nothing fancy

So I've put off working on the desk again...

I decided today as I walked past remnant pieces that I will not be reusing that I'll get pop's good sander when we head to P-town this weekend. I'll probably steal some clamps while I'm there too. That'll be my inspiration for getting my keester in gear on that one. The sander will also help in some areas that I have to do spot sanding and re-painting on the house b/c the last owner did a crap-tastic job. So until then I'm sorta stalled. Gotta go buy the primer and 3 different colors of paint...maybe tomorrow or Thursday. We'll see.

Interesting new development: the chickens now hop up onto the gate of their pen. So...big fat FAIL in clipping the wings b/c they can still jump up 4 feet. Time to find another method of keeping the little buggers in their pen/coop.

Oh, before I go, here's a little taste of a project that will be complete once I get my paint (3 months in the making no less):

Pop having waaay too much fun with a jackhammer.

The token rotten beam typical of a 70+ yr old home.

Day 1 complete steps...sans concrete at base.

3 months later, after concrete has cured and wood has too.

New stucco on the bricks and enough caulk to patch the Titanic.

desk part deux

OK, so today I FINALLY got up off my duff and took the desk apart.

Except for the fact that it was 500 degrees outside, it wasn't too bad a job. The metal trim you see around the desk face was about the worst of it all. The left side of the desk just fell apart...made my job easy. The right side was still held together pretty well, so I decided to leave well enough alone. It's still in one piece. The left side is in about 100. I took the drawers completely apart and laid them out to dry and un-swell. I'll have to go pick up some clamps and wood glue to finish the job of putting it back together.

The desk itself is made of pine and oak with oak veneers to cover the pine in some places. The craftsmanship hearkens back to an era where furniture was just made so much better than it is today. While this desk is huge, it's not that heavy and, before I took it apart, it was solid as a brick shit house. As there are tons of scratches, gouges, and holes in the wood and veneers, my thoughts at current are to just paint the darn thing. But look toward the bottom of the posting at the old top. Underneath the crappy formica, it has neat details where the center of the desk apparently opened at one time. So I think I'll sand down and stain & varnish the top so the beautiful wood will show through, while leaving the rest of it painted. Color options anyone?

Drawers out, looking a little pathetic...

Drawers completely dismantled.

Left side of the desk

Top of the desk

Detail of the sections..