After our summer of camping and getting back into our back-to-school routines, I have been hitting the workshop quite a bit.  I am finally tackling my husband’s closet…I told him for his Christmas present (in 2017) that I would build him built-ins.  Needless to say, it has been a slow process.  But when the closet is done I will tell you all about it!!  For now, however, I would like to discuss my list of ongoing projects.

Before I could even build the box for the built-ins, I needed to get my workshop (the garage) under control.  This meant taking a look at what I could quickly finish and get out of there.  I knew if I didn’t finish some of these older projects now, it would just be another few years of it sitting around.  I started to tackle an old door from the 1920’s ish that I adopted and am restoring to good health.  If you re-read my blog post about the Door->Headboard conversion, I’m Back!!,  you will see this door in the background.  I acquired them at the same time.  The saddest part about the door is that it won’t fit in any of the openings in my house…so I will have to find someone to buy it who loves it as much as I do.

I couldn’t find a before picture, but prior to stripping the paint, I cut out the wood panel in the top so I could add glass later.

So pretty!!

New old (antique) hardware

Next is the Sofa Table/Bar I started a year ago that has been accumulating school papers and my daughters shoes…no wonder why I forgot about it…it has become part of the scenery in my house!!  Just today, I cut and installed some angle iron for some reinforcement to help prevent racking.  A little paint, a few more coats of poly on the top, and this girl will be skookum.  I will probably try to sell her because there isn’t a great spot in my house, but I love the top so much I may have to find a place for her 🙂

After almost forgetting about the sofa table, I walked around my house and took stock of all my outstanding projects.  This made me contemplate…is there such a thing as TOO MANY projects?  I think the ideal project number is between 4 and 5.  Because you will always have forced down-time on a project or two, so it let’s you keep making progress when other projects have stalled.  I think my issue is that when projects stall, I sometimes forget about them, or sometimes find another project that I want to do more.  For instance, I built my kids a playroom in the basement two years ago exactly…I still have this many carpet tiles to install in the back corner of the basement where the treadmill currently sits.  So you can see, this is a situation where I don’t really feel like doing it, so I will find something better to do 🙂

At the same time, I installed some shelving built from galvanized pipe and some thick pine boards.  I got the shelving to where it held most of my kids toys, but I still have 6 boards to stain (on one side) and poly…that’s it!  I mentioned this exact project in my other blog post The last 2% where I described how I can sometimes not take a project to completion [face palm emoji].

This dresser has been sitting in my garage for over a year.  All it needs is paint!  Can you tell I hate painting?  Once it gets to the finishing stage and if the weather is less than ideal, i.e. cold, windy, too nice to be inside, too hot or too humid, I tend to make excuses as to why I shouldn’t paint or poly!

This is the last one I found tonight…there may be more…I got this antique chandelier for free and just wanted to restore/rewire it like I did another chandelier that is hanging in my stairwell.  I was actually thinking of keeping this one because I love the gold.

I am making a vow to everyone reading, that by spring, I will finish my husband’s closet, the sofa table, the door, the carpet tiles, the toy shelves and the piece below that I just got last weekend (maybe I do have a problem)!!!

This will be a much needed pantry/storage in the mudroom.

And, the dresser and the chandelier can wait…