It would appear I’ve either forgotten how to link these two blogs by editing them into a series or it’s not letting me. In either case, I thought I would do some editing here to provide a bit more context.

I think it was appropriate to provide this second blog as a balance. It occurred to me that I didn’t want this to be a rant. It was intended to show a project for the perusal of this audience as a curiousity and not to be some whining complaint.

In the spirit of providing this balance I did want to make two comments.

In tooting my own horn, I designed this ceiling system with “designers” drawings that contained alot of generalities (when things got too hard to draw, they were sort of glossed over.) From a distance of about 250 miles, i.e., there was no way I could just go measure something if I wasn’t sure what it was, I was gratified in how well the ceiling went in. There were really no major screw ups. In went in as it was intended.

Second, I designed in systems for covering “sins.” The building was all over the place, so I made sure there was a way to cover up gaps and cock-eyed-ness, etc. without it looking like cover ups. Giving credit to the union boys, they installed it in such a way as to NOT need scribe that was provided.

If you can imagine….each frame with the panels is 5/4’s and was approx. 6 1/2” away from things like the trusses and other adjoining frames and panels. A 7” wide 4/4 board then overlayed that by 3/8” ( in the first photo you can see where some of that has not been installed yet and you can see exposed plywood.) Some of the trusses were several inches out of whack as were windows and other things. We made scribe to go between this 4/4 board and anything it might be out of whack with. Again, to the credit of the union boys, they installed it by scribing each 4/4 board and NO scribe was used. It looks very good that way.

That’s what I wanted to put in here for balance.

End of Edit:

While I’m still not happy about the union situation, I’m posting this as an update to my previous blog. It shows some of the progress on the Cog Hill Golf Course project install we should have been doing. They’ve done a good job overall, but, not without screwing some stuff up.

Anyway, it is appropriate to show the job they have done so far.

This is showing one of the main ceiling sections almost complete. Yes, the lense is dirty.

This is one of the dormer details.

They are working on the main floor right now. I have no pics of the walnut columns or crown yet. If I never see this room again, it will be too soon.

(sorry about the sour grapes…but I’ve never been one to hold back.)

The room is about 60’ long by 40’ wide. The ceiling is about 25’ tall at the peak. The roof is a mansard style inside and out. So the frame and panel system has three seperate planes to work in. The first at the crown line is vertical for about 3’. Then it tilts off vertical maybe 25 degrees or so and about 6’ tall to the upper section that goes about 60 or so degrees off horizontal for about 15’ or so. This occurs on both sides as well as the ends.

This will be attempt at posting a pic….so we’ll see….

This is supposed to be a pic of the ceiling (before any demo started.)

So this is the end ‘til I see what happens.

Well, I guess you’ll just have to click on the link to see anything. I don’t know if this will be a series or not. It all depends on whether I stick with it or not.

The install is supposed to last about two months. If i come back, I have more pics.

O.K. So, I may be getting the hang of this. Here are a few more now pics.

This would be the mantle we did awhile back.

Close-up.

And this would be one of about 12 columns. They’ll be covered in hand scraped walnut. The same walnut will be used for crown around the perimeter at the top of the columns. Matching base at the bottom. I’ll have to get pics of the attached room (that is also being done. Fortunately, it is of normal height and proportions.)

The columns were right at 12’ tall. It got to be a real problem getting 12’ lumber. There are strategic seams where we could put them. In some cases we had to use full 12’ lengths.

The really ugly window coverings are being replaced with Valances ( hand scraped walnut of course) glued up into rather wides pieces. I have no pics of them yet.

One of these days I might vent about all the problems we’ve encountered. We were given conceptual drawings. I didn’t know this when we started. Turns out the “designer” isn’t an architect and “we” were supposed to do the actual shop drawings. After about 4 months of building, we were suddenly faced with changes based on what they found during the actual demo. FYI, the golf course is open all year until January. They are supposed to open back up March 1st. So all this is supposed to take place within that time. Little did they know they would find roof leaks, dry rot, ceiling hieght changes in some lower portions of the rooms(after the columns were already made), etc.

I believe that would be all until things get going.

if for some reason you are offended by shadow references to profanity be forewarned to read no further. While not explicit, the references are obvious. This also applies to a select group of people and does not generalize. While it is not uncommon behavior, I know not all people in the groups I refer to, necessarily act the same way.

Rather than start the next in a series blog, I figured I’d just edit this one….since this is the end of this blog.

Got to Chicago…...and guess what? some union rat f—- decided he’d call his union and tell them scabs were at the job site.

Backstory: Job is headed by paper contractor, non-union. Site is privately owned. Union Rat f—- has done work there before and convinced the owners he was worthwhile. Union rat f—- commie s.o.b. was working on this job also and was consulted on whether it would present any problem that “we”, the non-union scabs, were coming to install our product. We were told….”No problem.” We got set up to pressure the owners.

We get there, unload the Butternut ceiling (walnut is at the finishers), unloaded our tools, set up our scaffolding, when ….guess who comes walking in? Union rat f—- commie steward. Typical conversation ensued…they thought they had the authority to tell us that we couldn’t be there, it had to be done by union labor, etc., etc.

Long story short, we like and are liked by the owners. The union doesn’t have any authority over us. But, any trouble we might make would cause the owners problems, not the union. Threats of pulling union golf outings, pickets lines, no more garbage pick-up, calling their paid-off OSHA buddies to fine us tens of thousands of dollars for “violations”, etc., would only cause the owners problems. So we packed up and left.

We lined up a union company we’d met in downtown chicago that we knew would do a good job. They’re nice guys…..they gave us a tour of their job, we, the same, they even borrowed some time on our table saw, etc. They do good work. Turns out the commie union rat f—- at the site didn’t even want them there….he wants to pressure the owners to only use his union guys.

America….land of the free….where you can do what you want for a living, where you want to do it, and when.

Bull.

As far as I’m concerned these particular people should be tried as traitors to the United States and executed. If one of them had waved an American flag at me I would’ve beat him ‘til he was a vegatable.

They claim they’re Americans, yet, they’re telling us that we can only do what they say, where, and when. AND we have to pay them to do it (more commonly know as extortion or protection money.) They WOULD allow us to buy in for just this job. For our crew of 5 guys, $10,000 just to get in the “system”, $1400 per person, $13/hr extra for each person on top of the wages…..for union benefits we would never get, 2 union workers for every two of ours, taxes on all that extra pay, each employee would also have to pay the annual dues plus a percentage of the prevailing wages we would make. And all this from people who took all day to put up 3 sheets of drywall on a 9’ high ceiling with a man-lift.

End of rant/End of Blog….is has to be, because if I continue, I’ll go back there and make them wish they were never born. If for some reason someone here decides all this is not appropriate for this site, please feel free …..yes…free….to delete it. It’s not my site, per se, and I respect your right to run your business as you see fit.