Sling Chairs

The story of my sling chairs begins with my awesome neighbor.  He's in his mid to late 80s and he shares my love for working with wood.  Remember when I was building the sink for my boys' bathroom (you can see it here)?  Well, he noticed me out on my driveway building it.  That was the beginning of a beautiful relationship--one where he brings me free wood (remember all the beautiful hardwoods he brought me that I turned into breadboards--you can see them here, and the 1/4 ply I was able to use for the built-ins--you can see them here).  Well, the first wood he brought by was this pile of unplaned 1x2s:

You see, my dear neighbor, although long ago retired, still works hard volunteering at The Happy Factory (click on it to check it out), a non-profit organization that my friend runs and that was founded by her late husband.  It is AWESOME!  Definitely check it out.

The Happy Factory makes the most darling little wooden toys for poor children.  My sister-in-law was even able to take hundreds of the toy cars to Ethiopia to give to the children in the orphanage from which my nephew was adopted.  My own children play with these well-built toys all the time.  I love the Happy Factory for the service they do and, well, as you know, I love wooden toys (you can see some of the toys I've made here)!

Anyway, occasionally the Happy Factory receives donations of wood that is unusable for the toys.  They then donate that wood for other uses--like for me to use for my projects.  :)  So, I decided to come up with a plan for how to use this stack of 1x2s that my neighbor brought me.  And, I turned to Ana White--I LOVE her DIY building website--you can see it here.  Anyway, she had these plans for foldable sling chairs.  I used the 1x2s to build these chairs last year and then they sat in the garage until I found the time to stain them this year.

They are currently sitting on the concrete pad near the firepit grass (don't mind the pallets and such in the background--we're still cleaning up) so that we can easily pull them around the firepit when we want to use it.  Of course you can see the journey of the firepit area of our yard here. It's actually turned out to be a nice location for them, as you can enjoy the sweet smell of the honeysuckle we have planted there while sitting in them.  Mmmm.  You can see the concrete in relation to the firepit in this picture (again, please ignore the mess, which has since been cleaned up):

When I built the chairs, I didn't want to use standard outdoor fabric because (1) it is SO expensive, (2) it doesn't last as long as I would ideally want, and (3) I wanted water to be able to easily drain through it without making the fabric soaking wet in case I wanted to leave the chairs out on the grass in the sprinklers.  So, I put an ISO ad on craigslist for anyone who may be throwing out an old trampoline mat.  Sure enough, we found someone who gave us their old torn mat.  I cut it up and sewed it into the slings.  The trampoline fabric solves all of the concerns:  (1) free, (2) long-lasting, and (3) dry.  And the chairs are super comfortable to lounge in.  I may make a few small tweaks in the design if I were to build them again so that they can have a more upright position (since they are multi-position chairs anyway) and so they can fold even flatter.  But, I'm glad to have them done and to finally be able to use them.  Even the kids love to lounge in them.  I only wish I had made more when I was building them.

Vegetable Garden

So, we're finally getting around to putting in the vegetable garden this year.  I drew out the garden plan and Cam bought the plants.  Now, Cam has been planting all the seedling and seeds and I have been working on these bad boys:

This is about 1/4 of the garden markers I made.  I'm not much of a crafter, but I saw this idea somewhere (can't remember where) a couple years ago and thought it was cute, so I thought I would give it a try.  AND!  Doing so meant that I could not only whip out the old pocket knife, but also use one of my "power" tools that gets very little use:

My grandpa gave this to me when I was a kids (he was my "tool supplier" for the first 20 years of my life, starting with my first socket wrench he carved my name in when i was 2 years old after I repeatedly stole it from his tool box to play with).  Notice the kids on the box.  Haha!

Oh the things my mom entrusted me with as a kid . . . .  I am not so brave with my own kids--maybe it's because they are all boys?  I am grateful to her though, as I learned so much as a kid.  Anywho, this thing gets REALLY hot--I can't believe I didn't have some terrible accident when I was a kid (or while burning the words into these garden markers as an adult for that matter)!  Here are a couple pictures of a few markers in place in the garden:

Anyway, I will post more pics of the garden as it starts to grow.

I'm so lucky to have married such a hard-worker:  He planted the whole vegetable garden.

The planter I added last year at the back end of the vegetable garden:  The tree seems to still be doing great.

UPDATE:  Veggies are coming in nicely:

UPDATE:  Looks like we will have a "Great Harvest" this year.  And, Cameron took the extra Flagstone leftover form the firepit and laid a quick walkway along the vegetable garden to spare our bare feet from walking on the sharp gravel.  It's fun to start reaping the fruit of our labors.  We picked our first tomato of the season yesterday!  Yay!

UPDATE:
Here's a couple photos of just a very small percentage of this year's bounteous harvest.  We've been very blessed this year.

Remodel--Bedroom 1

Update--Sneek Peek (scroll down to see more updates as I complete each step)--This is how it currently looks:

Remodel--Bedroom 1

I am currently remodeling the first bedroom that two of our boys share. 
The boys weren't loving the flower border, peach carpet and ruffled valance left by the previous owners of the house (this was their daughter's room).  I wasn't loving the inefficiency of the closets.  The big, heavy sliding doors are difficult for little boys to use and they were constantly getting caught on clothes that would inevitably fall off the too-shallow, too-high shelves that the boys couldn't easily reach.  Plus, the closets were much larger than necessary, which equates to wasted space (a huge pet peeve of mine).

This is how the bedroom used to look:

Original Room

So, I've been at work creating a more functional room with more architectural interest.  Here are my plans:  Two individual closets separated by a reading nook with built-in book-shelves and drawers for the boys' books, nick-nacks, and collectibles.  Now, both boys will have a good 7' of clothes bar to hang their clothes on with one bar high and one low so that the closets function both when they are little and when they are teenagers.  They also have 13' of shelving for folded clothes, long and deep drawers with adjustable dividers for socks, underwear, sweaters, etc.  The reading nook is proportioned to accept a crib mattress snugly and I will install a removable crib rail so that we have an automatic built-in crib or toddler bed for guests that may use the room.  The rail and crib mattress can be stored in the cabinet above the reading nook when not in use.

Remodel Plans

I have the new closets almost completely built.  I am currently working on the closet doors.  While I wait for them to dry, I plan to foll nail holes with wood fill and wire the light fixture for the reading nook.  Once the doors are all glued up (I only have enough clamps to glue one door per day), I can start sanding everything down, add crown and base moulding and then paint everything and install the new light fixture and the door and drawer hardware.  I will also be beefing up the trim on the bedroom entry door, adding trim to the existing window, and replacing the peach carpet with something more masculine and neutral.  This is what everything looks like right now:

Reading Nook and Closets Built

Building Closet Doors

Reading Nook Up Close

I will add updates to this blog post as things progress, but I'm not one to take the time to take pictures every step of the way (hence no pictures during the building stages).  But, watch for the final reveal once I complete the room!  I'm excited and the boys are anxious to move into their new room.

UPDATE:
Ready to prime (notice the light fixture I installed in the nook--pretty proud of myself for wiring that)

Reading Nook Light Fixture Wired and Installed

Primed (notice the old brass ceiling fan has a new schoolhouse light kit to match the nook light, and I painted it an oil-rubbed bronze finish to update as well)

Built-Ins Primed

 Now onto touch-up spackle and paint . . . .  Yay!  Stay tuned . . . .

UPDATE:
I've been working on some details between coats of primer and paint.  I updated the ceiling fan by replacing the light kit with a schoolhouse fixture, painting the brass and white all oil-rubbed bronze, and painting the gray/white blades a softer and creamier white to match the built-ins.

BEFORE:  Ceiling Fan (sorry for the bad picture--only one I had)

AFTER:  Ceiling Fan (again, bad picture, but gives you the idea)

I also wanted more prominent trim throughout the house, so I'm starting in this room and will update as I move throughout the house.  Since it would cost too much to replace all the trim, I decided to just build it up by adding onto it with cheap lumber:

BEFORE Trim:  notice the nearly non-existent baseboard and standard door casing

DURING Trim:  Just routed the edge of some furring strips and added to the outside of the casings and bottom of the baseboards

AFTER Trim:  baseboards after being painted

AFTER Trim:  Door Casing after being painted

 My husband's comment after seeing the finished trim:  "I REALLY like the trim.  I was skeptical as you were doing, but I really love the trim!"  He kept going on and on and staring at the trim so, I guess it was a success. Yay!

The other little detail I've been working on is the door hinges.  You may recall that I painted all the door knobs in our house a while back.  Well, the hinges in the house were all painted white right along with the doors--like they were never removed, just painted over.  So, I put off restoring them.  But, I figured I would have to take the door off the hinges to paint it to match the room, so now was the perfect time to remove the hinges, strip them, and paint them properly.  Stripping wasn't near as difficult as I thought it would be.  I simply took the hinges apart and boiled them in an old pan with some water and baking soda.  The paint came easily right off.  I then scuffed them up with a wire brush and then spray painted them the oil-rubbed bronze to match all the other hardware.

BEFORE Hinges

BEFORE Hinges

AFTER Hinges

AFTER Hinges

COMPLETED Door with updated hardware and trim

UPDATE:
I am getting really close to being done with the remodel.  Here is what it looks like right now, all painted and with most of the doors installed:

Here's what I have left to do:  finish installing clothes rods, hang the last door, install the drawer fronts, install the rest of the knobs and pulls, stain the bare wood, adhere the mirrors to the inside of the closet doors, hang tie and belt storage systems in the closets, install and stain window trim, paint the bedroom walls, and order new carpet.  O.k., so I still have a few things to do, but the hard part is OVER!  Yay!  Then, the boys and I can decorate how they wish.  They will be off of school for spring break this week, so I may take some time out to do some projects with them like making bulletin boards for their walls and storage bins to hold their little precious things in a tidy manner on their book shelves.  It's all coming together and I couldn't be more pleased.

UPDATE:  Drawer fronts are installed and hardware is all in.

Hardware installed

Cabinet above nook holds crib mattress that fits in nook

Drawer Fronts Installed

UPDATE:  Bench is stained and bottom bookshelves painted.  Window trim is in and ready to stain:

Bench Stained and Bottom Bookshelves Primed

Window Trim Installed and ready to Stain.  Walls Painted.

UPDATE:  Working on getting the boys' things moved in (don't mind the pink carpet that is STILL in the room--that will be replaced as soon as we can finalize our decision for its replacement).

Closets Stocked

Socks, Underwear, and Undershirts Stocked

Pajamas Stocked (don't know why Blogger insists on rotating these pics wrong)

Sweaters Stocked.  Dirty Clothes in their drawer.

Ben's Books and Nick Nacks Arranged

Jesse's Books and Nick Nacks Arranged

Check out the Bulletin Board I made for the boys--Cheapo cork board from Walmart covered with Burlap and upholstery tacks.  The boys started hanging their stuff on it before I even got it in the room!

UPDATE:  The boys are moved in!!!  We still need to decorate, but the room is now functional--The things we still need are nightstands, bed lamps, wall decor or bed canopies on the bed wall, quilts and pillows for the beds, cushion and/or pillows in the reading nook, a mirror on the back of the nook, window treatments, and CARPET.

Here's how the room looks today (again, please try to ignore the pink carpet)

Entering the room (notice how nicely my grandpa's old military trunk fits in--I love it)

Window is stained--My husband LOVES it, I'm still trying to decide whether or not I would like it better painted.

Bulletin Board has already been put to use by the boys

UPDATE:  The carpet is halfway in!  I will post pics when the installer finishes.  Yay!
In the mean time, my sister insisted that I post a picture of me pregnant in the remodel (as well as one in the second bedroom remodel, which i will add to that post) since I've been doing the remodeling during my pregnancy.  So, here it is:

UPDATE:  The carpet is FINALLY in!  Yay!

The reading nook finally has comfy pillows and the beds finally have nice quilts (thanks Grandma!):

Now, all I need to do with this room is make and hang headboard canopies and reading lights on this wall: