New Guinea Pig Cage

My middle child got a pair of guinea pigs over the summer. One of the things that I wanted to do was elevate the cage we got so that we (I) didn’t have to bend down as much to pick them up and clean out the cage. I also wanted a place to store all the supplies they have instead of having them all over the floor. The base is made from scrap 2x6’s that were left by the previous owner. I purchased a sheet of particle with melamine on both sides. I also edge banded all the edges. I try not to use the convenience of Amazon for wood projects, but edge band was ½ when compared to the stores and twice as much. I cannot tell you about performance, because it is the first time I used iron on edge band. It worked well and cleaned up nice. The new cage is slightly larger than the old one. It seems to work well. We shall see how it holds up.

Joining the Bandwagon: Slabs

Last month I was on Facebook marketplace.  Not a usual occurrence, but I needed to get rid of a tv wall mount fixture and moving boxes.  I put these on for free and decided to look at tools and wood just for fun.  I have heard of some great success stories and great deals happening on marketplace.  

I found someone local that was selling his off fall.  he was asking $125 for a large bin.  It seemed like a pretty good deal so I ended up buying the bin.  I was interested in it mainly because of the different thicknesses of material. The person selling it ran his own furniture shop and lumber mill at his home. he is a good source for lumber.  He also kiln dries his lumber.  There was a lot of lumber and it was worth the price I paid for it.  I don't know if I will do it again for two reasons: I can't process lumber that is less than 12" easily.  Second it is a very different approach to look at a piece and say what can I do with this board.

In this bin of lumber, there were a few pieces of walnut that had a live edge: The bark was removed and the edge was not cut straight.  I sorted all this lumber out and said "What can I make with this?"  My two youngest have been asking for shelves to display their rocks.  It seemed like a good idea.  I made a basic plan on how these shelves would be put together.  I don't know the style but it is 1/4-20 threaded rod with nuts holding up the shelves.  All the pieces are stainless steel.

The pattern was four lines where the threaded rod would be and a top and bottom to mark the upper and lower limits.  The shelves themselves were straight edge cut on one side to flush up against the wall.  There were some bug holes which I cut off trying to follow the grain to keep the live edge look.  

When the shelves were ready, I gave a pile of shelves to my youngest two kids and told them to lay out where they wanted each shelf on the pattern.  It took a little work showing them how the system worked.  After all was done they came up with an idea that was not what I pictured.  I like their idea better.

All said it was a project that was nice to do to get back in the shop.  It was a lot of planning and a not a lot of woodworking.  I had to re-saw some of the walnut because it was 2 1/2" thick.  The chunks were only 12" long so I learned how to flatten a board with a hand plane.  This is where I like the longer boards so I can do the work with a machine,  

The project turned out how the kids wanted them to turn out.  I don't know if I am happy they are putting rock on the shelves.  It is just going to damage the finish.  It is what they wanted and it was me looking at someone elses scrap asking "What can I do with this?"

 

What Have I Been Doing?

 

MOVING!!! Long story short: The company that moved me out to Virginia needed to do some restructuring during the pandemic.  I was not part of the restructuring but was able to find new employment in northern Virginia.  This necessitated another move.  Good news was, I would be able to work remotish for about a year.  This allowed my kids one full year at school and so their school year was not interrupted.  This also meant that we had time to fix up the fixer upper we purchased.

The major repairs that we hired others to do.  We replaced all the windows and aluminum wrapped all the trim and installed new gutters.  The roof was replaced, and the exterior was power washed and painted.  We hired someone to paint the upstairs hallway, foyer, and kitchen.  This included the kitchen cabinets.  These were things that I either could not do myself or did not have the time to do it.

Here is what I contributed to the fixing up:

• Painting: every room in the house was repainted. You can tell where I started painting and where I finished.  My painting skills improved with each room.  Most rooms were two toned and I like how they looked.  If I do it again, I would not use the yellow color.  Here are some of the key things that I learned in the process:
•  Painting.  Prep work is key to a good paint job.  I removed a lot of the cracked caulking around doors and moulding and replaced it.  It made a huge difference.  When I learned the trick with wetting my finger to even it out, it got a lot easier. Filling in all the nail holes and dents with filler.  There was a lot.  I think I used a medium tub of filler on the house.  For the most part I used a roller and a 2” trim brush.  I didn’t need to buy more equipment than that.  I did get a bucket for the trim work.
• Replace the deck boards.  That was a pain.  There were several that had rotted and so I replaced all 19 full length boards.  It was a 16’ wide deck.  This is where I used Home Depot to deliver the boards.  The big take away on this project was the fact that deck boards are 1” thick not 2x6.  Thank goodness I caught it before they delivered the order and I was able to change it.  I also replaced the decks on the stairs. It was a bigger pain than it was worth. After the deck was stain, it looked good
• Patched water damaged drywall.  The roof was leaking in one place over a room.  There was also some water damage in the basement from a previous overflow of the sump pump.  Both areas needed to have dry wall patches.  They looked pretty good after I was done.  I was impressed with the first time doing these patches.
• Grass.  Not going to say I did much in this area. I laid down seed and hoped it would grow.  I think I doubled the amount of grass on the property. I am not going to say it was a lot, but it looked better.  We also added some mulch and flowers which did make it look nicer.
• Caulked all the bathroom fixtures.  Not my favorite thing to do.  I don’t really like silicone and I really don’t like cleaning and scraping out moldy silicone.  I did it and the trick is to use soapy water on your finger to spread it out.
• Cleaned and more cleaned.  I understand the meaning of deep cleaning. I would say that I should do it more often, but it was a pain.  Then maintaining it was another project.  I am glad we only had to do it for one weekend.

Glad this is over.  Now it is setting everything up again.

If you would like to se the pictures of the home you can go here. These are professional pictures.  Sorry I do not have the before pictures.

Challenge Coin Flag

United States Challenge Coin Holder

I was asked to make a challenge coin holder for a neighbor.  I accepted because I like challenges, and this was a way of saying thank you to someone that has served in the armed forces.  I am grateful that I did know what challenge coins were.  It was my first time actually seeing some.  I thought they were always round and about the same size.  They are cool looking.

The design process was not easy.  The US flag does not make it easy to make a symmetrical holder, so it is not.  Thirteen stripes does not divide well.  I was struggling whether to have all the holder on the white part or to have the last holder on the red stripe making the bottom section three stripes tall instead of two.  I decided to put the lowest ledge on the red strip for any of the larger coins.  The next design point was the size.  The customer gave a general dimension of 24x36”.  Thank goodness for the internet because there is a flag calculator there.  I played with the stripe dimension and came up with 1 ½” stripe width.  This gave me 19 ½” x 37”.  Part of me wanted to make this as close to a regulation flag as possible.

The big lesson learned in this project is that you cannot bend bow and cup out of a board no matter the size and number of clamps.  I had maple piece that had about 3/16” of bow along the glue edge.  This was a 1 1/8” wide strip going into a large pane.  I thought that I could clamp and glue it out.  Each piece that I glued to it took the bow of the maple piece.  I finally got it out with five strips, but it broke with in twelve hours of removing the clamps.  I had to remake the lower section of the flag for one piece that I knew was a problem from the beginning. 

I liked how it turned out and the customer is happy. 

Year in Review 2020

New home, new state, new job are just a few of the "new" things that happened.  There was also a loss of job, a pandemic and a shut down.  This year was very much unpredictable.  I was able to get some woodworking done.  I found a guild that I was going to until meetings were canceled.  I did not find any locations that take handmade toys, so I did not make any.  In August I found out I would be moving again after the school year so I am not as motivated to set roots down and establish the charity connections.

My favorite project was probably the desk.  It did not perfectly as I had hoped, but it is a simple looking desk that is well built.  The other furniture was a nice change of pace to the toys that I was making.  I had the opportunity to make a lot of mortise and tenon joints and work with some really nice cherry.  I also gave my hand tools more of a work out than they are use to.

Tools I picked up this year.  The list is small, but they are large.  I picked up a planer.  Now that I am buying lumber in the rough I have to do more processing.  I picked up the benchtop Dewalt.  It works well for the amount of lumber I use.  I also updated my cordless tools.  My current set did not hold a chare and were only 14v.  I upgraded to the 20v and purchased an additional driver and circular saw.   I now understand why cordless is becoming so popular.  I also purchased a couple of small tools and they were game changers for me.  I bought a Woodpeckers square and ruler.  The company is known for precision tools.  I learned quickly that the big box squares are not square.  Layouts were better and they are enjoyable to work with.  I also purchased a couple of marking tools.  I have also enjoyed using them.

I did not have any new toy designs.  I am not sure where to go at the current time and looking for some inspiration.  The furniture designs are not published.  There are several plans for mission style bedroom furniture.  I did not want to add mine to it.  It was also nice just to make and not worrying about the quality of the drawings and instructions.

From a business standpoint I did ok for what was going on.  My Etsy sales doubled and the interest has increased a lot.  I have received more toy sales that I have "free" shipping on everything. I have had several people reach out about projects and personal designs.  Some I can do others I cannot.  I had to turn business away this year.  Usually I have one or two projects during the holidays this year I had six solid requests.  I was only able to custom make 4 toys.  Winfield has slowed down a lot.  My designs are stale there.  I have thought about reaching out again to add more, but they have not been very responsive in the past.  I have signed up with a startup web page that just sells plans.  Traffic is light right now but time will tell.

I am not sure what next year is going to bring except another move, another lumber yard, hopefully another club.  

A year of cleaning the Kitchen

 I made it a goal this year to clean the kitchen every Saturday for an entire years.  I just want to preface this post with "this is not a cleaning post and I do not consider myself as an expert cleaner. "  I will never say "it is not clean until..."  because most likely I didn't do it.

I will start with the assumption "If I tell everyone that I am cleaning the kitchen every Saturday, everyone will just leave all the dishes for Saturday for me to do."  In part that was true.  My wife did plan dinners depending on what pans were clean towards the end of the week. The kids complained when they had to load the dishwasher, but they always do that.  I also found myself falling into another assumption.  "Do I want to have the fight with the kids to clean the kitchen or do I just wait until Saturday to do it."  It would be easier and less of a fight.  I think that happened just as often.

About the floor.  There are two philosophies that I have heard.  One is that you sweep the floor before cleaning the kitchen so you don't worry about the water that gets on the floor.  The other is that you sweep the floor after you are done, so you can wipe things onto the floor and then sweep it up.  I am efficient (that is what I will call it), so the latter was more appealing.  Besides, sweeping water is like mopping the floor, right?

When I cleaned was determined early on.  I tried to clean the kitchen before the kids woke up.  This way it was done before the breakfast dishes and before the three tornados come through.  Later in the day made it hard to get the motivation to do it.  I also made a point to clean the kitchen before I did any woodworking in the garage.  It is the philosophy of get what you don't want to do first.  I was hoping that my kids would get this concept.  They did not.

I hoped that this goal would do a couple of things.  The first would be a cleaner kitchen and it did that pretty well.  If I had done the deeper cleans periodically it would be better, but I am lazy.  I hoped it would set an example of work for my kids and show them to get things done early and consistently makes the job easier.  That did not happen.  They still do not understand why they have to do things they hate to do.   I was also hoping that with a clean kitchen the rest of the house would not be too bad so we could invite other over to meet new friends.  I think everyone knows how that went in the year 2020.

I don't know if I will continue this through the next year.  It was a good thing for me to do and it was somethings that I could accomplish over and over again.  What will next year bring, I don't know.

Anderson Family 2020

 

Dear Friends and Family,

We had all intentions of writing a Christmas letter this year.  Well, that did not happen just like the family pictures we wanted to take.  This year did not turn out like we had expected but there are many things that we are be grateful for.

This year was going to be a new section, not just a chapter, in the Anderson household.  I received a job offer that moved the family at the beginning of the year.  We moved across the country and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  The move went surprisingly well.  We were able to purchase a home in a sought-after community. We are very happy where we are.  So here is an update on the family.  We will be omitting the names of the kids because this is going on a public site

I am back working for American Woodmark after a brief time at idX. I was able to find a woodworking club until March, but they did not have any toy drives.  I have made some toys, but I have been focusing on building bedroom furniture this year.  I have had my best year on Etsy, and there has been a lot of inquiries in the neighborhood.

Katie had been keeping herself busy by being a fulltime stay-at-home teacher and mother.  She recently started teaching English to Chinese kids though the online program VIP kid.  She is really enjoying it and the kids seem to like her also. 

Number one is enjoying himself in middle school.  He has joined the strategic games club at school and is mastering the ninja rope outside.  He enjoys climbing things even though he cannot always get down.  He is getting taller everyday and staying healthy.  We are hoping he will be able to run track in the spring.

Number 2 probably had the hardest time with the pandemic because he needs to be around people.  He is doing will when he is in school and with others.  He enjoys Legos and Minecraft.  The best thing that has happened out here for him is all the bugs he has been finding and all the animals.

Number three is definitely the youngest and thinks he can get away with anything.  When he is in trouble, he turns on the charm.  This works on everyone else but his parents.  He is enjoying the First grade and doing everything that his brothers are doing.  He is becoming quite the reader

This year we have been able to visit the Natural History museum, Air and Space Museum, and the National Zoo.  With social distancing the crowds have been lite, and the hands-on exhibits have been closed.  We are liking it here on the east coast.  The pandemic has made it difficult to make friends and meet people, but we have overcome despite the challenges.

Hope you and your families have a happy holidays and stay safe.

With Much Love,