Laundry sink, before-and-after

The laundry sink in our house is horrible. Nasty. Icky. Although AnoneeDad said that it looked like cement had been poured down it, I always assumed it had done the rusting equivalent of stainless steel. On a whim one day I took a pot scourer to the sink, and found that the “rust” did indeed peel away. I am really struggling to maintain enthusiasm for pretty much anything right now – it’s my end-of-year energy slump, I think – so this was an obvious quick-and-easy morale boosting project. Hmmm. Not so quick-and-easy. I tried my old stand-by, paint-stripper, with no results. Scrubbing with a pot scourer was only effective when working from the edges and chipping the layer of cement off the stainless surface. Rough sandpaper and my electric sander helped, but I eventually brought out the big guns - my drill (I got custody of the power tools as part of my birthday gift) and a grinding attachment. In retrospect this wasn’t the brightest idea, as it left some marks on the sink, but the end result is a sink that looks clean and useable – a huge improvement.  

Once I’d started, it seemed silly to put up with the ugly black paint that had been slapped over the splash tiles behind the sink, so some paint-stripper and scraping later I had the tiles back to their original gray. It took another 10 days before I got around the repainting the wall that had been damaged by the masking tape I’d used, but here it is: Project 12, completed.

What was I thinking?

I think this counts as a Project, don’t you?

But I’m not ready to give up yet! On Thursday I went and bought a pallet from $5 from The Dump, and on Friday I found another that had been put out for the bulk garbage collection. Friday afternoon and this morning were spent demolishing the pallets and by midday I was looking at my version of Ana White’s Pallet Shelf. As a bonus, I cut pieces for three smaller shelves which I will finish less “rustically” and fill with plants for Bugsie’s three playgroup teachers as year-end gifts.

It goes without saying that I’m smiling from ear-to-ear, and all ready for Project 11!

Project 7: Chickpea’s Arabian birthday tent

Yes, you can make an Arabian style tent for your daughter’s 10th birthday party with a cheap gazebo frame from Bunnings, 60 metres of white muslin, two elastic bands and a couple of packets of safety pins.

Delay the tree lobber who was due to remove the palm trees on the day of the party. Throw down some carpets and cushions on the grass. String up some fairy lights inside the tent. Make houmous, felafel and an Arabic honey cake. Hire someone to do henna designs. Happy 10th Birthday Chickpea!

Project 8: A wheelbarrow garden bed

Bugsie investigates...

 As the next post will show, we have been busy building a wicking bed. I wanted to transplant some butternut seedlings that had grown in the compost AnoneeDad used to plant a couple of grape vine cuttings in. Butternuts take up lots of space though, so after some investigation (and a very brief look at the finances), I decided to make a cheap raised garden bed for the two seedlings.  

Frugal wicking wheelbarrow bed

I am very interested to see how this experimental bed works. Some issues to consider:

• Will it actually wick?
• Does “likes manure rich soil” mean “use 50% manure 50% compost”?
• Will the plants survive transplanting (umm, no – one has died already)
• Will the extra butternut seed I planted germinate?
• Is one wheelbarrow enough room for two butternut plants?
• Will the rusty barrow lead to iron poising?

Earlier this year I saw a post on a homeschooling website that spoke about Ana’s site. The poster had made a school table for her family. She said something along the lines of “I’ve always wanted to try woodworking but I was too scared of power tools. Then for my 40th birthday I asked for some tools.”  Her words described my feelings exactly. The difference was that the poster had stopped talking, and started doing.

Week 1

Months later I went back to Ana’s site, did some research, made a trip to Bunnings with AnoneeDad, and came home with timber and a mitre saw, which seemed like the least deadly of the wood-cutting power tools. I got a few kids’ woodworking books to get familiar woodworking terms. But the saw sat in its box until AnoneeDad next left town. This was my adventure, and I needed to do it alone. I spent more time online in the first week than I did building. How did anyone do anything new before YouTube? I watched videos on how to use a mitre saw, and how to change a jig saw blade and how to use the Kreg jig. Then, of course, I found a specialist woodworking shop, and bought a Kreg Jig, because pocket holes look really cool. Bunnings became my second home as I bought set squares and clamps and counter sink bits and learned how to use them. I learnt how to use power tools in the presence of a 3yr old boy without losing any fingers. I tried stuff. I held my breath and closed my eyes and tried stuff.

Maybe I can do this...

After two weeks I had something resembling the storage bench I was trying to build, but it took another month and a small fortune in stains and varnishes before I finally finished the project.

Despite plenty of flaws (and a slight wobble) I’m prouder of this bench than pretty much anything else I’ve done in my life.

Yes, I CAN do it!

[If you're still reading - my Master's degree, home birth, staying on my feet with complete placenta previa - and not letting the subsequent C-section slow me down - and coping with the moves to Oman and Australia respectively are the other achievements that make my list!]

Before-and-after

Although I had several projects underway, my goal is to complete one project a week for 52 weeks, so I was forced to pick a quick-and-easy project for Week 4. The striking feature of the house we bought is its colour scheme. Apart from very bright colours in the children’s bedrooms, the house is decorated in black and white. The floors are (were, but more about that later) black vinyl, there are 3 charcoal-grey wall, and the woodwork is all painted black.  

As my 4th project I decided, on a whim, to try to strip the black paint off the counter separating kitchen from living area. I used the fantastic Citristrip that I was in the process of using on the floors (more about that later). The black paint peeled off, revealing what I think must be jarrah underneath. I coated it with three coats of a water-based satin varnish, and the finished result closely matched our Indian Rosewood (shesham, sheesham) TV cabinet.  Definitely a success!

Project 5: The floors!

Before: Black vinyl to left and right of shot.After: White ceramic in the centre.

 Project #1: Goldfish

My goldfish costume is perhaps pushing the bounds of credibility as a project, but as it was one of the first things I did that got me thinking “I can do this” it gets honourary status as my full-blown Project #1.

Chick’s homeschool drama group put on a performance of The Jungle Book. The costumes needed to be simple accent-style. Our goldfish was great – it was a humourous role, and she pulled it off beautifully. Please do not ask why there was a goldfish in the Jungle Book…

Project #2:  Bellydance outfit

I actually made this twice, as I wasn’t happy with the first attempt. I used a stretchy velvet-type fabric. Chick has been growing like a bean stalk recently, and it cost me – I needed to get 4 times her waist-to-ankle length.

I read or listened to instructions on how to make a circle skirt 4 or 5 times before I could grasp the (really simple) logic of it. My own how-to will follow.

The top was trickier, but she’s wearing it, so there. Suffice to say that not many of the 52 projects are going to be sewing projects…

Project 3: Fleece Dressing Gown

This is the project that really reminded me why I got rid of all my sewing patterns… While I don’t mind sewing projects that involve, well sewing, the fiddley work of transfering pattern markings is definitely not for me. Nonetheless, Chick went off to Guide Camp with the dressing gown that was on The List. She was happy, and I made it big, so that takes care of dressing gowns for the next 2yrs.

Bob-the Builder removing skirtings. Shortly afterwards crowbar met finger with messy results.

The second and third week of September were crazy. In an 8 day period Chick had her bellydancing soiree, her end-of-year drama performance and her annual Guide Camp, which required that magic up a circle skirt, a goldfish costume and a dressing gown (apparently not available in child-sized versions anywhere in Perth in September). In between Chick had another Guide event, we spent a day with out-of-town friends and I began to experiment with removing the black vinyl tiles that covered all the living and common areas in the house. AnoneeDad was out of town for the first week. The annual bulk verge collection was scheduled for the fourth week of the month, which means removing all the black wooden skirting boards from the house (or holding onto them for another year).  I was working into the night, and I was exhausted.

I was also, for the first time in ages, really-and-truly, 100% happy. Being of a somewhat thoughtful nature, I mulled over this for a while, and came up with the following: I was happy because my busy-ness was aimed at a visible goal.  I’m always busy. I rush to shops and childen’s activities. I rush to get the house clean and dinner done.  I rush to get kids to finish schoolwork and get ready to leave the house. But nothing that I do shows much tangible results.

I long ago realised that I counter-inuitively got more simple day-to-day job satisfaction from my clerical banking job than I did from my post-graduate-degree’d University research job. The why was pretty obvious to me – I loved starting the day with a pile of papers on my desk, and ending the day with a clear desk. I valued the short-term sense of achievement over the long-term open-ended results of my more “socially-valued” University job.

My new-found sense of well-being actually began in late August when I stumbled across a website by a woman called Ana White whose website was then called Knock-Off Wood. Ana builds wooden furniture. Not just any wooden furniture, but beautiful, solid, functional wooden furniture that duplicates brand-name designs at a fraction of the price. The interesting bit, though, is that she has no specific background in woodworking. The amazing bit is that she says anyone can build beautiful wooden furniture. The incredible bit is that she tells you exactly how to do it.  The still-somewhat-unbelievable bit is that I bought some wood, and started building this.

So … combine a sudden urge to own a mitre saw with a goldfish costume, a bellydancing outfit, a dressing gown, a new home and a 40th birthday on the not-so-distant horizon and you have the seeds of an idea. If getting stuff done makes me happy why not do stuff all the time? And so I resolved to complete one project a week, 52 projects in a year, a nice round 60 before my 40th birthday.

Our first day went fairly well, so here’s a snapshot of a day in the life of AnoneeMom and family…

• Chick and I awake 7:30am , Bugsie awake 8:00am.  (AnoneeDad is away).
• I make breakfast. Chick watches the end of a movie from last night while eating.
• Bugsie watches dvd while Chick gets ready and I explain the day’s work to her.
• TV off. Bugsie and I put washing in machine and get Bugsie dressed, Bugsie plays while I tidy kitchen, I play with/totschool Bugsie (trains – IN and OUT of tunnel made from cans and a cereal box, making train with shapes (practising COLOURS and SHAPES). Chick does flashcard memory work and maths lesson.
• Kids play outside for 20 or 30 minutes while I check Chick’s maths lesson and e-mail.
• Bugsie paints while I start spelling with Chick, a mistake, as he keeps interupting. Put dvd on for Bugsie, finish spelling with Chick.
• Hang washing while Chick reads Latin lesson to me, and we discuss.
•  Chick works on Latin. Bugsie and I paint – I draw Chick with a ROUND head and a STRAIGHT body in BLUE paint.
• Bugsie spreads Bovril on his bread while I make Chick and I melted cheese toast for lunch.
• While we eat I e-mail, Bugsie watches TV and Chick listens to an audiobook on iPod.
• I put Bugsie to sleep, which takes a LONG time. Chick supposed to finish off Latin and do maths drill and cursive copywork, but dawdles and only gets halfway through Latin.
• I do about 1hr15min of history readaloud with Chick – Beowulf, which is very gory.
• I go to lie down for half an hour while Chick finishes off the work she should have done earlier, but Bugsie wakes immediately. I put a dvd on for him, set an alarm for 30 minutes, and go and lie down. 5 minutes later he calls me to say the dvd is stuck. I ask Chick to sort it out. 10 minutes later he comes and asks for chips. Chick says she’ll do it, but a war breaks out in the kitchen over who gets to put the chips in the bowl. I cancel the alarm and get up.
• Do dinner prep. Washing off line. Chick finishing work. I check her Latin work. Bugsie plays then watches (more) TV (it’s been Thomas the Tank Engine all day).
• Chick goes to her DanceFun class, while Bugsie has a swim (dance is at Leisure Centre with indoor pool).
• Chick finishes work and tidies up, then puts on TV, while I cook dinner. I play a colour matching game with Bugsie while feeding him his dinner.
• Chick and I eat while watching her TV show. TV off by 7pm (usually 6:30pm).
• Kids bath, get ready for bed.
• Chick reads to Bugsie while I post on blog, then listens to her iPod while I read more to him.
• Kids to bed by 9pm.

A pretty typical example of a “calm” day around here, but with more emphasis on doing things with Bugsie than usual. A hectic day might be a Tuesday when we leave for iceskating around midday and get home after 4pm, or a Thursday when we have two extramural activities, and I go shopping. I’d rather not live those days, let alone blog them.