Community Brag Posts

My brother announced a few weeks ago that he was going to be on the search for a new Golden Retriever puppy. Well the hunt is over and he gets to bring the puppy home today. I decided to make the puppy a "Welcome to the family" toy box. I wanted to paint it but was out voted by my kids. They liked the natural pine look, but I felt it needed a little something more. Therefore, a couple of days ago I purchased letters at Hobby Lobby, painted them and nailed them to the front of the crate from the inside out.

My sons and I also got the puppy some new toys to put in the box. We get to deliver it to her tonight. Can't wait to meet her! I posted a picture of the puppy at the bottom of this post. Isn't she cute?

I made this table because I have a very small house and needed a table that was more of a compact size. This table was perfect for that. I also love the farmhouse style. Originally, I didn't realize how much my screws were going to show on the outside, but I actually like how it looks, with the mix of hardware and wood. This table is very heavy and thankfully ended up sturdy! I used a compound miter saw (which I LOVE!) to cut the wood for this project which made it a lot faster than cutting with my jigsaw like I started out with. I bought the wood from home depot, and it took about a whole afternoon to cut the wood, sand, and construct and then about 2 more hours to stain and put the polycyrlic coats on. I did have a little trouble getting the legs on by myself since I had to hold them in place while I was screwing them on, and it was awkward and more difficult than if I had someone to help me hold them while screwing them on. But overall, not too difficult and love how it turned out!

Modifications adopted from two other posters.

This table is pretty easy to build, i added a couple inches the the 4x4 for height but tested it yourself before following their height and see if you can sit under it with a chair 

My husband modified the Simple Bunk Bed plan by Margjack and built this bed on weekends over the last month. He first built the four head boards and then went on to design his own railing and ladder. I liked how Margjack created more height and identical beds, especially if/when we use them as individual beds instead of a bunk bed.

After priming and painting all pieces, we assembled the bed in our sons' bedroom. A slide show of the assembly can be found at:

http://vimeo.com/27997563

After looking through Ana's plants for months (MONTHS), I finally decided to tackle a project that I desperately needed: a kitchen island. I have almost no counter space in my kitchen and couldn't bring myself to spend the money to put in a new set of lower cabinets or a kitchen island at the size I was looking for.

I found the door for just $20 at a local junkfest and debated turning it into a dining table or an island. I finally settled on island and took to stripping off the layers and layers of paint and stain. I modified the Gaby Kitchen Island plans to fit my nearly 8-foot door, and decided not to recess the 2x4 shelf supports (mainly because I didn't have a saw). However, I did buy a mini-Kreg jig and am shocked at how easy it was to use, and how great the seams look.

I had all of the wood cut to length by the lumber yard, so that saved me a bit of time, and no one charged me a cent to do all the cutting. And if you can believe it, everything was square!

For the legs, I used Minwax Wood Finish in Red Oak. I chose not to stain the top because I loved the color of the natural wood and wanted to see all the little flaws and defects. I then used 2 coats of Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane in Gloss on the top, and in Satin on the legs.

Finally, to add some support (the door is VERY heavy), I used L-brackets to attach the door to the frame.

Although I didn't use a plan from this site, I do have Ana to thank for giving me the confidence to go alone and build this from a drawing that my wife drew up. All of my previous builds were from plans on this site so to make this from scratch without any help makes this my favourite build to date.

Table

Top: 2x12s

Aprons: 2x6s. Trim purchased from Lowes

Legs: Purchased from Lowes

Fake drawers: 1x4 ripped to size. Knobs purchased from Lowes

Bench

Top: 2x12

End sections: 1x10 (may replace with 2x10)

Aprons: 2x4

Chairs were purchased separately. (I'm not that confident yet)

I made the back the same as the sides, the top has router edge and the drawer has a front that was routered.

I made this slightly wider than the plans called for, just to make it easier for my daughter to tuck sheets in.

Built with all recycled material. Wanted to try out a gel stain on pine to get more even results and I love it!! 

Made from leftover wood from other projects.  Adjusted the plan to accomodate the lengths of wood I had available.

This bed is made specially for a little girl with a doll named Julie, hence the J :)
I would like to say it only took me a few hours, but in reality it took me a week. Mainly because I sand in 3 stages (coarse, medium, fine) and wait overnight between coats of paint and work on multiple projects at the same time. Still a very easy project! (except for the sewing, I'm no seamstress ;))
I used select pine for 1x2's and 1x3's, but I think furring strips are much better because of the rounded edges. Also 2x2's were not select pine and they didn't quite match up with the other boards.

Here are some pictures of the Backyard Pergola (almost finished). Three of us leveled the main beams (easier said than done), but many hands made for lighter work and a lot more fun. Big thanks to Dave and Gretta !!!

The posts on top still need to be trimmed, and the carriage bolts need to be hack-sawed off so they do not stick out.

I found the other "Brags" inspiring while working on this project, so I thought I would share also.

*Used treated wood for most of it, and plan to stain it with "Cabot's oil-based semi-solid stain" when the treated lumber has dried out - next year sometime.

This changing table was fairly easy to put together. I have yet to really master drawers, so I was a bit nervous about such a drawer-centric project. Fortunately, they slide great! Next time I may experiment with jigsaw cutouts and moulding, but for now, I enjoy the clean lines and simplicity of this dresser.

Designed from the Grandy Sliding Door console, but I modified it by extending it to 8ft wide, and added a media shelf to not cover remote sensors for my set top boxes. This is my first build from Ana White so it took a little more time and expense than I hoped only because of some startup tools I decided to get to help the process.

Our daughter asked for a kitchen island so my first stop was Ana's website to see what plans I could find. I built the base while my husband was out of town one week. This was a zero trip to Lowe's project as I raided our wood rack and scrap bins. My husband came home and built the countertop.

The bolt I got was too short so...was about to go out and exchange it when my husband said to be like the amish. So he helped me put a dowel I had in my stash in a 1inch hole that I made...added some grease to it and it works great! Also used ends of staircase spindles that I had leftover from other projects for the handles. Would have gotten done a lot faster if it weren't for the paint and stain. Haven't bothered with the cushions yet. Kids love it!