Sink or Sail: Healing My Heart, My Home ... And a Sailboat: April 2016

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The Coffee Table Project

Finally Finished

Holy Cow - the coffee table is FINALLY finished.

When did I start on it? Mid March I think. That's when I started painting layers of poly-acrylic on the gas station sign I acquired. I bought the iron legs on E-bay months before that?

Here it is and then I'll tell you how many steps it took -- a lot of them unnecessary, but hey, I got there! And now I can say I built this lovely, quirky piece of furniture!

The table began as a termite eaten sign that appeared at my place sometime early last year from I don't know where. At first I thought I wanted to hang it on the wall, but then I decided a coffee table would be a great use for it.

It sat out on the lanai until a little over a month ago when I began sanding the edges. Then I needed to seal it and make it more user friends (i.e. no splinters for my guests) I started with a wipe-on polyurethane but quickly discovered that wasn't going to be enough unless I wanted to wipe on about 40 coats. I did not want.

A little Internet research turned up poly-acrylic - a bit thicker coverage and more water proofing than the wipe-on poly. Off to Ace.

I "polyed" every few hours for a couple of days and sanded in between until I had probably 10 layers on top and sides and 5 on the underside.

It was time to figure out how to attach the legs, which meant the table sat put together but unattached for a couple of weeks until I had time to get to it.

And then I told you about putting the screws all the way through the sign and then the first gluing attempt to put wood underneath on which to attach the legs. Well, that glue didn't hold. One piece of wood came off as I was attaching the legs with screws.

Back to Ace (I could make commercials for them at this point). I chose Liquid Nails - or the better version and possibly original of that product - an Ace employee confirmed my selection. I painted the thick goo on the wood two nights ago and let it set - underneath my heavy cast-iron skillets (I'm not a professional - I improvise).

The stuff

The pans again

This morning

Pretty proud of my little project. I hadn't built anything before. I'm sure there are 10 ways I could have done it better or more quickly - it's finished and I'm extremely happy with it. So - yay!

Now, back to this thing:

B and friend Karl each separately told me to chuck it or send it back. I'll keep you posted.

Friday, April 22, 2016

Told You I Was Going to Saw Something

Good Thing the Pieces Don't Have to be Symmetric

I said I was going to use the borrowed circular saw yesterday to move my coffee table project forward - and use it I did. I'll show you in pictures.

Plywood, circular saw.

After cutting the length.

Two pieces from one. Um totally uneven.

I was promised at Ace that this would hold.

Mix it up and slap it on the wood after careful measurements.

Had to hold down the slightly warped plywood with SOMETHING.

While the wood gently dried...

I attempted to assemble a file cabinet - this is as far as I got.

A little video of my pain:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B82TQhwgihNkSGY1R0c4ck5FQzQ

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid - Of Me And Another Power Tool

This Is Going to Happen Today

Circular saw borrowed from Karl

To be Cont'd

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Learning Experiences - Otherwise Known as Mistakes

If You Don't Fail, You Aren't Trying? Let's Go With That

My mom calls mistakes "learning experiences." My sisters and I often use this phrase to describe daily events.

Among my latest learning experiences is the recent discovery that the trim I was so proud of installing in my powder room is neither square nor plumb and must be repeated - for a second time. I didn't even check or measure for squareness or plumbness - I was so focused on learning how to use my Brad nailer.

I'm not a builder or woodworker or craftswoman of any kind - as you know. A visit from electrician brother-in-law Brad uncovered the problem when he offered to cut the top piece for me. Brad, my sister Summer's husband, showed me how to cut a 45-degree angle and how to measure properly before I cut - not that I'm going to remember any of this now that it has been a few weeks.

Brad fit the top piece in between the two side pieces that as you may recall I nailed up there - twice since the nails I used first were too long and scratched the pocket door - oh vey! When Brad laid the top piece in, it was clear that everything around it was crooked!

My brother-in-law explained why and how to fix it. As Brad, Summer, kids and friend were on vacation, I didn't beg him to help me.

The crookedness remains:

Another Learning Experience

Weeks later, after a trip to Houston for the men's NCAA Final Four basketball tournament and a 3-day hospital stay with food poisoning when I returned to Florida, I tried to finish my coffee table. I apparently didn't understand what Steve at Ace had in mind when he sold me screws and washer - not until after I had drilled all the way through the sign I worked so hard to protect with poly acrylic, and after I went back to Ace for longer screws and nuts - why didn't you sell me nuts, I asked.

Richard made my mistake clear without realizing that's what he was doing. A light bulb went off as this fatherly figure talked through the process. I shook my head and hung it in embarrassment when I realized I was meant to put the small screws in from the back of the sign with the washers without going all the way through to connect the metal legs. "But it's too late, I drilled through the table, " I told Richard.

"That's ok," he said. "It can be fixed." He went on to explain "plastic wood" and that I can fill the holes with the plastic wood and then glue some thin wood pieces to the bottom and connect the legs through that wood instead of through the sign.

This big screw sticking out isn't the look I'm going for

So I have those mistakes to fix and projects to finish. Nothing is ever simple. That's OK - life isn't either. Mistakes are fixable almost no matter how bad they are - almost.

*A side note:
Illness is great way to to learn more about someone you are dating. And about yourself when that person is sick. B and I passed with big bright flying colors. While I was in the hospital, B was amazing and after I got out - even when he caught a stomach bug and we were stuck in my house together for 3 days trying our best to take care of one another.

We managed to get out to see the sunset on the third night. I managed to get to yoga with my muscleless muscles yesterday.

I was lucky my parents were still in town too - they are wonderful.

I was and am lucky for great friends - Kate who took me flying Friday night; Jess who made me gluten-free Chex mix and gave me all her unexpired gluten-free food and brought B and I Gatorade and sweet potatoes when we were sick; and Lisa who has great ideas about my other belly troubles and has encouraged this gluten-free, non-dairy eating (despite my grumping about it, it's a great idea and she's just trying to help me).