Friday, April 30, 2010

A Window Seat of My Own

I bought my condo about 7 or 8 years ago, and love having the extra large master bedroom to myself (and the cat. and the dog. but that's another story). However, from the first day I walked into the place, I could see that the nook in the bedroom near one of the windows needed a window seat. It was ridiculously obvious, but I always thought that I would eventually hire someone to build one, and just kept putting it off.

Forward to about 3 months ago. My feed reader has an "explore" mode, and for some reason, it popped in a little blog called Knock Off Wood.

I was immediately absorbed. Here's this woman in Alaska of all places, making furniture, and telling me that I could also make it. It's not a complete stretch; I mean, I took shop in junior high (all the cute guys were in that class, hello!), but there were tools, and work benches, and instructors. I couldn't possibly do something like what she was showing.... could I?

Well, after much hemming, hawing, and math, I decided I was going to try something from her blog, and furthermore, I was going to modify that plan to fit my nook. I was going to make a window seat, dammit.

AND I DID!!!

Check it out:

Here it is prior to trim and paint:


It's essentially a box with a few dividers for stability. Here it is after the trim is put on:


And here it is painted:


And finally, put in place, and topped with a dog:


I still have a few things to do - I want to extend the baseboard of the room across the base to give it a more built-in feel, and I need to sew the cushion for the top. But damn, it's only about the best place in the world to sit and read with the dog on my lap.

Thanks, Knock Off Wood!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The latest

Again with the apologies, no updates in forever.

I've split off my food stuff into a separate blog, and will be adding some on my regular recipes - meatballs, risotto, etc.

I've also started a new blog with a friend about hiking with our dogs - always entertaining.

And once I get all settled in, I'll start posting here again. Probably.