Looky! A Picture!

Yes, I finally have at least one picture to share, of the wood project I keep talking about.

I call it a "movable kitchen island," for lack of a better name. It was originally a birthday gift for Mom, and I guess it still is, but it's over a month late. Oops! We started it in late May, and had no idea what a big bite of work we were taking. I've wondered many times since then "whatever made me think we could make this?"

The above picture was taken several weeks ago, and we've made a lot of visible progress since then. Honestly, this doesn't look like much if you don't know about all the work that went into it, but what we have now looks much better.

I'm so proud of the job my brother, Curtis, did on this project. I designed it, and he was the one who showed me how we would go about building it. I had only planned aesthetics; he made the skeleton. He also did much - make that most - of the work in putting all the wood together. I only held pieces of wood in place, handed him the drill, picked up after us, kept him company, encouraged him to keep going when we felt defeated, picked up dropped nails, made suggestions about altering the design, and amused him by stripping a screw.

I wish I could have been more of a help, but stripped screws and boards that are too short really hinder progress on a wood project. I know when to keep my hands off. Curtis was gracious enough to say that my encouragement was, to a large degree, responsible for him finishing the project, but to make things more even, I said I would do all the sanding and staining; I know how to do that!

I guess you can tell by the picture that we're working with cheaper wood than you're really supposed to. My budget forces us to be frugal. It's actually pretty fun to be creative, and find ways to use every scrap of wood. Curtis was able to save us enormous amounts of money, with his knowledge of how to have as little wasted wood as possible left over.

...So, anyway, this is "the project" that has been using up a great deal of my time lately. There's still much to be done, but it's a labor of love, and I don't mind at all.

I look forward to sharing pictures of the finished work!