Category: wood

We built a table! We wanted a new one, lighter colored and longer for our space. So we made it. Starting with plans from Ana White for inspiration, then making it our own design.  It’s simple, sturdy, solid, and long. Did I say long? It’s 8 feet long. We can fit 4 people on a side without being too squished.

Good for hiding under. Those legs are 4x4s.

And for climbing on? Well, it’s new. They were exploring.

Nice big screws that hold the legs on. The legs can be taken off for moving if necessary.

I found some new chairs at the thrift store, and at this point had sanded and painted and polycrylic’d one chair.

Two more chairs done. They’re sort of “shabby chic” – meaning I painted and then sanded some off and scuffed them a bit. Then applied the polycrylic to give them some protection from further scuffing or staining. They’re easy to wipe clean.

And then Eric made a bench out of a huge chunk of cedar and some 4x4s. It fits one full side of the table and seats as many as want to squash on there – I think we could probably fit 6 kids for birthday cake.

This table gives us room to spread out for art projects or homeschooling, and we can push projects aside and still have space to eat lunch if we need to.

We don’t have good trees for easy treehouse building — they’re all pines and firs, straight and tall. But last year, we had some trees taken down and we had the stumps left at about 4 feet tall. For no reason at the time, except that we might want them.

Two of them were conveniently close together and close to the kids’ sandpit and the trees where we’re going to hang swings once we get a crossbar up. After looking at them for a few months, and finding one good solid pallet left over from building the woodshed, I had a plan. The first time Eric got out his chainsaw this year, I had him level them off.

And then I built a treehouse. Except, because it’s not on an actual tree, but on stumps, it has now become known as The StumpHouse. Because my children are literalists.

The posts supporting the other corners are from a fence that used to surround the front patio, and which my parents tore out last fall during a visit.

The siding is made of the outside edges of milled trees which we got free from a friend who had had a bunch of trees cleared and milled on her property about a year ago.

The ladder is made from more parts of that fence from the front patio.

It’s not huge, and it’s not quite finished, but I think the boys will have fun with it for a while. It’s probably big enough for 3 or 4 kids.

So now it just needs a roof! Having made the entire thing from stuff we had on hand (the only thing I bought was more screws), I don’t want to pay for roofing. We’ll be on the lookout for scraps of something that we can recycle.