Saturday, February 14, 2009

Virginia Weather

Two pictures taken two weeks apart...

January 27, 3" of snow


February 11, 72 degrees

Friday, February 13, 2009

Mud Room Project Finished

So I wanted to get back in to the swing of posting projects I am working on. I have in fact done a few, and I have a big one planned for this spring and summer. I just have been far too lax in posting them. To start off, let's see how the mud room turned out...



After plastering and sanding the walls, and many coats of primer and paint, I finally got the walls back in to shape from the mess removing the wallpaper created. This allowed me to finally move on to the fun part, the cabinets.



I got the cabinets at IKEA, from their kitchen collection. These are the closest things to LEGO you can do in home improvement. The room has windows on three sides. For the plain side, I have a large wall cabinet and a matching wine rack bolted to the wall, with a large cabinet and counter top below.



For one of the window sides, I wanted a bench to run below the windows. I also needed somewhere to put our small wine fridge. The base of the bench, being built here, is made from two long wall cabinets, the kind one would put over a stove. IKEA has a nearly endless selection of cabinet sizes. I completed the bench with a narrow wooden counter top that runs over the cabinets and fridge. For above the windows on both sides, I mounted more wall cabinets with doors that swing up.



And here is the final project. You can just see the matching wooden counter top mounted on the large cabinet. I think the wood counters look quite good. There were a lot of fun to finish using the vegetable based oil that IKEA sells. It provides a nice finish, and yet is safe for food preparation.

I actually have a couple more smaller IKEA hacking projects I have done since this, which I will perhaps post eventually.

Carleigh's First Swim



We started Carleigh on swim lessons at the local high school pool. This is in anticipation of our trip to Orlando next month, where we expect most days will involve a trip to the resort's pool.