Quick and easy housewarming gift

My brother and his girlfriend just bought a place out in Colorado, and since my dad is stopping by the house this weekend on his way out to a motorcycle rally, I thought I would toss together a housewarming gift for him to drop off on his way.

I didn't have much notice though, so I wondered what kind of gift I could toss together quickly and have it look halfway presentable in a couple of days. A shadow box sounded feasible, so with a quick research trip to look at plexiglass I got started.

I found an 8x11 sheet of plexiglass for just a couple of bucks, so this project was officially a go. I had a bunch of 1x3 and 1x2 scrap around, so I built frames out of both to see which one I liked better for a box size, and framed up a lid to go around the plastic to lid the box.

The 1x3 seemed like a better option. A little bulkier, but he's a brewer so that way he could maybe put a can or bottle in there. Nailed some 1/4 inch plywood on the back and viola, a box.

After picking out some hinges I chiseled mortises out for them and primed the box with spraypaint, then used some of the leftover black I had around. The lid got stained in oak and a couple of coats of spray lacquer.

 

This has been a pretty quick and sloppy build so it's not perfect, but it's coming together pretty well. Good enough to give as a gift at least. There's a handful of final steps; I need to add the felt backing to the box but want to lacquer everything again. I still need to add the magnet clasp, attach the hinges and the plastic, but I can hopefully get the detail work done in the next day or two, in time for my dad to take it with him after Friday.

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.

More project time?

Well that was a rough weekend. Found out Saturday, via a call from my Dean, who knows I'm not checking work email over the weekend, that the college is announcing a massive reorganization this week, with 50% of the administrative staff getting let go. Yours truly included. Oh boy.

I'm freaking out a little about this, but for now all I can do is keep doing what I'm doing, just add in some cover letter writing time somewhere in there. And in the meantime, I'm starting to look for positives about getting some forced downtime coming my way. Even if it comes at the cost of my workshop budget. Oh boy.

I've been through this enough that I know the steps by now, and I'm going through the first of them already. That doesn't mean I'm thrilled to suddenly be job searching again, especially with kids and a mortgage and waiting to hear about an EED acceptance, but there's not much I can do about it. I tried being pissed off, but there wasn't really anywhere to point it. The state hasn't had a budget for two years, the college is in the red, and this sounds like the only way to keep it open for students in the fall. How it's going to look like a college with half the staff gone I don't know, but it's not really my concern either. I have some cover letters to write.