The Great Plate Rack Project

I've had a vague hankering for a plate rack filled with creamy white platters for a while. But it wasn't until I stumbled over this photo of a simple plate rack that it finally crystallized into a full-blown D-I-M project (you know: "do-it-myself") - I knew I could accomplish this pretty handily.  Well, maybe with a little help from Mr. Official...

Google image = inspiration

I roughed out a sketch and drew up a materials list for a rack 36 inches wide and 48 inches tall (that allows 16 inches for each shelf - something to keep in mind when you're considering loading it up with platters, most of which are 12 inches and up these days), then gathered the materials. Here's my shopping list, in case you're suddenly struck by the same longing:

Materials for 36x48 plate rack:
3 each 1x4x6 pine boards for the shelves, cut in half
1 each 1x4x8 pine board for the sides, cut in half
1 each 1x6x6 pine board for the top and bottom, cut in half
3 each 3-foot dowels (I used a squared-off screening or lattice wood instead)
36 wood screws (I used #6 x 1 1/4-inch)
1 small can of stain (I chose dark walnut)
1 can of water-based polyurethane (alternatively, you could paint it)
1 pair of heavy-duty picture hangers (capable of holding at least 50 pounds)


So I had the supplies, the creative spark, and the mental image of the finished piece. But right about then, the annual holiday tsunami hit, and my project stayed high and dry in the garage, until just a few days ago.

The tools needed are your standard fare: router, a saw to cut the boards in half, and a drill to make pilot holes and screw in the screws. Once I (ahem, we) got started, it really was a very easy project.

Steps:
1. Route grooves down the middle of one of the 1x4x6 boards and the same distance from one edge of the 1x6x6.
2. Cut all the boards in half.
3. Make sure everything was either 3 feet or 4 feet long.
4. Lay it out and assemble.
5. Sand, stain, seal.
6. Wait for everything to dry.  Tap, tap, tap.
6. Add hangers and hang.
7. Acquire platters to fill it up; the most time-consuming and expensive part!

The total investment was about $50 in cash and around 4 or 5 hours of actual effort.  There was most definitely a good cost-benefit ratio. Here's the rack before staining, and the finished rack, hung fairly level, all by myself (to my husband's barely concealed astonishment.)

Here's the dining room, ready for some Sunday dinners, all decked out in winter white and silver:

And the Edwardian hutch. The Christmas village is gone, but in its place is a mix of traditional and contemporary white pieces including an elephant for luck.

Happy project-ing!

Day of rest week 10: my big, fat crazy-busy, crafty Sunday

Yesterday, a day of rest?  Well, yes and no.

No lunch out and no shopping.  So I gave our local merchants a break.

But rest for our family?  Hardly.

It all started Friday night.  Mr. Official and Swimmer Girl were each at different football games. Big dog and I were home alone and a little bored.  So I washed, dried and spraypainted eight old chargers, taking them from 1990s gold leaf:

to a "hammererd" pewter finish:

That was quick and easy - a can of Krylon Fusion spray paint was all it took.

Then on Saturday, I stenciled a monogram on them - a set of the entire alphabet in 3-inch stencils was available at Hobby Lobby for about $5, which was way cheaper and - just as importantly - faster than ordering a larger letters.   In retrospect, I maybe coulda/shoulda/woulda done a more elaborate background design, but I think I like the elegant simplicity of just the single monogram.  Plus there's a little more saving grace if I'm not precisely centered, although I did make a concerted stab at measuring and marking the center of each plate:

 After mentally weighing the paint options, I went with a blue that is somewhere between wedgewood blue and turquoise, playing off the colors in the dining room and my china. As expected, the stencil's edges were a little rough, so after lunch yesterday, I carefully re-outlined them in the same color.  

The only thing left to do now is spray them with sealer so I can rinse or handwash them as needed.  Unless I decide to crackle them or outline them, or something else.

These were so easy to do, I don't know why I didn't think to do this a long time ago.   And if you don't yet have chargers, check places like Old Time Pottery, Hobby Lobby and Target. They have them in old and silver, plus glossy white, black and lacquered reds - whatever fits your style.  And as you can see, a few squirts of acrylic paint is all it takes to personalize them.

As soon as the monogram touchups were done, swimmer girl and I did a little domestic work (she, vacuuming; I, laundry folding), then dashed out the door to a baby shower for a dear friend.   That's what happens when you overschedule yourself on your day of rest.  Rest does not enter the picture.

We wrapped up the day with an early Thanksgiving dinner with our church family.  All in all, it was a very full, good good day of rest, but definitely not restful.

Happy Monday,

8 weekends + 2 hands = 6 projects

Granted, the math doesn't work, but let's hope my plans do.

As of today, there are eight precious weekends before Labor Day weekend. (And I am determined that Labor Day weekend is not going to be a weekend of labor for us this year.)

So what loose ends do I really really want to wrap up by the time the Vols kick off their opening game in 50 days?

• Finish refinishing a bedroom dresser. After languishing for a year, this has drifted to the top of my priority list only because I am tired of feeling guilty every time I pass it in the garage.

• Put the finishing touches on our new master bathroom: paint walls, hang a shelf, re-do the cabinet storage and hang a chandelier. Easy peasy, right?  Don't answer that.

• Recover the dining room seat cushions. By hook or by crook, they're gonna get done this summer. I have the new foam cushions, I just need fabric and some quality time with the staple gun.

• Power wash and paint the porch rails and front door. This is one of those jobs I really have to psych myself up for. But the good thing is, the porch stays shady all day long.

• Find the perfect couch for Mr. Official's man cave.  It will make it the bees' knees up there.  And once it's installed upstairs, the final loose end for the summer is....

• Paint the stairwell areas and hang pictures. I promised myself these areas should wait until we were moved in. Well, we're moved in and the days are slipping past.

So there you have it:  my top weekend projects to finish before September 2, not counting the garage cleanout at the old place.  Most of these will take about a weekend to do, if I use my time wisely (and maybe get a little help. Hint, hint.)

I just noticed that everything except #3 and #5 involves paint or stain. Guess I better stock up on brushes and rollers and paint thinner.  Joy.

But I'm not going to think about any of these until we wrap up the next housewarming party, which happens tomorrow night.  It's gonna be great to see some old friends of ours and get acquainted with some other Friday night football widows as the men in striped shirts swap gridiron war stories.

Happy project-ing!

Tying Up More Loose Ends: Week 2

After my success at hanging a blind (it's the little things that mean a lot, isn't it?) I decided I would shoot for tying up at least a couple if not several loose ends every week - ideally one a day, but some of these "ends" are going to take longer than a day and some weeks have other stuff crowding the schedule. (I'm pretty sure there are enough undone and almost-done things around here to keep me busy every day all summer long.)

During the past week, I managed to finish the following tasks:

Saturday.  I scraped the ceiling in the old house's laundry room. It was only ten years overdue. Okay, we'll cut me some slack and call it four years overdue since that's when I scraped the bonus room and it was the next-to-last room to be scraped, and promised I'd move onto the laundry room next.

It took me under two hours, start to finish. Honestly, in the last four years, I couldn't spare two hours to scrape the blasted ceiling and a couple more hours to paint it??? I have made myself a promise that I will focus on the success and I won't beat myself up over these loose ends, but that was definitely a hall-of-shame project. It's done, and the new owners - whoever they might be - can enjoy the house popcorn-free.

Bonus:  Also on Saturday I rearranged an alcove in the new garage so I can use my wire shelves from the old house and store my canning supplies and other stuff that's coming out of the attic.  As I swept and tidied, guess what I found behind the water heater? The missing wand to the wood blind we just hung. So now to replace the replacement with the original, and take the other wand back to the old house.  Confused yet? Me, too.

Monday.  I can't take full credit for this one, but I did help. A little.  My brave menfolk - all three of them - took turns climbing into the fiery furnace (aka attic) and handing down boxes and tubs.  No one could stay up there long - it was simply too hot.  Sidenote:  Two attics are NOT double the fun.  The Christmas and other seasonal stuff is now tucked away in the new walk-in attic (God bless the genius architect who first designed a house with an attic you can WALK into instead of climb into.)  The canning jars are now on their new shelves in the garage, along with the ice cream freezer and even our turkey fryer/low country boiling pot.  (Forgot we even had it!)

Unfortunately, the rest of the stuff is now one ginormous loose end.  The old house's garage looks like a scene from "The Hoarders" with six piles o' stuff:  one for each member of our family, plus one designated for a garage sale.  The next step in the process is for the individual piles to begin shrinking as everyone culls through their stuff and moves things to the garage sale pile, or to the trash.  But when theory meets reality, they are often complete strangers, unknown to each other.  Sigh. I'm sure the piles will eventually go away.


Tuesday.  I patched all the nail holes and did a final clean sweep of the old house before the painters arrived.  I can finally say the house is really and truly ready to be painted.

The rest of the week was spent on getting several work-related tasks and volunteer loose ends pushed to the finish line, in between playing swim taxi to and from practice.  I'm hoping next week I'll have a little more time to tie up a few more loose ends, because I do believe I am on a roll.

Happy end-tying!

Summer 2011: And so it begins...

Around here, summer is generally bookended in by Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends.  If we're lucky, July 4th lands on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday and creates a tri-fected mid-summer long weekend. (The odds are in our favor on that one.)

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. As of this weekend, we can now officially herald the beginning of true summer weather here in middle Tennessee, and most of the U.S. (But not Chicago and the entire state of Colorado - I've seen enough cold temps and even snow in late May in those areas to exclude them from that sweeping generalization.)

And for places farther south of here, summer begins much earlier as this popular list declares:

Mr. Official and I typically spend the summer holiday weekends grinding away on one or more projects that we are eager to tackle.  This year, we have a plethora of projects to choose from:  fences, moving stuff, and setting up for our all-summer VBS (aka SBV) at church. Or all of the above.

Amid the hustle and bustle, I hope we all take some time to pause and remember and honor those for whom this weekend is specifically dedicated.  Our country is so richly blessed with freedoms and liberties that other nations don't dare dream of having.  I fear familiarity breeds contempt and our personal freedoms are being traded for the illusion of security, which - as Ben Franklin put it, if you sacrifice one for the other, you deserve neither.  (Smart man, that Mr. Franklin.  We could use a few more like him these days.)

I pray for all our troops actively serving in foreign lands.  A few of you I know, most of you I do not.  But I do deeply appreciate the job you do and the dangers you face with courage and conviction.  May God bless you and your families, and keep you safe while you keep us safe.

Now, if I can just make sure I don't blink and miss summer as it revs up into high gear and speeds along toward Labor Day weekend, pausing just long enough to celebrate the 4th of July in between.


Happy weekend and happy summer!

Tying up loose ends

I have issues with ends and endings.  Run-on sentences that don't end?  Guilty.  Crying at happy endings? Again, affirmative.  Split ends? I don't want to talk about it, but thanks for noticing.

But mainly, loose ends.  You know, those projects that get *almost* done?  Everything except one, (usually tiny), final step.  I tell myself I'll get around to that last bit...tomorrow.  Or eventually.  But I don't. Which is how we wound up living with unfinished trim in our bonus room for two (or was it three?) years.  It's why I am hauling several tubs of half-finished (or never-even-started!) craft projects out of the attic of the old house, and trying to decide what to take and what to leave.  (Well, donate or throw away.  I wouldn't actually LEAVE them in the old house.)  It's why I'm STILL hauling stuff out of the old house, even though we officially moved three weeks ago.

New house, fresh start, new resolve.  It's time to start finishing things before I start something else.  To that end, I am dedicating this summer to tying up all the loose ends of moving and settling in.  By the time Labor Day (and football season) rolls around, I hope I can pronounce them all finished, as far as the eye can see.  So every week this summer, I'll update you with my efforts...successful or not.

I figure it's good to start with baby steps - something fast, easy, and almost fun.  Like hanging a wood blind.

When we were preparing to move into this house, all window blinds were hung, except one.  (Apparently the former owners were had "loose end" issues, too.)  "How hard can this be?" I thought as I snagged some brackets on a trip to Lowe's.  Harder than I thought - the blind is bigger than the brackets I bought.

Undaunted, I went online and discovered the world of "high profile" vs. "low profile" blinds.  I got sidetracked and it wasn't until a few weeks had past that I remembered to order the brackets (sidenote:  if you need blind parts, check eBay; wayyyy cheaper than the blind replacement specialty e-tailers.)  And a few days later, they showed up.   Thank goodness eBay sellers and mail carriers follow through, even when I forget what I ordered.

Before: window clear, floor covered

Before I made this resolution, those brackets would have sat around for several days, eventually shuffled into a junk drawer or tucked away in some obscure location, never to be seen or thought of  again.  Not this time.  As of yesterday, the blind is hung (thanks to middle son for his help.)  Yes, that's the valance leaning up against the bookcase.  No, it's not hung. (The clips I ordered were for the wrong size - gahhh!  But  I have contacted the seller to arrange for a return and exchange.)  And in the interest of full disclosure, after I took these before-and-after shots, I had to locate a tilt wand. They're not as easy to find as you might imagine. Fortunately an extra old blind at the old house had one that was the right size.  But I did, and I got it installed - another loose end tied tight.

While we were in the bonus room/man cave with ladder and screwdrivers handy, I also re-attached the fan canopies and air duct vents that we loosened so we could paint this room before we moved in.

(The more I think about it, the more I am convinced this "loose end syndrome"  is a debilitating affliction, perhaps a disability.  It's definitely a congenital defect, as our children suffer from it, too.)

After:  window covered, floor clear

Since we were on a roll, I also put away the boxes we used to hold files during the move (yeah, I know how many days ago that was) and tidied and vacuumed.  The man cave is not finished yet, but it definitely looks better than it did before we hung that blind!  What a difference tying up just one little loose end can make.

I'm not sure what my next loose end(s) to tie up will be...probably whatever has me at my wit's end and fit to be tied.  Stay tuned!





Here's to a summer of happy tying,

My Dream House Wishlist

I discovered the house we built in Oklahoma back in '97 was recently up for sale. It was kind of weird looking at the interior pictures, and seeing no trace of the paint colors or wallpaper that we I picked out all those years ago. I recognized all the rooms and layout only because we physically touched every piece of the house from the time the foundation was poured until we put the last coat of paint on the upstairs bathroom and moved in.  (We're very hands-on when it comes to building a home.)

It was in many ways our "dream house" - before breaking ground, we modified the builder's original floorplan, adding space and features, and made it our own unique home. I spent hours going over plans with the cabinetmaker before he began crafting the custom maple cabinets for our kitchen, baths and laundry, the stair rails and fireplace mantels.

The house we are in now was not (and is not) our dream house. But it is our home, and has been for over ten years. During that time, we have replaced roofs and floors, and pretty much everything in between. There is little in this house that is original to its mid-70s construction, except for the structure hidden behind the drywall and under the flooring.  If the previous owners saw it, they would probably feel much the same way about it as I do about our last home.

But our updates and remodeling efforts have been restricted by the house's footprint and roofline - which are respectively small and low. There are definitely some good points to the house we're in - it's on an acre with plenty of big trees, I have a HUGE laundry room, cavernous shower, a walk-in pantry to die for, and the location can't be beat. (And it's almost paid off - which is pretty sweet.)

So what would I wish for if I could build or gut and re-do another house (BEFORE moving in)? Many things. But here's my top ten wishlist items for the next house - whenever that might happen:

1. A bigger kitchen. Not commercial-size - I don't want to run a marathon to fix dinner. But I really doubt I will get duped into another 9x18 space for kitchen and eating area. Fool me once, all that.
2. A walk-in pantry.  I will miss my big pantry I have now, unless I find a way to have another one.  (Note to self:  forget the "mom cave" - just give me a big honkin' pantry, preferably with built-in cabinets, electrical outlets and maybe even a sink beneath a window, with countertops on either side.)
3. Taller ceilings.   I'm no giant, but even at my stature, eight-foot-ceilings feel a little claustrophobic, especially when you've lived in a house with soaring space above your head.
4. Fireplaces.  As in multiple - one outdoors, and at least two or three indoors.  They are one of the things that make winter bearable.
5. Windows, windows, and more windows. Tall windows that let in lots of light.  And that tilt in for cleaning.
6. Closets, closets, and more closets.  B-I-G closets. There ought to be a law that all closets must be large enough to do what they're designed to do (plus some wiggle room), whether they are for linens or coats or clothes.
7. A central vacuum.  Had one, loved it, would love one again.
8. A garbage disposal.  (Or, put another way - no septic system.)  It's the little things that mean a lot.  You don't miss 'em until you don't have them any more.
9. A walk-in attic.  One that you can actually stand up and WALK around in.  Every time I pull down the attic stairs, I get a mental image of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and flinch at the though of the staircase smacking me in the face.  It can't, but it just feels like it might.  And hauling my Christmas decorations up and down attic stairs and stooping over at the waist to tuck them away is JUST NO FUN.
10. A covered or screened-in porch.  With a niche for a TV (above that outdoor fireplace) and an adjacent hot tub, preferably with a view of a pond, stream or other burbling natural water feature, close enough to hear and far enough away to not pose a flooding threat.

Hmmm.  This makes me want to pull up some homes-for-sale sites and just take a peek at what's on the market.  (Stop hyperventilating, I was just kidding!  Well, maybe I was, and maybe I wasn't...)

So what's on your list of must-have's in a dream home?

Happy dreaming!

Time to Strip!

My kind of stripping is exciting and a little dangerous:  it involves slowly peeling off layer after layer, until you get down to bare...wood.  Using chemical solvents and a palm sander.  (What were YOU thinking I meant?)

What am I stripping?  Dressers and bureaus and chester drawers, oh my.  (Hey, who knew they all mean the exact same thing?)  For whatever reason, throughout our marriage we have always crammed ourselves into one shared dresser, (plus closet space for hanging clothes, of course.)  I'm not sure why we've always scrimped on dresser storage. At various times, our bedroom has been too small for much furniture, but even when we have had plenty of room, we've always been constrained to 4 to 6 drawers. Which means the closet is often crammed full of things that would be better relegated to a drawer.  Things like t-shirts and sweaters. And socks.  Yeah, even socks.

When we finished our bathroom addition two springs ago, an added bonus was trading the wall closets for a walk-in, and gaining a blessed additional 28 inches of floor space along one wall - and it is usable wall space at that, no longer taken up by mirrored closet doors (shudder). Finally, this master bedroom was master-bedroom-sized.

I frugally shopped for a new platform bed (actually it's a faux platform - our box springs are nestled within its frame) with a seriously comfy leather headboard. It was worth every penny I paid for it at S&E Consignment...and it wasn't all that many pennies. The next bargain I scored was two night stands from World Market. (Another store that is near and dear); they were marked down and a coupon arrived just in time to knock another nice chunk off the tab, too. With those pieces, the room began to take shape - an eclectic mix of modern and East Indies, dark woods and green and fawn shades. Relaxing and streamlined. A heavily discounted Tommy Bahama duvet cover and shams (Overstock.com, you are da bomb); a man-sized brown slipper chair, new lamps and drapes completed the transformation from this:

to this:

Then it was time to consider storage. I searched high and low for a set of dark wood low and tall dressers.  I found a few I loved, but gasped at the sticker price. I found a few that were within my self-imposed budget, but they were flimsy. (Dear Target, You do many things well, but please understand that real furniture does not contain laminated plastic "wood grain" finishes or glorified cardboard anywhere in its composition. Hugs, Terry)

The 4-drawer tall bureau in the photos above has been our one-and-only for several years.  By my best guess it's a circa '30s or '40s vintage piece, which we snagged from my grandparents estate sale. Nothing flashy, nothing trendy...just a very well-made, solid wood, mahogany-toned, clean-styled piece...and then the epiphany struck. What I was looking for was here all along!

AND we had the matching low 6-drawer dresser in our storage shed. That piece is a little more scuffed up than the 4-drawer tall bureau, but it is repair-able.  A few bucks for stripper and sandpaper, a quart of stain and a bit of wood finish, and voila.

And...that's as far as the idea.  For the past year, the low dresser has sat in our garage, patiently waiting for me to start working on it. But last weekend, I decided the time had come.  So I suited up with ratty clothes and protective gloves, and slathered on the stripping gel.

As I finish each piece, I'll post some before, during, after shots.  Maybe somebody can help me figure out the correct name for the style and period of these two pieces.

Happy (and safe) stripping!