Community Brag Posts

We needed some way to organize shoes, coats, book bags and the the things that need a home when you have 4 kids. I found the plans for the Braden entryway units and I loved them! I showed them to my husband who built them for me one Saturday afternoon. We decided to use piece of paneling for a wall on the back of the lockers and used MDF for the shoe bases since we wanted them to be sturdy. I painted them Valspars "Tidal Teal" and then technique glazed them with a black brown color. I LOVE THEM! They are colorful and fun and so functional. I love this site and have many other projects for my husband to build as long and I get to do the fun part, PAINTING!!

I needed a garden shed (for potting supplies) and a dog house, but I wanted it to look good. I started with Ana's plans, but screwed up a cut and was too lazy to go to the store, so I modified the plan a bit - also we didn't want a lot of venting off the roof.

OUR MODIFICATIONS:
NO BACK WALL - I did not build a back wall, as we pushed it all the way up to the house. (You need to check your codes for this if it's allowed. The way I'm integrating mine w/o breaking the exterior waterproofing of the house and it's unconditioned made mine OK)

DOG HOUSE- I cut away a hole for our dog between the battens. And as you can see - he loves it. He's got his Coolaroo dog bed inside. We also added a 'ceiling' to the lower dog house half, that divides the gardening storage from dog house. The large shelf inside that acts as a dog house ceiling, and above are my un-used pots, hand tools etc. (no worries no chemicals with the puppy)

PAINTED EXTERIOR- I painted it red to match the house, and will also be putting garden pavers in front of the doors.

ROOF- We did put an underlayment down on the roof before the asphalt shingles.

LESSON LEARNED- If your dog is a Mama's boy like mine, he may try to climb a ladder to remove you from a roof which he has determined is not OK for you to be up there.

*One concern is - most sidewalks slope away from the house, so we had to shim the sill plate so front of the shed doesn't lean outward causing the doors to pull open constantly. As you can see from the photo I still need to flash at the roof where we cut back our houses' battens.

COST- We live in CA - and this project was more expensive than anticipated, our lumber/roof shingle costs were around $270 alone, and keep in mind we didn't build a back panel. I have very little scrap left over too. When I was nearly done the hinges were an additional $15 a piece, $10 for the latch. And we had the primer and paint in the garage. Underlayment for roof, I already had in the garage too.

TIM-: I started this project on a weekend, but it ended up taking longer; probably because I didn't block out the weekend just for this project. I spread it over the course of a month, so hours wise it probably wasn't as bad as it felt... You do need two people though, and that's where I ran into some trouble, I kept trying to work on it when my husband wasn't home. Probably 24hrs, 3 easy going days. Could probably be done in a weekend if you were dedicated and didn't get distracted (or screw up a cut like I did, which sent me to the drawing board to fix my mistake)

I was looking for a wooden parking garage plan for my little guy, but couldn't find one! I looked a bunch of the dollhouse plans for inspiration and found a wooden toy garage online that I based my plans on. I still need to add the ramps and a few more parking spots, but my son loves it! It has an elevator (need to refine it) and helicopter landing zone!

Easy to build, easy to customize, perfect for totes

I love having this new addition! Freed up space in my small shop and now it’s more functional and organized. I followed the plans with modifications in the leaves using scrap 1x’s (which I may decide later to change to 2x4s but I had 1x’s on hand) instead of the brackets and then the extra 1x’s holding on the leaves so they would fall flat to the sides. Love it!

As a complete beginner in wood working (unless you count a year of woodshop over a decade ago), I decided that building a cart for the miter saw I just bought would be a great first project. So what did I do with that brand new miter saw? I left it in the box and made all of the cuts with a circular saw. Not sure what I was thinking there...

I mostly followed the excellent plan provided here but used wooden arms to prop up the wings in order to save on cost. I got the idea from the folding sling chair plan. It took quite a few screw ups and adjustments of the lower support bar before getting one of the wings level but I got it eventually.

Update 8/20/13: The miter saw has been a joy to use with the cart and the big flip up wings provide a ton of really convenient work space in addition to stabilizing 8 ft boards for cutting. I added a sliding drawer and some utility hooks for additional storage.

My daughter wanted her room redone for her tenth birthday. We decided to go big with Ana's storage bed plans. I had so much fun building this and really learned a lot. It took me three months to find enough spare time to finish it, but it was worth the wait.

I love our table and bench (and high chair). It's working well for our family and I had a lot of fun building and finishing it. Thanks for the plans, Ana!

I don't think I made any modifications to the table or bench, but I used 1x3s for the high chair instead of 1x2s.

I liked the lines of the Extra Tall Bar Stools and I changed the plan to fit my needs. I made them 24" to the top of the seat and both stools are constructed entirely out of 2x4s (except the seat, of course!).

This is the very first thing I've ever built! I would never have thought it could be so easy! Thanks so much Ana - your my hero!!!

I adapted the simple Kitty Tree plan to make an outdoor sunroom for my cats. They are locked inside when I'm away, so this was a way for them to get some fresh air. They can access it via a tunnel, visible on the side as a grey box that butts up against the panel for the cat flap.
It's 36"X30" and 68" high.
The walls are made of plexiglas and I made the interior ramps by cutting up a set of wooden shelves.Plexiglas is expensive, but I salvaged some that was slightly scratched and going to the landfill. Otherwise, it would have cost me well over $100.
The frame was built using a Kreg jig, which is now my new favourite tool. I also added some casters so it can be rolled away from the wall for cleaning.
I found the Kitty Tree plan to be easy and versatile.

I used the Master Closet system plans with a slight modifcation for the slanted cellings