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this table top WILL be done by Friday

 Home, NaBloPoMo  2 Responses »
Nov 222011
 

Yeah … so the plywood top to accommodate more people at my dining room table: I fixed the warp & then it warped again. The only way I figured to solve this problem was to put boards around the edge to stabilize it. That was this afternoon’s project.

This mutha is gonna be heavy! But, it shouldn't warp again.

 

The width of the table top, the width of the sheet of plywood, and the width of the 2x4s I was using to stabilize it left me with a 1/2-inch of the 2×4 sticking out on the long edges of the plywood. So I carried that reveal all of the way around & had the edges of the 2x4s routed before gluing & nailing to the plywood. Now it’s just a matter of putting in some fill (final bit drying as I type) then sand & stain.

Oh ... one more project before Friday: fix that broken table leg brace.

 

All along, I knew I wanted to use a drop cloth material for a table runner. How does one cut a 10-foot by 12-foot drop cloth? Use the tools you have to measure & mark. The cutting part was simple.

Framing square & drywall square put to use for something other than their original intent.

 

So here’s where I’m at now. I’m liking it a lot.

Carpets get cleaned tomorrow morning then that commercial rug cleaner gets returned to work.

 

 Posted by Bonnie at 6:23 pm

title this pic “how to unwarp a sheet of plywood”

 Home, NaBloPoMo  1 Response »
Nov 182011
 

To expand my dining table for the holidays, I invested in a $40 sheet of cabinet grade plywood & stained to match my table.

I was afraid that it was a goner. It’s been sitting in my garage for over two years & developed a warp. When I put it on the table yesterday afternoon, the ends sat 1/2″ lower than the middle. That much of a warp may cause things to roll off the table. (I don’t know what. That’s what my mind thought.)

So last night I flipped it over & put weight on the ends. This morning there was no change in it.

Google didn’t give me much of an answer on how to unwarp plywood. So I put together everything I read and came up with this conclusion: the wood isn’t going to bend without moisture because the lack of moisture is what caused it to warp.

So I soaked a bunch of old towels in hot water & put them on the unfinished (and concave) side of the board & put the weights back on the end. In less than an hour the warp is almost gone.

 Posted by Bonnie at 11:31 am

wishlist: green driveway

 Around The Zoo, Home, NaBloPoMo  2 Responses »
Nov 042011
 

If I’m going to post every day for this month, I need some inspiration. I found it in the hundreds of my browser bookmarks.

Now that my dream to have a curvy sidewalk through my back yard has came true, my dreams are focusing on the parking area. There is a small slab by the garage and that will stay. It’s the grassy area by the fence that needs fixing. In the spring my truck sinks in mud up to the tire rims. The cheapest, easiest way to fix this is to put in another slab of concrete. (Of course I know that the ground underneath said slab needs fixing… i.e. lots of compaction.)

That’s not a sweet vision dancing in my head.

The vision is this:

image from Ideal Concrete Block Company, Inc.

A green driveway… sturdy, but not a blah-gray slab.

 Posted by Bonnie at 6:33 am

July in a nutshell

 Around The Zoo, Home  4 Responses »
Jul 302011
 

If a picture is worth a thousand words … there’s a lot of words in this post.

How many native men does it take to fix a battery? None, just one woman. The men are just spectators.

 

Took a ride up home again (I’ve been home more these past two years than in all of the previous 24 years combined). This time was for the pow-wow honoring our fallen soldier.

 

My front door got painted one of my favorite colors.

 
I scored an awesome deal on a chair for my computer desk at the downtown sidewalk sales. I’ve been looking around for a while for one like this. Retails for $140 online. The chair + the fabric to replace the vinyl for $10.50 … awesome score!

 

Got my haircut. I was going to go super short, but chickened out. This is about 2″ cut off. In real life it doesn’t look much shorter than before, but that’s because the long curly-q’s that grow by my neck are were all crazy tight & knotting.

 

One picture I wish I would have taken was of ECC#12. My truck spent more days in the shop this past month than not and the loaner car from Edwards Collision Center became my primary vehicle. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the problem is now solved. Never thought I’d have 4 new starters in a vehicle in just as many years (two of them heavy duty with lifetime warranties). But … I did learn how to bang on a starter with a hammer to make my truck start. A good skill to know.

 

 Posted by Bonnie at 5:48 am
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