Lounging on the patio

This old house has seen a lot of transformation since we moved in in 2005. Once the main reno was done, we started chipping away slowly at other projects. One big one - it took over two years - was the transformation of the back yard. A lot of "hardscaping" and endless hours of work added more patio space, and so we needed something to relax on.

I reclaimed some cedar boards that were hiding an ugly area of patio below the clematis, and fashioned them into folding loungers. Great for using as benches around the firepit, or when folded into loungers, to catch some rays in the backyard.

Finally, a coffee table

We've tried hard to keep our 1938 house in the period, by using antiques and finishings that are close to the era. We struggled to find a coffee table for the living room that would fit in, until Christine found an old table/desk on Craigslist. It had a warped and cracked top that was added or changed after, but you could see that it was an old base.

Anyhow, since it was no longer original, I had no problem cutting down the round pillars (which you can't see from the pic above) and then I created a new tabletop with a sheet of oak plywood. I added thickness to the edge with MDF, and then hid the plywood edge with oak veneer. You'd have to get pretty close to see that they don't belong together, and we think it fits in well with our living room.

Electronic diversions

Another side interest of mine is electronics, especially if related to audio. I've always been dabbling in either car audio, home stereo or anything in-between. Meld woodworking with audio? Awesome!

Ok, so there isn't a lot of "woodworking" involved here. But what you can't see, is that this 1930s "tombstone" radio has been converted to a fully functional iPod dock. With a set of self-amplified speakers I picked up on Craigslist, I was able to re-finish this Marconi radio and bring it back to life!

Woodworking?

What is RC Board Works, and where did it come from? To really understand the history, I guess you would have to go way back to my childhood, where I started to demonstrate an aptitude/desire to do things with my hands. Since my father's tools were very limited, the creativity of my projects were also pretty limited. Fast forward to my adult years, and I felt the need to have a garage, not just to house some of the fleet, but to put my creative hands to use.

So back in 2005, we finally bought a house with a two car garage - yippee! Well, not so fast there pal. The "fixer-upper" required lots of work, of which I/we felt that I could do most of the basic stuff myself. For this, I'd need some power tools, and ended up acquiring most of the basics - table saw, miter saw, router, and a number of other items that you need to do your own kitchen cabinet replacement. A byproduct of the reno, was a stack of 1/2" cedar boards that covered many surfaces in the house... yes, even the ceiling in some rooms! So rather than throw it away, I decided to rip the tongues (broken during demo) and stack it up for future projects.

 Cedar planters for both sides of the front stairs... you know what they say, happy wife, happy life!

So every once in a while, I'd come up with an idea where I could re-use this cedar (along with other wood that I had reclaimed). The deck needed a little table between the Adirondack chairs, as well as a bin for our recyclables.

But this was stuff that was created out of necessity, and not too much creativity went into them. Plus, they were relatively simple to make, even though they end up taking days to construct and finish.

The collapsible bar and matching cooler were my next use of the cedar, and have been very popular pieces during our many outdoor (and indoor) events.

As I neared the end of the pile of cedar, the projects needed to get smaller, and so the last bits were used for some chickadee birdhouses. Most were given away as gifts, but the one we have hung on our garage has had numerous occupants and offspring!