Reclaimed Apple Crates for Kitchen Cabinet

Around April of this year I began a kitchen remodel that still has some finishing touches yet to be done.  I have been wanting to share it but would rather wait until it is completed.  Until then I thought I would share a cabinet that I made for the remodel.

We were given a bunch of old Hospital cabinets from the 70's I am guessing, not sure, and they are pretty nice cabinets.  They are all metal except for the top cabinets which have glass doors which we really like.

As with any old cabinet set we had to make these cabinets work for our kitchen.  We only had 5 base cabinets and 4 upper cabinets.  

They all fit well but there was one area next to the refrigerator that was too large to leave open, and we were out of base cabinets.  I was thinking of buying a wood cabinet and painting it the same color but thought it would look like I was trying to make it match.  So I took a trip to a local antique store.  

There is this guy in Vienna, MO that has almost anything old.  He has about 5 large buildings just jam packed.  I went looking for something that would do the job and came back with three old apple crates.

This is what the cabinet looks like, it still needs the base trim put on.  

There is a small area between the crate cabinet and the metal cabinet for storing cutting boards.

The construction wasn't to difficult.  I made a simple cabinet shell out of 3/4" plywood just large enough for the crates to fit.  

Next I used 16" drawer slides to install the drawers.  These can be purchased at any hardware store and have directions on the back.

One package will include all hardware to install one drawer; two sets of slides and screws.

These are easy to install.  The slide for the cabinet is attached flush on the face of the cabinet (this has trim that was attached afterwards) and flush with the base of the drawer. 

The slide for the drawer is attached flush at the face of the drawer, or right at the back of the drawer front, and about an inch up from the bottom.

The slides have stops built into them so the drawers don't come flying out when little ones like my kids pull on them.

All I had to do to the crates to prep them for being drawers was put a few coats of polyurethane on to protect the paper advertising, put some drawer pulls on, and some trim on the edges.

The drawer pulls were all items I had laying around:

The drawer face trim (some old wood I had):

The finished product, well almost finished.

Sandbox for the Boys!

Another old project that I thought I would share.

Every boy needs a sandbox right?  It was time to build the boys one.  Once again I tried to find items to reuse instead of going out and buying lumber.

We had some old oak 6x6's that would work great.

First was the excavation which CJ helped with and Moses watched.

I failed to take pictures of the build but it was pretty simple:

I leveled the ground out and then laid the posts.  To screw them together I used my new favorite lag/timber screws, TimberLok

It just took one 8" lag in each corner and one in the middle of the posts.

After screwing them together I laid down some weed barrier and then added sand, which I was able to get from the river for free.

This project was all of $30 and the kids love to play in it!

Reading Nook In Boys Room

For a while now I have wanted to build a spot in CJ and Moses' room for them to sit and read, a loft type area.

I have been putting it off but now that we are having our third child it was time to get the room finished.

I was at Menards a few weeks ago and out back in the pick up area I saw about 4 pallets of random wood stacked about 6 or 7 feet high.  When I inquired they said it was $50 a pallet.  It was either left over, cut offs, or just random pieces.  I bought one pallet that had a lot of good wood and more than enough to build the boys reading area.

It is worth it to look in the bargain areas sometimes apparently.

This is the area before:

And this is what it looks like right now:

I am basically making a loft area on top with a ladder going up and a simple railing.  Underneath will be a little hiding place as there will be a book case built in front of the square opening.  

This is the start of the reading area and I will add more photos once I continue.

I still have to add the book case, a light underneath, and stain it all.

All the joints on the railing were made with the Kreg System, http://www.kregtool.com/default.html, my new favorite tool!  It makes pocket screw holes that then when screwed together make nice square joints, and it is fast and simple.

The Kreg System:

They sell different setups and at the time I bought the bigger set but since then they have come out with a new one that is even nicer.

The system works with stock wood from 1/2" up to 1 1/2".

Just adjust the system, clamp one piece of the wood in and drill some holes.

The special bit that comes with the system drills an angled hole (this is how the system is set up) and a pilot hole for the screw.

Kreg also makes other tools to aid in making perfectly lined up joints.  This "C" clamp keeps the wood flush while screwing.

The system comes with an extra long square head bit that works with the Kreg screws and is long enough to screw into the pocket the drill bit makes.

I bought a Kreg variety screw pack but they can be bought in individual types.
The screws have a large flat head that helps pull the wood in tight to the other piece.
I haven't tried but I don't believe a regular screw will do as good a job.

Reclaimed Lumber Floor

Thought I would share something I did when we first moved into our home.  We added an addition off the back of the house, to be used as a sun/family room, in which we added a woodstove as well.  Since there would be the woodstove we thought the room could use a bit more of a rustic look and so I wanted to add a plank floor, something like this which I had seen in someone else's home.  

After calculating the cost for even a simple pine floor with 1 x 12 boards I decided it would be too much money.  I decided to try to reuse a bunch of old 1x's instead,  all different lengths, widths, colors, and types of wood.

How it originally looked after it was completed:

How it looked during the construction of built in window seats/storage:

The floor wasn't really all that hard to do.  I sorted all my 1x's according to widths so that all runs would have the same dimension wood.  Then I started to nail them down with square head nails to give it that more rustic look. 

Once nailed I rented a large floor sander and sanded about 5 times with different grit of sandpaper until all the wood was level and smooth on top.  

Once sanded I used bulls eye oil based poly and a roller to apply.  I put about 8 coats on to give it a strong durable finish.  

The floor has been used for about 5 years now and still looks great and is holding up wonderful.

In all the floor cost me about $150 for the poly and sander rental.  

The sunroom gets quite a bit of use and will soon be opened up to our new playroom/schoolroom which is under construction now.

The boys love to help daddy with, well, pretty much anything...