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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Home Owner Adventures: Adirondack Update


Sanding in the garage 
So I have been working on the Adirondack chairs for a couple weeks now. Last week it had been raining a lot when I came home from school so I was not able to work on them. I decided to bring the pieces of the one chair into the garage to store them and set up a tarp in the dining room for me to start priming the finished pieces on.
The other bolt.....

In the garage I have been finishing sanding the pieces down, first with the coarse and then the fine sand paper to keep it smooth and fix some of the areas that have been worn. Most of the areas have been doing well, but there are these two bolts from the arms that just won't come out!! A friend from work suggested spraying the nuts with WD-40 and after 3 days of wrestling with it, I got one to come off. Still working on the second one.....

Stupid broken screw.....
My other issue has been a broken screw. The head was broken off when I received the chairs and nothing is working to get it to move. I have tried a couple different sets of pliers and tomorrow I am going to try vice grips. I really hope this will work!! If you have any other ideas for me, please do not hesitate to leave a comment below with ideas.

Overall I am very happy with the way the project is going. I have gotten a large amount of the chair done and I am hoping to have the paint purchased this weekend and maybe get one chair finished! Stay Tuned!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Upcoming Adventures: A Taste of St. Augustine

Headed back to my favorite town!
So I was reading the travel section of the paper on Sunday and saw one of my favorite locations being highlighted this week; St. Augustine! This upcoming Saturday, St Augustine's Amphitheater will be home to the 19th Annual Taste of St. Augustine. I was so excited to check it out, so naturally, I googled it.

The first link was Augustine.com's page on the event. It is going to be a 6 hour event, from 11 am until 5 pm and will feature some of the noted restaurants from the area, including The RainTree, San Sebastian Winery and Scarlett O'hara's. There are also discounts available at local attractions for people who attend! See the full link with pictures here.

As I checked Google, I also found a traveler's best friend: Groupon! There is a groupon for the event, getting you discount tickets for groups of 2 or 4 people. Follow this link to the groupon to purchase yours today!

Being a huge fan of St. Augustine, I am super excited to be visiting this outdoor festival on Saturday! Follow my Twitter and Instagram for my adventures there this weekend and let me know if you plan on being there as well!

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Home Owner Adventures: The Adirondack Project

New chairs :)
As the outdoors begin growing things and it has gotten less cold outside (yes, I am already acclimated to the weather here!), I have begun venturing outside to make my backyard a fun place to be. My parents have gotten me some lovely patio furniture that I have been working on putting together and will have finished this weekend.

A friend of mine from work who is working on moving has been getting rid of things that will not fit in her new home and gave me a set of lovely Adirondack chairs. As you can see, they need a little TLC. Nothing I can't handle though! Now, as I say that, this is the first time I have done a project like this.
Safety first!

So far, I have wiped the dirt off the chairs and taken one chair apart almost completely.  I have a couple of bolts that seem to be stripped and will have to find new ones. Once the pieces were separated, I began sanding each individual piece to strip the paint and mold. So far, they are coming pretty clean. I did buy new screws for the pieces of wood that will not rust, a type of decking screw.
Top planks sanded


What I have learned so far from this project:

  • My elbow can handle only so much sanding a day. 
  • Hand Sanders are very difficult to use, especially when the piece of sandpaper keeps coming out from its little tab that is holding it in. 
  • Take out more than one bolt to see if they are threaded into the wood or not. Just because it was hard to get one out does not mean that they are threaded.
  • It is really hard to find metric bolts
Stay tuned for the finished product over the next couple weeks.