Barbie's Home!

 After 3 months, 13 days, 14 hours and 42 minutes, Barb has returned home to me! Well, two points of clarification, the 3-month part might be an exaggeration, and I think she returned home to the dogs more than me. 

But the point is that she is home! We all survived. Friday night I had neighbor Jim and neighbor Doug over for a bourbon tasting and the Indiana semifinals football game. I spent most of Saturday cleaning the house while watching NFL football. Just a few weeks of games left so I have to get in as many as I can! Then Sunday morning it was time to head to the airport. Barb and Jess ended their Costa Rica adventure with another day at the beach and a spa day including a well-deserved massage!

I started a new project while Barb was gone. I did not want to mention it earlier because it was a surprise for Barb. Now that it is done and I have revealed it to her, I shall reveal it to you! 

Now that her workshop is almost complete, I wanted to make her a workbench! First, I bought her a new Dewalt table saw as our existing one scared her to the point where she thought she was going to cut off a finger if she used it. Then I started designing the workbench that would not only incorporate the table saw, but also her miter saw. 

There are a lot of designs on YouTube but they want you to buy the plans, so I took ideas from several and just winged it. I started out by planing down and trimming the 2x4's to clean them up and give me sharp edges. 

Then I made the base to fit a countertop of 4'x8' when it was complete. Most of the workbenches online were about 42" high, I made this one 36" since Barb is probably a little shorter than the average woodworker. Plus, I put it on casters so it could be easiler rolled around.

Once the base was made, I designed a platform for the table saw that when finished would be flush with the countertop. 

Then I started to design the platform for the miter saw. This was a bit of trial and error as I wanted it to sit on a hinged platform so it folded out of the way and provided more workspace when not in use.  I think it took me two full days get it to where I was happy with it. 

By now I was on day 6 working on it 4 or so hours a day. I added a coat of paint several outlets and a cord to power the entire bench. 

Now I was ready for the top! After looking at a couple of options, I decided on melamine for its looks and durability. Having never worked with it before, I was nervous to cut it for fear of chipping the edges, so I taped my cut lines, bought a new blade for the saw and went for it!

Cutting the melamine left an unfinished edge so I bought several 1x4 poplar boards and ripped them to cover the edges. I then had to buy a router to round out the edges of the poplar.  

Once all the edging was done, it was time to secure the top and finish it all out. 

I still have a couple of touch ups, like a little more paint and a dust collection system, but it is 98% complete. Barb loves it! Which is a good thing as I would have to take a chainsaw to it if she didn't like it and we needed to remove it, it is way too big to fit through any of the doors. She still needs to paint the entire room and trim out the windows, but we are getting there! 

As I said, I picked up Barb at the airport on Sunday morning. Her return flight from Costa Rica went smoothly. Costa Rica to Detroit, Detroit to Baltimore where she spent the night in a hotel then Baltimore to Minneapolis and finally, Minneapolis to Rapid City. 

When we finally got home, she waited outside while I let the dogs out.....

So, how did Barb like Costa Rica? She loved it! She said the snorkeling was awesome, so clear and so many fish. Her favorite activity was the waterfall tour. They spent two days on the beach, two days snorkeling, and one day on the waterfall adventure. They stayed in the town of Potrero at a gated Airbnb and did not feel unsafe at all. For those of you wondering the entire trip for the two of them including airfare to Baltimore and then Costa Rica, food, lodging and their adventures was somewhere between $3,500-$4,000 for both of them. Not too bad at all. If any of you have any questions, reach out and I am sure Barb will be happy to respond.  

Barb was pleasantly surprised at how clean the house was, but she did spend the next day cleaning it to her level. I went to work with Kevin for the day to get out of her hair. Kevin is working on a fireplace addition at a house in Custer. I spent the day drawing bark off some live-edge planks, sanding them and installing them as mantles and shelves. This was my first time using a draw knife (below), not too bad, but nothing I would want to do for a living. 

Overall, the 13 days went well, I did lose a few pounds which Barb is working hard to put back on me, Life is now back to normal, the dogs are happy, I am happy and Barb had a great time!