Buying Hardwoods at Crosscuts

I went and bought some solid oak boards at Crosscuts yesterday. I had an idea that their prices were better than the Hell Despots, but yesterday I got a much better idea. One of the boards I bought was a 1x6 that was about 9’ long. I paid a little over $18 for it. A couple months ago I bought a 1x8 board at HD that is about 8’ long and I paid over $50 for it! Granted the boards at Crosscuts aren’t as square or well sanded, but at these prices I can by 2 ½ times the board feet and cut and sand all I want. I just wish Crosscuts had better hours.

So, I bought one 1x board and four ½x boards. My thinking was that I would use the ½ inch boards to cover the seams in the plywood panels and also to add the verticals to the wainscoting. These would then integrate with the full 1x’s that run horizontally. However, since the ½ is actually a little wider than half the width of the 1x, the integration points between the vertical and horizontal pieces probably won’t look right. Ideally, I would like the horizontal boards to stick out just slightly proud of the verticals, but I think just the opposite will end up happening. I’m now thinking the best thing to do to make the verticals is to simply slice the 1x’s in half with the table saw. Allowing for the 1/16” for the saw blade, this will produce boards that are less than half the width of the 1x and help the horizontal boards stick out slightly proud. Oh well, this is why I only got a few boards at this time.

The next step is figuring out how I’m going to cover outside corners of plywood. Right now, I’m just butt-joining the ply. I’m planning to then wrap these with strips of solid wood and create the same panel-and-frame look that the exterior columns have. I can think of two possible ways to do this. The first would be like the outside, where I butt join two strips of solid wood over the top of the plywood joints. This looks pretty good outside, but interior joinery will get more scrutiny. So, I was thinking it might work better if I take a 1x1 piece of solid wood and cut a square groove into one of the corners, effectively creating ¾ molding.