Stain, Stain, Everywhere Stain

I have all the bookshelves stained....on one side. I spent Monday prepping it all, and Tuesday night I spent 2 hours staining the first side of everything. I got done around 11 pm. That is a LOT of staining.

Wednesday night, I did nothing (but got dishes and other chores done) which is okay as long as you are trying to find a balance in your life. Then came tonight. I stained the other side of nearly all the boards.......until I ran out of stain.

Stain, stain, everywhere there is stain!!!! Except in the can where I need some to finish the shelves. Guess I know what I am doing at lunch tomorrow! This working each night is really hard, but I am accomplishing a lot more than I would over a few weekends put together at the rate things have been going.

To Prove A Point

So, I figured I would see if I worked more during the week if I would feel better about how little I can build on the weekend. I would have to say, so far I am happy. I left work at 4:30, drove home, picked up my daughter and we got to the house by 5:30. I made some dinner for us and we talked and ate until 6:30. Then a little play time and got her to bed just after 7. Not bad and I was able to shorten the nighttime routine a bit which is great because its been getting longer with more stalling and her trying to add more things to the routine.

Anyway, so after she was in bed, I changed into sawdusty clothes and got into the garage finally. I finished cutting all the boards and sadly I had 2-3 that were just too warped to use. My sheet of plywood had been slightly warped, but became more warped as I cut the straighter parts off. What was left had nothing to hold it back and totally curved on me. Luckily have been cleaning the garage lately and my friend took a load of my scrap and junk wood to the dump for me. While cleaning the garage I found a few larger pieces of scrap plywood that was blissfully straight. So I was able to cut a few new boards to replace my warped ones.

Then I sanded each piece until I had only 5 shelves (out of 24) left. By then my hand was numb for the vibration of the sander and I had to stop. Plus it was just after 9 and I was wanting to come inside and chat with my husband.

This boring narrative demonstrates a few things to me. I can get a lot done in a short time period when I put my mind to it, and its easier to fit in the work at night during the week than attempting any weekend time in the garage.

The better question is how long can I keep this up. I get up at 5:40 when my daughter gets up EVERY morning. UG. Then we are dressed and I drop her and my son off at school/daycare by just after 7. Then at work by 8 after my commute. Work until 4:30, then home to cook dinner, bedtimes for the kids, and hopefully in the garage by 7:30 and if I am lucky I can go until 9 or 10 before being too tired. Then to bed by 10:30 or 11......yeah......I may need a caffeine IV drip to keep up, but at least I can get something done this way.

My hope is the tomorrow I can lay out all the shelves and stain them. I learned its WAY easier to stain and shellac shelves BEFORE assembly. Less work sanding in the corners etc. I hope soon I will have less boring things to write about and more exciting photos of projects. I hope everyone else's projects are coming along too!

Ponderings

As I think about doing some sort of side business of building furniture, I often imagined this as a weekend thing. Every weekend I see time go by and I only get out to the garage for moments at a time. I will get out there just for about an hour before one kid or the other peeks their cute little head out the garage door.

Then on Sundays I spend the whole day cleaning, paperwork, running after the kidlets, etc. The next thing you know, its over and I have cut only 9 small shelves. Not sure if this is because bookshelves are a bit boring to build, or because I just don't have the time on the weekends. I do know that I have time during the week, but how far can I stretch myself during the week?

I need to build more. Seriously BUILD MORE!! Get myself out of this funk and just get the bookshelves DONE and out of the garage so I can move on. I hate feeling this stuck.

Big Girl Tools

Recently I thought about the fact that I am using 10 year old tools in the base range cost. I got the cheapest models and hoped for the best. I have gotten new blades and babied them all I could. Tonight I was thwarted in my plans to cut the shelves for the built in bookshelves I am building in the playroom. We have run out of room in the reading room and the built ins I built in there are over full already.

I went out there and almost from the first moment, I started having trouble with my circular saw. I have a very sad cheapo Skill Saw brand. Nothing against them, but this this has always been a bear to use. I bought a new blade recently (which could be a year ago with how bad I am with remembering time lines), which should mean its still sharp and good. Reading online, I am following all the lovely rules to prevent binding etc, but the blasted thing was binding and stopping no matter what I did. I always first do a pass at 1/4 inch or less just to break the surface which prevents a lot of splitting and sanding on the cutting edge. I swear this saw was binding on just that!!!

I am sure my poor blade is either dirty from cutting wet wood for the dining room table or just dull from all the projects I have done with it (the whole entertainment center among other things). It really just boils down to me needing big girl tools. I need more power, more accuracy and more money to afford such luxuries. I am taking so much time trying to get my old stuff to work that it may be worth it to upgrade.

A week ago I finally went out and upgraded my miter saw to a sliding compound miter saw which has left me breathless. The thing practically jumps out of my hand with all the power it has. My old miter saw will be going on to a friend of mine who deserves a new saw. My old one actually worked really well for how old it is, but again it needs a new blade to really shine again. I just wanted to cut wider wood than my old one could do so I wanted a sliding miter saw. This was a really big splurge for me. I would normally NEVER spend $200 on myself or a tool, but if I am going to try to start a business building things on the side, I need to be able to work at a more professional level of tools as well.

So I guess all that is left is find the money tree to pay for it. Or do I need a sugar daddy? Or an anonymous donor to my paypal account? haha. The sad part is, an old circular saw is not my only big money outlay I may need to get my business up and running. I really need to set up a ventilation system for the sawdust to make it safer for me to build so much in a closed garage. A side business takes money to make money, but I really was hoping to not have to upgrade my tools. Having the new miter saw really has shown me the sweet side of MORE POWER!!! I just don't think my little 12 amp circular saw imagined it would be cutting as many plywood sheets as I have cut since I bought it.

Anyone rich out there that would like to donate to the cause? No? Sigh, guess I will have to just wait and save. Some day though......some day.......

Another Lost Weekend

I have no idea where the weekend went. It takes so long to get here and once it is here, its over before I even begin. It may just be me stalling, but my latest project of the bookshelves for the playroom is going REALLY slow. I think I may be stalling, but I may have just been busy. I have a lot on my mind and a lot of things going on. There is always the cooking, cleaning, work, doctor's appointments for the kids, daydreaming to keep me busy. I managed to barely get anything done on the bookshelves or my budget this weekend.

I am still very optimistic that I can start a side business in all this, but I guess I am unsure of where to begin. For every step there is another step that should be done before that one and before you know it, there IS no beginning step. Just one more excuse to not make this happen. I think no matter what career I end up in or what horrid accounting job I end up in the next 5 years. I do think I want a flex schedule. I want to work 6-3 or 4, 10 hour days so I can have more time at home. If I could be home before school is out, I wouldn't have to pay for after school care for my son which would be a HUGE boost to our bottom line. Not to mention the little bit more time that would give me for cooking dinner and nurturing a side business.

I bought 2 books on starting your own side business. They went through everything about LLC versus Sole Proprietor, marketing versus advertising. Everything I would need to know other than what is the first step. Do I want to build something else and try selling it. The table is still in my dining room and now my husband is in love with it so I am not even sure he wants me to sell it anymore. I want to build another one for us or another one to sell, but I don't want the same thing to happen again with having people flake on me.

Tonight I looked at my Etsy shop that never was. I have my profile on there and a pretty shop with just a banner at the top of some of the wood signs I made and sold. I don't want to sell them on Etsy, so its not the best banner. But I wonder if I could put some tables on there and say it has to be a local sale only with no shipping available? Can you do that? At least it wouldn't be Craigslist. While I love that site for buying stuff, its always like pulling teeth to sell something and have people show up. Seriously took me a month to sell a microwave on there for 20 bucks. I had tons of interest and people wanting it and then flaking and not showing up. It is part of what happens on CL, but it is also a HUGE frustration if I am selling something that I don't want to keep around.

I am rambling and for that I am sorry. I am avoiding doing my budget and filling out the birthday invitations for my son's party which is supposed to be this next Saturday. I am guessing most wont be able to come because I mistakenly waited for help from my husband to plan the party. Last year that meant a simple party at the park, but this year it means a simple pizza party. I should have learned by now to just deal with it myself, but I HATE planning parties and doing invites etc. Can you guess how simple of a wedding we had? Lovely, simply and short. Best kind right?

2 weeks

Its been a crazy couple weeks. I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update. I put this table up on CL. I got a couple hits, but they wanted slightly shorter table. Or the same size, but different colors. We did a big waiting game on one lady who said she wanted to finish getting a bid from her contractor and then would see who's was cheaper. Either his or my custom build. (she wanted a different color). And another who got upset when she said she wanted a table that was 7 ft long instead of 8 because her 66inch table was the perfect length. When I pointed out that 66 inches was a lot shorter than 7 ft she game me a "I'll think about it" and I knew she wouldn't email again. I even said it nicely, but I think she was embarrassed.

The other lady got all the way to saying she would come by the next day to sign a contract for a custom built table, before backing out. Ack, its a long story, but not worth writing about. In the end, all the deals fell through. So I get to feel a bit like a loser, but I am not out of the game all the way. While this lady flaked at the last second for a store bought table (ick), I am still getting great responses from people I meet that see either pictures of the table or see it in person. Haha, even the guy setting up my 401K was ready to ask me to build a coffee table and end tables once he saw the picture of my table. So I know I do good work and I know people like them.

We gave in and brought the table inside though because I wanted to see how it looked and felt. I have to say I still LOVE it. I love the feel, the look, the durability (other than if you leave water on a spot), and having our family and friends around the table.

I am currently reading up on the legal stuff to see how to set up a company to legally build and sell furniture. While I wouldn't build a table this big again to sell unless pre-ordered, I wouldn't mind building a coffee table or end tables for sale. There are so many people who are encouraging me to expand my building and sell, its still the logistics that I have to work out. We even have a huge Saturday market that I could rent a booth from and sell tables at. I imagine small picnic tables wouldn't take up a lot of room and I could have pictures of other items I can build and let them order. It could flop too, but I guess I will never know if I don't try.

It does feel good to have so many people cheering for me though. I would have business coming out of my ears if there was a simple and cheap way to ship furniture across the US to ladies in my Mom's Group. At least it feels great to do something I love on the side to make my current job livable.

Final Photos of the Table