Tag Archives: wood

Half-Bath Remodel

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It all started with a simple promise…

Years ago I surprised my wife with a showing of affection. While she was away at a business trip I covered our house from top to bottom with little sticky notes of all the reasons I love her.  These ranged from the big to the small. One in particular has always stayed up as a constant reminder.

"Because you will live with this for now" This was my inspiration.

Of all the notes I left that day, this one was more than a reason; it was a promise to her that I would make her a room she would love!

When we moved into our house there were wallpaper borders in EVERY ROOM! Some rooms had borders over paint, over borders. I took them all down with a steamer and painted over everyone of them, except for our half-bath. Well, actually I did paint over it with the wrong shade of blue… It was not my fault! Well, yah it was. But the color was close and it worked for a little while.

It looks ok, but look closely at the top...

Looks nice, right? Yah, but the vanity is huge and it has an older look to it.

This side is a different story! Big Mess

On the other side of the room is our laundry. With one wire shelf as our storage area it is quite a mess trying to keep cleaning cloths and misc items out of the way. I wanted something more for this room, something nice and clean.

After about a week of work I was able to transform the space quite nicely with very little expense. Over the next few posts I will break down how I did everything and what exactly was involved.

The new look

Neat storage options that look great

All and all a well put together room

Stay tuned as I update the project step by step of how everything was done.

Update #1: Demo

Making a ‘Harry Potter Style’ wand

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A few months ago I made a magic wand for one of my friends son. He is very young and loves Harry Potter.  Having made countless walking sticks over the years I figured that making a wand would be a great gift that he would cherish for years, and would be much nicer than a plastic one made in another country. When I found out a colleague of mine had a son that loved HP I knew I had to make another one!

Project: Magic Wand
Cost: Practically none
Skill Level: Easy
Time: 4 hours (spread out over several days)

Overall this is a very easy project that almost anyone can do.  I started making walking sticks when I was 10 years old and this is about the same level of difficulty.  Making a comfortable handle and rounding out the edges is a bit more complex as this will be waved around more than a walking stick.

I started by finding an extra branch on a maple tree. I have over an acre of woods in my back yard so finding a branch that could use pruning was easy.  Look for a branch that has a straight run with only a few knots, this will make it easier to carve and prepare overall. The thickness should be slightly bigger than is comfortable as you will be trimming it down. If you want more character find a piece with more knots and curves.  This piece was straight with some knots.

Once you prune the branch, cut it to at least double the size. This will allow you to experiment with how it will end up. Sometimes you go in with one plan and find the wood takes on a different idea.

Right off of the tree, with items to scale

Nice, clean cut. The bark will come off easily

You could use an angle like this for the handle

I start all projects like this by skinning the bark off within minutes.  This allows me to easily remove all of the bark with just a little bit of effort. Having a good knife is key to a smooth end product. I have a lot of expensive knives, but one of my favorites for these is my classic Buck 112 Ranger, Lockback Folding Knife

My trusty Buck Knife - got it for my 12th birthday

 

Skinning right away makes this a breeze

With practice you can skin a strip the entire way down the stick, this makes for easy work later in the finishing stages. You will not be able to get knots in these passes however, those will require a little more attention.

Knots and edges require a little more attention

Make sure to skin the bark around the knots and burrs carefully. You do not want to dig down and make dips in the wood. Use the knife to get right under the bark and peel it off.

All skinned, it looks nice. That is all for the first day.

After you are done skinning it, put it away for at least a day.  You want the wood to dry. All of those little “hairs” sticking out are too moist to sand now. Come back in a few days and there will be more work to do!

After a few days we are ready to continue

See, I told you it would look different in a few days.  By now the wood is dried out and we can work on it without gouging it. At this step I take a chisel and hammer and start taking the big knots out. Taking pictures here was tough, but make sure to be careful!

This small branch was not part of my plan!

After you take off all of the strap parts I go over the branch again to give it some character. For this wand I wanted to have it look pure and good, so I stripped down all of the brown.  If you play with your patterns and how you carve you can make some great patterns and effects.

I go around the wand evenly to make it as uniform as possible.

After I have the wand to the correct look that I want I then go over it with sandpaper. Depending on the look that I want I can use a variety of different ones.  For this wand I wanted a clean look and used 80-100-120-200-220

Sanding is key to make it feel warm and inviting when holding it.

in succession.  Another wand I did I used 40 grit combined with some dark stain to start to give it an aged, experienced look.

At this point I have the general feel of how the wand should come out. It is still twice as long as it needs to be, so now is the time to cut it to size.  Remember, measure twice cut once!

Make sure it is the right size, I don't know the spell to put it back together!

After cutting it to size you will have a sharp edge.  I have come up with the technique of rounding the edges. I start with a knife and cut notches all around and then follow up by sanding with the grain to prevent rough spots.

One notch at a time, be careful!

Then I use my Sonicrafter to help round out the edges. I really like this tool for the precision work it can do (although it is loud)

Make sure to go with the grain!

After you get nice rounded edges you are almost done.  To finish I use Tung Oil as it does not smell and is much more natural than a polyurethane. I also feel good handling this.  After two coats I use a cheese cloth to burnish it and make sure there are no rough spots. Sorry, there are no pictures of me coating it as my hands were too dirty to take pictures.

After all that we have an awesome ‘Harry Potter style’ wand!

Looks great!

Nice rounded edge, comfortable at every angle.

Nice to hold, for any age

 

Choosing a Vinyl Fence for your yard

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As I have written about my yard and fences before: Removing an Old Fence The fence in my yard could use replacing. After a few years of pondering, saving and dragging my feet I decided that this was the year to replace our fence.

One section done while another is being put together.

I will start this post by saying that installing a fence properly is no small task. The fence I took down was put in with minimal effort. As I like to do things properly I did a lot of research into fencing and found that the best product overall for my situation was Vinyl Fencing. With no parts to rot, chip, stain it will last for years as long as I don’t run it over with my tractor.

What I found was there are a lot of fencing companies out there with big and small differences between them. Fencing found in big box stores are often made of lower quality materials and have some obvious traits.

Big Box Fencing Characteristics:

  • Weak walled boards and posts
  • Exposed brackets
  • Parts that will rust
  • Decorative Posts that cover wood
  • Rigid, Brittle plastics
  • Made in China
After checking out several fence contractors and examining products I decided to go with Active Yards. Their fencing had a build quality that I found to be impressive. Combined with an easy and effective design I was sold on their product. On top of that they are an American company that makes their product in this country! (I was not sponsored by Active Yards in any way)
High Quality Fencing Characteristics:
  • Solid construction
  • Invisible, routed brackets
  • No rusting parts
  • Solid Vinyl posts that will never rot
  • Easily assembled panels
  • Lifetime Warranty
  • American Made (there are some quality imported fences)
The Active Yards fencing had all of these characteristics, once I had the post holes dug the fence literally snapped into place.

 

The sections literally snap into place with the routed grooves!

If you are looking to install a fence make sure to go with a reputable fence company. After looking at about half a dozen companies I went with Active Yards, they had the best product at a great price point.

The next post will be on the install of a fence. This will include tips from the professionals and some great time saving techniques.

Removing an old fence, for a good cause

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As I have mentioned before, I am about to install a new fence on my property. When we moved to our house we knew there were a lot of things that needed to be fixed, even though it was built in 2001. One of the biggest items was the fence.

My house looks great, but the fence does not.

The fence is in good shape, but not standing straight

As you can see this fence has had better days. First of all it was not installed properly that could not hold up to the brutal New England seasons we have. We live in a high elevation zone where there is constant wind, massive snow storms and lots of rain throughout the year. After 10 years of abuse and theformative years with no proper maintenance it started to show its age.

It might have been upright once, but not anymore.

That is NOT level!

The fence itself is not in horrible shape. Sure there are a few sections that have some rot and broken pieces. There is also the color, an awful brown color that did not go with our white siding one bit… That is why I decided to donate this fencing to Habitat for Humanity Restore Outlets They take materials like this and make them available to people who need them. Now instead of throwing this away, or burning it I know it will go and provide years of help to another family that needs a fence.

They even came by to pick up the fence!

Taking this fence down was pretty easy. I did half of it by myself in a few hours and the rest down in two hours with a friend.

This 4ft picket was easy to take down solo

In case you were wondering, that is not how my property line goes. It is a straight line, not a curve. To take this fence down was really simple, as most of the posts were either resting on the ground, or only a few inches down.

This is how far a post was in for a 6ft section.. YIKES!!!

The picket fence came down with ease and stacking it was simple. The other side of the house however was a different story. It consisted of about 12 sections of 6ftX8ft fencing and it was bulky to move! Luckily I had my friend Gene help me out.

Lots of fencing, I told Gene if he helped I would make him an internet star!

Working together we came up with a nice system to remove the sections and then take out the posts.

Take out a few sections and then remove the posts.

This moved extremely quickly until we were had them all down.

All down! Now we are done right?

With help, and poor construction methods this fence came down easily. Most of the posts were only a few inches in. and a total of 3 had concrete (minimal).

Hammer height is for outlets, not fence posts!

 

Looked like it was secure, but it was not!

Since these are going to Habitat and I wanted to make sure they stayed safe until they were picked up I stacked them in my driveway. Instead of carrying them I used my John Deere and cart to carry them.

Oh the things you can do with a tractor and a cart!

This allowed us to move them quickly around the yard. Yes, Gene did get to ride in the trailer :)

Overall the project was quick and easy to take down. Habitat came today, but they could only take a few sections as they did not realize how much fencing I was donating, so they will be back next week to pick up the rest.

Remember if you have something that you are going to be replacing or getting rid of, see if someone else could use it before you throw it away!

 

Simple DIY hop trellis/trebuchet

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As you will soon learn I have a lot of hobbies and interests. One of these interests is brewing beer. I am lucky enough to work part time at a local micro brewery just a few miles down the road from my house. While I have a few titles there, my favorite is the “Official Taste Tester” title that I awarded myself (and it has stuck around!).

In addition to the responsibilities that I have there, I also grow hops for one special batch of beer that we brew every September, the Face-Off Double IPA. This is an award winning beer at The Great International Beer Fest.

For the past couple years I have been growing the hops by attaching the twine to a big stick that is attached to my fence and cutting them down. There were a few problems with this however.

  1. It looked very unsightly to have this 2X4 attached to my fence.
  2. I am getting a new fence in a few weeks
  3. I pick the hops at 3am, so it is dark and not safe to cut things on a ladder with little light.

I have had this idea for about a year now, and it allows me to run the hops to the needed length, train my hops to grow, and easily harvest them in the morning. The entire project took almost two hours including breaks and time for the pictures.

 

The Beginning: A Hoppy Mess

Hops grow quickly and everywhere when you look away!

This is what I had to start with. These Cascade hops have been growing for three years now in this location with great yields. After a few weeks of neglect I walked into this clump of vines. Some of the shoots were 12 feet long wrapped around lots of other vines.

Simple, yet effective

The goal of this project was to create something that would be useful, something the wife & neighbors would not mind looking at and also cost effective. The materials used for this projet are as follows:

  • 1 – 7′ 4X4 PT Post
  • 2 – 8′ 2X4 KD
  • 4 – 6″ 2X4 KD scraps for spacing.
  • 1 Eye Bolt
  • 2 Lag Bolts
  • Misc Deck Screws

This makes the entire project cost less than $20. I had all of the materials laying around from other projects, which made it even better!

Digging a hole: The hardest part

Digging the hole for the post to go into is a lot harder than it looks!

In order for this contraption to work I needed my post to be secure in the ground. Using a post hole digger and a small spade shovel I dug over three feet in to the ground. I always forget how much I dislike post hole diggers until I hit that first rock! Luckily I did not hit anything too large and I was able to get to my desired depth.

Checking to make sure the post is rooted far enough into the ground.

Making sure everything is nice and level

Making sure everything is nice and level

Using a tamping tool I backfilled the hole and make sure the soil around the post was nice and tightly packed.To add a little more support I pounded a large stake into the ground as well and attached it to the post.

Now that the post is secure we can attach the arm.

Now that I have the post in securely, I can make the second part of this device.

Making sure all the parts are snug...it fits perfectly!

Good thing for standard millworking. When I designed this I wanted there to be minimal cutting so anyone could make this. All in all I made 4 cuts (3 for the calls, 1 for the extension) Really I could have gotten away with 1 cut if I did not want everything to match. Using the width of the 4X4 I knew that the arm would fit perfectly. I decided to have a back call for a few reasons:

  1. I could counterbalance if needed
  2. The angle of the arm would be set at a precise angle that I selected
  3. The arm could never fall back into the house

Another view, with my trusty tools.

A view from the front

Lining up where the pivot point will be.

One of the neat things about this design was having one pivot point so I could quickly harvest the hops when the time came. To do this I used Lag bolts as the hinge and tacked the arm in place with a few deck screws. This allows the arm to be moved quickly and easily. I drilled through all of these boards quickly with my 18V Makita Drill Driver! I will do a review on this amazing set soon.

Before I put the arm in place, I did attach an extension block and eye bolt to the end of the arm.

This allows me to attach the twine to the arm easily year after year.

Now that everything is set I can now put it in place!

Everything is in place. Twine is coming down from the top and the hops are already climbing!

Notice that I also drastically thinned out the hops. They grow better when there are only a few main vines receiving all of the nutrients.

Another view of arm.

There you go! Now I have a reliable hop growing mechanism that will last me for a few years. I am going to build a few more that will catch several plants with one arm as I have seven plants on the property and I don’t want to build one for every plant. I will make sure to update this post with those pictures.