The Garden, cont.

Initial indication led us to believe the arrival of our son was imminent so in order to avoid a last minute call to me at work and trying to hurry and get home from Seattle, I officially started my paternity leave. Until he does get here, we are taking the time to relax, catch up on sleep, and finish some fun projects.



We got some seeds and starts for our garden, one particular parsley plant promised specifically to Abigail. She has taken ownership, will plant it, water it, and watch it grow. She is very excited.



After her plant was finished, Abby took it upon herself to collect all empty buckets as Jess and I emptied them, transporting dirt from one to another to another.



We decided on allocating two of our beds to herbs, including parsley, dill, basil, cilantro, rosemary, and chives.



For the border of the garden we got a few flowers. I'm not sure what kind they are. You will have to ask Jess. But they are colorful and smelly, if that helps.



Last time at this point in the pregnancy, Jess was drywalling a kitchen wall. This time, she decided to take it a little easy and stick to gardening.



There is the whole garden. On the left side in the back we planted seeds for onions and green onions. Then the front two are the herbs. On the right we have tomatoes in the back bed, zuchinni and carrots in the middle, and will eventually plant lavender in the front.



We still need about four more flowers to finish the border but then it's all about watching everything grow and, when the time comes, making Jess a great salad while I order chicken teriyaki takeout.

French Doors

If you think a weed whacker is powerful enough to throw a rock from the gravel driveway all the way to my deck, you would be wrong. It's actually powerful enough to throw it across the deck and through my french door window. As luck would have it, even though I have a 10 pane door, it is all one piece of glass. I wasn't sure what to think when I saw the safety glass with its spider web of cracks creep across the entire door.



As usually happens with things I need to fix, they do not carry that model anymore at Home Depot. We were, however, able to order a new replacement glass without ordering a whole new door.



Fast forward two weeks and the new part has arrived. It turns out the door was pretty well designed. I popped out the plugs and removed the screws and the whole glass unit came out in one piece.



It was then a simple matter of replacing the screws and plugs and there you go, good as new.

The Garden, cont.

As it turns out, there is not such thing as planting chicken teriyaki. I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment when I found out it was in fact primarily for vegetables. After weeks of searching, my Dad found some available wood chips. I won't say where we got them as we aren't 100% sure they were technically available to the public. Let's just say we filled the truck quickly and both wished it was a little darker outside.



What a difference some wood chips make, huh? Abby and I finished covering the path areas with newspaper and soaked them with the hose (Abby's favorite part). Then it was just a matter of covering it all up. It really looks nice. If you look close, you can see two tomato plants on the right that up to this point have been in pots at Jess's parents' house.

Now we need to see if there is anything we can plant in early July. Check back for pictures once we get some things growing.

The Storage Unit

Jess's profession has caused her to collect quite a few pieces of equipment, cameras, reflectors, props, etc. Until now they have been stored in our never-been-used-as-a-dining-room dining room. In an effort to make that a functional room again, she asked me to build her a storage unit for the office, and a new project was born.



I had trouble with the original design. I knew she wanted a cubicle format and I wanted simple 3/4 inch dividers with 1.5 inch outer borders, but I couldn't figure out how to assemble it. In a moment of brilliance, (I won't tell you where I was when I had it) I made the interior pieces interlocking. It was a simple matter to add the double-layer outer border and facing boards.



With a bunch of putty, caulking, and spray paint (my new best friend) I had a finished project. I then called on my muscle (Becca) to help me move it into the office. As it turned out...I mean, exactly how I planned it, if I had built it 1/4 inch bigger in any dimension, it would not have gone through the hallway into the room. It looks pretty nice, though, huh?

The Garden part 1

Jess came to me a while ago saying she wanted me to create a garden for her to plant some chicken teriyaki. I thought cool! I didn't know you could do that. Needless to say I got started immediately.



After doing some research and consulting the experts (Kelly and Lance) we decided on a relatively unconventional method known as the weedless garden. Basically, you start by putting down wet newspaper. It sounds strange, I know but the idea is that it will kill the grass below, not let new weeds up, will let our plants' roots down, and will eventually decay and go away. That's my understanding.



We chose a design with 6 beds that mound above ground. I build a quick frame which I then positioned, filled with soil and organic compost, then removed to do the next one. It made the process easy. Our little wheelbarrow was a life saver transporting the soil from the pile to the garden.



Eventually, the beds will have wood chip paths all around that will let us access all parts easily. The idea here is we never walk in the beds themselves, which means we don't have to til the soil each year.



I then surrounded the garden itself with about 7 inches of dirt we can use to plant flowers or whatever we would like. I left a break in the front which will allow us to enter the garden area. I know it looks like a garden someone used to litter in, but the next steps will be to put down newspaper over the path areas and then lay down the wood chips. It will make a huge difference. Stay tuned for part 2.

First Shelf Complete

Finally finding a little free time, I managed to finish off one of my shelf projects. Jess had asked for a long skinny shelf for the bedroom for pictures and miscellaneous items. I started by cutting a five foot by 5 inch piece of pine and sanding it down really nice, including a quick sand over the corners to take the sharpness off. I also cut blanks for the three supports and, using a template and my scroll saw, cut them to the shape I wanted.



After attaching the supports, I used two coats of some nice spray paint with a satin finish. It made painting extremely easy and quick. I did sand a little between with a fine piece of sand paper so the last coat went on real smooth. Here you can see it hung in our bedroom.

Another work bench?

That's right. Right on the heals of finishing the workbench for my shop, it is time to build another one.

A few weeks ago was the spring work party for Abby's school. This is a pretty cool system where one parent of each kid show up on a Saturday to help clean/fix the school. Projects included anything from painting to electrical, drainage systems to repairing the fence line. It was actually a lot of fun. Several of the moms conspired to get pregnant during this time period so a lot of the dads attended.

One project I noticed on the list was a take home project to build a kids sized work bench. It looked pretty fun and I knew I had the tools to do it so I volunteered. They even had the plans for it already.

Here are the materials. I have already cut them to size using my table saw and miter saw. This is nothing fancy, just a piece of plywood and some two by fours.



The bench is designed to disassemble for easy transport and perhaps storage during winter. It is meant to be outside so I modified the plans a little to use exterior galvanized screws and bolts as opposed to nails. The left and right side/leg sections are assembled as well as the bottom shelf and the bench top. Here you can see all 4 pieces fully assembled and sanded. We wouldn't want sharp coners or splinters of course.



And finally we have the finished, assembled product. Pretty neat, huh? I can't wait to see the kids play with it.

(And yes, I did actually finish one of my projects. Now back to the storage unit, long shelf, box shelf, garden, and abacus.)

Work Bench - Finished!

Yes! I was able to find some free time this weekend and powered through the second part of my work bench. Thanks to Abby, whose invaluable help sitting on the finished portion placing dozens of screws in the peg board holes, and to my sister and her husband for arriving at a key moment where additional hands made the remaining bench go together in a fraction of the time.



I have started putting away some of my tools and miscellaneous items. The next step will be to get the rest of the shop cleaned out so I can actually have a place to work on projects.



Now I actually have room to keep my bench top power tools. Here you can see my drill press and my scroll saw. you can also see I have plenty of shelf space for storage.



One project done. Now on to finishing Wally's room, Jess's shelf, Jess's storage unit, and of course my abacus.

The Decals

We successfully transferred the crib to Wally's room (and Abby to her new toddler bed). The changing table will probably wait until closer to Wally's birth so we can continue to use it for Abby.



The decals came in the mail. We originally thought we would use stencils but Jess found these great decals on LeenTheGraphicsQueen.etsy.com. We were able to customize the colors. They were extremely easy to apply, and went up in minutes. Here is the tree that is next to Wally's crib.



And our little family of birds went up above Wally's closet.

Got chalk?

Holy cow! Look at that! It's a chalk board wall. We are getting really close. Just a light fixture, furniture, and some cool wall decals. Keep checking back.

Wally's Room

I know, here is another new project started. Don't worry, I have about three more on my list I may begin before I finish any of them. This one is a big one.

Now that we are well past the half way point of the pregnancy, Jess and I are ready to begin work on Wally's room. Up to this point, this room has been designated "The Guest Room." It was a pretty simple design of white (sort of) ceiling and light green walls. Here are a few pictures of the room before we started.

Jess started us off by putting plastic down over the hardwood floors and taping off the base boards. Since we are pretty much going to paint every part of this room, it was just easier to cover the whole floor. If you look close (or click for a bigger image) you can see Abby on the left helping flatten out the plastic.

Abby supervises while Jess finishes the last of the baseboards.

After writing both Abby and Wally's names in white paint, we put Abby in her painting outfit and let her have at it. The solid wall and the wall with the closet are going to be a nice white. The ceiling will eventually have stripes so for now we are painting the whole ceiling white.

Once the white was all finished, I had my father-in-law come over the help me tape off the ceiling stripes. I have never done stripes before but we were very careful placing the tape.

You can see the yellow stripes before we pull off the tape. I was a little nervous to actually take the tape off because I was afraid a lot of paint had leaked and it would take a lot of touching up.

But look how great they turned out! The lines are perfectly straight. It looks so good and I love the color. The wall with the door as well as the inside of the closet have this yellow as well.

All that is left is the window wall. This will be the most fun as we are going to use chalkboard paint. Stay tuned as this project is a priority so I should have it updated soon.

Work Bench, cont.

I don't have a lot of pictures to post today but I actually got quite a bit done over the weekend. I took advantage of the nice weather on Saturday and pulled my table saw out of the shop onto the gravel driveway where I would have plenty of room. My table saw has the great feature of being able to collapse and transported around so it wasn't difficult. I then began the huge job of cutting 12 inches off the particle board shelves and MDF top pieces. It was a little tricky all by myself but I took it slowly and used my rollers to support the sheet as it passed through the saw. The good news is after the eighth one I had the system down. The bad news is after the eighth one I was done. That was probably the most difficult part of this job.

I then began the task of assembling the frames. I made quick work of the first one with my screw gun. I temporarily put the leg posts in place to see how it looks. The next step is to cut out the holes in the shelf to accomodate the leg posts. I decided, in the interest of making it nice, I would cut square holes for the legs to pass through so the shelf itself remains in one piece. In this picture, you can see how it will go together.

The New Work Bench

I know, I know. I haven't finished my abacus project yet. However, this project will make all future projects much easier projects to project.

My new truck made it through its Home Depot initiation successfully transporting all the materials which included 2X4s, 1X2s, 4X4s, sheets of particle board, and sheets of MDF.

That's right. I'm building a new work bench. I'm tired of hunting down all my tools and not having room to work. I'm very excited about this one.

To prepare for this project I cleared everything away from the area, including the old bench. Before I can install a new bench, I want to put up peg board which will allow me to hang tools on the walls. The pegs themselves need space behind the board to fit so I used 1X2 spacers screwed into the wall studs. the peg board will then be attached to the spacers themselves.

In the project area are three existing outlets. Because new wall with the peg board will be about an inch farther out, I can't use the existing outlet boxes. They were permanantly installed to the wall studs when the garage was built. Instead, I cut a new hole above the existing one and will install a remodel box in the peg board later.

Here you can see I have the first sheet of peg board up and have installed the outlet. I used chrome plates for the outlets which I think look cool against the white peg board. You can see how the peg board splits the 1X2 spacer. This is to allow the next peg board to be attached to the same board.

Here I have all the pegboard and all three outlets installed. I turned the power back on and tested all three outlets and, of course, they worked perfectly first try. Eventually, I will have pegboard around the entire shop. The white peg board really brightens up the shop.

In preparation for building the actual bench, I spent some time with my trusty miter saw and cut the necessary pieces which included 12 lengthwise pieces, 48 cross pieces, and 12 leg posts. The next time I get some free time, I will put the frames together. I am looking forward to using my new impact drill to easily screw in the lag bolts. Stay tuned!

The Abacus

I was inspired by this next project as I was working tirelessly at my desk at the bank. As you can imagine, as a banker I work with numbers quite a bit. Part of my job is to maintain the integrity of those numbers, balancing everything to the penny.

As I finished double checking the total of a stack of checks, I rubbed my hand and looked at the sheet of numbers I had just written. It occured to me there must be a faster way to do this. If only we had some form of mechanical device that would assist us in adding and subtracting numbers. Such a device would completely change the way bankers do business.

I immediately took it upon myself to do a little research online and, what do you know, such a device already exists. It is called an abacus. I have decided to take it upon myself to construct such a device to use at work. I hope I don't make my coworkers jealous.

This first picture shows my design. The colors will be different depending on the type of wood I use but you get the idea. There have been several iterations in the design of the abacus. I chose this 1/4 configuration with 1 "heaven bead" in the upper section and four "earth beads" in the lower section.

My father-in-law had some left-over wood from building Abby's rocking boat so I will be making this primarily out of poplar. Here I have cut the blanks for the top, bottom, left and right, and the cross piece.

The next step will be to mark and drill the holes for the rods. I originally thought I would use wooden dowels but I need them only 1/8" thick. Instead, I found some 1/8" metal rods that will work perfect. They are gold colored which will match the L brackets I use on the corners later.

Here I have everything cut and temporarily clamped together just so I can see the actual size.

I used 45 degree angles on the corners so it will look nice. Eventually, I will glue the whole thing together and then use the L brackets to secure it.

I decided to try something I never have before. The abacus generally has marks on the cross piece separating the lower and upper decks to indicate which rods are the 1 unit, 1,000 unit, and 1,000,000 unit rods. I am going to use a small piece of rosewood inlayed in the cross piece as my marks. Here I have used my router table to cut the 1/4" wide, 1/8" deep slots for the rosewood. Incidentally, I will also be using two different colored beads as shown in my diagram above to help easily determine the value of the rod.

Everything will have a coat or two of finish. However, I didn't want to try to finish it when it was completely assembled to avoid getting finish on the beads or rods themselves. I will put a couple coats of finish on the individual pieces and then assemble them together.

You can see here I found a great temporary use of my rods, making the job of applying a coat of finish fairly easy.