A new closet

Storage is at a premium in our house, so when Hubby discovered a small unused space by our spiral staircase, we had to cut a door into it so we’d gain a closet.

Dad removes the mop board before cutting the door hole.

Hubby cuts the door hole with his uncle’s saws-all. The dust was awful. We had a lot of cutting to do since our house was plastered, not sheet rocked. Plaster chunks were everywhere!

Hubby installs part of the door framing. We did this project as cheaply as possible. Framing boards were all recycled lumber.

The sheet rock was a damaged piece the lumber yard wanted to get rid of. The leftover sheet rock went into a hole in our driveway. It has worked wonderfully. No more awful hole at driveway’s end!

Dad cuts the trim. Fortunately, the house’s original door frames were simply trimmed without elaborate, hard-to-match embellishments.

While the men were hammering and sawing, I was sanding and staining. December 2007 was warm enough to stain, although I added the final coats in temperatures just barely above the minimum required. They took forever to dry.

Dad and Hubby nail up the trim. Aren’t power tools wonderful? I love my men. Happy Father’s Day!

Celebrating milestones

Getting from Easter to Flag Day takes a long time. We get sick of cute little chicks and baby bunnies, no matter how carefully we avoid tackiness. Our house is not allowed to look like a grade school classroom. Until last year, I didn’t know how to bridge that gap. Since we got married and graduated high school and college in May, why not get out the stuff from those milestone events in May? So I did.

This is our cake topper. My aunt and uncle used it, then my parents. When it came my turn, the couple was a little battered. I cleaned the topper and touched up its paint. I enjoyed using this precious connection to my heritage. The rose on lace is one of our pew decorations and the candles — but not the candlesticks — are from our wedding also. The silver tray, which is out all the time, was a wedding gift from our jeweler.

This table decoration is our unity candle set.

I was required to buy my first college graduation regalia — mortarboard, gown, hood and tassel — and I kept them. My hood hangs behind its degree. I used a half hitch to tie the associated tassel onto the diploma frame’s hangar. Unfortunately, Hubby has lost his college graduation tassel. He hung it on his rear view mirror and it disintegrated. Hubby’s picture with his parents at his graduation stands on the shelf. The back of his high school diploma is shown on the room divider above his college degree.

Dad graduated from college the same weekend I graduated kindergarten. He had gotten a three-year diploma the year before. My mother preserved his tassels and honor cords, while I kept my tassel, which she had made. She made my graduation gown and mortarboard, but those have long since been lost. I printed a copy of our picture together and matted it for the center of the shadowbox, then arranged the cords and tassels around the picture, using straight pins to hold them. I wish I could have made the picture an 8X10, but the slide was too degraded for that.

My high school diploma, tassel and senior picture stand on the room divider opposite Hubby’s. Unfortunately, we do not have his senior picture. I hung each tassel on the pillar next to the diploma. Each girl in my senior class received a real and crocheted rose at graduation. My crocheted rose sits next to my senior picture.

My mortarboards sit atop our china cabinet. Displaying an even number of objects is not good design, but I could not think what I should place between the mortarboards. I had to buy both high school and college mortarboards, but Hubby never had to buy any. Lucky him! Too bad we didn’t preserve my handmade kindergarten mortarboard, but one can’t have everything in this life!

Butterfield Trail Bunkhouse

For our 15th anniversary getaway, we stayed at the Butterfield Trail Bunkhouse. It’s quite a rustic place. This is the bunkhouse.

These are the his and hers outhouses. I’m just kidding. I don’t do outhouses. Yuck! I like a break from civilization, but not that much of one! The box on the left is actually a place for newborn calves to be kept out of the cold.

This is where we stayed, a three-room concrete block home that was a very comfortable getaway location. It stands in a valley in the middle of a pasture surrounded by trees in three directions. Neighbors are far enough away that their lights cannot be seen. The stars overhead were incredible.

Donna, our hostess, brought us this pretty bouquet for our anniversary. At first I thought it was made of lilacs, to which I am very allergic. I was relieved to see otherwise. She also gave us slices of a lemon poppy seed layer cake with strawberry slices between the layers. Delicious!

Bunkhouse’s previous owner was a lifelong bachelor, so the house was definitely devoid of frou-frou touches. In honor of her husband’s uncle, Donna has kept the dècor simple. The curtain rods, kitchen drawer and door pulls are all made of branches.

The hooks holding up the kitchen curtain rod are old spoons. Even with the simplicity, she said the dècor would probably be too much for Uncle. I was amused to find that the bathroom had no power outlets. That definitely shows a bachelor inhabited the house. A woman would have wanted to plug in her blow dryer or curling iron. When Donna and William wanted to put in a new kitchen at their house, they had to tear out their porch. They rented a jackhammer, thinking that the concrete would be fairly simple to remove. Instead, they discovered that it was full of rebar. Rather than get rid of the rebar, she used it for curtain rods in their house. Now that’s creativity! The breakfasts were great as well. We recommend this bed and breakfast highly.

Fork twister

For Christmas, I crafted photo holders from forks. I picked forks out of a large bin of silverware at local antique mall. Every one came from a different place setting.

Every one of them bent differently. Most difficult part was curling the tines in front. I wrapped duct tape around my Vise-Grip’s jaws to avoid scratching, but I still left scratches. I wish I could figure out how to totally eliminate those annoying scratches. Hubby said he likes the tortured silverware projects I’ve been doing, but I shouldn’t start torturing toys. He doesn’t have to worry. I lack an inner Sid the Toy Torturer. Silverware, however, is entirely another story.

Rub-a-dub-dub, I want to grab this tub!

I found a tub like I was looking for in this post. But how I’m going to pull it out of this basement is a mystery.

I want a fountain like this one, which has been shut off to overwinter. It’s an outstanding example of repurposing, which I love to do. Keeping objects away from the landfill makes me feel virtuous.

This is a closer view of the entire fountain piping.

Here are a pair of views of the piping outside the tub.

This pump and tubing recycles the water back through the fountain. I can envision this fountain in my yard. I want it near our lawn chairs so we can listen to that peaceful sound while we’re sitting by our outdoor fireplace. Someday my tub will come…

A rare sight

Usually, my workbench is covered with projects in various stages of completion. But since my show outweighs all other projects, I completely cleaned off my workbench last night. I threw out some projects that I realize I’ll never do and put more things in designated places. Since I am interested in a wide variety of projects, keeping track of all those various pieces is difficult. I may never see this workbench this clean again.

This chest of drawers I saved from destruction years ago looks more like usual, a project in progress sitting on it. This door I’m gluing came off an old pie safe. I have two of them. I intend to frame an old church in one and the steeple from that same church in the other. I can hardly wait for these pictures to show up! Once they do, workbench and chest will return to their usual cluttered state. And I will be in Heaven. Or as close to Heaven as I can get on earth.

I've been framed

Frames, frames everywhere

Frames are stacking up in my basement. I’ve placed my biggest order of pictures ever. Since I have to do this show on the most minimal budget, I’m recycling frames of pictures we no longer use and have purchased quite a few at the thrift store for rock-bottom prices. I will throw away the picture and reuse the frame and whatever glass, mat and backer board come with it.

I have also collected old barn boards and hope to frame photos with them — if they don’t split and splinter. For one picture, a picnic bench, I intend to chop up a broken “early dorm room” couch that’s been clogging up our storage area for years.

I could not do this without help. Donna, Kathy, Marilyn and Martha helped me choose the final pictures and gave me ideas for matching frames with picture and mat. Patty will help me choose the mats once all the prints have arrived. To cut frames, Kathy has loaned me her miter saw and Dad will bring his router. I’ve never touched a router and don’t want to practice on this project. I don’t have time — or the boards — for that.

You’ll be hearing a lot about my progress in the next few weeks. My nose will be firmly to the grindstone. I hope I still have a nose left when I reach Feb. 27, my deadline to take pictures to the gallery.

Header coat rack

Several years ago, we bought an old baseboard at an architectural salvage firm. That was our planned purchase. We also bought two old headers, some drawer pulls and a couple wooden door knobs. I had seen a coat rack made from those materials and wanted one for our house. When we returned home, I found that the place I had intended to hang them wasn’t suitable.

We put everything into storage until I could decide what to do with them.

Finally, the light came on. My sister-in-love loves architecture as much as I do. And my dad could sure use a coat rack. So I made one for each of them.

Since I was making two coat racks instead of one, I needed two more knobs. Marilyn and I had salvaged a bunch of brass doorknobs from a trash pile. I had intended to use them on a door, but they didn’t work. I threw them into my father-in-law’s recycle bin and he had taken them away. But I had inadvertently kept one of the knobs. (Apparently, I should never throw anything away!) I disassembled the doorknob set, retaining only the exterior parts. The interior went into the recycling bin.

My woodworking friend Darrell suggested that I drill holes 18 inches apart so the rack could be attached to the studs. I did that first.

Then I arranged the knobs to suit me. I drilled holes for them and screwed them on. I had to use dowels to attach the brass doorknobs. These holes required a spade bit. I had never used a spade bit before, so was rather intimidated. All went well. The dowel I inserted into the doorknobs was too big to insert into the exterior lock parts. I cut the big dowel a bit short of the full length of the doorknobs' hole and glued it to the handle of an old foam paintbrush cut to size. I topped the paintbrush handle with the exterior lock parts.

Project took a couple hours and was fun to do. Hopefully I can salvage the next boards and knobs myself.

Recycling decorations

Some years ago, we received this basket as part of a holiday food package. I loved the basket, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. It was too pretty to throw out, so I kept it in storage, waiting for inspiration.

A couple years later, someone gave us a rosemary plant as a hostess gift. It was decorated with these fun picks. I kept them as being too pretty to throw out, but didn’t know what to do with them, either. They, too waited for inspiration.

Last year, the light dawned at last.

The basket even had gold-wrapped florist’s foam in the bottom. All I had to do was cut apart silk poinsettia and holly bushes and shove them and the pics into the foam. Voila! Instant flower arrangement!

And I got to enjoy the virtuous feeling of having recycled something beautiful, and we get to look at something beautiful.

Organizing our shed

Garage clutter piled outside.

I hated our shed. We could hardly get around in it and we struggled to access what we needed. Walking in the shed was dangerous because so many objects had fallen onto the floor. Our wheelbarrow and big tiller sat outside because we couldn’t wedge them into the shed. The mower sat right in front of the door, an obstacle and tripping hazard.

But I didn’t know what to do. I felt so overwhelmed every time I looked inside. The thought of cleaning it was unbelievably discouraging. Organization is not my strong suit and it isn’t Hubby’s either. We were guilty of every clutter-producing practice. I had tried to organize the place before, but was only partially successful. I resigned myself to a clutter-choked shed. Sigh.

Enter Marilyn. Organization is her strong suit.

She asked, “Why don’t we organize your shed?”

“Have you ever looked in there? You’ll have heart failure!”

She said that we’d take everything outside and sort through it. “Everything” included a lot of “stuff”. We moved around existing furniture into a more rational arrangement, then I started pitching. By project’s end, Dumpster was full. While I was throwing away the junk, she was organizing the good stuff.

Shed when finished. I wish I would have taken its picture before we pulled everything out of it. So much of its current contents had to sit outside before.

When we were finished, we had a place to walk without falling over the mower. At last, we could put away our wheelbarrow and tiller instead of covering them and hoping the elements didn’t penetrate. Our yard looks much less cluttered now.

I had salvaged a large piece of particle board and was using it to cover the shed’s dirt floor. Our ramp from door to interior floor was in bad shape. Marilyn suggested that I remove the old ramp and replace it with the particle board. I placed two 2x4s from my recycle bin underneath the plywood for reinforcement. Amazingly, all three boards were the right size. I used outdoor-grade deck screws, which I already had, to screw the boards together and attach them to the threshold. Voila! A new ramp for no cost.

Hubby was amazed how much better the shed looked and how much more functional it had become.

She says we’ll be tackling our kitchen sometime soon. We are looking forward to it.

Off my rocker

In junking, sometimes just being in the right place at the right time results in a great find. Friday’s trash-to-treasure find was one of those cases.

Of course, it always pays to pay attention to possibilities.

When I went to work, I saw a rocking chair standing outside the door, in the area where items destined for the landfill are placed. I asked if this chair was intended for the dump.

Yes, it was. “And if someone wants to remove that chair at the end of the hall, take it away. I think the chair still has life.”

I don’t need to be told twice to take away something useful, since useful items do not go to the landfill when this girl is present.

One chair has some cracked slats. I will study how to mend them. The other one has no problems so far as I can tell. It had just been replaced by a new chair and was no longer wanted.

These chairs are destined for our front porch.

A few days ago, I went to work and saw another rocking chair by the Dumpsters. This chair (not pictured because it is now in storage) was very pretty with beautiful spindles for the back. Unfortunately, one of the rocker runners had broken off just behind one of the legs, rendering the chair dangerous to use. Still, those beautiful spindles called to me. I put it into the back of my pickup.

If I couldn’t use the chair as a rocker, perhaps I could use it or its parts for something else. I didn’t know what else, but generally items that call to me are just waiting to tell me what to do with them.

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something useful this way comes!”

Before I could get it out of the truck, Hubby asked, “What are you doing with (X’s) chair?”

I didn’t know that had been his chair, but, sure enough, his name was engraved on the back.

This man had recently died. Our friend Tonya was quite close to him. I will try to get replacement rocker runners for the chair and we will give it to her in his memory.

Creative yard art

Earlier this summer, we noticed this beautiful home in another town. The homeowner had used her creativity to greatly improve her home’s curb appeal.

Homeowner was not home, so we did not get a chance to talk to her about her beautiful windows.

Neighbor said that windows originally graced homeowner’s grandmother’s church. When the church was demolished, homeowner bought the windows.

Since the homeowner was not present, we did not feel comfortable examining how the windows were hung. We can get vicious hailstorms here and we wondered how the windows were protected — if at all — from inclement weather.

We were very fortunate in our timing. The sun was setting at the time we looked at this home and its light filtered through the beautiful windows.

Homeowner also had an unusual gate. Instead of the standard gate, she had hung an old door. If we ever build a fence, I want a gate like that. The street signs shown in that picture were in the yard as well. I had wanted a street sign for our driveway before, but I really want one after seeing this.

Ideas exist to be adapted and used.

Just another brick on the ground

If you’ve read this blog for very long, you know that I love bricks. Red and yellow bricks are all over our yard as edging and pavers.

Monday I did a project I’ve wanted to do for some time. Apparently, our back door (just visible at upper left) was originally south of its current location. The sidewalk is just south of where the door currently opens, which means we must stand on the lawn to enter the door. Therefore, that patch is chronically bare. I hated the way it looked. I hated the mud and dust we tracked in because we had to stand on bare ground.

I took a stack of spare bricks and laid them out in that ugly place. As I anticipated, I didn't have enough spares. So I pulled the nails out of the fence posts I had rescued from the landfill. I removed the bricks I was using for edging the flower garden next to the back door and replaced them with the fence posts, now landscape timbers (shown at top in above picture). Those repurposed bricks weren’t enough, so I removed bricks from a straightway in other garden, replacing them with another fence post turned landscape timber.

The bricks sit up a bit too high. I am running a sprinkler on the newly-laid bricks. I hope I can saturate the ground enough that walking on them will push them into the ground. If that doesn’t work, I’ll dig out some of the dirt so they will sit more level with the ground.

I don’t like the pattern yet, so will tinker with it later.

Sunday, I added more bricks to the sidewalk running from the street to the back door. I didn’t like the pattern I’d originally used. I changed it and added more bricks. I’d like to add more bricks, but I’ve run out.

Unfortunately, I never run out of ways to use bricks. No stockpile is ever enough for all I have in mind. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open for more of them.

Rub-a-dub-dub, a fountain in the tub

This clawfoot bathtub is an outstanding example of junking. Somebody turned trash into a true treasure with a pump and some pipe. The stream comes out of copper tubing. I wish I would have taken better pictures. If I can figure out how to do this and can find a suitable junk bathtub, I want to have a fountain like this by next spring. Marilyn already has a bathtub, which she is currently using as a container garden. She is interested in turning her bathtub into a fountain as well. She’s a step ahead of me since she already has the tub. I think I’ve seen one near an abandoned building I photographed and I actually remember where that building was. That building isn’t all that far away, either. I’m anxious to see if the tub I think I remember is a suitable one.

I love the fish in the tub as well, but what would I do with them over winter? I’m not sure I want to have a goldfish bowl in the house. Mr. Kitty would probably go fishing, but then he’d likely go fishing in the summer, too. I found these fountain instructions at wikiHow. Hope they work. If anyone has ideas how to do this, I’d love to hear them.

Opportunity knocks

Junking, seeking items to turn from trash into treasure, can be intentional or opportunistic. I’ve found wonderful items when I was actually Dumpster diving and I’ve found equally wonderful items when I was doing something else.

For some time, I have desired to put pavers underneath our turkey fryer, which we use as an all-purpose outdoor cooking device. But I didn’t really want to buy the pavers. That’s no fun.

Last week, my boss tore out a bricked, fenced patio. When I saw the contents of the trailer he’d used for demolition, my eyes lit up. He had thrown several old fence posts into trailer, which I immediately saw as landscape timbers. I asked him for those. He said that I could take away any item that was in that trailer.

When I looked at it more closely sometime later, I noticed bricks in there. Nice big, thick, coated bricks. Perfect for getting the fryer’s legs off the ground. I brought both fence posts and bricks home.

Saturday morning I laid those bricks where I had envisioned them and put the fryer on top. I had just enough to do the job.

I put the cover back on and was very pleased with my work.

Hubby also grabbed opportunity recently when he took out some trash. A nice plastic tub was in the Dumpster with the price sticker still attached. He fished it out and covered the tiller’s engine with it. We have no place to store the tiller, so the tub will protect the engine from rain and dirt.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Rhubarb leaf bird bath

I play with wet concrete and a rhubarb leaf.

Last summer, our Bible study group made rhubarb leaf bird baths. The basic idea was to take a rhubarb or other large leaf (hollyhock leaves would probably work, too), press it into a dome of concrete and make an impression.

Marilyn (front), Iris and I (back) mold our concrete into our leaves. Note the concrete bucket next to Marilyn.

Everyone else made theirs into a bowl as they were supposed to. I don't know how it happened, but mine turned out flat.

Six concrete blobs in a row. Note how rounded they are. All of them except mine (at the far end).

Once the shapes were made, we painted them. I went for a naturalistic look and carefully painted in the major rhubarb leaf veins. Others were more impressionistic. Once painted, we sealed them.

I didn't quite know what to do with my flattened leaf. It doesn’t hold water, so it was worthless as a bird bath. Then I remembered how butterflies need to warm themselves. OK, so I intended to make a bird bath, but ended up with a butterfly warmer. I can deal with it. But I didn't know where to put this warming stand.

I said something about my dilemma to Hubby's father. He said that he had found a bird bath stand without a bowl. It was too nice to get rid of, but he had no use for it. I certainly had a use for it.

Now my rhubarb leaf butterfly warmer stands on top of a bird bath pedestal. Ironic, isn’t it?

Having a father-in-law who shares my taste for turning trash to treasure is a pleasure.

The finished product awaits butterflies’ arrival.

iHanna's Creative Space has more complete instructions on making a rhubarb leaf bird bath.

Chaising the lounge

In a previous post, I told you about our oft-repaired chaise lounges. saw wood rot on one leg, but couldn’t tell how much was rotten.

The wood rot on the leg was so bad that Hubby finally amputated them both. This drastic solution is not one that we can repeat, but drastic problems do require drastic measures.


The chair looked very sad without either of its front legs.

We also took the opportunity to add backer boards to strengthen the frame. We also wanted to add a piece to the front of the chair to both lengthen it and give it more stability. Previous front piece was so rotten that it nearly fell off in my hand. Since it was between the side frame boards, I thought that perhaps the lack of airflow might have hastened the rot. Hopefully leaving the ends exposed to air will prevent or slow rot in future.

Hubby cut the scrap wood to size. We had salvaged some boards from a construction site, including some 2x4s that had been screwed together. That gave me an idea. I decided to screw together two boards for the legs, giving them more stability.

I painted and primed all the boards. Original builder only painted and primed the surfaces that showed. I hope that priming and painting every surface will at least slow the rot.

I had nearly finished painting when I ran out of paint. The paint company had changed the paint color to something more like blood red instead of our signature brick red. Even though the color difference does show, I just didn’t feel like repainting everything. I am very meticulous, but sometimes a person has to decide what amount of effort is just too much.

Original builder had used carriage bolts to attach the legs, which proved impossible to remove. The nuts merely spun around instead of coming off. We used 6-inch long socket screws instead. We attached the replacement slats and the end piece with deck screws.

After all that work, we surely did enjoy lounging in front of our fire pit! Enjoying our outdoor living room again (below) is such a pleasure.