More tiny projects

Spent this weekend studying and working at the new bench.

First, a couple additions to the workspace.

The workbench needed some additional light. This bike-wheel-turned-light-fixture that I got from a friend moving to Hawaii is perfect:

The space also needed a place to sit down. This fine pleather chair happened to be out on the sidewalk for free:

Pickles isn't sure pleather is quite the right aesthetic. She is wrong.

After getting all that organized, I could get back to that planter I started last week. Here is the finished product:

From further back:

After we get some soil, we are going to transplant some of the fast-growing lillies from the front of the house into it.

Lastly, I took some of the 4x4's that had been supporting  the kitchen in the house's former life, and edged the garden with them:

When I have time to plant a garden again, this will help keep the water on the garden soil instead of it running off into the mulch. I'm going to plant some flowers there in the meantime. Pickles likes the dirt patch aesthetic, but once again, she is wrong.

Lastly, we spent another lovely Sunday at Jonny's, making flatbread pizzas on the grill and watching Tootsie outside on his deck, projected onto a wall. His gorgeous fire pit kept us warm late into the evening:

Thank you for another wonderful evening, Jon!

Pre-kitchen prep projects & AJ's birthday

I caught a free week between the end of one class and the beginning of a new one, so I was able to make some progress on clearing space in the garage for the kitchen fix-up (now only a month away!). I spent the week cleaning things up, throwing things out, moving things around, and using up materials I've been saving for projects.

Project 1: Bedside Shelves

Our bed (the rolled up futon on the tatami mat in the picture) is in this little nook in the new room.  It fits great there, but there is no room for bedside tables, so I finally put up these little shelves:

Did I use recycled materials from another project, you ask? Yes, yes I did. These are cut from a plank left over from the Great Fence Replacement of 2012, & finished with rub-on polyurethane left over from The Monster Project of 2014-2016.


Project 2: Workbench

There was a 7-foot piece of structural beam left over from The Monster Project of 2014-2016 that I liked the look of. It's basically a 3 1/2"-thick length of plywood, made up of many ultra-thin layers:

Thumb for scale!

I decided that I would make it into a workbench, along with, of course, other pieces of wood left over from the project. Like this bug-chewed piece of wood that used to hold up the kitchen:

Here is the bench, from a side angle. It's only a foot wide, but very heavy, so I attached it to the wall with a 2"x4" rail, and used the stoutest supports I could find for the front (4"x6"'s).

 

When the bench was done, I put up a scrap of bulletin board, a 6' length of chalkboard Contact paper, and this paper towel holder, which I found in all the stuff that had been left in the downstairs "rooms" by the previous owner(s):

 

Here is the finished work space:

Having a nice, clear, new space to work, I couldn't resist diving right into more projects. Of course.



Project 3: Wood scraps rack

Obviously, I have a ton of wood scraps, and few practical ways of storing them. So, I built a rack. Here it is from the back:

Received the Pickles Seal of Approval

 And from the front:

Much better!



Project 4: Planter

I was very excited to finally get on to the project of making a long (5 1/2') planter for the back steps. I spent today cutting down the pieces I need for the box:

I'll be able to jump into assembly next weekend, & then get that outside.

After that, there are a few more long pieces of wood that I don't already have plans for. Maybe I'll make something for the new kitchen.

In other news, I wanted to show everyone Jon's famous paella, which he made on the grill to celebrate AJ's birthday last weekend:

Yes, it was as delicious as it looks. Thank you Jon!

Breaking news: china cabinet!

We just brought this 6'x6'x2' beauty home from the Salvation Army for the kitchen project:

The china cabinet, not the MMA dummy.

No, the MMA dummy didn't come with it.

Yes, I'm disappointed.

House guest

Last weekend, we had a house guest: the one and only StarrhillGirl, who AJ has known for 30 years, and who is a follower and frequent commenter on this blog.

Pickles, as usual, did her best to be a good host. For example, after the bed was made, she immediately swooped in to perform turndown service:

Thanks, Pickles!

We spent the weekend relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. While StarrhillGirl and AJ read and napped on Sunday, I got some work done on the mural:

Meanwhile, Pickles made sure that her spot on the deck didn't get neglected:

It was a great visit, but so short! We can't wait until she returns for more fun!

This week, it's going to rain all weekend, so there will be no work on the mural. That's just as well -- I have a paper due on Tuesday, so I really should be focusing on that anyway. I think another couple of weekends of work and the mural should finally be done, though -- can't wait to get back to it!

Spring has sprung!

We had some warm weather this past week, so we got to go outside for some long overdue projects.

AJ took some pots and pans and baking sheets down to the antique stove, to make a final decision about whether she wants to cook on it. If the decision is yes, we will seriously look into restoring it; if the decision is no, then will just use it as a piece of furniture, as originally planned.

The decision is yes! We'll start making some phone calls and get a restorer out to take a look at it.

On a related note, in the course of researching the stove, we found out that this thing isn't for burning wood, it's a trash burner:

We also found out that the stove is likely from the 20's, based on the shape of the legs.

The front yard also got some much needed attention. I took care of the weeding, and The Mars Estate Head Gardener moved some plants that were getting too big:

Some of them made their way upstairs, into these planters:

Others were moved to the back yard.

Here is the end result, after taming the wilderness:

On Easter Sunday, the Easter Bunny left a basket on our front steps:

It was full of scones, croissant egg nests, and prosciutto egg nests -- all still warm!

What a nice thing to wake up to. Thank you Jon Easter Bunny!

Believe it or not, I also got back to the bamboo mural this week. I finished getting the chalk outlines up:

And started painting the leaf shapes white, as a base coat for the bright green:

Lastly, with the heavy rain more or less done for the season, the hammock made a triumphant return to the yard. Here is the view from the hammock:

Next up: we found a really nice, but huge china cabinet that we like for the kitchen. We just need to figure out if we can actually get it in the house. And then we need to start looking at sinks!

Week 104, Part 2

In addition to getting the paperwork completed this week, we also were able to squeeze into Mr. Bunkport's schedule and get some final gutter work done in between rain storms.

Here is Mr. Bunkport, on the new neighbor's (the one who gave us the orchids) roof, fixing some downed vinyl siding and putting up a new gutter:

A thing of beauty!

And here he is, putting up a gutter outside of AJ's office:

Another thing of beauty!

And another task for my to-do list: removing a piece of the washing machine vent to make room for the gutter left a little white strip above the window that I need to touch up with the blue at some point.

Of course, it's unusual (and ill advised) to run a gutter and downspout toward the house instead of away from it, but I asked him to do it so that I could put together a small rain catchment system. I put it together on Sunday, using copper fittings (to match the copper water line below the window, and the copper downspout on the back of the house) and PVC pipe. 

Here's where it joins on to Mr. Bunkport's downspout:

Then it runs through the steps:

To a 50-gallon square rain barrel under the stairs:

The barrel is about 30 inches wide, 30 inches deep, and 26 inches high. Perfect size for this spot, and if I decide later that I want to collect more than 50 gallons, I can attach a second one to it in just a few minutes.

It's such a great feeling to have this massive project really & truly done. Especially as we are now getting serious about this year's project: the kitchen. We are shooting for a June start date, so that gives us three months to assemble materials and furniture. That doesn't feel like a lot of time when we really only have weekends to spend hunting for the right pieces, but we think we already found a decent hutch, so we're off to a good start!

Week 104: Construction Complete!

Today, 104 weeks from when we started the big renovation project (almost exactly two years -- the first construction post on this blog was on March 16, 2014), we finally can call the project totally and completely done: the last of the nightmare of city paperwork is now officially complete.

We are DONE!