Summer - Where oh where has it gone?? And, how do I have a Grandson going into HIGH SCHOOL!

It seems like I've written less and less in my blog these days - and I want to change that!  I've been busy, but that's no excuse.  The sole purpose of this blog was to keep track of new things I built, attempted to build or completely failed at.  At some point, I hope in the far, far future, I may have difficulty doing things and, God forbid, remembering things.  That's when this blog will bring me the greatest pleasure, and hopefully, will be something my kids and grand kids will read, and re-read as they remember their old Mom and Grandma.  So, I need to keep up with this stuff!!

I've had a busy couple of months.  I traveled to see the Logger Family, and then flew to Colorado to join the Camper family.  The Docs have been busy, too, but I've managed to see them and Baby Doc a few times over the past few weeks.  Family - it's what keeps you going!

And, I've been busy working on projects.  My last couple of posts covered the major projects, but here's a run down of the most recent  big building project:

Camper Grand-son's bedroom:

My oldest granddaughter is going to be Junior in high school.  I've gotten used to that.  But now, my first grandson is starting high school.  I'm not sure how that happened!!!  RC wanted a new look for his bedroom.  Sooooo, his mom decided to go for a rustic, industrial look.  I think we hit the mark (except for the dresser, which came first and was supposed to be melamine-but that's sort of close).   I used 2x materials (fir) for the bodies and tops of the desk, nightstands and headboard.  1x basic pine boards for the crates and headboard panel.  Minwax early american stain was used on the bodies of everything, and layers of early american and weathered oak were used for the tops of the desk and night stands.  Weathered oak was used for the crates and drawer fronts.  All of it was sealed with matte polyurethane.  The tops got several coats of poly and should withstand anything this boy has in store for it!  Each piece has metal braces at joints and bolts added for the "industrial" look. (not all the metal pieces were on when these pictures were taken-hmmmm, I thought they were!)

Dresser for the closet.  The closet was going to be a major redo using melamine, but after building the dresser Camper daughter decided that just moving the wire shelving around a bit might work just as well.  She was right, so I decided to try to tie the closet storage into the bedroom by using pine and the same Minwax stain for the drawer fronts.  

Headboard

Night stands (note the initials added to drawers-last picture in group)

  

Desk (Bar height. Numbered crates are not drawers so they can be removed easily)

Wall decor (heavy wire hanger,  (hand painted, close to scale of official US Flag.  Distressed, then waxed with AS dark wax.  Frame is rough 2x white boards leftover from work done on my house.  Stained to match the headboard, 1 coat of polyurethane.  Flag is inset in center of the frame.  The back of the frame is an homage to RC's favorite sport - fly fishing!  I don't know if he'll want to flip it that side, but if he's missing fishing, he just might!

There's also a big "drawer" for under the bed.  It's on sliders and hopefully is easy to pull out and push back in.  It's not for things he uses every day, but it should hold his guns and all his fishing poles!

It's still to be delivered and put in place.  Waiting for some other things to be moved out of his bedroom.  Ryan has been using, since he first started sleeping in a bed, the same bed that his dad used.  It was made by Camper SILs grandfather.  It's beautifully made of oak, with drawers and bookcases beneath the mattress.  It's big and heavy and has to be taken apart and moved to another room.  That bed is an heirloom.  The stuff I've made RC is not!  I hope he enjoys using it but, he can use it for as long as he wants, and when he doesn't want it anymore, he should give it away (if it's still in working condition!) or burn it!    Welcome to high school RC, I enjoyed making this and hope you enjoy your new room and that it gets you through the next 4 years!