Community Brag Posts

I needed something to organize our hockey gear so I customized this mudroom idea. It turned out great and makes me feel better when I walk in the garage. Everything must have a place!

Used the inspiration of Ana-White dog kennel and made ours with an old bed frame that wasn't being used anymore. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I just need to paint and stain it. You can see the side is from the bed headboard and footboard.

New to raising chickens, but eager to jump right in to it.
We bought a pre-made coop for the main home for our new chicks and it's very nice, not something I could do myself since I'm not yet at that level, but I saw this chicken tractor and thought it would come in handy for what I have in mind so I made up my mind to build it.
The lumber, chicken wire, staples, and wheels are all store bought new and came to about $75. The materials we had on hand were the screws, hinges, plastic coated metal shelving (used in the nesting area, I thought that would make it easy to clean), paint, and the corner piece of vinyl siding for the roof cap (hubby's brilliant idea, and I painted it green with spray paint for vinyl).
I did not try to build it quickly, I don't really know how much time it took me, but if I had to guess I'd guess total time would amount to about 3 afternoons, by myself.
I wanted to leave the top on the one side open with the option to slap on the other boards if/when the need arises. I have the other t1-11 panels that can sit right in those areas because I stapled the chicken wire in a way that would allow it.
I also added a flip up panel as seen in the pictures for access. I didn't want a small door that I would have a hard time getting to things in there. I'm so glad I added this feature, it sure gives plenty of room for me to maintain the food and water dispensers as well as get in there and catch the little chickies :)
I wanted it green to blend into the wooded background in our backyard. I didn't want to take any beauty away from the cedar greenhouse and fencing we added last year, and this tractor would be moved from time to time and I felt this green that we had on hand was perfect to help it blend in rather than stand out.
This thing is heavy! I have a hard time moving it around and usually need my husband to move it so I won't hurt myself. I am considering some options... I don't like the rope I have on it to pull it, any suggestions would be appreciated.
As with the other items I've made with Ana's plans, this was fun and pretty easy to make. I love this site! Soon I will take on my next project, I've bought and gathered the materials, I'm anxious to get started :)
Thank you for looking :)

From start to completion, it was exactly two weeks.  One of those weeks, I was sick and didn't get a chance to do much.  I believe we picked the hottest days to work on this project, so we were taking more breaks than actually working.

I really loved the outdoor daybed, but after discussing it with my husband we decided to go without the canopy feature. We, also resized the bed from a twin size to a toddler size (which happened to be almost the same dimensions as our love seat). In order to make the daybed without the canopy, I had to put the top pieces on last in order to have them go all the way from edge to edge. All in all, this was a super easy project, and I had a lot of fun doing it!

I got the crib mattress free of craigslist, and since a crib mattress is already covered with vinyl, I didn't do anything extra to waterproof it, and the fabric came from the home decor remnants section at our local fabric store for $4 a yard, which I applied a 40% coupon to. The throw pillows are not the ones we will be using, but I haven't made those yet, so these are just for looks :)

My husband designed this after the farm house bed. I wanted panels on the head board and foot board to "dress it up a bit" and storage drawers. He did a wonderful job. I don't think I have ever had a more prized piece of furniture. Now to find some tall night stands.

I scoured the web unsuccessfully for months trying to find a cabinet big enough to store everything we needed to store. I wanted something huge and bright and simple, and so I decided to just build away. It's 8'4" long, 18" deep and 36" tall. Topped with a slab of Giallo Napoleon granite and painted a nice plain white. Took me only a few nights to build and paint, thanks to my power nailer and power paint sprayer. Thanks to a great deal on a remnant granite slab, this was just about $400 total start to finish. I winged the entire plan and didn't really use any plans in particular, though I have gathered many great ideas and tips from this site.

Inspired by the Tall Secretary with mail slots but with my own twist/needs incorporated in it. Finished with pure white satin paint.

This was my first build and I learned A LOT and watched A LOT of youtube diy videos. The main take-away from this project is not to build in the freezing cold if the finished project is for inside. I finished this project in below freezing temperatures and I noticed that the wood expanded (increasing slightly the gap between the finished boards on the top) when it was brought inside.

I built this from the original farmhouse table plans with no kreg jig although I did buy and use a pocket kreg jig to make the extensions. The main modifications were using 4x4s such as were used in the Country Living magazine spread that inspired this build and also making modifications to allow the addition of 15" extensions at each end of the table's bread boards.

My first challenge was figuring out how to build with the 4x4 legs instead of the 2 2x4s screwed together. In order to accomplish this i had to use a chisel to create the corner lip that the table top frame would sit on. I added photos of this so I hope it will help someone. Chiseling these 4 corners (one on each post) only took an hour or two and was so worth it for the look of the 4x4s. Just measure carefully and work carefully with a sharp chisel. I actually removed half the wood by sawing off the corner at a 45 degree angle. Remember when cutting your boards for the table ends that a 4x4 has different dimensions than 2 2x4s screwed together. Compensate for this in your cuts.

Another challenge was hiding the screws on the table legs and table top. I was leaving the finish natural so didn't want to use wood fill. I accomplished this by getting a countersink bit and then buying wooden dowels the same diameter. For these screw holes, after finishing screwing, I put a dab of wood glue in the countersink hole, inserted the dowel as far as it would go, used a fine hand saw to cut off the dowel flush with the table and then used a hammer to make sure the dowel was in tight and flush.

I had trouble figuring out how to attach the table top frame to the table legs with the long screws from the plans so I included a picture of this step. Its really easy but I was not able to use three screws as the plan calls for. I used two instead and it has been very solid. I used the long screws as proscribed.

Finally, I wanted to build extensions (2 2x8 boards kreg jigged together) so I could increase seating up to a max. of 12 persons, so I needed to cut out 2x2 gaps on the table ends. I also included a picture of these in place. To make room for the 2 2x2s that extend under the bread boards and table top to brace the extensions, I left out one of the 2x2 cross beams at each end of the underside of the table (the boards that the table top boards screw into).

I hope this is helpful to you!

We really enjoyed building this playhouse swing set for our kids.  We have a decent slope to our backyard, so we needed to sink our posts, which required a bit more work thank Ana's plans.  We also used a real window (my dad just happened to have in his garage) instead of the 3 open aired windows Ana's plans called for.  Inside we built a fold under table, shelf, and a chalkboard for thier entertainment.  

We were shopping for bunk beds for our 5 and 3-year-old kids, and everything I saw was overpriced, mass produced junk. I'm not kidding - we were looking at $800-$2000 for anything that appeared to be remotely stable, let alone well-designed.

Naturally, I started searching for plans (it's the right thing to do), and naturally, I found my way to Ana White. This project began in earnest when I found the Side Street Bunk Bed plans here:
http://ana-white.com/2012/03/plans/side-street-bunk-beds

I figured I'd give it my own twist. I needed to practice using my DeWalt compact router (and the new trim router table my wife had given me months before), and any excuse to bust out my Kreg Jig is fine by me. I also had different ideas for the ladder and guard rails...so I printed out the plans, sketched out my variations, and proceeded to suffer through the indignity of lumber shopping at Home Depot.

I know what you're thinking - WHY would anyone even bother trying to find a straight board in THAT place? Well believe me, I suffered for the convenience of driving to the HD two miles from my house. I had to work each and every board like crazy, but eventually I got em all into fine shape. Wood wants to be good, even the crap they sell at HD.

About halfway through the build, I started to worry that what i was building was TOO sturdy - total overkill. But now that it's in use, I can tell you I'm glad I built with these plans. I can still climb up on top of the bed with both my kids if I want to and this thing doesn't budge. Not an inch. Not a creak. SOLID. Exactly what any parent wants.

Not a lot of complex tools involved here; my trusty Delta chop saw, my DeWalt 18v cordless drill, a DeWalt palm sander ( I spent hours with this), the Kreg Jig and a couple of clamps (of course), and the DeWalt Compact Router and table. The router really made a difference in the overall design – and I wasn't afraid of screwing up the lousy lumber I was working with. In the end, it all finished rather nicely.

I treated every piece with Minwax wood conditioner, then a single coat of Minway Polyshade in Pecan. Nothing fancy, but after sanding it down and giving it a polish, I gotta say it looks just as good as your average IKEA finish. Not bad at all.

This is the largest piece of functional furniture I've ever built, and my kids LOVE it. They talked about it for days after, and you can't buy that on Amazon. It was a real confidence builder, and I'm PSYCHED to move on to some nicer lumber and more complex projects!

This was my first project. I used wainscoting for the door backing. I was happy with it for a first project.

Built one for my niece, my daughter's is next!

My wife and I loved the version that Finns-Dad made but we wanted it to be rectangular. The top is 1x6s around the edges with 1x4s in between. The frame is 1x4s. The bench tops are all 1x4s with 4x4 legs. There are 3/8 inch lag bolts in the legs. We did 4 coats of the urethane.

This was my first major project, and while there are many things that I would do differently if given the opportunity, we're still very pleased with it.