Playing With Chairs

If you haven't noticed, I don't throw much away.  I certainly have been enjoying the shop since it's cleaned and organized.  Decided to have a go at a couple of chairs that needed repairs.  This was what I found inside the chair after I removed the broken seat.

Bottom of the broken bottom

So a piece of SCRAP wood was found, seat traced, cut and covered.

Notice the new wood in back?  That piece was always missing since my daughter gave me this chair. She knows I love projects.  Hubby came to help me solve this problem.  Again, with a found piece of wood, we traced and cut and fit and refit this piece...three times.  Finally got it in the slots without breaking it!  Good thing, too, because we were on our last piece of this thin wood. Just have to stain it to match and put the chair under the dining room table.

This chair is one of a pair of old office chairs from my screened porch.  I had recovered them with oil cloth but one had gotten wet.  Chip board does not do wet well.  Needless to say a bottom needed replacing.  I was having so much fun I failed to photograph that process.  Solid, recovered and will last much longer since we used plywood.

Always something to do around here.  If you have some spare time, come on over.  I need help.

Recycling/Reusing Feed Sacks

The sacks hold walnuts

and make great landscape fabric.

They make a great recycling bag for the recycling.

They can be unraveled from their current shape as a sack and be sewn by machine to make a large tarp or wind break.  I have seen people cut them into strips and crochet them as rugs. They also make fair insulation in an out building...the insides are white.

Not nearly as wonderful as the cloth sacks much of my childhood clothing and quilts were made with but they still have some interesting purposes.  

Waste not, want not.

In The Beginning

 I gathered

 separated

 cleaned

and dismantled with a plan.

Hubby found the perfect board in the barn behind our lumber stack.  It was a piece of Dad's old cattle salt trough.  I used a wire brush to remove the saw dust from years of exposure to salt while Hubby used his grinder to remove the brads on the old television legs.

The wood grain was beautiful.

A wire brush was used to clean all.  No paint but I can add that later if I want.  What is it?  I did all that just to have a place to throw my shoes when I come in muddy and dirty from outside.

I attached the old television legs for boot holders

The dirt stops here.

I just need to clean the footwear.

Remodeling

For years the other side of the yard

was hand made recycling bins...one for glass sorted by color, one for cans.

Mom and Dad would wait til they had a truck load and recycle them.

We took a while to get all those things recycled but we did and now we can repair what is left. The back side of this fence has been neglected.  Last week I decided a change was over due.

I began by removing the wire (saving it to use elsewhere)

and clearing overgrowth.

Timber!

Could not save this post, rotted at the ground.

Had to set a "new" one.

The corner where the snake was found is stacked and thinned.

All clear except for burning the brush.

Now we can simply mow with no more trimming nor wondering what stump we might hit thanks to the saw.  In the spring tulips, lilies will bloom with a Crepe Myrtle blooming later.  I'm declaring one more back breaking spot done with material on hand

Planting The Carpet....

Remember when I talked about Dating The Plywood?  Well, Tractor Man has not finished that project so I decided to attempt it myself.  After removing the ancient chipboard I balanced to measure an inset and so began the much delayed job of replacing ancient chipboard with plywood. 

My main tools were a pry bar, a hammer, a flat edge screw driver and a pair of tongs.  After removing the ancient carpet from said inset most of the chipboard just dropped.  That's how old it was.  Carpet was all that kept us from falling through in some places.  Lucky this was an extra room and not used much.

You may wonder why I chose these tools.  The hammer and pry bar were used to remove the tack board and the remaining chip board.  The staples were pried up using same tools or with hammering the straight edge screw driver under and prying them out.  The tongs???  To pick up the chip board that had fallen under the floor so I wouldn't have to crawl under there and get even more dirty.

I did not ask for help but Tractor Man cannot stay away when someone is working.  He stood behind me a while (which drives me #### crazy).  After listening to advice on what better tools I should be using I left the room. 

Returning I discovered poor Tractor Man straddling a two by six within the hole I had opened.  I asked politely what happened.  He informed me he slipped and fell and his toes were not touching the ground. I tried not to laugh.  I really did then I offered to help him up.  He decided he might just rest there a minute before climbing out.

I continued to work and Tractor Man brought me loads of power tools to make my life easier.  What he didn't know was I wanted the simplicity the peacefulness of doing it by hand.

I was ready for sawing and placement. He helped then left the room.  I do only one area at a time finish that and move to another.  Inset finished and solid, move to next spot.  Bigger space, pieces tonged into old dog food bags ready to dispose.  Replacement piece measured three times and cut once.

Tractor Man is just dieing to do something.  He had not done any of this since April but now that I am doing it, he's here.

I decided to remove all the carpet and padding and see what I had to repair.  After dragging all this onto the porch, we decided to fill a bad wash with this biodegradable trash.

The bucket runneth over 

Lizzy helped me drive the Ranger

and approved my careful placement

after I had thrown dead limbs and rocks

into the gully.

The old carpet will bring new life

feeding the soil and preventing soil erosion.

Dog approved, the gully is now a nice seeded spot

for late fall and early spring grass.

Now back to that floor to be finished

another day.

Tired Of Weeding My Porch...

Now that is a scary statement, isn't it?  Who in the world has to pull weeds out of their porch?  Me!  I added a rock patio, if it can be called that, to help catch the dirt at the entry of the house a few years ago.  Beginning with one of hubby's wonder offerings of  a huge rock, I worked around and laid rocks in sand.

Using the Quikrete I had stashed here and there, I have weeded and replaced the sand with mortar.  It has not been easy with the temps so high but, by golly, I am almost finished.

Why does hubby bring me these big honking rocks?

Because he loves me, and men think size matters.

It's not level and it's not beautiful but progress in being made.  This small addition has saved me from a lot of dirt tracking into the house...and it's the perfect place to hose off a big rug.

My last bag of Quikrete, hoping it will be just the right amount.

It was the perfect amount!

Just what I needed.

Isn't it truly a blessing when things come out even?

I have to wash the residue off when it dries a little.

More rocks will be visible then and hoping I have no paw prints when I go back out to do the finish work.  This is the ultimate example of using what you have.  I am holding the timbers in place with old  found horseshoes, driven into the ground, used old Quikrete left over from other projects and God's beautiful rocks.  With a lot of sweat, work, and even some fun...I don't have to weed my porch anymore!!!

Thank you, Quikrete!