Bike Rack

It's been warm and nice around here lately and the kids have been riding their bikes and scooters as much as possible! They tend to pull something out, ride it down the driveway and around the cul-de-sac, and then right back up to switch toys and head back down... super fun, but the resulting pile of wheels, pedals, and handlebars gets cluttery and frustrating!

We spent a lot of time Saturday cleaning out the garage and I decided a bike rack would be a great help with the bike and scooter situation! Building is way more fun than cleaning, of course, so I decided to start right away! ;)

I collected some 2x4s and 3" screws and got to work. I cut 3 30" pieces for the long sides of the base and the connecting piece on top. Next I cut two 17" pieces for the rest of the base. I wanted to use my Kreg jig so that I could lay all of the base pieces flat, but I didn't have long enough pocket hole screws, so I improvised and pre-drilled and screwed right through the outside of the base frame. 

Next I cut 2 18" pieces for the vertical supports, connected them to the base, then connected the cross piece. 

Next for the fun part! I used my miter saw to cut 1x2s at 45 degrees on each end (22" on the long side) and my super fun Ryobi Airstrike nail gun and Gorilla Wood Glue to attach the 1x2s to the frame! 

 (don't be confused - I did start with a 2x2, but realized I wouldn't have enough!)

I only went part of the way across the rack with the 1x2s because I realized that the scooters would sit in it better without the supports. Time to test it out!

Paint makes everything better!

Here it is in place! I hung an old coat rack on the wall above it for the helmets to help avoid the constant, "Mom, where's my helmet?" question!

One more step toward a more organized garage!! 

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Birthday See-Saw!

For our younger daughter's 4th birthday, I decided to build a see saw using Ana White's plans. She said it was a super quick build - only took her 45 minutes! I'll say it took me a few of hours a tad bit longer than that. But it was only a month after my first build, and I'm no expert carpenter! :)

This project taught me a lot about keeping my pieces level while I'm working, which also means that building on the floor of the garage isn't a great plan. Of course, I learned this by trial and error, so there was a fair amount of doing and redoing involved in this project. Wood filler is a beautiful thing! (And building a work bench was added to the TO DO list!) Also of note if you plan to build this, locking washers on the outsides of the bolt are necessary so that the nuts don't loosen over time. Learned that one from experience too!

Thinking back on this project, I have to say something about buying the materials. I needed a 10" bolt and wasn't finding one. An employee told me they didn't stock them in that size, but she showed me where they had threaded metal rods, which are basically the same thing for my purpose here, but she said, "oh, shoot, it looks like the smallest we have is 20" and that will be way too long for what you need." Fortunately, my awesome in-laws had just bought me a chop saw for my birthday so I said, "That's ok, I have a chop saw." A man shopping in the aisle said, "YOU have a chop saw?" in a tone that told me he seriously doubted I did. It was so satisfying to be able to say "yes, actually" and rattle off the name of it (as if I had any idea what I was talking about, which I actually didn't at the time, but we'll just keep that between us!) This was not the first or last time my knowledge or abilities were questioned in the hardware store and it can be pretty annoying, but it's also very empowering to be able to show that I actually do know what I'm talking about, and that one can actually use power tools and be female at the same time! Hell yes!

But I digress...

Once I had built the base of the see saw and had cut the other pieces, I painted everything before assembling the rest. The way the 2x4s are positioned, I knew painting between them would be a pain. This way, I just had touch-up painting to do over the screw holes once it was all together.

The girls love their seesaw and it was a hit at the birthday party that weekend - there was a line!

We have realized that most kids have never played on a basic seesaw like this since most playgrounds don't have them anymore. We have had a few accidental hands-on physics lessons, if you know what I mean. So if you build one, keep that in mind - the kids need to be taught how to get on and off without flipping their friends! Gravity is REAL, man!



So, who's going to build one?!

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Whale Painting - Kids Craft!

We spent a wonderful few days in Maine this summer with Brad's parents - what a beautiful place!
As a gift and special souvenir, one of Brad's parents' friends made the girls solid wood whales! He left them unfinished so that the girls could paint them themselves. It was such a special gift and the girls have been looking forward to painting them. What kid doesn't love a chance to paint?!

We finally started them today and had lots of fun! The kids love to create too!

I painted a base coat of light blue acrylic wall paint to seal the wood and because experience has shown me that they tend to jump right into cool designs and so would end up leaving some bare wood, which they said they didn't actually want. Plus, I wanted to play too! ;) 

Once again, I forgot to take "before" pictures, but at least I remembered before both sides were painted! 

I cut some small wood blocks to prop the whales up so that the girls could paint the edges without making them stick to the paper. Otherwise just some papers from the recycle bin and a paper plate for the paints - nothing fancy needed here!

As tempting as it is sometimes to offer advice or ideas, I generally try to stay out of their way once I put crafty stuff in front of them. Both girls decided to mostly stick to blues on the first side of the whales. 

Proof - I wasn't lying about the dirty dishes in the sink, ha! Keeping it real, here... 

Pretty! They say the other side is going to be more varied - can't wait to see what they decide to do!

They finished the other sides - 

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Girls' closet renovation

The girls bedroom closet - actually, their whole bedroom - is one of the areas in the house that took me a lot of separate renovations before I was satisfied with it. I spent a lot of time standing and staring at it, trying to figure out a way to reconfigure it to make it more useable for us. My hope was to make it so that we could fit most or all of their clothes into it and so get rid of at least one dresser in their room.

Our girls share a room - 2 beds, 2 dressers, and a bookshelf was too much furniture in there!

My first reworking of the space made it so that I could get one of the dressers into the closet. This worked ok, but they just didn't have enough useable hanging space this way.

More staring... more measuring... more internet searches for inspiration...

Then one day when Brad left town, I started tearing the closet apart. I have this habit of starting projects when he leaves town. His plane hadn't even landed yet and I had this closet emptied, the closet system (that the previous owners had installed) removed and the walls painted! 

I decided to use the "wood" from the closet system as much as possible in the new design. I cut and rearranged the pieces to fit and so I was able to do this closet renovation for FREE! Woot!

Here it is going back in.

Now they have space for all of their hanging clothes. Dresses on top, shirts and skirts on the bottom. In the bins, they have space for pajamas, socks, undies, tights, leotards, etc. Their pants, shorts, and leggings fit in a small 2 drawer bedside table next to the closet.

Now they have space for all of their clothes and we got BOTH dressers out of the room! Success! 

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