Brrrr

Still snowing. What a great day to stay inside and work on projects! I’m refinishing a stool and Nick is building a bathroom vanity for some friends. A day full of progress and snow.

We went Ice Skating last night with some friends. Great fun and no one fell. (Thanks Jacque for hosting a great time! If anyone is looking for a realtor, she’s a great one and helped find our home!)

   

Enjoy the snow!

Spice Rack

Organizing the kitchen is always an adventure. It takes time to think about functionality of where to put things and how make make it “work”. I love my spices and I hate having to search and messy the rest of the spice stash just to find the right one. I used to keep all my spices laying horizontal in a drawer, but with this kitchen…drawers are limited. So are the cabinets, but I just had to donate one shelf to spices alone.

I know you can buy spice organizers at the store – always way more expensive than I think they should be. So I rigged up my own using leftover 2x4’s from the demo of walls. To make all the spice labels visible, I stacked 3 – 2x4’s in the back and one in the front. Cost - $0.00.

         

Spice rack. Done.

The Living Room

We are so excited about our new house and the potential is has to be a fun and hospitable home. It needed a lot of work (and cleaning!)…so we jumped right in!
Closed on November 3, 2009 and had 2 1/2 weeks to work on it before the big move. With much help from family and friends, we got a lot done!
First of all, we wanted to open up the living room to the rest of the house. Our plan was to:

• Punch a hole in the wall that is covered in wood paneling and create a large opening to a bedroom. (Turning the bedroom into an office.) We eventually hope to build a large sliding barn door for the opening.
• Put in a small closet near the front door to make somewhat of an entrance. This will be an open closet with a high shelf, a coat rack with hooks, and a bench.
• Remove an awkward closet over the stairwell separating the kitchen from the living room and create a peninsula counter. Move a structural wall and replace a header.
• Build a bump out (for a closet in the kitchen) and carry the lines across the living room as a soffit.
• Install recessed and dimmable ceiling lights.
• Refinish the hardwood floors.

Here are a few pics of the process:
1. Before. The white box/fake wood paneling living room.

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2. The demo and framing begins…

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3.  Done! (Well almost…) Painted and floors refinished!

    



























I have to laugh as I look back at when we were deciding to buy this house. Nick kept saying, “Just trust me…we can change it.” He was right! It is amazing how cleaning, painting, and opening up space can change the feel of the whole house. I am blessed to have married an architect who knows how to make it happen! I learned so much during this whole process.
More to come later on the rest of the house!

Looking Back

2009 was filled with many challenges and many many blessings. Looking back, I am humbled by God’s provision and goodness. Here are a few key highlights:

• Nick laid off in Seattle
• 5 months of job searching
• Employment! Destination Montana!
• The big move
• Fun summer with family and friends
• Youth group leaders
• Became homeowners!!!
• Remodel rendezvous
• Another move
• Enjoying life in our new home!

My heart that is so grateful for all the blessings throughout the last year. It has brought us closer together in our marriage and has         reminded us to trust the Lord in all circumstances. He does  have a good plan in mind. We just need to be patient and willing to move where He leads. The door to Seattle was closed and the door to come back to MT was opened. We are now closer to family, involved in a great church, and reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. Life if good. God is good.

2010. Bring it on.

<Photo courtesy of Stock.XCHNG>

Ebonizing Wood

Ebonizing wood

Turning wood from brown to black

Deep deep wood grain seep

I was able to get back into the wood shop this last week to ebonize the ash coat rack I started a while ago. It worked! From a few household ingredients, I was able to make a simple piece of ash look like ebony.

Ebony :: a very dense wood...intensely black...expensive...sinks in water

Materials

(I followed instructions from an article in Popular Woodworking - "Ebonizing Wood" by Brian Boggs (7/06/09) Please see article for more information!)

What You'll Need

One quart of Heinz white vinegar (in a plastic bottle) One clean, large-mouth quart jar One pad of #0000 steel wool One stainless steel spoon for stirring One basket-type coffee filter One sieve Quebracho bark powder One pint jar (for mixing) Two small containers (quart jar lids are big enough) or squirt bottles Paper towels or two brushes Latex gloves

Supplies

Van Dyke’s Taxidermy 800-843-3320 or vandykestaxidermy.com 2 lbs. bark tan & dye (quebracho extract) #01347179, $6.39 Price correct at time of publication.

The Process

1) (1 week before) Make the iron solution. Wash steel wool in soap and hot water to remove oil. Place clean steel wool in a plastic bottle containing white vinegar. (I used an old Gatorade bottle.) Poke holes in the lid to let the gas escape. Will stink. Steel wool should start dissolving instantly. Took about 3 days to dissolve completely. Then, filter the iron solution - pour it through a coffee filter placed in a sieve and into a plastic spray bottle.

2) Make tea bark solution. 1 tablespoon tea bark + 1 pint of hot water. (Mix tea bark in small amount of hot water first to dissolve, then add remaining hot water.) You can make this solution right before you need it. Pour into a different plastic spray bottle.

3) Sand wood. Raise grain at least twice. (OK...when I got to this step, I had no idea what it meant. I am new to this woodworking lingo. Nick had to explain it to me and then it made perfect sense to do.) Sand wood using #220 or #320 (don't go any finer). Then, raise the grain - wipe wood lightly with damp cloth. Let dry, sand to remove raised grain. Repeat a couple times. Wood should be super smooth now.

4) Saturated wood with tea bark solution. (The fun part...with pictures!)

Spray wood with tea bark solution. Wipe lightly with a clean cloth to spread solution. Saturate wood. (This raises the tannin content in the wood - similar to the tannins in leather - needed for the ebonizing reaction to take place.)

Repeat many times to ensure saturation.

Be patient.

Yeah! It is ready to ebonize!

Wood should still be damp - there should be no puddles on the wood's surface.

5) Lightly wipe on the iron solution.

Spray a CLEAN cloth (or paper towel) with iron solution. Wipe wood lightly in the direction of the wood grains. Use a new cloth frequently - you want the chemical reaction to happen in the wood grains not on your cloth!

OOPS! I thought it would be a good idea to simple spray the wood. Bad idea. It made uneven black speckles!

Ahh!! Go away spots! Short-cuts never work...

Ok. I got it evened out. Phew! Next time, I'll wipe until it all turns black, then I'll spray. :)

Yes! Let dry for about an hour.

6) Lightly buff with a clean cloth.

This gets the chalky residue off of the surface and polishes it a bit.

7) Tea rinse. Spray wood with more of the tea solution and rinse the wood like you would dishes. This tea rinse helps set the chemical reaction.

8) Let dry. Buff with a clean cloth.

9) Water rinse. Use clean water to rinse wood. This will remove any residue on the surface off the wood.

10) Let dry overnight.

11) To finish and protect the wood - I applied two coats of Lindseed Oil. Then, I rubbed on some Paste Wax and buffed the wood with a clean cloth. Woohoo! Nice and shiny!

The Results

 

Ebonizing wood

Nicer than using black paint

Dark as night - wood grain in sight!

Hope you all enjoyed my ebonizing endeavors!

Weekend to Remember

An excellent Marriage Conference is coming to Billings, MT!


FamilyLife presents "Weekend to Remember" Marriage Conference (Oct. 30-Nov 1)

This weekend conference will be valuable for ALL married couples (and engaged couples) to focus on their spouse and on pursuing a marriage that builds up rather than tears down. Please pray about coming to this and also for others you would like to invite.

Here is the scoop:

October 30 - November 1
FamilyLife presents "Weekend to Remember" Marriage Conference
Location: Crowne Plaza - Billings, MT
Cost: $89/person (using group discount code: westsidemt)

Registration: due Oct. 29
Please visit http://www.familylife.com/groups/westsidemt for more information.

Have a blessed day!

Wood Curls

Remember my question: "What to do with wood curls?"

I think I found an answer! (Well, actually Nick found it on a blog called Contemporist...)

Yoav Avinoam takes sawdust and combines it with resin. Then, he presses it into a mold with the other object parts to make furniture! What a great idea to take a woodworking waste product (sawdust or wood curls) and make it into something useful and useable.

His products are made from sawdust and are very interesting. I imagine using wood curls instead could create some really interesting effects too.

Here are a few of his pieces:

Shavings Stool

To see the process, visit this link. Enjoy!