I figured out Google Sketchup!

After trawling through Ana-White.com a few weeks ago, I downloaded Google Sketchup. It sat in my apps folder until today when I decided to crank it up and give it a go.

After several tries, I got really cross and was about to throw my toys! THEN I decided I should watch a tutorial. Viola! That was SO easy - I had it figured out in no time :)

Inspired by the Easy Three Cube Bench from Ana's website, I managed to draw up my own plans for my own (hopefully) easy FOUR cube bench seat.

It will have 4 different coloured cubes in the cubbys - red and white for Scarlett, pink and purple for Samantha - those colours match their bed clothes. It will also have a foam squab on top - thus the small lip around the top to stop it falling off.

I'm rather pleased with how the plans have come out - lets just hope it will translate well into wood!

Carpentry class number 3

Last night I had my 3rd carpentry class. I came home happy and covered in sawdust! Not to mention smelling of wood :D

At the end of last weeks class, when I had finished the cooling rack/trivet, I started designing the handles for my next class project - a serving tray.

Tonight, I got to use machines again! Whee! First it was the drill press, which I used to drill several large holes in the wood that is to be my handles, then I got to cut out the handles with a jigsaw - this was my first time using a jigsaw - I WANT one!! Noisy little machine, that one, though.

After cutting as much out as I could, I went and filed the handles down the rest of the way. Then I attacked it with the sandpaper. When I was happy with that, I went and cut the curved edges with the bandsaw - Robert (the teacher) said it must have had a new blade put in it this week - I didn't have to remove any burnt bits, and it was WAY faster than last time (not that I was very slow last time lol) Then it was more sanding, finishing etc of the handles, and then I got to plane the edges of the sides and base of the tray. Then it was about time to pack up, so next week, it will take me no time at all to screw it all together!

I had compliments coming from all directions tonight, Robert said that I was fair flying along and doing a great job and looked like I was in my element (also asked if I was always like this - so busy - ha, with 3 kids, he doesn't know the half of it ;) ) Several of my classmates also complimented me on the design of my handles, one said that I must have put a lot of thought  in to it - I said that I hadn't actually - she said that I must just have a natural talent for these things! People were even asking ME for advice on using the equipment! Yikes!

So, whats next??

Next project is either a small shelving unit (which is rather useless to me) or a project of my own choosing, which I need to provide my own wood for.

I had a couple of things in mind: 

• The first was a new letterbox as out old one has been rather spent since, I would wager, long before we moved in here. 
• The second was a headboard, no, a PAIR of headboards - for the girls beds. Inspired from this Ana White plan. I was thinking I would modify it a little so that there was a little bit of a shelf for the girls to put a drink on, and they would both be King Single sized.
• The third was a window seat for in the girls room. Not a built in one, but one that could be moved if necessary, like this plan, also from Ana White. Modified to make it with 4 cubby holes instead, so the girls each have 2 storage spaces of their own to use.

After having a bit of a look online to see where I could get baskets or similar from, I came across these wee fabric boxes that will be PERFECT for putting in the cubby holes :) So I have decided to go ahead and make the window seat. 

I have MDF sitting in the hall left over from Little Chalmers (new stuff, which I wasn't sure what I was going to do with, as well as some that has been used) which will do for the base, top (as it will be covered with a squab) and the upright dividers. I plan to use pine at the ends and as trim around the front and back edges (at the back around the top, I plan to create a bit of a lip to keep the squab on top from being pushed off all the time) and also to cover up the dividers at the front to make it look nicer than MDF.

I drew up a rough plan last night with some measurements etc on it. I guess it's almost time to go shopping for some wood!!

Getting around to it

'I have been meaning to do something about the front gate for a while now'

We all have those things that we put up with that we want to do something about, right? Was it Mitre 10 a while ago who had an ad where the husband was a builder and the wife finally got sick of him working on other peoples houses and not their own that she started doing it herself? Then one weekend she gave him a present, it was round and she told him it was a ' to it'. I believe I need a round 'to it' as well ;)

Our front gate has been one of those jobs for months now. I was pretty sure I just needed to replace the knackered, rusty old screws with new ones, I just needed to find the time. This morning, I finally had a little time without Red (she was asleep - oh rapture!!) so I fossicked through my screws until I found 6 the same, nice shiny,long, fat screws.

New drill in hand, I went out to the gate, started at the top and removed one and replaced one, removed one, replaced one, and again. Excellent! The gate will now swing open and closed, even with my magnetic childproof lock I can open it with one hand and a foot :)

I moved on to the bottom screws, but wait... Damn, first one was so knackered, it snapped right off! A problem, I thought. Moved on to the next one, uh-oh, same deal. I didn't even try with the bottom one. Buggeration! I guess I need to replace the whole hinge (also pretty rusty and knackered)

Oh well. My gate, though several screws are now broken, is in better working order than it was before. Must nearly be time for a trip to Mitre 10!

Houdini, fenced.

I have spent today out at a meeting this morning followed by lunch with my mother and finally waiting at my mothers house for someone to collect some shop fittings that I had stored in the garage.

When I got home I was told about what happened in Red's day today. She had been with Daddy to her swimming lesson, had half an hours sleep (she was woken by someone banging on the door) than after some lunch they had gone to play outside. Daddy had left her outside to come in and make himself a cup of tea, when he spied a little girl with pigtails, who looked remarkably like our Red, walking up the ramp at our elderly neighbours house. Upon speedy closer inspection, it was indeed her and he exited via the gate at the street end of our property, raced next door and retrieved her!

Our elderly neighbour, while lovely, is not keen on our idea to replace the hedge with a fence (even at our expense), so that isn't a viable option right now.

In the spirit keeping Red safe, I decided I needed to solve the problem RIGHT NOW.

I had an old MDF door sitting in the back porch that I ripped out while I was pregnant with Red (along with a built in cavity for the fridge the previous owners left). I also had some scrap metal from the frame of the net of our old trampoline which the wind took for a ride two Christmases ago (which, incidentally, I had planned to take in to exchange for cash this week)

With these two things in hand, and a rubber mallet, I turned this:

In to this!

It isn't terribly attractive, but it was the best I could muster at short notice.
She thinks it is very exciting! Menace!

Oh, the possibilities!

I am sitting here with a sleeping Red on me. I can't do a lot right now, and aside from thinking about dinner (which may just end up being fish and chips for the kids, and a lovely curry from India Garden in Port Chalmers for me, right now) I'm sitting here thinking about my next project.


For those of you who might be reading who don't know me personally, last year I took the plunge and opened a wee shop in Port Chalmers. It was full of locally produced products and clothing for babies and children - I called it 'Little Chalmers'. I did most of the work in there single handedly, with a then 10 month old Red on my back. I did have a few merry helpers too, who helped me over a weekend painting the shop and in the week leading up to opening. I made shelving units and other bits and pieces for in there too. It was all done on a shoestring, so being able to do all these things myself was a godsend!


Unfortunately, just as I felt like I was getting somewhere, out of the blue I had a letter from my landlord saying he wanted my shop back for his own purposes. Just over a month later, I was out of the shop, and my freshly painted bedroom had to be used to house all the stock that had unceremoniously been dumped in my house. Technically I was then running an online shop, but when there was ONE sale in just over a month, and I had to start PAYING for the website, I decided to just cut my losses and close down completely.

Ok, I'm about to get to the point of this post!

So, tonight is the night, I am having one last hurrah - a closing down SALE - on Facebook. It starts at 8pm. I am desperate to purge the rest of the stock that I own (a lot of it was on consignment, therefore, it went back to it's owner last week, aside from a couple of lots of stock). When the stock is gone, it means that the only thing standing in the way of me building the window seat in the bay window in my bedroom is my own stuff! 


I am terribly excited! It means that it is nearly within the realm of possibility that I may, one day (soon?) have more storage in my house - villas don't seem to be big on built-in storage, y'know. It also means that I will get to use tools! I plan on recycling some of the framing wood that I used in the shop, to frame up the window seat, although I don't think I have quite enough - so that means I also get to buy more wood!

This is currently the view from my bed, where my window seat will be. 

Just think of the possibilities!!

Watch this space.

For my next feat...

I just saved us some money :D

Last night, Chris got his 'new' car. His last car died a death at the beginning of December last year, and we have been getting by with one car or borrowing my Mum's tiny little car for the kids and I and he has been taking my massive people mover to work, as he doesn't drive a manual car.

The car used to belong to a childless couple (they sold it because they are having a baby and wanted to get a family wagon for them and their new baby and their two large dogs) so it had no anchor bolts in it. I remember being charged the princely sum of $80+ for anchor bolt installation in the past, and that was when I supplied an anchor bolt!

With that in mind, and having just parted with practically a months wages for said automobile, I decided that I would at least have a look and see if it looked like I could do it myself. After taking the two big kids to school this morning, I handed Red over to Daddy, picked up my trusty new Bosch Uneo drill, found the right sized bit and marched out to the car.

There were speakers directly behind the seat, so I looked under the back shelf to see where I could safely drill. I found a good spot, and it was surprisingly easy! I slid the bolt in - just like a bought one! I was going to get Chris to come out and hold one side while I tightened it up in the boot, but then I discovered that if you pull the seat down, there is a hole through to the boot (something his last car didn't have) so I took off my shoes, got comfy and tightened it up unassisted :D

Now Red's car seat is fixed in nice and tight, and she can go for a ride in Daddy's car any time now!

My first carpentry class

Tonight I had my first carpentry class (the first since I finished Form 2 Woodwork at DNI at least) I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a 'beginners' class, but Tuesday night suited me a lot better than Wednesday night for the 'moderate/advanced' class.

I was delighted not to be the only woman in the class - quite the contrary actually, only one bloke to begin with (though another joined the class later on, but it seemed to be his son who looked to be about 9 who was technically enrolled in the class). There were 8 of us in the class, plus the boy's father and (possibly?) his grandmother.

The first project we are to tackle didn't exactly make me leap about in fits of rapture, a cooling rack. I had the option of Rimu or Pine - I chose Rimu. We had to make it fancy. I'm not really a fancy kind of girl... However, I obliged and gave it fancy feet - good thing I did really, or I wouldn't have been able to use the bandsaw for the first time! THAT was fun! I found I was quite good at using the bandsaw, and quite fast too, compared to the others in the class :) Upon showing the teacher and asking 'what next' he said that I had done a really good job, and I could just finish it off with hand tools, rather than use the sanding machine. Glowing with pride, I filed and sandpapered my fancy legs for my cooling rack. I found myself smiling a lot too :)

9pm came around all too quickly! I'm looking forward to finishing that next week and moving on to the next project, which may be slightly more use to me - a serving tray. I also have to design some fancy handles for that. Perhaps fancy isn't so bad after all... I may just get to use a router next week!

I didn't think to get a picture of my progress thus far, but I'm sure I will get one next week.



Now, it turns out that the teacher, Robert, used to be a joiner. Joinery is something I have my sights set on. I have designs on building my own bathroom vanity, my new kitchen once the house is extended (ya know, when we have a spare $50k...) among various other things. After the first two projects are done, we can build whatever we like. I am considering building the window seat for the girls room there, though I will need to bring it home each week which may be a bit of a pain. It will be wonderful to have an experienced joiner to guide me!

I'm REALLY looking forward to next Tuesday night and getting covered in more Rimu sawdust and smelling the wood again!