Leaving my mark

It's been frustratingly amusing over the years, discovering little "fixes" previous owners have made to this little house. I don't exclude myself from this eclectic crowd which all bear in common at least one trait: fix it the best you know how. Other things would perhaps follow, like playing catch-up because of corners we cut, or being too lazy to fix it the right way the first time. I try not to get caught hanging around with the characters in the latter group. Bad project-karma is coming their way. Before I say more, check out my most recent fix-it-the-best-I-know-how venture.

A piece of doug-fir baseboard had split whilst being removed for a nursery renovation. Loosely translated: I wasn't being careful and broke it. I wasn't worried, and knew I could glue it later without any problem. But then the 2-wk project slowly became a 4-wk project, and then a 3-month project. In this span, I believe I inadvertently threw away the 30x 2.5-inch split piece that was necessary for the repair. This is what I came up with instead.

I notched out a square around the portion that had split using my table saw for the long cut, and my jigsaw for the short cut. Then I cut a new piece of fir to fit the notch (yeah, I know the grain is completely different). Then woodglue and clamps, baby! On the front face, I sanded it with my Rigid random-orbital sander (note: slowly becoming one of my favorite tools, and blows my standard palm sander out of the water) until the two surfaces were level, and on the back I had to plane the replacement piece down 1/16" because it was a little thicker than the original baseboard.

I left my mark on the back just for fun. This way the guy or gal who pulls if off next time will know who to blame. Ha!