I've been asking for help

64 degrees - hurricane Sandy is not in the area yet and I had dry but windy weather for most of the day.

Yes, I've been asking for help from the girls all week and finally I got some.

Get to work!

Over the past couple days I painted all of the pillars and the extra foam material that I have with paint from the home center that costs only seven dollars.  It was possibly mixed incorrectly for a customer but was now cheap and I like how it looks - mostly gray with a little hint of green, which will be a nice base coat for a concrete or stone facade.  I also found a great deal on flat black spray paint for only ninety seven cents per can.  It took me eleven cans to cover the iron fence.

Painted the faces, sides, bottom and back.

Took a while to paint all of this.

I thought about painting Lucy black but she just had a bath.

Iron fencing finally looking a little like actual iron.

If you know me you know how much I like the pile of scrap wood that I had sitting on two pallets and under a tarp in the driveway that was leftover from the Pointed Playhouse project last year.  Without any prodding from those I live with I went through the stack and hauled eighty percent of it to the curb where it will be picked up on Monday by the city.

Can't believe I kept all of this so long.

I then broke apart the wood from the pallets, which I wanted to use to make a couple wood grave markers.  The rough sawn lumber used in the pallets is perfect to give the markers an old look.  I printed out several examples from the Internet and ended up making my own pattern that is similar to one in the picture below.

You can see the shape that I was going for in this image.

It takes a long time harvesting the wood by removing the rusted nails and cutting off the checked ends before I can work with the power tools.  Once the wood was cleaned up I was able to draw a pattern on one piece and use that to duplicate what I wanted on the others.  A little sanding, gluing and nailing and the grave markers came together.

Stacked pieces cut and sanded with the rough side up.

Cutting at the band saw.

These are the remaining boards that may turn in to a couple more markers.

It started to rain a little as one of the bands of the hurricane brushed by Hampton Roads but I was able to take my level and run out front and pound the two crosses into the ground.  I then grabbed the wheel barrow and shovel and made it look like Halloween was approaching.

The first two of hopefully many grave markers.

The caretaker's house behind the graveyard.

Lots of work still to do.

Well, that's about all for now.  We are headed off to the Greek Festival tonight and hurricane Sandy will be getting closer over the next couple days.  I'll probably be applying paint to the pillars to make them look old, fabricating headstones, making a costume for Lauren and helping Devon decorate the caretaker's house over the coming days.  More later.

Suddenly there came a tapping

75 degrees - another beautiful day working on the cemetery, but first...

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more." -- E. A. Poe

I opened the garage door early this morning and immediately noticed that a raven came calling.  Actually, it is a crow but still an omen of things to come.  

Tap, tap...who's there?  Mr. Raven's cousin the crow.

Fast forward - later in the day the girls got off the bus and I began telling them that something really bad happened today.  I was attacked by an animal.  Of course they asked what happened and then I told them my Daddy truth - a raven come down from the sky and attacked me.  They quickly said that they don't believe me.  I then explained that I gave it a kick like in the Karate Kid movie and showed that bird who was more evolved.  They then said - sure...where is the raven.  I said it was over there in the trash and they went to go look.  They were amazed!
Okay back to mortal earth.  I printed a Fleur de Lis symbol that I found on the internet and enlarged it to a size that would be nice as a form in the center of the pillars.  The paper was glued to a piece of Russian Baltic birch plywood and I cut the pieces out on the band saw while listening to Fleetwood Mac with my hearing protection on.

Sanding after much time at the band saw.

Ready to go on the pillars.

I then glued and nailed the symbols onto the pillars, wiped the excess glue off and primed them with the white paint.

The next step in the instructions was to prepare the balusters, which had to be cut to length on both ends and ripped in half.  I created a jig to hold the pieces in my large cross cut sled that I built several years ago from wood that was found after a hurricane.  It took a little while to rip all of them because I had to stop the saw each time one was cut so that I could reset the sled and place a new baluster into the jig.

First the ends were cut to length and a point was created at the bottom.

Ripped in half down the middle.

A look at the jig in the sled.

Placing a fresh baluster in the jig.

A long board was then ripped into long pieces that are somewhat square similar to the dimensions of real iron fence material and then I did a little math to determine the placement of the balusters across these long strips of wood.  Two pieces were nailed at the bottom and one at the top to finish off a section of fencing.

Now you can see how much work this was but it is an important part of the cemetery fence.

The pillars and fencing was setup for the moment so that I can see how it is going to look.  The top fence run was attached to the pillars with an "L" bracket that can be easily removed for storage later.

Temporarily setup in the driveway - not enough room for a continuous run.

Looking down the fence - needs paint, cobwebs and frightened kids.

A closeup of the Fleur de Lis

Hello again.

I'm not sure how much time I will get away from work tomorrow.  I was called and emailed several times today and had to conduct another interview.  But Halloween is coming fast and all of this needs paint.  Not to mention the latest weather forecast that now shows that we will get a brushing from hurricane Sandy.

Take a right Sandy.

Oh well, I'll try to get as much done as I can but hope that the girls can do a little decorating in the playhouse too.  We should get rain on Saturday and Sunday and possible Monday and then high winds on Tuesday, which is really my setup day for the entire cemetery.  I may have to paint in the garage or possibly the screened in porch if I have no other choice.  We will see.

Pillar Fabrication

78 degrees - enough to get a little burn.

I continued work on the pillars that will go between the faux iron fencing and the entrance to the cemetery.  There was a little bit of work done to sand all sides of the boxes and to route a round-over detail on the edges.  The carcasses (the scariest word that Norm Abram uses) then received a coat of primer.

Vacuum off after sanding and routing and before the primer paint goes on.

Carcasses!

Sorry, no pictures of the boxes with just the primer.

I picked up two inch thick foam from the home center for $14 per 4x8 sheet, which is much less than the $48 sheets available at a professional insulation supply store.  The only problem was that the density of this foam is less than optimal and it makes a big mess when I cut into it.  The first step was to cut the foam to rough dimensions for the top of each pillar that will hopefully look like a stone or concrete cap.

Cutting to rough dimension.

A test fit - about a one inch overhang.

It is interesting that I pass by a cemetery on my way to and from the home center; I glance over each time looking at some of the details of the pillars and headstones.  The caretaker at that cemetery decided on very flat tops to the pillars and I thought I would do something a little different by cutting a little off of the top edges.

Lot of dangerous blade exposed - scary.

The large band saw table at an angle with my homemade fence.

Oops - the foam turned up on end comes in contact with the wheel that I use to raise the guide on the saw.

Simple, just remove the wheel for the moment.

It now clears.

A stack of caps.

I then added some trim to each of the pillars that I thought would frame the faces nicely.  The bottom piece is cut at a fifteen degree angle and is a little more than an inch in depth and the upper frame is thin plywood that I ripped down on the table saw and mitered the corners before gluing and nailing.

Made a guide to ensure the pieces are even.

Working away on the trim detail.

Another closeup shot of the glue bottle and glue on wood (for those who like glue).

I was not too sure about the next step but thought that an exterior Spackling would give the caps a concrete or stone look and therefore I bought a large bucket that was in an almost liquid form so that I can easy spread it like cake frosting.  I also picked up five styrofoam spheres from a local craft store for the top of each pillar.  The ten inch spheres were $16 and the six inch ones were $6 so guess which ones I bought.

A little like a cake.

Stacking them to dry.

Close up of the surface - looks a little like concrete.

The first sphere gets painted with Spackling.

Even the holes look like concrete or stone.

Pillars getting ready to scare the kids.

A little more than three feet tall.

As the day ended I primed the trim that was added to the boxes and let them dry overnight.  I'll be able to determine what finish colors to go with and make them look a little aged during the day tomorrow.

An earlier picture but it shows you what I'm going for.

The first game of the World Series has started so I'm going to gander at that for a while and plan to take the day off tomorrow to hopefully get the pillars done and start work on the faux iron fence.

Iron paint and a few boxes

67 degrees today and very sunny weather.  Nice.

Today was productive.  I trimmed and sanded the supports behind the letters and then primed and painted the entire piece that will go above the entrance to the cemetery.

Sanding the supports after a little trimming.

First coat of black paint after priming.

Painted on both sides.

Grey raven looking too dark.

Back in the garage to dry overnight.

Raven and bottom detail.

I was then able to decide on the dimensions of the wood cabinets that will be used as pillars between the faux iron fence.  I have a rough drawing with a large orb on top that will probably be made out of foam material and painted to look like old concrete.  Here is how the boxes went together.

Boxes coming together.

Gluing and shooting some finish nails.

Hard to see but the rough sketch is at the left. (paper).

Yes, this is what glue looks like.

Placing the bottom on the box.

Finishing with finish nails.

And finally the back goes on the box.

Most of this wood was from the playhouse last year and I really needed to get rid of it.  The next task will be to prime and paint the boxes and possibly add some detail to make them look like actual cemetery pillars.

I asked Devon to take a few pictures and she also took a couple of the skeleton that I have in the tree.

Hello...

Come back later...

Yikes!