A Little Chair Makeover

 

I thought about calling this post “Hurricane Irene chairs” but figured it wouldn’t really make sense to anyone but my oldest son and myself.

The chairs were spotted in the middle of hurricane Irene in New Jersey a few years ago. Hubby, the boys and me had traveled out there to pick up a lift and ended up driving through some of Irene. Upon stopping at a gas station my son and I ran through torrents of rain to use the restroom and through squinted eyes I spotted these two little chairs in a dumpster as we splashed by…

Once in the gas station I informed my son he would pause with me by the dumpster as we ran out and possibly help me carry something wooden I had spotted. (running past, I hadn’t made out the chairs for sure…just spotted a possible treasure)

As he began telling me how embarrassing this would be and in the middle of a hurricane at that, I pretended not to hear and grabbed his hand as we darted outside.

Needless to say, these cute little chairs ended up on my “someday treasures” pile in our shop. Now, a few years later here they are…

Presently, they reside in my “shed” where I sell some of the things I make…

So if you would like to own the “hurricane Irene” chairs, why not schedule a garden party. (read about that here: http://porchswingsnhoneysuckle.blogspot.com/2013/08/garden-parties.html)

Who knows, maybe they will still be here waiting for you!

Have a good one!

- Mary

Sixty Minute Arbor

 

 

I’m really not kidding… this arbor took a mere hour to make! It is nothing fancy as you can see but hopefully it will serve it’s purpose and provide a place for my favorite vine (honeysuckle) to climb to it’s heart’s content!

 

This summer during a storm, my twig arbor blew over. This had happened once before and I was able to fix it, but this time it broke into pieces and wasn’t salvageable. I’ve come to see that although there is a beauty to using natural wood out of the forest to build things, it has a life span of about four years or so.

 

 

For a few months there was no arbor here and it bugged me every time I walked past. I mulled over it a while on what I could use to build another arbor.

Right now my supply of wood isn’t so great and I didn’t want to use branches again. I remembered seeing some old screen doors in the shop attic.

For me, there’s something about seeing a garden through a screen door…

 

I climbed the ladder and pulled myself into the sultry, hot attic. As I swung up it crossed my mind what would happen should the ladder fall? Would anyone ever find me? Would it have been worth it.. climbing up there for a couple of old, torn screen doors? As I balanced myself on trusses and shimmied along, being careful not to step on the plywood ceiling, I forgot about the ladder falling and thought the heat might get me first. I still seriously wonder what the temperature was. Anyway, needless to say, after much sweating and pulling and carefully lowering myself down into what felt like Antarctica again, I had my doors.

 

 

I sorted through some of my oldest looking boards and used those for the top.

 

 

After about thirty screws later and a few braces… there it was…

 

Speaking of screws, lately every time I wanted to build something, I found myself rummaging about for the right sized screw, which is a pain if your in a hurry. I remember mentioning this to hubby, that one of these days when I’m in the hardware I want to get some screws. I didn’t give it another thought. The other day he was to a local lumberyard to get a few pieces of lumber and came home with thirty pounds of screws, three different sizes!! A memorable day for me, to say the least!

 

I stapled a few of the vines to help them climb.

 

 

I did hammer two stakes into the ground and fastened the door to them to keep the arbor from tipping over.

So before tossing out a worn out old screen door, think of what it could add to your garden!

Thanks for visiting!

-Mary