Merry Christmas!

I’m bursting with happiness this Christmas, and I hope everyone is having lovely holidays.

I had a little down time before Christmas dinner, so I thought I’d share the gifts from my parents this year. Almost everything that isn’t edible is tiny house related 🙂 I’m so blessed to have parents (and extended family and friends) that support my lovely little dream!

A shiny blue level, a toolbox I love, special splinter-removing tweezers (’cause I’m a wimp that can’t handle splinters), another tape measure from friends of my parents (a surprise gift!), a set of screwdrivers, a Handyman magazine with creative storage ideas, a chalk box, a utility knife, flat pencils and a sharpener, a speed square (yellow, so I can find it easily), a fab hammer, a tiny house mug and t-shirt (yay!), two pairs of pliers, two gift cards for Canadian Tire (one from my grandparents and one from my Aunt Lynne and Uncle Graham, thank you!), and of course, socks (tall ones to wear with my work boots).

Every day this dream gets closer to reality, and I’m so grateful! Merry Christmas everyone!

WHC: Week 9

I didn’t go to wood hobby club last week because they needed me at work. I missed the lesson on raised panel doors, but the instructors said that it’s no problem and they’ll go over it with me later.

Last night I went in a little early to cut my facing pieces and biscuit them on. I had plenty of scrap wood from making my panels. Some quick measurements, a couple runs through the planer, a couple cuts and those were ready. After a refresher on how to use the jointer, I attached my side pieces and clamped them.

For those who don’t know what biscuit joints are (I had never heard of them), basically, you have a small, thin oval of wood (called a biscuit), and you cut long slots in both pieces of wood you want to attach together. Then you put glue on the little ovals, put them in the slots, put more glue along the length of one of the pieces of wood, and put the second piece of wood on, then clamp them while the glue dries. Biscuit joinery allows for some error because the biscuits can move in the slots. That way, it doesn’t matter if your slots line up perfectly. Then the biscuits swell with the glue and make a strong joint. It’s better than just gluing two flat faces together, and you don’t need to put nails on the face of the piece of furniture you’re making.

This week was the lesson on how to make dovetail joints for drawers. I assumed that there was a machine that did the cuts, but instead you use this complicated jig to line up your boards, and then you cut the joints with a router. There are a lot more steps to building an end table than anybody expected. Building my kitchen is going to be time consuming!

After the lesson, the glue had dried on my project, so I was ready to put on the horizontal facing pieces. That took longer than expected. I had to re-cut some of my biscuit holes, and then I had to try five different clamps to get one to clamp properly. I was a little cranky by the end of it. I’ve been sick these past couple weeks as well, so after four hours at the club, I was ready to go home.

The course will start up again in the new year, but I can go in and work on my project over the break if someone’s in the club. I’m not sure if I will. The restaurant I work at is closed for a week, so I might just hole up with friends, family, and a bunch of blankets for the holidays.

Anyways, here’s a picture of the side pieces after they’ve been glued on, with the middle pieces resting on the shelves.

Look at that! A piece of furniture! Kind of 😛

I didn’t take a picture of the horizontal pieces attached because they were still clamped when I left.

Also, there are a lot of cool projects that people build at the club. I couldn’t help but drool over this one:

Doesn’t this look amazing??

WHC: Week 7

Yesterday at wood hobby club I put together the sides and shelves of my end table. They look so lovely! Nothing looks as good as real wood, and it’s so awesome that I’m the one that built those panels!

I also worked on my top panel. I’d been waiting for the wider planer to be fixed so I could plane the panel, but they’ve been waiting weeks for a part. I finally gave in and cut my panel in half. I planed the halves with the smaller planer, glued them back together, waited, then sanded the panel. It looks so good, and for a newbie’s work, it’s surprisingly flat 🙂

In the lesson we learned about biscuit joinery, which we’ll be using to attach the facing to our end tables. Adding those pieces makes it look a lot more like an end table!

Building is so exciting. You have control over your own projects. I decided that I didn’t like the look of the trim in the end table design, so I’m skipping the trim around the bottom. I made my bottom shelf lower than everyone else. It’s a little scary to deviate from the plan, but it’s what I want and hopefully it will look good!

With what I’m learning in this course, I’ll be able to build pretty much anything. I’m already picturing the joints for the rolling shoe storage table I’m going to have in my tiny house, and making simple shelves will be super easy for me. I’m planning on making all my kitchen cupboards myself, plus building the closets for clothes and storage.

I’m getting excited and nervous. Now that it’s December, the countdown is starting. This month, I’ll finish collecting the tools I’ll need. January will be spent reviewing the plans and making my materials list more detailed. In late February I’ll order the trailer. I’ll spend March looking for materials at restores. In April I turn 19 and will be dealing with the bank. Somewhere in there I’ll probably order windows, because none of my windows are standard sizes. Then, the plan is to start insulating the trailer bed in early May!

I still have so much research to do!