Storage Bench Project, Part II

I'm sure you have all been waiting patiently to watch us turn the pile of lumber pictured in our last post into a comfortable and sturdy storage bench.  Wait no more!  

Since we had already cut the lumber into the pieces we needed, our next task was to determine which pieces needed some additional work before we could assemble.  Although the original plan called for assembling the bench with nails and wood glue, we wanted something a little more durable for the actual structural parts of the bench (and, I'll admit, we wanted another chance to use the cool thing we bought for the bed project).  This cool thing is called a Kreg Jig, and it makes it super easy to join pieces of wood using pocket hole screws.  

A pocket hole is basically a long shallow hole drilled on the underside or backside of a piece of wood, which you can then slip a screw into and use a long bit to drive it into the second piece.  The benefit is that pocket holes are very easy to conceal, and they give a nice clean look to your finished product because you can't see the screw holding everything together.  In the picture above, we have the Kreg Jig clamped to the underside of what will become the bottom shelf of our bench, and once it's clamped on you just slide the drill bit into the blue part and away you go.  This is what pocket holes look like once they're drilled:

After we finished drilling all our pocket holes, it was time for assembly!  This bench is a simple box composed of the bottom shelf, the top shelf, two sides, and two cubby dividers, all of which we joined with the pocket holes.  Here's the basic box plus the seat back, which we also attached with pocket holes due to its shape:

After the main assembly was finished, it was time to haul out the compressor and the finish nailers and attach the trim.  To the basic box above, we added a seat (right on top of the top shelf), two arm pieces, and toekicks on each side and on the front.  

At this point, the bench as shown in the plan was complete (minus the back, which I'll finish separately and add at the very end of the project). Very sharp-eyed readers may notice that there's a little more to this bench than what I described above - there are a few pieces of simple trim along the seat back, the underside of the seats, and the top of the side toekicks.  Here is one of my top tips for building furniture: trim is your best friend. It lets you customize your project any way you like, and hides a multitude of sins.  Popped a nail through where you shouldn't have, or two edges didn't quite meet up where they should?  Throw some trim over it and no one will ever know!  Here's a close-up:

The next step will be sanding and finishing, for which we've chosen a dark walnut stain.  Tune in next time for the finished project!

Storage Bench Project, Part I

So as we mentioned in a previous post, we are building a storage bench for our entryway so that we have a place to sit to take off our shoes and a place to stash gloves, hats, scarves, etc. in the winter.  We're adapting this plan from Ana White to fit our space; since we only have a 40" nook, a 48" bench would just be too long.

Last time we built furniture, we used pine, which was great for the guest bedroom project because pine is a soft wood and it's more forgiving for a beginner project.  Pine in many different widths and lengths is also really easy to find, and is usually quite cheap if you aren't too picky about knots (which we weren't since we knew we would be painting the finished product).  For this project, we decided to step it up a bit, because unlike the guest bed and night table, we expect this storage bench to get daily use and we want it to be extra durable.  I also wanted to try my hand at staining wood, so we decided to use red oak for our bench, and hopefully it will end up being a piece we can pass down to our grandkids.

We picked up our lumber today, along with a few other necessities, and couldn't resist the temptation to make our cuts tonight.

Unfortunately, there are other Sunday night chores that need our attention, so this is as far as it gets tonight.  Next time: assembly!

New Door Handle Project

I know I mentioned in my last post that we got around to replacing the door handle on the front door.  There were a few reasons why we wanted to do this project, not the least of which being that THERE IS NOT DEADBOLT! Granted, our neighborhood is pretty nice, but seriously, are we advertising that it's easy to break in? Secondly, the lock on the knob that was there....well, let's just say that at least it looked like it worked. We decided to go with the Kwikset Ventian Bronze Smartkey Arlington Handleset With Lido Lever (sponsored link) from Lowes, since we had a gift card that needed to be used. The lever style handle seems much easier to use than the old style. We also picked up a hole saw kit while we were there, since we're planning on replacing some of the doors upstairs. So, now that we've gone ahead and replaced the handle, we're feeling much more secure.

That being said, here's the before and after!

 

 This was the original door handle. Note the complete lack of a deadbolt...

 



 Here's a shot of the new inside handle, with deadbolt!

 

And this is what it looks like from the outside.

The Wife's Perspective

Welcome back to our blog!  As Lovin' Al posted yesterday, we're very sorry for neglecting this blog for so long, and we promise to be better about updating it this year.  With the wedding craziness now over, we're back to normal life, and we have a lot of great stuff to show you.

One of the highlights was our first adventure in furniture building - back in May, we posted some pictures of our guest room bed-in-progress.  We managed to complete the bed just in time for my mom's visit in June, and it's hosted quite a few guests since then, all of whom have given it rave reviews for comfort, sturdiness and style.  Here's Maddy, giving it her seal of approval about five seconds after we completed the final assembly:

We also successfully installed a brand-new dishwasher, which not only cleans our dishes but sings a cheerful little tune when it's done:

While our outdoor Christmas decorations definitely need some improvement for next year, I think we did a great job decorating the inside.  The deep red walls of our living room set off our Christmas tree to perfection, and we pulled off an 18-person Christmas Day dinner without a hitch.

Our budget is a little limited right now, so we may not be doing any large-scale remodeling for a while, but we have plenty of small things to do to continue making this place a home, so we'll be keeping you updated.  For our next project, we'll be building a storage bench for our entryway, to give us a comfy place to sit to take off our shoes and a convenient place to stash things like reusable shopping bags, hats, and gloves.  We'll be adapting a plan from Ana White, since we used one of her plans for the guest room bed with great success.  Watch this space for a step-by-step tutorial if you are interested in building your own!  

Well, it has been a while since we've updated the blog, hasn't it. A lot has happened since the last post, most notably being that K and I finally went ahead and tied the knot back in October! As you might imagine, not a whole lot of work has happened on the house, what with all the wedding planning and such.

But...this is not to say that *NOTHING* has been done, if not construction related. I had the chance to decorate the house for Christmas for the first time ever, and definitely came away from the experience with a number of lessons learned:

1. I need a taller ladder!!! Our 16 footer just ain't getting the job done...
2. Find a better way to anchor the lights to the gutters/house. Using the plastic hooks just didn't seem secure enough, and I wasn't able to attach the lights vertically going up the side of the house.
3. I need at least 1 or 2 more strands of lights to really get it done the way I want. Driving down the street seeing the lights on our house was just kind of disappointing. It just looked kind of half-assed.
4. Lights are freaking expensive! Of course, I had to go and get the most expensive sort of lights (LED)...
5. Finally, MUST...HAVE...MORE...DECORATIONS!!! I strive to be the guy on the street that everyone looks at and says "Isn't that a little over the top?"

Beyond the decorating though, we have done a couple other minor projects. The partially finished basement has been partially unfinished. What the hell does that mean, you say? Well, I'm glad you asked. You might remember from a previous post that the basement walls were hideous "wood" paneling. Words cannot describe just how bad it was. Suffice to say, it is no more. After a night of therapeutic demolition, the room is back down to studs. The exterior wall had already been demolished by the basement waterproofing company (with our OK) so that they could install the perimeter drain track.

Now that I think of it, I don't know if we ever posted about the waterproofing experience. It kind of sucked, but I'm not entirely sure that it was the companies fault. We think there is an underground stream running under our house, which means that there's always some amount of water in the pump cistern. It never got above the level of the floor, even when the pump wasn't on. The thing is that I'm not sure that the company was aware of this, and the discharge from the pump was, well, a lot. Who am I kidding, it was like we took the stream, and gave it a path above ground. The front lawn where it ejected was a friggin' swamp. I almost lost my riding mower while tending to manly lawn duties. It was like the lightning sand in "The Princess Bride" except there were no ROUS's (that I could see anyway).

Other than that, they had to do some demo inside the house, which included taking out the framing of the exterior wall to get at the concrete, as well as destroying the first three steps of the stairs coming up from the basement. So, one of my projects was to re-build those steps, including essentially fashioning new stringers from scratch, which I married up to the original ones using construction glue and screws. Plus, I got to play with pneumatic tools again in putting down the stair treads and risers.

So, yeah....basement is partially unfinished. We still need to pull out some of the 2x4 boards in the wall framing, because the jackass who "finished" the basement originally framed the wall studs something like 24" on center rather than 16" as it should be, and then just went in after and added the boards. This would have been fine if all the electrical hadn't already been run. So rather than pull out the electrical, drill holes in the new boards, and run the electrical again...you know...properly, they decided to notch out the boards and just screw 'em in, then put the paneling up. Needless to say, this is a potential electrocution hazard, since if anyone decided to screw into the stud, they might end up going through the wire instead, since it's right behind the wall rather than through the center of the stud. Once we get around to finishing the basement, that will be the first order of business to fix.

Lastly, we finally got around to buying and installing a new handle and deadbolt on the front door. The process was actually fairly simple, and the finished product looks so much better! I'll post pictures when I have a chance.

Ok, I've now created a post that is entirely too long, and I'm sure a good portion of you stopped reading somewhere around halfway through...if you've gotten this far, congratulations, and thank you! I'll try to be better about updating in the future.