Project Days

     The project days with my friends S&N have continued throughout the summer, but there haven't been as many picture-worthy elements to share here. Following the success of our coat trees, N and I thought we'd make Adirondack chairs, one for each of us. On the first project day we sat down with our chosen plans, and started working out how much cedar we'd need to buy. After a half hour of calculations and some phone calls to the specialty wood provider, I started comparing the projected cost of the wood to the cost of a kit. The kit turned out to be more than $100 cheaper per chair, probably because the guy making them buys his wood in bulk and knows how to cut carefully and not waste anything. N and I agreed that it wasn't worth a $100 extra to spend months making them. By the next project day we had our kits, which we assembled in about four hours.
     The only unforeseen difficulty was the carpenter bees that live on my front porch. As soon as I got my chair home, I realized I couldn't leave an unfinished chair on the porch, when the bees have been munching on the existing chairs all summer. So right now it is residing in my living room while I figure out what finish will withstand hungry bees.
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     I've also helped out with S&N's kitchen. This is a long-term remodeling project, in which I've practiced hanging drywall (it's easy to cut but oh-so-heavy), painting ceilings, and sanding moldings. There have been relatively few disasters on this project, although I did do touch-up painting with the wrong color, requiring touch-up on my touch-up. In my defense, I used the paint I was instructed to use. This was a good lesson in labeling all old paint with the exact room/wall it was used on.