Projects projects projects

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Some To-Do's finally become To-Done's

I have been using my time off to work on my to-do list; this is a to-do list that is long, and for some items, years old.  We moved to our home in May 2012 – just about 6 weeks before Marcus was born... This means that we had a lot of things that never got completed because we were busy with our little guy.

Now I have some time, and I am out of excuses, so here it goes.

I have been interested in woodwork and building things for a while and have been gathering tools to start projects.  So last week I did the project that starts all projects. I prepared a work zone. This included cleaning out the back storage room in the basement – not as easy as it sounds because it had a lot of boxes that had not been touched in two years (I really wish I took a before picture).  To be honest, this was a pretty yucky job, and I am glad it is over; there were some unpleasant surprises in a few boxes.

After I had everything moved into piles (recycled or tossed), I actually had enough room for the next step – I need a work bench.

Next, I did my first solo major building project – I built a work bench.  It was a really nice day, so I was able to do all of the cutting outside—it was awesome because my Dad brought the wood up a while ago, so I just had to get the inspiration to complete the project.  Here is a short photo-journal of my project:

The workbench

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All of my cuts are on this table.  You can also see the directions.  I followed them pretty closely!

First assembly step completed.

The parts of the bottom shelves are ready to go.

It is starting to look like a work bench!

I added the top shelf—this was a lot faster because I had practice building the shelves by this point. 

The final product.  I made some mistakes, but looking at this picture they are not too obvious!  I LOVE IT!

I will happily admit that I did not think this up on my own.  I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of different work benches and settled on one I found on pinterest: Pinterest Link – I also followed the link from their site to the original plans and used a combination of both (that was really helpful).

The First Project: Map for Marcus

I started this project way back in January.  At that point I thought it would just be fun and easy—well, that was until I started and almost immediately hit a problem.  The purpose of this was to create a nicely-framed U.S. map to track all of Marcus's adventures.  He is a fairly well-traveled toddler, mainly due to work travel with Mommy and Grandma Z., and I thought it would be fun to record his destinations from the beginning.  Here is what I did.  I made some mistakes, but since I was pretty much making it up as I went I am super pleased with the results:

I glued the map down to a foam backing and put some light plywood behind it (also glued).

Designing the frame.

Using a 1" x 4" and some inexpensive trim from Home Depot I created a frame

This project used lots of power tools – I used the compound miter saw for cutting and the nail gun for building the frame.  Funny story: the nails were too long so I made a few marks on my new work bench (Oh well – that is what is it for).  After getting all of the nails in, I actually used a clipper to cut off all of the ends.  It worked great.

Finished project

I stained it to add some color.  Now I just need to figure out where to hang it.  

I am very pleased with this project.  I can't wait until Marcus gets older.  I hope he is as excited about seeing new things and travel adventures as we are – I just like to imagine him adding the new pins when we visit new places.

My Finished Workshop!!!!

Here is a final view of the workshop project.  I can't wait to think about what I am going to build next...

New racking that holds all of the boxes that were on the floor.

Work Bench—provides lots of space to keep things neat and organized.  Can you see I already got some stain on it?  I think I will just stain it that color next.

Cutting area with lots of space.