More Projects Installed

I spent most the week assembling custom windows which just involves opening boxes and following arcane instructions describing how to screw the things together. It is not very interesting or rewarding from a craft point of view. Oh well. You can't make cupolas and arched jambs every week, I suppose.

This afternoon after lunch, I did drive out to the west end to find a house where a couple of my past projects have been installed. You may recall the big PVC entrance head and pilasters from a couple of months ago. Below, you can see it installed. It's weird how the scale of this kind of thing changes based on its setting. In the shop, this assembly seemed massive. In place, one would hardly notice it.



The curved staircase I made back in the early summer is installed in the same house. I was shocked to find it in such abominable condition on the job site. The picture below was taken the day the staircase left the shop.


...and this one was snapped at the site about two hours ago. As I look at this, I shudder to think of the time I spent carefully filling brad holes and sanding, and sanding, and sanding. Maybe it'd be better if I didn't go visit these things after they're installed!

Arched Jamb Heads Complete

This afternoon I finished a set of five poplar arched jamb heads with wide trim and key blocks. Below is the largest of the heads.


One of my coworkers built box columns which will wrap rough openings on the job site. The heads I made will then sit on top of the columns. You'll get a sense of what I mean in the picture below.


Three of the heads were the same size. There was one wider head and one narrower one as you can see. I wonder why people always want this kind of thing at a paint-grade level of finish? I think it would be fun to make some of these from walnut or cherry.


I had never really built anything like these before. The project involved a great deal of radius work on the shaper; the trim that you see on the face of each arch above is comprised of six curved elements in addition to the straight runs and the key block. You can get a sense of what I mean in the picture below which shows the pieces before they were assembled.


I don't know yet what my next project will be, but you'll hear about it when I find out. In the meantime, if you're reading this and you'd like any more detail about this or any of the past projects, please email me and I'll very happily respond. Likewise, if you do similar work--or indeed any kind of craft--I'd love to hear about it and see some pictures, too.

Cupolas Installed!

After work today I drove out to the east end to see if the cupolas had been installed. They had been, and the general contractor was kind enough to climb three or four ladders with me so we could go have a look. Here are a few pictures of the cupolas where I hope they'll be for a long time to come.






Tomorrow I plan to post extensively about the arched door jambs I'm wrapping up at the beginning of next week.