I may have my binders and organization- but John has his projects. The projects mostly come from the “Honey Do List”, which usually involves some plan to get something organized; but are also what ever else he just feels like building. He sketches ideas out on his design paper and then he will plan it all out on the computer. He has a 3-D design program on the computer that lets him plan everything out. I do mean EVERYTHING. He can figure out exactly how much wood he needs. It’s the design engineer in him.
I can’t give him a hard time because it is pretty cool to actually “see” what he is planning. He is great at taking ideas and making them happen. Our last house was a fixer- upper, this house is new so the projects are more driven by what we would like, not what we have to fix. Desks, bookcases, built in closets, decks, organized laundry rooms, etc. He really is great at what he does. And I’m very thankful for his gift! I’m also grateful he puts up with me during the process!
A few of his projects…
The workbench.
It was the first project, since he needed a place to work for all the other projects. He always has his helpers around. He did this one in September.
The saw cart.
He found the plan for the cart online. It is pretty neat. The large space was designed for a vacuum, but I think he is just going to use it as extra storage. He looks pretty professional when he wheels it out of the garage to work on the latest design. I don’t have a picture, but he stained in ebony and is debating on putting some OSU lettering on it. He did this one this past fall as well.
Noah’s desk.
One my “to do’s” after the holidays was to get Noah a desk for his room. John and I had been bouncing ideas back and forth for months. I would show him pictures I had found, he would sketch it out adding practical stuff like dimensions. We had looked around for desk, but I wanted something with storage and practical uses. Not happy with what was at the stores and not liking the prices of some of the things- he built just what we needed.
He even bought a sheet of Plexiglas to use as the desktop. We kind of stumbled across that idea at the end. I’m glad we did because it is great! We can put pictures and other things underneath it and it is also dry erasable. The boys are really into using the dry erase boards and Noah writes on his desk at school as well. The desk was also made with Ian in mind. During the day when Noah is at school, Ian uses it. We stained it ourselves to match the dark wood in the house. I LOVE it! Noah and Ian do too!! Caleb is now asking when are we building his; which he really doesn’t need right now- not a lot of homework in Kindergarten. I have to figure out exactly what we want to do in his room, so unfortunately he is borrowing Noah’s for now when needed.
I now just need to teach Makaela to leave the stuff in the cubbies alone or find some containers that are Makeala proof!
The bookcase.
Then my next NEED was a bookcase. All the books were still in boxes in their closets and that just WAS NOT working!!! Since the desk went so easy, (John built it while I went grocery shopping one afternoon) he went right to work on the bookcase. Again, I gave him what I wanted and where I wanted it to go and he made it happen. Such a good team! He built it with a little of my help- I held the boards when he was cutting. This one I decided to stain while he was at work, so we could get it into the room before his family came in.
Again another successful project! It fit in between Ian and Noah’s closet doors- which was a weird space to begin with. The bookcase there helps use the space efficiently and solves the book problem.
We have paused a little on our projects since finishing the bookcase. We’ve been keeping busy cleaning out and putting stuff up. Sometimes I wonder if the warm weather has us in the “spring cleaning” mode. Mostly, it has been held up by trying to make sure I know what I want. The laundry room was going to be next, but we have hit a problem. We are now considering moving the freezer from the garage inside, but that totally messes up all my “plans”. We first have to make a decision, then we can rethink the plan, and then John in no time will have it built!
Since the weather has been nice it has us looking outside and the deck John is designing. He has been working on these designs since we moved in. He has our entire backyard in his 3-D program showing where the play set is at and where our deck will be.
A sneak peak at what he has been planning and looking like our final plans.
It makes me laugh a little, but like I said I have organization- he has projects!