I thought it would be interesting to see how much money we saved every year with the wood stove.  There are several factors involved in this, namely, the heat value of the wood we are burning, the efficiency of the wood stove, the heat value of the oil we are burning,  the efficiency of the boiler and the cost for the fuel.

fire wood

According to Woodheating.org, (linked to by the DOE wood heating web site), black cherry contains 23,500,000 BTU/cord (assumes >20% moisture).  A cord measures 4 x 4 x 8 feet.  Of course, these numbers are approximations, but for my purposes, they will work.

My wood stove is 74% efficient, according the the manufacture’s data sheet.  Therefore, I get 23,500,000 BTU  x .74  = 17,390,000 BTU heat per cord of cherry firewood.

My Furnace is 84.5% efficient, according to the last time it was serviced.  A gallon of heating oil contains 139,000 BTU.  Therefore, I get 139,000 BTU x .845 = 117,455 BTU heat per gallon of oil.

If I burned a whole cord of wood this year, I generated 17,390,000  BTUs of heat for my house.  I therefore avoided using 17,390,000 BTU ÷ 117,455 BTU/Gallon oil = 148 Gallons oil.

I get my fire wood for free.  Heating oil costs about $2.76/gallon, so I saved 148 gallons x $2.76/per gallon = $408.63 which is a little too precise.  I’d say $408 ±5% to account for imprecise qualities of cord wood and wood moisture content.

We are almost out of fire wood for this year, on account of it being cold.  Next year when the solar heaters are attached to the side of the house, it will be interesting to see how much oil is saved.

I don’t think we have a huge problem since most of the walls were covered with wall paper. Once we removed all the wall paper, the wall board underneath was patched up and painted and then re-coated with latex based paints. All of the windows except the large living room window have been replaced and all of the trim and moldings have been replaced. Much of the dry wall inside the kitchen, living room and second bathroom has also been replaced. Still, it is a concern.

A little history on Lead Paint; for centuries, the primary white pigment in paints was white lead carbonate, (2PbCO₃·Pb(OH)₂), one of the oldest pigments known. Red lead was once popular as a primer. Many countries banned lead in residential paint early in the 20th century. Despite mounting evidence of the effects of its use, lead was still used in paints in US until the danger became too widely known to be ignored. After the 1978 ban, paint manufacturers replaced lead with other ingredients, such as barium sulfate and titanium dioxide.

Although lead improved the performance of paint, lead is extremely toxic to living organisms. It is especially dangerous to children under age six whose bodies are still developing. Lead causes nervous system damage, hearing loss, stunted growth, reduced IQ, and delayed development. It can cause kidney damage. Lead affects every organ system of the body. It also is dangerous to adults, and can cause reproductive problems in adult men. One myth related to lead-based paint is that the most common cause of poisoning was eating leaded paint chips. In fact, the most common pathway of childhood lead exposure is through ingestion of lead dust through normal hand-to-mouth contact during which children swallow lead dust dislodged from deteriorated paint or leaded dust generated during remodeling or painting. Lead dust from remodeling or deteriorated paint lands on the floor near where children play and can ingest it.

What this means for owner’s of older homes is that more likely than not, there are some areas with lead paint in your house. I would be particularly wary of painted plaster walls. Disturbing the painted walls by either cutting them, sanding or removing them will create dust born lead which can be ingested by breathing or by hand to mouth contact.

When working on areas that may have lead paint it is important that a HEPA filter type mask be worn and any area cleanup is done with a HEPA filter equipped vacuum cleaner. When in doubt, better to treat the area as lead contaminated.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) has a good web site about Lead Paint Test Kits Again, better to be safe now then sorry latter.

A few weeks ago I had the idea of putting some crown molding around the tops of the kitchen cabinets. Spruce things up a little bit. Then, I thought, why not cover the tops of the cabinets with some pine and make the two sets of cabinets join over the sink with a shelf. And then I though, hey, I should put a light in over the sink, I could fish the wires through the insulation filled wall. Nah, I don’t need a light over the sink.

But I did do the other things. Yesterday I went to Lowes with my daughter and bought the crown molding and 1 X 10 pine boards. Unfortunately, the cabinets are 12 1/2 inches wide, so no combination of dimensional lumber would fit that width, so I had to rip a board into narrow strips to fill in the 2 3/4 inch gap. I attached the pine to the top of the cabinet with 1 5/8 inch screws and large fender washers.

This is the section of the house that was jacked up to replace the sill and the flooring system. Needless to say, there are no 90 degree angles, so some custom fitting of the pine boards was needed. Basically, it looks like the wall has a 1/8 inch bulge in the middle, near the window. I used the planner to take that much off and fooled around with it some, eventually I got everything to fit.

Now for the fun part, cutting the crown molding. Jay did a good “How to cut crown molding post” a few months ago. That has some good reference material, if you are looking for a how to post. This is more like a here is something I did post. This is a good “How to cut crown molding website” if you really have some hard corners to cut.

I started off laying the molding flat on the miter saw and using the 31.5 degree miter/33.9 degree bevel settings. This worked great for the outside 90 degree angles. Then I came to the two inside 45 degree angles and things went down hill. I got caught up in some online chart that gave me a 16.32 degree miter/15.7 degree bevel. That didn’t work. Finally, after confirming that the angle really was 45 degrees (I began to have doubts) with my digital protractor, I put the crown molding in the miter saw exactly as it was going to be attached to the cabinet and used a 22.5 degree cut (1/2 of 45 degrees). It was a little difficult to hold it exactly there, so I used a small clamp. That did the trick.

All and all, I like the way it looks. When spring comes and I can open a few windows, I will finish it off to match the rest of the kitchen cabinets.

Wielding the chain saw, I cut about 10 inches of material off of the top of the stump. From that, I was able to slice two pieces, each about 4.5 inches thick. If you want to make one of these, us a soft wood like pine or spruce. The problem with hard woods is that they will check (crack) and then you have a less than solid table. I made two of these from Maple a few years ago, and they both have large checks in them.

Next I planed the slices of stump off until they were relatively level. The Bosch power planer works very well for this. Then I put both stump slices near the dehumidifier in the basement to dry out. They stayed that way for a month or more, after which I lightly planed them again, then used course (60 grit) sand paper to remove all of the plane marks. I again put them near the dehumidifier and began to work on the support frame.

For the support frame I used 1 x 2 inch and 1 x 4 inch clear pine. You can build any type of frame you like, I used this design because it is easy, sturdy, and goes with the whole rustic, country living theme. The legs and cross braces are made from the 1 x 2 inch pine. To find the height, I measured an end table and used that is my guide. The legs are 24 inches tall.

The support frame is made from 1 x 4 inch pine. This is where things can get a little subjective. I put the slice of stump on my work bench and decided which way I would like it to face if I were to stand in front of it. Then, using the edge of the work bench as my front guide, I slid a T square along the table until the square hit the side of the stump and marked that spot. Then I did the same thing on the other side, and marked that spot. I measured the distance between the two marks and came up with 18 1/2 inches.

I cut two 18 1/2 inch pieces of 1 x 4 pine and two pieces of 1 x 2 pine for the table sides and cross braces.

I glued the legs and side pieces together using Titebond III waterproof wood glue, allowing them to dry over night. I used short drywall screws counter sunk to secure all the parts while the glue dried. I placed the completed legs upside down on the table, with the stump slice. I squared everything up once more with the T square and measured for the table front and rear pieces. They were 19 1/2 inches long. Once the legs were dry, I glued the front and back pieces on, again using counter sunk screws and let the whole thing dry for several days. When the entire frame was assembled, I covered the screw heads with wood putty.

I sanded the completed frame, and finished sanding the stump slice ending with 220 grit paper.

I decided to try my hand at making some sort of design on the table top. I like my “indifferent sun” logo, so I used a router to cut that into the top of the stump slice. I cut out the circle first and the bit depth was a little too much. When I cut the rest, I move the bit up about 1/16 of an inch or so. Then I used some black latex paint to accent the router cuts and re-sanded the top to get rid of any mistakes with the paint.

For finishing, I used Watco Teak Oil. I am off of polyurethane, especially on unstained wood. It yellows with time, and unless you want that effect, can be a little disturbing. The Teak Oil is a rub on finish, it takes several hours to dry into a nice smooth satin finish. If desired you can apply a top coat like polyurethane after 72 hours, but I like it with just the Teak Oil finish.

I attached the table top to the frame with 1/4 by 5 inch lag bolts and washers. All done! Now I just need to decide what to do with it.

We are having a little lull right now, but it is supposed to start raining again soon. Unfortunately, the rain came as all the leaves were falling, so every gutter and surface drain was clogged, which led to a large back yard puddle. I took opportunity to clean out the gutters before the rain returned. We are the definitely in a wet period, as we have had at least five instances of receiving over 4 inches of rain in a 24 hour period since August of 2005. The last one was in June, when several people in Sullivan county were killed because there house was washed away by creek.

The creek at the end of our road is flowing fast and furious. When I went to the store around 11 am, it was almost over the small bridge, it which point the town closes the road and we become marooned.

To give credit where credit is due, I saw this on “Ask this Old House” recently and thought I would try it.

Because of the settling, we have two doors that no longer latch when they are closed. I wanted to fix these sooner, however, I also wanted to make sure the settling process was done. The two doors in question are right next to each other, one is the living room coat closet, the other is the kitchen pantry.

There are three ways to fix this problem:

1. Remove the trim, and remove the entire pre-hung door assembly and reinstall it. That sounds like a lot of work.

2. Move the door striker either up or down so that the door latch will catch it again, but then you will see the area where the door striker used to be.

3. Or you can adjust the door by putting spacers or shims between the hinges and the door frame

I went to several hardware stores to buy some hinge spacers. These are plastic forms cut out to the size and shape of a door hinge that are used shim the hinges. Nobody had any and nobody knew what I was talking about. So I made my own from some thin cardboard. It was fairly easy, first I removed the bottom half of one of the hinges that was set in the door frame, then I traced several outlines on a piece of thin cardboard and cut them out with a knife.

Looking at the top of the door, one side was lower than the other and the door did not look square in the frame. Since it was the side opposite the hinges, I put the shims in the bottom and middle hinge, leaving the top hinge alone. I was hoping that this would make the door more aligned with the frame. The coat closet door in the living room is way off. I put 5 cardboard hinge spacers in the bottom hinge and 3 spacers in the middle hinge.

The door still will not catch. I looked at the frame itself and there are several questionable places where the door jamb is not aligned. I know the house has settled, but I don’t think it settled that much. There are no cracks in the drywall or other signs of problems. In short, I think the contractor installed a defective door. At some point I may purchase another pre-hung door and install it myself, but for now I will leave it alone.

The pantry door was not that far off. I put four spacers in the bottom hinge and two in the middle hinge, leaving the top hinge alone. That did the trick, the door now looks like it is square in the frame, the door latch meets the striker plate correctly and latches.

So, I have a 50 percent success rate with the method described on “Ask this Old House.” It might have been better if the contractor had detected the defective door and ordered another one instead of installing it.