I was playing around with my new Canon 30D digital and took these as my first tests. Wanted to see how the flash balanced. IOW, they are basically snapshots.

Some of you will no doubt recognize it as my new addition (separate from my old trophy room!) that is now somewhat furnished and set up more to our liking. -TONY







This one is the old family room part with the latest improvements and the table I built. The chairs are rustic alderwood, purchased unfinished and unassembled. My wife made the cushions, which have faux zebra on one side and leopard on the other.

Tony, It looks great all together. Great job!

How are you liking the new camera?

I am still jealous of the trophy room, and impressed at all that you have done yourself on the addition.

Tony, very nice indeed! I hope that if and when we relocate to the SW that I can produce as balanced a living space as that. Very nice sir.

Tony,
Looks great. You did a great job of remodeling and your mounts look great

It's always nice looking at your place OW.

Very nice, Tony. Looks eligant.

It was also thoughtful of you to put a TV for the bear to watch.

I liked your Set up from the Start, It just got better as Time went on.

Beautifully done! One question: Do you have any special backing on the entry wall where the large mounts are located and what type attachments and bolts do you use? Mine give me a little fright that they may come back to life anad cause some damage as they are up about fifteen feet in some cases above some heavy traffic areas? Thanks for any help others would like to chime in with.

muygrande,

I somehow missed your question earlier. Anyway, no, I do not use any backing on the walls. I've found it unnecessary over the years because there's usually a stud to use near enough to where I want to hang the heavier mounts. I generally use 3" lag bolts for these.

And for the light ones, such as the bushbuck, springbok, impala, etc., a winged anchor in the sheetrock is plenty strong enough. Below is a look at the framing before I covered everything.

Upper wall on the right and the west-facing wall I took the photo thru are 2"x6"s on 24" centers. Everything else is 2"x4"s on 16" centers. Ceiling rafters are 2"x10"s. -TONY

tony, thanks for getting back with me and for the pics of construction. I just get nervous with a couple of larger mounts such as moose, elk, caribou that aare about twelve feet up from a busy walk/entertainment area. Just think too much about one of them "coming back" and hitting someone or someone's child. I do the 2X4 stud deal but still a little nervous.

Great room and trophys and thanks for sharing.

quote:

I just get nervous with a couple of larger mounts such as moose, elk, caribou that aare about twelve feet up from a busy walk/entertainment area.

muygrande,

Every mount of mine like those are hung with a 3/8" 3" long lag bolt driven into a stud! I use that couch under the stag every night and don't want one of the biggies crashing down on me either.

If you look at the 2nd photo in this thread, the nyala, black wildebeest behind fan, kudu, red stag, gemsbok and a blue wildebeest to the right out of the photo are all hung on studs for sure. I think, but can't remember for sure, that the impala and blesbok (next to kudu) are also on studs. Not sure about the warthog either.

In the 3rd photo, I used winged sheetrock anchors for the springbok and bushbuck so they would be properly positioned between the windows. Both of them weigh under 10 lbs., however.

My other trophy room is built with the same framing technique, which I did more than 20 years ago. All the dimensions of that room except the length are identical to the newer room. In there my heavy mounts are a 60" Canada moose and three caribou and all anchored on studs. Everything else -- deer, antelope, javelina, etc.-- is lightweight -TONY

buffybr,

As you see from the TV screen, the bear really enjoys the Sat. a.m. fishing and hunting shows. -TONY

Tony,

Great job on the addition! It looks fantastic!

Drum

Your design is perfect to show off those great horned/antlered mounts.

I wish I had more vaulted ceiling in my home.

Just don't give up the remote to the Bear.

Except for a life-size wallaby, which is now in the works, I finally got the rest of my NZ mounts back. As a result, I did some rearranging from the original configuration.

These are newer photos after I hung more mounts. -TONY

The chamois and tahr are the newest mounts.



Next bunch are close-ups of all the mounts.

Looks great Tony! If I may ask, did you have your Taxidermy done in NZ or here at home? Any glitches on shipping your trophies to your home? Good hunting, David

Looks great. Which magazines do you write for and what were some of your articles?

Well done, it looks great.

awesome, hope mine will turn out that nice

David,

I had all the NZ mounts done here. Same with the African critters except for the zebra and springbok rugs.

The NZ deal was glitch free. Before I left, I had contacted Maria at Hunter International, and she took care of everything at both ends. A few months later,a truck dropped off the crate on my driveway.

We also saved money because my partner and I combined our stuff into one crate and Maria charged us the port clearance fee for only one person. -TONY

I decided to do some rearranging.

I put the zebra rug on the wall rather than on the floor. I also moved the bear into a corner and added a faux tree behind it. -TONY

love the Zebra on the wall,what kind of hangers did you use to hang it so it hangs flat?

Matt,

No hangers at all. I used 3/4" upholstery tacks spaced out about 1' apart through the felt. The heads of the tacks were antique brass, so I stuck them in a piece of styrofoam and sprayed them flat black. -TONY

I'm speechless. Absolutely awesome. May you add many more as the years progress...

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
I decided to do some rearranging.

I like the changes. Also, did you design the dining room wall display shelves? I like the concept.

Yukon,

Yup. I designed and constructed most everything in the interior of the house, including some of the furniture. Over the past 28 years, every room except one bedroom on the schedule has been bent, spindled, stapled and mutilated in some way to make them look better.

A couple years ago, I razed the kitchen and separate formal dinning room down to the studs and rafters, combining both into what my wife now calls her 'kitchen to kill for.'

I made all the cabinets in my shop from 50-yr. old 3/4" pine paneling that was removed from a downtown historic landmark to build the home of the AZ D'backs, Bank One Ballpark -- now called Chase Field.

The boards, which had one molded edge, were anywhere from 8" to 12" wide and 6' to 12' long. I bought a pile that was about 3' high and 6' wide at a nearby salvage yard for $300!

I also used it for all of the baseboard trim --further milled from the molded edges -- in the house, several window sills, two end tables, cabinet doors in the hallway and the vanity and upper cabinets in the master bath. The base of the lifesize bear mount, which I built, is also made from the same wood.

The only outside labor for the kitchen was making the counter tops. I installed them, however. For the family room addition, I had someone else pour the concrete slab because it was too large for me to finish on my own.

Here are a few "after" kitchen pix. -TONY















The master bath:



linen closet doors and mouldings:



end tables and cabinets in my older trophy room:

Nice work Tony. It saved you a bundle by not subletting all that work and design.

What is the cutout under the counter/bar area in the kitchen (5th photo down in your last post)? Almost looks like a fireplace insert but that doesn't seem right? It also doesn't seem like that would be cabinet space as it will be in the way. Just curious.

Yukon,

I assume this is what you mean.



Here's the tale:

The main reason I had the counter tops made rather than doing them my myself was because my wife wanted the 180 deg. rounded edge. That requires a special machine to heat and wrap it.

So when the guy came out to measure, he told me the narrowest piece the machine can handle would be 16" wide. Thus, I had to build out the wall behind the sink to accommodate that width. So rather than waste the space within the wall, I added what are basically knicknack shelves. The Mexican Talavera tiles match the ones in the backsplash and the back and sides are the same as the floor tiles.

As for cost, I kept receipts for everything I bought and later added them up. The most expensive items were the countertops at $1,500, copper faucet set at $650, dishwasher at $380 and all the hardware including European hinges, drawer guides and pulls, door handles, etc. at $500.

When I stripped everything, I also reinsulated the ceiling with R-19 batts and installed all the can lights.

Total material cost for the kitchen was just under $6K. It took me a few days short of a year to complete the job with the only help being my son and son-in-law to hang the ceiling sheetrock.

A few other touches that might not standout in the pix are:

The copper inserts above the fridge and nuker are nail-punched copies of the bird image on the backsplash tiles.

I made the pot rack using 1 1/2" and 3/4" copper plumbing pipe. Hooks were formed in a jig from #4 copper electrical ground wire. It's 4' X 2.5'

Cornice trim around the ceiling is three layers of sheetrock cut to 7, 5 and 3 inches. Most of it was created from scrap pieces leftover from the ceiling and walls.

I also covered all of the plug and switch plates with copper foil.

The 8' long center island is on 3" casters and works really well as a buffet serving table for family gatherings. Both ends have book shelves.

The four cabinets in it include a slideout door with two trash cans -- one for recycle and the other for garbage. The other three doors are normally hinged. One has a Lazy Susan in it and the other two have three slideout shelves. In fact, most the cabinets have slide outs as seen in the one with the spices next to the stove. -TONY

That makes sense. I would like to see that 180 edge put on. Interesting.

Yukon,

Actually, there wasn't even a machine to put that edge on located in Phoenix. They had to ship the tops to Tucson for the edging process. That made the wait about a week longer than I had planned.

Here are a few pix of before and during the remodelling.

BEFORE:

Archway leads to old dinning room.



Taken thru old backdoor into the kitchen.



Sink area with overhead cabinets.



View from family room. Destruction of DR already in progress.



This is the only thing I actually put on paper. Everything else was designed in my head as I went along. The wall area behind the fridge was where one door from the entryway opened into the DR. Old wall between the DR and kitchen was approximately where the short partition on the right of the fridge now is.



DURING:

I kept the kitchen completely functional -- albeit a bit dusty (g) -- throughout the entire remodelling phase.







COMING TOGETHER:





















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Thanks Tony. Lots of work in those photos.

Tony,

Wonderful craftmanship! Loved the southwestern flair of your old trophy room, but what you have done here is just beautiful, very spacious floorplan.

We are moving into a new shop and home this summer, just live about 15 minutes from you. Are you for hire for home refurbs...LOL?

Thanks for sharing the fruits of your labor.

Kind regards,
Mary

Mary,

We have tried to keep the southwestern/Mexico flair throughout the house. We own a couple time-share weeks in Mazatlan, so we get to shop for goodies in Mexico at least once a year.

I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but I enjoy woodworking as a serious hobby. One thing that helps with the woodworking is having the right tools. To that end, I have a 25' x 25' shop on the back of the house with about every woodworking machine known to man. It's not as sophisticated as Norm's, but it's adequate for what I do.
So where are you moving to? -TONY

Tony,

We are presently in the S/E corner of the 101 and I-17 (not far from the Sportsman's Warehouse). Looking for a large free standing commercial building anywhere within a 5-10 mile radius of where we are presently at.(hard to find as most spaces available are in strips) Prefer to go north east of the 101.

Also looking for a basement home and you know how few and far in between those are here.

Maybe your work shop isn't as sophisticated as Norm's, but your quality of work is right up there with his! Hey, do you craft pedestals and/or bases by chance..lol?

Kindest regards,
Mary

Mary,

A basement??? You need to look in NJ.

I actually built the base for my bear mount to save some money. It's made of the same lumber as used for the kitchen cabinets and the rest of the trim in the house. I added 2.5" casters so it's easily movable.

This photo shows it better.



One thing I hadn't mentioned earlier about the recycled wood is its character. It has all sorts of knots, nicks and dings, plus areas with termite tracks. I left that all as is and even added more dings and nicks. I removed the old finish, which left a nice patina, and then used two coats of polyurethane on it as a final finish. -TONY

Tony,

Hey, I grew up in Ohio, I really miss basements. We have them here, just hard to find them this far north.(Chandler has quite a bit).

Chris makes bases like yours, was just wondering if you did larger work for Mark since you have the 'shop' . I like the poly, really classes the base up a notch. Need to show this pic to Chris.

Kind regards,
Mary

Mary,

Aha, I know a bit about Ohio; I attended the Univ. of Dayton many, many years ago.

I never thought of doing the wood bases, pedetals, etc. commercially. As I had mentioned, wood working is a hobby for me. I already have enough deadlines to meet with my writing. So meeting more of them to supply bases isn't something I need. -TONY

Tony,

Sounds like we went to different schools together. My daughter attends Ohio Wesleyan University. So I have been back to Ohio more than I had thought I would. Don't miss that snow!

I know what you mean about those deadlines. I was writing the "Taxidermy Tips" column for the Arizona Outdoorsman for several issues until the time constraints became to much due to an accident I had. I also write articles 1-2 times yearly for one of the largest taxidermy trade publications. We do step by step pictorials of many of Chris' projects and I write the articles for him. I have also done several articles on rugmaking.

Will be in touch,
Mary

quote:

Every mount of mine like those are hung with a 3/8" 3" long lag bolt driven into a stud!

You split every stud! And deck screws will suffice, I have ( I can brag to) 40 animals on my walls, some for over 20 years, all hung with 2 1/2" deck screws, never lost a one!