Right before I found out I was pregnant, I found
this website and immediately fell in love with it and got all excited to build
lots of stuff and start a new hobby. I went out and bought a planer, lots of wood and lots of supplies to build basically everything on the site. Then I started barfing the next week and the wood and supplies just sat there... for a long time. After Ben took his board exams and had some time, he started some of the projects, and yes, since this wood working is a hobby that he already has and is good at, I helped some, and he did most of it. ( I still look at the website often and find new projects for us (mainly him now) to do. :)
Anyway, here are our projects that we have done over the last few months.
Here is the first one:
The Rustic Bench, made exclusively by Ben.
The next project I wanted to do is make bed frames for the boys. Shortly after we moved here, I bought a bunk bed set and realized how poor quality it was while we were setting it up. I sold it on craigslist which left their mattresses sitting on the floor. I loved the Real Simple Bed, so we made a matching set of those.
We couldn't find straight boards in the size that the plans called for, so we used framing wood of 2X4's and 2X6's and planed them down to be thinner. This made heaps and heaps of sawdust that the boys played in for hours.
Bridger's bed has a box springs,
Carters doesn't. The plans are made for a bed without a box spring, so Ben just changed the plans a bit to adjust for a box spring without changing the final dimensions of the bed. And, we didn't want to plane down tons of wood again, so we used Cedar fence planks for his bed, which turned out great.
They were really strong AND straight.
Then we puttied, sanded (really tedious and not fun part that I could do) primed, painted 3 coats and polyurethaned 3 coats and Viola!! Done. We finished it just in time for Bridger's birthday. The boys were very excited to finally get it in their rooms, and of coarse, insisted on helping.
Tadah! Two super cute and super sturdy beds
Now that the beds were done, we had to get crackin' on their Christmas presents. We had this plan for a while, so we had been gathering the doodads to use for them, we just had to put them all together... and quickly!! (we had a week) My boys love to cook and are always into my pot and pans, they love playing with our neighbors kitchen, so I knew we had to build these. The plans on the website seemed too small, so made them bigger, and really, Ben just looked at the plans and then made his own up. I've decided that he does woodworking like I cook, if the recipe doesn't sound right, or if you don't have something, you just wing it and substitute for what you have. And, it usually turns out great. I couldn't find any pictures of "in progress" I don't know if we took any or not...we barely got them done for Christmas. The polyurethane went on Christmas Eve. Whew! Here it is:
If you know me, you know I am a sucker for anything red. But, just to put the record straight, Ben chose red, and I LOVE how the metallic look goes with it. We wanted it shiny and bold, and I think we got it. We put magnet board on the outside of the fridge. They have lots of magnets and since we have stainless steel appliances, they don't work with ours, so I thought this would be perfect. The bar faucet we got at the Habitat for Humanity store along with the real stove knobs. We couldn't think of a way to make them turn, so they are stationary :( Oh well, they are cute. The kitchen has been a hit. The boys have played with it for hours, more pictures to come with the Christmas post.
And, finally, since I have been feeling better, my appetite is HUGE!! I have been into cooking new things, I got a lot of recipe books for Christmas that I have enjoyed and here is one of my new favorite cakes, Peppermint Ganache Chocolate Cake. IT is fantastic!! I made it four times in December. Yum.
So, now what are our projects for January? Well, we are a little burned out from woodworking, so we are doing some indoor things: under cabinet lighting, back splash in kitchen and painting the house. Stay tuned for more pictures of that to come later... like next few months or so.
