Built not Bought - home edition
 

Share some things that you have crafted for your home , rather than purchased.


Last August I bought a fixer home to get my family into an A school neighborhood for my son to grow up in, and get us out of the 700 sqft shoebox condo we were living in.

Besides repairs to make things like plumbing work right, a few things I have built for the house so far are...


Rolling kitchen cart ~ Pallet wood project, total cost $50 in stain, hardware, and casters

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...psbde35a37.jpg

Holds all my pots and pans
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...psbf538a5c.jpg

Cutting board storage
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3a9acc66.jpg

Rolled out to the dining room with Thanksgiving dinner on it!
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1f91853a.jpg



Mailbox to replace old rusty metal box ~ Pallet wood project, total cost $35 in numbers, polyurethane, and hardware

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3e09ad65.jpg

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...psf3bc8f56.jpg



Key and dog lead holder ~ Pallet wood project, total cost $28 in hardware. I used the left over stain from the rolling cart

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...pse6128dda.jpg

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Cool stuff Dicky. "thumbsup"

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Very cool pallet project!!

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Nice work! "thumbsup"



I just built a nice 7' long work bench. As soon as I get all the crap cleared away from it and put away I'll take a pic. :ror:

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Thanks guys! Unfortunately the house needs enough work to force a year of from crawling do to finances and lack of a work space for now. But I still have all my gear (all in pieces) and ain't goin' no where. Just a little sabbatical.

I look forward to seeing some for the house stuff the rest of you have built!

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Sweet mailbox! I need to make one now, mine blows.


Not a bad idea for a thread. With all the sweet RCs that people show off here, I'm sure there is just as cool stuff being built for their houses "thumbsup"



I've been working on some stuff lately now that I have a welder at home.

Just built a kitchen table that's about 90% done (urethane coat didn't self-level like I'd hoped it would to fill in some imperfections like on the particle board, so I'm going to sand it again and put bar-top resin as the finish coat) - made from new metal and scrap wood with 1/2" all-thread inside. I did have to buy all the steel for it - maybe $100 for metal (dunno since I bought extra for other projects). Total is likely less than $200, significantly less than I'd pay to buy a table like this. YES, it was very labor intensive to build this table with all the scraps and plank direction I chose. Not owning a planer and sanding out the inconsistencies was fun too :shock:
http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/w...psf8gb6nef.jpg
http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/w...psstmgkbf3.jpg
http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/w...psrqc2culd.jpg

Still in the process on this barn-door for my bedroom since we haven't had a door ever since I relocated the entrance. Got all the track built, just need to glue up the door and urethane it, then figure out a couple pieces of simple hardware to keep the door from being lifted off track, and keep the bottom against the wall. Door track is 1.5" steel and some garage door pulley wheels. Door is 2x3 studs with 1/2" all-thread inside:
http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/w...pseo0cn4qd.jpg
don't mind the cobwebs ;-)
http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/w...psogra3f4e.jpg

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

When I got my place it was wall to wall carpet in every room but one bathroom and one hallway, an a few rooms were soaked with cat pee. I ripped it all out and put down 3/4" solid white oak.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d.../Den-Floor.jpg


In this room and the kitchen I made some chair rail from 1x4's with the outside edges cut off.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...m-Molding2.jpg


With some pine and leftover darker pieces of flooring I put in a pass-through:

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...h-Finished.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...ssThrough2.jpg


Also between those rooms was a closet that really cut into the walking space, so I cut it back by a foot and re-made it with oak / oak plywood.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...ay-Closet2.jpg


For the living room I made a 15" down-firing subwoofer that doubles as an end table. :)

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...b/Finished.jpg

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Last year (I think) I refinished our dining room table with bar top resin and it worked awesome. It seems the only people that had trouble using it were those that did not follow the directions to a T. Be sure you do that.

Also, the more dust free the area is the better. I ended up making a tent out of plastic sheeting to keep it covered after the applications.

I got this from Lowes...I think the gallon kit was about $80 and goes a looooong way. I still have about 3/4 of a gallon left.

http://i48.tinypic.com/ws4jux.jpg

The finished surface. The dimple is a teeny tiny spec of dust that settled on it while it was still wet.

http://i49.tinypic.com/v3lqoo.jpg

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

^sweet, i'll try and see if my Lowes carries that on the shelf. How big was your table? I've been trying to get a sense of how much I need to cover my table without having a bunch of excess like you :) My table is 3x5

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Mine is about the same size minus the leaf. You could get away with just buying a quart (which they also offer).

If you don't like the wet look, you can sand/polish it after its cured for less luster.

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

How did the edges of the table turn out?

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Good. For the bottom edge, you just wait until it sets up a bit then run a razor knife around it to remove the drips. Once its fully set up you can sand/grind down any remaining sharp or lumpy parts.

Made my own "entertainment center out of 1x1 box tubing, caps and textured rust oleum paint. I used some glass that was cut to size from my old entertainment centerhttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/07/qy2a6e6e.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/07/huzu2eqa.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/07/unajuge8.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/07/e7y3esus.jpg
I still need to put an outlet behind it so I can hide all the wires and cables

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

your schwartz is bigger than mine
built me a 6 footer two weekends ago
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/2154/1hn4.jpg

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Cool. What'd that cost you?

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Wife wanted a table for the landing, came up with this.

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

I like the color on that. "thumbsup"

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Thanks, the picture is kinda deceiving, need to snap a better one.

I was playing around with some finishing on this one.

First I stained the entire table with the darkest stain I had on had, then sanded and stained again.

The I used valspar spray paint for the color, sanded, painted, sanded, painted, then did my final wet sanding to get the look I wanted starting with 300grit paper and moving all the way up to 1000grit.

I then polished and buffed the entire thing, it's smooth as glass now.

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

some garage organization...rolling work bench on casters, re-purposed kitchen "pantry" cabinet and 48" piece of laminate countertop from the local Re-Store (habitat for humanity) store. I ran electric and put up peg board too.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...psc9710c33.jpg

put up a cedar picket fence for the pooch...did it myself for $1000 vs. the $3k that pro's wanted.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...ps58692b78.jpg
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6b6c7812.jpg

the wife wanted a headboard she saw on pinterest. 5 1x10's and a pint of stain....wala.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...psec403902.jpg

I'm rather proud of this one...the wife wanted a guestbook puzzle for our wedding that cost $400 (here)... I picked up some 1/4" birch plywood, piece of particle board, some molding and went to my scroll saw.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...2-02180320.jpg
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...inson/1103.jpg
I made a custom matting and framed it; it hangs in our family room now.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...psgkh0e5lx.jpg

made a bench/coat rack in our kitchen right by the garage door...it's not stained or mounted in this picture.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...psao2yituj.jpg

Re: Built not Bought - home edition
 

Front door. Cut in half, refinished and instant dutch door.