Working on the house this week was a lot of odds and ends.

I continued building the shelf for behind the wood stove in the living room.

I decided to glue up the shelf top first then glue the back pieces to it.  My primary reason for glueing it in that order is because the mitre joint on the top is the weakest joint in the assembly and it is the one that must be glued perfectly or the defects will show.  So I decided to use a biscuit to strengthen it some.

The biscuit will not make it super-strong, but it should provide enough rigidity to be able to turn it over a few times as Tina finishes it.  Once it is hung on the wall, physics will take over and the strength of the mitre joint will not matter.

Glueing the top of the shelf together ended up being a lot easier than I expected.  a clothespin clamp on the corner made sure the tops were aligned properly and a plywood gusset allowed me to clamp it perfectly square.

Next up was glueing the back pieces on.  They required a lot of clamps, but were really not too bad to get the miters to line up and keep them square.

I wanted to let it dry overnight before I unclamped it but could not resist test fitting it after about 4 hours.

It came out exactly as I wanted and seems pretty strong.  The next day, after it had a full 24 hours to cure, I lifted myself up on it and it did not even creak or groan.

The next day, I made the moldings for the edges of the tile and Tina finished them.  They are just a simple “L” shape molding with a round over on the corners showing.

I had to glue them in place with construction adhesive because neither one was anywhere close to a stud.  One side, I had to hold in place with blue tape, the other I was least to rig up a couple clamps to hold it while the adhesive dried.

The final product came out looking pretty dang good I think!

With that, the true woodworking on the house is done – kind of a bitter-sweet moment for me.

I spent the rest of last weekend finishing up the molding.  First on the pocket door in the master bedroom…

Then the rest of the baseboard in the rest of the house.

I finished the baseboard about noon last Saturday.  As soon as it was done I got a cup of coffee and went out on the back porch and sat down and realized M. T. Acres is done.  We do still have the tile backsplash to do in the kitchen, which we are doing this coming weekend, plus a bunch of other stuff.  But for all intents and purposes, our home is as complete as it needs to be to support us comfortably.

For about the first 5 minutes I was sitting there, I was basking in the glow of a job well done.  Then, all at once, every ache and pain that I have been ignoring for the last 14 months came upon me (with interest).  My entire body hurt like hell but I was still grinnin’ like an idiot.  We did it.  We built a home.

Epilogue 

I will continue to make posts to the M. T. Acres blog as we continue our transition to a MUCH better life in rural AZ.  But the frequency will be less.  I will post the pictures of next weekend’s tile job of course.  But then I am taking the monsoon season off, so you may not see much for a month or so.

After that, Tina has more than a few project planned for me:

And those are just for the house.  She did not include the “outbuildings” which include an “Art Shack” for Tina to do her sewing, drawing, painting etc. (that is the next one), a “Cook Shack” for us to smoke and grill meat, make sausage, and entertain friends and ourselves and a chicken coop.

So stay tuned, there is a lot more detailed woodworking and construction coming up, plus a bit of commentary.

But thanks for following us through this adventure.  It has been my dream and Tina’s nightmare.