bench re-do

Turns out I might not be unemployed quite so soon...apparently the city council heard about the college's plans and put the kibosh on things. Made the board chair call an emergency meeting to repeal and rescind approval on the re-org, putting the whole thing on hold. Nothing like living life on a roller coaster to make you really look forward to shop time.

Before all this happened I had plenty of stuff to keep me busy around the house. Along with the new stuff, this summer has kind of turned into revisiting projects from last summer and giving them a slight tune-up. The gate got an anti-sag kit put on, the lounge chairs got a new coat of poly before the cushions went on after I cleaned out the fire-pit area. I had to fix the patio table after we left the umbrella open and it got blown over, collapsing the middle boards and knocking the planters out. Mostly minor stuff, but the bench for the table needed a big tune-up.

Fortunately re-doing the bench has made it so much better. It was in pretty rough shape; I had already taken two boards out to make the firewood stand.

And to replace them, I picked up not only two new 2x4's, but 4 additional 1x4's to fill the blank spaces and try to keep things straighter over time. Each one got screwed to a neighboring 2x4 in the hopes that keep everything tightly together will help keep it straighter over the next couple of winters.

With the bench-top formed, my planes got quite a workout. Even the left-over 2x4 that was stained got shaved down so everything was level. Lots of shavings to clean up, and eventually I had a pretty good looking surface area.

After that, it was a simple stain job before taking everything outside for a couple poly coats. This looks a lot better than the old one did. I hope this helps it last a little longer. It's okay with just four chairs around the table right now but we could use a bench too.

As upset as I have been to go back to some of these projects, I'm the first to admit I don't really know what I'm doing and each time I come back to something I come back having learned something to make a new project better. This bench is the prime example. And as much as I love my table, I'm getting mentally read to make another one that's even better in a year or two.