A Father Daughter Project!

A Father Daughter Project!

August 24, 2011, 7:06 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Last month Michael was going to be leaving town for a week to play drums at a camp with our friend Ross.  I decided I did not want to stay home all week by myself with both kiddos so I headed to Conroe.  The first couple days Michael’s parents (Nana and Poppy)  kept the kids and I got to hang out with my mom and sister and her baby Eliana.  It was so fun.  We did all the things that are really hard to do with 4 little ones like shoe shop, go out to eat, go to the mall and work on crafts!  Then Jackson, Isabel and my sisters two year old Lilly came back to Conroe and we spent the rest of the week all together. It was a really fun time.  The girls had planned a few crafts to work on while we were all together, but I also planned one special project with my dad!  We have a small group that meets at our house once a week that we do not have enough seating for.  So every week we pull out a bunch of old metal folding chairs and wait in anticipations to see who the lucky ones will be that get to sit on the couch and comfortable chairs. Ever since we moved into our house Michael and I talked about getting some benches to go against the wall in the living room over looking the back porch.  For one reason or another we have never gotten around to doing it.  So I decided while I was in Conroe (the week leading up to Michael’s birthday)  I would get my dad to help me make some benches!  Back in high school I remembered helping him measure and saw some wood to make a little door to our back yard fence.

I had a very simplified rough idea in my head of what the benches might look like, but anyone that knows my dad knows that you either do it all out, made to last, with attention to detail…or you just don’t do it.  We had a great time looking though some ideas he had printed off on line and modified our favorites into something that would work for our particular vision and space.  On Sunday we went and purchased the wood that we would need.  I spent the next couple days sanding them during small bits of free time when my mom, sister and I were taking breaks from crafting and taking care of the little ones.  Then on Friday my dad took the day off and we worked from 7:30 am – 7:30 pm straight in order to get the done before Michael’s plane arrived.

The saw that I became quite the expert with

My Dad

First we cut the legs for the benches

Our captivated audience

It was way too hot in the garage, so we created a sweet little set up on their porch under the gazebo with a fan blowing right on us. (You can kind of see the gate my dad and I made years ago in the background :))

Here I am with the handy Speed Square

We made boxed frames out of the 1" by 4" boards with the rounded edges to go as a casing around the outside of the benches

We did two of each as we went so the benches would be the exact same

Then we made a second smaller box that woulf fit perfectly inside of the frame we built that had a piece of plywood on top and two support beams down the middle.

glued and screwed!

Someone came out to say hi

This was the hardest part we did. Instead of just screwing the legs straight into the sides we notched them and made the flush with the inside box. This helped to create added support for the benches

Getting the legs on

Here it is with the frame put on and screwed in place and legs attached!

Jackson turned out to be quite the engineer with all the little scraps we had lying around

The day before my sister Lori helped me pick out some great fabric at Joann's to make a slip cover to go over the tops of the benches. (we also put a thin cushion on top to make them a little more comfortable)

My mom was amazing and made the slip covers since I wouldn't have a chance to do them before Michael's plane landed! All while watching both my kids and making dinner....wow.

And last, we painted them.

Here they are in the living room.  They could not have come out a better size!  They also work great as a coffee table since I sold ours in a garage sale while Michael was out of town on a previous gig 🙂

They fit perfectly into the cut out in front of the windows with plenty of walking space.

Thanks for all your help Dad!  You were wonderful and they came out so perfect.  I couldn’t have done it without you.

 

 

 

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