I just completed my June banjo last night, though we’re well into July. That’s been how things go lately, but the end of the transition period may be in sight now, I hope. Banjo #259 is a custom resonator banjo with most of the hardware coming from First Quality Music. The tuners are the new Rickard high-ratio type, and the fret wire is stainless steel from Stew-Mac. Most of the wood is maple, with curly maple binding and Rocklite Ebano for the fretboard.

At the house things are coming along. The septic system is finally supposed to be installed this week, and the spray foam man is coming to insulate the house. The wiring is all in place in the house and the workshop and actually passed inspection, the chimney and the outside doors are replaced, and the basement wall repair is completed. Once the foam is in I’ll just have to hang the drywall and finish it, put in the plumbing and the electrical devices and put down the flooring, and we’ll be able to move in, though there will still be some more work to do for a while on trim boards, cabinets, etc. We may be able to move up there by early August if the shadows of these things remain unaltered by the future, or if things go pear-shaped it may be somewhat longer. I’ve been working in the shop very little, but am looking forward to the time when I’ll be caught up on construction tasks and ready to return to the shop steadily.

This last picture shows the workshop now. Most of this stuff will be going into the house when it’s ready, and then there will be room to build banjos out here. The exception is the shorter wood stove with legs, which will stay somewhere in the workshop and get its very own chimney before winter.