Mud Room Lockers

What better time to embark on a home improvement project then the few weeks over the Holidays when work and school slows down? Well, that's what we did back in December. While certain members of a certain family have been on yours truly to finish the basement, I just can't get myself to commit to the money and time that is going to take. Instead, I thought I'd take on a much "smaller" project in the mud room and get the lockers I said I'd build a month after we moved in done - only 4 short years later!

With four family members (not including pets), we knew we were looking at four lockers with enough space for all our coats, hats, gloves, scarves, etc. as well as some space for a few pairs of shoes (each), a place to sit our butts, and a little extra cabinet space. Since we have stained oak doors throughout the house, it was to be stained oak lockers. Off to Menard's to get the oak...

With lumber, screws, and glue acquired, I started construction. No matter how many times I've worked with oak, I always forget how hard the stuff is! I think this particular project left me with about 6 busted screws and 3 busted drill bits stuck inside it. The good news is said broken pieces are acting in their intended purpose anyway and holding the thing together! Here's a shot of the project about half-way through. Of course, construction is only half the battle when building something that is going to be stained. Fortunately, my partner in crime, while not a fan of painting and staining, is pretty darn good at it. I got a bit of a reprieve after 2 weekends worth of construction as she prepped the wood for stain and polyurethane. A few more days of that, and the lockers really started coming together, as you can see below.
Oh, a couple important safety tips: 1) when gluing wood that will be stained, do not, I repeat, do not, wipe up excess glue with a wet rag as most glue bottles will suggest. This opens the pores of the wood and allows glue to seep further into it making it all but impossible to get the glue-soaked wood to stain like the rest of the piece. Let it dry completely, then use a chisel or putty knife to strip the dried glue off the wood. Trust me on this... 2) make sure the piece you are building can fit through the door to the room it will reside in if you're not building it there already. This second tip is very important. I don't know this from experience, but I've heard from friends...

Kitchen Faucets

Having the right tool for the job is half the battle. Using the wrong tool can turn a 30 minute project into a weekend-long project and create additional costs in replacement parts and having to buy the right tool anyway.

I know these things. So, why is it that when we purchased a new kitchen faucet this weekend I didn't go into the plumbing aisle and pick up the right specialty tool for the job? Why did I listen to that overconfident voice in my head saying, "You've got an ultimate set of tools - you'll be fine."? Why did I fail to listen to years of my own personal experience? Why? Why I ask you? Someone please tell me!

Well, whatever the reason, I didn't get the right tools. Fortunately, it wasn't installing the new faucet but removing the old one that required the specialty wrenches. A small victory, perhaps, but at least I didn't break the new faucet trying to use the wrong tools. It only took two trips to the local hardware store for the right wrench and new supply hoses. But, my two-hour project could (and should) have been a 30-minute job.

Do yourselves a favor people, get the right tool on the first trip.

Rest in peace, Austrian Pines

A couple of times a year, we accumulate enough brush for a big burn pile. Over the winter, we lost several Austrian Pine trees so we had plenty of accelerant to get things going. Unfortunately, the thought to capture the moment on camera didn't come until way late in the burning process. The picture below shows the fire going out as we were wrapping things up for the day.

For those of you who have never seen a dry pine tree burn, let me tell you, it's a scary thing. Those things go up in a hurry and burn very hot! It will make you think twice about putting a "live" tree in your house at Christmas time. If you haven't already seen a "burning Christmas tree" video, here's one for you so you can see for yourself. Let's be careful out there, folks!

Where did all that mulch go?

Here are some before and after shots of the backyard with and without the 40 yards of mulch we moved.

Note the difference in shadows on the ground, too. It was a long day. Next up? Shrubs of course!

Did someone say mulch?

Oh what a weekend... It's Spring in the good ol' Midwest and that means it's time for the annual mulch festival. For purposes of this post, festival equals having mulch dumped in your driveway so you can cart it to where it needs to be in the yard. Fun, huh?

With the relatively recent addition of our fence to the yard, we are putting in a lot of new planting beds around it. Of course, planting beds require mulch - lots of it. Perhaps insane amounts of mulch. Does 40 yards sound like too much? Well, it wasn't! Oh, by the way, what you see at right is only 20 yards - half of what we moved.

Between the hours of 7:30am and 4:30pm, we were mulch-moving-maniacs. But it's done and we even beat the rain that came the next day. Ah yes, good times for Broke Homeowners.

The pictures at the right illustrate the driveway in the various stages of the mulch festival: before the mulch was delivered, after the mulch was delivered, and after the mulch was properly distributed.

Planting Beds, hedges, and shrubs - oh my!

Remember the post about the fence? (You ought to, it's right below this one) Remember those hedges and planting beds I mentioned? Well, Spring is in the air and it's time. Oh goody!

So far, we're in for 24 forsythia bushes and about 50 cubic yards of grass/soil removal to make way for the mulch. I'm sure you'll hear more about this one in the coming weeks...

PVC Fence

With a new yard, comes a new fence. This one was a bit more of an ordeal than our last one. First of all, we had a homeowners association to deal with this time around which, by the way, was about 99.9% of the challenge with this project. Seems, even though the covenants are perfectly clear that fences are permitted, certain individuals in the neighborhood are just plain opposed to fences. Funny thing about it is, some those who are opposed have fences of their own!

Anyway, after we spent two years getting through the homeowners association (threatening a lawsuit along the way), we decided to have the fence professionally installed. Not that we couldn't do it, but the installation cost was such an insignificant amount relative to the overall cost, we figured we'd pay somebody else to do the labor this time. This was a big deal for us broke homeowners!

With the fence installed, it's now time to start on our planting beds and hedges. Does the fun ever stop?