Iowa Hawkeye Corn Hole Game

Well, it took me about 2 years, but I finally finished the Corn Hole Game my son Michael had ask me to make for him. ( I even remembered to take pictures during the entire project )

 I made these the standard size. 4ft long by 2ft wide. If you would like a little smaller set, that will fit easily  into your car, You can make them 3ft by 2ft.

 The top is made from 1/2" plywood.  I made sure the pieces that I cut were nice and square.  I then just added my 2x4  frame pieces to the top with wood glue and screws.

 

 After the frame was all put together, all the holes were filled with wood-filler.  This will give the top a smooth surface.  I like to use Elmer's wood glue and Elmer's stain-able wood-filler.

 

 Next, I used a 6" hole saw to put the center holes in. I also used my Black and Decker 1/2" Drill.  Make sure you have a good grip on your drill, a hole saw can take you for quite a ride if it catches.

 

       

 Next, comes the part I hate the worst. SANDING!!  I use a power sander to get the surface smooth. I like to use a hand sanding block to do the final sanding though.

        

 Now is my favorite part of any project. The finish work.  

 I used Krylon Gloss black spray paint to cover the entire board. The real challenge was to get the Hawkeye symbol to come out right.  Believe it or not, I had seen this Hawkeye Design on someones Facebook.

 I decided to take a file folder and cut the design out. I then taped it to the board and spray painted it yellow.

 

 As you can see in the picture above, I ended up with some over spray with the yellow. While I sat out in the yard one evening, I outlined all of the yellow and filled the black back in with a paint pen.

 I then taped over the design and put another coat of black paint over the entire board.

 Last, I sealed the board with Urethane. I really like to use the Minwax Spray Urethane. It comes in two types. One is for indoor use only.  I only buy the Helmsman in the green can. It is for indoor/outdoor use.

 I sprayed 3 coats of urethane on each board.

 

 Here are a couple simple drawings on how to make your own boards, and a detail on the folding legs.

 Thanks for following my blog. Hopefully you enjoy this project and give it a try.

Grandma's Library

  Tracy and I continue to make things in our house more fun and accessible for the grand children.

 This area in our basement is a combination of 2 projects put together. 

 The 1st project, If you have followed the blog you may  remember that in Jan. I posted how to build a children's book shelf . http://buildandsave-mike.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html  This is a smaller version of the drawings I posted . We wanted to be able to hang the book shelf on the wall. This book shelf  is only 18 inches wide and 30 inches tall.  Simply adjust the measurements to make the book shelf the size you need. 

  The 2nd part of this project is the Grandma's Library sign. As many of you know Sense moving from Knoxville, Tracy and I have been trying allot of new things . Making signs is one of our new adventures.

 We have been making signs for all around the house. Tracy and I thought this was the perfect sign for the reading area. This sign is made from wood and Vinyl. Tracy designed and picked the colors for the sign. 

I was in charge of painting, cutting the vinyl and turning it into a sign.

We now have a great area for the grand kids to pick out books for grandma and grandpa to read .

Egress Window Well Covers

 After having several rabbits, frogs and mice getting stuck in our egress window wells, Tracy and I decided we needed to do something about it.

I started searching at Menards and on the internet for covers that would fit our window wells. This is what I found. THEY ARE VERY EXPENSIVE!

This is what our wells look like. 

The only thing I could find that would fit was a min. of $250.00 each and we needed two of them.

I went to work on coming up with something that would, keep animals from falling into the well, still allow natural light  in, and look nice.

I toyed with making them out of wood and plexiglass. In order to get a piece of plexiglass thick enough to be safe was around $200.00 to make the two covers we needed.

I decided to make the covers from steel. I used Expanded metal for the top and angle iron for the frame. This kept the covers from becoming to heavy and allowed the light to pass through. This also kept the price very reasonable.

We were able to make covers for both egress windows for a total of $75.00. That is a savings of $425.00 from the cheapest ones I had found to buy.

Here are the plans I drew up prior to making the covers. They are 60" on the wide end, 50" on the narrow end, and 38" long.
                                      
                                          /---------------------60 inch------------------------/ 
                                     

                                                /--------------------50 inches--------------/

Lane Armoire $8.25

 Once again my wife Tracy found this project for us. She was able to get this for free. Yes a Lane Armoire totally free. As you can see one of the doors was off, and it had a slick veneer finish.

I had plenty of Chalk Paint and Wax left from my bar stool refinish.

Like most of my projects, I get all wrapped up in working on it and forget to take a lot of pictures of the progress. 

I had to do a little repair work on the hinges to get the door to mount back on.

Here are some pictures of when I started to seal the paint with wax.

We made a quick trip to Menards to pickup some handles and a magnetic door closer.

We are now able to have this beautiful Lane Armoire for the total price of $ 8.25

Deck Gate

 Even though it will be awhile before the Grandchildren are walking , Tracy and I want to be ready.

We decided that we needed a gate on the deck. This gate will also keep Meeka and Henry from running off when the kids are here with their dogs.

Brass hinges were used  to prevent rust in the winter and to keep the gate working smoothly.


The center post are inside of the 2 x 4's so the gate will open completely,

Google Sketchup is a free 3D drafting program. It's the program I use to draw my plans.

 To make your own deck gate, Just adjust the measurements to fit the opening on your deck or porch.

Bar Stools (Chalk Paint)

  This project was my first attempt at using  Anna Sloan Chalk Paint.  This is a paint that is designed to paint over anything without sanding or prep work.

 My wife Tracy found this pair of bar stools on a buy,sell and trade site for $4.00. Sense they were painted a very ugly color and varnished, we thought this would be a great test for the Chalk Paint.

Removing the seats and wiping the stools down with a damp cloth is the only prep work that was done.

After the first coat of paint I thought this project was going to be a complete failure.

It just didn't seem to be covering the old paint, They just looked bad and I expected more from my first coat.



I kept going, and added the second coat about an hour later.

The 2nd coat covered the stools very nicely

To seal the paint after it dries there is a wax to put on. It is very easy to use, just like waxing your car.

These pictures show the finished bar stools, after the wax was buffed off. Now I was pretty impressed with this paint.

I have a much larger item that I will be trying this paint on in the next couple of weeks. The next piece has a plastic type vernier as the finish. I'll let you all know how it works out .

Inspired Bank

 This bank was built for my grand-daughter Brynlee. It was inspired by my late Uncle Hobart. A  couple of years ago Tracy and I were visiting my Aunt Mary Louise and she showed me a box that Hobart had made. Mary Louise told the story of how they had bought all the doors from an old post office box. The box itself was made from solid walnut that was from a tree that was cut down at their farm in Ottumwa. I must say it was beautiful. She then told us about how Hobart had made a box for their son Steve and one for each of their grandchildren. With having all of the PO Box doors, he used the original door # for the year each of the children were born.

  The day we were there Mary Louise gave me 10 of the PO Box doors. Hopefully, my banks will bring the same joy to my grandchildren as I'm sure Hobart's boxes did for his.

  Not having an old tree that needed to be cut down this is what I have decided to do. Brynlee's bank is made from the drop wood from the X Bench  I built earlier this year and is in our house. I had to take some pieces and glue them together in order to get large pieces for the sides and back. I have a small box that I have been saving and marking the small drops of wood, as to what project they are from. This will allow me to be able to identify where the wood comes from for future banks. I plan to continue with Hobart's idea and make a bank for each of my grandchildren,
(at least the first 10).