Day Before the Dig - My Thoughts

Tomorrow is the big day!  Tomorrow is dig day.  A day that we have planned for and waited for and talked about and dreamed about for about 10 years.  Granted, those first 8 years, thoughts of the new house were more in the background but, as I have said before, we always said that we would live in this house 10 years and then move into our country home.  When we said that we had no idea we would be blessed with 5 children nor did we think that God would be calling more children into our hearts and home through adoption or fostering.  When we said 10 years, we only knew that we were country people at heart and a country property was something we wanted with space to move and breathe and play without eyes watching from every side.  I love how God takes those little dreams or little ideas and can turn them into something bigger and better and wilder than you ever imagined.  The last 2 years have been more focused on what this new house will look like and what God's purposes are for this house.  And as we have been thinking and planning and praying and talking, God has taken the dream of this house and is turning it into a reality for His glory and for His honor.  We know that God has big plans for our family and big plans for our hearts and this house is a vitally important step. 

This little place we call home now is a treasure to us, brought to us at just the right time for just the right price.  It was almost exactly what we would have picked for ourselves as a young married couple had we the chance to design the home ourselves.  We love this place.  It will always hold so many memories of love and tears, conversations, the births of all our children, schooling them, teaching them just as they teach us, growing in our marriage and listening to all the things the Lord has taught us and the Lord is continuing to teach us.  This house is a treasure.  But this house is too small.  As long as we live in this house, our 3 year-old will continue to sleep on a crib mattress on the floor and all 3 girls will share a 9x9 bedroom.  The "laundry room" is also the mechanical room and also the "craft room" and is a constant disaster.  Storage space is seriously lacking . . . well, I could go on.  This house was never designed for 7 people.  But we are thankful.  We are so thankful.  We have a home with a roof over our heads, we have beds for our children, we have a washer & dryer and everything else we need to live a rich and full life.  We are beyond blessed and rarely will you hear us complain about our home.  We love it!  But this home was given to us for a season and that season is coming to an end. 

Tomorrow starts the beginning of a new season in our life.  A new chapter is this book we are writing.  Tomorrow the excavator arrives on site and starts digging the hole for the basement.  And tomorrow the hopes and dreams for this new season start to become reality.  I cannot help but wonder how it will go.  How will I be during this season?  Who will I be?  I wonder - will things get chaotic?  I wonder - will we be stressed beyond what we can imagine?  I wonder - how will Jay and I interact with each other over all the details that make a house a reality?  How will each day work itself out practically?  At the end of the building season, will we still be having fun or will we be so tired of the house and of each other?  While there are many questions that remain and will only be answered over the course of the next number of months, of this I am certain - the Lord will walk with us through this time just as He has been so faithfully walking with us these past 10 years in this home and all the years before that.  He has not brought us to this point on this path just to abandon us to our own devices.  He will walk with us every step of the way and when we are challenged and when we are stressed and when we don't know what to do, He will be there providing strength and wisdom and maybe an occasional rain day just so we can rest.  I know that life will be a little messy and unpredictable and schedules will go out the window, but I have this picture in my mind that, in time, I will be standing in a completely gorgeous kitchen crying, overwhelmed by the gracious generosity of an amazing Father who has blessed us with more than we deserve and even more than we imagined.  Just as when we were planning our wedding almost 13 years ago, we will go through this building process the way we try to go through every day, with the intention of honoring God and all those around us with our words and our attitudes so that at the end, we will not regret saying anything or doing anything, knowing God is pleased with our hearts. 

Later on today, Jay and I will spend time in prayer at the building site, dedicating the next days and weeks and months to the Lord, asking for His hand of blessing yet again.  I feel that this is a time when He is asking me, "What do you want Me to do for you?".  I feel humbled and honored that the Lord would use me, use Jay and I, to do a work only He can accomplish.  So, now that we are a little less than 24 hours away from actually starting to build, focus is hard to find.  The boys still have school work to finish, the laundry still needs to be washed, food still needs to be made and life continues on.  I would like to spend all my time at the site, thinking and praying and dreaming and watching God's hand at work.  And yet, He is still at work here in my heart right now, still trying to refine me into the woman He wants me to be, the mother He wants me to be, the teacher He wants me to be, the wife He wants me to be.  I have so far to go in my walk with Him, so much more to learn and I am beyond grateful that He never leaves me even when I mess up.  Though my intention is to honor Him with all my words and actions, I have far to go in perfecting that.  And still, in my brokenness, the Lord uses me.  I know that we will look back on this time and marvel at all we accomplished because of the Lord.  All because of Him.  So, I invite you along for the journey.  I invite you to watch as the Lord moves in marvelous ways to help us build this dream.  I will document as much as I can, not so much for your benefit, but for ours.  So we can look back on this time and remember every detail along the way, every way in which God provided again and again and again.  With that said, let the building begin!

Summer Woodworking Projects

At this time of the year, I always tend to get a little antsy for the warmer I weather I KNOW is just around the corner. We have already celebrated Ari's and RJ's birthdays and Pepe's birthday is in the middle of March, just about 3 weeks away. The day after Pepe was born, it was so nice outside, we went for a walk with him tucked inside my jacket. It was the beginning of spring and every year is the same. Right around his birthday the sun shines, the snow melts and my excitement grows. Usually I cannot wait to get into the garden but this year I cannot wait to kick the vehicles out of the garage and get started on some projects. Next year at this time, we should be in the process of building our house. That is the plan anyway. And there are some things that I can make this summer as I won't have time next summer. The major projects this year are beds. 3 to be exact. Ari doesn't own a bed and will need something when we move and the boys bunkbeds are in rough shape. I want to make them each a new bed. So, the plan is to have Ari and Ali share a room and use the bunkbeds the girls currently use. RJ will get a new bed for her own room and this is the bed I will make for her. Check it out - it is just beautiful! It is called the Fancy Arched Bed and I know she will love it. So feminine! I will have to modify it slightly as the pattern is for a queen bed but I only need a twin.

The boys will each get their own room and I will make them the same bed. It is called the Fancy Farmhouse Bed and I really love the simple yet slightly fancy look of it. I am not sure yet if I will make a matching footboard or leave it with just a headboard. I will have to ponder that a little. Once again, I will change it from a queen bed to a twin.

Next summer will see me creating lockers for the mudroom, shelving and cabinets for the laundry room, office and school room. It will be busy! What I can do ahead of time, I certain will. And these beds will be just the thing to satisfy my building itch! Do you have any plans to build something this summer? Please, do share!!

Bathroom Wall Cabinet

I have been lamenting the lack of storage in our upstairs bathroom for some time. I really wanted to buy some sort of wall cabinet that was dark in color, had frosted glass doors and was big enough to hold a good selection of necessities without being monstrous. And it couldn't cost a small fortune. Yeah, good luck with that. So, me thinks, I could build one. Really, how hard could it be. Then Sandra, of Sawdust and Paper Scraps fame (if you haven't checked out her blog, you really should. I tell you, that girl can build anything. Any.Thing.), decides to host a Build{Hers} Club party and gives me the push I need to design, build and finish that wall cabinet I couldn't find. And, it cost far less than a fortune!

It started out with this - a few lines on graph paper.

Then I headed out the the big box hardware store and bought some primed pine in 1"x6"x7' lengths, a few pieces of trim, some crown moulding, some hinges, knobs and various other things to complete this project. Since I decided to use 1"x6" thicknesses of wood, my cabinet is 5 1/2" deep, which suits me just fine. I wanted it about 32" high and 20" wide. Sandra gives explicit details on how to build a cabinet, how to make cabinet doors, how to make many other things. I spent a lot of time checking out those posts, printing pictures and posts, just to ensure I had the hang of this thing. Then I decided to do it differently. Rather than butt joining the top and side pieces (okay, that sounds wierd - you know, just butting the pieces up against each other?) I cut grooves with my new router. I grooved the top, the bottom and where the middle shelf joins the side pieces. The pictures show what I mean.

Then I used a simple measuring tape and pencil (note to self - find a shelf hole cutting guide [or some pegboard, as Sandra suggests!]) and marked where I wanted to drill the holes on the inside of each side piece so the shelves could be adjustable. Once those holes were drilled, I glued and nailed the top, bottom and middle shelf to the sides. It was at this point the other "hers" in my life decided this was a group project and came to help out. Ari wants to know where the screws are so she can use the screwdriver for something other than a weapon.

Ali is trying on all the different ear protectors we have (she likes this one best as it plays the radio!).

RJ is actually helping and is my official glue-girl. She did a great job!

I wanted to jazz up the sides of the cabinet and the front of each shelf so I used my miter box to cut some molding.

Once again, I glued and nailed it on (I think the nail gun must be one of my favorite tools, along with the compound miter saw!)

I cut 2 shelves and then I used some scrap wood to cut the two mounting bars that run across the back of the cabinet. I know, normally you would only use one but I knew I would be not able to span the width of 2 studs with this cabinet placement. By putting a brace on the top and the bottom, I could screw into the same stud but in two different places, ensuring good strength.

I used some scrap wainscot as the backing for this cabinet. I didn't have one piece that was large enough to go over the whole thing so I used 2 pieces instead, making sure to line it up. It will be behind doors and will be less noticeable once painted.

So, that's the carcass of the cabinet and it was really easy to do. Now on to the doors.

Sandra talks about using a router to groove the rails and stiles in order to add a wainscot panel. I was doing something similar except I was putting in glass. And I used dowel joinery. So, first I cut the rails and the stiles (tops and sides of the door panel).

Then, using the new Wolfcraft Dowel jig I bought, I very carefully drilled holes in the appropriate places on the rails and stiles. The instructions are quite clear on how to do it. It really is simple. I have only 2 complaints. First, I don't have a proper place to clamp my wood pieces while drilling. Second, the jig doesn't work the greatest for thin pieces of wood. My rails and stiles are only 2" wide, leaving little room to use the jig. It would have worked wonderfully for a larger piece of wood. Nonetheless, I made it work.

This is what the frame of the cabinet door looked like before I glued and clamped it in place. I used 2 dowels at each joint on one door and only 1 dowel at each joint on the other door. I wanted to see if it would make that much of a difference. I like how it lined up better with 2 dowels but it is trickier to do given the small size of the rails and stiles. Now I know.

Then, since I was installing glass, I ordered the glass pieces now that I knew what size I needed. I found out they were 1/8" thick so I routered a groove on the backs of the door panels that was 2/8" thick to accommodate the glass. Once that was done, I glued and clamped the door together. I love those clamps. They certainly can make anything look so much better!

I wanted to have frosted glass so I bought a can of window frosting and sprayed many coats on those pieces of glass. My opinion? If there are options for different glass from the glass company and the difference in price is minimal from the plain glass, get the pretty glass. Spraying it is a pain and totally uneven and I was not the most impressed with it. But it is alright now, I guess.

So, once the doors were assembled (minus the glass), I filled all the holes and painted and painted. Once all the painting was done, I installed the glass on the doors. All I did was lay the doors on their faces with the wrong side up, laid the glass panel in that groove then run a bead of door and window silicone around it. I used my little handy-dandy silicone tool to make a nice clean bead. I love that thing! Best thing ever!

While I was waiting for that to dry, I hung the cabinet (minus the doors) on the wall all by myself (okay, well, I did this whole thing by myself but that was most impressive)! Then I added the hinges to the doors and the doors to the cabinet. I added the pretty little knobs. I installed a magnetic door catch.

Then, last but not least, this morning I added the crown moulding on top to give it that completed look!

All in all, I am quite impressed with myself and thrilled with the amount of new storage we have. I am very critical of myself so some things I really need to improve on. If I am going to be building many things for the new house, I need projects like this to practice on. After all, practice makes perfect. I am far from perfect but I am certainly happy with how this turned out! Thanks for all the encouragement, Sandra, and for answering all my questions! I really appreciate it!

Now check out all the other Build{Hers} and Modern Craftswomen and DIYers!

I'm Joining the Build{Hers} Club!

So, just before our vacation, Sandra announced she was having a Build{Hers} Club project week!

I knew exactly which project I was going to make and her deadline of next week was just the motivation I needed (especially since I knew that I would only be starting after we got back from vacation!). So, I am in process and will leave you a few photos as hints before the great reveal next week! Hey, maybe if you have a project you need to complete, this is the motivation you need! Come join us!