Cooper's new bed

I've already told the story of buying and stripping apart the bedroom chair that was to be Cooper's new bed. Turned out taking the thing apart was much easier than figuring out how to reupholster it again. I had no idea what I was doing.

Cooper anticipating completion

So I did what any self-respecting crafter does - I winged it. I wrapped the chair in batting then used  duck canvas on the frame. I had to do a lot of folding and tacking to get the heavy fabric to follow the curves of the chair. I also had to keep reminding myself that this was going to be a dog bed and that I never intend to upholster again. It didn't have to be perfect and I wasn't learning a permanent new skill. It was supposed to be fun dammit! Cut yourself a break!

Trying to fold around the leg. Argh.

I had a couple of old wool car blankets that I wanted to use as the cushion cover. But first I had to cut a new foam cushion to fit the shape of the chair - remember the old chair was horse hair and wool, no foam back then. What a total pain in the behind it is to cut foam. I used a long bladed serrated knife and really struggled. I've since learned that an electric knife is much easier to use.

Rather than actually make the cushion cover permanent I decided to just wrap it around the foam and tuck it in tight. If it ends up getting pulled out then I'll make a slipcover but I'd rather not cut the blanket if I can avoid it.

Nearly done.

I called Chris in to take a look and Cooper trailed along. And immediately checked out her new chair.

Is this mine?

Yup. It's mine.

We put in by the wood stove and she's been loving it ever since.

Day

Evening

Night

You can see in the photo above what I did with the second wool blanket - I folded it into a lumbar pillow. I think it makes the whole thing look more finished. I'm calling this project a success - just ask Cooper.

What the game camera caught

12:30 in the afternoon on a gorgeously clear and cold day (January 15th; 15F). 

Isn't he beautiful?

We cropped in and centered just a bit and it's a great picture of him. Unfortunately it was also the only picture of him despite the short reshoot setting on the camera. He must have heard the camera shutter and scooted off before another shot could be made. We've had a heck of a time capturing the coyotes on camera as they're so wary and quick to take off. 

January Thaw

Hooray! The January thaw hit on Thursday. We still had a foot of snow on the ground and the subzero temperatures of the past month (yes, December felt like February this year) had dried out most of the moisture. Couldn't even make snowballs for Cooper.

Thursday was warm though with a temp of 46F and we started to see some melt-off. The solar water panels started to clear though the solar PV stayed covered. Amazing how the snow clings to those.

Friday was even better - we hit 57F and things really started melting. The PV cleared off, the snow level dropped to 6 inches, and I walked Cooper while wearing a short sleeve shirt. So weird. Unfortunately it also rained like crazy - great for clearing the driveway (we can see gravel now) but disappointing for enjoying the temperature. We did get to open some windows to air out the place and  it made it easy to build the walls in the bathroom since we could leave the bridge door open. That's where we've got the miter saw set up and we got to easily carry boards in and out for trimming.

The temp this morning? 24F and ice raining. *sigh*

Planning the upstairs bathroom

Yup, after 5 years we're finally going to create the upstairs bathroom. It's served us well as a storage space - too well. I had to clear out boxes and boxes of stuff and then figure out where the contents should be permanently stored. One thing about a house with no basement, you have to really curate your "extras" since you have no overflow storage.

Anyway, the bathroom; here are the design thoughts. It's 9 feet by 7.5 feet so lots of square footage to mess about with. I've got an antique sideboard that I got from my Mom way back when - that's going to be turned into the sink cabinet. I've got a salvaged sink that will hopefully fit without too much rigging. If it turns out not to work, then I'll buy this one instead. So that's the sink and associated storage sorted.

The shower (no tub) will be 42"x42". We had that size in our old house and loved it. Large enough not to bump your elbows but small enough to hold in heat. Plus that gives us room for a framed closet on the shared shower wall. Nice! [Kick yourself note: I really should have planned more storage space upstairs. We have clothing storage but no miscellaneous storage for upstairs vacuum, suitcases, etc. This closet hopefully solves that issue but if we'd wanted a tub up there we'd really be screwed.]

There is a vent that sits directly above the wood stove and gets great air flow all winter long. Towel hooks will be installed on that wall and we'll have warm towels every morning! We'll also vent into the closet so that we have an airing cupboard like they do in England.

We've picked out sink faucet, shower controls, lights, and towel bars. The floor tile has been ordered (white penny tiles with a black tiled rug pattern), the materials to build the shower and closet walls have been purchased, we already own the white subway tile for the shower stall, the toilet was installed long ago, and I bought light gray paint for the walls. So we're just waiting for the shower pan to arrive and we can officially start construction. Sounds like a good winter project to me.

It's going to be a...

Many years ago I bought a velvet covered bedroom chair at auction for $5. It had great bones and the upholstery was in good shape. I knew I'd get some good use out of it. And I did. But great use is hard on a chair and it was looking really ratty. So I decided to take it apart and see if I could do something fun with it.

Uncovering those bones

Wool batting

Extremely well constructed 

Now what? 

Let's lower the arms

Much better profile for... 

Cooper's new bed!

Obviously I'm in the process of reupholstering it. I've reattached the arms, inset a plywood base to support a new foam cushion, and added batting to the bottom edges. Next up is strapping to support a back cushion then more batting around the arms and sides. Finally I'll enclose the chair sides and back in dark blue duck canvas and use the plaid wool blankets to cover bottom and back cushions. Assuming I can get Cooper out of it of course...

Loving the snow

Cooper loves getting out in the snow. This time of year our walks are filled with snowballs flying into drifts and skittering down the driveway so she can chase and kill them. And if we're distracted or busy, well she'll just throw them herself.

It's here somewhere... 

I think I got it

There it goes!

Don't let it get away!

Oomph 

Ta dah!

It's mine!

Huh. It's here somewhere...

The Kitchen Island

My kitchen has a big island in the middle of it. I designed it with multiple work zones: an antique butcher block forms one corner conveniently near the stove; a marble slab covers the other end for working dough and making candy; a long run of open space provides room to mix ingredients and stage stuff; in the middle are my stand mixer and food processor.  

The end by the stove

The end nearest the table

Supporting part of the worktop is an antique cabinet that used to be in an optometrists office - it was full of old lenses and blanks for making eye glasses when we got it. Chris had to do some woodworking repairs and I had to scrub the heck out of it (it had been stored in a garage for years) but it wasn't in bad shape overall. It had originally been constructed in sections and I chose to utilize only the ones that had stacked drawers (I'm sure we'll find good use for the others, probably in the studio).

The unit with large, deep drawers supports the side nearest the sink and has baking pans and food processor supplies. 

Wow, do I need to paint that kick board!

The other drawers hold similar stuff

The unit with shallow drawers sits on the side nearest the refrigerator and is full of baking tools and supplies.  

Yup, that kick board needs paint too.

Before anyone says there is no way those drawers will stay that organized, yes, they will. I've had them like this for well over a year. You just need the luxury of space. An overriding goal in this kitchen design was to have enough space to not stack or jumble things. These drawers (and many of the other drawers in the kitchen) are shallow (3" or so) so I can fit more of them into a standard cupboard space. More drawers = less jumbled mess.

I can always find my measuring spoons

Chris made the worktop by joining some ash boards that we picked up at auction. Originally I was going to use maple from the property but the grain on these was just too good to pass up.

Custom fitting the new top 

One corner of the worktop was supported by shelving that had consisted of 2x4s and plywood for the last few years. I wanted something much prettier so got some old sewing table legs. These things were nasty - rusted, pitted, and no table attached at all. Just two legs left outside for who knows how long. I scrubbed them, scraped them, sanded them, and painted them. And they look awesome!

The restored antique sewing table legs

What it's replacing (and look at that grain!)

In place and ready to fill

Love the pop of red 

Four shelves of wonderful: shallow top shelf for electronic scale and a cutting board; next shelf for sugars, choc chip jar; then mixing bowls; bottom for flour (yes, I have five bins of different flours down there - don't judge). Everything is easy to grab as I'm mixing and just as easy to put away despite messy fingers. 

Probably should have pushed back the dog food bucket...

Chris didn't care for the simple maple blocks that we had supporting the worktop so he carved some new ones.

Chris getting cute with the worktop supports

So now the island is finished and it's functioning beautifully. I can easily move the mixer and food processor to a side counter (or even to my workroom) when we host dinners so that space is available for a buffet. And it creates a nice gathering area in the kitchen - plenty of room to move around it while still providing access to food, drink, and tools.