Why I'm a minister...and not a general contractor

Yesterday was "Home Improvement" day. Home Depot should sponsor me an give me a $1000 gift card - I'm the classic blumbling do it yourself guy. First project - fill in the gap between the kitchen and the stove. The previous owners had left a nice piece of wood laying in the kitchen and it looked like it would fill the gap; a little bit of investigation revealed that it did. The only trouble was that is was just a little bit thinner than the sink wood we were trying to match it with. So I had to rig up some cardboard to put under the end closest to the sink so that it didn't sit lower than the other piece. It looks like a simple job, but this actually took me about 45 minutes to do; I think the little right angle braces are pretty stylish - who knew Home Depot had such things? It's already been worth it, though - last night I did dishes and you can stack the dishes there, not to mention tasty beverages. (I should also say that the kitchen picture does not have the posting approval of my significant other; and I claim full responsibility for the messiness of the kitchen!)

Yesterday was also the day that the rest of the family left after our great vacation at Lutzen. It was pretty incredible to 1) see the North Shore, 2) have all the family together, and 3) do our secret Santa business (for those reading who don't know about the "secret Santa" business - every year, we draw names out of a hat to get the name of one family member who we get a super duper Christmas present for - our specific person to focus on. With such a large family, it would be daunting and financially challenging to get gifts for everyone, and with this "secret Santa" method, it lessons the stress, and is still very fun.) But it was sad to see everyone go - except that this has been the year of great family times - I think we've spent more time together in the past year than we have in the past 5 - and, I now know who my secret Santa is, and the gift planning has already begun.

The other home improvement project was to build a "custom made bookshelf" for this little nook area at the top of the stairs in our loft. I had the vision in my head, and with a little consulting with Nathan, Quentin, and Dad, I felt pretty confident I could do what I needed to do without putting a screw into my knee. I got to the Home Depot and quickly realized that although my plan called for 1x12's in #1 pine (that's good pine), all they had was 1x12's in bad (#2) pine. I checked out other options, including plyword pine, but it wasn't the dimenions I wanted and I didn't want to use 1x10's (which was the biggest they had in #1 pine.) Basically, I wanted to create a bookshelf that would fit perfectly in this little space between the banister and the chimney upstairs; I wanted it to be able to hold a bunch of books, as well as our radio, CDs, and other miscellaneous stuff. So I consider other options, and then took a calculated risk and decided to buy the #2 boards (a warning: I would probably not do this again; even though I checked out all the boards and got the least warped boards I could find, they were still pretty warped and not very even...) I had the Home Depot guy cut the boards and when I got home (after 2 hours in the store; I had to get other stuff, too), I realized he was off by an 1/8 inch here and an 1/8 inch there. Ah well, that's what I get for not having my own power tools.

Ah yeah - the other thing worth mentioning, and the reason for the title of this post, is that I bought some Sawhorse brackets, thinking, that'll make things easier to do. Well, the problem was instead of coming as a set of two in a box (which would make sense, right? After all, you can't really just use one set), after I got home I realized that I only had half the horse, or one horse, when I really needed two. Haha. Here's a picture of my single horse. Nice looking horse, but not great for doing much.

I took everything down to the basement and the project began. The first piece, building the frame, was the hardest, but once it was framed, things really came together. I pre-drilled all the nail holes, which was the best suggestion ever, and nothing split or busted out. Here's the basic frame, with the shelves tentatively placed:



Then I put it back on it's backside and put the shelves in. Although the measurements were a bit off, a bit of jostling and hammering seemed to help move them into place. After the shelves were in, I attached the back. The back is 2 1x12's and 1 1x10, which makes it heavy, but since I didn't see anything else I liked or could use, that's what we went with. Also, because I used #2 word, I still need to sand off all the tags and print on the boards. It didn't all match up perfectly on the backside, but it's nothing some sanding can't fix/help out. After I finished it, Juliana helped me bring it upstairs to see how it looked in the space. I like it. I think I'll keep it, and stain it.

Learnings: 1) Framed things are super easy to work worth. Is there an easy way to get something frame? 2) Pre-drill all your nail holes. So much better and cuts down on stress and frustration. 3) Read all boxes and instructions. I needed another horse, and only had one. 4) Have a real work area - I just used the basement, which worked, but wasn't the best area. 5). Get a circular saw; the Home Depot guy was nice, but I would have liked to have done some final/exact cuts. 6) Always have a great fiance to help you with your projects!!

Family Vacation

The last 3 days have been Lutzen Family Vacation '06. Thanks to some hard work from family members and some good recommendations from native Minnesotans, we settled on Lutzen Mountain Resort as our place of gathering for games, beverage imbibing, and lots of good eats.

It was a wonderful introduction to the beautiful land of the North Shore. The lake and the hiking were incredible - and the people weren't bad, either! One of highlights as driving through "Schroeder," MN, and stopping to take a picture.

How often does that happen? Another highlight was having everyone over at our new home and serving up a great dinner. It was especially meaningful, because although many people saw our house in Tulsa, not everyone did - so to have the entire family here after we've been here for 3 weeks, was awesome! And here's the family pic -