We love old houses!

This is what I have waiting for me when I get home:

Last night there was a leak in the tub because the overflow pipe wasn't sealed completely.  About an hour after the tub had been drained I went into the kitchen and discovered the kitchen floor was soaked.  I looked up to see a bubble in the ceiling.  I got a bucket and a knife and cut an opening in the ceiling only to have a little more than a gallon of water flow down into that bucket.  I started cutting away at the soaked drywall and ended up with a hole about 3 feet by 2 feet in our kitchen ceiling.

Oh the joy of owning an older home...

New Shelf for the Back Porch

Melissa wanted a shelf.  She showed me a picture from this site and I got to work.  I was fortunate to have a lot of the wood I needed.  Here's what I started with:

Glue.  This is only important to know after hearing what I had to do with it later.

Teach them early!  Charlie sanded a little, then took his hammer and started hitting it pretty good.  After that I had to pull out the nails and scrap wood so he could have something to do.

This is what it looked like when I thought it was done.  If you look at this one and then look at the finished one (or the link from the example) you can tell it is not correct.

I took the whole thing apart and started over.  That glue that I showed earlier, that made it a problem, but I was able to get right.

Done!  The right way.

I am really glad I went back and took it apart and started over.  At first I was really frustrated with myself for not taking more careful notice of what Melissa showed me to what I was actually making, but then I realized that I will be walking by this shelf multiple times each day.  I wanted to do it right and not think about how I messed it up and didn't make it correctly.  I am proud of that shelf and Melissa says it is one of her favorites of the things I have made.