My, That Redwood Looks Nice

Way back in March when I posted my first entry, I kicked off my contribution to our story by talking about pulling down the wood paneling that covered just about every wall in the house. As wood lovers, the original owners hadn't messed around with drywall. And why would you when your family is in the lumber business and you've got access to great quality wood. I can't say Ann or I shared that love quite to the extent of full coverage, but we did recognize the quality of the stuff and that there was an opportunity in those walls.

With the help of my dad, we pulled every panel off the walls. Then, working with the architect, we worked the paneling back into the new house. The most impressive of the wood was the redwood that surrounded the entry way and great room/living room/dining room (i.e. room with all the windows). The bedrooms were all covered in Doug Fir and that strange room coming in from the garage was full of knotty pine.

Working with Ryan, we decided to selectively place the wood in only three places in the house. There was symmentry in this as the walls with wood would only be on the North/South axis. The walls that we would add stone to, including the front of the house would all run the East/West axis. Pretty cool, I thought.

The showpiece of the wood application would be the staircase. We would place the redwood there as well as at the end of the hall, and hopefully if we had enough, on a wall in the guest bathroom.

All the wood was sent off to a mill to be planed down. Essentially that just means it was sanded down on one side to remove all the stain. We got all that back a few weeks back and the carpenters worked their magic. Early last week, the staircase started going up...



Pretty cool application, I think. We turned the paneling on its side and went horizontally. Ryan drew in the fins on each side of that front wall, which turned out well. We'll eventually do a final sanding and put a clear coat on top.

Up next was the wall at the end of the hall. Not as impressive in size, but does bookend the staircase nicely.



The challenge we're now faced with is that we're most likely going to run short of redwood. It doesn't look like we'll be able to carry the redwood up the staircase and do the wall on the second level. We'll also probably have to use the Doug Fir in the bathroom. But, we haven't gotten there yet.

These pics serve a couple pursposes....



They show all the wood that's left. The biggest pile is the knotty pine, which we really don't intend on using. Closer to the fireplace is what's left of the redwood. Not much, but we'll see if we can make any thing of it. And remember that Doug Fir? We'll, 50% of that got milled down to be used as trim throughout the house. So, if you look at the windows in that room, all the trim around them is the Doug Fir paneling from the original house. The baseboards and trim around the doors in the other pics are that Doug Fir as well.

So, we're not quite finished yet, but it's fun to see the re-use come into play and how good it looks. Hopefully we'll get the rest of the walls finished up this week, but as usual, we'll see.

Next post will be back in the cold of home. That's it from warm and sunny So Cal. Ah, warm and sunny....