Sawhorses

These weren't meant to be anything special, and it's a good thing! Scuffed already... but that's okay. They took one and a half nap times to make from start to finish. That is, all of my son's nap time this morning (about 1.5 hr) and half of my daughter's this afternoon (1 hr). Not bad for construction and a quick coat of paint (dear Hubby cut the corners for me last night).

The plans were GREAT! Thanks again, Ana at Knock Off Wood!

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with them. I just knew that I wanted them, and that they'll fit in somehow. I could use them when I do craft shows, EASILY, in 1000 different ways. Or in my sewing room here at home. I have a counter top in my scrap pile in the basement that I'm thinking about mounting on top. Oh, the options! Sawhorse tables are very popular at the moment (not that that's ever mattered to me when it comes to furniture) but I'm not sure where I'd put it. Here's an example from coolmaterial.com:

Maybe now I'll get some sewing done. I have noticed a strong tendency toward woodworking over sewing when I have a project available. This one was eating at me. I can't help it! I'm totally hooked!

Shoot, I totally forgot... TOTAL COST: about $13 (for both). I used paint we had in the basement.

I'll Be Back More Now...

...since I'm done with my TABLE!

Thanks to Ana at www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com!

Here is Pottery Barn's $500 table:

And here's mine:

Okay, so I don't have all the cool candles and great lighting yet, but I'm getting there!

My entire kitchen is a work in progress, and it's starting to feel like I'm actually getting somewhere. I actually wanted this table a little smaller. I held my breath as I pushed it against the wall. It's less than half an inch shorter than the wall! And THANK GOD! I'm really not sure what I would have done if it hadn't fit!

So, if I'd come home and found this table in my kitchen, and knew that the expense to get it there was very minimal and that I didn't have to work for it at all, I'd be tickled pink. Hubby, however, apparently would not be. :) He wasn't very happy that I didn't ask his for advice or help with it, but frankly, I didn't need it (I think he disagrees with that statement solely on principle). I tried to explain to him that sometimes a housewife needs a big project all for herself, but his 8 years of construction experience wouldn't let him see things from my side. The dining table, which will be much like this one but much larger, will not be done all by myself. He insists on it.

So, clearly, I didn't finish the parts that you can't see unless you're sitting on the floor. I also probably should not have photographed them, either, but I did.

I am no good at keeping receipts. In fact, bookkeeping my probably what I'm WORST at. In a way, it's a good thing I'm not making enough money yet to have to pay taxes. Who knows how that's going to go! :) But here's my estimate, based on the checks I wrote and the receipts I can find:

I think the wood was between $20 and $30. For the sake of overestimating, let's say it was $30. Glue, Filler, Stain, Seal, Brushes, and Wood: EASILY under $50, probably more like $40, especially when you consider how much of the stain and sealer I actually used. (I won't have to buy any for a while, that's for sure.)

And here's another fun fact about Ana and Knock Off Wood: she's just received a letter from Pottery Barn's lawyers telling her to knock off knocking-off. She's been blogging 4 months and already has over 3300 followers. No wonder they're nervous!

I'm Still Here

I think it happens to all bloggers, at least once in a while. That is, disappearing into... well, into reality, frankly. I'm not online all day, even when I'm keeping up with my blog, but lately I've been more than just "not online all day". I've been in the basement, mainly! And the kitchen. Well, I'll show you...

First I did this to part of my kitchen:

It was This:

And now it's This:

(Please forgive the shadow across the middle--that's from the window, not a dirty wall!)

And in between, in various stages, it was This:

I do not claim to be done with this, obviously. But I was able to get it to a point where we can live with it (cleaned up, painted, floor put down) until I get the trim cut and painted and the console table built that will hold my coffee pot, napkins, and whatever else I want to put there.

That's what I did when Nick was away for the weekend.

On to my most recent carpentry... the console table that is behind our tv.

It doesn't look like much--and it's not--but it's SO handy to have!

Our tv is ridiculous. It is huge and cumbersome, and I am terrified that if I elevate it, it will fall on one of the kids. It cannot be easily anchored to the wall, and we don't have appropriate furniture for it in any case, so there it sits in our awkward living room space by the front door, taunting me: "Look at me! I'm a big eyesore sitting on the floor, reminiscent of the days when you were fresh out of college, too poor to afford matching--or any--furniture! I'm going to phone my friends in the kitchen--you know, the mismatched plates and silverware and card table that you're still eating dinner on every night--and we're all going to make fun of you together!"... and so on. I am on my way to fixing our tv situation, and this console table is the first step. Like my liberated kitchen wall, it is also in limbo: it's done enough to use, but I plan to do more with it at a later date. Not only will I put a darker stain on it, I plan to build a short platform to stack the table and the tv on (maybe I'll put a drawer in it... hmm) so we'll have a small entertainment center. It's not that we can't afford to buy a big enough entertainment center, btw. We're just too frugal. :)

Another reason I haven't gotten around to doing this sooner, and opt to work on more pressing things (like a kitchen table), is that I don't know how much longer we'll have this tv. We've been talking about buying a flat screen to mount on the wall, and I don't want to invest time, energy, and money into something that we'll soon have no use for. My carpentry skills do not yet allow for selling my stuff, and who needs more... STUFF???

So, until we figure out something more attractive, here's our purely functional tv spot.
I'll say here what I'm sure I've said before: I DO NOT like tons of things about our house. One is the awkwardness of the space arrangement. The layout doesn't allow much open space, and the rooms are totally closed off from one another. It's too full of personal opinions. In someone's personal opinion, a cabinet system would be nice in the living room. In my opinion, they've just taken up valuable floorspace in such a small house and should have left it open. But it doesn't matter because the fact is: I'm stuck with all these cabinets and only a tiny wall to put the tv on, greatly limiting my options. Also, in someone's (probably the same "someone") personal opinion, a cabinet would really be good in the kitchen, where it was. Well, I had different thoughts. I'm so excited to finally be filling my house with my own personal opinions. Hopefully that'll open things up a lot. Lord knows, when you've only got 1200 sq ft, you can't have heavy, deep pieces around every corner. We have to live in here somewhere! All right, enough of that. Back to work. :)

More Than a Shoe Box...

...It's the first step in realizing a dream! Okay, it's not like I went to the Olympics, but anybody who's ever found themselves repeatedly thinking about how they REALLY want to do something, only to hear over and over how they can't do it for some reason, knows exactly how satisfying it is to take that first step and see some results. It's like a door, which has always been bolted shut and boarded up, has just flown open in front of you and suddenly there's nothing keeping you from all the goodness on the other side.

Sort of a lot to say about a shoe shelf, I know, but that's what's really going on for me, by building this. It's not a big, wonderful project, but I wanted to start really small, in order to get comfortable with the tools. (hehehe: I said that to Nick and he said, very nervously, "what... tools...?") And I have Ana at http://www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com/ to thank for the final push that sent me into the hardware aisle. I have been talking myself into woodworking for a long time, but seeing her stuff (I mentioned it here) was exactly the motivation I needed to just go for it. Thanks, Ana!

I put this together in two naptimes, roughly.

It started out as a closet door. This was VERY big and VERY heavy.

The only things I paid for were the screws (18 screws at 11 cents each) and the can of spray paint that I decided to use at the last minute (somewhere around $4). TOTAL COST: About $6.50 Would have been about $2 had I used some of the random half-cans of paint that we have around the basement and in the closets. I'll probably do that next time.
OH HECK YES, there will be a "next time"!!