How appropriate to recycle a project for the recycling contest!

Its only made from the old dining room door and salvaged chalkboard slate. More info in the project post, and the several blog entries detailing it’s evolution from ugly painted exterior door in disrepair to gorgeous interior table.

Salvaged decking, railings, spindles and found lumber on the beach already transformed – That might help take the pressure off.

I also decided I’d take a page out of Yorkshire Stewarts book, and let the piece dictate it’s own rules. This called for only using wood and nails found in this salvage pile… and out of a desire to not take this potentially mold and bug infested wood into the shop (or laziness for not wanting to bring my mitersaw and nailer up out of the basment, I decided I’d only use period tools from when the house was built in addition to the period lumber and cut nails. So I grabbed a handsaw and hammer and got to it.

The historic plastic handled Japanese pull saw and venerable 20 oz. Stanley anti-vibration hammer, both still commonly found at the big box stores, were found in the tool belts of any forward thinking 1880’s craftsman.

I had a rough idea for how I wanted this birdhouse to go together, but it decided that up was down (to which my daughter agreed), so I just went with the flow and let this fall together in a matter of a few minutes. I was motivated by being caught up in the process, and the sound of not too far off thunder “helped” in it’s own way.

3 pieces of lumber, 5 cuts with the pull saw, and about a dozen cut nails became:

A cut nail serves as a perch under the entrance hole, another cut nail serves as a perch under the side overhanging roof.

worms eye view (looking up from beneath the buttercup squash, which are climbing up the post this birdhouse is perched on.

There are a couple 18-20” x 3-4’ pieces of 1” thick siding (pre plywood days ya know) that are just begging to become my take on an Extreme Bird house – albeit a “small” one ;)... but for now, here’s just first stab at a trash to treasure project.

I had a few ideas for this contest, but nothing that really resonated… so while awaiting inspiration, (and running out of time) I decided I just had to break down and do something. I remembered another pile of trash. A pile of salvaged wood – sheathing, clapboards and trim, from some home reno projects. This stuff has spent about a year, heaped under the shed as I’d have to pay for the recycling center to take it.

removed two rotted windows (both had been boarded over, or under) before we moved in several years back. repaired/replaced plenty of the inch-thick wall, put on new clapboards, replaced the foundation sills were half rotted, completely turned into soil, or missing entirely, and an too tall interior outswing door has been replaced for a real exterior door.)

Nice new walls, overlooking a mountain of debris. And encroaching woodland.

I tried hiding the mess behind this salvaged stockade fence, but even when it stayed up, it still wasn’t pretty.

When we bought the house (how many of my entries harken back to that phrase?) ours wasn’t the worst off on the street. While we were in desperate need of an “extreme home makeover,” there is no way they’d take up the challenge. Apart from the logistical issues with fitting in any amount of trucks, trailers and crew on our short dead end street, our neighbors house was far worse off than ours. The previous owner gave up at least two decades back – by his own admission, and it was surely his life force keeping the roof up.

When they finally sold, the ad read something to the effect of “as-is, move in, fix it up or tear it down. No warranties. attached barn unsafe.” How I wished we could afford the land, or pooled in with the neighbors and had a community garden. Anyhow, a developer bought, and refurbished the place, (bottom shelf Home Depot), which allowed the now owner to buy it at a reasonable price – he’s in construction, and knew what had been, and what needed to be done.

What’s the point of this sidetrack?... well, with new siding, and a nicely landscaped back yard (both rescued from being overtaken by mother nature) was to the point where if “Extreme Home Makeover” did show up, they wouldn’t apologize for skipping us and taking care of the neighbors instead.

What does this mean to me? Well for starters, the pit of debris living (and turning back into soil) under the shed around back (we have a lower back yard outside our walk-out basement, about one story below the “real” back yard.) has now become quite the eyesore for the neighbors (In my head, they’ve never said anything, but I’d rather they not have to look at a “Sandford and Son” landscape hidden from my view, but right in sight of their firepit or hot tub.

So this morning, I pulled out all this mess, and stacked it up neatly in where I can more easily get to it. The plan was to sort out what I had, and what could be useful.

Carefully stacked, it took up a lot less room than I expected! Still not pretty, but could easily (now) be reached, and cut up into small pieces and brought to the dump one bag at a time. Much cheaper than a full pickup load.

While i was at it, I also sorted out this pile of leftovers from the day job. Mostly preprimed 1x, some spindles and oak column wrap offcuts. gotta clear off this space eventually to make room for firewood.

In one of my last posts I eluded to making birdhouses, and I had the idea to turn some of this detritus into just that – and look what I found!

Now what to do with it?... ;) Or rather what did I do with it?

Back when I had an office job in the “9-5” world, I got tons done around the house on the weekends and during “vacations.” stripped and painted trim, redid floors, replaced; windows, doors, siding, rotted sills along the foundation as well as started and/or completed lots of other projects that helped me build the skills and confidence to leap into the blue collar world of making other homes nicer.

Nearly two years ago, right before I traded in my software for real hardware, I replaced the windows in the Master bedroom (with ones that actually open!). The windows went in without much of a hitch (or as few as possible considering the age of the house, and I remember finishing the outside trim, and/or replacing some clapboards during a beautiful September week – my first week with Dad.

I must have lost all my tools or ambition ever since. They say that the cobblers kids go barefoot – and, the carpenters home is never done. (Lots started, but never finished. Ever.) How I foolishly thought I’d get so much done on my own house. Back when my Uncle was out building homes on Nantucket, he had a crew at home working on his, and he couldn’t bear the sight, or thought of “clocking-in’ at home come suppertime (or Saturday).

The interior trim just didn’t happen. I was going to stain some poplar to look like cherry to match our bedroom set – just as soon as I found that old Fine Woodworking article that explained which combination of dyes to use and where to get them.

Meanwhile a pair of tacked up curtains fit the bill. A year went by, we just stopped noticing all the abandoned projects around the house, in addition to the missing window trim in the MBR. I still needed to repair the plaster around the windows a bit, or maybe I could just install really wide trim. Almost another year went by.

In this time the room was painted – we decided on a rich dark chocolate color for the walls, and a “vanilla” for the trim. I’m normally opposed to painting wood, but after seeing how nice my daughters room came out, I agreed we could paint the trim. Not that I got right to it. Too many other projects, and life, kept getting in the way. I can’t even think of how many projects were started these past two years. Besideswhich, in this economy, If I didn’t have the materials on hand, it just was going to have to wait until I could afford or scrounge them.

And wait it did. Over time, I’d been able to salvage some usable offcuts of pre-primed 1x. I love keeping stuff out of the landfill, so to that end, I’ve become smart about mapping out my cuts to leave the longest possible pieces left over. Now, in addition to a pile of pieces fit for little more than birdhouses (millions of birdhouses), I slowly collected enough to finally take care of the MBR! Which I ripped, cut, sanded and installed (including the curtains) in less than 2 hours.

I’m glad this is finally done, and off The List! (and before dinner to boot!)

Well,... I do still have to break out the paint, and still do a little wall repair in a couple places as the new windows were a tad smaller than the original ones. But I think I can get to it in less than two years…

now maybe there’s some hope for the cobblers kids getting some shoes.

I’ve also added a gallery page, thanks to the new project card widget feature (Thanks Martin! Great Feature!). Not an exhaustive gallery of all of my projects – as some of the house and shop projects are only blogged about here (and there), but it is a nice visual record of what I’ve been up to these past few years…

Now, If only I can motivate myself to tackle the “have to do” list. As the list shrinks, I’m running out of excuses, except the gravitational pull of the lathe (and couch).

Never mind the arrow I drew on, that was a reminder to me that there was a little slop in the fit, and how to push it when using it.., but I fixed it and now it rides nice and true.

How does it cut? Awesome! I don’t even trust my miter box for cuts this square!

I’d been holding off on making my next box project for this sled, which I rough dimensioned this afternoon. The irony is that I finally got this jig made now that my table saw seems to be on it’s last legs. – It still runs just fine – whether it’s turned on or not! Needs to get me some sort of “off” switch rigged, as a new table saw isn’t as forthcoming as I would like (The visit from the Tax fairy wasn’t as nice as we’d been hoping)

So, so keep myself, and my shop humming, I put some scrap to work, and saved myself a bunch of cash…

Here’s my “wolverine grinding jig:”

My gouges have never sharpened so well – or consistently!

and here’s my pen blank drilling jig:

I’d originally made this for my (all but useless) mini drill press… but as I realized it didn’t have enough quill travel, I modified this for the Shopsmith. I had issues with the first couple of blanks breaking (well exploding). A couple of thin shims and a clamp to hold it shut (rather than relying on myself to hold it shut) took care of that. (Too bad I lost my only bloodwood and blackwood blanks from Karson ;( Why oh why didn’t I test it on scrap first?! Initially I thought the blanks might have had a crack, but I’ve solved the problem – I was able to salvage a couple of the blanks that cracked. Those turned out nicely. as for the first two… I’ll have to pick some up at my semi-local hardwood supplier, or trade for ‘em again in the next round of the “travelling pen swap”. (Or maybe now for some Bamboo blanks?)

Anywho… who needs fancy jigs, when you have a shop full of scrap, a couple of clamps, and your fellow LJ’s to inspire!

the inspiration of my “secret” 2×4 project that never was.

More info at the project post.

I guess I just wasn’t into rustic woodwork at the time, and thought they could use a little more work to make them more table like, if not level at least.

My FIL, who does tree work as a hobby (free firewood!) saves interesting pieces of wood, cleans them up and keeps them as natural art pieces, (some people put photos on the mantle…) he also makes these functional stools and/or end tables.

In time, the usefulness of (what Rob eventually dubbed “stooble” – stool, table) grew on me, and when we got our own place, we put in an order for two.

I reunited with old friends at my High School reunion, and when one came over to visit, he (perhaps jokingly) mocked the “logs” in the living room. I got very defensive. – YEP I’d really warmed up to these rustic pieces.

All my in-laws have at least one, and they really seem to work in any design scheme, I’m even keeping an eye out for some larger logs so I can make one with my own designs. – for example, a mushroom shaped one, for my daughters Alice in Wonderland themed, “un-birthday” party this summer.

My little one (5) was excited to work on a project or two with me for her room. I was hoping to keep her entertained enough to draw or something, while I spent some time, hopefully, finishing the stripping job on her closet door. (I spent a few hours on that yesterday, got more done in the first 1/2 hour than the following 2.5, but that’s another blog.)

When the room was ours (and I’ll have to search far and wide for a real before picture), the entrance way was a little tunnel – as defined by the red lines. You see, an earlier alteration to the floorplan moved the entrance from the current Master Bedroom, to the closet of the adjoining room. Approximately a 6’ wide by 2’ deep space, but they turned into a tunnel, blocking off the sides and top with drywall. It wasn’t until we moved an outlet that we discovered the “wasted space” in the wall that was totally finished, floor, drywall (or plaster), and paint. Odd.

Eventually I knocked down the drywall, a few studs, and opened up the entryway, turning the remains of one side of the boarded over closet into built in shelving.

Our bedroom would have had two closets – if not for the room switch. Not that this was a bad proposition for a girl to grow into. I always planned to put in custom shelving on the opposite wall. A nice spot for the TV, books and such. Now that we’re talking about downsizing, I’m less into customizing and more into finishing what I’ve only taken to 70-90%.

With the demolition of that wall, there was an exposed heating pipe, where the baseboard register went from one room to the next. After nearly five years, I decided I’d finally get around to “covering” it. So this morning we went down into the shop, and built a pedestal for her current (white melamine prefab – no I didn’t buy it) bookshelf to sit upon. Now you can’t see the ugly pipe and it looks more like an intentional custom built in!

I still have to make a grill front to conceal the pipe at the worm’s eye view (you could still see the lathe if, say you fell) but from anyones normal vantage point It looks great. I think I’m also going to take the cardboard” back off the bookshelf and attach something made with beadboard to further enhance the custom look, and perhaps attach a real wooden top. But for now, it’s complete enough for me. One more think off the to-do list! (a stale item on the to-do list at that.)

Good job Sweetie, thanks for your help. We’ve filled in a previously unused corner of your room, cleared up some floorspace (made room for your closet door) and earned a “coffee” break. (Lets not count the times we went up and down two flights of stairs).

- You might have noticed, among the sketches, measurements and such in the first picture, she was drawing her cocoa and marshmallows. Even as excited as she was to spend part of the day “working” with me, she still has her priorities. ;)