Finishing The New Craft Room

   

After the polyurethane dried on our finished counter tops, we attached them from underneath with screws.  The cabinets have little plastic doohickeys in the corners for this.

   

You'll notice a lower section. This is where I will use the sewing machine.  A taller counter is too hard on my back.  It is at 29 inches and works well for me.  Lee screwed 2X2 pine to the wall at the right height to support the counter top.

   

I used caulk where the top met the wall to hide the places where the wall wasn't perfectly straight.  The cut, on the other hand WAS perfect, she said modestly.

Then I could start clean up and putting away my crafting supplies.

   

Lee found some great shelves and brackets.  He installed them over the sewing table so I can reach for supplies from a sitting position.

    

I ordered some colorful drawer pulls to give a bit of whimsy.

  

The things you can find on Amazon!

   

   

I am ready for my next sewing project.  I have a quilt my sister started.  I may finish that.  Or make a new basket.  So many possibilities!

Behind the work station I set up the table with my Cricut.  It is now ready for card making.

   

What will I do???

A Borrowing Of Bones

   

I just finished A Borrowing Of Bones by Paula Munier.  It was a really good mystery and I highly recommend it.

On her last deployment, Mercy Carr was shot, her fiancé was killed and his bomb sniffing Malinois developed PTSD.  Yes, dogs can get that, too.  Mercy was able to retire with the dog, Elvis, and moved home to Vermont to heal.

But a mystery isn't mysterious without a puzzle to solve. While hiking in the woods, Elvis alerts on a pile of debris and finds a baby.  She gets the baby to the hospital but she soon disappears.

Mercy and Elvis find themselves trying to find the missing baby and her mother.  She meets Troy,  a U.S. Game Warden with a Newfoundland trained in Search and Rescue.  They join forces to solve the multiple, yet connected, issues that arise as Mercy uses her investigative training from the military.  This causes trouble for Troy as Mercy is a civilian and needs to stay out of the investigation.

This book is the first in a new series and I'm excited to see the next one.

A New Craft Room

I do a lot of crafting.  Mostly I like to do fiber arts and paper crafting. But I am also fond of stained glass.

So one of the first projects we need to work on in our new home is making a craft room.  The room I chose was used as an exercise room by the previous owners.  Once their equipment was removed, it was an empty room with strange carpet. The carpet will have to wait, so we made a plan using cabinets on sale at Lowe's and got started.

   

The cabinets were easy to get.  We've installed a lot of them over the years, so that was pretty easy, too.

  

The counter tops have been an issue. Our last craft room was configured so that the finished edges of the counter tops were  the exposed edges.  The cut edges were against the wall and any minor imperfections in the cut were hidden against a wall.

  

Most of our tools are still buried in a storage unit and we can't build work benches until our new garage is finished. And we haven't even gotten the permit yet. Our choices are limited.  Cutting Formica counter tops with a built in backsplash and limited tools was not something I wanted to try.

   

In the end, we went with 3/4 inch plywood with a maple veneer.  Because this room is in the basement and doesn't have a window, I wanted a very light countertop. I chose to use some white wood stain to allow the grain to show through while keeping a light color.

   

I used the stain on the trim pieces.  Before I finished the tops, I used a bit of spackle to fill the slight gaps.  It might not be noticed by a casual observer, but I will be up close and I wanted a more finished look.  You can see the difference between the top and the bottom.

It took two coats of a polyurethane to protect the top and make it smooth for dealing with fabric.

Once that is dry, we will screw the tops down and start organizing.