Sticks & Stones :: 802.505.5203 Greg Wallace

The Blue Ranch House…

greg — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:46:55 +0000

This 1970′s ranch is located up high with an amazing view across to some wooded mountains. The first phase of this project is to replace the current windows with much longer ones. The new 63″ high casement windows will extend down to about 14″ above the floor, providing a nice sweeping view. The windows on the south side of the house will have a coating that allows much more solar gain than a traditional low-E coating to help lower heating costs. The master bedroom and living room will each have a triple set of 37″x63″ windows. Additionally we will be adding a partition wall and moving a few others to create a new bedroom and a mudroom.

blue ranch before photo

living room windows before and after in progress

bedroom windows before and after in progress

side by side comparison of new view with larger window on the left

Flood repair in Waterbury…

greg — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:12:52 +0000

To state the obvious, what a disaster. The house is a 3 family rental. It belongs to clients who I have worked for over the years doing small projects to make the apartments nicer for the tenants. Luckily there were no tenants when the flood happened. Unluckily we were 2 weeks away from doing a medium sized renovation when the flood happened.

When the Winooski overran it’s banks the houses on this street were filled with water up to the 1st floor windowsills. The basements were of course full, and in this house the heating oil tanks tipped over and an environmental cleanup was necessary. We filled 5-6 20 yard dumpsters (the big long ones). Luckily the town paid for trash removal. The basement is about 100 feet long and was basically full of stuff. It took weeks just to clean the place out. Then came the power washing and treatment for mold and drying. After all that was over we finally started rebuilding. I am amazed by the fact that it seems that everyone has stayed put. I would have expected more people to just start over somewhere else. Maybe it is the community spirit that kept everyone going. People were handing out free lunches and coffee for weeks. Youth and church groups were everywhere helping out. Thanks to the Mennonites from Morrisville! They saved the homeowner thousands of dollars by providing hundreds of hours of labor for free.

flood mess

flood cleanup

drywall and insulation removed

finally, light at the end of the tunnel

new high efficiency boiler to replace ancient oil boiler

Timber porch addition to cob house.

greg — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:33:57 +0000

Locally milled pine timbers and rafter stock. V-groove ceiling boards and metal roof. Steel brackets for post bottoms fabricated by Bauer Fabrications in Waterbury, VT.

porch and cob house

timber detail

rafter tails and timber

timber in progress

sunny windy day cutting timbers

porch assembly

Northfield addition 22×28…

greg — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:44:21 +0000

Adding on a bedroom, mudroom, bathroom and den area. 6×8 entry/porch on the front.

in progress

Solarfest workshop…

greg — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:04:02 +0000

We recently traveled to Tinmouth, Vermont. The occasion was Solarfest. It was a a very engaging weekend. I gave a timber framing workshop and had a great time chatting with other people about solar collectors, composting toilets and hempcrete. One of the other highlights was riding an electric bike.

woodshed frame from Solarfest

dicussing the merits of using timber screws

working on a rafter pair

talking about tools and technique

Exterior renovation of old farmhouse…

greg — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 11:03:15 +0000

We are currently working on a farmhouse renovation in Washington, Vermont. Tearing off the old cracked and rotten clapboards and adding housewrap and foaming all of the window and doors around the jambs and foaming in places that did not get insulated well when the cellulose was blown in 10 years ago. We are saving the trim in a few areas. It is amazing how well old growth spruce that is covered in old oil based paint lasts!

One challenge with this kind of job is what to keep and what to tear off. The other big challenge is working with how the old structure has moved and shifted to bring all of the areas together nicely when the scope of work does not include re-leveling and squaring the whole house!

When it is complete the house will be painted in it’s classic barn red color.

exterior renovation complete

front of old farmhouse with new skin

turning the corner

power planing down the edges of old board sheathing to flatten it out

what the farmhouse looked like before

Partial kitchen renovation…

greg — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 10:49:49 +0000

The customer wanted to add a dishwasher and update the kitchen a bit but did not have the budget to redo the whole kitchen. We came up with a solution for about 1/3 the price. We changed out the sink base and added new Cambria counters. They chose a top mount stainless sink with a shallow bowl because they are tall and don’t like to stoop over the sink. They also chose a stainless dishwasher which matches the counters well without clashing with the white stove. We also added a new outlet and updated to GFI outlets and added a tile backsplash. We were able to keep all of the old built in upper cabinets and one of the lower cabinets (with a little alteration). I think it all came together nicely and fits fairly seamlessly.

sink/faucet detail

dishwasher view/new base cabinets

detail of tile/counter

stove area

counter view/old base cabinet

Commercial cabinet/shelf built-ins

greg — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 01:30:44 +0000

Built-in cabinet job for a restaurant in Montpelier. Building and installing cabinets, liquor shelves and floating shelves for the back of the bar in a local restaurant. This job was done on a very tight schedule. Only
1 1/2 weeks start to finish! Used solid maple doors for the glass front wine cabinet and Purebond formaldehyde free plywood for the other doors and the cabinets. Shelves constructed from pine and painted black with Benjamen Moore Aura paint.

detail of carcass

3 tier liquor shelf detail

3 tier shelf detail

glass front wine cabinet/glass shelf

liquor cabinets with locks

floating shelf detail

overview of bar

Marching along…

greg — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 23:17:06 +0000

This month has been a steady progression of small jobs with a few periods of rest and enjoying the snow! We have been working on a built in closet bypass door installation and a partial kitchen remodel. The kitchen client wanted a dishwasher so we removed the old metal sink base and replaced it with a smaller sink base and dishwasher. The new counters are Cambria. The backsplash is subway tile. Pictures coming soon.

Platform bed

greg — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:19:11 +0000

Here are a few pictures of a simple platform bed designed and built on site for a single mattress.

side view

top view