One of my projects for next week’s vacation is to restore an old chair. The seat will need caning, and I plan to have an Amish shop do that part. I’ll do the cleanup, repair (if needed), and painting. I’ll be using milk paint for the first time.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that a neighborhood cat has taken up residence in our backyard. Today I built him a house out of (mostly) scrap. We put a brooder heater in there to keep him warmish over winter.

Repaired and refinished a cedar chest I picked up over the summer.

Before:

After:

Rachel has more or less finished the floor refinishing project. I think it looks wonderful! She also made herself a great reading corner.

Rachel continues to do great work on the floors. The living room is now done; we can start moving furniture back in by Monday. The floor is pine, which is notorious for rough grain and not taking stain evenly. Some people say it’s a mistake to stain pine but I think it looks great. Another thing about pine: it turns orange as it ages. In our case that means our stain—Minwax “early American” which is brown—actually ended up looking more red. Two coats of polyurethane as a finish.

I’d like to find out more about this Divine Glory brand sandpaper I pulled off this old belt sander but all the search results are Christian allegories.

As of yesterday, I finished my two big summer projects: refinish my in-laws’ dining set and build a cabinet for a friend. Today I cleaned and organized the garage, which was getting quite out of hand while I was working on those projects.

My remaining to-do list:

• Repair and refinish a cedar chest
• Repair and refinish two antique chairs
• Refinish one remaining chair for it in-laws
• Get a few tools acquired over the past year into working order

Plans for next projects:

• A six board chest using Rex Krueger’s design
• I’d like to make several dovetail boxes, and maybe give one away as a Christmas present if I get the hang of it in time.
• Experiment with carving designs into whatever I’m building.

A few months ago, a very generous friend decided to give me some of his grandfather’s tools: a bench grinder, a small drill press, and a benchtop disc sander.

All he asked in return was an open-front, mobile cabinet that he could use in his garage and for cookouts. He already had a countertop. So I built it of birch plywood and added four lockable wheels and adjustable shelves.

I also surprised him with a memorial to his grandfather burned inside the cabinet.

I experimented with burning through the paint on some scrap and it looked okay but it also had a decent chance of going wrong. I decided to leave it unpainted and then finished the spot with some spray polyurethane for protection.

Here it is in its new home

Bad news: I got a minor cut from one of my chisels. Good news: I’ve successfully put a sharp edge on a chisel.