Oh dear - not so good on the updating of the blog last week, I shall chastise myself later! ;)
Carpentry Class: Week 7
Last week I completed the window seat for the girls room. I remembered to take my own drill, which saved a lot of headaches and got me finished in good time indeed!
The 'lip' attached around the top
I cut and attached the back, which is part of the chalkboard from my old shop, and cut and attached the 'lip' around the top of the seat to stop the cushion from shooting off and becoming either a missile or something worse (if you have children old enough, you will understand!)
Completed window seat, ready for painting and a cushion.
I need to paint it, as it is still sitting on it's end in my bedroom, not being terribly useful for much aside from keeping my drill on. Though the kids have started using it as a shelf!
Other bits around the house
With an off-cut from the chalkboard back on the window seat, I screwed it to the wall in the kitchen - it is now out menu board! I have written Sunday-Saturday on there and under each I write what we're having for tea that evening. I'm not terribly good at getting things out for dinner in advance - the menu board hasn't changed that!
Menu chalkboard in the kitchen - excuse my hideous turquoise walls! (A real treat paired with the 'when cats paint' wallpaper in the dining area, I'll tell you!)
Outside Bits
For a while now, the kids second trampoline (the first having been pitched about in the wind, the net destroyed and a hole put in the mat in some very strong wind just before Christmas 2010 - I do wish we had just had that mat either patched or a new mat purchased, in hindsight - it was a fantastic, sturdy beast!) which was a cheapie, has been twisted and is 'out of order' so they haven't been allowed to jump on it.
Poor wonky trampoline.
I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier, but it suddenly came to me the other day - why don't I take it apart, straighten it up, and drill holes through it and put in bolts to keep it straight? This morning we went to Mitre 10 Mega for a few things, and amongst our purchases was a packet of bolts. Perfect! If only my drill had been charged enough, I might have gotten more than two holes and bolts done. Never mind - tomorrow is another day!
Bolted through!
On Monday, on a whim really, I decided that I needed to move our washing line for winter. It was a good idea really, with winter approaching, the house casts a great big shadow over my washing line where it is, and, strangely enough, the washing doesn't dry. Another Mitre 10 purchase today was a Hills Rotary Hoist Clothesline replacement socket set and 2 bags of quick set cement. I only needed one as it turns out - so I shall take the other back.
After I had Red in bed this afternoon, I took a little break for lunch - bacon butties in the back yard, surveying all that I am Queen of, and contemplating all of those jobs that need doing! DIY-impaired husband was off at the movies on his day off, so was as much help as ever. After I had lunched, I dug a 650mm deep hole and sited the socket in the ground, mostly as per the instructions.
Ready to cement 'er in!
I got the water and the cement and put them in the hole, after making sure the socket was level (again, *mostly* as per instructions... One should perhaps read things properly next time - but alls well that ends well, right? It was supposed to be water first, then cement mix... not the other way around - oops!) I have left it to cure and tomorrow after lunch I'll whisk the washing line off to it's new winter home, 4m (maybe less?) away ;)
Waiting for the cement to set.
Final Carpentry Class for Term One
Last Thursday, I had a call from my mother saying that Frank, the bloke who sources things etc at her work, had managed to get me 7 pallets! My plan with these pallets was (is) to use them as a platform to anchor my shed to. None of them are the same size as each other, and they are slightly larger than I expected, so I decided to break one down and use it as timber.
Pallet before.
Pallet after!
My plan is to make the girls headboards for their new King Single sized beds. They will incorporate mostly the recycled wood from the pallet and some new wood which I purchased from Mitre 10 this morning with the help of Red.
Clears on the right, bottom of the pallet on the left, after being cut to 50mm wide
This evening at carpentry I got to dress them! I cut the wider bits dow to the right size then I got to run the rest through the thicknesser. Fantastic machine! They go in looking like manky old bits of wood, they come out smooth and shiny! Both sides were thicknessed, then the edges were buzzed with the buzzer - like an upside down electric plane on a table really!
Quite amazing - the wood was totally unrecognisable after it had undergone it's transformation!!
Bottom of the pile, the dressed timber, the one of the top is what it used to look like!
I measured and cut the pieces for the frame to which the old pallet will be nailed. I then mitred the corners (I used the mitre square to mark them - before Robert showed me that I could actually just set the saw to 45 degrees and cut like that! Easy as!)
Mitred corners - looks like it could be a frame soon! And there is my chicken scratching of a plan in the middle.
Then it was time to pack up and go home. I really didn't think I'd get to cutting up the dressed pine clears that I bought this morning. I thought that I'd probably spend all of the two hours dressing the timber, so that was nice! I had planned to just dress the timber and figure out the rest at home. I still need to figure the rest out, but I don't need to figure out mitring the corners now - bonus!
