Easter Sunday

All the family is coming over for Easter Sunday and a potluck lunch - dinner will come together.  But we need a place to sit and enjoy.  The trouble is my teak patio table from Target only seemed to last 2 years and is now ready to be repurposed into something else.  I think if I sneeze it will blow over.  In shopping around for a large patio table at Home Depot or the DIY Center everything is super expensive, and will it hold up?  Why not try and build it myself?  I love the big farm house table design, plus I have a big backyard and patio so a big table would look fine.  Looked at a few ideas on You Tube and penciled out a game plan for materials.  Called up my good buddy Jacobus, said he'd be happy to lend a hand, and it was off to Home Depot to fill my shopping list.  4x4's for the legs, 2x6 for the frame, but what for the top?  Redwood?  Pine?

Nothing looked good at Home Depot.  Did I bite off more than I could chew?  Will I not be able to complete this project in time?  Jacobus came over and we went to town with building the frame 10 feet by 4 feet, seemed huge.  But why not, a lot of people can sit at a big table.  Cut the 2x6 to size, the 4x4 to size, predrilled the 4x4 legs to accept the 1/2" carriage bolts, added some wood glue and started building.  By 3pm I thought it best to call Stock Lumber and asked when they closed.  After all it was Good Friday and they might close early.  And wouldn't that suck if they did, because we did not have our material for the top of the table at that point.  And how many times have I started a project thinking I had all the materials only to find half way through I needed to make another store run for something more.  Seems all the time when working on the car.

Stock Lumber sells wood up to 20 feet long, but you need to buy the whole board if you can not leave at least 8 feet of wood to be put back on the shelf.  You could end up paying for a lot of the waste.  Red Mahogany, Red Oak, Clear Redwood, so much to choose, what should I get? what will look best?
And Jacobus... what will this cost?  The wood here is sold by the foot.  How much feet do we need ?  If the table is 10 feet long and 4 feet wide, we want some wood to over hang the frame and then we can cut the ends to the size we want to end with.  OK... how wide is each board?  And to think I was to busy smoking pot in high school, ditching math class and saying to my buddies; who needs this class anyways. The Redwood was the prettiest, with it's long streaks of red and yellow coloring.  So Clear Redwood it is.

I'd love to say we finished it before dark, but that would be a lie.  Thank God for flood lights and good friends, Jacobus was great staying until we finished.  At 7pm the new table went into the backyard ready for Easter Sunday.

Lemonade Anyone

Sign painting is an art all it's own.  And why not, we have all tried the stencils from Office Depot and they never seem to turn out what we had envisioned.   Kay Kropp  is a scenic painter and artist for the studios.  She seemed delighted to help.  And so the day was set.  We all agreed to go with a loose design, no hard lines, just the look of homemade and fun.  First a chalk out line was drawn to create a plan.  If a change is made, a little spritz of water erases the chalk to start over.  Kay then pulled out her arsenal of artist brushes; a 5 gallon paint bucket filled to the outer edge looking more like some abstract flower blossom and a canvass wrap.  Some square and wide, some small with only the tiniest tip, some round like a finger tip.  They all had a purpose, they all work and so a brush was picked.  First she laid down the creamy yellow lettering, and then followed up with a bright yellow outline.  Washed the chalk away with a wet rag and the lemonade stand came to life.

Rustic Lemonade Stand

Rustic Wedding

It all started when my niece asked me to build a lemonade stand for her wedding.  The big day was planned for May 2014 at the historical Strathern Park in Simi Valley.  The park is cheaper than most wedding venues but you need to bring all your own stuff.  First I started a pinterest page to get the ideas flowing and see just what lemonade stand the bride wants.  Then asked her to comment on my pics.  A trip to Home Depot to load up on lumber, paint and supplies, and so it began.

  I cut the wood at uneven lengths along the front to give the stand a homemade look, also some boards are smooth while others are rough sawn.  This will help with the aging process.  On the back side shelves are installed so the stand can act as a bar or tattoo stand at a party or even a car show.

Burnt Umber is normally a tint used in adding color to a base paint in making a custom color.  I asked for it at my local paint store and the salesmen seem lost.  Nowadays machines tint all the colors, but back in the day a painter would have a color rack of tints and he could make the exact color for the customer on site.  Luckily there was a paint code for burnt umber.  I poured 1/3 into a solo cup and then added 2/3 water, mixed throughly. It then looks more like a watered down stain. Then comes the garden hose with an adjustable nozzle, turned to a fine spray and mist down all the wood.  The water acts like a vehicle for the paint.  If you want more runs, mist on more water. The different wood types accept the paint differently.  Using a wet rag ,follow up with dabbing and sometimes wiping off some of the excess.  This starts the old aging effect, you can even add some burnt umber to a small spritz bottle.  You could stop here but I love some different colored boards, as if the young builder had grabbed his building lumber from anything he could find.

 Blocking… grab a smooth piece of scrap wood and brush on your paint to the face of the wood / block.  Slide the block in one direction over the surface of one or more boards.  The paint on your block will stick to only the high points on the wood surface.  You might want to try it out on a piece of scrap wood first.  I believe less is better, and you can see the results…  One rustic lemonade stand ready for the wedding.

creating a grave site

This is how it starts.  The idea is to create a small grave site where the person will be seen digging in the dirt.  It will be a close up shot so the buildings and trucks will not be seen.  On this day it just so happened to be over 100 degrees, so working in the direct sun on a black top parking lot was brutal.  Lots of water, a good shade hat, and some creativity in hand.  The plants are over grown in the pots or what we call self masking, and I will need to hide the pots.  Hopefully I can bury them in the dirt.



OK so I was able to use the dirt to help hid the pots.  And build up the dirt to create a digging area.  Some of the plants are laid on their sides to build up the fullness.  Add some carpet grass weeds, and leaves tossed about and it all starts to come together.  The "shot" will be at night and the camera will start low and slowly rise above so the white trailer should not be seen. 

It's been a while

It's been a while since I posted anything to my blog.  Maybe I'm not a blogger, maybe Facebook has been my thing.  Who knows... More importantly what can I do to get off the computer and into the yard today.  The pipe on the backyard sprinkler needs to be dug up and repaired.  The vegetable garden needs to be weeded out, The Tipu tree needs some thinning and the list goes on.  Maybe I can also get some time to get back to my welder and make more steel garden baskets.

Garden Cart

People throw away the darndest things. I'd had seen this cart next to the trash can at work for several weeks. It can't be trash, someone must have left it there and not returned yet. Maybe it belongs to set dressing, or the property department, I thought. But I asked everyone. Even the stage manager did not know where it came from. My last day of work I asked one more time and wouldn't you know it. It was up for grabs. But how was I going to get it up and into the back of my pickup truck. 4 men will be needed to lift this thing and everyone has gone home. One drivers was out back and offered his help. We can roll it up onto the lift gate of his 5 ton truck and then roll it right into my truck. And so we did. A couple of tie downs to secure it and all was done. But what will I do with it ?

I seem to be in this situation a lot. I have brought home more things with the idea that it will make for a really cool thing only to get pissed off later and take it out front to the curb. It never seems to sit for very long at the curb. I live on a some what busy street and neighbors, strangers, by passers have all grabbed something from my curb spot. Maybe some day I will be at someones house and see something that I have thrown out.

Some large Terra Cotta planter pots would look great on this. And the ability to roll it around your patio with ease makes it all the more better. It reminds me of something you might see on the loading dock of an old fruit packing plant, or around the yard of and old railroad stop. There is a cool type of connector on either end giving one the ability to connect several carts together. But then what do you pull it with. A friend stops by and says it may have lived it's life on some studio lot transferring tools from stage to stage. Being pulled by some small tractor thing.

For now it will sit on the patio until I get tired of looking at it, or moving it around, or pissed off at all the junk I have once again brought home and send it to the curb.

Bowling Lanes

The first 15 feet of the bowling lane gets replaced after so many years of use because of all the abuse it takes. They either replace it with another maple section or a new composite material. The sections that are torn out are either thrown in the trash or in our case loaded onto a truck and sent to California. You see my good buddy Al had seen in IN STYLE magazine that Allyssa Silverstone had bought a dining room table made of a recycled bowling lane from Big Daddy's Antiques (who sells at the Rose Bowl swap meet). And paid $4200 for this table, but the legs on the table looked cheesy. We could build some really cool legs and build them into dining room tables, sell them for half that and it would still be a win win. If I was willing to let him store them in my yard he would pay to have them shipped out here. And so we did.

An 18 wheeler arrived at my house the day before Thanksgiving 2007 with 64 sections 14 feet long. We rented a forklift but found that my gate was 12 feet wide and the lanes were 13 feet long. We stacked all the lanes on the driveway so the long haul driver could get back on the road. My 16 foot flatbed trailer was brought out and we loaded 6 lanes at a time onto the trailer, backed it up into the yard, drove in the forklift, unloaded the lanes and re stacked them on a concrete slab. 1x3 was placed in between each of the lanes for air circulation. It took us all day to accomplish the task.

Al came by one day and cut 3 lanes to use for a deck on the back of his house. But then just got busy with work, as I think we all seem to do. And thus the lanes sat....and sat....

Each time I called, he had too many pokers in the fire.

What to do???

Come the following November 2008 I called him up and said this Thanksgiving will be the 1 year anniversary to this project. And we've done nothing. And now I want to get it out of my yard. He had spent $8000 to purchase and ship them to California. Sending them to the dump would mean loading them into a big roll off can...big money, paying the dump fee, even bigger money. Each lane weighs approx. 500 lbs.

Why not try and sell them on Craigslist, I thought.

With everyone going green and digging the retro theme, it's gotta be a win win.

recycled bowling lanes, 42"wide, 14 ft long, 2 1/2" thick, some with arrows and dots $150

Dan arrived one evening after work, he wanted them for a bar top in an art gallery. But if I buy one as a sample my partner will most likely come back and buy the whole lot of them. 60 sections... Wow, that would be great.

Dan brought a skil saw and cut the lane down the center so He could load it into his big van properly. As I slid the last of the piece in through the back door I closed the door and heard a two chirp sound. I hope we didn't just lock your keys inside, I said. We did. As your girlfriend is driving up a tow truck with yellow flashing lights is out front, guys with flash lights in the backyard, takes some explaining.

The next guy had called me weeks prior when I was trying to sell them for $300 but his wife was having a baby and we was unable to come by. Understandable.

When he did come over I had lowered the price to $150 and he was stoked. He was looking to use a large section for a kitchen island in an old home he was building and use the fall off for the mud room.

Curtis is looking to build some tool benches for his motorcycle shop in Hollywood. They specialize in old Triumphs as all the old guys in the business are dying off now. We are looking to carry on the work these old guys were doing. But when the lanes they had chosen were not quite long enough they offered, how about $200 for 2. I said how about you meet me half way at $250? Ok...and the deal was set. But cutting them was a different matter, a nail or two was hit and dulled the blade. One guy said, we need a big chainsaw. So as a joke I walked out to the garage and grabbed my Stihl 066 with the 36" bar on it. Will this work? I asked.

Wow that thing is huge, they said. Instead we used my new Porter Cable circular saw, christmas present, ruined that blade too.

Herb arrived with his 2 sons but when he saw the wood needed to be sanded and refinished, he passed.

Scott & Christy drove up from Marina Del Rey, looking use several for a kitchen counter top. But then decided not to one thay saw how heavy they were and just go with one for a front porch. They hope to come back and buy more.

Ron and his partner (business partner not love partner) build custom guitars and have a 2 year waiting lsit. The loved the maple wood and knew thwy could build some really cool work tables out of them. wwwthornsguitar.com

They had some trouble cutting them in half but they had a great sense of humor and it made it all worth it.

Sold 2 more lanes to a physics teacher and his son from Phelan near Mt. High. They just grabbed two lanes right off the top of the pile, dropped the tailgate on the Ford F350, strapped them in, nailed on a red flag and off they went.

Will from Hollywood was picking up a matteras for another friend when He stopped by to buy 2 lanes. I know that feeling I have had several pick up trucks over the years and always seem to get sked to help friends out. He also droped the tailgate down, slid 2 lanes in and drove off.

Paul came by with a mid size Checvy truck and wanted 3 lanes. Can we put them onto the roof rack? he asked. I thought he was crazy, but they did it. He hopes to use them on a job making cool kitchen counter tops.

Aaron from Simi Valley arrived one day after work, his young son in tow. He had rented a U-haul trailer for 1 lane, but the one he grabbed seemed to be seperating slightly, so I offered him a second piece for free. @ for the price of 1, I said. We managed to slide the 2 of them into the trailer at an angle and all was good.

Al called... Go ahead and sell the lanes for what ever you can, and keep the money. Or we can run free ad and the people coming over can load them all. We wont need to rent a forklift and pay any dump fee's.

I dropped the price to $100 per section and lanes sold like hot cakes.

John B 2/12/09

Wants to buy 10, but he wants the ones on the bottom as they appear the flattest. But also wants a forklift to do so. He decided to just get 1 for now and try it out, I gave him 2 for the price of 1.

Jeff J 2/13/09

stopped by and do a look over. Can I pay you now for 3 lanes ? I will then have a truck come by next week to pick them up. I was like; sure. Who does that in today's world. Pays someone with cash, no reciept, no invoice, just all trust.

2/14/09

Jeff called and asked if he could send a check for an additional 7, could I hold them too until his truck arrived, sure I said.

2/19/09

Loading 10 lanes with 4 guys was next to impossible. I won't do that again.

The truck he sent over was too big to pull into the backyard. Jeff didnt come either, he sent 2 guys over instead. After carrying 3 lanes across the yard, I was DONE. So we loaded them onto my big flatbed trailer, 3 at a time. Drove next door to the CVS parking lot and transfered them into the big box truck. But even still, loading them was just as difficult. Saul used the hydraulic lift gate to slowly scoot them into the truck one at a time.

2/20/09

Brett; a pilot form Port Huneme drove out to get one, this will make a great work bench.

2/26/09

Roger W from Blackjack Ranch Winery picked up 3 lanes. He told me that when the Santa Barbara bowling lane closed he bought up all the old lanes and made some great bar tops with them. But Roger forgot to bring his tye down straps, luckily Stock Lumber is just down the street.

2/26/09

Pat picked up 1 lane, he brought over a truck from Santa Clarita Studios and a whole crew of guys. Maybe I can get him to take all of the fall off pieces.

2/28/09

David T and his wife drove all the way out from Ridgecrest with a rented trailer and bought 4.

Dan was right behind him and bought 2.

Another guy showed up and offered to buy up the rest of them; 16 total, including 2 warped ones plus delivery for 1400 as a package deal. Sure I said. But after he went home and told his partner of the great idea, ( his love partner not business partner) he called and canceled.

3/8/09

Scott & Berkley

Looking to build some cool stair treads amd landing for a house they bought in Thousand Oaks. Just wait till he tries and make all those cuts.

3/14/09

Eric and his girlfriend came by this morning in an old 1971 chevy pick up truck also from Craigslist. We managed to slowly slide 1 lane right into the back of his truck.

4/8/09

The last of the pile looks a little worked, lets put in a free ad and jst get rid of them.

50 e mails later that evening, some I just deleted, others I sent a reply. This Saturday at 10, come over, first come first served. The next night another 40 emails. People must love free.

Al wanted 2 for himself and the rest can just go away.

Jo Ann was fearful that some 90 people would show up on our door step looking for the freebie. But it worked out just perfect.