Laura Baker Furniture

Well done are my days of mostly doing house rehab.  My focus lately has been on my shop.  This past month, we purchased my bandsaw.  I now am the proud owner of a 19″ beast of a bandsaw.  I only have a few major tools we are still saving up to purchase and then I will be in business.

My project this week is construction of my lumber rack.  I found the plan on Fine Woodworking and then adapted it to my own space in SketchUp.

After finishing the calibration of the bandsaw, last night I cut out most of the pieces for the first tier.  Yes, it was my first time getting to use the bandsaw and I was super psyched.  I’ll post pictures soon.  They are on my husband’s camera.

The plan is to finish that up this weekend.  Currently the lumber is being stored on metal racks we thought would work, but now see their limitations.  Thankfully we’ve thought of other places in the house/shop to use them.  Nothing seems to go to waste around here, I am pretty resourceful.

All of the tile in the master bedroom has been laid.  All the joints have been cleaned and it is ready for grout.

As you can probably imagine, I browse my fair share of blogs daily.  I thought I would post a few of my favorites so that you can enjoy them too.

Apartment Therapy

Design Milk

Anthropology Magazine

Materialicious

Better Living Through Design

Swiss-Miss

Design Sponge

Are there any you’d like to add to this list?  Let me know.

After a 3 day weekend, I am proud to announce we got a lot of work done on the house.  I’ve been working on cleaning up the backyard for the past few weeks.  That, of course, is a never ending chore.

Happily, we did add some curb appeal to the front yard.  We filled the planter areas with plants and mulch this weekend.  I’ll add pictures as soon as my husband posts them from his camera.

The house looks an feels so welcoming coming up to it now.  We put a few braided hibiscus trees in pots on the porch.  That really finished things off.  I need to go back to the store to get a few more for the front porch and back patio.  Of course I need to pick up some more plants for around a few more trees in the front and the mailbox.

The pool provided a very nice way to finish off the days after working so hard.  The water temperature is at 85 degrees–and that is with no heater!

We still have to beautify the backyard, but we’re getting there.

Of course I took a lot of time to reflect over this Memorial Day Weekend.  I am very thankful for all of the troops and especially the ones that gave their lives for our freedom.   A few years back, I lost a nearly life-long friend in the war.  The testimony he lived is amazing.  He was a man of amazing character and strength.  I will never forget.

Once again, I forgot to blog in my busyness.  I am going to paint the first coat of primer on the hallway today.  We decided we are going to paint the hall yellow, we just haven’t decided on the exact shade yet.  My husband said, “Just not puke yellow or baby room yellow”.  So now I have my direction, I just have to make the selection.  Thankfully I have a few more days until I am to that point.

We have the magnetic paint done in Dick’s new office.  We had some problems with the white board paint, so we still have one more coat of that left.  I need to run to the store to pick up a box of it.

Dick caulked the windows in the master yesterday.  They are almost ready for new blinds.

The most excited news, you ask?  The electrician “finished”!  He rewired my dust collector, tablesaw, and radial arm.  The table saw works!  Sadly, the radial arm doesn’t.  Thankfully there are two Delta repair shops in town.  Hopefully they can send someone out to take a look at the machine.  It is in need of a good tuneup anyway.

So life is good.  We are coming along with the house and shop.  I have done lots of cleaning up in the back yard.  Things grow like crazy in Florida.  It is hard to keep up.  Dick wants that to be his summer project–beautifying the yard.  We have a very large yard, a beautiful new patio, a nice pool, and are just about ready to entertain!

My husband has told me I need to take a day off.  I still have gotten a lot done today.  It’s really tough for me to sit still when I have so many things I want to get done around the house.

I have the painting in the master DONE!  I just have to tile and then get the new moulding up.  It’s going to look great.  I love the feeling in the room already with the blue.

I have his new office nearly cleared out (we were storing all the house renovation tools in there).  I’m hopefully going to get that primed tomorrow or Monday.  I am going to paint his whole room with the “accent” and ceiling color we are using (his request) except for one wall.  That one wall will be painted with the white board paint.  We have some friends that have used this and love it.  I’m excited to see if it lives up to its hype.

My plan is to start working on the hallway when I start his office.  That way I can paint or work on that on the days I am waiting for the paint in his office to dry.  Seems like a good plan to me.  I’m just running out of places to put all of our belongings with having so many rooms emptied out.  Hehe.  I’m actually doing okay, we just aren’t prepared to entertain guests right now.

Oh and I get to paint the other half of the shop floor as soon as our electrician comes to complete the work in there.  We are having him rewire a few tools that are already in the shop.

There is a lot to do.  I’m rather tired right now, but still mega excited for the project to be done soon (well within the year hopefully).

I haven’t posted in the past week because I have been busy.  My mother-in-law referred to me as “Wonderwoman”.  I like that.

I sanded, patched, sanded, patched, sanded, primed, sanded, painted, sanded…the master bedroom.  Today I have to tape up the ceilings so that I can apply the first coat of blue paint on the walls.  The closet, ceiling, and window accent areas are finished with their color of “Apple Blossom”.  I’m excited to get “Powder Blue 4″ up on the walls!

After quite a weekend, I’ve taken a few days to recoup.  I have two coats of epoxy on about 2/3 of the shop floor.  I already have some machinery in there, so I couldn’t paint the whole floor at once.  I’m hoping our contractor will be able to move my table saw into the shop this weekend.

Shop floor after 1st coat of epoxy.

Shop floor after 2nd coat of epoxy.

Dick did a lot of sheet rock work in our master bedroom.  I removed the tile on the window sill.  Dick finished that off to make a squared ledge.  He also had to do some repair in the closet from redoing our bathrooms.  I now need to sand it down and apply one more coat of mud before doing the next coat of primer.

We took the bikes to Jekyll Island this weekend and met the in-laws there.  After a 10 hour bike ride, I used the past few days to relax my muscles.  Of course I did my normal housework, but nothing extra.

I have two coats of primer on the master bedroom.  We have to do a little sheet-rock repair before I finish the paint job.  I started prepping the hallway for paint.  Life is good.

Earthworks has done an amazing job once again.  Our driveway is gorgeous!  I am so glad we chose to go with the pavers rather than the concrete driveway.  It looks so nice.  Earthworks has been a dream to work with.  I am so pleased.

Planter area in front of the porch.  Their attention to detail is fantastic!

Installation in process.

Preparing the area.