Sometimes you need to call in a Professional

Remember last year (well, actually, over a year ago) when we bought that beautiful slab of maple and we had BIG BIG plans about refinishing it ourselves and using it as the top of our island at the condo? Well, here's how that all went down.

We got the wood, which we were told was sufficiently dry and we would be able to work with it. Well.....as we began the sanding process we noticed that the wood was bowing a little on the sides. It really needed to stay flat. But it wouldn't. So we sort of kept looking at it and wondering what to do and hoping that maybe it would miraculously fix itself. Strangely, it didn't fix itself. So for another long while, we didn't do anything....

Then I had a busy year curing cancer... so nothing happened for another long while.

Then, we gave ourselves a talking to, and made a few phone calls, and we are now having an actual professional finish the job! YES!!!

Coyote Woodshop on Bainbridge Island is going to take our large chunk of wood, replane it, and sand it to perfection and sooner (not later) we will have the thing we wanted from the beginning, only it will be way better than we could have done, and will actually finally get finished. If you live around here, go check these guys out. We met Drew there, and he gave us a tour around their place. It's full of awesome slabs of wood (all kinds), definitely worth the trip plus it will give you all sorts of inspiration. And in our case, relief!!! 

Sometimes you have to just call it! We weren't going to get this thing done. Now we are! Woop woop.

Will report back as soon as it's finished.

Here is a reminder of what we had (before it got all 'cuppy'!) I'm super excited to get it done and installed.

Bench seat

I must be feeling better because I finally crossed a long overdue project off the list. Our bench seat by the door at the farm was about to fall completely apart. Look at this thing. Hideous. Whoever covered it with this fabric in the first place made a big mistake in using some super flimsy cotton - they should have used an upholstery fabric. It was pretty scraggly and ugly - really needed a make-over.

I found this fabric at Joann's. Pretty cute for right off the rack. And it was on sale. I measured the foam pad on the seat and bought the fabric and then got some extra at even more discount because it was the end of the bolt.

Exhibit A - the scraggly old cover

The fabric for the new cover - love it!

Here it is splayed out on the dining room table.

 Note: I didn't use a pattern - I just made it up - which is my usual way - because I just think "what the hell - I'll figure it out". When you do projects this way, be sure to think through it all the way. Don't just start cutting - you'll screw it up for sure. I measured several times. I've learned something about myself over the years. It is SUPER easy to measure wrong. Even when you think you've measured several times already - measure everything again. Then start cutting pieces. And you'll find that the measuring and cutting is not necessarily the fun part. It takes forever and is boring.... so so boring. But then you can get on with the sewing....

Old things sometimes break.

 But then this happened. The sewing machine crapped out. I tried not to panic. The motor was working but the wheel wasn't spinning which seemed to be a belt problem - and hmmm, when was the last time I changed the belt. Uh, never. So it seemed reasonable that the belt being more than 30 years old could probably use a change. I raced down to the Joann's again, but alas... they don't sell parts for machines from prehistoric times. What? You modern computer techy project runway seamstresses - bite me.... I had to order a belt online - so I got 2. Project on hold - one week delay. Got back to the farm this weekend with new belt (and a spare) in hand. Put everything back together and .............nuthin'. No worky. DON'T PANIC. DON'T PANIC..... oh, think through this. Motor works, belt moves turny thing - turny thing moves belt, but something else is wrong. I got out the flashlight and looked through everything like I thought an old sewing machine repair guy would do. And lo and behold, deep in the dark backside of the turny thing that the belt attaches to...there was a screw loose. Teeny tiny - requiring a super teen tiny screwdriver. Couple of turns later, and we are back in business. Putting that on the resume for sure. Sewing machine repair, check!

Decided velcro was the correct closure for the long backside.

I decided to sew the back side panel first and that velcro was a better solution than a zipper because the zipper would have been 8 feet long - that's too much. So velcro it was, and I found the iron-on stuff - which worked great. So i hemmed an edge, added the velcro, attached the other side to another piece, connected them as if they were one piece of fabric and got on with the sewing. 

Iron-on velcro works great.

Other piece that the velcro opposite will attach to

Both pieces of fabric with vecro holding them together

Sewing top to side to bottom to side - then ends.

 Once the whole business was sewn together, I just unvelcro'd the back side, turned the whole thing inside out and shoved the foam padding inside and worked the fabric around it so that it fit nicely and lined up correctly. Then i reattached the velcro and called it done. It was a lot like alligator wrestling. I was sweating by the end of it.

Final product

So, here it is in it's final resting place. I have enough fabric left to make a pillow or two which might be a nice add to the area. Hopefully this heavy fabric will last longer than the other stuff - plus, a darker background will work much better to hide dirt. I thought it turned out pretty well, and just in time for Thanksgiving. Done and done. 

Back to the Island

A few months back, I showed you the piece of live edge wood we bought in October for the top of our island at the condo. For about 8 weeks it sat at the place we got it - drying out. Then in December or January, we picked it up and since then it's been sitting in the garage at the farm, waiting for us start sanding it and making it island ready.

So, we got out the sanders, and got out the circular saw, and this project has BEGUN!!! First things first, we needed a new blade for the saw. We started out with the one we had, turned out that blade was USELESS, so we remedied that pretty fast. We also needed a chalk line so we could get a clear idea of what and where we wanted to cut. The funny thing about starting projects...... the minute you start you also start changing your mind. Originally I was planning to only have one side of the island with the raw edge, but as we kept drawing lines and trying to decide how we wanted it, we ended up liking the raw edge on both sides, so that's what we are doing now. 

We did cut across both ends for a nice finished end, and we've started with the first rough sand, 60 grit, to get rid of the original saw marks from the mill. Even after just the rough sand, it's starting to looks so pretty. I can't wait until it's done and in the condo. It will be beautiful in there.

Here are a few pics of the beginning of this project.

As is, upside down, drying out more in our garage.

Closer view

Guide lines and changing our minds

New blade

First pass at the sanding

Really starting to look pretty!

This weekend, forecast is completely crap, so will spend quality time with sander. Can't wait!

Big Souv!

We bought an oil painting while we were in Croatia, our big souvenir of the trip. We stopped in a little gallery on Vis and found this painting and after getting everyone's opinion and discussing it - we went back the next day and bought it for the apartment. I took it in to be framed right after we got back in September and we  got the call to come and get it this week. 

Yes, it cost about as much to frame as it was to buy the painting - but that was sort of our expectation. This is a really large piece, so it needed a pretty substantial frame, and we didn't want to cheap out. 

The frame shop was nice enough to attach a bar across the back too, so that we could hang it on a french cleat - which again, with a piece this big, really matters. It's heavy and needs a solid wall mount. I tried to take a few pics of the process, we got it up really easily and have been admiring it ever since. Things are starting to look good around here!

Before pic. I took down some sailing prints I had here. They weren't really big enough for the space - but made a good place holder.

This is the painting. It's meant to look like a city from the air at night - or whatever you want it to be.

 Backside. They framed it so that we could hang it from the top bar.

This is the detached piece of wood that came with the painting that we attach to our wall. This is how the french cleat works. Attach your piece of wood to the wall, with the angled edge at the top and toward the wall.

Make sure it's level!

Really level!

Hang painting over the attached wood. It also has an angled cleat that just sits right into the top groove of your wood piece. No additional nails or screws. Just hangs there in the same spot, super secure, and wont fall on your friends heads! See from a distance, looks like a cityscape, right? Sort of? Anything?

We really love it. And now that it's up, it's motivated me to get on with the other stuff. Next stop, pillows to match the drapes from the other day.

Field Trip - Quilcene

On Sunday we drove out to Quilcene to visit a guy who has a tiny lumber yard and also mills lumber out there. His name is Marc Waltz and his lumber yard is called Waltz Lumber. We found him one time a few years ago when we were out there admiring the countryside. He is located in an old church right in the middle of town, and besides lumber, he sponsors some music classes and has sort of a recording studio set up in there, and basically does whatever work he can in his space to keep it all going. The best thing for us is that he can access great huge pieces of wood and if you have any ability at all to cut and sand and seal it yourselves - it's a great way to save money on an awesome design trend. He usually has some stock of cedar, fir, alder and maple.

We have an island in kitchen area of the Seattle apartment and have been planning to find a piece of wood with a live edge to be it's top. We have been using a temporary top til now, but as of Sunday, this project is ON! Here is our wood (maple) in it's raw state. We bought it and left it with Marc to cure for several weeks. Then we will pick it up and do the cutting and sanding ourselves and seal it with something and then boom, we're done! I'll share the process as we go, because I think it will be sort of a slow go, working on it for a few weekends, but I wanted to show you the wood as is, and Marc's place too. 

Marc doesn't have a website, so if you are interested in sourcing wood from him, you can reach him at 

Waltz Lumber

11 Old Church Road

Quilcene, WA 98376

360-301-3866

Call him first if you are planning to go out there. He isn't always in the shop, so make an appointment to visit. He is a really cool guy - and his prices are really reasonable. So, because of that, don't call him up and start asking for wholesale pricing, that's basically what it is now - so just pay the guy! 

This is ours. We'll flip it over, cut a straight edge down one side and the end and leave the outside edge raw.

Another view of the maple.

Wood inside his shop.

Here is some maple he finished for a table top. We don't want ours to be quite this shiny,
but look how beautiful it is!

More wood pieces

Marc's sweet old dog

Sign out front. Go visit!

Adoption Agency

Here's the latest in the long list of items on Craigslist and Ebay just waiting to be adopted by you (or me)! 

Reminder - don't get sucked in by the used and tired words "shabby chic" in craigslist or ebay postings. That was 25 years ago people - and if your house is full of that stuff, it pretty much looks like a dirty little rat's nest. Try to be careful not to pick up stuff that other people have painted or recovered badly - they will probably call it "shabby chic" instead of "I fucked this up and don't want it in my house now, so YOU buy it"! But that's what they mean. Look for quality stuff at reasonable prices, and the less tampered with, the better. Now go forth and get something awesome.

Nesting tables $150 - I love nesting tables.

Small server - $250 - This is pretty unique and if you have a smallish space, it would make
a nice little place for snacks or cocktails. The top folds out too.

Set of 4 chairs $100 - I would maybe re-cover them but the design is really nice.

Dresser - $75 - I have a dresser similar to this and it's a really nice bedroom piece or put
it somewhere in a hall or main room.

Teak lamps - $75 - Replace the shades with wider shorter drum shades and they would be
great and modern looking.

Antique mirrors on ebay -$124 buy it now. These have never been out of their box according to the listing.
Side by side, I love them.

Mirror - $99ish- Nice over a fireplace - and since my fireplace mirror broke into a million pieces,
I'm in the market. Maybe this would be good as is, or painted?

New Chairs

I got these chairs on Craigslist last week for $40 FOR THE PAIR. Yes, I know - they look a little shabby - but they are a great shape and I'm going to bring them back to life. See the chairs in their original glory below and also some of my ideas for upholstery. What do you think? 

I like the bold pattern ideas, but I also like the solids. Then again, maybe I do solid chairs and patterned drapes, or .... I dont know yet. But I'm excited about doing it. I got the fabric samples at HouseFabric.com where there seem to be loads of choices, and the prices are fair. These ranged from $9.95yd for the solids up to $27.95yd for the prints.   Now I just have to do it. Wish me luck!