NANCY'S PROJECTS

Although we decided not to tackle the building of our house ourselves, we did want to contribute where we could. In addition, we also wanted to incorporate some repurposed items in the build. To this end Nancy has taken on two huge projects.

Way back in February of 2020 we were in Bisbee, AZ for an orienteering race and found a dresser on the side of the street that someone was trying to sell for cheap. We had been on the look out for one to repurpose for the vanity in our main bathroom. We quickly reorganized our gear in Jeff's car and drove home with a dresser hanging part way out the back of the hatch-back. We found a place for it in our garage and there it sat for a couple of months.

Our road side find!

At the start of 2021 Nancy decided it was time to start the transformation process. With Jeff's car being gone every other week, she was able to turn the garage into sanding central. The top and the fronts of the drawers, once the knobs were removed, were the easy parts. All the little edges on the molding proved to be a very tedious process. She tried multiple different techniques and wore out a power sander (sorry Alex) in the process but all her hard work paid off.

It all had to be taken apart

Left side drawers are done

Sanding complete!

Once the sanding was complete it was time to move it out to the new house and make sure our measurements were right and that it fit between the tub and the wall.

It fit!

Once we knew it fit, the next step was choosing a stain color and getting it stained. Nancy did a ton of research to make sure the stain met our environmentally responsible standards and chose a gorgeous chocolate brown stain. She turned our future living room into a stain booth and went to town.

Nancy getting started on the big staining project

Once the majority of the staining was complete it was time to

enlist Lucas's carpentry skills to rebuild a couple of the drawers that were damaged when a dust devil hit the property (note to self do not have the back door and the main garage door open at the same time as it turns the garage into a wind tunnel). Two of the drawer faces were damaged beyond repair so Lucas devised a way to mimic the other faces using his table saw. It turned out perfect! Since the sinks will be under mounted the top two drawers will become unusable. These drawer faces will be permenantly affixed to the the vanity. We wanted to maintain the reclaimed furniture look so we decided to keep the original molding on the sides.

Nancy forgot that she had stain on her gloves when she had a nose itch

Nancy doing some final staining after the vanity was screwed into place

Staining the new drawer faces

Nancy's staining dance

The next step in the process will be when the quartz countertop is installed and then the holes cut in the top of the vanity for the sinks.

The other big project Nancy has been working on is refinishing the interior window and door for the craft room. We were incredibly fortunate to find two large glass paned pocket doors at Originate, a local repurposed and environmentally responsible building supply store. They came out of an old Victorian style house in San Fransicso. One will be installed horizontally as the interior window and one will be installed vertically as a barn door style door.

Our lucky find!

The first step in the refurbishing process was to mask off each pane so that the doors could be sanded.

13 panes down ...

46.5 panes to go!

Then Nancy had to sand the doors. The first step was using the power sander on the larger flatter surfaces.

Power sanding

The second step in the process was a little more tedious as the muntins (the wood between the panes) were not smooth.They had several bevels each. The muntins proved to be quite the challenge. It was too difficult to get the finish off with only sanding. Nancy had to use a spray stripper that dissolved the surface sealer and then after it dried she was able to scrape it off.

Stripping spray technique