A labor of LOVE

I like birthdays a lot. I love making them memorable and special. This year for Barry's birthday I decided to use my creative ability and MAKE something. I wanted it to be a surprise but keeping it from him was a little tricky because I was making something BIG...

I started with only an IDEA. I wanted to make a map stand for Barry's office. There was this perfect little nook there that I wanted to fill, so I came up with a theme of sorts and went to work... I had no idea that I would be putting my BLOOD, SWEAT, and TEARS into it.
Trying to save a little money I began my quest for inspiration/something to work with when I went to habitat for humanity and found a treasure. ON SALE for $1.00 EXACT was this NASTY bubble gum pink stripped bathroom cabinet. To say the least it was a tad rickety and water damaged but I knew I found something I could transform.
Here is the beauty before in the back BARRY'S truck. I had to ask Barry to borrow his truck probably 4 times and he kept asking "What do you need my truck for? What are you doing?" I just had to say "Hauling stuff." but he was suspicious.
There was 3 or more layers of this pink paint on this cabinet . I know because I had to SAND it all off in 100 degree weather!!
A LEMON some might say. But I said NO, NO my friend, that is LEMONADE, you just have to squeeze it and add some sugar----
Well, a lot of sugar. So I woke up at 4:15 for 4-6 days to try and beat the 115 degree HEAT and went over to my HANDY DANDY Uncle Brians house. He is a master at wood works and has all kinds of POWER TOOLS. I sanded for HOURS and HOURS. It was hot by 7:30-- Let the SWEATING commence!
I couldn't have done my little project with out the help of my Uncle Brian. What a GREAT guy!! THANKS!! Thanks for donating your time and supplies!!!
SANDING. Topless. No not me. the cabinet. silly. As you can see the cabinet started with no TOP. WE MADE it from scratch.



So during construction I was injured. True. I dropped a large awkwardly shaped piece of wood on myself and there was BLOOD!
So before we began I had drawn my whole idea out on paper. I had to go back to my geometry days and figure out a hypotenuse (thanks Bret, sorry Mr. Fritz) I knew the measurements and how many pieces we had to cut.
With a little wood glue and a nail gun my idea began to take shape. "Lisa, you don't have to CRY, its looking great!" "Im not CRYING that is SWEAT running down my face!!!"

pink almost gone
More sanding.
REPAIRS
See the top slits where the fake drawers go? Well we turned that into shelves! see below
So around about the 4th or 5th day of working on this I decided to recruit some HELP. My Mom came down from Eagar. AHHHH how sweet. FOR REALS!! and my sis Becki. I had gotten this far and was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my project. Becki gave me some great inspiration and we went to work STAINING and BEATING this now chest looking thing. We took hammers and shovels and any object we could get our hands on and make it RUSTIC and give it character like ME -- at least thats what my dad always told me about all my battle wounds.

So yes, we do look like drown rats, you are right! That is because mid day OUTSIDE in the wreched valley was much to hot so Becki and I just jumped in to pool clothes and all to cool off.

Here is My Mom attaching the doors.
OK let me list the POWER TOOLS i got to use:
belt sander (those things have some power)
hand sander
jig saw
nail gun
drill
staple gun,
AND a table saw SCARY!!
so RADICOOL!! I was supervised (don't worry Barry). We attached the lid with hinges. You see, it is a chest/mapstand. It has a ledge to hold your atlases and what not and under the lid (it lifts) is storage space.

TAAAAA-DUUUHHHH!!! It is supposed to look like a TRUNK. Like the ones people used to TRAVEL with. That is what I was going for because that was my theme TRAVEL hince the map stand. I am not showing the completed ROOM at this time because I am no 100% satisfied with the outcome and still have some work to do. but this was the MOST work

the shelves. cool
RUSTIC EH? My special labor of love. I had cuts and bruises but this was SO MUCH FUN.

Pictures sadly do not do it justice. It pretty darn cool looking if i must say so myself.

Barry loves it. It is what he always wanted for his birthday, a map stand. wink wink haa haa