Home Improvement Today?

And then you'd have to get a bigger water heater...

 

Or a whole extra one

 

Thanks guys! And my dad just really loves old things and wanted to find a way to incorporate all of his old stuff into his backyard and this is what he came up with. The shed on the far left we know as the school shed, because of the old school bell on the roof, or the Snap-On shed. My dad has decided to turn it into a saloon. Which is going to be badass. He just bought about ten whiskey barrels to use as tables, and he also has been collecting bottle caps for the roof. So that should be interesting.

My dad even inspired his own dad to do some stuff in his backyard

 

Created a new redwood deck platform. This is my first deck. On the area to the left, we took out the huge Elephant Palm that was about 16 feet tall and had a trunk base about 4 foot wide. My wife hated the tree. My son cut it down. We thought it was going to be tough but it had almost no root system (basically just sitting on the ground).



I built out a floating frame for the deck. In hindsight, I should have made all the planks run the same direction. It would have been a little more difficult to frame but it would have made adding the deck planks look nicer. I coated everything with deck sealer before putting on the floor.



Here, I was initially planning to stagger the wood but because of the angle of the joists to the right, it made it difficult to ensure any seams met across a joist. The wood I bought was only 8 foot lengths (short bed). You can see where I started staggering them on the left. Then I realized it wasn't going to work right so I cut the boards at the point they are in this picture.


I finished the deck. I bought some 2x6x10 boards and ripped them down to make the deck railing balusters. I put a 45 degree cut on the bottom of each baluster. I coated everything with deck sealer.


Here's a shot from the other side of the railing.


I eventually plan to cover the rest of the green area with a deck. We're going to cut some openings around the major rocks for interest.

 

Do you charge admission to your back yard? Looks like a fun-park.

 

Might be a way to pay for the deck. Thanks for the idea.

 

Is that cedar or redwood ? Sure has a nice colour

 

He said redwood in the original post. It does have a nice color though.

 

Beautiful deck. Love the wood you picked out.

 

Looks like all heart redwood but there are some knots in the wood. It is actually beautiful with a clear treatment on it for protection.

 

it is a nice "color"

 

Damn , obviously not enough coffee this morning

 

...made retractable "landing gear" for my workbench build...

since it's default location has to be in a corner of my garage, i want it to be easily moveable to the center of the garage... it will be quite heavy once i finish the top slab and attach it to the frame...

the wheels retract automatically (basically via gravity, and geometry) by lifting up on an end of the bench. to deploy the wheels, i just pull the t-handle back (spring loaded), and put it in a clasp on the underside (not visible in the photos), then just lift up each end like before.. the spring in tension helps the wheels swing into the deployed position, and then the load is channeled directly to the lower stretchers on the bench (and some some rubber "shock absorbers"made from rubber furniture foot protectors) - it rolls nice and smooth

...here is the frame, resting on ground (wheels up):



...wheels down:



...a look at the mechanism, wheels down:



...mechanism, wheels up:

 

Sweet. Complex, but sweet. I think I saw plans for that setup a few years ago. I really like having a mobile project table/bench/outfeed table, and will be looking at designs this winter. My existing one put together from various scrap years ago can be vastly improved upon, but it has been extremely useful in concept.

I need to look more closely at the mobile stairs at Home depot, too...LOL.

 

Very nice job wiley

 

Lots of detailed shit in there man. Very nice.

 

thanks! ...if i can get the oz-t stamp-of-approval i must be doing something right...

 

...simpler than it looks... i did some research before hand, and some guys were building retractable wheels w/ an included cam "lift" mechanism (a handle of sorts connected to a large wooden cam pushes down on a sill plate w/ casters), ...but since i'm a novice and work slowly, i didn't want to get into that amoutn of complexity... so, just came up w/ my own method...

 

Nice job on the table.

 

New toilet today. Old one started leaking. It had a good 30 year run.

The whole bathroom needs remodeled but I haven't gotten there yet.

I was planning on hunting this morning but this took priority.