Beech wood fires are bright and clear,
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut’s only good, they say,
If for long its laid away.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
Elm wood burns like a churchyard mold,
Even the very flames are cold.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense like perfume.
Oak and maple, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter cold.
But ash wood wet and ash wood dry,
A king shall warm his slippers by.
The picture above shows the dark walnut color we stained the load bearing beam and boxed in poles. We used Minwax dark walnut for this, and decided a second coat would look better after the first application was on. We were right. It is gorgeous and we are thinking of doing the door trim in this color as well.
Sorry its been so long since the last update. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote about the basement, the most exciting of which being that Sarah is pregnant! That great news puts a definite timeline on finishing the basement. July 11. But a lot has to happen to accomplish this:
1. The leak at the bulkhead is back, and its coming from the top of the stairs where concrete has broken away over the years.
2. We purchased 5 door trim casings to frame in all the doors in the basement. Those need to be stained (or painted) and hung.
3. Quarter mouldings for the corners of the room where the sheet rock doesn’t quite meet. These need to be stained as well.
4. The door to the bulkhead needs to be trimmed about 1 1/2 – 2 inches to properly clear the drop ceiling and accommodate the height of the floor.
5. At this point, the floor can be laid, which is the big obstacle here. Once the floor is down, we can start moving furniture down there to open up room for a nursery upstairs next to the master bedroom.
6. 120 feet of baseboard moulding need to be purchased and installed along the entire basement. We are currently leaning towards a 5 1/2 – 6 inch tall moulding to give it more of a country feel and to help make the basement appear smaller. Also, it will hide more of my mistakes.
7. The wall behind the wood stove is going to be finished with a rectangular slate stone given to us (thankfully) by Sarah’s father. I’d like to do this before we lay the floor, but it doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
I hope to update this site more frequently after the holidays, so stay tuned!
