Unpleasant Projects

And I want to paint it black.  :p

I didn’t quite finish applying the base coat of black to the stone walls today.  I managed to get through 3 of the 4 walls and then it was too dark to be working outside so I had to put it aside to finish tomorrow (weather permitting).

It seems every step of the way with this project, I think each step is going to take “X” amount of time to complete, and then it takes “Y” amount of time instead.

Black Walls

I’m taking a quick break from sanding and distressing foam panels to look like stone wall.  I’m finally on the last few pieces of foam and will probably have the base coat of black paint done today.

It was August 17th when I started in on this major Halloween Project for the year.  It’s now September 26th and I’m still working through it!  At least the end is in sight and I may actually finish this by the end of the weekend.  That depends in large part how well I do with painting the wall panels.  Knowing how I tend to over-examine my own work, I’ll probably hate the first paint job and take a second stab at it.

The big project for this year was to stop talking about doing the interior of our shed to look like a stone-walled room with cathedral windows and actually just do it.  It’s a very robust look that can be adapted to just about any theme I can think of from a room for our Skeletal Organist to perform in to a mad scientist’s lab and anything in between.

About a week into this venture I said to myself “What have I gotten myself in to?!?”  Thankfully, I’m almost done and can move on to other things.

Ok, enough lollydogging.  I’m going back to work on it some more now.

I worked a little more at the stone walls after work today.  Got half a wall done.  I’m not sure I’m happy with it, but I have to keep telling myself it’ll look better when painted.  I *hope* it will look better when painted.

Half Stone Wall

I should be able to finish that wall tomorrow night and then do the last two walls Friday morning.  I hope to have the basecoat of black applied to the walls by end of day Friday. 

Over the past few days I’ve started the process of distressing the foam to have a surface that resembles stone.  Basically, I ad pits and dimples into the foam using a wire brush.  The technique employed is to “smash” the surface of the foam with the brush, dig out sections of foam with the brush, and otherwise distort the surface in a random fashion.

After the surface is mildly chewed up by the brush, I take a heat gun and melt the surface of the foam board.  Vary how long the heat is applied to the surface to give the appearance of randomness.  This eats away at the distressing from the wire brush and leaves the surface with a pitted, rocky appearance.

As of this evening, I have finished one entire wall.

Stonework

Yesterday I had finished carving the mortar lines into the foam panels in our shed.  I decided since there were a few hours of daylight left that I would take the time to cut in the gothic windows and screw on the frame pieces.  Here is the fruit of that labor. 

Gothic Window

The biggest project I’m undertaking this year is to create faux stone walls for the inside of our 10 x 12 shed.

I’ve got all the pieces cut and in place and I’m presently using my dremel tool to carve the mortar lines into the foam.  In the past (for a much smaller project) I had great luck using the conical polishing head.  This time, I’m having a hell of a time using it.  It tends to “walk” all over the place unless you use a straight edge of some sort as a guide.  Also, after some amount of use, the foam starts to melt and stick to the head, depositing little globs of melted foam here and there onto my work piece.

Midway through, I decided I’d had enough of that!  I switched the polishing head out for a 1/4″ high speed cutter.  So far, it’s working very well!  It’s easy to control, and as long as I keep the speed of the tool down around 40%, it doesn’t melt the foam and leave little “deposits” everywhere.

Mortar Lines in Foam