Community Brag Posts

I was looking for a shed to keep pool towels and other deck and pool items. This shed hit every feature I was looking
for. My husband loved the plans. He's always saying he can build anything with a measured drawing and a
cut list. The only thing we changed was the roofing material. we were given some metal roofing by a friend.

These are just a few of the photos we took while we built our first project. My daughters and I did it over a weekend.
We got 8 pallets from Lowes for FREE, and cut them down to fit two twin sized air mattresses (standard size) from Wal-mart ($15 each). We used about 1.5 pallets for the length, but stacked them two high for a total use of two full pallets, two half pallets, and then the remaining half pallets were used as back supports.
We sanded them after we removed any bad boards or nails.
Then, we used a circular saw to cut them to the appropriate length, added casters to the bottom pallets.
Secured the pallets together with brackets. Secured the back supports together with brackets.
Treated the wood, hated the stain we got at a special price from Menard's, so I decided to cover them with outdoor fabric.
Make the daybed skirts out of a flat sheet and outdoor fabric I got half off at Joanne Fabrics. Haven't sewn in 25 years!
Pretty happy with the first project. Still need to get cuter blankets, but I used what we had in the house.
Pricing:
Pallets free
Brackets and screws came to about $25
I didn't have the circular saw or sander so I had to purchase ($120 with some extra sanding pads)
Fabric $75
Air matresses $32
Sheet sets $20
Total: $275ish but I had sold some of my old patio furniture for $275, so it was a wash! And now, I have a circular saw and an orbital sander! Also, the fabric was optional. Had the pillows at home. Just recovered or took from the storage closet.
Now, onto other pallet projects! I have more pics if needed.

Finally I was able to replace my wobbly little dining chairs with solid wood chairs, thanks to Ana’s Harriet Chair plan. For this build, I made a few mods from Ana’s plan: added a padded seat, made the chair 2” wider, and substituted a slatted back. Used select pine 1x2 instead of 2x2 (really liked that look in the inspiration chair) and used 1x3 for the 2 inner slats on the backs. Also added a few more cross supports. Instead of predrilling pocket holes and hiding the screws, I chose to use the round washer head self-tapping screws and left them visible. This saved time on having to pre-drill and fill screw holes, but also thought the exposed screw heads made a nice decorative element. The seats are covered with 1” thick high density foam, batting, and outdoor fabric. The first of the 4 chairs took longest to make (I made and corrected all my mistakes on that one). The remaining 3 went a lot faster (took about 11 hours total for building the 4 chairs, and 12 hrs total for finishing them). The changes/steps I used are documented in a .pdf file in the second plan post linked above. Ana, thank you for all your wonderful plans. You rock!!!

I adjusted the depth of the bench to accomodate a bath vanity top with sink (from the Habitat reStore). The width was adjusted to allow for 2 feet of workspace to the left of the sink. The overall height was adjusted to my wife's height. The front legs were made longer than the rear to account for the slope of the yard location.

My son is a big Mario nut. And when it came down thinking about a new bed for him we sat down online and started searching for ideas. When we found this bed we both loved it right away. And when i found it was made from plans on Ana- white i was so excited as i have made a few projects already. My son was so happy the whole time this was being made. He was going to have his own castle. Once we finished the build he decided that he had to have a door so i made some curtains and embroidered Mario characters on each one. I let him decorate the inside with Mario stickers and he loves being able to have a Mario level right where he sleeps.

This was my first project from Ana's site. I wanted something simple and cheap to make, so all in all, this project was very simple.
I think I will paint instead of stain next time though as the quality of the wood I purchased from Home Depot wasn't the best.
Very happy with it though, and I'm planning on making more.

I honestly think Ana is a mind reader. Whenever I need plans for a particular piece of furniture, they magically appear on her site. Of course if she was a true mind reader, everything will be exactly as I need it requiring no modifications. That's what makes her plans so amazing. I can build bigger and better because I've learned to modify her plans to fit my current needs.

This Cart was no exception. I had to make mine a few inches deeper and change the height of the legs and it was a piece of cake. I put this together in less than 2 hours and finishing was easy too.

I did a blog post all about what I did differently including how I constructed a towel bar instead of the pipe. Check it out at www.thepursuitofhandyness.com

The need for a proper workbench in my garage/shop is a must, but. So is space! I already have a fold down workbench I’ve made with ¾ inch pipe & a door, but. I just need something that can handle all my tools. So, I stumbled upon these plans from the Family Handyman & couldn’t find a reason why this wouldn’t work in my shop. It has room for storage, can easily accommodate my tools & most importantly fold up to store. Easy to build too! Make sure you read all the plans first as some of the materials could be pricey, but well worth it. Technically it’s taken 2 months to build this bench, as I operate on a firefighter/teacher’s budget & during the holiday season no doubt. I ordered all the shelf standards & brackets through Amazon, $210.00 for those alone, but they hold so much weight to support your tools I figure it’s worth it. The rest materials (wood, screws) were purchased at Home Depot for around $150.00. The plans called for ¾ inch ply & it was $45.00 per sheet. However they did have a smaller thickness for $22.00 per sheet & was only a 1/32 inch thinner. I plan on topping all my surfaces with some ¼ inch tempered hardboard later on so I knew it would work. That also left me adjusting my screw size to mount my brackets. Due to the reduction in thickness of the plywood all my #8-1 inch screws needed to be adjusted to ¾ inch so to not screw through the ply. I also hit the molding isle to nab some pieces to use as furring strips to use under the shelves before attaching the brackets. This way I can sand each strip to match before mounting to make sure it lined up flat with the center top. One more thing; where it says “drill 1/8 inch hole in brackets make sure you use 1/8 inch pop rivets. I barrowed a pop rivet gun & was handed some rivets as well. Popped two & they had to be trashed because the rivet size turned out to be 5/32. So I stepped up in drill bit size & it all worked out. As I said, I’ll be topping it with some ¼ inch hardboard. I also plan to run it’s own electrical with an outlet on each post. I hope you all enjoy & this can help!

I saw this chair and was looking for something for back yard BBQ's I just beefed it up by using 2X3's instead of 2X2's left the measurements the same. I was playing around with Minwax Express Color to see how well it does and I like it helps control Blotching very easy to use except be careful when squeezing the tube or you like me will have a permanent shirt for staining

Great plans allow for versatility and easy customization. Put the whole thing together in a day w/ one other person. My set up is 16' long - 5' on the side shelves and 6' for the workbench. Added a pegboard and fluorescent light under the top middle shelves. I'm also designing a slim drawer to go under the workbencheck area. Thanks a bunch!

I used Ana's plan as a base.

I changed it from 8x8 to 8x12, made the 4x4x8's to 4x4x10' for a higher main platform and swing platform, and added a 12' long monkey bar set to the other side. Also, an 8' climbing wall and a plank walkway to accompany the two slides.

For the clubhouse, I used Hardiplank 4x8 sheets for the siding and an EZ-Framer kit for the structure itself.

The slides I purchased from Lowes, monkey bars from Amazon, and the swing frame braces from Amazon as well. The swing kits I got from ebay.