It is a sunny morning in Toronto, the cicada’s are pretty loud these days…..

This was a project that I worked on for my sister and her husband, I believe inspired by some images found on the internet by them.  I am really happy with how it looks, and its functionality.  The holes for the candles on one side are in a straight line if you want to maintain some sort of order, and on the other, they are all messed about, as you can see in the images.  I plan on making another one of these for the use of tea lights.  Once again, the wood is the original 2×4′s removed from the walls of our apartment, oiled with Linseed Oil.

These projects with the reclaimed wood are rather simple, but I do really like how they look in the end.  

This one wasn’t my idea.  I just made it for him.

My buddy Adam, who is in the coffee biz, found these neat single pour coffee makers (the white porcelain things in the images), where you simply put in a filter, put in the coffee, and pour boiling water through it.  He thought it could be cool to have a stand for them, I agreed.

It’s nice because you don’t need an expensive machine, nothing can break down on you (or if anything should break, its easily fixed) and of course, it re-uses materials (the two by fours cut out of my walls).  It is oiled using Linseed Oil, so no harmful chemicals. We had briefly discussed a design, and this is what I came up with (used the new saw AND the new clamp).

He figured you usually make coffee for more than one person, so there should be two ‘holsters’.  I obliged.

It also had to be tall enough to fit these travel mugs underneath…..we were golden.

I am pretty happy with this, and think it is very functional.  It looks pretty darn nice too.  You could really use it anywhere, and can be designed in many different ways, to accommodate more or less cups etc.  I would also like to have someone local making the coffee holders on top, so if you have any ideas, email me.

Here you go. (Check out the dog and cat)

The coffee is amazing out of it, and hotter than hell.

It is also worth noting that Adam held a fundraiser a few months ago and had Toronto artists and designers each design one of these non-disposable travel cups (silent auction style), and donated money to this charity.  What a guy.

New Years resolution is to work on more of these wee projects, so I am certainly looking forward to that.  New additions to the artillery are a Compound Miter Saw a tool belt and a miter clamp.  All fun.

So for the Holidays, I wanted to make some gifts.  I believe I mentioned before that I kept some OLD two by fours when we renovated our apartment (from the time when they were actually  two inches by four inches).  They have been up in the loft of the garage for about a year, and I finally put them to use, and made this neat bottle rack.  It hangs on the wall vertically, and bottles go in each one of the holes, on either side of it.  I don’t have a photo of it in use, since I gave them all as gifts, but will get one ASAP.

It has a pretty rough look, but I like it.  Once it was oiled (Linseed Oil), all of the imperfections stood out which was great.  It was drilled to hold a standard wine bottle, but could hold anything similar in size.

Check it out:

So we needed a deck, and looked at a few options until I decided to just take it on.  The main issue was that the shingles on the roof that the deck was going to go over needed to be replaced.  I got a quote from someone to re-shingle the roof which is 12ft x 10ft, and it was going to be $1000.  Then from there, I requested that a contractor come in and build just the frame for me, and I would finish the planking and railing myself, that would have been $1500, then another $500 for materials to do the planking and railing. A grand total of $3000……not fresh.

So I had Nicole’s dad drum up some blueprints for us, and I went for it.  The shingling wasnt actually that hard once the FOUR layers of shingles were stripped off.  I took them right down to the wood, rather than laying them right on top.  It was pretty nasty.  This took about 6 hours, and it was fairly dirty.

Once the shingles were ripped off, it was simply exposed wood (No pic, sorry).  I then just rolled down a peel and stick waterproof membrane which is amazingly simple.  I made sure there were no sharp nails sticking up, and I ran the membrane about 6 inches up the side of the house, under the siding (just to be safe).  Once that was down, I began laying the shingles.

Shingling is fairly easy.  I wasn’t that concerned about them being perfectly straight since the deck was going over it, but if you google it, there is plenty of info on technique.  Just make sure that you cover all of your nails with the layered shingles, and that if you happen to leave any exposed, put some tar over them.  No one likes a leaky roof.  Oh, and fasten some aluminum flashing against the house, also extremely easy.

Then came building the frame.  When I had the shingles off, I found and made note of where the roof rafters were, so that I could fasten the 4×4 posts to them.  On the other end of the deck, the entire structure was fastened to the studs of the house, using 6inch wood screws.  I should really scan the drawings and put them up.

I used pressure treated wood for the frame, and built it out of 2×8′s.  They were cut on a bit of an angle leading up to the house to follow the slope of the roof. Again, I will post the blueprint.  Oh, and the 4×4 posts, when I drilled down into the rafters of the actual roof to secure them, I made sure to use plenty of tar, to prevent those not so fun leaks.

Initially, I wanted to finish the deck with wood found on skids, however was unable to due to structural issues.  The planks that are laid on top give the deck rigidity, and prevent it from skewing, so having planks that run the full 12ft of the deck are necessary, making it solid as a rock.  I was a touch disappointed, but must say, the cedar looks and smells rather nice.  Here it is planked.

At this point I was fairly surprised at how sturdy the deck was.  To be honest, I thought for sure I would screw something up, but it felt great.  Once it was planked, there was zero shifting which is always nice!  The railing some may disagree with, as its theoretically not too code, but figured if we ever sell the house, I can make it code.  All I know is that it looks nicer than a conventional railing, and its pretty damn sturdy.  I fastened the two ends to the house, using 3 inch screws and hangers, and then lag bolted all of the 2×4′s that you see to the frame of the deck.  So here you go:

Although this project took me about a week, since I took breaks, didnt work full days, and had the flu for a bit, I am confident that it is a weekend job, or 16-20hrs.  All of the materials that I used, including screws and nails ran about $1000, rather than $3000.  Basically, I look at it as earning $2000 in the 20 hours it took to build.  This is certainly one of those projects that once you undertake, if you take your time, and do your research, it gets easier as you go along.  You will then teach yourself skills that will last you a lifetime, and in the longrun, save you money.

Using reclaimed wood from skids found around town and two milk crates I built this little guy.  It cost between $8-$10 for screws and because I had to buy felt feet for the bottom.  The drawers work great, one side hides our modem and router, the other our DVD’s.  The monitor is going to be replaced by plants this week.

Keep in mind I am not a carpenter, nor do I have a design background, so the structure may look a little weird, but I have recently spoken to some friends that are willing to help me out with improving the design.  I would like to make a 4 drawer version.

Want one?