Sunday, July 7, 2013

A New Project

 
It's been a long time coming, but we're finally done with finishing the basement.  There is much rejoicing.  I was able to talk the man into giving me a hallway down there to turn into a sewing room/closet like thing.  Right now, my tiny sewing table is up here in the bonus room with all of my sewing notions and ribbon for Keychains for a Cause (which is going very, very well, by the way) strewn absolutely everywhere.  It's a holy mess.  Part of the plan was to convert our old TV hutch into a sewing table.  It would work, but it's wide open so even when you'd fold a table up in it, it would still look unsightly.  Then, yesterday, I saw this on the Facebook page for a local antique store.

It sold the day before.  Grrr.  However, it did get me thinking that I could do something like it with an old TV stand that closes up.  I packed the kids in the car with the idea to go to the two antique stores and two thrift shops around here.  On the way home I was going to stop at a Wal-Mart or Target and get the kids two Razor scooters as they've been in love with the ones our neighbor's kids have and then they could all play together instead of waiting in line for turns.

The kids loved the antique stores and thrift shops more than I thought they would and were so good that even though I was sad I didn't find what I wanted, I was still going to take them to get those scooters. Then, at our last stop, I found this baby.

 
 Being that it's in our garage, you can tell I bought it.  It's perfect and SOLIDLY constructed and for $100, it was perfect.  The thing is absurdly heavy and it took three men to load and unload it.  I have no idea how we'll get it in the basement, but I have to find a rug to go under it first.

I love how the doors not only open, but slide in to give you clearance.  The bottom has shelves that I'm sure I could find baskets to fit. I also like how it has electric plugs on the inside so I don't have to worry about an extension cord for the machine.
 Now, I just have to build it.  Deciding if I should make it fold out like the one above from the width of the whole thing or just the one door, or if I should put in a sliding drawer and just have a smaller table space to work with.  I'm thinking the machine may be too heavy for the support of only a sliding drawer.  If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

As I was talking to the woman about loading the armoire, I lost sight of the boy and girl.  I found the girl at the cash register with a blue dress and her little purse.  She had gone through the racks and found a dress in her size and was buying it for $3.00.  The dress was horribly stained, but crinoline and satin lined, so it equaled perfection in her book.  Then I went off to find the boy and found him horsing around on some stupid rocker/runner exercise machine.  As I was fussing at him to quit, I tripped over not one, but TWO scooters and since $5.00 each beats the hell out of $30, those came home with us as well.  Kids were so surprised and happy with the scooters.  We brought them home, put duct tape on the worn out grips and they played outside for hours with repeated hugs and thank yous.  They were shocked and surprised and grateful.  Good kids, that they are.
Here's the girl in her new dress and scooter, as happy as a clam. 

Now, to figure out how to build this durn cabinet. 

The morning comes early, although the boy did sleep until 8:30 today.  We're SO playing outside on those scooters all day today as well.  Sweet gardening, cabinet up-cycling dreams.

2 comments:

  1. Hooray for upcycling. Actually, I guess, hooray for all kinds of cycling. I'm pretty sure your fold-out shelf is going to need a sturdy leg to support your sewing machine. I love reading about your kids. They sound like such good kids.

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  2. Thanks, Alison. They are excellent kids, except for when they're not. ;) Decided today to do the pull out shelf, but only have it pull out half way - reasoning - the sewing machine is 22 lbs. 25 if I have the embroidery arm attached. I don't feel I could make a fold down one sturdy enough. If I do it pull out, I could still keep the machine technically 'in' the cabinet which wouldn't be putting strain on a drawer. I think I bought drawer pulls that are too long, however. I'm going to try to put it together tonight and see what I get. I'm crazy excited.

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