Featured: Remodelholic

Yay! I was featured at Remodelholic!

To check out the feature of my built-ins, click here.

Happy Father's Day?

I know it's not really Father's Day.

We celebrated Father's Day a little early at my house (a few days ago).

This is what my hubby got for being the coolest/nicest/most lovable dad.

This is the picture from KMart. It's been raining almost every day since I've brought home the grill, so it's been hard to take an actual picture.

I've had my eye on it for a couple months now.

$299.

It went down to $199 and I almost had a heart attack.

After begging the manager to let me walk out with the floor model (they were sold out because apparently everyone else thought it was too good of a deal to pass up as well!), I set it all up for my hubby.

We've never had a brand new grill before. This one is amazing!

It received a couple bad reviews on Kmart's website, but only for the extremely long time it took to put together.

Luckily mine was the floor model.

;)

Check For Cancer, You Bronzed Goddess!

If anyone's not aware, I've been going to school for nursing.

No, maybe it's not my dream job, but I actually think it's one of the most useful jobs ever.

My kids get sick, I know if I should bring them to the hospital or not.

I understand copious amounts of healthy-living choices.

So anyways, today I've got an important doc appointment.

Moles.

Yep.

Did anyone else tan like nobody's business in high school?

I did...

....a lot.

There's the "ABCD's" chart for mole checking to guess if it's cancerous.

This is the exact one in one of my schoolbooks.

I have two that are "uh-ohs."

I'm hoping that they are benign.

If it's cancerous, I'm hoping for basal cell carcinoma.

It generally doesn't metastasize (spread), and occurs roughly 73% of all cancerous moles.

Dig 'em out, and you're golden.

Anyways, I know this is an odd (disgusting?) post today, but I like every single one of my readers, and your health is very important to me.

Have you checked your moles lately?

Wish me luck!

Rhubarb Lemonade

I'm not a big fan of rhubarb.

It really needs to be sugared up for it to taste remotely good.

Oddly enough, I like growing the beasts.

Actually, I love growing any perennial fruits and veggies.

So I finally got to harvest my rhubarb this spring!

Then it got me thinking, "Lemonade is sour, so why couldn't you do a rhubarb lemonade?"

Well, you can!

I found quite a few recipes online.

I finally found one that was doable (do-able?)

Of course, I had to tweak it to my own taste.

Ingredients

7 cups chopped rhubarb

3 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups lemon juice

1 gal. water

Directions

1.Combine the rhubarb and sugar into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the rhubarb releases its juice and starts to break up, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice.

2.Pour the rhubarb mixture through a fine sieve, pressing out as much liquid as possible.
I had no idea what a sieve was, so I had to do a little research to buy one.

3. Pour the syrup mixture and 1 gallon of water into a container (ice cream bucket or old milk jug would work great!) You may need a funnel for this! Shake it up and serve!

Just the right mixture between sour and tart!

Living Room Built-Ins

Remember when I did my living room remodel?

I knew that I needed more storage space in this room, and I also hated the awkward shape of this room.

I knew that built-ins would give me amazing storage and help balance out that weird space.

When I showed you the living room remodel, I also showed you what I basically wanted in that space:

But where to start?

I've never built bookshelves before.

I'm really good at figuring out dimensions/measurements/spacing, but I'm not great at figuring how it's all supposed to be put together.

I perused my woodcraft books. Most of them were more ornate than I wanted. They called for all these special joints and needed tools that I don't have.

Bummer.

Of course, a light went on in my head, "I betcha Ana from Knock Off Wood can give me ideas!"

Her simple Willy bookcases were exactly what I needed!
(And my eldest's name is Willy!)

I reader requested that I do a bookcase tutorial, but I can't make it any more easily understood than Ana already has. Check out that link if you want to see how they are built!

Now, of course, I had to adjust dimensions and shelf spacing since built-ins should be unique to the location.

I'm not great at writing up detailed plans. Most of the time the measurements are floating around my head. I've never screwed up a project from lack of having something written down.

It's probably more of a laziness issue.

;)

Anyways, here's the scribbles from my blueprint. I tried labeling things so that you would know what goes where. It's not very detailed.

Sorry!

The reason that one shelf dimension is labeled "middle & bottom" is  because the top is bigger than the other shelves because the top is screwed in from the top, not on the sides. So it will be 1 1/2" longer (I used 3/4" wood)

There's the top support.

Sorry for the odd picture quality. I had to darken everything because I was the moron who decided to leave her plans out in the rain.

=P

Shelf two is the same for the side supports, but different in shelf length. One wall is slightly longer than the other.

And I unfortunately don't have dimensions for the top shelf. I had to wing that one, because the space is about 9' and plywood only comes in 8'. So I had to nail the backing directly to the wall, hold up my side supports, then place a middle bracer for the top (actually two boards, not one) to rest on.

This is when I got my first bookcase built:

Then I didn't take much pictures until I started putting on the face trim:

Ready for the final reveal?

Here's what I wanted my built-ins to look like:

And here's what I got:

I just want to thank Ana, at Knock Off Wood, for providing the world with free building plans. Not only are they free, but they are by far the easiest to follow plans I have ever built from!

Without Ana, I wouldn't have the awesome patio table that I built, either!