Today we built shelves in Noah's room. Barn wood stained the same color as our trim, with pipes holding up the shelves. Noah was a great helper.
I wanted to give my home office a slight industrial feel so I decided to build myself a desk using metal piping as the framing material. I browsed around on the internet and found some ideas and then sketched out my design. It would have two shelves on one side and a single shelf on the other. Here is my initial design sketch.
First, I went onto Zoro.com to order black metal 1" piping. Because I had different structures on each side (2 shelves vs 1) I guessed at my pipe lengths to make the entire puzzle go together. I wasn't quite sure how the fittings and threads would match up to the pipe lengths, but figured I would give it a go.
Once the pipe and fittings arrived, I cleaned them with a de-greaser so that my hands would not get as dirty but also mainly so that when it came time to paint that the paint would adhere to the metal better. Here are all my ordered parts based on my plan above.
Next I started putting the parts all together. My part count requirements were dead on, however my fear about the fitting design on one side possibly not matching the other were realized, and one portion of my desk ended up being about 2 inches too long.
So I went back onto zoro.com and bought a couple of 4" pieces instead of the current 6" pieces to hopefully correct and make everything match. This time I got it right!
Next I needed to build the top. My goal was to build the top and the shelves from reclaimed barn wood. I found a place south of Bend in La Pine and went down and picked out some awesome old 2x8's for the top and 1x12's for the 3 shelves. Here are the 4 2x8's after some sanding. One of the pieces was actually the edge of a tree so decided to use that for the front edge of the desk. Note the great old cut marks from a large circular saw when they were originally cut. Next I put clear polyurethane on them to harden the surface and bring out the grain/color better. I ended up putting 3 coats on the top.
Meanwhile I took the pipe frame and painted it a hammered brown by Rust-oleum.
Now with the frame and the top both complete, I put them together! I used some 1x6's to tie the desk top pieces together and also attach the metal pipe flanges to the desk top.
Lastly I took the old reclaimed 1/x12's, and did some minimal sanding just to get the burs off the wood. Since they are shelves only and not a work surface, wasn't as worried about getting them smooth. I cut them to length to rest on the pipe framing and gave them a couple coats of clear polyurethane. They turned out really nice with a very rustic look.
Here is the finished Product in my office!
I took these this morning as the moon was setting over the mountains and the sun was rising. The moon looks huge as it gets closer to the ground.
Some great shots of the mountains from our back window over the past week on some cold winter mornings. The first is actually sunrise with the moon above the mountains. The moon is actually setting here as the sun rises behind.
The second is also sunrise from today with some great color in the sky.
There isn't much of a hill in our back yard, but with so much snow the kids have had fun sledding off the back steps. I even gave it a try.
Honey do list #1 - Clear snow from roof
With all the recent snow, there have been lots of stories of leaking roofs and even some roofs collapsing (here is one at a local elementary school) So, with Kevin home we decided we should clear some of the snow from our roof. There was enough snow in spots to allow for jumping off the roof!
Relaxing day at home on Christmas eve. In the afternoon we watched 'A Christmas Story'. Kids had never seen it before. We then had soup for dinner before heading to church for a candlelight service. As is tradition, kids got new jammies which they all sported!
Despite the many boxes that still need to be unpacked, we managed to put our Christmas tree up. Kevin surprised the kids and as we drove up the hill tonight and saw it brightly lit. The kids can't wait to decorate it. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at the Donaldsons!
Tonight is the third Sunday in Advent. Tonight's candle is rose color, and it stands for the JOY we feel as we wait for Jesus to be born.
As we get closer to our move in and the weather continues to get cooler I am still cutting and stacking wood as there is time. Today my helper was PJ!
