Open Concept Book Shelves

So, the immediate needs for furniture in our house have been met.  Really, the kitchen table was the thing that needed to get done, so we could have eight people for Christmas dinner- and we all fit pretty comfortably.  I started looking for a new project and found an open concept book shelf in a taunton book on shelves and cabinets that I purchased last year.  This is a great idea because it will take up a wall in our study and replace a big hulking book shelf that we purchased off of amazon.com 4 years ago, AND a set of 6 plywood boxes that I made before heading off to grad school.  Don't discount the boxes, those things were a great idea (thanks, dad!) and they worked for six years to store sweaters or books and I'd set them up in all sorts of interesting geometric patterns.  However, since Eric and I are trying to be adults... the boxes have run their course.  Eric says I have to dig deep down into the coldest part of my heart and there I will know what to do with them when they are out of commission (his suggestion-let's fill them with gasoline... he's kidding but yikes!).

The bookshelves that I built from this book are three oak verticals and 7 horizontal pine shelves.  It is put together using housed lap joints (think dados) and the verticals are angled such that the more weight you put on the shelves, the more stable they become.  My third dry run is making me wonder if they are stable left-to-right (swaying...) but they sure are pretty.

This is the first dry run with two/three verticals in place.

This is the final dry run with all three verticals in place

While working on this, I learned an important lesson in improvising when I make a stupid mistake.  Two of the verticals are 3/4" thick and 9" wide at the bottom.  The middle vertical is 7/8" thick and 11" wide at the bottom.  These were supposed to be 1" thick and 10" wide... so I just angled the shelves to be thicker in the middle and thinner on the ends!  This creates sort of a boat- shape to the shelves.  Also, I measured the distance from the floor to the light switch after I'd measured out all of the shelf separations on the verticals.  They were supposed to be 7" from the floor, then 13" from the bottom to the second to the bottom shelf, then 12" then 11" etc.  This wasn't going to work out with the location of the light switch on the only wall that this piece will fit, but I'd already kind of committed... soooooo the first three shelves have 13" of clearance, then 10", 9", 8".  It still looks good to me!

Finished Produce with 1 book on it

Finished Product with all of our books!  It makes the room seem so much bigger! (it's not, it's still tiny)

And so, with that, my one day shelves became five day shelves.  BUT, they are done and they look beautiful!

I learned how to make housed lap joints, and use my new fixed base router that my friend Jen bought me for Christmas!

Next Up- a shaker style dresser... I am a little nervous about making dovetails, but... I have a jig, so I can cheat my way through :c)

It's Not JUST a Ski Wax Table Anymore!!!!

Our dining room consisted of a buffet,  six chairs, a table and a SWIX brand ski waxing table.  When we needed to wax our skis we would take the loud ugly tablecloth off the ski wax table and wax the skis.  I noticed that when we had guests over, we would also hide things under there, like shoe boxes, tarps, small coolers, dust bunnies, large clumps of dog fur, etc.  It looked like this:

Anyway, I built a set of shelves with raised trim on the top that fit the ski waxing table very nicely.  Now, we have a great place to display some pretty wedding gifts, store our waxing supplies, AND wax our skis!  Also, during the summer when we aren't waxing skis, we can put a classy wood inset into this space and show it off.  During the winter, we have the SWIX tabletop in there that we can attach our clamps to.  One bizarre thing about this piece of furniture is that I accidentally made it at least 10" longer than my plans... Oops.  Measure twice, cut once?  Luckily, it still fit in the place it was intended, but displaced a garbage can and a floor lamp.     

This is made out of white wood, clear pine (trim), a billion Miller Dowels, and lot's of glue.  Miller Dowels > dowel pins (you don't need plus OR a guide!).  Check 'em out on amazon.com if you are curious, they really are brilliant.

I like the knots.

So, now we have a matching 3 piece dining room set: Buffet, Table, Ski waxing bench/shelves.

First Order of Business in New Shed- Make Larger Tabletop

My dad made our kitchen table for the first apartment that I had in Anchorage, which was in a fully furnished basement apartment.  It fit four people comfortably, but it was very small, due to the fact that it was built to fit our old apartment. 

So, once I had the space in the new shed, I put our new "wood shop" to the test and built a wider table top.  I built it out of oak that I found at Lowes for the trim, and pine (knotty and clear) for the middle and side pieces.  It was literally copied off of my dad's style, but I like his style!!!

Anyway, I just built the top, using biscuits to attach the planks and dowel pins + plugs to attach the trim on the outside. 

This is what it looked like most of the way through the biscuiting process:

Then, I obviously had to cut the short edges where all the pieces were different lengths.  First, I tried using a Jig saw, but it has a bendy blade and it wouldn't cut 90 degrees everywhere.  Then, Eric and I set it up to use the table saw... DISASTER.  Finally, I set up a bunch of guides and just used a circular saw.  The only problem there was that our blade was very very dull.  However, it cut just fine. 

When the pieces were put together, blemished filled with DAP, and sanded it looked like this:

Table top all but finished

At this point I was celebrating because, hey, it was sanded and "just had to be finished."  I learned a very important lesson in the coming days... varnishing is thankless, tedious, and boring.  It's still very important, but YEESH.  So, 4 days and 4 coats of satin minwax waterbased varnish later... I attached the table to the original stand that my dad made and... Viola!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

Tiny House Project- Building a Shed

So, my parents came up to Alaska to visit us over Memorial Day weekend.  I wanted to keep them busy, so we tore down the blue shed in our back yard and built this giant shed to replace it.  Here's the Blue Shed during this past breakup:

I wanted to be sad about getting rid of it... I mean... it was so... blue.  However, the roof was leaking and there was a situation with some angry bees, and, well, it just had to go.

It turns out that in Anchorage, you do not need a permit to build a structure 200 sq feet or less.  So, we built a 10' x 16' shed.  Also, to clarify, when I say "shed" I mean "wood working shop."  Eric and I are not only boat people, we are also power tool and building things people... hence the blog... and the shed/wood shop.  Sometimes I start thinking about the... irony? intrigue? about building a structure to build things in.  It's like a Russian nesting doll... but really different.   OH! Also, in Anchorage, you don't need a permit to have an oil derrick on your land.  It's fascinating stuff.

When we knocked the blue shed down, our dog jumped on the roof and pranced around on the destroyed roof like she somehow had a large part in it.  It was funny, but then it got really inconvenient when we were trying to pull shingles off and she kept stepping on us.. and dangerously close to nails.  Eventually she went back to chasing and eating butterflies, bees, flies, reflections, and other things she saw as a threat.

Bella prancing around on the roof of the blue shed on day 1: Destruction Day

Alright, so the shed went up in 4 days.  1 day to destroy the old shed, 1 day for the floor, 1 day for the walls, and 1 day for the "roof."  It was constructed using 2 x 12", 2 x 6", 2 x 4", and SO much OSB and metal bits.

So, Day #2, we put together the floor on pier blocks out of 2 x 12s, OSB, cleats, and 2x6's.

Dad photo-bombing the floor picture

Day #3, we put up the walls and it started pouring rain on us.  So, we put together a tent shanty out of the old shed floor, where we put our miter saw on it's brand new stand (Ryobi, btw, makes a fantastic stand for a miter saw, we had previously set it on top of an old chest of drawers.. this is a MUCH more stable and awesome system).  One of the most interesting things about this day, to me, was that I sat down at the table in the morning with a pencil/paper and some coffee and worked out the cut list for each of the walls... including where the jack studs went and the headers over the windows.  Then, we cut all the pieces and it actually WORKED.

Wall number 1

Wearing all of my PPE cutting countless pieces of 2x4

Last wall!!!!

This was amusing, we had to cut the OSB out of the windows and door and my dad goes "you know, just cut it smoothly" and I was like, "Um, with this reciprocating saw?! Really?!"  It took a bit of getting used to, but I did it.

Day #3, Roof... well, making trusses and then putting at least OSB over them (and a blue tarp).  Eric took control of a lot of this day because I was worried about falling off the roof... so I made him do it?  Anyway, he has a better sense of balance than me, and subsequently he survived just fine.  Also, this day was very sunny.

We went back and forth on the pitch of the roof, but decided we wanted a lower pitched roof because at this point I was worried there would be formal complaints filed by our neighbors by how huge this shed was. 

Eric took this picture of me, my mom, and my dad.  I like it quite a bit.

End of day 4, not too bad, eh? The next day we went to work and dad put in the windows and the door.  Also, just so you know, there's a "Bone Yard" that sells cheap windows at SBS... they are windows that weren't picked up by people who ordered them, or have slight defects.  We got gorgeous windows... or rather, Eric and Dad got gorgeous windows.

Okay, I'm sure here is where I should tell the story of picking up a door at Lowes.  I went online and found a door that swings out.  The importance of an "outswing door" is that it takes up less room inside the shed.  Anyway, it said there were 4 in stock at the local Lowes.  So, while Eric and Dad took Bryn and Louis' truck to the dump filled with old shed for the umpteenth time, my mom and I headed to Lowes to pick up this door.

I try really really hard to keep an open mind and be patient when I go to Lowes.  Typically, the people there are really nice.  We ran into one of those nice people straight off when we picked up a new dead bolt and door handle for the our phantom new door.  Then, we headed to the door section and found yet ANOTHER friendly helpful person who was uncertain if the door was in stock, but was relieved when I handed him the item # that I'd recorded off of the internet.  He was very humble and admitted that he was a very new employee.  At one point, I asked what the difference was between a Right swinging door and a Left swinging door... he went and got someone who could answer my questions.

Yes, it turned out, he COULD answer my questions... Unfortunately, I wanted to put a lot of space between him and I the moment he opened his mouth.  My mom got very very quiet at this point.  I repeated my question- "What is the difference between a right and a left swinging door?  Specifically, on an out-swinging door."  His response?  We don't sell out-swinging doors here.  I pointed at the door that I wanted and I said, "What about that door, it's labelled as an out swinging door."  Again, his response was to deny that it existed, claiming it was mis-labelled.  At this point the new employee stepped in and said that it was an out-swinging door... the guy gave this poor fellow this crazy glare.  Anyway, I gave up trying to learn about this door, decided to purchase it, he helped me get it down, and then I wanted him to go away so I told him that I wanted to just "visit with the door" for a while.
As soon as they stepped away my mom made the comment that he did everything put pat me on the head and tell me it was going to be alright... The new guy nearly apologized to me... and we bought the door.

So, when we were done putting together the shed, we waited about a month or so and then got around to putting on the steel roof (again, this was more of an Eric project).  Anecdote of note here is: Steel roofing is really really really hard to score and break.   I cut 3 pieces and then got fed up and kicked the last piece and then Eric, thinking that I was over-reacting came off the roof to cut the 4th piece. Ha!  He got frustrated, too.  By then, I had calmed down and cut the last $*%&%(#&*$*%& piece.

Added a steel roof, soffit, windows

Added vinyl siding, insulation, electricity (two circuits!!!)

This is what it looks like inside.  It's very very bright and spacious!!!  I demanded that we put up bright orange peg board!!!

 So, that's our shed story.  I LOVE this space.  I think a lot of people expect that it's Eric's man-cave.  However, so far, the house ends up being his man-cave and the shed is where I spend my time building stuff.

And it's done... well mostly... can't be ALL done, that's just silly

So, this is the fruit of the labor of several weekends.  The counter is 3/4" lodgepole pine that we purchased as 2 pieces of 96" x 12".  I used the biscuit joiner to join the two pieces lengthwise.  Then I went at it for a while with a belt sander to smooth the seam.  I completed the counter top with 1 3/4" trim in a different wood... which is slipping my mind right now.  I doweled the trim to the counter and finished it with oak dowel plugs.  

For the shelves- I used the leftover from the counter top to make the bottom shelf- same deal with the biscuits.  For the top shelf I biscuited 4 1x6's together.  I didn't get around to sanding and varnishing the top shelf... there's something about finishing the project that freaks me out.  Finally, I attached the counter to the cabinets with pocket hole screws.  It was pretty easy, except that I freaked Eric out because the screws were a touch too long so I didn't want to poke out the top of the counter and he was responsible for watching for screws coming out the top- none did.

All in all, I am very pleased with myself... and the result of the project.  The hickory in the pre-made cabinets is tied together nicely with the contrasting wood of the trim and shelf faces.  If I were to do it all over again and had a heated, larger work space, I might consider building it from the bottom up.  

This is a Post about Wood Working in February and March in Anchorage Without Proper Shelter

Eric and I decided our tiny kitchen needed some storage in the dining room and what better way than a classy "buffet" "hutch" or "server" (you pick up lingo like this with a little time on your hands and google).  By the way, we decided this approximately a year ago and have been waffling on how we want to accomplish this task without going bankrupt.

So- at first I was like "WE WILL MAKE ONE!" and Eric was like "yeah!" and then we didn't and then it became winter and then I was like, "We will BUY one!" and then we went to the Amish Furniture store in town with promises of a "great" sale and "plenty" of pieces that fit the description I gave the guy on the phone.  It turns out that Eric and I aren't willing to pay $2,000 for a piece of furniture that doesn't fit our exact idea of what we want, and that is VERY specific to this house.  

As I mentioned, this cycle went on for about 10 months.  Getting motivated to make one then getting lazy about planning it and deciding to buy one then looking at furniture in the store, getting sticker shock, and going back to deciding to make one.

One weekend, with some intense motivation (after a month of negative degrees as high temperatures, I believe it was a balmy 15), I dragged Eric to Lowe's and Home Depot to look at some Hickory in-stock cabinets.  I promised him that it would only be a reconnaissance mission and wrote up a list of things to look at... which we did a great job at doing.  Per usual, I was a lot happier to wander the aisles than Eric was, but hey, I like to shop.  So, Home Depot won because their cabinets were on sale.  The next day we went back and purchased 3 base cabinets in hickory (I really don't care how much of it is actual hickory... I think it looks pretty) and our countertop- which took two tries, but we finally settled on 2 pieces of glued together lodgepole pine that were each 8' long, 3/4" thick, and 24" wide.  Sort of butcher-block-ISH, but we won't use them as such.

Alright, we get them home IN OUR CAMRY (well, one was on top...) much to the disbelief of the group of people gawking at us as we struggled to geometrically fit a bunch of lumber and 3 cabinets into our practical sedan.  Then, we had to wait several weeks to start working because, well, weekends are busy and after work was still too dark for me to take on such a job.

The plan- one 12" wide cabinet attached to a 15" cabinet, one with 1 drawer and 1 cabinet, and one with 3 drawers (current kitchen drawer count = 1), then a 16" space that we would build shelves in so that our heat vent would be available to give us precious, precious warmth.  Finally, a 24" 1 drawer 1 cabinet unit.  Here's a drawing I made so that you won't stop reading my blog because it's so $*%&%* wordy.

When I finally had a little time to work on it, I decided it was time to dust off my biscuit joiner (literally dust it off...) and attach the two pieces of counter.  It took something like 6 hours for the following reasons: 1.  I'm kind of nervous when it comes to wood working 2. I practiced joining pieces of wood on several other pieces and I kept ruining them 3. it was 18 degrees outside, so it took a solid 5 minutes to suit up and suit down every time I had to pee, which is a lot 4. My wood working area is an unheated 12' x 8' shed... which is jam packed full of tools.  So, moving two 8' long pieces of wood around is tricky... let alone finding a place to set them up to drill biscuit holes... When all was said and done the pieces looked fine, but the biscuit joiner had slipped while I was drilling a hole and it drilled the hole diagonally out of the top part of the wood that was slated as the "nice" side.  So, I got to practice using wood filler! 

By the end of working as much as I wanted (which was a lot) for two days, the buffet looked like this:

It became apparent that my biscuit joining job was going to require more than my "little engine that could" orbital (palm) sander.  In the middle of the two boards that I attached there was about 1 mm of offset... a little like a normal fault... but since this is a piece that is going to be front-and-center in the dining room, structural geology needed to take a back seat to flush surfaces.  So, I went on a city-wide search for the "perfect" belt sander.  Frustratingly, I ended up purchasing one at the Home Depot about a mile from my house.  I like it though!  Although, after belt sanding for an hour yesterday my shoulders are very sore... I think I was fighting it too much... when you buy a belt sander the instructions should say "don't fight it, just let it wash over you... Also, and this is for Beth, mostly, please stop sanding in one small concentric circle because you're putting topography into your work and that's bad".

Yesterday I sanded, today I dabbled in attaching the trim with dowels!  Tomorrow will be more sanding.

I might post pictures when I'm done... if it turns out okay!

How we figured out what the "funk" was coming from the guest room...

Eric's sister is coming to visit us next weekend, so we thought that we could try to figure out what smelled in the guest room every time the heat came on.  You might be asking yourself, what about the visitors that have been visiting us over the two years we've owned the house?  I don't have an answer for you.  Sorry.

Since we have a slab-on-grade house with no crawl space and old old ductwork, we decided to start with an old fashioned duct cleaning.  This was recommended to us by the lovely fellow who came out to inspect our furnace to make sure it wasn't going to burst into flames (a tradition they recommend annually... the "making sure your furnace isn't going to burst into flames and destroy all of your possessions check-up").  I asked him about "the funk" and he agreed it certainly smelled in there, and told me that you can hire someone to vacuum your ducts AND spray an anti-bacteria cocktail into the ducts to kill the little nasties that live down there.

So, we had two wonderful people come out on Friday morning from Air Stream Duct Cleaning (it happened to be Veterans Day, so Eric was home with me!) to clean out our ducts.  Their giant vacuum that lives in their huge truck required that we have the front door open the whole time they were cleaning the ducts, so they also brought in a propane heater.  I have to say, the propane heater fire ball in our living room made us briefly nervous about melting everything in its vicinity until we realized it was TOTALLY unnecessary to put on 5 extra layers and we were the only ones who nearly melted.  But, I digress...

Eric and I sat on the couch reading while they worked their mysterious voodoo magic on our duct work.  I find it awkward when strangers are wandering around in your house working on something.  I want to hover, but I don't want to stare.  I am not the kind of person who cannot "act natural" under these circumstances.  Anyway, burying our faces in books prevented us from watching too closely and deciding we could do it next time.  This is a service I am happy to pay for... especially NOW!


One of the duct cleaners came SPRINTING out of our guest room and gleefully yelled "You guys have GOT to see this!!!!!"  We immediately obeyed because you sort of expect that a duct cleaner has seen it all so getting THIS excited must be worthy of immediate movement on our part.  As we were moving to the guest room, he goes "it scared the SHIT out of us!!!"  I guess while they were vacuuming the duct it came shooting out.  Here it is:

This is the iguana in the duct

This is the iguana after the duct cleaner sniffed it and confirmed that this is the source of the funk.

Yup, there was a desiccated, mummified iguana in our guest room duct.  I found the subsequent hours confusing.  I have so many questions.  Are you, in fact, an iguana that was the pet of the previous owners of the house?  Do you explain the funk in the guest room?  Could you be the iguana that escaped the two-doors-down neighbors house last spring?  If so, why wasn't there a bigger smell during the early stages of your demise?  If you are the neighbors missing iguana, how did you get into the duct?  If you are the previous owners iguana, how did you get into the duct?  It's perfectly reasonable to imagine why an iguana would find our duct work so inviting, but it does not explain how the little guy ended up expiring in there.  

Anyway, I guess my questions will remain unanswered.  Come to think of it, if that iguana was still alive, I still wouldn't get my questions answered because, well, iguanas can't talk.