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.

Crib desk finally moves

Measure twice, cut once. Or alternatively, measure not, then cut pieces off so your project can fit through doors and go where you wanted it to go in the first place.

We had some guests over Easter and one of them volunteered to help carry the crib desk from the garage to the boy's room. Great, I thought, clear out my space so I can make something else this summer. And the first half of the trip was beautiful. Out the garage, in the front door, through the hall, all in one piece.

Then we got to the boy's door. Whoops.

Feet came off, we still needed two inches of clearance. The front legs, the ones still attached after chopping the curved portion off, came off, we needed another quarter inch. So I got out the jig saw, and chopped two spindle pieces off and viola, desk in room.

Which meant lots of other furniture moving, since it takes up a lot of room.

Just remind me not to look at it from the side for a while.

With the legs and feet back on everything is level and sturdy. There are just two extra holes where the old spindles came from. They'll probably get attached eventually, but for now it was pretty cool to see how happy the boy was to have his own place for art. When I make the girl one for herself, I'll be sure to measure first.

more like "messing up" a poang

Surprise surprise, trying to stain our poang hasn't gone great so far.

These actually don't look terrible...

But they don't really match the chair either.

Hoo boy.

A bit blotchy, and lighter in tone than I was expecting since the stain isn't getting into the wood like I had hoped. Looks like I didn't sand quite as much as I should have.

This bummed me out more than I thought it would. I shouldn't be surprised that some of these projects aren't successful, but honestly it's happened so infrequently that when it does it's a real downer. I'm going to give it a few days to sit while I weigh my options.

Option one is try a second coat with a darker stain I already have on hand. See if that helps things look any better without sanding everything again. That means option two is if I'm not happy with a second stain coat, sand everything off and start over. I don't feel like that's in any way going to happen. The real option two is buy some black spray lacquer, and just coat the entire thing and make it nice and shiny. Honestly, that might happen anyway so I might as well give option one a shot and keep my fingers crossed.We'll have to see what happens over the weekend.

Upon further review...

Huh.

Taking a closer look at the table top after a run at the end of the day, it looks like I could have been a little cleaner on how the back board was joined. Some slight chisel use and a not-insignificant amount of sanding seems to have taken care of that though.

Looks pretty good...

With some flaws when you get the macro lens out.

I would like to get a hand plane eventually, but for now I'll settle for just beating everything level. At least it's a chance to learn my way around a chisel. One drawback is it takes longer, especially when you're working on things a little at a time. If I run after the kids are down and manage to go straight to shower/bed, I can get to sleep by 11 PM. If I get distracted by something in the shop, it's usually much later. And I get distracted. A lot, as you might be able to tell by how quickly I decided to add a bottom shelf earlier in the day.

Still sanding, after trimming the boards and testing the fit.

But who can keep their hands off a good looking piece of lumber or a half-finished project just waiting to be worked on in the shop? I know I can't. Especially when I'm getting this close to being done. 

1/2 inch vs 9/16

Well, turns out it's harder than I expected to find the same trim twice. A trip to the same Lowes and then a second one didn't end with any results, even if they were in-stock online. So I bought them online for pick up with a scrap to compare it to, and the new stuff was a little bigger. Whether I bought the wrong kind, got the wrong kind the first time and didn't know it, or was handed the wrong size picking them up I don't know. And it doesn't really matter either, since an 8-foot length was on-sale for $.63.

I wouldn't want to blend the two but they look pretty similar.

So the room is done in two different sizes, but fortunately I bought enough the second time to completely do three walls and stop at a doorway, so there isn't a wall with both sizes on. I almost had one behind the media stand but the extra meant I could peel off the 1/2 inch stuff I had just put on. Turns out a 1/16 inch size difference really isn't that noticeable as long as they're not next to each other.

Thank goodness for that extra piece.

A little more caulking, a round of paint, and I think we'll be good to call it done.

tv up(date)

The basement had its first official guests this weekend and things went well; the couch got high marks for two nights of sleeping two adults and two kids, and overall things got a round of thumbs up from everyone seeing the progress so far. It was gratifying, especially since I don't think I'm going to get to baseboards or tiling the fireplace anytime soon so this might be as finished as things get for a while.

The calm before the storm

Of course, that didn't stop me from saying "absolutely" to the wife's question on whether I thought we should put a tv up for our guests before they showed up. So after getting things all taken care of, it was with a mixture of dread and excitement I found myself drilling more holes in my freshly mudded and painted walls. I loved the tv we picked out, but I was terrified at the thought of screwing up my beloved basement. And of course I did.

Aww dammit.

But the tv is up and looks good, and even better I caught the GoT finale on it last night after the kids had gone to bed thanks to our HBOnow trial. The wife came down to check on me and was worried I looked a little too happy, and I can see where she was coming from.

UUUUUGGGHHHHH

Today is a slightly different story, as I paint the patch and try to figure out the mess Comcast made of our whole-house splitter when it was first set up. Typing the word "Comcast" is enough to give me the shakes, let alone speaking it, so hopefully this is the last cable-related work that goes on for a while.

They're good problems to have though, and if today ends with broadcast television in the basement then I'll have gotten things to where they need to be.

Mistakes are okay (as long as you can do something about them).

I will admit to hitting a rough patch on the basement this week. A lot of that has to do with not having power for a few days while I waited for an electrician to repair the damage ComEd did to the house getting the power back on, and frustration in dealing with them and the fence company not being able to get us back on their schedule. But while this is going on I’m trying to get the outside molding corners right, and I keep seeing other imperfections and they’re kind of driving me nuts. 

The electrician had to trim some of the drywall to replace a couple of outlets last night; it’s not a huge deal but I had them looking pretty good with the covers on. Oh well. I know I can patch. Apparently the wife wants to put new covers on anyway so it can wait until we’ve picked new ones out.

One thing I can do is deal with a smaller mistake that’s been driving me crazy, the coaxial cable sticking out of the wall. What I should have done was bring it more toward the center of the wall so it was closer to where the tv will end up and not running along the wall from the corner. If we can afford a tv, paying an electrician took a nice chunk out of that budget…anyway, too late to change it that now. What I did do, however, is put a prior work box in there so the cover has something to screw into and sits there properly, even if it’s in a dumb place.

When even the simplest sounding jobs get complicated, sometimes it helps to take a break. Literally. Break something.

I thought this would be an easy fix; get the jab saw out, mark the guidelines, and viola, outlet box attached. Of course not. I forgot the foundation was sticking out in that corner, and there’s a stud just to the right of it so there wasn’t even room to cut the hole properly. Thankfully, with a quick mod to the box via breaking the top swing arm off, the box fit in with one side resting on top of the stud. And the screw that would close the swing arm just went right into the stud, so it’s probably on there better than it would have been anyway.

Yeah, that looks better, even with the crappy corner mud job behind it even if I do wish it was about 4 feet to the right. I’ll take some joy in a small victory though, as I try again to get the outside corners lined up. 

I also got a new shop buddy to keep me company while I work on stuff, and to be honest having Batman in the shop with me kind of made my day. I'm going to ride that feeling to the end of this project.  

Maybe I can make him a better perch later.

Purchase list

Prior work box

new coaxial cable cover

Batman

I miss my four-legged friend

Just b/c I’m in the middle of a huge project doesn’t mean I have to completely give up on doing the occasional small job. Having this shop area set up has been one of the big unexpected pleasures of a move to the burbs. I might have put something together from time to time in the condo but nothing too great. I think I mentioned the writer’s desk before. I also had an old Notre Dame banner that I wanted to try and build a shadow box for; I ended up with a simple frame instead but it got lost somewhere in the move. Someday I’ll redo it.

Another casualty in the move was this framed picture of Payton (dude dropped an entire box of stuff putting it onto the truck for storage, completely wiped out. It wasn't pretty). It’s a print from a trip to the dog beach and was a housewarming present from some friends when we bought our condo. Sadly, we had to put Payton down last summer when we found out she had bone cancer that was quickly spreading from her shoulder. I loved that dog and miss her all the time. So needless to say I was upset when this frame ended up damaged in our move. It’s a good memory and I wanted to make sure it’s up at the new house in a worthy spot. 

Busted corner. That won't do at all.

Easy, chop some 1x2, glue and clamp.

There are other pictures of her up in the new house but this was one of my favorites. So with a cheap 8 foot strip of 1x2 pine I got a new frame together. With the first square of flat pieces, I surrounded that with a second square to make it a little more interesting. It looked good at that point but as a final product not so much…

Whoops. That's a little tight.

I wanted to reuse the glass and mat from the frame so I just had to build a frame with something to set it in. The first attempt ended up way too tight. A bulky frame is fine but there’s got to be room for the mat to help bring focus back to the actual picture. Luckily doing the same thing just bigger worked out fine and having done it once already worked in my favor. I kept things natural for now and found a good place on the wall. 

There, that looks better.

Payton would have loved our new house, and almost a year later I still miss her dearly. She was a good dog and I’m still waiting for it to feel right to put her ashes somewhere in the yard. We might get another dog someday, but Payton will always be my first dog and I’m glad to have her picture back up again.