If the blue taped area is the mantle location might I make a suggestion.  Use a piece of 3/4-2X material ( same thickness as your mantle) screwed to the wall. Then you can lay the stone up to the bottom and above.  Then later remove that scrap and insert the mantle.  It is very easy to lay them too close to the tape line and the mantle will not fit.  Allow some margin of error so that it will not be too tight.  That margin area can be filled with grout.

Quote from: Redoverfarm on May 20, 2012, 07:16:12 PM
If the blue taped area is the mantle location might I make a suggestion.  Use a piece of 3/4-2X material ( same thickness as your mantle) screwed to the wall. Then you can lay the stone up to the bottom and above.  Then later remove that scrap and insert the mantle.  It is very easy to lay them too close to the tape line and the mantle will not fit.  Allow some margin of error so that it will not be too tight.  That margin area can be filled with grout.

Thanks Redoverfarm, great idea, I can see how it would be so easy to lay the stones too close and not give ourselves enough room for the mantle.  When it comes time to grout, do you use any special kind of tools to push in the grout or to smooth out the grout lines?  There's lots of grouting to be done so any tips would be much appreciated

Quote from: Redoverfarm on May 20, 2012, 07:16:12 PM
If the blue taped area is the mantle location might I make a suggestion.  Use a piece of 3/4-2X material ( same thickness as your mantle) screwed to the wall. Then you can lay the stone up to the bottom and above.  Then later remove that scrap and insert the mantle.  It is very easy to lay them too close to the tape line and the mantle will not fit.  Allow some margin of error so that it will not be too tight.  That margin area can be filled with grout.

That's a clever tip! I wish I had that one before I did my river rock wall!

Mogie, the grout goes into a grout bag, something that looks like the sack a pastry chef keeps the icing in. Fold it over and squeeze the grout out between the stones. You can further work it in with the backside of a teaspoon or mason's pointing tool. Once it firms up a while but is still not hard, say an hour or so, you cut use a rough bristled brush and stiffly sweep back and forth on the mortar. It will smooth out the bumps and give a nice uniform rough texture to it. I'd never done it before but didn't find it too hard. Not the greatest job in the world, but not too bad either. I was looking for a tighter look so I added smaller stones in the larger gaps. Note, I ran out of stones and scrambled around the camp to find some real ones small enough to fit between the cultured stones. It meant hitting the rocks out of the ice with a hammer, wiping with a rag, and running in before the mortar set! Wish I'd have planned it better.. lol.

Quote from: mogie01 on May 21, 2012, 11:35:52 AM
Thanks Redoverfarm, great idea, I can see how it would be so easy to lay the stones too close and not give ourselves enough room for the mantle.  When it comes time to grout, do you use any special kind of tools to push in the grout or to smooth out the grout lines?  There's lots of grouting to be done so any tips would be much appreciated

Off to a soccer game of the girls.  I promise I will get back with you on this one.  If I don't remind me.  .   There are a few little tricks that will make it look professional.  Hopefully you will not have it finished before then.

Quote from: Redoverfarm on May 21, 2012, 03:13:25 PM
Off to a soccer game of the girls.  I promise I will get back with you on this one.  If I don't remind me.  .   There are a few little tricks that will make it look professional.  Hopefully you will not have it finished before then.

Getting lazy in my older years.  Here is the procedure I gave another CP poster. 

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=5327.msg116438#msg116438

I assume you are using a angle grinder with a 4-1/2" diamond blade to cut your stone.  On the stones that are immediately under your mantle will probably need to be cut.  It looks better if the mantle appears to be resting on the beefer portion of a stone rather than a peaked portion.  From looking at your stone you should try to situate the stone size to where the midway width is the cut line below the mantle.  The time frame described above is approximate so you will just have to try and adjust it to your conditions. 

You should also make a decision on the support system of the mantle. Of course that is dependent on the size.

The grout joint should stay fairly uniform to a width that you can use a standard tuck pointing trowel (1/4.3/8 or 1/2")  If you allow the stones to touch each other it is very hard to get the grout in between the stones.  Occassionally it may happen either by the stone slipping or trying to fit a stone into an area which is too small for the size stone.  You may have to improvise on a tool for those areas or grind down a cheap smaller tuckpoint trowel. 

I use scrap pieces from cutting the stones to temporarily hold the stones up to maintain that grout joint and prevent it from slidding.  After a few courses higher you can remove those and reuse them as you climb.

If you run into trouble just drop me a line.

What a great weekend!  We worked a couple of days at the cabin and took a couple of days off.  We drove up to the cabin on Saturday morning and started by moving the log bed from the bedroom up to the loft, we've decided that will be our bedroom for the moment, then we started work on the fireplace. 









As you can see, we didn't unload all of the rocks, as I was advised to do, and ended up using all of the big, beautiful rocks on the very bottom

We'll laugh about that in days to come   It adds character

Wow, looks awesome!

Beautiful!  Re the fireplace...  if you didn't tell anyone, they'd just think you planned it that way   

Nice "cabiny" bed set. Where'd you find it? 

Quote from: AdironDoc on May 29, 2012, 11:42:04 PM
Nice "cabiny" bed set. Where'd you find it? 

Thanks AdironDoc.  I found the set online at this web site http://www.findleylaketrading.com/lodgebedding.html.
Bedding is a bit pricey if you want a really nice set.  I decided that after all of the hard work we've been pouring into the cabin we deserved it  .

This weekend our time was spent on grouting the fireplace and adding the mantel.  I really like how it turned out.  We both started grouting but after a little while my arms gave out and my husband did the majority of the work.  I think he did a great job.  We also installed a fan in the living room, removed all of the home made scaffolding we put up in the rafter ties and then cleaned up the room in preparation for installing the flooring next weekend.



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Looks great! Seems you're almost done now..

This weekend we installed the pine flooring in the main room, put wood conditioner on it then stained it using Minwax Special Walnut.

We also took some time to mow and clean up the front yard.



The cutout is for rocks to go in front of the door.


stained floor

It really turned out brilliant! I suspect you're itching to move your furnishings into the living room area. BTW, looked at the many bedding sets at Findley Lake Trading website but don't see yours. I must say, I rather liked your the best. Can you tell me the name of the set you bought?

Cheers,

Doc

Thanks Adirondoc.   I can't wait to start moving things in.  I've been painting kitchen cabinets here at home and that will be the next thing we do after the floor has been polyurethaned.

Here is that link you wanted.   http://www.findleylaketrading.com/wiribeset.html
It's the Wilderness Ridge set and I bought the euro shams and some of the decorative pillows.

Quote from: mogie01 on June 12, 2012, 06:56:40 AM
I've been painting kitchen cabinets here at home and that will be the next thing we do after the floor has been polyurethaned.

Thanks for the link, Mogie! You've got a great eye for color and balance. Your place looks fantastic.

Isn't it funny how we all turn our regular homes into staging areas? As I've said before, our weeks are divided.  There are weekends at the cabin, and there are the weekdays where we prepare for weekends at the cabin..  Too bad our day jobs get in the way of more important work!


Cheers,
Glenn

Two coats of polyurethane on the floor now..

We spent a few days up at the cabin this past week.  We finally got all of the kitchen cabinets painted and took them up.  We decided to paint them using a barnwood effect, first we had to paint them a tan color, then cover that with a few coats of red, then sand them down to give them an antiqued look, then we used an antiquing glaze and finally a few coats of polyurethane.

Fantastic job - it looks beautiful - well done.

Quote from: Alasdair on July 08, 2012, 07:59:24 PM
Fantastic job - it looks beautiful - well done.

Second that! Love the contrast you got from going bold.

Doc

You guys did a beautiful job on the cabinets!  Place is looking great.

Our new lights in the living room

Love the cabinets!  Maybe it is because I put in a similar color (fire brick red) but with a black undercoat and bead board.  Same hardware too. 

Quote from: mogie01 on July 11, 2012, 12:02:46 PM
Our new lights in the living room

Wow, nice cans! (sorry, moderators).. 

Love your cabinets ellbaker!  The beadboard looks great on them.