I Say Punt

The skim-coating is done on the upper stairwell. The walls came out beautifully. Just as smooth as glass. I think I finally really understand how to plaster. Unfortunately, this understanding came just after I did the ceiling.

Since I don't do this sort of thing everyday, I must re-learn the process each time. Ceilings have the added difficultly of being over head. I just didn't get it as smooth I should have. I'm not sure whether to try and go over it again or to try and sand it smooth. I'm leaning towards sanding because I want to put on primer tomorrow.

If I can prime tomorrow then I can paint and put on picture rail mid week. That means I can dismantle the scaffolding next weekend. That would be really nice. Today after skim coating I made a lumber run to Almquist Lumber. They have a wonderful selection of wood. Many species I've never even heard of. Of course, I'm there for the redwood.

Towards the back of the second shed they always have a selection of salvage and new cut salvage redwood. The salvage stuff is just that. It has the occasional nail and comes in all kinds of odd sizes. The new cut salvage is where someone salvages an old log that was felled in the last century and saws it up. It is sold as rough-sawn lumber in full dimension. Just as in the olden days.

They had a good selection of 1X4 so I grabbed roughly 50-feet of it and headed to the register. When I got there I told the young guy behind the counter I had 3 8-footers, 2 6-footers, 1 7-footer, and a 5-footer. He tried to bring it up on the computer and couldn't find it. I said once again that it is was rough-sawn redwood from the back shed. He still couldn't find it in the system. A guy from the back office called out a few things to search on and none of it matched. I told him it wasn't marked, but he eventually hoofed it back to the shed to try and find a price.

After he came back up another guy tried to help. He has a air of management about him. That is a relative term at this lumber yard because everyone that works there looks more like they should be standing behind a saw instead of a cash register.

The 3 of us went back and forth measuring and remeasuring to try and figure out what this might be listed under in the computer. Everything here is sold by board-foot. It turns out that even though all of the boards were in the same stack I had actually grabbed two different things. The 8-footers where nicer and a little thicker than the other boards. This only complicated matters.

Finally, the manager guy said, “I say punt”. He is talking to the younger guy and he means just make something up. He points to me and says, “This guy's got better things to do than to stand around while we try and figure out what to charge him for lumber”. With that I chimed in, “Just give me a fair price and I'll pay it”.

The manager guy walked away and the younger guy typed something in to the computer. Eventually he looked up at me, and as if almost asking me he said, “$87.59”. I said, “Sold!”.

After lunch I milled it all in to 1X2 picture rail.