Teal Dresser Redo

I was wanting to find another piece of furniture for our baby's nursery back when I was pregnant. I wanted something to hold toys and books and other miscellaneous things. Well, I always take our recycling to a nearby recycling area and one time when I was there, someone had dropped off their old dresser! Jake happened to be with me and he was more than dubious. But I knew I wanted to try to redo it, and there was nothing to lose! The dresser itself was solid wood. Someone had taken out the bottom 3 drawers and replaced them with hideous plywood shelves. So while Jake was out of state for work, I busied myself by redoing this piece. First, I removed the plywood. Then I sanded the whole thing down. I went to Home Depot and got nicer plywood and had them cut it to size there. I then nailed the wood shelves on. The back needed some help, and I had some sweet wrapping paper from the dollar section in Target, so I glued that to the back. When I was at Home Depot for the wood, I got a sample size can of paint in a vibrant teal color, and also picked up a $0.50 can they had in a similar color in the return discount section to do the priming. After all the sanding and putting the new shelves on, and papering the back, I painted the exterior. For a pretty minimal cost (less than $30 spent at Home Depot), we ended up with an awesome piece for all of our baby's toys, books, and first aid and feeding supplies!

Building a Chicken Coop

I married a very handy man. I am so thankful for his skill set. His dad taught him well. ;) Jake built this coop and the yard from scratch based on a design we made together.

Later, I will do a post on the chickens themselves, a post on the automated feeder and waterer, and a post on the chicken yard. This post includes only the coop itself.

Jake built the chicken coop from wood and nails found in our backyard (remember, our place used to be a landscaping supply company) and pallets from his workplace. He bought the tin for the roof, screws, random hardware, and plywood from hardware stores. I found the door hinges at a yard sale. Jake's dad contributed some leftover hardware cloth.

Cost List:
Plywood—$23.35 (Lowe's)
Tin Roofing—$33.60 (Home Depot)
Door Hinges—$2 (yard sale)
Lag Screws for Hinges—$8.48 (Home Depot)
Gate Latch—$4.24 (Home Depot)
Nesting Box Hinges—$9.94 (Home Depot)
Roofing Screws—$9.68 (Home Depot)
Reciprocating Saw Blades—$5.94 (Home Depot)
TOTAL: $97.23

Since pictures are always worth a thousand words, I'm just going to do the building story in pictures with captions underneath.

Enjoy, and be on the lookout for the follow-up posts!

My sketches

We placed the coop in a strategic place where the chicken yard is already mostly fenced in by concrete legos.

Bottom of the holes are filled with compacting gravel.

Framing the coop

Cross beams added

The roof slants down towards the rain barrels

Door frame

Finished door

Framing the nesting box

Nesting box dividers

Siding

Starting flooring

Nesting box lid

Siding almost done

We left vent holes across from each other to catch the breeze and get some fresh air in the coop.

Chicken door

Finished coop!

Farmhouse Dining Room Table

We have a farmhouse. With a massive dining room. We love to have friends over to eat. So naturally we decided we wanted a massive table. In fact, I recently found our wishlist for things for our home when we first moved in and "epic dining room table" made the list. Soon after moving in, we made a trip up to Ohio and Jake found a bunch of cherry planks that his dad had made from a tree he cut down in the 70s. Amazing family history—perfect for a family table! Dad was generous enough to give us 5 boards, which was interesting getting home in our car. :) It took Jake awhile to get the boards planed—he ended up joining a local Woodworker's Guild to have the tools at hand that he needed. Jake's dad also helped Jake get a bunch of work done on the base when he was here for a quick visit. I'm just really excited to have a beautiful table to make memories at.

Here are the steps to make this type of a farmhouse table:
1. Order legs off tablelegs.com. (Yes, that's the actual name)
2. Plane wood.
3. Assemble tabletop (glue and pocket screw).
4. Build base (mortise+dowels and pocket screws).
5. Sand.
6. Sand some more.
7. Finish with Waterlox (tung oil).
8. Attach tabletop to base (kerf+tabletop fasteners).