I'd made good progress on the paint-grade trim and was ready to start the fir (clear lacquer finish) trim for the downstairs windows and doors. Brian Van Dalsum (finish carpenter) came over on Wednesday and we made a serious run at cutting and attaching the fir trim. Most of the windows and doors are trimmed out the same way with 5/4 (1") x 6 tops, 4/4 (3/4") x 4 side pieces, and 5/4 x 4 base pieces (windows). We're not placing any sill extensions on the fir windows since they may have furniture against them. Even though Gary and Troy did a great job framing the house, the drywall is either proud or thin around about 1/2 of the windows and doors. So we either planed down the adjacent drywall or added small jamb extensions (1/4-3/8" thick) so that the trim would mount correctly. Even with this complication, Brian and I trimmed out the French doors, the front and mudroom doors, and 10 window units in 13 hours (one hour each). We still have about 8 more doors to trim, but they aren't mounted yet (waiting to get tile, cork or remaining hardwood in place).Brian is so fast and careful that I expect to use him on the kitchen, pantry and mudroom cabinets and other little projects where I can. I suspect he saves me 60-75% of the time I'd spend on a task. In other words, if I takes me 10 hours to do something, he and I can do it together in 2.5-4 hours. At that rate, we might make our May deadline without flaming out.
The one problem with having help like this is keeping up with him. Material has to be ordered, picked up (or delivered), then planned out, and prepped (trim drywall back, etc). So to use Brian effectively, I can only work him every other day. So for now, I suspect he'll be on site 2 days a week, and I'll spend the other 3 getting ahead of him and doing other chores like wiring lights and receptacles.Trim costs are right up there. Vertical grain fir is pretty pricey. However, it really gives the house a Craftsman look which is what we're after. For example 1x6 vg fir (no knots, parallel grain) is going for about $6 a linear foot ($6.50 a board foot). The bill for trimming out the 10 windows and 3 doors so far is about $700, or $55 a piece and an hour of labor. Add to that about 200 linear feet of 1 x 6 base trim ($3/ln ft) and the 8 additional doors (at $65 each) and the total cost for the fir trim materials will be about $1800. Add labor, both to mount and finish off and we'll be coming in at about $2500. Not too bad since the fir windows and doors cost roughly $10k.
