Community Brag Posts

About 6 months ago the husband and I purchased a foreclosure for dirt cheap, hoping to rehab it into something livable. It turned out to be a total gut job. So much of the budget was blown on the big stuff--roof, electrical, water, plumbing, that we've really had no choice but to figure out how to do much of the work ourselves with occassional assistance from my son-in-law, a general contractor who lives 400 miles away.
Although he did most of the basic sheetrocking I decided that I was going to build my own closet. After all, how hard could it be. I got it framed out and sheetorcked. Between the low ceilings in the room and the fact that I mismeasured the door frame height, I wasn't able to put in standard doors. But that's okay, I think I like these better.
Thank you, ladies, for giving me the courage to tackle some of these jobs that need doing. I've learned a lot of new skills, done things I never thought I would ever do...and love the feeling that so much of myself is going into making this house my home.

This was a fun project to build. I did change somethings around. I used plexiglass on all doors instead of plywood and it turned out great. Took a lot longer than planned but in the end it was worth it!

It had come time to renovate our powder room bathroom. We were on a tight budget so we decided to build our own vanity & add a little twist to it! We splurged on the granite countertop, vessel sink  and faucet. Thanks to Ana White we built our vanity for less than $10! The plans were easy to follow . . . .we are so proud of our wood vanity!  link to our blog: http://www.houseofrumours.com/shiplap-powder-room-diy-vanity/

Used rustic x coffee table design for base. Used paint scheme someone else used in brag post. Made giant cribbage board top from redwood slab. Majority of time involved sanding slab which came rough and finishing the polyurethane. 

I was searching for a table and chairs for my son's playroom, and I could not believe the prices! I had just purchased a new saw for some moulding projects around the house, and then I found this site. This table and chair was my first wood working project, and they turned out great! I followed the plans for the Clara table, but used a combination of the 4 dollar chair and modern angle chair. I loved how the chair turned out. I am currently working on the second. I used poplar instead of pine which increased the cost. I wanted a weathered finish, I ended up using water-based walnut stain over a white wash. I am so happy I found this site, my next project is patio furniture.

I needed a garden shed (for potting supplies) and a dog house, but I wanted it to look good. I started with Ana's plans, but screwed up a cut and was too lazy to go to the store, so I modified the plan a bit - also we didn't want a lot of venting off the roof.

OUR MODIFICATIONS:
NO BACK WALL - I did not build a back wall, as we pushed it all the way up to the house. (You need to check your codes for this if it's allowed. The way I'm integrating mine w/o breaking the exterior waterproofing of the house and it's unconditioned made mine OK)

DOG HOUSE- I cut away a hole for our dog between the battens. And as you can see - he loves it. He's got his Coolaroo dog bed inside. We also added a 'ceiling' to the lower dog house half, that divides the gardening storage from dog house. The large shelf inside that acts as a dog house ceiling, and above are my un-used pots, hand tools etc. (no worries no chemicals with the puppy)

PAINTED EXTERIOR- I painted it red to match the house, and will also be putting garden pavers in front of the doors.

ROOF- We did put an underlayment down on the roof before the asphalt shingles.

LESSON LEARNED- If your dog is a Mama's boy like mine, he may try to climb a ladder to remove you from a roof which he has determined is not OK for you to be up there.

*One concern is - most sidewalks slope away from the house, so we had to shim the sill plate so front of the shed doesn't lean outward causing the doors to pull open constantly. As you can see from the photo I still need to flash at the roof where we cut back our houses' battens.

COST- We live in CA - and this project was more expensive than anticipated, our lumber/roof shingle costs were around $270 alone, and keep in mind we didn't build a back panel. I have very little scrap left over too. When I was nearly done the hinges were an additional $15 a piece, $10 for the latch. And we had the primer and paint in the garage. Underlayment for roof, I already had in the garage too.

TIM-: I started this project on a weekend, but it ended up taking longer; probably because I didn't block out the weekend just for this project. I spread it over the course of a month, so hours wise it probably wasn't as bad as it felt... You do need two people though, and that's where I ran into some trouble, I kept trying to work on it when my husband wasn't home. Probably 24hrs, 3 easy going days. Could probably be done in a weekend if you were dedicated and didn't get distracted (or screw up a cut like I did, which sent me to the drawing board to fix my mistake)

I used these plans and modified the height to create functional countertop and shelving in my garage. I added a little face framing too. Thank you for the inspiration Ana!

I made this table to go next to an outdoor grill to be used as a food prep area or just a surface for holding ingredients (instead of using the deck railing!). The top is stainless steel which fits tightly over 2 3/4" pieces of plywood laminated together. The bar/handle in front is made out of galvanized pipe. All wood was treated.

Legs - 4x4 posts
Bottom shelf - 1x6's
Sides - 1x4's
Top - 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood laminated together with a stainless steel top (custom fit) over top
Towel bar - galvanized pipe (cut and threaded to size at Lowe's), floor flanges and 90 degree elbows

I'm so happy to have found your site! I've been wanting a potting bench for a while. Today the Hubs and I built this one in Daffodil Yellow! It is only partially painted, but I already love it! The hubs wants to build a modified one for his heavy electronics equipment. Thanks a Bunch!

When I showed my husband the plans for this playhouse loft bed on Ana's site, he decided that we needed to build it for our daughter for Christmas. We combined the two plans for the Playhouse & the stairs and modified it slightly to fit our space. We had left-over carpet which we used on the stairs. She absolutely LOVES it!! And secretly, I think her 3 older brothers do, too. Thanks SO much, Ana!!

Modified the classic bunk bed plans to fit crib size matresses for our 1.5 & 2 year old girls, loved how my toddler bunk beds turned out! 

This was a Christmas gift for our three girls. They each have an American Girl-like horse. I saw all the stables in the brag section with double stalls. But I decided to make it into a triple stall instead. It didn't add much to the cost of the project and only took a little longer to complete.

I added some hooks on the outside of the stalls so they could hang the bridle. Our girls love it.

followed your instructions for the "Essential Platform Bed Frame" -- made this as a king. 2x6's for all legs/center supports with mitered corners for a simple added style. only suggestion/modification is the the #of slats you suggested (10) is way too few, I ended up using 15 or more

Also, used the circle-corners instead of mitering because all our doorframes in the house have that type of corner, and then I wouldn't have to "match" the leaf design where the mitered corners meet

Thanks for your guide!

Jake in Spokane

Custom cedar raised gardens installed for a deck railing

Urban Wood Solutions