More Garden Benches

When we were cleaning up for our holiday BBQ, Jeff made a snarky comment about our junk pile of wood on the side of the house. He was right, it looked bad. This is roughly how it looked over there, though the wood was stacked next to the house, not spread out all over the driveway. (This is a photo from last fall, I didn't think to take a recent one.)

It finally prompted me to use up the last of the good pieces of scrap wood. Since we were planning to have a BBQ, I thought it would be helpful to have more seating, and because we still had some short pieces of pressure-treated 4x4, I was able to reuse my plans from last year.

Jeff and I quickly sifted through the wood and found we had enough pressure-treated 4x4 to make two more benches and once we confirmed we could find enough long pieces, we spent about an hour cutting everything out. (We used whatever kind of wood was handy, without regard to the species, though most of what we had lying around was cedar and fir scraps from our fence and shed projects.)

Then I spent the next few days staining everything.

These benches went together pretty quickly. We decided to use fewer slats on the top this time around because we are hoping it will be easier to clean the seeds/leaves out of the gaps.

The old white bench was also partially disassembled/cleaned and restained with the green stain. I'm not sure how durable the finish will be since we applied green opaque stain over the top of the white opaque stain, but we won't be putting it back under the maple tree so hopefully, it won't need as much scrubbing.

The rest of the weathered wood I didn't think I would ever use went off to the dumps before the BBQ. So, while the side of the house still looks a little junky, it is better. I do hope we'll get the last of this stuff cleaned up this summer.

Next Up: Closet Shelving

We got a new toy! We're going to have to get rid of more stuff from the garage to make room for this!

Last Friday we went and bought the plywood to make the cabinets for the bedroom closet so hopefully, progress will begin soon. As a reminder, this is the plan.

I haven't made much progress on the back stairs since my last post. I bought a can of paint for the balusters and we scrubbed it down to get off most of the dirt, but now we need it to dry out enough to sand it. I need at least a week of dry weather to refinish the wood. 

Paint Rack Finished

 And we finished another project!

We couldn't make the top shelf tall enough for gallons because we needed to clear a pipe sticking out of the wall behind it. We ended up installing leveling feet on the bottom which helped with our very uneven floor in the basement.

Once we got it all in one place, it's obvious we have a lot of paint. Too much. We have six cans of Hubbard Squash! I've clearly been guilty of buying paint when I couldn't get to it when it was inaccessible out in the garage. This will be much better and we should be able to avoid buying any more paint in the future, unless we decide to change colors, of course.

I also got the first coat of deck stain on the little stools this afternoon. I chose this green because it matches the green patio table quite well.

I'm also going to restain the bench from the Hidden Garden with this stain. The white doesn't work well as it always looks filthy because the maple leaves and seeds leave a black discoloration when it rains.

Shiplap Siding Stool Project

I've been continuing to clean up the pile of salvaged wood in our driveway. We had a few pieces of weathered and rather ratty pieces of shiplap siding leftover from the old garage. When I noticed them I remembered these benches we inherited from my Grandmother.

There used to be two of them, but the second one has literally fallen apart. They were built with redwood shiplap siding scraps and nails and they were clearly used as sawhorses a number of times because there is a fair amount of tool damage to them that pre-dated our ownership. 

I decided to try and make some new ones from the leftover siding.

I took some measurements off the old stool and cut out the siding. I had just enough pieces to make two stools. I then cut in the 5° angles. Jeff helped me assemble them with scraps on the backside to hold the pieces together while the glue dried. The wood still looks pretty rustic but looks considerably better after I spent a few minutes sanding them. I might do more sanding before I paint them.

Jeff actually routed out the curves in the base for me. I did one panel myself and had a lot of problems, and he ended up finishing them. (I'm still a little scared of the router.)

I decided to make pieced tops since we have an abundance of 2x4 and 2x6 short scraps. We actually fired up the planer for the first time since 2013 and cleaned them up because they were also pretty weathered. 

Last week we bought the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and we thought this would be a good opportunity to try it out.

Tomorrow, after these are dry, we're going to round-over the edges then I'm going to paint them with a protective opaque stain before we do the final assembly.

Paint Can Rack

As part of our garage reorganization, we decided to move the leftover cans of paint into the basement. The basement has more consistent temperatures year-round and I think the paint will survive storage better. 

This is another salvaged wood project made from old timbers leftover from when we tore down the old garage. The plywood is pressure treated and is leftover from when we built the shed. I designed the rack last year, and we cut out the wood, but then it just sat. We're finally working on it.

When we returned to the project earlier this week, we realized not all of the 2x6s were cut accurately and the pieces were too short, so we evened them up and did a bit of a redesign. I haven't updated the design in SketchUp and I probably won't bother.

Rolling Lumber Cart Finished

 And it is done!

We're really happy with the finished project. We actually paid $10 for the Roll-Away Lumber Cart plan from the Woodsmith website so we could get the construction instructions and the complimentary Panel Cutting Guide (which we haven't built yet), but for more advanced woodworkers, you can get the Sketchup file for free here.

More Garage Progress

 We are so happy to have breathable air again. SO HAPPY. This afternoon we were able to venture outside and work in the garage again. We made progress on our Wood Rolling Rack.

We bought the wheels and three sheets of the cheapest plywood, but all the rest is leftover wood. All the pieces are cut so we should be able to finish it in our next session.

So Much Sifting....

I have spent at least 20 hours the last few days sifting boxes and piles. If I see a box that clearly has stuff in it and isn't labeled, I bring it to my sorting area and go through it. We have a large pile of stuff to go away, some to the landfill and some to various charities. I also made a lot of progress at cleaning out the front storage area in the basement.

Here is where we are now.

Most of the boxes still kicking around on the floor are empty or staged to go to the Rebuilding Center (an architectural salvage place in Portland). The table has the last pile of stuff I need to deal with. And I still need to organize the tools and repopulate the pegboard.

There is still some remaining wood leaning against the house.

Although we probably won't keep all of it, I do want to sift through and keep the best pieces, especially the beautiful wide douglas fir we bought several years ago. Most of the wood has already been stowed in the garage on top of the new rack and on wall brackets; this is what is left outside.

After this recent success, we're feeling brave and we're going to try and build this mobile wood rack.

Garage Progress Finally

Now that the end of summer is rapidly approaching, I finally kickstarted my garage organization effort. As a reminder, this is the plan for two free-standing garage racks. They're going to be installed along the left wall.

It's too bad I didn't buy the wood last year because it was quite a bit more expensive this summer. I ended up buying framing lumber because it was the least expensive real wood option. I did buy sanded plywood because the lowest grade of plywood was so rough I was worried it would tear up the bottoms of my plastic tubs.

When I made the plan, I had expected to paint the wood before we assembled it because we have lots of leftover paint in the garage, but the wood is so rough I don't think it will look very good, even after I've spent a few hours sanding the boards. They're still not great, but they're better.

Last week, while I was sifting my closet I found a nearly-full gallon of really old shellac—I think I bought it in 2013 when we put in the closets. I should have used it to finish the sewing room, but I forgot about it and bought a new can. I opened it up this morning and tested it out on a scrap, expecting to have to trash it, but it actually dried surprisingly quickly so I decided I may as well brush it onto this wood.

I've finished one coat on the 2x4s today. I'd like to finish the 2x2s and plywood tomorrow. I doubt I'll get more than one coat out of the single gallon of shellac so I'm just putting one coat on all the pieces to start. It makes the wood look nicer so I think it's worth the effort.

I scheduled time with Jeff starting next Wednesday to start disgorging the garage so we can put these together and put them into place and do a better sift and organize, so that's my deadline to finish preparing the wood.

Firewood Rack

And we finished another salvage wood project! A firewood rack for the side of the house.

This project used up the last of the weathered 2x4s and fence slats. Some of the boards were pretty skanky but they worked fine for this purpose.

The rack is designed to sit on top of cinder blocks. Here is the original inspiration photo and the website: Firewood Rack Plan for Half Rick of Wood Built on Cinder Blocks

We'll put it in the queue and Jeff and Aaron will put it up on cinder blocks and level it in a few weeks. This should encourage us to hang on to some of the firewood kicking around the yard. It will also help us limit how much we keep because with how rarely we have fires, this amount of firewood should be plenty.

This is probably the last salvage project for a while since we are almost out of wood. We still have quite a few 2x6s left, but I'm not really finding projects that use them. I'm open to suggestions. LOL

Update later:

Garden Bench

We finished another project! I've been having a lot of fun building stuff with our giant pile of salvaged lumber. This time a small bench for our hidden garden.

I can't really say that we made it for free like many blogs do because ultimately we did buy the wood and the expensive white stain, just not for this project. But we spent no additional money to finish this project.

I decided to spend a bit more care with this wood because it is going to continue to live in the weather. First I sanded it, then I stained all of the edges with at least two coats of the opaque outdoor stain we used on the fence and pergola.

This bench was actually made from a mix of cedar and fir scraps. I think the cedar was leftover from our fence project and most of the fir was leftover from building the shed. But I'm pretty sure some of the sketchy boards we took 9-inch pieces from were still kicking around from when we demolished the old garage in 2012. There were some boards that were mostly rotted but if they had a good 9-inches, we cut it off and used it. The parts that were too far gone to use are now loaded in the back of the truck, bound for the Metro recycling center.

This will be its spot in the hidden garden. The guys have dug a trench to make a pad for it.

Potting Bench

I'm super excited about what we built from salvaged wood! Maybe you guys remember from the photos of the yard the mess of wood along the fence?

I offered it all, plus the big logs, for free on craigslist. Unsurprisingly, we had no takers for the lumber but plenty of people wanted the logs.

Yesterday, Aaron and Jeff worked on cleaning up this back area so they could start prepping the soil for planting. Jeff decided to just take all the wood to Metro for disposal; they would know what to do with well-weathered wood. But as they walked past with load after load of all that salvaged wood, I couldn't do it...

I ran into the house and looked up a few projects made from 2x4s and printed out the plans. We made the first one today!! A planting bench—just in time for my new seedling project.

We got this design from Ana White's website: Simple 2x4 Potting Bench. The design was super easy to follow and really the whole project took us maybe three hours. Jeff did make one modification from her plan. He didn't like the way the cross braces attached into the edge of the thin boards so he added another 2x4 for it to screw into.

The tabletop and shelf were finished with the old fence slats. The guys took the fence panels apart last night and Jeff cut the pieces down to size. I sanded the boards that went on the tabletop because they were a little splintery (is that a word?). Since they are wider than the 1x4s in her plan we had to adapt the design a bit; there are fewer slats and more overhang.

I'm still debating whether I'm going to do any more sanding of the horizontal surfaces before it moves into the basement. I may also finish the tabletop with varnish or something. I haven't decided. We also haven't installed the little shelf on the top yet. The fence boards were too thin to screw into the edge. I need to go dig through our scrap in the garage to find a better piece of wood.

Stay tuned for another project soon (I hope).

Tile Class

After playing with tile some, we thought it would be fun to look into making some tiles from scratch. It would be nice to do something for the upstairs bathroom, over the fireplace, or as a backsplash over the oven.

The first day was working the clay before the first firing: greenware.  We rolled out slabs, cut out tiles, imprinted patterns, and learned other techniques that could be used before firing the first firing.

The second day was about decorating once-fired clay: bisque. We worked with two classes of techniques. The first was color on color where you first cover the whole tile with two coats of glaze, then apply pigments on tope of that base layer. 

The second worked directly on the bisque tile by laying down lines with a mix of was and pigmented glaze. Then the remaining areas can be glazed. Since the glaze won't adhere to the wax, the glaze will sort of mound up and create a three dimensional effect.

The class included firing both the greenware we played with, and the bisque work. So in a week or so, we'll be able to see how they turned out.


Update: We never heard from Georgie's that the practice tiles were finished, so about 8 weeks later, when we were driving by, we dropped in and asked for them. We were informed they threw them away. Apparently, they only keep them for 4 weeks. I was pretty disappointed. It would have been nice if they had called before tossing them out.

Another Upholstery Project

In my search for living room upholstery fabric, I have become a fan of Palazzo Fabrics and Robert Allen Design. They both have a fantastic upholstery fabric selection and easy search tools. And, even more important, they include information about how durable a fabric is. Both sites report how many double rubs a piece of fabric can withstand before it starts to show noticeable wear.

The Robert Allen Design site caters to interior designers, but you can drop in there and find fabrics you like then do a google search on the name to find retailers selling them. I found several acceptable options. Palazzo Fabrics also has an impressive stock of heavy duty upholstery fabrics (35K+ double rubs) and they send free samples.

Anyway, the fabric I bought last time was just some random unbranded upholstery fabric I picked up from Fabric Depot. I chose it for its color palette, but I've since learned it's pretty crappy durability-wise. It's four years old and these loveseats have maybe gotten two years of regular daily use. But the fabric is stretched out, has threads pulled and is dirty. Dirty I can fix, I can't do much about the other two.

Therefore, I've decided to go ahead and replace the fabric on these couches with something darker and more durable. I wanted it to have a pattern, but read as solid from a distance. Ultimately, the pattern I chose isn't specifically period, but is similar enough to period fabrics to not scream "MODERN" and the green is a good match to the new rug.

These are some of the period prints I thought were similar.

Furnishing Fabric, 1911, England

Furnishing Fabric, 1910, England

Textile (England), ca. 1910

There are more with a similar feel, but you guys get the idea. LOL

2016 Project Wishlist

I realized it has been more than 6 months since I did a project wishlist and I thought it would be nice to look at what we've done since last July when I published the last one.

1. Refinish floor in the sewing room
2. Move back into the sewing room
3. Stain side fence & pergola
4. Modify front porch  & install hybrid charging station
5. Plan & start master bathroom remodel
6. Waste weeks of my life in Star Citizen (I sort of did this, but I played Final Fantasy 14 instead. I am happy to say, however, that I have not played regularly since Xmas.)
7. Prime/Paint/Stain/Shellac basement bathroom
8. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathroom
9. Clean bricks and install "floor" under pergola
10. Install backyard path

About the masonry on the front porch, we hired Pedro from A Better Chimney again last July. He did a nice job for us back in 2010 when he repointed our bricks. But tragically, after he demo'd the porch in preparation for putting in the new brick, he got sick. Really sick. (Cancer sick, not flu sick.) After a time, he did come out and put in some bricks to at least close the hole, but the project is still not done. And it's been sitting there unfinished, with a tarp covering the area, for MONTHS. I should probably just find another mason to finish it, but I'm sort of at a loss what do to about the whole thing.

Despite the gaming, I am really pleased with our progress this time around. Hopefully we can keep up the motivation and breeze thru another 6 month list.

1. Finish master bathroom remodel
2. Finish sewing room curtains
3. Modify front porch  & install hybrid charging station
4. Clean bricks and install "floor" under pergola
5. Install backyard path
6. Build raccoon/rat-safe chicken coop
7. Front door leaded glass pattern

Honestly, if we get all these done, I'll be really pleased. Jeff has found one of his friends enjoys working in the yard with him, so there is a good chance the backyard projects will happen this time around.

And, in the unlikely event I have spare motivation, I'll throw up a few more tasks that are on the long-term list.

1. Stencil the basement bathroom
2. Buy that rug I've been lusting over for the living room
3. Stencil the living room frieze
4. Stencil the dining room frieze
5. Reupholster that morris chair

And there we go. I guess I'll revisit this list in 6 months or so and we'll see how we did.

2015 Project Wish List

It's been a while since I had the confidence to publish a project list. The last was in April 2014 and I've copied the list below. As predicted, we didn't get many of the projects done. LOL

And apparently the sewing room wasn't even on the list. Oh well. I added it because I really like to check stuff off. ✔︎

1. Empty storage
2. Plan and build pergola at back patio (staining now)
3. Clean bricks and install back patio
4. Install backyard path
5. Put in rain barrel behind garage
6. Plan and build raccoon/rat-safe chicken coop
7. Plan master bathroom remodel
8. Prime/Paint/Stain basement bathroom
9. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathroom
10. Strip/Stain/Shellac/Paint sewing room

At this point, I would feel more comfortable with a shorter list. There's no way we'd get all those done. Here is my current list for the rest of the year:

1. Refinish floor in the sewing room
2. Move back into the sewing room
3. Stain side fence & pergola
4. Modify front porch  & install hybrid charging station
5. Plan & start master bathroom remodel
6. Waste weeks of my life in Star Citizen (I'm bound to at least get this one done. :D )

It would also be nice to do these projects, but I'm not going to hold my breath. But, just in case our momentum can carry us through:

1. Prime/Paint/Stain/Shellac basement bathroom
2. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathroom
3. Clean bricks and install "floor" under pergola
4. Install backyard path

2013 Project List FAIL

I was amused to run across my list detailing my ambitious plans for 2013. Boy, did we ever fail. We'd spent too many years fixated on this one project and we really needed a break. We did get a couple projects finished:

1. Plan/Install master bedroom closet interiors
2. Plan and build side fence

I am really happy with how both those projects turned out. The fence is in but we still haven't finished staining it. Now that the pergola is started, I am prepared to stain the fence white (as I originally planned).

And we mostly finished building our closet inserts. The cube side of my closet is on hold until we make the final plan of our bathroom remodel. I'd hate to spend a lot of time and expense installing the cubes in my closet and then decide we want to move that wall over 6 inches. So, for now, we're just using portable racks.

We do have some projects we'd like to finish this year, but I'm a little less confident we will actually do them. Here is my current list.

1. Empty storage
2. Plan and build pergola at back patio (started)
3. Clean bricks and install back patio
4. Install backyard path
5. Put in rain barrel behind garage
6. Plan and build raccoon/rat-safe chicken coop
7. Plan master bathroom remodel
8. Prime/Paint/Stain basement bathroom
9. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathroom

2013 Project List

We've spent some time this week reevaluating our project plans for the year. Looking back at last Fall's list, we seem to have departed significantly from where I thought we'd be headed. We did little on the list, besides finishing our bedrooms. The basement just ended up being a huge detour from my master plan. Oh well, that's how we roll.

Since we're having another big event this summer, we decided to break the list out for pre-event projects and post-event projects.

Before the end of June we're hoping to finish.

1. Basement family room finishing
2. Plan/Install master bedroom closet interiors
3. Install backyard path
4. Plant garden
5. Empty storage

After June, we're hoping to turn our attention to:

1. Plan and build side fence
2. Plan and build raccoon/rat-safe chicken coop
3. Put in rain barrel behind garage
4. Plan and build pergola at back patio
5. Clean bricks and install back patio
6. Prime/Paint/Stain basement bathroom
7. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathrooom
8. Reupholster morris chairs
9. Plan master bathroom remodel

We surely won't get through all of these in late-summer and fall, but we've found it's good to have choices. Usually at least something gets done.

These are the projects from the fall list that we actually managed to finish.

1. Stain woodwork in Sharon's closet
2. Prime and paint master bedroom and closets
3. Refinish floor in guest bedroom
4. Strip paint in entryway
5. Sand entryway woodwork
6. Stain & Shellac entryway and upper hall woodwork
7. Refinish floors on stairway and upper hall

I've dropped the rest of the projects from the list, for now. I'm trying to keep us focused.

Burnt Out

Jeff and I have been working on paint stripping, staining and painting fairly steadily since the summer before last. I'm tired of the project. No, I'm burned out on the project.

Our current unfinished section—the entryway and upstairs hallway—has to be done by mid to late-November, so we have enough time to let the refinished floors dry and then move our furniture back into the bedrooms.

I don't know if we can afford to, but we're thinking about hiring out some more of the work. If it's not crazy expensive—we're just going to hire someone to come in and make it beautiful! We had four appointments for estimates today and a couple more tomorrow. I just want all this work to be done so we can move in and live like normal people.

Though, I have regained at least some of my energy for working on house projects. I spent yesterday cleaning the windows in the bedrooms where I got stain and shellac all over them. What a pain! Next time I'll mask the glass; I'm sure it would be faster than the clean up.

Today we acquired most of the wood to replace the picture rail in the entryway and to repair the damaged fireplace. I'm also prepping my closet to stain the wood baseboard and window. There is an end in sight, if only we can keep heading in the right direction.

Latest House Task List

The last three weeks, I've been in one of the longest periods of non-motivation that I've had in quite a while. I just got tired of stripping paint with dental tools. Ugh. But the clock keeps ticking . . . so I'd better get over it soon.

We did work hard this summer and I figured I would revisit our house task list. It always makes me feel better to see that we've accomplished something in the last six months.

This time around I did some rearranging and added a bunch of new items. I also deleted all the items crossed off the last time I looked at the list. There's no sense leaving stuff on here that's been finished for a while.

Our priorities have changed somewhat over the last year and other projects have moved up in importance.

1. Buy woodworking tools (done enough for now)
2. Buy/Make and stencil curtains for dining room
3. Embroider curtains in dining room
4. Stain/Shellac master bedroom woodwork
5. Refinish master bedroom floors
6. Plan/Install master bedroom closet interiors
7. Stain woodwork in Sharon's closet
8. Prime and paint master bedroom and closets (2 of 3 closets done)
9. Strip woodwork in guest bedroom
10. Stain/Shellac woodwork in guest bedroom
11. Prime and paint walls/ceiling in guest bedroom
12. Refinish floor in guest bedroom
13. Strip or Replace linen cabinet door
14. Strip paint in entryway (nearly finished)
15. Sand entryway woodwork
16. Stain & Shellac entryway and upper hall woodwork
17. Refinish floors on stairway and upper hall
18. Plan/Install kitchen pantry interior (postponed)
19. Plan garage
20. Clear with city/File permit
21. Hire contractor?
22. Empty garage
23. Demo garage
24. Rebuild garage
25. Seal garage floor
26. Install drainage pipes on gutter downspouts
27. Install gutters on garage
28. Rain barrel behind garage
29. Install garage roof insulation
30. Build workbench from salvage wood
31. Plan and build side fence
32. Install backyard path
33. Have quilt quilted
34. Bind quilt
35. Plan and build raccoon/rat-safe chicken coop
36. Plan and build pergola at back patio
37. Clean bricks and install back patio
38. Prime/Paint/Stain basement bathroom
39. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathroom
40. Strip woodwork in sewing room
41. Stain/Shellac woodwork in sewing room
42. Repaint walls/ceiling in sewing room
43. Refinish floor in sewing room

I'm going to drop the paint stripping in the sewing room, for now. That project can wait until 2013 or even later. I'm beyond ready for a break from paint stripping.