Part 3, Entertainment Cabinet

I took over the majority of the painting, but Liam and Luke lent a hand in the beginning.  Oszkar was working hard overseeing the painting portion.

Oszkar, Painting Overseer

Luke & Liam

We finally got to the stage in which we could buy the TV, install it and start filling the cabinets.  I suggested he build a little shelf to fit the cable box and blue-ray player under the TV which will be easy to remove if components change. Ryan installed lights in the upper cabinets.  There are still wires that need to be hidden but the sawdust is off the floor at least.  Door will be ordered shortly which include four glass paneled on the top and four regular doors on the bottom to hide the clutter of cookbooks, games, DVDs and scrap books.
I shrunk the curtains I had made about 10 years ago-opps!  So now I need to figure out if I want to add a different colored panel to the bottom or just get new curtains.

Nearly finished

Part 1
Part 2

Part 2, Entertainment Cabinet

We lived with saw dust and assorted tools in the living room for over three week.   It was slow going especially since we lost some ground due to the entire family being sick.  Our house was been turned somewhat upside down due to the minor construction.  He is what we have done thus far:

Ryan created the face of the cabinet on the ground and joined them with a biscuit joiner and glue.

He added glue before we raised the entire face of the cabinet in place.

The face is in place.

Ryan used many of my Grandfather Platt's woodworking tools.  Grandaddy was a full time minster but often helped out his brother Cecil in his cabinet making shop and made a lot of beautiful pieces of furniture including the desk in my boys room and a little dining room table for my dollhouse when I was a child.

Painting and lights as well as ordering eight doors, four upper with glass fronts and four lower.
Part 3

Building of an Entertainment Cabinet, Part 1

We are in need of an upgrade.  Many people have discovered their wooden entertainment cabinets no longer fit the newer, flat screen TVs that are on the market.  For us it began with the boys getting a Wii for Christmas, which has lead us to replace our 10-year-old TV for a larger, flat screen TV.  I am against placing the TV over the fireplace as I don't want the TV to be the centerpiece of the living room and enjoy changing the art work on the mantle on a whim.  It wouldn't be smart choice due to the fact that we have a wood burning fireplace which spits out smoke and ash.  The TV we are getting ready to purchase will be about 40".

Here is a picture of our existing set-up with a perfectly good piece of hand-me-down furniture which will moved to the basement.  I always imagined having a built-in set of bookcases and cabinets in this space.  With this upgrade we are also changing our sound system and will detail that upgrade as well.

It started when I suggested to my husband that he could build it himself.  He has built the deck, designed and built our shed and worked on our basement renovation.  He resisted doing this project since it is so visible.  He revisited the idea even as I was looking at blogs for ways to use already built bookcases.  We visited some furniture stores and of course nothing would fit exactly into our 69" wide space.  It is a deeper space then most bookshelves and I want to use as much of the space as possible.  Keeping our options open we talked with a man at Home Depot about purchasing custom-built kitchen cabinets for the space.  For a simple design of 4 bottom cabinets and four upper glass-fronted cabinets the price came to $2500.  It didn't even have all that I wanted included.  So we re-thought it.

Ryan found a site called Barker Cabinets that specializes in custom built cabinets we could order unfinished and then paint.  Still a bit pricey at $1,000.  I did some more research and found an Amish site which make door fronts.  With that in mind Ryan decided he could work with this.  He plans to build the frame first and install it, and then we will order the custom made cabinet doors after the frame is installed.  We still plan on having glass-fronted top cabinets with lighting inside and four bottom cabinets.

Here is the first part:

First you think

Then build the bottom portion to fit snug.

Put a shelf on top and then take a little rest.

Build the top half.

Detail

Ask your wife to help slide the top half in
(thankfully no pictures of that), only it doesn't "slide".  
So Ryan pounds it in.  

High five your assistant for finishing Part 1.

Part 2

Frugal Frederick

Frugal Frederick

I have always been frugal out of necessity and for the love of the environment.  I don't like tossing something that is perfectly usable (hence the reason we waiting so long to buy a fridge to replace the 17-year-old almond colored appliance in our home).  Here are a some ways to save while living in Frederick County, Maryland.

·      Recycling Plant-Ryan went to the dump to toss broken and over used baby items and the told him that most could be discarded (for free) at the Recylcying plant next-door.  He had plastics, metal and car batteries and did not have to pay the dumping fee.  With all the plastic items that are made for kids this is a good way to dispose of these things.  

·      Make your own compost.  You can pick up a compost cylinder for $20.00 from the Solid Waste Facility.  I put everything from weeds and yard leaves, kitchen scraps such as eggshells, veggies leftovers and coffee grounds.  It fills up fast if you have a big yard. 

They also have compost/leaf mulch for a reasonable price if you don't have your own.

·      Plant your own garden.  Then you can use the homemade compost. 

·      Use newspaper not landscape fabric to keep out weeds.  Place a layer of about 5 sheets and then mulch.  It is better for the environment and your garden.

·      Shopping in downtown Frederick lends itself to some fun thrift stores on Patrick Street such as Chic to Chic Consignment Boutique and Venus on the Half Shell and Select Second Hospital Thrift is worth a look too.  Check out Lucy’s Quality Children’s Consignment and Sweet Pea Consignment for children’s items.  I love to shop at Plato’s Closet.  It really is geared towards teens, but it’s worth a look.  In addition to the numerous antique stores in Frederick a new consignment store in Buckeystown just opened called,  Addison's Attic.

·      Free stuff include summer children’s programs in Baker Park, Library Story-times, visit each Frederick County Public Library for a tour of the county and a new perspective of sharing reading materials.  My sons and I love to visit the Earth Science and Space Lab (ESSL) in downtown Frederick for evening and summer programs.  It's a great way to beat the heat while educating yourself as well.  Tickets for the planetarium shows are reasonable and worth it!

·      Take out a map and locate all the children’s playgrounds owned by Frederick County.

·      Water Fun: We don't have a pool in which we belong to so we have to be inventive.  The Potomac River which flows next to the C&O Canal, Monocacy River (very shallow at Buckeystown Park) and Cunningham Falls ($3.00 per car) are all great places to cool off in the summer.  At Cunningham Falls we visit the aviary and then play in the shallow stair-step waterfall, and tire park (1st entrance from the South).  There is also a beach area, which I have not tried in the summer, but looks great-just get there early!  We also love a nice dip a Loyes Covered Bridge.  It has a playground but skip that for the water!  I'll have another post on the fun to be had there.

·      MARC train is a cheap, stress-free ride into Downtown DC if you can visit Monday through Friday.  Early morning departures puts you there in time for a quick breakfast and museum opening hours.  Kids under five are free.  Depart from Point of Rocks, Brunswick and Frederick.

Feel free to send a comment with more ideas.

The Shed created by Ryan Williams

Ryan designed and built this shed in our backyard.  His father was a big help in the building process and my father helped me with the painting portion.  I hope to use it as a backdrop for some of my portrait sessions.