Back from a Break

I took a little break. I have been going nearly non-stop for a long time. Practically this whole summer....wait, YES, this WHOLE summer. Anyway, so I took a long weekend and we went to Seattle and stayed with some friends. We did the Space Needle thing, Pike Street Market, Some Music thingy I can't remember the name of as well. We celebrated our anniversary and got to see my best friend which was wonderful!

But, we all know me, so let's just say I didn't leave woodworking behind. I took my tools with me and did a quick mini-training with her on some of the tools as we built a picnic table for her daughters. To thank her for letting us stay with them, I brought up a pair of chairs and a small table for the girls. They wanted an art table so I made them one.

I think I built the table in one evening the night before we left. LOL. Nothing like waiting until the last second!

I left it untreated so she could decide about paint or stain herself. I love doing stuff like this for others. The picnic table turned out so adorable as well! It is just the right size for the toddler age group. My friend did such a great job! I only wish we had more time to go over more tools and build a few more things. Oh, and there is a second piece of wood on each side for the seats. All the pictures I have of the finished table have my friend's daughter and herself in the photo and I can't post it without their permission, but you get the general idea of how the table looks. :-)

Alas, I did have to come home and I had to get back to those tables and chairs for my daughter's new daycare. I took a night or two in order to just cut all the wood I needed. Man, there were a lot of little pieces I had to cut and drill pocket wholes with the Kreg Jig. Hours of doing that each night!

In the end I did a sort of assembly line where I did each step for all them instead of building each one and then moving on to the next one. I think this saved me time. For awhile I had just the legs and supports sitting everywhere and then I had them semi-stacked for a bit.

Sure looks like a lot even though there are only 10. I didn't say anything before because the chairs I brought to Seattle were a surprise. I really only had to build 10 chairs, but I built 12 specifically so I could bring a set up to Seattle with me. :-)

This weekend flew by. Probably because we blew practically the whole Saturday at the fair. We all need a break and it was so nice to go and walk around with my husband and just peek at all the booths. But today I really hunkered down and spent hours sanding them down and staining them. I just need to put a clear coat of shellac or varnish on top and they are ready for school.

I did not however get around to building the tables. I just didn't have the time before the sun went down. Instead I spent the time after dinner (I knew I had only 30 minutes of sunlight left) and started to build the enclosure for the patio on the playhouse. Previously I needed the saw to cut the windows, and I did actually borrow it from our friend. This made it so much easier, but both of my shoulders were sore for days! I did this all before we left for Seattle.

I worked well into the darkness to finish this up. It got so bad I resorted to using a spotlight to do the final touches. The wood piece through the middle is the support for the roof of the enclosure I am building.

I also got the beginnings of the door done. I have it hung and re-hung after the kids ripped it off by accident. I should have told them I wasn't done with the door and to be careful. Ooops. I do love the color though. A nice blue to offset the grey.

Here is the backside of it. I have to decide if I want to put another piece of the other side or leave it looking like this to the inside of the playhouse.

All in all, I am getting things done. I just hope I get the thing done before winter at the rate I am going! Let's hope I can finish the tables this week so this next 3 day weekend can be spent finishing up some more of the enclosure of the playhouse as well as the windows too!

Where Did My Weekend Go?

You know the feeling on Sundays where you have NO IDEA what you did on Saturday? I am having one of those moments. I know I was home all weekend and yet, I look around and nothing is done. The house is slightly cleaner, but my projects sit there mocking me in their half finished state. I am at a standstill with the castle right now. Partially because I need to borrow a tool from my friend to finish it, and partially because I had to do some contracted work on the side.

I did manage to do one small thing in the playhouse this weekend. My poor husband worries a lot about splinters. The straight wood that was the tower's second story floor worried him. So I decided to cover it with flooring. I use opportunities like this to try out new things. I have always wanted to try peel and stick tiles. It seems to nice for small places that do not need fancy floors or real tile. This seemed the perfect time to give it a whorl and see what it was like. $14 dollars and an hour and a half later, I had this....

Not too bad for a first time with this stuff. Now its really comfortable in there and really easy to clean. :-)

My daughter starts in her new preschool in September. It is the one her brother went to when he was in preschool and where he went this summer for summer camp/daycare. The owner asked me if I would make 2 kid's tables and 10 chairs for the preschool. I said sure. I have some great plans from Anna White's website I could pull out and do. I was already making a couple kid's chairs for the playhouse when she asked so why not make 10 more?

I mashed up a couple of the plans Anna has for chairs, and came up with this style of chair with 2x2 legs for stability and strength. They DO have to hold up to 6 year old kids leaning back in them (even though leaning back is not allowed). This is actually my son's for the playhouse. I am using my router to cut his name into the back of the chair's support piece. That is why it looks like a piece of the back is missing. I misplaced my router's bushing so I couldn't finish putting it together. All the screws are hidden because I used my Kreg Jig for pocket screws. I sat in the chair and leaned back a little and nothing broke so that is a good sign it will be able to handle a 6 year old....hopefully. hee hee.

I took nearly all day today designing this chair. It is a fast build, but I was sort of making up the design as I went along so there was some delay as I worked through each step. Then tonight after the kids went to bed I went back out there and cut all the legs for the 10 chairs. Ended up with extra wood so I cut more legs. I will be able to make 12 chairs total with the 10 pieces of wood I bought. I HAD hoped to have all the chairs built this weekend, but changing up the plans at the last second really slowed me down.

Let's hope this week I can borrow the saw from our friend. I REALLY want to be done with the windows soon!