Garden bench

Here is my version of the purple bench from www.woodworkingformeremortals.com. I made mine from pressure treated 2x4's and it cost less than $30 to build. It only took about three hours to put together.

Bandsaw Box

This was my first attempt at a bandsaw box. I took inspiration from a post on www.woodworkingformeremortals.com facebook page. I really liked the way the ply wood looked, and since i had some lying around, along with a bunch of red oak, that's what i used.

I used some purple heart cutoff that was lying on the bench for the handle and finished with  linseed oil.

It was really easy to make and only took half a day and most of that time was letting the glue dry. It does take a lot of sanding and would be easier with some smaller sanding tools. (all I had was a random orbit sander) Also, next time I will get a 1/8 blade for the bandsaw. It will make cutting the sharp radius on the corners much easier.

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Patio

Since my Pergola is finished and the wood has seasoned for at least a year, I thought it was time to add an extension onto the patio so that I could get my grill off of the main sitting part. I added a 11.5' x 6.5' paver area off to the west of the main patio. This was made with 12" x 12" plain concrete pavers from Lowe's and 6" x 6" autumn blend pavers for the edging from Menards.

It was an easy project to do. I added landscape fabric for weed control and a 2" layer of sand before laying the pavers on top. I had to make two cuts around the post closest to the house. These cuts were made with a 4.5" angle grinder and a diamond blade ($10 from menards), and was really simple to do.

As you notice the pergola was also stained a solid black during the process. I used Cabot's solid color stain and I would recommend it to anyone that will listen.

Bathroom remodel

Since Hurricane Issac rained out the Labor Day Weekend, and I was not able to get outside to work on the patio. I started the bathroom remodel.

First here are some before pictures. The bathroom was original to the house which was built in 1970. And the decor shows it's age:

Gutting the room proved to easier than I anticipated, and there were no real surprises. The only issue was a leaky toilet valve because it wouldn't shut off all of the way, and that was easily replaced. Here it is with all the fixtures removed:

I choose a 12 x 24 porcelain tile that I think helps with the size of the bathroom, making it feel bigger. I used an underlayment product from Schluter Ditra that I bought at Lowes. Here is a link to the product: http://www.schluter.com/6_1_ditra.aspx . It was easily applied, just put it down with thinset and laid the tile on top with thinset. It is supposed to help with shifting floors that normally cause the grout to crack and come out. We will see.

  

Here are some last pics of the layout and grouting and the finished floor.

Here are some more "after" pictures. It is mostly finished. I still have to alter the middle drawer in the vanity, change the hanging light fixture and put in a register cover.

First bowl

I turned my first real bowl on my new lathe today. The stock
On the left is what I started with and I finished it with some linseed oil.

I can't wait to try my hand at some pen turning.

Mallet

Box joints