Beautiful beat up bench

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You may have thought that after a full week of posts we were done with the mudroom. No way! It’s my first finished room. I’m going to savour this for awhile yet.

To start, I’m sharing my favourite project, my beautiful beat up rustic wood bench.

I love this bench.

My nephew Nicholas and I designed it, built it and stained it. It’s made out of one single plank that I found in the barn. I looked for the most beat up piece of wood I could find. It’s full of knots, splits and gouges. We sanded and sanded the bench so that it was smooth enough to sit on, but made sure all of the “defects” still showed through. Unfortunately, when it came to staining the bench, the wood was so thirsty that it sucked up every single drop of stain (Minwax Provincial), so the bench came out much, much darker than we expected. Some of the knots and gnarls aren’t as obvious now because of the dark tone, but I still think it has good character.

We designed the bench to some very specific requirements. We wanted the legs to be wide enough that we could put two trays of boots and shoes underneath. The seat had to be a comfortable height for sitting and also high enough that Matt’s tall boots would easily fit underneath. And we wanted it to be relatively slim so that it didn’t take up too much space in the room.

My nephew and I went back and forth on the design of the legs and finally settled on a simple upside down V cutout. I used my Kreg jig to attach the legs to the bench top. This was the first project that I used the Kreg for, and I quickly learned that the Kreg is built for standard modern day lumber. This plank was milled back when 2x4s were actually 2 inches by 4 inches, so it’s fatter than today’s lumber. We made the jig work, but it was a tight squeeze in a few spots.

It’s a very simple rustic wood bench that’s perfect in a country house. I’ve dubbed it the “Nicholas” after my design sidekick. If you want your own Nicholas, you can’t have the nephew, but you can have the bench. Click here for the plans.

Who else has a construction sidekick? Have you ever designed and built your own custom piece of furniture? Are there any other Kreg fans out there? Who else has stained a “thirsty” piece of wood? Are you a fan of the “distressed” look of beat up lumber?

Wee-wee-wee all the way home

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You might think from the title of this post that we are adding some little piggies to the farm. However, the opposite is actually the case. We are getting rid of some pigs… pigtails that is.

Most of our lighting in the basement is still pigtails—much to Matt’s annoyance. The conversations go something like this. “You can’t say the basement’s done until it’s all done. Including light fixtures.” Finding the right light takes time though, so rather than choose the wrong fixture, I’m fine to live with pigtails.

Matt, not so much.

However, in my defense, I bought the lights for the long room nearly six months ago. They’ve been sitting in their boxes stacked in the corner beside the shop vac for just that long. Yes, I could install them myself, but under the division of labour in our marriage, Matt is the electrician.

Well, the electrician finally got fed up with the pigtails and decided to send those little oinkers packing.

Better, right?

Obviously, it’s still not “done” (the absence of furniture and art, the unpainted closet door, and the shop vac still in the corner kind of give it away), but baby steps, people. Or maybe piglet steps.

Vanquishing the dungeon

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This week, we have been reviewing Matt’s and my first basement renovation. Now it’s time for everyone’s favourite part: the befores and afters.

Here’s a reminder of where we started. The blue room before:

And here’s the no longer blue room after. The hot water tank is now accessible through louvered (vented) closet doors. The clothes closet to the left is now deep enough for a hanger.

The other side of the blue room before:

And after (slightly crooked complete with a Matt photo bomb). This nook under the stairs may look a bit tight, but a desk tucked in there perfectly and made a good study space.

The yellow room before:

The transformation in the yellow room was limited mostly to new flooring, paint and trim. Can I have a “so-long, see-ya” for that mustard paint? I did eventually say sayonara to the flourescent light fixture too, although I apparently don’t have a picture of that.

Another thing I don’t have a picture of that I really wish I did was an after of the hallway shelving area. Can you take my word for it that it looked better than this?

A few months after finishing the basement, we found the farm and listed our house for sale. By that point we had renovated it top to bottom. Within three weeks, our the house was sold.

Our first house was a good testing ground for Matt and me and prepared us for our forever house. Where, as always, the renovations continue.

Battling the dungeon

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

On the quest to renovate the basement at our first house, Matt and I dove in with our characteristic “go big” approach.

Everything that was in the basement came upstairs and was stacked in the dining, living and bed rooms making for a lovely “Hoarders” atmosphere.

Downstairs, just like we would do a year later at the farm, we went back to the concrete. Buh-bye blue room.

And farewell weird shelving area.

We reframed. We rewired. We reinsulated.

We drywalled. Lots of drywall, although not as much as last summer. Lots of taping. Lots of pasting.

We laid new flooring, and we painted. We installed new trim, new shelving, new closet rods and doors.

Curious how it all turned out? Were we able to banish the dungeon?

Tune in next for the reveal.

How to sharpen a shovel

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been spending a lot of my time outside landscaping. What you definitely haven’t noticed… probably because I haven’t shared this with you before… is that much of my landscaping time is spent hopping up and down on my shovels trying to convince them to sink into the dirt. Or hacking away at defenseless plants trying to cut through tough roots.

Obviously, it was time to sharpen my shovels. Past time, rather.

The solution? Call my Dad.

Unfortunately for me, the solution is never that easy. Fortunately for you, I now have another how-to to share.

As soon as I pulled into the driveway at my parents’ house, shovels in tow, I realized that I was not going to be able to simply hand them over to my Dad. A whole sharpening station was set up in the driveway with a grinder, visor and safety glasses–multiple pairs.

There was going to be a lesson.

But first there was going to be a lecture.

“You know, back when I was on the construction site” (my Dad was a construction superintendent before he became a general contractor) “I had a labourer who would have taken those shovels away from you if he’d seen how you left them all covered in dirt. That’s not how you take care of your tools, Jules.”

Fortunately–or unfortunately depending on how you look at it–my Dad did not take away my shovels. He did brush them off, but then he gave me a demonstration with one of his smaller shovels of how to sharpen them on the grinder. Most important lesson: keep your fingers out of the way of the grindstone.

Keeping my fingers away was easier on my big scoop shovels when I could hold them by the handle. However, they were a little more unwieldy because of their larger size. Also unwieldy: my Dad’s visor which was not sized to my head at all, but did provide complete eye protection.

To sharpen the shovel, hold the back side of the blade at a very shallow angle against the grindstone. Start about halfway down the edge of the blade and curve around to the tip. Do a couple of passes on one side and then on the other.

After running the shovels through the grinder a few times, I had a nice shiny, sharp edge.

The shovels don’t magically become fillet knives, but they are much sharper and much easier to work with. Since sharpening, I have transplanted trees, bushes and flowers. Holes have been dug. Plants have been split, roots humanely cut with minimal trauma.

Oh, and the shovels have also had a shower.

In addition to learning how to sharpen a shovel and remember to take care of my tools, I also learned why we used a standalone sharpening station set up in the driveway, rather than my Dad’s stable grinder that’s bolted to the bench in his work room. When the sharpening lesson was finished, he picked up the grinder and loaded it into my trunk.

I guess this means I have to do it myself from now on. My Dad’s wanted to give me this grinder for awhile now, and it will definitely come in handy for us. Although it is yet another tool to take care of. Thanks, Dad, for the lessons and the tools.

Path preview

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Please gaze upon my bliss.

Yes, that’s right. My definition of bliss is a brick pathway. So what?

But isn’t it so pretty? I realize some of you who voted for the traditional brick pattern–or “running bond” as I learned from a commenter–may not agree that this looks lovely. The vote came out very close, which really surprised me: 63% herring bone to 38% brick. I honestly thought herring bone would be the clear favourite.

I chose to go with the herring bone after spending a few days looking at the layouts that I’d mocked up last weekend. I just decided that I really, really liked the way it looked.

Laying the brick in the herring bone pattern and getting the bricks to bend smoothly around the curve was a bit more challenging than it would have been if I’d chosen another pattern, I’m sure, but I just fudged the spacing between the bricks as I needed to.

I still have to fill all of those spaces with sand. I found two bags of something called “magic sand” in one of our junk piles. The description said that it was a polymer infused sand made to fill the joints between paving stones. That sounded like just what I needed so I dumped the bags onto the bricks and managed to fill the joints for the first three feet of pathway. I’ll pick up the rest of the sand this week and hopefully finish off the path next weekend.

I say hopefully because along with needing more sand, I also need a few more bricks. What might be a little hard to see in the top photo is that as the path heads into the shade, about six feet from the end, I ran out of brick.

I knew I was going to be short, and I actually made it much farther across the turnaround than I expected to. Apparently 362 bricks are just not enough. They are enough to make me blissfully happy though.

Time to zigzag or stay on the straight and narrow?

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Remember this picture from my 2013 home goals?

This is my inspiration for the garden I’m building on the turnaround at the front of the house. Lush. A little bit wild. A beautiful brick walkway winding through.

Honestly, the path is an excuse to use up some of the piles of bricks that we have lying around the farm. But, it does have two additional benefits: the path will save us from having to walk all the way around the turnaround when we want to get to the other side (it’s farther than you might think) and it will be an attractive feature at the front of the house (I hope).

The path is next up on the landscaping list. I’ve dug out the route across the turnaround and gathered my bricks. Now I’m just trying to decide how to lay them: trendy herring bone or traditional brick pattern.

If I go with the straight brick pattern, I’ll probably do six courses, not the five that are pictured here. If I go with the herring bone, this is pretty much what it’s going to look like. I’m not going to cut the bricks, so the edge will be a bit ragged. It will probably be hidden eventually by all of the lush plants, but that might take a little while.

I think I know what you’re all going to say, but I’m going to put it to a vote nonetheless. What do you think?

For those who might be concerned by the photo above, I am not going to lay the bricks directly on the dirt. I’m planning a base of sand, which we also just happen to have a huge pile of lying around. I’d use gravel, but the gravel in our pile (yes, we have one of those too) is a bit too large to provide a really stable base.

No matter what pattern I end up using, I’m planning on leaving about a half inch gap between the bricks. Does anyone have any experience with polymeric sand? I’ve heard that it’s good for filling the spaces between the bricks.

Feel free to expand on your opinions on polymeric sand, the beauty of herring bone, dos and don’ts of brick laying, fast growing plants and any other topic that strikes you in the comments. I appreciate any advice.

How to mend a torn window screen

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

In the category of better late than never, I’ve finally fixed our torn window screens.

You may remember that one of the last jobs I completed on my fall to-do list (on the first day of winter, no less) was to remove all of the window screens so that I could clean and patch them over the winter.

So yeah. That didn’t happen.

Now June is here and I’d really like to open a window without inviting the local mosquito population inside. It was time to get on with mending the tears.

First I trimmed the ripped screen so that I had a regular shaped hole.

Then I cut a patch from my replacement screening. The patch should be about 1/4 inch bigger than the hole all the way around.

Next I lined the patch up over the hole and sewed it in place. I used regular black polyester sewing thread and tacked the screening about every three holes.

I stitched my way around the patch and when I got to the end I simply knotted the thread a couple of times.

The patch is not invisible, but it’s not very noticeable. Most important, it does the job of keeping the skeeters and other flying critters on the outside while letting the fresh air come through to the inside.

I will take an open window over air conditioning whenever possible, so with the weather getting steadily warmer, the repaired screens are a cause for celebration for me.

How about you? Are you a fresh air lover or an air conditioning aficionado? Does anyone else have experience patching screens? I’m sure my method isn’t the only solution. What’s the mosquito population like where you are? We seem to have had a baby boom this year, so the screens are absolutely essential.

Death by landscaping

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I am dead.

I’ve been working on a lovely introduction to this post referencing the Secret Garden and the joy of tending a neglected garden. But it’s not coming together for me, and I lack the mental power to make it work. Because I am dead.

You never heard any of the characters from the Secret Garden say, “I am dead. This garden has killed me.” Let’s be honest here, Ben probably said it, but Frances Hodgson Burnett did not include it in her story of love, childhood and horticulture.

In my story of love, adulthood, responsibility, country living and horticulture, landscaping has started.

The turn around has gone from mountain goat terrain to a blank slate, thanks mostly to our farmer with his heavy equipment.

I’ve weeded one flowerbed and my mother-in-law tackled two more. (All of the plant pots were left by the last owners. The plants are still alive, so I’ll be planting them soon on the blank slate of the turn around).

My father-in-law trimmed some of the trees and stumps around the pond. We still have a ways to go before we can actually mow the shore, but I’ve staked out the new fire pit, and we have lots of wood ready to burn.

Matt, my Dad and I dismantled one of our biggest rock piles on the property–and it only took us four hours.

I started building a new flower garden around the well head. And this is when I died.

Last year’s landscaping efforts were limited to some very cursory grass cutting. The property was unkempt when we bought it, and our neglect over the past year while we focused on the basement reno made it worse.

The amount of work required to bring a garden back after years and years of neglect is never mentioned in the Secret Garden. Sure there’s a bit of pruning and weeding, but mostly it’s romance and roses.

In the category of things get worse before they get better, even our efforts at clean up have led to more mess. Drilling the new well and trenching new waterlines destroyed one established flowerbed and left lumpy piles of very hard dirt in its place. Burning brush and scrap lumber as we’ve tried to pick up around the property resulted a mountain of ash and a half scorched spruce tree.

Landscaping was at the top of the list on my home goals for this year, and I will get a handle on the situation outside, even if it kills me.

How to stain and waterproof a wood countertop

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Update: See how our counters have held up after one year and after four years.

With our new kitchen island, we decided to do an inside out colour scheme. By that I mean that we reversed the existing finishes that were already in the kitchen.

Around the perimeter of the kitchen, we kept the natural wood cabinets and the light countertop. On the new island that we added in the middle, we chose white cabinets with a wood countertop.

I wanted to keep the wood tones consistent, so when it came to finishing our DIY wood countertop, the usual methods–wax, oil–were out, as they would have left the countertop too light in colour. I sampled lots of stain until I found one that matched the existing cabinets as closely as possible–Early American from Minwax.

To prepare to stain the countertop, I wrapped the island in plastic drop cloths to protect our nice white cabinets and went over the wood with a tack cloth to pick up any dust and bits that might interfere with the finish.

For staining, I used the standard technique of brush it on, let it sit, wipe it off.

After letting the stain cure, it was on to the waterproofing stage. Given that I was working on a countertop, I wanted something very durable and of course food safe. I chose to go with Waterlox after reading positive reviews online.

I followed their very detailed how-to guide on their web site to make sure I got the finish I was looking for. Waterlox was pretty easy to use.

I did four coats, brushing it on liberally with a natural bristle brush and letting it dry for 24 hours between each application.

Here’s some of the pros, cons and lessons learned.

First, Waterlox stinks when it’s wet. After the first coat, we developed a routine of putting the Waterlox on right before going to bed. We opened the windows, turned on fans, switched off the heat (since we had windows open) and closed the bedroom door. Given that it was March, it wasn’t necessarily the best weather to have windows open, but it was necessary both for the odor and for the cross ventilation needed to dry and cure the finish. The worst of the odor did ease after a couple of hours, thankfully.

Second, sanding between coats is not recommended with Waterlox. Instead, the guide tells you to wipe down the countertop with mineral oil before each coat to get rid of any dust. I did this, but I still feel the finish isn’t quite as smooth as I would like. I’m used to using Varathane where I sand between each coat and get a super smooth finish. The Waterlox guide recommended using a very fine steel wool between the second-to-last and last coat of finish to sand out any rough spots, which I did, but it’s still not perfectly smooth.

Third, the finished surface is very shiny. I used Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, which is recommended for the first few coats (or all coats, if you choose) and is listed as having a medium sheen. A satin finish is available, but honestly I was too cheap to buy another can, so I did all four coats with the Original.

After the final coat of Waterlox, we let the island top cure for a full week without putting anything on it.

Now that we’re using the island, the finish seems to be both waterproof and durable.

Given that it is a wood counter, we use a cutting board if we’re chopping and cork pads for any hot dishes. However, there are still occasions to put the finish to the test. If we spill (which of course never happens), liquids bead up on top of the surface. When we slide dishes across the counter, we don’t have to worry about scratching the finish. The wood wipes down really easily and looks fresh.

Finishing our homemade wooden countertop was a question of both form and function. I wanted to match the wood tones we had in the kitchen, and I also needed it to stand up to actual kitchen prep work. Done and done.

Update: See how our counters have held up after one year and after four years.