Sunday, May 3, 2009

The "All Mine" project

This weekend I did something really cool. I built something!

RJ found a cool plan for an outdoor flower pot stand in one of his handyman magazines. He asked if I thought he should make it. "Sure," I said. Then he thought about it and suggested I make it instead since he's tied up in about three different projects right now. So I did!

We went to Menard's yesterday and bought the materials - a bunch of cedar 1 x 2's. Then today while Hailey was napping I made the cuts on the chop saw. See Exhibit A (me rockin' the safety glasses).

Exhibit A -->
(Bonus: I still have all 10 of my fingers! Woo hoo!)

Then after the cuts were made, I dry fit the project. (For all you woodworking rookies that means I laid the project out with no glue or nails to make sure all of the pieces fit.) Oh my goodness....I'm such a dork. See Exhibit B.









<--Exhibit B











The next step was to assemble the project. I glued the wood at all of the intersections and inserted two nails at each intersection. And the best part? I got to use RJ's nail gun! See Exhibit C.





Exhibit C -->
(Yes. It is as fun as it looks!)










And after about 3 hours of work, I'm happy to say the project is on my front porch. Flower pots coming soon.

I'll be the first to admit I'm not thrilled to work outside my comfort zone. In other words, I'll usually let RJ do the manly projects. My projects consist of re-organizing the cabinets or cleaning out the pantry.

But this project was fun! RJ was really good about standing back and letting me "do my thing" unless I asked for his help. (Which I did. Many times.)

If you're interested in making this too, email me for the plan. If I can do it so can you. Trust me!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go, Jen, I love the pictures! Oh, and I'm SO GLAD you still have all 10 fingers!!
Your finished projects looks great :)

Nata-Leigh (Lubbock's Mom) said...

WOW! I am really, really, really impressed. I am much better at supervising and telling people what they're doing wrong! (i.e. "Kevin ... you're turning left ... lefty loosey, not lefty tighty!")

Just Jules said...

You tough girl! I love you even more now!

Hey - come over to my humble little place and answer the question "I am..." today - or go one step further and enter the contest (see the details at the post) bring your friends with you ;)