Getting to the Bottom of Things, and RAGBRAI

Now that all the upstairs floors are finished (except for two closets) I’ve spent the past week starting on baseboards. I dug out all the oak 1x6 that I had bought last winter and measured to make sure I’d have enough to do all of the upstairs. My rough estimate, which is high, is 225 linear feet. I have 244 linear feet of boards. I have 10 fourteen foot boards and 8 thirteen footers

To start I need to cut a 30 degree bevel on the 1x6 to match our first floor baseboards. Pete is on vacation this week, so I took all his saws.



After cutting the bevel I sanded the saw marks out with a random orbital sander. I had talked to the neighbors behind us, whose house is still for sale, about using their garage to stain and varnish boards, and they said “Sure.”

Here is my layout now. I have 6 thirteen footers finished with two coats of varnish. I stained the rest of the boards this afternoon and will start varnishing tomorrow.





It’s good we have upstairs semi finished, tomorrow night (Friday) we will be hosting 25 bicyclists from team DLO (old backwards) who are riding on RAGBRAI 34 this week (RAGBRAI is Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) Tomorrow is the last overnight in Coralville in their week long trek. Lisa rode today and will ride tomorrow. We have both done the ride in previous years, and it is a blast. Given the heat this week, I think most will opt to sleep inside rather than camp. We can easily get them in. I’m considering this an early tailgating experience.