Saturday's tasks.

Finally back to working on the doll house. Found this product to give stucco effect. It worked well from my standpoint. It dries so you can paint it in 30 minutes.

Stucco effect.

Painted star white to blend better with the porch trim.

Oak Chair

Chair refinished for friends. I failed to take a before picture. I then reupholstered the seat.


Made detailed pieces for each arm. The old ones had broken.

Porch Renewal

From the second picture you can tell that the porch was dark brown color. We decided to stain the railing white and paint the floor the color of the house. We like the way it turned out. The view from the street really sets off the house.

Backyard Trellis

We were able to get this trellis at a 75% reduction. Works good for our purposes.

Rebar Deer

My friend Andy agreed to teach me how to weld. I had never done this, so he brought his welding equipment and we set up to weld a deer out of rebar I picked up at the local salvage yard. My welds are not nearly as nice as Andy's but the deer looks good in our back yard.

Bottle Tree

We had an old weed type tree in our back yard. We didn't care for it. I was going to cut it down when my wife suggested we make a bottle tree. So we left it about 7-8' and drilled holes for the dowel rods to be used to hold various bottles we found. Once we started a few friends gave us bottles to ads.

Split Rail Fence

A friend took out an old split rail fence. I picked up the rails we needed to make a definition to our corner. Before the bush was all alone and it looked it. We picked up the post we needed and completed the job for $40. Then we put some wooden cardinals on the posts. We have several wooden cardinals in the back yard so this tied it together.

Vintage Cedar Box

A thrift store find need that needed to have hinges repaired. I used Mod Podge to reseal the picture on the top of the box, then we used shoe polish to restore the look of the wood and ended up with a nice usable box.

Porch Shelf

My wife wanted a shelf for the front porch that she could use to change with the seasons. I took an old mirror frame from a dresser, turned it upside down and put a 1"x4" board on top. I cut a grove for holding a plate or in the picture decorative trays. I painted it and used a dowel rod for a flag holder. We were able to make this with things we had on hand. The desire is to take advantage of what is available.

Doll House

This is a winter project. I bought this base of a doll house at a thrift store for $10.

Took these old shingles off. You can't tell from this picture but the windows were not cut level at the top on the upper level. So I squared them. My wife wants me to put a stucco finish on the exterior. I have not done that so we will see how it goes. I will keep you posted.