Another Monster!

Didn't I say I was done with BIG projects???  Well, I forgot!  And, I said yes to my good friend Elsa when she asked for a cabinet for her husband.

The cabinet is for the garage, and he'll use it to store his collection of jackets - yep, he collects a certain type of jacket that was very popular years ago, and is no longer being manufactured.  His collection has outgrown space in the house, and the cabinet they'd been relegated to in the garage.  They had space in the garage, but they couldn't find anything to fit that space - everything was either a bit too small, or too big, sooooooooooooo...

The result is a cabinet that I'm not even sure they can get in their garage!  It's huge, huge, huge.  And, heavy!  My Doc son came over today to help me stand it up, but we couldn't stand it up in the garage!  It's now standing in my courtyard.  It's okay for now, since we're still having summer weather (in November, for goodness sake!), but the weather guy says it could rain by Thursday or Friday.  Hopefully, they can arrange to come get this monster before then!  Otherwise, I don't know what I'm going to use to keep it dry!

Here you go, Elsa.  85" tall x 49.5" wide x 23.75" deep.  It's almost ready for pick up - Maybe Wednesday??

It has sliding doors because in addition to the storage, they do still have to park their cars in the garage.  They'd have to move cars out just to open the doors of the cabinet.

No More Big Cabinets!  Really!

Finally, An Easy Project!

Remember this?  The bed I made for my kids, the Docs?

Well, my sweet Doc DIL, recently asked me if I could make a headboard for them.  And, she knew just what she wanted.  She'd seen it on my favorite DIY blog, Ana-White.com.  The plan drawing looked like this (below), but she was hoping it could be stained to match their bed.  She wasn't in a hurry, she said she'd be happy to have it whenever I had time.

Well, guess what?  She never asks me for anything and I was thrilled to be able to do something for her.

Here're some of the in-progress pictures and the final, in-place picture my son sent to me today (They picked it up, and it actually got installed today!)

All cut and ready to put together.

Joining the planks.

All together.

Adding some filler and prepping for stain.

First coat of Minwax
Espresso stain

Second coat.

Third coat going on!

Seeing the variations in the grain.

Here you may see the slight change I made to the plan.
I added another top piece and added a small decorative trim piece.

And, here it is!  I think I might make one for myself!

A Super Thrift Store Find!

If you know me, you know that I love to shop thrift stores.  And, I really love to shop when everything is marked 50-60% off.  One of my favorite thrift stores is the Salvation Army store on Citrus Avenue, just south of Arrow Highway.  It's clean, fairly well organized, and they always have some special price.  Sometimes the clothing is marked down, sometimes bric-a-brac (yes, that's really what they call all the little nick-nacks!), and sometimes the furniture is a steel at 60% off.  On my last visit, everything in the store was 60% off.

Now, I just have to tell you this - although most all of my kids have benefited from my thrift store finds, none of them enjoy shopping thrift stores with me.  In fact, they don't really want to know where I find the things I've given them! But, I finally have someone who sees beyond the old and used items to the hidden treasures available through thrifting, and on this particular day, I was at the thrift store at the request of my granddaughter, K-K.   She was a good shopper, searching out items that met her requirements: t-shirts with no stains, plenty of fabric, no designs, and cheap!   We had such fun looking for T-shirts that she could cut up and re-design.

And, we had to stroll by the furniture to get to the T-shirts.  And, this is what immediately caught my eye.  Look at the legs on that beauty!

Can you believe it?  It looked to be about 5' long and it had an extension open on one end that was about 18".  It was all wood, and in pretty good condition.  I walked by, then walked back and pulled out the other extension.  Both extensions moved in, up and out well, and when both were opened up the table was 8' long (yes, I had my tape measure with me)!  It was marked $135 which included 3 pretty typical (read UGLY) dining chairs, one "Captain's" chair, and two arm less chairs.  BUT, everything was 60% off, so the table was going to sell for about $54.  I couldn't leave it there in that store, I just couldn't - and bought it on the spot - for $41.50 (I'm not sure how that math worked, but I wasn't going to question them!).

Now, one of the benefits of Camper daughter's kitchen redo, was that with the half-wall removed they would be able to turn their kitchen table length wise and have room for several more diners.  Well, I thought this table might just be perfect for them.  At 5' it would fit into their kitchen, and turned around with both extensions up it could seat up to 10-12 people!

So, K-K and I, with the help of two burly employees, loaded this thing up in my truck and brought it home.  The two of us managed to wrestle it out of the truck and into the garage (she's pretty darned strong!).  K-K got right to work sanding the table top.  She now wields the sander like a pro!

I decided not to worry too much about sanding to raw wood.  This table was going to be "distressed" from the get-go so that Camper daughter and SIL wouldn't need to worry about dings and dents.  I even sanded the ugly chairs and re-stained those, then added new foam and fabric to the seats.  And, I made a long bench out of pine for extra seating.  It's a bit skinny due to a misunderstanding between grandson Ry-ry and the tape measure, and it feels a bit unstable (but, it isn't - it just feels that way!).  It holds 3 people very comfortably.

This picture doesn't do the table justice.  Even with a haphazard stain job it turned out really well.  And, it works for their family.  So, small-to-big table, skinny bench and 3 ugly chairs provide just enough seating for their family and one grandma!

Kitchen update...

My son said "Seems like an odd project for you", my daughter said, "I don't know...", My SIL said something about "putting lipstick on a pig", but when I listened to Camper daughter and SIL once again talk about how they needed to do something about their falling-apart kitchen, but didn't have the money to do anything, I thought "How hard could it be to "fix" this"?   HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!   Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor!

Actually, it wasn't hard, but it was certainly challenging.  Which for me is a good thing (if you can get past all the mumbling and swearing that goes on when I challenge myself).

Here's the thing:  small kitchen, about 10 x 10 L shape.  Original kitchen cabinets are really, really old - the house was built in the 50's (back when I was born, so yes, that qualifies it as being old!).  Back then, kitchens were built for different sized appliances, and in this case included a space for a washing machine in the kitchen - no washing machine sits in this kitchen now, and there aren't any cabinets in that space either!

This is a very rough drawing of how the kitchen was.  That bank of cabinets you see over the stove wasn't really cabinets - just a "front".  And the cabinet over the fridge was 12" deep and was missing a door.

So, my plan was to just fill in the empty spaces with a few new cabinets and come close to matching the  existing doors and drawer fronts.   Once installed, all of the cabinets could be painted the same color and, hopefully, the differences wouldn't be that noticeable.  Camper SIL would use tile they had purchased 10 years ago for a new countertop.  This plan would give them about 4-5 feet of additional counter space, plus additional cabinets for storage.  And, it would get their microwave off the counter and over the range, where it belonged.  This would be a "cheap-cheap makeover".  Easy, peasy, right??

Another rough sketch of the areas I planned to fill in.  
Originally, though , I was going build open shelving in upper areas,
and try to match the existing door and drawer fronts on the base cabinets (just a few).

Disclaimer #1:  My ability to read a tape measure hasn't gotten any better, and, did I mention that the house is over 60 year's old???  None of the walls are straight, and the existing cabinets are built oddly, (at least to me, a cabinet maker might understand why/how they were built, but not me!).  At one point, Camper SIL used a car jack to raise up a bank of cabinets that had dropped an inch or so!

Disclaimer #2:  Cheap makeover means that I used up every plywood scrap I had regardless of thickness.  Some cabinets were made with 1/2 material, some with 3/4" material, and for some, I used both sizes!  I figured most of that wouldn't be visible and a coat of paint would work miracles!

Disclaimer #3:  Square??  Still can't get that right!

Okay, so I built the cabinets, took them over,

and of course they didn't fit!  Too tall, too wide, too deep.  So, I loaded them back on the truck, unloaded them at my house, reduced the width of one and the height of the two base cabinets and the upper cabinet.  Because of the odd walls, the depth needed to be adjusted.  Took them back, they fit. The electrical had to be moved to accommodate the new microwave cabinet so I wasn't able to permanently install the cabinets.  My work was done for that weekend.

Over the next week I built another couple of uppers and worked on trying to match the doors.  That turned out to be a real problem for me.  The door frame had beading in the center, and a rounded edge, the panel has kind of a flared edge detail.  I just didn't feel comfortable doing that on my saw .  I'm still working on my routing skills (read:  still kind of afraid of my routing table).  And, I decided that painting these old doors was going to be just as my SIL is fond of saying "like putting lipstick on a pig".  So, I knew I could make a simple shaker style door with a flat 1/4 inch center panel without having to use my router.  There were by this time, only about 20 doors and 9 drawers - how long could that take, really?? As it turns out, it can take a fairly long time!  But, I soldiered on and eventually, finished all of them.

Old door and drawer front.

This was what was hidden in one of the walls - Camper daughter and I did a double-take when we saw that yellow and black stuff.  Doesn't it look kind of like a snake??  We thought it did!

Here's Camper daughter being silly as she cooks dinner for us - as we worked around her!

See SIL standing behind the stove?
He's working on a new electrical outlet -there were only 2 in the entire kitchen!

You can see the old, existing cabinets.  They are made of knotty pine.
New deep cabinet over the fridge, a "real" cabinet over the range and one filling in empty space to the right.
And, the microwave is finally where it belongs!

 New base next to stove -  before, that was all empty, wasted space. 
Cookie sheet storage in the new base plus an additional drawer, and the upper for spices and oils and stuff, oh my!

 Cabinet over the refrigerator & new side panel that makes it look kind of like a built in!  There was just a 12" deep cabinet here before - and one of the doors was missing.  If you know Camper daughter, you know that at 5' tall she wasn't reaching anything stored way back there!

This is where, originally, there was space for a washer.  That cabinet is about 37" wide.
That's an additional 3 feet of counter space!
Now there are two deep drawers, one with a center divider.  They can store pots and pans in the bottom drawer.
Oh, and see that shelf below the existing upper cabinet?  Initially, that was the plan - that plan changed along the way and you'll see what we did in later pictures.

Who is that fat old woman who thinks she can build cabinets??!@#$?

Thank goodness for Camper SIL.  I was planning to install all of these cabinets, (WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!????) but he was there to help.  And, honestly, without him to lift and push I'd probably still be in the hospital, in traction!

Once the bases were all installed, I started on the doors and drawer fronts.  Again, I started these using material I had in my garage.  The stuff I had, and used, is called sandply.  It's about $20 a sheet, and it's pretty rough, but I figured for a down-and-dirty, cheap redo, this would do. Well, I ran out of this fairly quickly and went to HD to restock.  I made the mistake of looking at the 1/4" birch ply, and even though it was $10 more a sheet, that's what I bought.  It's 1/4" thick, but heavier than the sandply, and the good surface is much smoother.  I figured that once we painted, it would all look the same.  And, it sort of does, but it is still noticeable.  And I just hope no one in that household gets in a snit and smacks a door - they'll go right through that sandply!

I took all the doors and drawer fronts over to the house and set them where they were meant to go.  As often as I measured, I still wasn't confident that they were right!  But, I had all of them, and they covered the openings.  Good to go, right?  Weeeelllllllllllll, yes, but I later learned there was more to measuring them to just "cover the opening".

     

   

Once I knew the doors would work I loaded them back into my truck and took them home.  Once back in my workshop I sanded and filled, and sanded some more.  Then they were ready for the first coat of "bonding agent".  

We used a paint made by Rustoleum for use on cabinets.  It consists of a deglaser (to use on existing cabinets), a bonding agent (the color coat), a glaze, and a clear, protective finish. 

 Just look at how strong Camper daughter is!  Here she is helping to remove the dishwasher.

  

And, here she is - well, not sure what she was doing right then, and maybe it's best that we don't know! 

Here we've started painting the interior of the cabinets and preparing the exterior for painting.

Oh, look!  Here you can see the base /bonding coat, which is "pure white".
(That's Legal Doc in the lower left corner, giving his approval of the project so far!)

Let's see, it's Oct 16th today.  I started building cabinets on August 10th, so this has been going on for over two months.  But, it's done!  Camper SIL has worked every weekend to complete the electrical, plumbing, tiling the counter and back splash, appliance installation, flooring installation, removal of the wall between their tiny kitchen and living room, repairing and texturizing the wall, adding new trim and painting or staining everything.

I'm so proud of both of them for working through this and completing the job!  It was hard work, stressful to live through, and exhausting!  (oh, maybe I was the only one that dealt with all that!)  And, on top of that, the kitchen and living room look great and they're happy with their redo!

I want to finalized this post, but I still don't have all the pictures.  So, I'm showing you just a few of them and will add more soon.  To remind you of where we started:

FROM THIS

TO THIS

Coulda, Shoulda, Wooda... (old post, for some reason reposting!)

That's not a misspelling!  Wood can get you - and yesterday it got me!

Coulda:  had a chili and cornbread dinner Sunday at my good friend MK's.  I haven't seen her, her husband and son in what seems like ages.  The invitation came and I accepted.  But, I'd loaded a cabinet on to the truck on Saturday night.  Later my back began feeling the effects of that effort.  I took a muscle relaxant and went to bed.  I woke up Sunday in worse condition than the night before, so took another pill and hoped I'd be better soon.  I wasn't and was concerned that I shouldn't drive while taking the medication.  I called MK and explained why I couldn't come visiting.    COULDA SHARED A MEAL WITH MY FRIEND.

Shoulda:  I stayed pretty much prone all day.  Until I was hungry and my craving for Super Bowl fare got the better of me!  I got up, felt pretty much stable, and drove to the Colonel's.  Made it home safely and scarfed down several wings dipped in my secret wing sauce (Tabasco and melted butter - really secret, huh??).  I was tired and thought I'd sit in the spa for a while, BUT instead, I went out to the garage to see if I had enough wood for another doll bed.  THEN, I decided to trim up the pieces so tthey'd be ready when I wanted to start the project.  SHOULDA SOAKED IN THE SPA.

Wooda:  Trimmed up a few pieces and cut the last piece.  As I pushed it through, the small, waste piece pushed back and tried to shove my finger out of the way.  The hard way - right through it!  So, the saw didn't get me, but the wood did!  Chewed up the right edge of my left index finger and gouged the skin off as it traveled down to my knuckle.  WOODA GOT ME GOOD!

Hmmm, what to do??  Don would have wrapped the bleeding digit in duct tape and finished the work.  I don't have duct tape.  I had the sense to turn off the saw, hold my finger tightly and raised it high to try to stop the bleeding.  I'm new to Kaiser and had no idea where, in their system I needed to go.  I didn't think I should drive myself to the Baldwin Park urgent care.  I decided I'd best get assistance at the local ER.

San Dimas Community is only about 2 miles from my house so reading material in hand (the good one!) off I went.  Seems that Super Bowl Sunday is a busy night in the ER!

I'd tried to contact both local kids to see if I could get a ride, but they were both incommunicado.  However, Cara did call while I was waiting to be seen.  She decided to come keep me company. (well, I think it was probably just a good excuse for her to be somewhere where she could read without disruption!).  In any case, I'm glad she was there.  When I finally did get into a "room" the gave me a tetnus shot, antibiotics, and a pain med that within minutes had me pretty looped!  I wouldn't have gotten myself home, that's for sure!

Bottom line is that there isn't enough skin to stitch it up and the Doctor thought Kaiser would want to do a skin graft to fix the tip of my finger.  They wrapped it up and arranged for me to see a Kaiser hand surgeon today.  Cara's on her way to pick me up and take me to another waiting room!

COULDA, SHOULDA, WOODA!!!  Will catch you up later...

It's In - and it Fits!!!

Whew!  I delivered the dresser this morning - and as a bonus, had a delicious breakfast prepared by my friends, E & O.  But, the real bonus was that the dresser fits perfectly in their little niche, and it looks really nice there, too!

Thanks to Camper SIL who helped me load up this morning (Don't worry - it's not going anywhere!! - and thankfully it didn't!), and to O & E's big, tall, strong nephews who helped Oscar get it up the stairs, it is in place!

The lighting wasn't great (and photography isn't my thing!), but I'll show you how where it sits, and then I have a better picture that shows the pretty finished product.

This is the space it needed to fit into.  Just inches from the entry door on one side, and the  bathroom door on the other.
It couldn't protrude too far or it would impede the walk way into their bedroom.

This picture was taken as I was standing in front of the bathroom door - you can see the entry door,
and into the hallway.

This is the "pretty" picture, taken from the doorway into their room.  See, it fits just as we'd planned - just a few inches .
And, you can see that the color is a good match to their existing furniture (good choice, E!)

So, 20+ years of searching for a piece of furniture to fit their odd space, they finally have something that fits like it was custom made for them - oh, wait, it was custom made just for them!!  This is what I enjoy about woodworking!