Upholstery is not in my wheel house.

But when has that stopped me?

We have a dining room set from World Market that's about 6-years old. The table and bench are in good shape, but the chairs started shedding their covers at an alarming rate this winter. I took one of the chairs into the garage this winter to try and take it apart to see if I could get it down to a seat cushion to re-upholster. Eventually I did, and even got the back off too to see if I could sew a new one (I could not).

Ugh. How exactly do I do this?

This chair has been in the garage since March, and this weekend we finally made it to a fabric store to see what we should try to put on it. I guess it's good that we waited, b/c four yards of the fabric we choose was going to be over $120, but there was a 60% off coupon in their app for Memorial Day. At least that way if I fucked up I wouldn't feel $120-bad.

And this was the first one, I figured out the corners after this. 

But getting the fabric on the seat cushion is easy enough. I wasn't going to mess with cushions so all I had to do was staple the new stuff on and re-attach the cushion. I might not have been technically correct but it looks way better and hopefully will hold up for a while. And none of this meant new tools; a screwdriver to start the staples, pliers to pull them out, a staple gun to put stuff back on. After the first one I got the system down and could turn them around pretty quickly while watching tv. 

At first glance it doesn't look horrible.

Sewing the back, not so much! I pulled two seams on the old cover to make a traceable pattern, and the fit actually wasn't too terrible. The stitching is god awful though.

Yeah, that's not a look I'm happy with.

So I have three mis-matched chairs while I track down a sewing machine to try again with. I can live with that as long as I don't have to pull any more staples any time soon. That was a pain in the ass.

fixing the bar cabinet

Over the holidays I noticed the bar cabinet door wasn't staying completely closed. I wondered if it was cold enough in the house to cause some shrinkage, but actually, the bottom shelf had too much weight on it and was sagging!

I had my post-Super Bowl Monday off, so out came the bar clamps and an extra wood screw or two.

Viola! One square cabinet again.

It felt good to be productive, even if I was fixing something that wasn't quite holding up as well as I hoped it would. I was glad to have the time at least.

The dog was a little confused but she appreciated being able to get this done with a minimum of machine noise.

Oh joy, time to pick a finish.

Feeling good about how the legs had come together, I figured it was time to pick a finish and get the top installed. Unfortunately, I got delayed when I forgot to charge the drill's battery and had to wait to get the umbrella hole done before staining. Whoops.

Nothing like not being able to fix something you've worked so hard on.

With the hole done, I put in a support strut directly beneath it. This table looks nicer but it's also a lot lighter, and even the old 2x8 table broke when high winds pulled the umbrella out. I thought some support would help, we'll have to wait and see. I screwed it in across the table, and carved out a little cover to hide the screws.

That's a tight fit with the umbrella pole! It works though.

In terms of finish, I decided to start with a semi-transparent deck stain. I liked the cedar as it is and didn't want to change it too much. But I also wanted something low maintenance capable of standing up to the elements, hence semi-transparent cedar toned deck stain. It looked good, and there's plenty left over to try out on the fence posts later this summer. Good times.

First look, before & after. That'll work. 

Out of habit, I put a coat of poly on just to give it a little extra protection. With that on, I got some help to carry it out (even thought I carried it by myself at one point), and popped it on the table to finish drying. Of course, it proceeded to rain the rest of the week, so I could have timed that better. Whoops.

Once I get it attached and put the umbrella in it might be time to throw a dinner. But until then I'll just hope the rest of this week's weather takes it easy on it.

Hurray, a chair!

I got that desk done just in time; I had two short papers due Sunday night that needed finishing but no time during the week to make any progress. So this weekend it was time to actually use the new office setup, only things weren't quite complete since my chair didn't get here until Friday night.

Yeah, there's a chair in there. I'm surprised too.

Putting together a chair after the kids went to bed seemed like the perfect way to put off working on the papers. It's not like I could use the desk without somewhere to sit after all.

Pieces all out, I think I can handle this. 

Box as workstand, viola.

I went with a sled bottom b/c I haven't had great experiences with wheeled chairs at home. The thought of all the damage we did to the floors in our place on Belmont still makes me feel bad when I think back. But the chair fits, so at least I could work at this point.

That works. 

And right to work

Things still aren't quite set up, as now I realize I should get some blinds on the window the desk faces. How we went two+ years w/o something on this window kind of mystifies me, but at least I was able to finish everything for school this week.

DIY screen door attempt

The table saw has gotten a ton of work since I won it this summer, but the router has been left pretty much alone. I got it too late to use on the media cabinet, and for whatever reason it's stayed in its bag since then. Well, that's over.

I was thinking about trying to put a screen door together. We don't have one and desperately need it in the fall and spring when temperatures are just right for opening the windows and airing things out. So since I had time off for another interview I figured I might as well see I could get a door started before it gets too cold to use. Plus, it helped me not think about interviews, so that was great. I should have done this sooner though, considering how it's suddenly in the 30's this week.

There are plenty of sites with ideas on this, so after some reading I basically just grabbed some boards, did some measuring, and let it rip. Eventually I realized I needed hardware, and paint, and an actual screen, so things rounded slowly into shape.

This picture was practically a month ago at this point. Unbelievable.

I started with nicer lumber than I usually do, getting three quality cut 1x6's at 8 feet. I cut them to the measurements I had for the front door frame, which of course weren't quite equal on either side. I hoped I could fudge it enough that it would be fine.

I broke two clamps on this project, for whatever reason.

Had to call it a day at this point, a good start at least.

I cut the third board into top, bottom, and middle partitions, and put the middle one in with the frame in the door. Looking good so far. I was planning on putting the kreg holes on the inside, and covering the seams on the front before I primed everything. Biscuits might be better for something like this but work with what you've got.

With the door taking shape it was time to give the router a test spin. That was a challenge, but after a few tests on some scrap I gave it a shot on the door. Not the neatest cuts all the way around, but I figured I could hide it with trim later. In any case the screen has somewhere to go now.

Hey, some of this doesn't look terrible. Not all it looks like that though.

I've never been a huge fan of the workbench that the previous owners had in this garage, and this project made me realize I probably have to build my own at some point. It's a weird combo of deep enough I have to strain to grab some stuff, but also too short to work with something like a door. I spent 80% of this job crouched on the floor, and it was not comfortable. At least I could put it up to clean things up with a chisel.

After making a mess with the router, I needed some trim. Instead of buying some I picked up a 2x2 and split it into three 1/2 inch strips, which I then cut to fit around the screen. Not fancy but they fit. I also filled the kreg holes with chunks of a 3/8" dowel I had around so there wouldn't be holes on the inside of the door. It's amazing what you can make on your own instead of buying pre-made with the right materials and tools.

Whew those router marks are a mess!

Primer on and testing the trim. I knew I had something at this point.

With that all done it was time to prime, paint, and seal. Like any other project this was the longest part of the process, since I had to let things dry and air out before painting again. A week's worth of rain didn't help with that either. Most of the posts I found about building a door painted with the screen on, which didn't make any sense to me. If I'm building a door, why not get everything finished without having to protect an installed screen. But now I saw why; I was itching to get the screen and trim on, that was the whole point of building a screen door. Unbelievably, I stuck to my original plan and tried to be patient while I found time to finish. 

We tried to match our front door as closely as possible, but didn't quite get there. It ended up not mattering too much, since we can't really see the front door through the screen anyway, but it gave us a nice color on the door. The wife was happy at least, which means the door can stay. So thumbs up to that. 

I did a full test fit with the trim all the way screwed on, which is good, b/c they needed paint touch ups at some spots. When they were finally dry again I sealed them while they were on the door, then took them back off so I could staple in the screen. My "hurry up and finish" genes were kicking in pretty bad at this point, but I wanted to make sure my janky routering was completely hidden. With things finally good enough I could staple the screen on and put everything back together. Before I did though I put a line of clear drying caulk around the screen, b/c why not. Any worth doing is worth over-doing.  

Well, it's at least identifiable as a door at this point.

With the door finally ready, I could put some self-closing hinges on and a latch, and viola, one screen door, just in time for Halloween. I've yet to have a positive experience hanging a door and this door is no different, but at least it's up and functional. I waited until it was up to install the latch so I could make sure it was lined up and not hitting the other door's hardware.

Very pleasant looking in the sun. Too bad it's so damn cold.

If I'm being honest I'm not crazy about the exposed hinges but I like this option versus putting them on the inside and adding a spring arm to get it to close by itself. But again, I ended up loving how this looked after spending so much time on it, and it really helped me keep my mind off of interviewing. Thank god the kids both had costumes picked out already and I wasn't working on those too. I seemed to have learned my lesson on that one.

Who has time to turn a crib into a desk?

I’m getting surprisingly sentimental about some aspects of parenting, but getting rid of our crib does not strike me as anything to get emotional about. In fact, as we move the girl to toddler-friendly bed I’m excited to have the chance to re-use something that’s still pretty solid but outlived its initial usefulness. Excited, but also unsure of when exactly I’ll be able to get to work on this thanks to budget and time concerns. Oh well. I’ll find the time somehow.

If it's in the shop, it probably won't stay this way for long...

There is plenty to do though. This was not a terrible crib, but it’s been puked on, chewed on, and moved through three different locations, and at this point even with a few newborns in our social circle no one’s too keen on taking it off our hands. So I’m more than happy to have lots of steps ahead of me to convert it to a desk for the kids to use for art projects, and maybe even homework as they get older. 

Uh, yeah, lots of cleaning to do first. Years' worth of puke in there.

I somehow managed to keep posting while taking a class, teaching a class, working my normal full-time, and keeping family time going, so I’m sure I’ll find ways to work on this and the handful of other projects I want to work in in the foreseeable future. I just have to remember to take some pictures while I do to keep things interesting.