purpose.
Piano Man Meets Sketchup
Wow. Designing in 3D is pretty. Pretty intense too. To be fair, I’d already designed the geometry of the ramp using a CAD tool
The Old-Fashioned Way
But the sketchup tool makes a pretty picture, and with 3D, I actually got into the details. I was able to specify the specific joints for the plywood, and realized that a tapered hardwood shoe at the base of the point was needed. That was a detail that was going to wait for construction otherwise.
It was interesting to see that the modeling tool, in fact, improved the product.
If you install Google Sketchup, you may explore the model itself with this download.
Partly because I couldn’t resist (I like Chickerings!).
Partly because the Stieff project has been delayed.
Partly because I wanted to have a piano placed at Syracuse Arts Academy now … not later.
Partly because I’m looking forward to my next rebuild project.
Well all together, I did it!
I found this nice Chickering 5′4″ baby grand on Craig’s List in Denver. The seller was Steve Norris, a piano technician in the Denver area, who had the piano on consignment. It was a fun to purchase remotely from Steve, because I could understand very clearly what the piano was.
I drove over to Denver to get the piano. (Check my timing here. January might not be the best time to drive with a trailer to Denver.) With help from friends, the piano was setup in the school last Sunday. It fills the musical space of the school foyer very nicely.
The piano will be a great rebuild project, but also is quite playable right now. Tuning pins - which appear to be original are tight. Nate Griffith came over to the school on Friday and gave it his expert tuning. It does need some immediate attention also: The key tops were resurfaced with plastic, and the blacks were not raised, so that needs to be done. With the blacks too low, its not very nice to play. In addition there are notes in the mid-treble that need re-regulation. So I’m going to begin my education in grand regulation.
Hibernation? Death? Disaster? None of the above. Distraction.
Oh yes, I’ve been distracted. Following an interesting conversation with Terri, my wife, in October, we decided to shop for a suburban home that had a large shop to accomodate my woodworking and piano rebuilding activities. Working out of a storage unit was showing itself to be unfriendly to us both.
So we bought a house with room to build a shop and we’ve been busy with moving and updating the place at Pleasant View. It’s been hard to leave our beautiful condo on the golf course, but we are both enjoying being close to work. In the summer I expect to be enjoying a new shop!
The soundboard repairs are complete, and the board is just about ready for a finish coat of varnish. Today I started the notching work on the treble bridge. It was good work. I like it! I learned a thing or two. For some technical discussion, please see the discussion of this job at Piano World.