Bill's Latest Woodwork Project Desk Refinishing

A while back, Bill decided he needed a smaller desk in our office.  He has a modular unit that works, but it's huge.  I had a smaller desk which became Otter's a couple of years ago, and we bought me another desk at an auction.  The one I have is bigger than hers but smaller than the unit Bill uses.  My desk will fit his needs perfectly, as well as the space.  So we started looking for a new desk for me.  A neighbor was moving "back home to Texas" where the winter is "normal" and she had a desk a lot like Otter's for $10.00.  It came home with us.  In the trunk of the Impala!  Fortunately, she was just around the corner so we didn't have to go far.

Bill stripped the varnish off and made a couple of minor repairs.  Then he hit it with varnish and 3 coats of clear polyurethane.

All the pictures are in the living room, which is as far as Bill brought it the other day.  It's still there.  It will be for a few more days, he's going to see about taking his modular unit apart on Sunday and then moving my old desk over.  Then, the new desk will be moved into my spot.

Visible at the bottom of the picture is one of the dog toys.  Maggie had been playing tug, but she got tired and left the toy there.  Behind the desk is the ever-expanding Fenton collection and some dvds.  The desk is the object of the pictures!

There are some variations in the wood but it looks really good.

A close-up of the drawers.  Ignore the plastic wrapped doll house behind the desk.  The dollhouse is a future project, it's going to be redone and then stored correctly for Otter.  It was our project for vacation week, but the heat changed our plans.

Wooden Book Shelf

Someone gave Bill a bunch of scrap wood.  It's actually in pretty good shape, most of it is usable.  He had to take nails out of a few boards, but that was about it.

It's no secret that Otter and I practically live at the library.  We usually have more books than we can carry.  That's not the problem.  The problem is where do we put them when we get them home?  And, how do we keep them straight in terms of due dates?

I decided we needed a small bookshelf.  I looked at a couple of thrift stores with no luck.  Then Bill brought home all this wood and decided he wanted to make one for us.

Here is the construction, more or less in order!  Any captions will be beneath the pictures they are describing.

Nailed and glued together, wood filler on the few spots that needed it.  There weren't too many places that needed filling in, mostly just to cover the nails and just a couple of minor spots.

One of his many toys - in this case it was holding the backing on while the glue dried because Bill was afraid it would bend.  The backing is a piece of paneling he's had forever and never had a use for.  Until now!

First coat of stain.

2nd coat of stain.

Close-up of the shelf, with the 2nd coat of stain.

The side, witht he 2nd and final coat of stain.  And a lot of other junk!

The finished product!  I can't remember, but I think it's around 26" tall.  The books are usually stacked on it "the right way" - backs out and not piled.  At the moment, mine are on the top shelf and Otter's books are on the bottom.  But we usually read each other's books, so they don't stay that way.  It's working out great, it's just the right size and we have figured out a system to keep newer books from getting mixed up with older books - we usually have a lot of late fines!

It only took Bill a couple of days to build this, the staining process probably took longer than the actual construction.

Bill's Woodwork

Bill is pretty handy, although we get nervous when he's around power tools. For a good reason!

Anyway, these are a couple of examples of things he's made.

This is not the best picture, the camera was going out when I took this and this was the best one I could get. The shelf is the object of the picture, not my Fenton pieces. Bill has a bunch of scrap wood, various sizes & shapes. He made me a shelf that is hanging over the stove, and he made this one for me last year for the Fenton. It's actually a sort of sage green color.

Bill collects shot glasses. He's not a big drinker, but he likes shot glasses. We refer to his collection as the Useless Collection. He is always in need of display places for the glasses, so he used some more of that scrap wood and came up with this. It's hanging over the window in the office, so you can ignore the green curtains underneath the shelf! He's got many, many more shot glasses with no place to put them so he's considering making a shelf that goes all the way around the office, or possibly on two of the walls. It might be like this shelf, or it might be totally different.

Bill creates the pattern for the shape, style & size and then he gets to put his Engineering skills to use. He's been building a frame for the pachinko machines, when it's at a further stage I'll take pictures.

And hopefully, he won't have any injuries. :)