Project #4 – DIY Bike Rack Made from PVC Pipe

Problem:  We have three kids.  And six kids’ bikes.  Don’t ask how that happens.  It just does.  In our continued quest to tame the horrible, no good, ugly garage, I decided that we needed a bike rack.  I have this strange nostalgia about bike racks that dates back to my elementary school years.  I think it may stem from those few times I was allowed to ride my bike to school.  Our school had a fenced in area full of bike racks, and I was able to lock my bike up there.  I felt so independent, and responsible.  And everything was so organized.  Rows and rows of bikes.

Twenty-five years later, I am greeted to a tangled heap of bikes and scooters in our garage.  A bike rack was much needed, but it was important for it to be accessible to the kids.  I was absolutely NOT interested in hanging bike racks.  Although those save some floor space, that leaves Mr. Motz and I to do all the dirty work (pulling them down and putting them back up).  No thank you.  We prefer our kids to have some independence and some responsibility…which is shorthand for saying that Mom and Dad are lazy.

I got curious recently and Googled “DIY bike racks”, thinking that there was surely no way to build a bike rack.  I was envisioning something Old School, like the metal vintage bike racks that those American Pickers guys come across every now and then.

I found a ton of PVC bike rack tutorials.  I never thought of PVC.  I raised an eyebrow, thinking that PVC might be a bit funky looking.  Most of the tutorials were geared towards mountain bikers and people who needed a bike rack for their truck.  The more I mulled it over though, the more it sounded better.  If one were to build something from scratch, would you rather work with PVC or iron?  Hmm.  Weigh in the price difference and I was sold.

I was torn between two versions.  This was the first one I considered.It has an awesome, easy to follow tutorial. It tells you how to make a rack for three bikes, and even adjusts all the measurements if you wanted to make a rack for four bikes.  I needed a rack for five.  Hmm.  After doing the math to adjust it to a rack for five, I opted for a different version altogether.  This one is the one I went with:

Photo Courtesy "thepalsrus" via Google Sketchup

It was designed by thepalsrus.    It was already designed for five bikes.  Costwise, and partwise, it was going to cost less.  And I liked the design of it a little more than the first.  My only beef with it was that I couldn’t open the diagram through Google Sketchup.  All three of the versions were programs I didn’t have on my computer.  It was really hard to zoom into the measurements with the small image, but I had a pretty rough idea of what I needed.

Materials Needed (Home Depot prices):

• 50′ – 1″ Schedule 4o PVC pipe (I bought 50′ and had about 7′ leftover) $3.22 ea x 5= $16.10 + tax
• 20 T-connectors.  $.69 x 20 = $13.80 + tax
• 14 – 90-degree elbow connectors (elbows).  $.53 x 14 = $7.42 + tax
• PVC pipe cement
• Something to cut your PVC pipe with.  I used a small-toothed handsaw.
• Measuring tape
• Pencil

Cuts List for PVC pipe:

• (8) – 12″ pieces
• (2) – 23 1/8″ pieces
• (20) – 16″ pieces
• (14 )- 2″ pieces

Cut all the big pieces that you can first, and use the leftover pieces of PVC for your smaller cuts.  Once you have everything cut, it should look something like this:

It is basically a big Tinker Toy at his point and takes about five minutes to assemble.

We expected this rack to fit five bikes, but to our sweet surprise…it fits more!  Because our kids are pretty young (ages 4-9), their bikes are fairly small too.  The biggest bike shown is a 20″.  We were able to fit more bikes and Razor scooters on the other side of the rack.  Completely unexpected, yet welcome.

I still haven’t cemented it together yet.  We are giving it a trial run to see if that is necessary.  We are keeping it only in the garage, so I think we might be ok skipping that step.  I also really wanted to paint it, but it sounds like the paint chips off pretty easily.  And I felt that I didn’t want to bother painting it unless it were glued together.  So I skipped both steps and saved myself some time.

Calculating the PVC and connectors used, I spent $37.32 + tax.  The PVC cement will run you about $12 more.  But for something that contains all of your bikes, this is much better than paying $150+ for something that is probably cheaply built anyway.

In-Between Projects, and the Ever-Changing To Do List. Adult ADD at its Finest…

I can tell that being in-between projects is going to be my least favorite time.  I took a little break after the workbench.  And by “break” it was actually something more like this:  “Oh gee…I finally have this workbench done and no place to put it in my filthy, embarrassing garage.”  (My neighbors will vouch for this one…property values actually plummet anytime we open the garage door.)  I have a before picture of my garage that I am not posting yet, because 1) I am a little skeered to post it, and 2) I am really wanting to save it for a Before and After post about garage organization…that way I can say, “it’s not like this anymore, which is why I can post it now.”

My project list at the time went something like this:

• Clean and organize the garage
• Drop off recycleables
• Find out where to take our old, old, old computer.

I dumped off a ton of stuff with the Greenhouse Ministries Garden Patch thrift store. My van was completely packed.  You can’t really tell here.

It was very liberating to be rid of all those things left over from our last garage sale.  It was less painful than I thought.   Instead of thinking, “I could’ve sold this for $20,” I had to admit that it didn’t sell for any amount in the last few garage sales we have had, even though it was useable and in great condition.  There are others in our community who could be blessed by our “stuff”.  Plus, the extra useable space is so much more valuable than the cluttered headache we had before.  I still have a way to go.  Ultimate goal being to have zones:  work/tool area, kid area (for the kids’ stuff, not the kids themselves), gardening/landscaping, auto maintenance, paints…you get the idea.  Ideally I would love to fit one of our vehicles in the garage too, but that’s a super tall order for our supposed two car garage.  (Our two car garage is tiny…either you can fit two smallish cars with hopefully enough room to open your door and wriggle out, OR you can store your lawn mower and other garage type stuff in there.  You can’t have both.)

I still needed to find a home for the computer.  Admittedly, it was a dinosaur, circa 1998.  I remember ’98 very well…it was halfway through college.  Maybe I’m becoming a dinosaur too?  Either way, my only real option was to find out where to take electronic recyleables.  I found a local recycling center that will take “things with tails” (electronic items).  I was thrilled to find a place that would take it off my hands!  And it was free.  Even better!  While there, I saw this curious sight:

It made me a little sad, knowing that each bike had a history, a happy kid, childhood memories.  And here they were in this seemingly forgotten pile.  (Too much “Toy Story 3” for Mommy, perhaps.)  I wasn’t sure why they were there.  I don’t remember seeing anything on their website about bikes.  When I asked the crew who worked there about the bikes, they were happy to tell me the deal.  Basically, they collect bikes, then turn them over to the local sheriff’s office.  The sheriff’s office rehabs the bikes, then gives them to kids in need.  Curse you, recycling dudes for making my eyes mist.  Grrr.  But it made my day to know that this was going on.  I had never heard of this program, and was excited to hear that it existed.

I came back home and assessed The Garage Situation.  It occurred to me that I needed to update my project list.  It became this:

• Paint garage walls
• Paint daughter’s room (I found the paint we bought for it while cleaning the garage)
• Make a pegboard wall
• Make a bike rack that the kids can access on their own (not the hanging type)
• Make our old round dining room table into an oversized ottoman.  (It was hanging out in the garage too.)
• Finish cleaning/organizing garage
• Drop off recycleables
• Find out where to take our old computer.

Hmm, ok.  Well, let’s take a break and go to some garage sales.  We love going to garage sales and haven’t gone in a long time.  Our neighborhood and our friends’ neighborhood were both hosting subdivision garage sales this weekend, and that sounded like a fun family outing.  We found a ton of awesome, useable treasures, some of which were this table saw (score!), a $5 desk (will add picture later), and some Lego bricks.  We have a serious Lego obsession over here–It consumes the whole family.

In just a few short hours, the project list snowballed into this:

• Refinish desk for daughter’s room…the room that still needs to be painted
• Organize the Lego mess (they take over our entire front room)
• Make wainscoting for the entryway.  Perfect project for the new saw.
• Paint entryway.  If we’re considering wainscoting, may as well paint it too.
• And tile.  The entryway flooring is yucky looking.  Tile sounds like a good plan.  And possibly a tile backsplash for the kitchen?
• Make time to daydream about hardwood flooring once tile is done.  Maybe next year?
• Paint garage walls
• Paint daughter’s room
• Pegboard wall for garage
• DIY bike rack
• Dining table into ottoman.
• Finish cleaning/organizing garage
• Drop off recycleables
• Find out where to take our old computer.

You see where this is heading, right?  All the while, there is the daily nagging of dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, and figuring out what to make for dinner before dinnertime.  Add in the complication that work wants me to show up every now and then as well.  There aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all.  But once I get some things checked off the list, I will have some fun posts coming your way.

How to Repair a Stripped Screw Hole in Wood

Several months ago, I was trying to find a way to repair our piano bench.  It is easily 30 years old and inherited from my mother-in-law.  Decades of children and adults happily banged away on this trusty piano until the bangings evolved into something more skillful sounding.  The poor bench, however, was getting a little tired.  It was once hinged by two hinges.  Now, only one continued to hold on.  The screw holes for the second hinge were stripped, and could no longer be screwed into the top.  It was there, still screwed into the base of the seat, but simply observed the other one doing all of the work.

All the stress on the remaining hinge would eventually cause problems.  We needed it repaired, and had a few options:  1) Move the second hinge further down the bench to a new location, 2) Find a way to fill/repair the stripped out holes, or 3) Find another bench.  The first and third options had their drawbacks, and I wasn’t sure if the second one was possible.  I figured that a wood putty would not hold a screw very well, so I fired up a good ol’ Google search and found this:

I was immediately in love with the idea.  This repair technique fits everything on my wish list: simple, frugal, and uses on hand items.  Because I am not technically a woodworker, I have no idea if this is one of those “acceptable practices” in woodworking circles or not.  (I suspect it is though.)  But I also didn’t care about its acceptability.  It sounded like it could produce some promising results.  And all I needed were some matchsticks, a hammer, and a wire cutter.

In five minutes, our bench was fixed!  My husband came home to a triumphant wife, and he was shocked at how easy a repair it turned out to be.  It has held up perfectly since the repair, and you cannot tell that there are matchsticks hiding behind the hinge.

I employed this technique yesterday on our front door.  We have had intermittent problems for years with our front door and the door jamb.  In all honesty, the long-term repair would probably be replacing the door jamb.  But equally as honest is the fact that my husband and I have not advanced our repair skills enough to tackle it.  If it were an interior door, I’d be a bit more apt to test out a door jamb replacement.  Either way, the problem de jour with our door jamb was with the strike plate.  We had replaced our door’s hardware twice in the past eight years, and the strike plate screw holes couldn’t take it anymore.  The screws kept working their way out.  Considering how often we use this door, it needed to be dealt with.

I used toothpicks to fix these holes instead.  Why toothpicks?  Well, I was operating off of memory, and I forgot that it was supposed to be matchsticks instead of toothpicks.  But after plunking around on the ‘net for a bit, it seems like I made a happy mistake.  Toothpicks can be used when a harder wood is needed.  Being that this is our overused front door (and not the rarely used piano bench), a stronger wood is not a bad idea.  So far, the repair seems to be holding up.  I realize it takes more than 24 hours before declaring victory, but it works a whole lot better than it did before the repair.

Replacing the door jamb will probably come sooner than later though.  The jamb has started to split.  An earlier attempt to repair it with wood glue and vices didn’t pan out too well.  (Our neighbor had success with this, but we didn’t.)  We have now worked our way up to Gorilla Glue (also featured in yesterday’s door jamb repair).  And while I realize this sounds 100% like Southern Engineering, I’m just going to claim it and remind you that we do live in the South.  And we are homeowners trying to appease our home’s increasing maintenance demands with a small budget.  Sometimes the reality of homeownership means that you fix things temporarily before fixing them for real.

Project #3 – DIY Workbench Made from Pallets

This is the project that got me to update my tetanus shot.  But it is finally done!

This all started months ago.  I scored some fabulous six-foot long pallets.  They were sitting in a pile behind a brand new store that opened up near my house.  I got up the nerve to ask the store staff if they had plans for them.  They tried to stifle their elation when they realized I wanted them.  They said, “take all of the ones you want!”  Hindsight tells me it was probably their job to get rid of them, and I now think I remember one of them giggle as I walked out to load them up.  I quickly figured out why they were so excited.

Those suckers were HEAVY.  But I managed to wrangle them into our Blazer, ignoring the raised eyebrows and stares of those driving by.  I hauled them home.  My husband thought I was nuts, asking “What are you going to do with these?!”

I had no idea.  But I had seen stuff on Pinterest.  (Famous last words, you know.)  So I excitedly replied, “I don’t know hon, but I’m sure I can do something with them.”  He rolled his eyes, but was sweet enough to help me unload them into the garage.

That was in October.

By March, I was tired of tripping over these pallets in the garage and was getting the bug to make something with them.  Although I had lots of ideas, I decided to start with a workbench.  For one, I needed a workbench to make future creations.  Additionally, it gave me the chance to use some new tools and learn some new skills.  Having exactly no woodworking experience before, this sounded like a perfect starting point.

The plan was to make something simple and crude.  I got my inspiration here.  The man who built his workbench said it only took a few hours, and that was without using a drill.  I could totally do this.  It might take a few days’ worth of my preschooler’s naptime, but that was manageable.

Breaking Down the Pallets

I quickly realized that the “few hours” for this project most likely doesn’t include breaking down the pallets.  I was thrilled by the oversized ones I found, but I didn’t really think this one through.  Larger pallets most likely hold heavier things and are therefore built like Sherman tanks.  I broke my old Skil saw trying to saw through the industrial strength staples that held the boards.  Apparently these are staples on crack, and don’t qualify as ‘soft metal’, which my Skil saw was designed for.  I wish it was just the blade that broke.  But no…it was the entire saw.

After several, several, SEVERAL preschooler naptimes of beating on these pallets, I finally had enough boards (deckboard) and beams (stringerboard) to work with.  One pallet in particular was more tank-ish than the rest, so I used the long beams from that one and cut them down into four legs.  I used the longer beams from another pallet to make my rectangular frame for the table top.

Make sure to remove all nail/staple remnants.  Be careful with this part.  (Yes, this is the part where the tetanus shot comes in…long story.  I will spare you.)  I used a Dremel to saw off the especially stubborn nail/staple ends.

Sanding

 Sanding this was admittedly a bit of a time suck, but necessary in my opinion.  I don’t know about you, but I hate splinters.  Well, and spiders, but there isn’t much I can do about those.  Sanding, however, is the step where I nip the likelihood of future splinters right in the bud.  I used the power sander (1/3 sheet sander), which made this process bearable.  It also took less time than I expected.

Design

Well, there’s really not much ‘design’ to this.  Basically, make a rectangular frame (for your table top).  Base it off of whatever dimensions you are wanting.  My plan was to have a workbench that was 2′ x 6′.  So I made the frame about 1.5′ x 6′.  I used two long screws at each corner, which seemed to secure them pretty well.

Attach the legs.  I used 3″ screws to attach the legs to each inside corner of the frame.  Truth be told, I put the legs on as the very last thing, which made leveling it a bit of a challenge.  Putting the legs on first will make it a lot easier to level out, if there is a problem.

Place boards onto your rectangular frame to make the table top of the workbench.  This is a bit of a puzzle, being that it is reclaimed wood that is not perfectly flat nor straight-edged.  After some tinkering, you will find a workable layout for the boards.  Screw the boards down.  (I pre-drilled with for all of my screws.  I appreciated the efforts later on, even if it did seem a bit tedious at the time.)

Once everything is screwed on, saw the ends of the boards off.  I went with a 2.5″ overhang on each side, but you may need something different depending on what you will use your workbench for.  My workbench is just a typical garage workbench, meant to be used for multiple uses.

In the End

Final dimensions for this workbench are approximately:  2′ x 6′ x 3′.  I went with a 3′ height because that was similar to my kitchen countertop, and that height seems to work well for me.  I can still get on top of drills and whatnot that way too.

This puppy is sturdy too.  My husband and I were hanging pegboard above the workbench in our garage.  We stood on the workbench at the same time to hang it, and the workbench didn’t even flinch.  I am so very excited!

And I love the fact that this cost me exactly ZERO dollars to build.  I had all the screws, and the wood was free.  It took more elbow grease, and at one point I really questioned if the extra effort was worth saving the $50-$80 in wood that I could’ve spent at the home improvement store.  But in the end, I am happy with the free version I have.  It has character.  And I won’t be heartbroken every time it gets another DIY battle wound.

Mommy Bought a Power Saw (Review of the Ridgid R32031 Circular Saw)

Ridgid R32031

I am in the process of building a workbench for my garage out of wooden pallets.  I needed a saw.  I was ready for some big girl tools.  I don’t know how Mr. Motz and I have managed to own homes for the past 10 years and not have a need for a power saw.  Lucky, I guess.  Or lazy.  Probably a bit more of the latter, because luck is not usually our strong suit.

I had a convenient birthday on its way, which (as we all know) is perfect timing to justify any purchase as long as it’s under the guise of an ‘early birthday gift’.  I did some research online and decided I wanted a Makita 5007F.  I had instant tunnel vision and went to Home Depot with every intention of buying it.  It reviewed well, sounded perfect, and was a Makita.  There is something exciting and magical sounding about the word Makita.  Just saying it feels good, practically meditative.  (Try it.)  After taking one good lift of the floor model, I realized there was no earthly way I would be able to safely use this saw.  It is 11.1 pounds.  No biggie, right?  I birthed three kids and pick them up and down all day.  I am a food server and lift ridiculously heavy trays of food at work with ease.  But the 11.1 pounds of Makita is a lot heavier than 11.1 pounds of kid.  Or of food.  Or of anything really.  I am not exactly a weakling, but I am small framed.  And a first-time circular saw purchaser.  I had enough sense to know that, not only do I have to pick up a saw, but I have to be able to hold it at different angles and safely operate it at 6,000 RPMs.  Alright, so now what?

I ran my plight by the Home Depot tool guy.  He was actually quite helpful and supportive.  (I was not expecting this, considering other female friends of mine who have felt condescended while making similar purchases…they being the weak, ding-batty women and all.)  He pointed out the Ridgid, stating that the best-rated brands for power saws were Makita, DeWalt, and Ridgid.  I had never heard of Ridgid, but the one he showed me (pictured above) weighs in at 8 pounds.  (Home Depot’s website has the specs incorrectly listed at 11.1 pounds.)  Being the realistic, skeptical, nervous type, I had to look up the reviews on my phone before I was really sold.  Based on the reviews, it sounded like it could handle just about anything I was planning to do, plus more.  The blade was a bit smaller than the Makita, had a few less amps, but had higher RPMs, a longer cord, and a LIFETIME warranty.  And I wasn’t totally freaked out when I picked up the floor model.  This could actually work out perfectly.

So I bought it.  And posted a picture on Facebook.

I had a few comments (in person and on Facebook) that were of the cautious, well-meaning variety.  Friends told my husband, “if your wife needs help using that, let me know.”  Other comments were regarding safety, precautions, etc.  I did my best not to be quasi-offended, but I was really beginning to have myself a Ralphie moment from A Christmas Story: “you’ll shoot yer eye out!  You’ll shoot yer eye out!”  Had my husband (who also had no circular saw experience) made the same purchase and posted the same picture, he likely would have had comments more like:  ‘atta boy!, awesome!, good job!

But I suppose if you Google “Woman Power Saw”, I could attempt to understand why.  The first several pages of results involve a Washington woman who tried to kill her sleeping husband with a power saw.  And then there’s a story about a grandma who accidentally cut her hand off with her saw.  Fabulous.  Is that how our gender is depicted?  We have an extra X chromosome and like power tools.  It’s cool…move on.

But I took it with a grain of salt.  I try to be a rule follower and — in all honesty — was slightly terrified of my new purchase.  I read the manual, figured out how it all worked BEFORE messing with it.  And I tested it out.  In private.  No kids, no spouse, no neighbors…no audience.  I hate learning in front of others.  That’s how we introverts roll.  But I had a little plan figured out in my brain:  My neighbor is home all the time and, on the off-chance I did something horrid (like cut off a hand), she was 20 yards away and would surely call an ambulance if I showed up on her doorstep.  She’s nice like that.

After overcoming the initial nervousness and getting a feel for how it handled, I am thrilled!  It is simple, versatile, light-weight, and perfect.  It’s not touted as a DIY, girly tool…people use this on construction sites as well.  And three weeks later, I still have all the appendages I was born with.  I am confident that this will allow me to do anything I would need a circular saw to do.  And with the lifetime warranty, it will remain a happy addition to my workbench.

When I finish building the dumb thing, that is…

Homemade Laundry Soap – Duggar Style

All three products you need. Found together at Wal-Mart.

I toyed with the idea of making homemade laundry soap for awhile (maybe a year?) before I actually got the nerve to try it.  I think I was a little weirded out beforehand, thinking that it was a little too Little House on the Prairie for me.  Or that my next step would be to fall completely off the grid, which is not even an inkling in my eye.  I also thought it would be too much work.

But curiosity got the better of me.  I ultimately decided that a family of 20+ had far more laundry to wrestle than my little family of five.  So, deferring to the Duggars as resident experts on all things laundry, I figured it was worth a try.  Plus, I saw them make it on TV once, so that made me practically an expert, right?

Once I had purchased everything, I went to work.  I was shocked that it took ten minutes.  Period.  If I had known that before, I would’ve tried it earlier.

Here is the recipe, thanks to The Duggar Family Website.   I have added a few notes in here as well.

Materials Needed:

• 4  Cups – hot tap water
• 1  Fels-Naptha soap bar ($.97 at Wal-Mart.  It’s that little paper-wrapped bar, to the right of the Borax in the picture.  I have also seen this bar at Kroger and Publix.)
• 1 Cup – Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*  ($3.24 at Wal-Mart)
• ½ Cup Borax ($3.38 at Wal-Mart)
• Cheese Grater
• 5 Gallon Bucket with Lid.  (Home Depot, $2.50 for the bucket and $1.29 for the lid)
• Essential Oil (Optional — I used lavender and found it at Hobby Lobby.  $5.99 before coupon, $2.40 after 40% off coupon)

– Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer “Super Washing Soda” – in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent – It must be sodium carbonate!!

So, how did it work?  (That was the one thing I really wanted to know before I tried it.)  Overall, I am super happy with it.  It took me a few loads of laundry to figure out the right amount to use.  We have a top loader, and the recipe calls for 5/8 cup (5 oz. for those of you who don’t have a 5/8 measuring cup hanging around your house — like me).  5/8 of a cup wasn’t cutting it for us.  We have SUPER hard water, which comes from a place called the Stones River.  It’s called the Stones River for a reason.  I have to use a solid cup for a large load.

Some other things you may find helpful:

• I found everything at Wal-Mart.  Together.  Living in harmony before they were even mixed together.  This was also a tip to me that I was not nearly as close to falling off the grid as I originally thought, if someone at Wal-Mart merchandised these items together.
• This laundry soap will not suds.  That took some getting used to for me.  I worry about doing things wrong, and suds reassure me.  You won’t get that here, so you may have to look for your reassurance elsewhere.
• My concentrate looked funky.  The recipe states that it “will gel”.  Mine was more like a stringy gel, if that makes sense.  I was expecting a consistency that was more….well…consistent.  Like split pea soup.  Or something a hair less gel-y than pudding.  No, this was a foreign looking substance to me.  After poking around the internet, I was reassured that I was not the first person with odd-looking sludge.  And that other people’s odd-looking sludge worked just fine.  I attribute the consistency issue to the hard water as well.  Some people theorize temperature.  (Leaving it outside for that first day yielded better results for some…I may try that next time.)
• My whites are SUPER white.  I still use stain remover for stains, but I swear my whites are whiter.  My colors seem fine (they are not bleaching out).  I am feeling pretty good about this.
• I started adding vinegar to my fabric softener dispenser.  (I hear adding vinegar to a Downy ball works pretty well too).  I added vinegar because I had seen others mention it and I figured it was proper in keeping with the homesteader theme.  I still use my fabric softener sheets, but mainly because I can’t change all my habits at once.  Since changing my soap and adding vinegar, my towels and blankets are MUCH softer than I remember them being.
• Some estimates put the cost of this concoction at $.01/load.  Start up costs for me were $13.78+ tax (which included the cost of the bucket and lid.)  I have a bunch of the Borax and Washing Soda left.  Theoretically, I only have to spend $.97 each time for the next several batches of laundry soap.  Way cheaper than the commercial stuff, even with coupons and sales.

I still have two bottles of my All Small & Mighty 3x Lavender laundry soap left, and I have had no desire to tap into that.

Project #2 – DIY 23″ Drum Shade from Scratch (with Tutorial)

Custom Made 23" Drum Shade for $28.92 + tax.

I recently repainted our front room.  On our floor plan, it’s considered a formal dining room.  Practically speaking, that’s just not a practical use of space for us. We’re not super formal, and we have a large enough eating area in the kitchen.  Either way, I had this freshly painted room and a chandelier that was not sitting well with me.  We had refinished it once years ago and worked out alright.  But now I was prowling for a newer look, and one for cheap.  I suddenly decided that I needed a drum shade to cover this thing.  I had never thought about drum shades before, but now I had to have one.  As in STAT.  As in, if this didn’t become a reality within a week, I was planning to tear the current chandelier down and start from scratch.  Momma was inspired and on a mission…

Brand spankin' new on the left...our first refinish on the right.

The chandelier measures 22″ in diameter.  My first plan was just to buy a new shade (from Wal-Mart or thrift store) and recover it with fabric I liked.  And then I realized how impossible that was.  Wal-Mart’s drum shades are 16″ at the largest (for $15).  Something of the size I needed was available online for $200 or so.  Uh…no.  It seems there is never a simple answer when I am involved.  I picked around online until I discovered that it sounded relatively easy to make one the size I needed.  For under $30.  Yep, I was sold.

I found the instructions I needed at The Keylor Family Blog.  I changed things a little to suit my needs and available materials.  I had never done anything like this before and had no idea if it would turn out or not.  But that’s the fun part about life, now isn’t it?  So I went shopping, then got to work.  I could have spent less (using different fabric and possibly a better price on the hoops), but I was on a mission.  And impatient.

I have provided my tutorial below.  It sounds horrifically complicated, but it is not that bad.  Just take one step at a time.

Materials Needed:

• 2- 23″ Quilting Hoops ($6.99 at Jo-Ann…our Hobby Lobby was out of stock.)  Price after 40% off coupon = $8.38
• 4 sheets of pre-cut plexiglass (found at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each) = $7.96
• Fabric for exterior (I used a printed duck cloth canvas, on sale for $6.29/yard).  I needed at least 75″.  I mistakenly bought 72′.  (See below) = $12.58
• Fabric for bottom of shade (I used some cream duck cloth canvas that I had on hand) = FREE
• Staple Gun & Staples.  Lots and lots and lots of staples.  I used ones that were 3/8″ long.  They were *almost* too short, but worked fine if you press really firmly.  On hand = FREE
• Hot glue gun and glue (for gluing down the seams).  On hand = FREE
• Some crafty way of hanging your shade.  I used a piece of wood shaped and routed by my handy dandy Dremel.  On hand = FREE

Step 1:  Start with the quilting hoops.  Unscrew the fasteners.

Carefully pry off wood fasteners and remove the staples.

Step 2:  Gently pry off the wooden blocks from the outer hoop.  You will be left with staples.  Tap the staples from the sharp end with a hammer (or staple gun, as it was the closest thing in reach).  Then remove the staples.  A tiny flathead screwdriver worked great for this.

Insert plexiglass in between both sets of hoops, tape down, then staple away.

Step 3:  Tape seams of plexiglass together with packing tape.  (I used masking tape for this step…don’t do that.  Hindsight, you know.)

Step 4:  Cut plexiglass to get correct width.  If you cut really carefully with some big scissors, it should be fine.  Mine started to feather just a bit at the edge, but it doesn’t affect your final look.

Step 5:  Take the inner ring of your first hoop.  Use masking tape to temporarily fasten it to the rim.  Do the same with the other end of the plexiglass with the other inner hoop until you end up with something that looks like a drum.  (Upper left picture.)

Step 6:  Add outer hoops and staple them on.  You will staple through the outer rim into the plexiglass.  (Lift up masking tape as you go, unless you don’t care if it stays on forever.)  If you are using the 3/8″ staples, make sure to press firmly so the go in flush with the rim.

Step 7:  Lay the drum down and staple the inner hoops.

Yes, I really was that short on fabric. Plan B was harder...splicing together two pieces of fabric and matching the pattern.

TIP:  Measure better than I did.  I am sure that goes without saying, but this stuff happens.  (To me, I suppose.)  I asked for 2 yards (72″).  I needed at least 75″.  That’s what you get for being impatient and guesstimating in the fabric store.  Plan B meant I had to take my leftover fabric (that was also 72″ long and too short) and find a way to match up the pattern in the fabric.  That was a pain.

Super lucky! After matching the pattern, I had just enough overlap on top and bottom to wrap around the rim.

And I got super, ridiculously lucky.  I shouldn’t be this lucky.

Step 8:  Wrap exterior fabric around the outside of your drum.  Tape the fabric edges to the inside of your drum with masking tape (similar to the plexiglass/inner hoop taping.)

Step 9:  Now staple your heart out, keeping the fabric pulled taut.  (A second set of hands works wonderfully here, so you don’t rip the taped ends off.)  Hot glue the seams.

Step 10:  Add fabric to the bottom of the shade (not shown…sorry.  It was a two-handed affair and I couldn’t take pictures of it).  You can kind of see how it is attached in the picture below though.  Basically, use your drum’s base as a guide, cut the fabric just a bit larger than the drum.  Here’s how I got it to work for me:  Place bottom of the drum on the ground.  Place your circle of fabric inside your drum and push it down.  Leaning into the drum (from the top), staple the fabric to the inside of the lower rim.  I had to be careful here because the staples have to be pretty much at the same height.  If I had them at different heights, it would make for a really uneven looking bottom once it’s hung.  Make sure to keep the fabric taut here too to make for a clean look.  Basically, I stapled my first staple, then went across the circle to the other side of the drum.  Stapled that side, then placed a third staple halfway between staples 1 and 2.  Then a fourth staple across the circle from the 3rd one.  It sounds horribly complicated, but it really isn’t.

Fabricated piece of wood used to hang the shade. These are the wonderful metal thingies I found floating around in my tool chest. Perfect for adding support.

Step 9:  Now hang it!  Use your own creative method if you have a better one.  (Which you just might.)  I rigged this with a thin piece of scrap wood.  I cut a notch in the middle so it could slide onto the top of the chandelier.   I then rounded the edges to match the curve of the drum.  It didn’t go as well as I had planned (got Dremel-happy, I suppose and took a little too much off the ends.)  So I dug through my tool chest and found those fabulous little metal thingies that you see in the picture above.  I have no idea what they were meant for originally, but they were quickly welcomed into Project Drum Shade.  I screwed one of these onto one end of the board.  It slipped perfectly in between the inner rim and the plexiglass layer.  The other metal thingy, I decided not to screw on.  Mounting it would have been impossible if they were both screwed on.  Once I found the two points where these metal things could slip in, I marked those point on the outside of the shade with a sticky note.  Remove the wooden piece.  I then slid the wood’s notch onto the chandelier.  Once that was in place, I lifted the drum shade up and slipped the screwed on metal piece into its place on the shade.  Then I slipped the other end of the wood underneath the rim.  After the wood was inside the rim, THEN I slipped in the stand-alone metal piece.  The metal piece rests on top of the wood, and seems to be perfectly fine that way.

Hanging and lit. Thinking about some frosted bulbs to soften the bright spots.

It took me a few days and several tries to figure out how to hang this beast successfully.  But I am thrilled with the outcome!

I love that it's huge!

I have so many other things I have planned for this room.  One adventurous step at a time…

Project #1 – Refinishing the Old Ice Chest

Ok, now this truly isn’t my first project ever.  But it is the first official project I did after my Mommy Moment regarding our house–the moment when I decided to get serious about making our home more about what we like, and less about it being the home for wayward and random things.  One of the items on my re-purposing mission was this White Clad ice chest.  My husband had owned it for at least 25 years, and it was doing us no favors in its current condition.  For you oak purists, this may hurt a bit, being as I painted “perfectly good” oak.  The way I see it though is that it didn’t fit into our scheme, it needed to be refinished, and I am not a huge fan of the original color in the first place.  I may have killed whatever value it may have had as a relic, but it looks prettier in our home now.  So I call that a win in my book.

My original goal was to make this a no-cost challenge, using only materials I had on hand.  I wound up buying the Polyurethane because the stuff I had on hand wasn’t going to cut it for sealing.

Materials Used:

• Drill
• 1/3 Belt Sander
• Various sanding pads for the sander (mainly for preparing the surface before repainting)
• Paint Brushes, foam brushes, etc.  I found that quality brushes were needed, especially for the polyurethane (I needed a brush meant for oil based products for that one)
• Black paint (I used American Accent’s “Canyon Black” #7946 in satin finish)
• Polyurethane (I used Minwax Fast-Drying Poly in a clear satin finish.  It is oil based)
• Primer for interior (I used Behr)
• Paint for interior (I used Behr’s “Quiet Moment”…leftover wall paint from my not-so-quiet kid’s room)

Front, after hardware removal and before sanding.

A top that has been well used.

After sanding and one coat of paint.

After 3-4 coats of paint, 2 layers of poly, and 1 layer of primer (on the interior).

My favorite part…the inside.

What we think this chest would have looked like brand new.

Facebook Isn’t Big Enough

Perhaps Facebook isn’t big enough.  Which is a ludicrous claim, given it’s popularity, enormity, and Big Brotherness of it all.  But there is a lot of randomness rumbling around in my head, and a waning impulse filter to stop me from posting more than the socially acceptable number of times per day.  After all, I don’t want to be one of them…the oversharer of personal information, the constant babbler of incessant drivel, the friend you ‘hide’ or move to a different friend list, just so you don’t have to constantly skip over their name as you happily stalk your non-driveling friends.  You know the ones I’m talking about.  Them.

So, in an effort not to be one of them, I plan to park my randomness here.  My projects, my experiments, my parenting stuff.  A little space where my OCD and my free-spirit can duke it out with one another.  Eventually, randomness will make its way to this blog.  I have had a personal blog for six years, but this one is intended to be a bit more public.

I am coming in on the ground floor of remaking our home. My husband and I have lived here for eight years, but have been busy focusing our energies on the birthing and raising of our littles.  Having three kids in five years is a great way to distract you from every other endeavor in life.  Which is not a complaint, mind you.  But there is the fact that caring for littles takes a lot of energy.  And patience.  Both of which we frequently fall short on.  But this is Life, and we live it.  We learn from it.  We love it.  We are not promised another tomorrow, and count each day with our littles as blessings.

But in the meantime, if I am blessed with 20 more days of this life, or 50 years, it would be nice to pass that time in a house that felt more personalized.  More sophisticated, possibly.  (With perhaps a little less of that “Toys-R-Us threw up in here” look, if a girl can really dare to dream.)

I am not a professional DIY girl by any means.  I am a tinkerer.  An experimenter.  I am just now getting my hands on some long-awaited power tools.  And I have a Pinterest account.  The combination of which has the potential of becoming a complete train wreck.  And one that I am willing to share.