Wooden DIY Privacy Screens

I've really got a large stash of wooden bed slats! You will recall I've mentioned that there's a furniture shop near my place that often throws out stuff like this:

 (Whyyyyyy?)

So I decided I'd make some privacy screens, to be placed on our porch, between my neighbour's house and ours.  Don't ask why because it involves dead plants, aquariums and fish ponds with fishless murky, green water, glass chips, 672 cigarette butts (no, I didn't count), a dead rat, dog poop... 

My husband, bless-his-heart, helped me with making these.

First, we had to pull out all the slats as the gaps between them were too big. That's like 672 nails to be yanked out (no, I didn't count).

Next, we re-arranged them closer together with unevenly-spaced gaps, and nailed them down.

 The base was also made with wooden slats.  Each base had four castors (I'm in love with castors - the first time I used them was on a trolley here:

 http://tree-shades.blogspot.com/2012/05/tongue-twisting-teal-tea-trolley.html)

 I wanted to be able to roll the screens around because I had exciting ideas of the many ways the screens could be used.

See the base turned over, with the four castors, up there? :)

Gee, all you need to do is attach a large basket on that and you could wheel grandkids around and no-I-am-not-hinting-for-any-sigh.

 We then made props at the back to hold up the screens.

We made four of these screens.

Loved them!  At this point I should have left them in their au naturel glory, but no... ol' Itchy Hands here had to go and paint them.

I painted them a very pale grey as I was afraid white would be blinding in the sun.

 

I sanded them to give them a worn, rustic look, a look I'm realising I love more and more.  Kinda like finding the genre of music you want to produce and finally settling on one (does one need to?) but that's another story.

A coat of polyurethane to protect them, and we were done.  I love them!  Now comes the time I play around with them.....I could add plants on the base -

I

I could poke plants through the gaps, just for decoration...

I could hang pop bottles filled with this crazy thorny plant growing in the wild (I loved the look of the berries) - which are probably poisonous, seeing how it loudly declares come-near-me-or-else.

I could think of so many ways to decorate the screens!

...and then...
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I get a message from church asking if I could help with some decoration for Father's Day.  So with the help of my friend LSY, we came up with this (thanks JDP, for the photo):
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I knew those screens would come in handy... :)

Birdhouse!

Birds fascinate me.  I've already written a number of posts in my blog here, with gorgeous photos of birds.

But to have them in a cage just seems so sad.  I imagine if I were in one....

 See what it says on the label?

 

 Can't see?  Try again...

   "The world's most dangerous creature - homo sapiens"

But a birdhouse sounds fun.  I've always wanted one! I just couldn't figure out how in the world I was going to make a hole for the birdie to go in (for a classic-design birdhouse).   

I'd thought (don't laugh) I'd have to actually draw a circle, and saw around it.  Until my friend told me that there's such a thing as a bit that is designed to make a large hole. 

 

All I had to do was fit it to my power drill.  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!  (geez, you learn something new all the time)
And he had one so he lent it to me. Wheeeeeee....

 

Oooooo....wait, wait, practise first...

Drill a little more and that circle of wood will pop out.

So out came all my scrap wood (thrown out by a furniture shop near my house, which I often collect).  I have a lot more than this!

 Here are a succession of photos to show you how I made my first-ever birdhouse (all the steps are not there, because the weather was hot and I was doing all the hole-making, sawing, drilling, painting, sanding, and distressing. outside.....I only took photos when I remembered to).  Also, since I am using scrap wood, I do not have large enough pieces which would make my work easier, I had to piece together many pieces...

 

 

 At this point, I'm thinking something is missing....oh, got it!  A perch for the birdie to sit on.. drill a little hole...

 

 

And at this point, I should have left it and considered it done.  But noooooo.....Ms Itchy Fingers here had to go and paint it - with a base of black, and blotches of red over it.  Then major sanding to distress it and give it a rustic look.

  

And now for some modelling.....

 

 

 

What do you think?  

I love it!

The Things People Throw Out - why? WHY? (This post is otherwise entitled "That's what you get when you're an amateur DIY-er")

Look what I found! She was just

leaning on a lamp-post at the corner of the street
in case a certain little lady comes by,
oh me 
oh my.
 

And boy was I glad I was that little lady who came by....

I checked with the people in the shoplot nearby that she was not wanted, and took her home with me. She had her glass top missing, but I loved those legs!



I found that the only problem as far as repairs is concerned was that the thingies underneath were loose.


See those? Those are screws (even an amateur DIY-er like me knows that!)

Those I can tighten with an ordinary screw-driver.

But see the one in the middle?
Now what the dickens is that?  As far as I know there is no screwdriver that can fit that!

 


















I mentioned this to my husband before he took off to work the next morning.  He muttered something about Allen Keys.

Geez. I didn't know Alicia Keys had a brother. But why would he have anything to do with my table?

Later, I had to message him (my husband, not Allen Keys) for clarifications. Allen keys, he said, were the L-shaped thingies you use to tighten them thingies up there.


Here's Allen Keys. I mean an allen key.


How awesome is finding out something new every day? My friend LSY recently found out what jeggings were. Hee hee hee.
(Do you know?)

So after tightening them all up, off I went to the glass shop to order a piece of glass for the top..15 ringgit (about US$4.50).

I cleaned, gloss-painted, and distressed the table by sandpapering, before wood-staining her.














Unfortunately this is the only photo I have of the finished table!  GAHHH!  I couldn't find the others in my files.  And what's worse, several people were interested in buying her, so I sold her off as I had no place in the house where she would fit.  And I was daft enough to let her go at a really low price! (do.not.ask.)

So this beauty (I shoulda named her, then I wouldn't have sold her so easily, right?) cost me just that, 15 ringgit - since I had everything else on hand.

Including Allen.

Keys, that is.

A Tongue-Twisting Teal Tea Trolley

Some people call it a bar cart. But since we are teetotallers, I'll call it a tea trolley.  And since it is teal in colour, it's a Teal Tea Trolley for Teetotallers (yes, say that ten times if you can)! Whatever, I had so much fun making this!  All out of scrap wood.

There's a furniture shop near my house that chucks out lots of stuff and I have no idea why.  Sometimes the flaws I detect can be easily fixed so I can't understand why they don't. We have salvaged parts of benches, wooden window frames, lots of wooden slats (the kind used as the base underneath mattresses of beds), even a 6-foot long TV stand.  So here's what I made with some of the pieces of wood I have been hoarding over the months.

After sawing the pieces to the required lengths (with the awesome electric saw I picked as a birthday gift when my kids asked me what I wanted), I arranged them with tiny gaps in-between and had two slats nailed underneath to keep them together.  This formed the top shelf.

 

For the bottom shelf, I used wider pieces of slats.

See those castors at the bottom?  I have fallen in love with castors!  So fun to roll my trolley anywhere I want.  But it still looks incomplete.....

Ah, I got it.....it needs some bars around it so things won't topple off easily...(that's how I work, I figure things out as I go along because I'm an amateur DIY-er like that).

Fill up any holes in the wood with wood filler and sand it smooth.

I used emulsion (water-based) paint because I find it less messy to work with.  I usually Protect my Painted Projects with Polyurethane (yes, say that ten times) anyway.  Polyurethane is in the family of wood varnish, wood wax, shellac and lacquer but I do not know the difference because I'm an amateur DIY-er like that. Then I picked this bright teal colour because I have plans for where this trolley is to go.  I have my favourite Paint Man from my favourite Paint Shop and he'll mix any colour that I choose !

Just remember to keep the colour code (of the colours blended) in case you need to get more paint later.  Here's my code, given to you free-of-charge because I'm generous like that.

And there you have it, in all its bright, glorious colour!

The amazing thing about it is I can think of so many ways a trolley like this can be used:
- to display plants
- to store your make-up and hair paraphenalia
- to stack books on
- for toys

Made completely out of discarded wood - my Teal Tea Trolley for Teetotallers (yes, say that ten times).  

What do you think?

  

Waterfall Trip - Let's go!

This happened last year but I am recording it down for memories....I so wanna go again, though!

What can be more relaxing? I don't know about you, I always long to be near nature...my idea of a holiday short or long. And we have some pretty awesome spots right here in Malaysia.




When: Saturday 12th March, 2011

Where: Sungei Gabai Waterfalls, off Ulu Langat in Selangor, Malaysia



Surrounded by greenery...

and water.


The air smelt so earthy.

Who: Me, my husband Paul, my daughter Tammy, and friends Kevin Tan, Amanda Ee,
Shaun and Joanna Voon, Mahesh, and an old friend, Eng Hoe
(2 people missing in this photo?)


Oh, there they are.

Hmmm.....eating. Figures. (Neh, just kidding. They just happened to be missing when we took that photo)

This was an odd group indeed, some of them we hardly knew at the time (like Shaun and Joanna from Australia) and others are really old friends like Eng Hoe, who goes waaaay back with us like maybe from the Jurassic Era.

Why: I am blogging about this event so you get to see how great this place is. The last posts I did about the Bird Parks in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore (here and here), it inspired a number of you to actually want to go there. Well, how about that....maybe I should write a blog for travellers.

Something about the sound of water that makes you feel refreshed...gushing..



or splashing...


or rippling....

This waterfall is just about a 1 and a half hour's drive away from Kuala Lumpur.

IF you don't get lost.

Which we did.

And we are not gonna name names of person/s responsible.

There is a parking area. You pay one ringgit per person to enter the area. That's all! There are toilet and bathing facilities (warning - no frills..this is not some kind of tourist resort)

There are different levels of the waterfall which you can choose to stop at. We climbed the steep stairs and decided on the level where..
there...
was...
a...
natural water slide!

Head massage



Shoulder massage



B_tt massage



So we took our turn/s on the water slide.

This video was put together by Tammy.

But things didn't go quite like I expected when it came to my turn. It shows how I (in red bandanna, from 0.51) got stuck not once, but twice. Huh? What was I doing wrong? (don't answer that) Yes, that was my daughter laughing like a sadistic hyena in the background. She has a dark side to her I'm a-tellin' ya.

Maybe cellulite has suction cup properties or somethin'. Sheesh.

It reminded me of my bowling attempts where the ball gliiiiiiiiiiides to the side and into the drain. Not good. No one else had this pause button problem.

We also attempted to form a human caterpillar (from 1.16)...

Some of us felt mighty pleased with our accomplishments. We (ok, not me, some in the group) could actually slide down in a standing position. Whoa! yes, clap clap we did.

And then.

they.

arrived.

A few Orang Asli (native) boys who had lived near the falls all their lives.

And they did their ke-ray-zee stunts (from 1.36)!



What the jimminy haystacks!! Have you ever?!




Don't forget to read the posts on the Bird Parks! It has valuable advice! Post 1 and Post 2

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