Ping Pong Work and Chip Board World

Fill the sink, clean the floor, put dishes in the water, clean the stove, start a load of clothes, empty the trash, wash the sink of dishes and put in some more.

Ping Pong.  Here.  There.  Back again.  No one's keeping score as long as the ball is in play. I'm sure there's a more relaxed way of doing but I bounce.  I seem to accomplish few things during the play but when all is said and done chores are completed.

This past couple of weeks we've tried to replace Andrew's floor.  The chip (Commingled Half-baked Interfused Paste) board had reached the end of it's life and was slowly disintegrating. This repair entailed removing carpet, padding, tack board, chip board, glue, two inch steeples and taking it all back to the two by floor joists.

This has been a comedy of errors.  Not only are our bodies not cooperating, the minds went on strike too.  I'm a firm believer of planning, measuring, and doing both again before a cut is ever made. We discussed which way to run the plywood...yes, plywood is replacing this mess of sawdust.  We decided first this way, then that and finally, because I couldn't remember which way we had decided I drew a big arrow on the floor so I would not forget again.

To see two non-agile people step/walk across two inch boards carrying power tools and big boards while praying we keep our balance would have made a great little movie.

I've laughed many times at old cartoons where a character would saw a limb off while they were standing on it.  Well, I even tried that, kinda.  I cut two slices through chip board in one section and stepped to the next to cut two more strips so they could be pried up with a crowbar. Having finished that cut I promptly stepped onto the previously cut piece and plummeted to the ground, grateful it was just under two feet. Didn't have to pry that chip board off...it went with me.

Slowly we have battled the deconstruction and the reconstruction.  To quote Hubby, "I ain't no damn carpenter!" but we've managed.  One more sheet and a tiny spot of piecing and we will be ready to lay the floor covering.

Another challenge was doing this without removing the furniture.  It has been the biggest jigsaw puzzle we've ever tried to piece together.

Working With What I Have

Two identical pieces...three bucks apiece

Less expensive than buying the raw material.

Removing the bottoms

with my handy dandy tools.

The bottoms will find a new purpose.

Andrew's hats need dust proof boxes.

I score my heavy cardboard from between my art canvas

so I can bend and assemble them for box lids.

I have a plan...I always have a plan.

The box tops are covered with state maps of places we've visited.

The pieces are still identical but only shorter.  The boxes turned sideways will fit perfectly and all this will be used to organize a teen's closet.  Yeah, right!

This is kinda how it will look in the closet when the boxes are turned and all pieces a matching color. The two shelves on the end were the bottom shelves on my pieces. Stacked and secured everything's ready to paint or maybe, just maybe, they will go into the closet just like this.  Out of sight, out of mind.

This is my work area so don't go zooming in on my sawdust and box of scraps.  I see the end pieces on the left waiting to be re-purposed but I'm kinda tired of this project.

It's WalMart's fault!!  I saw a nice shelf with four boxes for only $149...boxes not included. Silly me, thought, I can do that.  The twin shelves jumped out at Salvation Army and came home with me. Shelves...$6, boxes...$15 for three...shoe rack...$8(a bad idea) and the idea was born,  Slowly, painfully, but born nonetheless.   So for a mere $29 I have solved a problem with the rest of the material on hand and I have two drawers.  Walmart's didn't have that!

I sincerely hope if I have any more grand ideas and you know about it, please, please stop me.