My Current Household Projects

This is a page dedicated to whatever I am currently working on (usually some project on my house). This current page has projects that I had done on our house in Vermont. We have since moved (2003), so I'll have to update accordingly once we get going on projects in the new house. So far I have built some shelving in the garage and created some raised garden beds. Maybe I'll post some pictures soon.

Basement Renovation

I have finished most of the major work to make living space out of a barren basement. There is now a small guest bedroom, a play area, a craft area, a storage area and a workshop (yay!). This diagram, printed using a CAD program on my PC, was the plan I worked from.

Here is a picture of the basement before I started work on it. Click on the small picture to see a larger one. If you have viewed the diagram (above), the picture shows the basement looking from right to left at the lally columns (which is now covered by a wall). The finished basement still needs some work, like adding some furniture. ;-) I am currently finishing up a storage/craft area under the stairs. It's a 6' countertop I got at Home Depot for $40 and I built a base cabinet to put under it. I made some shelves up into the apex of the triangular space on both sides to store excess canned goods, etc. Next I will be putting something in the space next to the stairs. I haven't figured out what yet though. Maybe a row of base cabinets and cupboards with a counter top? Hmmm....decisions decisions...

Porch Swing

I also finished making a porch swing ('98). I got plans from a book I found at Barnes and Noble and made the swing out of Cypress wood. It came out really nice -- I finished it with Danish Oil finish I had handy, which soaks in and won't peel or crack. I hung the swing from the ceiling of the front porch with 1/2" nylon rope.

Window Repair

This summer ('99), I have done some repair to some windows on the house that have rotted. The house was built in 1988-1989, so this shouldn't be happening. Well, when I took the windows out, I found that the builder had sprayed that expanding foam under the sills presumably to insulate and seal the bottom of the window. Unfortunately, water had leaked in between the sill and the nose piece that was glued to the front. The foam didn't allow the water to drain out and voilá, wood rot. So, I went to home depot and bought two new, aluminum-clad Pella windows for the front bedroom (see front view of house pic). The old window frames were pretty well rotted away so they had to be replaced anyhow, and the aluminum exterior will be much more weather-resistant. These were $107 each. On the south side of the house, though, I decided to repair the window frames, since new windows would be >$200 each and I'd have to replace at least four of them to make them match. I took out the two rotted ones on Labor Day weekend and bought the wood to repair them. I had them back in the wall in two days and they seem to work/look fine. Just some new exterior trim and it will be good as new. Total cost for these was about $75. It pays to do it yourself! :-)

Backyard Treehouse

There was a treehouse contest this year (2000), sponsored by Charlotte Farm and Mills. They offered free wood to whoever could get a "team" of kids together and build a treehouse by 16 Aug 2000. This is our entry:

In The Hopper

Some other planned projects I haven't started yet, but will this winter (2000), are a corner pantry cupboard in the kitchen, and some standalone bookshelf units for the computer room upstairs. I think I'll make them out of oak. Yeah... oak... that'll do 'er.

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