Coat Rack

  Now that we have a bench for the mud room, Tracy and I thought we should have a place to hang our coats.  I had a piece of 1 X 4 left over from building the X Bench. I also had 4 hooks left from a project I had built a couple of years ago.

  Tracy had gone to Iowa City to be with Steph, Michael and Brynlee. Steph was not feeling well and they needed a little help.

  The plan was to do a little router work on the board, stain to match the bench, and hang it all before Tracy returned in a couple days.

  When I started to do the router work on the board, it all went wrong, the side split out and the board was ruined

  Luckily I had an 8ft piece of 1 X 4. I just cut a new one and started over. I  pre-drilled my holes and put the first coat of stain on the next day.

   It was almost a week later than I had planned, but the coat rack is finished and mounted. With the bench  and coat rack our mud room is now complete.

Military Honor Bench

  Wow, what a wonderful bench.  This bench was made by my friend Todd and his wife Judy. Todd is a metal Fabricator, so doing the metal work was a breeze for him. His neighbor did the router work on the wood to inset the metal soldiers.

  The 2 soldiers and the  POW-MIA symbol are made out of steel. They were cut on a High Definition Plasma table. They were then cleaned, and painted black. ( I believe Judy does all the painting and finishing work.)


This bench is proudly displayed in the entry way at Todd and Judy's home

Todd is also a proud Army Veteran.

Rustic X Bench

  Tracy and I needed a small bench in the mud room, I made an X bench so we would have a place to sit while taking our shoes off. 

  I received a pocket hole jig for Christmas and this was a great chance to use it. Pocket holes are a great way to hide the screws. They are also one of the easiest and strongest joints you can make.

  I put a 5 degree taper on the legs to give a nice base with plenty of support.

  With a router I put a nice edge on the seat of our bench

  All that was left to do was sand and finish the bench, I put 2 coats of Minwax one step stain and polyurethane. Here are some additional pictures.

  Here are the dimensions of the bench, I used the plans from Ana White.

This is the finished bench 

Below is the picture from the Pottery Barn web site,  Rustic bench that sells for $129.00.

I made my bench for less than $20.00

Counter Top Transformation

Check out the difference that $70.00 and a weekend has made in my son Matt and his wife Brooke's kitchen.

I was very impressed with the counters at Matt and Brooke's house. This transformation was completely done by my daughter - in-law Brooke.  Instead of buying new counter-tops they resurfaced the tops they had.

Tracy had read about a product called Giani Granite that would make plain counter-tops look like granite, knowing that Brooke wanted to redo their kitchen she told Brooke about it.

Brooke and Matt found the product at their local Walmart for $70.00

1st Step:  Brooke applied the a coat of the black base to the entire counter and let it dry overnight

2nd Step: There are 3 different colors that need to be applied in 3ft square areas until the entire counter-top is covered. Allowing each color to dry before adding the next color.

This is what it looked like when all colors were applied and dry.


3 rd Step:  There is a clear coat to add over the entire counter-top as the final step. It needs to dry for 8 hours prior to sitting anything onto the counter. It will take about 7 days for the clear coat to be fully cured.

What an unbelievable change in their kitchen for only $70.00 and a weekend of time. Very Proud of the job they have done. I guess the next generation of DIY has begun.