(n.) Cabindo: A condo on a lake, among tall old trees. Half cabin, half condo. My first home. This is a running journal of the renovations, projects, and general shoestring budget craziness.


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Showing posts with label chalk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chalk. Show all posts

Monday, June 16, 2014

All Keyed Up

My Grandfather the engineer loved tools. At one point several years ago as he was getting older, my Grandmother was tidying up his extensive assortment of tools and gave me a box full of keys. This accidental collection of unusable or orphaned pieces seems to have grown over the course of many decades, as there were both shiny new keys, and older worn pieces ornate enough to be art.
I've moved several times since then, and had put the keys in a 'safe' place somewhere along the line......famous last words.
Naturally, I didn't see them for years until just recently when I opened a random box labeled 'office desk'. It was all keys and pens.
I blame the cats.

Name: Navy
Likes: long walks on the porch, snuggles, and grouping things together

She really is a bit of a hoarder and likes making piles of things. Mostly her toys and dolls. She only likes the ones she can mother, no jingles or non-soft cat toys for this little lady.

"Don't you touch my babies, mama!"
-As she sprung into the frame to keep an eye on me

New rug? Needs babies!
STAT.
Those are her two favorites.

As usual, I digress.
So, I love shadowboxes. Very much. We have a storied past, and bright future together; me and shadow boxes. I had gotten a large (~1.5'x3') one several years ago on sale for dirt cheap, earmarked for displaying Grandad's keys. It too was in a 'safe' place for a while.
When the keys resurfaced the other day, I went about getting them in said shadow box before I lost one or both of these key ingredients again.

Materials: Ruler.Chalk. Hot Glue Gun. Wine. Keys. Shadowbox.

I counted out the keys and got really lucky that they, along with two key rings, numbered such (36) that they would all space out neatly within the frame. Because no one deserved to be either left out or crammed in.
(Side note: here is a tumblr that will make all the OCD pieces of you happy)
Things were going well as I measured out a grid for the keys and made a chalk mark at each point where a key would sit.
I put all the keys on the board in a rough approximation of where they would go, and started to rearrange them in the most attractive order I could muster; distributing like items and putting the best ones towards the middle.
Then I realised that I had made 13 too many little chalk marks......and the chalk wouldn't come off. Whoopsies.
Cross that wine off the materials list I suppose?
Nah.
It turned out to be a happy accident in the end. I just scooted the keys in between each chalk mark, and hot glued them down. #wineforthewin


The little blue chalk marks add a lot of interest and charm to the piece. What a good mistake!



I showed it to my Mom (the daughter of my Grandfather), and she thought it was great. I did not have a suitably honorable place for it in my home; so it will be going to live on a prominent wall in her kitchen.


I'm so pleased with how it came out, and glad I finally was able to put it together, especially in time for Father's Day this year. Even though Grandad isn't with us anymore, he was a fantastic father to his small herd of girls (5!), and it makes me happy to have things of his displayed and enjoyed on a daily basis.
Here's looking at thinking of you, kid.
:)


-Lindsay

Friday, July 12, 2013

$2.50 Wooden Storage Bins

Things Organized Neatly is a blog that gives me goosebumps.
Because organization is a beautiful thing, and I'm horrible at it.
I have to create methods for organizing rather than claiming it as a quality that comes naturally. Organization works best for me when I can throw things into labeled containers rather then stack or arrange individual items. 



A similar lots-o-boxes solution was needed in my garage closet for all the tools strewn over each shelf.

before the tool takeover

Most attractive, durable, and non plastic bins start at about $12 a pop. Which as with everything else, is too rich for my blood.
Through my Pinteresting addiction, I'd seen a good tutorial for making cheap wooden bins here.


My boxes would need to be bigger to hold lots of tools, and lighter so I could easily lift them when full of said tools. Handles on both sides were also a must.

Using closet shelf measurements, I figured out how big I could make the boxes. They needed to be narrow enough to fit between the shelf brackets, and low enough to leave an inch or two of space open at the top for  I'm-feeling-too-lazy-to-even-pull-this-sucker-out tool deposits.
I made a cut list and headed to the hardware store. The boxes would need to be made of real wood, as MDF just doesn't last. I found the least expensive plywood I thought would stand up to the task: 1/4in. x 4ft x 8ft underlayment. With some quick math wizardry (for which I am widely NOT known), I figured out I could do all the boxes with just one $14 sheet in just a few cuts. A lovely staff member performed all the cuts I needed for the 45 sides and bottom pieces to make 9 boxes. I also grabbed some inexpensive 1x2's and got them cut to size for the corner pieces.

At home, I assembled the boxes the same way that Kristi did in her tutorial. I did use fewer screws because I didn't need to attach multiple separate boards on each side. And I was running out of screws that day.

sandpaper and sponge brushes, reporting for duty

I then sanded all the edges, as many of the plywood pieces had splintered veneers from being cut.
A little polycrylic sealed them up and brought out the grain of the wood.

For handles, I looked at the cheapest hardware store options and they were unattractive and would have almost doubled the per-unit cost of the boxes. Nahhhh. I could do better.
During my pallet excavating at the firehouse for the pallet table, I'd seen a big pile of old throw away fire hose. There are all sorts of things being made of of fire hose lately, why not handles?



So I got permission, took one, and cut it up while on duty into pieces about 1.5 x 6in.
I drilled two holes in each strip and two holes in the front and back panels of each box.  The distance between the holes in the strips were about 1.5 inches greater than that on the boxes, so when I lined the holes up and bolted the pieces together, the hose strip would buckle and have room for my hand.
I painted on chalkboard squares in roughly rectangular shapes on the prettier end of each box and set them to dry.

 Handles were cut from the side of the hose with the most writing

I split my tools up into 9 logical piles, used chalk to label each bin, and loaded em up.
I went with chalk rather than a permanent label because I already had chalk paint and chalk, and it made sense to use them since the content of the bins will change over the course of their lives.
The current bin types are: Adhesives, Paint, Hardware, Cutting/Sanding, Frequently Used Tools, Tools, Extra Tools, Housekeeping, Pets.

Into the closet they went, all pretty and ready to keep me organized.

life is like a box of hardware.....full of nuts

They are fantastic for pulling out and grabbing a tool, or picking up the whole box to take with me to a project location.
This (and only this) closet is now a highlight on the house tour when people come over.

Cost breakdown:
plywood - $14
corner wood -$5
chalkboard paint - already had it
fire hose - free
  nuts n bolts -$4  
$23

Price per bin = $2.50




-Lindsay