To Alex -

To Alex...who is far away in person, but never far from my heart. I miss you. Enjoy these snippets of everyday family life here in the states.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Homemade

B reads my blog and knows that I'm participating in the One Small Change. He encourages me and agrees to go along with my commitments even though he didn't sign up for the change. This time though, I was concerned he might think I was a little kooky for giving up my dryer for the month, but he didn't. In fact, yesterday, after I did a quick load of wash and found that my collapsible drying rack wasn't big enough to hold everything, he gave it a quick inspection and said, "I can build you one of these."
 
Really?

Oh, yeah. He's brainy like that. I have no idea how he does it, but he took a few measurements, wrote a couple notes, drew a few pictures and then we headed off to the hardware store for dowels and screws. He just happened to have scrap pieces of maple in his garage that we could use for the supports.
This is really all the supplies we needed. A few dowels, scrap board and screws. B figured out all the dimensions and we set to work ripping and cutting, drilling holes, sanding and such.
He talked me through what to do with these power tools because even though I'm afraid of using them, I always want to learn how. I did my part by keeping my fingers out of the way. Love that belt sander. Oh, man, it made quick work of removing the old finish from the boards.
Almost finished.
Tah dah! A brand new collapsible drying rack that is bigger and much stronger than the original one I bought at the store and now I have enough racks to hold all the laundry.

4 comments:

  1. That is pretty darn resourceful. You two get an 'A' for effort!

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  2. love that you guys are supporting each other in your efforts. turned out awesome!

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  3. Wow, that is so amazing. I love how powerful this one small change challenge is. beautiful drying rack.

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  4. AWESOME lily! i am most impressed with your power tool use. you sound just like me. (after the art caddies, i now have all these ideas in my head, but need mike's help and his work schedule is too insane to help me in his wood shop!)
    nicola
    Which Name?

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