Kids are out of school and able to visit with Grandma, the days are longer and I can walk after work (I can, but do I???), and BBQing is the cooking method of choice. I love summer and I've been enjoying these early days of the season. I haven't been working in the garage as often as I'd like, but I have been busy. In addition to a big project for Camper Daughter's neighbor, the Docs had a small job for me and I enjoyed that it was a cute thing and fairly quick to build.
The Docs enjoy being outside during the summer, too. They have a beautiful back yard and patio. They've furnished it with a wonderful all-weather sofa and chairs that sit right before their amazing fireplace. They have an outdoor dining table to match. Legal doc is a movie guy and he's built an outdoor movie screen - huge, huge, huge. He's hooked it up to a speaker system and they gave it a test run last weekend. Strangely, I haven't heard how that turned out. Maybe his friends weren't as in love with the Lego movie as he is!
So, with all that going on in his yard, he thought he needed a custom wooden cooler. You might remember that I made one for myself using cedar provided by Logger SIL.
Legal Doc had something specific in mind. It went something like this:
I used redwood 2x2 for the legs. Probably the most expensive lumber for this project - and still reasonable!
I used 2x4 fir for the shelves, and cedar fencing for the sides, top and side shelf.
Dark stain to try to go with the dark wicker-like patio furniture.
Contrasting, gray-ish stain on the side shelf. At this point, the top is quite tall. As I went to install the hinges I realized that my measurement problems had, once again, reared its ugly head! I had to trim a good inch off the bottom - and hope that I was smart enough to shoot my nails far enough away from the edge that they'd miss the saw blade - Yes! That part I got right.
Adding a drain - the plan called for a cooler with a drain. The one provided to me didn't have one, but by the time I realized it didn't I'd cut off the handles and hinges - no going back! I had to use my imagination, and the experience of the clever Home Depot folks, to come up with a solution that will, for the most part, work (I think!). I made both sides hinged, something the plan didn't call for, so that if the cooler needs to be replaced (or emptied) the sides can be opened and Legal Doc can lift the cooler out.
And, here it is finished. Legal Doc made the supreme sacrifice and drank a few beers so that he could provide me with enough caps to "tile" the front, center panel. My nephew, Vin, helped me with the layout of the caps. I used mortar to set them in place, then grouted using a light gray sanded grout.
It has 2 wheeled legs so it can be moved around. A handle on the side to aid in the moving around, and a nice bottle opener for his friends who are wimpy like me and can't easily pop off the bottle caps.
After two coats of polyurethane it was ready to be picked up.
And here it is, sitting pretty on the Doc's patio.
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