Community Brag Posts

My grandmother has been in terrible need of a new mailbox. The one she had was original to the house, 1972, I believe. Needless to say it was falling apart.
My stepdad and I built this for her, and my sister painted on the name adn address.
All better now!

PS, I chose Grace's Mailbox plan because you have to choose a plan when posting a brag blog and we didn't use one, we just kind of winged it.

I’m no carpenter but this went well. I did it all with pressure treated because it is in the open. They filled in the area where there used be a hot tub. Surprisingly comfortable, too. Thanks Ana

About 6 months ago the husband and I purchased a foreclosure for dirt cheap, hoping to rehab it into something livable. It turned out to be a total gut job. So much of the budget was blown on the big stuff--roof, electrical, water, plumbing, that we've really had no choice but to figure out how to do much of the work ourselves with occassional assistance from my son-in-law, a general contractor who lives 400 miles away.
Although he did most of the basic sheetrocking I decided that I was going to build my own closet. After all, how hard could it be. I got it framed out and sheetorcked. Between the low ceilings in the room and the fact that I mismeasured the door frame height, I wasn't able to put in standard doors. But that's okay, I think I like these better.
Thank you, ladies, for giving me the courage to tackle some of these jobs that need doing. I've learned a lot of new skills, done things I never thought I would ever do...and love the feeling that so much of myself is going into making this house my home.

I purchased a twin girls captins bed for my daughter to grow into but she wasn't quite big enough for it yet so I had my husband convert it into a twin size crib!!!! Im in love with how it turned out. My husband Free hand a crown on a sheet of ply wood and cut it out. I used quilt batting and covered it with pink material and did the tips of crown in purple.

I made this for my sister the day before her house warming party. It was a pretty easy build. I used wood glue and 2" nails. Using a nail gun, this came together pretty quickly. I do wish that I had wide enough clamps to hold everything in place while it dried, because there were a few gaps due to some imperfect boards. I used 104" stud length boards, so I only need to purchase 7 instead of 9. this was enough to make the cuts for the top and both leg pieces from each board. the price was the same and we had limited space in our van for boards, so this was a better option for us. I used a sprayer hooked up to an air compressor to apply the stain and was able to get in between the slats fine with this method, brushing over it as I sprayed. Luckily I chose the same color as her deck not knowing, so it matches great. Now I need to make one for myself! :)

My wife wanted a new chest to store blankets in. I saw the plans for the Becca and thought it would be perfect for what we were after.

I used some regular plywood I had laying around and some select pine for the trim. I liked the look of the top in the plan but wanted some more texture to it, so I used a solid piece of plywood for the top and layer pine for the trim features. I tested my new chisels to recess the hinges to minimize gapping under the lid.

We painted it solid black to match the rest of the basement furniture. A few coats of poly finished it off for durability.

This took about 2 months for me to get around to finishing. That's probably about...12 hours of actual work, plus finishing.

Had a horribly messy front entrance so really needed this shoe cabinet. It's dimensions suited my space better than an Ikea one, and accommodated more shoes. This being my first project, I am glad I started with this instead of a loft bed, since I made alot of mistakes (& corrections) along the way. Although some of the problems occurred because of pieces that ended up being convex. I chose to fill in the gap between the two boards on the front of each bin. It worked out really well.
Really love the Kreg Jig! So worth the investment.

Could not figure out how to properly use magnet catches. Did apply one to one side of the top drawer but it doesn't work too well--pulls the bin too far in. 

After finding Ana's plans on how to make these outdoor chairs we decided to give it ago one long weekend. The plans are easy to follow and the end result is the most comfortable chairs, we've spent hours relaxing in them. It took 4 hours to make two chairs and the rest of the weekend painting them. The only thing that I would have done differently is to paint the wood prior to assembling the chairs. My partner then decided to use the left over wood to make a matching table (not shown)