they won't finish themselves

ok, I was bad yesterday, I can admit it. I didn't work on the chairs... I hang my head in shame.

So I made sure to head down to the dungeon tonight to get some more paint on the Vin Rouge project. I'm at that point where I need to make sure all of the nooks and crannies are done before I put that final coat on the chairs... it just get so tedious. It's that point of the project when you spend all this time working and nothing looks any different... blah.

The plan is to at least get them up from the dungeon so I can get the arm rests attached by the end of the weekend. I don't think that's too much of a stretch that I can't actually make it happen... and if I don't, well then I have to face all of you...

The Vin Rouge Report

yes, I am still working on the Vin Rouge Project. I was hoping to complete the project while on vacation last week, but sheer laziness is a bitch to overcome! I wasn't completely lazy last week, here's a quick breakdown on how the week went:

Monday and Tuesday I worked on the Vin Rouge chairs.
Wednesday I went with my brother-in-law to pick up his daughter at the airport.
Thursday was spent overeating Turkey and other goodies.
Friday was recuperation day from overeating on Thursday!
Saturday I got a new toy that we'll talk about later.
and finally Sunday, I got back to working on the chairs.

I've now got one full coat left to apply and then some touch-ups in the nooks and crannies. Here's an updated pic on a closeup of the bottom:



I've also been trying to work on the nightstand that I started oh so long ago. I'm building this out of Red Oak. I like the color and it's freaking heavy! I screwed up on a couple things, so it's not my favorite project, but it should look ok when done.

you look relaxed

So I started my week long vacation today. Everyone else trotted off to work as they normally do and I rolled my butt out of bed at the crack 9:00am! Thanks Honey!

I spent the morning getting ready for and then making the big trip to the dump/recycling center. I got home just in time to see the 4 year old off to school and figured that while the littlest one was taking a nap, I could slap some paint on the Vin Rouge Project.

After picking up the 4 year old from school around 2:30, I headed down to the office to drop off an end table that my father-in-law had refinished for one of the girls and to pick up my Thanksgiving turkey that the company was handing out.

And this is the part that I found odd... not 1, but 2 people commented on how I looked much more relaxed than usual! A third person accused me of visiting Captain Morgan for lunch, but he's an idiot and that's a different story. Apparently though, this is a much needed vacation!

So here's the Vin Rouge Project update:

In this picture, the chair in the foreground has two coats and the chair in the back has one.


Both now have two.

practice

I've got this nightstand that I started working on several months ago. Ok, it was back in April when I started, but I plan on finishing it before this coming April!

One of the highlights of this nightstand is the piece of Birdseye Maple that I will use for the drawer front. I want to connect the sides of the drawer to the front with a half-blind dovetail joint. I bought this Leigh Dovetail jig back in April as well. As I've posted before, I have been practicing so that I don't destroy my Birdseye drawer front.

The jig looks like this


and to show that I can do more that just build Adirondack chairs, here's a picture of the half-blind dovetail that I have been working on. I'm pretty happy with the results. Now that the jig is set correctly, reproducing the joint is fairly easy... so I'm almost ready to go to town on the real thing!



stay tuned, there will be more to come. I've got the week off!!!!!

Vin Rouge

so here are the first pictures of the Vin Rouge project. I was beginning to get a bit nervouse about the color, but it has been approved!

this is a picture of what I've painted so far. I started with the back just in case the color looked like cr*p. it's starting to grow on me though...


this is a picture of the bottoms of the arm rests


at this point there are FIVE coats of Vin Rouge plus the primer on what you see. As a comparison, I only had to use 3 coats plus the primer on the NY Adirondacks. Speaking of those, they are getting picked up tomorrow! I'm rather excited to hear from the person getting them on what they think when they see them in person.

Next Please!

...and they are done! Yes the NY Adirondacks are done. complete. finished. waiting to be picked up...


so we are on to the next project... another set of Adirondacks! How boring you say? NO WAY! this set is going to be WAY different. This set is going to be a lovely maroon! "Vin Rouge" to be exact.

this set is for my team lead at the real job. I'm actually getting paid for this job! tonight I finished putting on the primer and tomorrow I'll put on the first coat of the "Vin Rouge".
Baring any unforseen flooding:

I expect this set of chairs should be completed fairly soon! ...and yes, that is my workbench floating amonst what used to be the occupants of my basement workshop (a.k.a. ... The Dungeon!).

Stay tuned! now that I know how to post pictures, this blog is going to get exciting!

so close I can taste it

~ the NY Adirondacks have been moved out of the basement.
~ the armrests have been attached.
~ final painting has begun.

they are almost done!

before you see this picture, keep one thing in mind. The armrests haven't been attached yet! This picture was taken a couple days ago, but this will give you an idea of how the NY Adirondacks are going to look...

a view of me and my work

ok, here we go. here's a picture of me with the first Adirondack chair that I sold to one of the girls at work.