Friday, August 1, 2008
I thought about making up a story about how carpenter turtles are like carpenter ants only much, much worse... and then decided that only someone with my warped sense of humor would find that amusing. So instead I'll jump right into talking about carpentry and woodworking.
As a general rule I really enjoying woodworking. I don't do it very often, both because of the expense and because it takes a certain amount of room to do any large projects... but I've built all my bookcases (three are completely finished and look darn good, if I do say so myself) and done one or two other projects over the years, usually as gifts. Of course, Ann's never seen me do anything beyond the basics, so every time I've said I could build some item she wanted if she'd buy the supplies, she's always basically brushed it off. This summer, though, she's really been on a kick about doing stuff in her yard, and she's been looking for an arbor that she likes for a couple of summers now... so when I found plans for one in one of my woodworking books (2x4 Projects for Outdoor Living) we decided that sometime this summer I'd build it for her.
We picked up the lumber and hardware on Wednesday... Ann needed some additional supplies for a project of her own, a basic rack to store our kayaks and free up some room in her garage. In many ways that's more impressive than the arbor I'm building, since she basically designed and built it herself with only a few suggestions from me.
I cut the wood for the arbor on Thursday... that's what a good deal of hard work, because I mostly use a handsaw and miter and a lot of the lumber I was cutting were 2x4's. Did a little initial assembly last night and then some basic sanding (since it's an outdoor piece I mainly wanted to smooth down the rough or sharp edges) and more assembly today. Then we stashed it in the garage until I can finish it next weekend.
Not too much more to do... four more crossbars along the top, painting the whole thing, and then encasing the bottoms of the legs in PVC pipe and sealing it with some sort of foam insulation to delay the inevitable wood rot once it's buried in the ground. I think it's going to look pretty good when it's done, even if I do say so myself.
JMH
