Some Tables

 I made some tables for the mountain house, in addition to all of the shelves and other stuff for that place. These turned out pretty great, a cherry coffee table (we needed a specific size), plus maple and oak floating top side tables for the couch. I already had the oak table top leftover from another project, and found some cool maple for a table top from another project too.

Coffee table base and some walnut shelf on the left

Cherry table top glued up

The brand in the oak table!

before assembly

After assembly - maple table base

Oak table

I absolutely love the discoloration on this top. Such an interesting piece

Banner Elk Update

 As we settled into the Banner Elk townhouse there was a need for a ton of updates. While I still have a long way to go, there are a few to start with. 

First, we got the fraud bed installed on the back porch. I had to cut off some scrap 4x4 PT posts to make legs for the bed, and attach those. Then cut off the existing hanging boards to make it fit in the space.

Complete with teenager

We also hung the TV on the wall. This is really cool.

Kelley had an idea for the bathroom, she found it on Pinterest. I liked it, so I built it. Basically we just replace the cabinet with some walnut shelves and a sink that sits on top. I have to start by gluing up the walnut panels

It starts with raw walnut

Rough cut to length, table saw to width, plane everything flat

Add biscuits and glue up the panels

Epoxy fill the knot holes

Large panels ready to use, these are about 23" deep and have a live edge front

Did another panel for a desk in the bedroom (below)

Before - cabinet

During? no cabinet

After - add live edge walnut panels, sink, faucet

Finito

These were all good additions to the townhouse. That bathroom especially turned out better than I expected. It was a great idea, and I had fun building it!

I work from home, so that really means work from anywhere. Here's the nook where I put a shelf to use as a work desk when I'm in the mountains with that other panel.

My brand on the shelf - Handmade by John Flynn

Finally, sometimes we bring the cat with us up there if we're going to be in the mountains for more than a few days. We needed a clean way for the cat to get to the top of the bunk beds, so I built a cat kingdom. Kelley found some old carpet at a thrift store so the cat can scratch and climb easily.

Now with some carpet

Installed

 

Notice how the cat kingdom overlaps the bunk beds - I measured that from memory!

These all turned out really great, but that's not the only custom stuff I had to build for this place. The tables are up next.

Time in the mountains

 If you've ever wondered why I love going to the NC mountains so much, this might explain it in pictures:

Yep, 110* when we left Raleigh, it did show 111* when we were on the highway

4 hours later and 3000 ft higher in elevation, only 68*. Amazing! I can't take the heat

Lena wanted to visit Foggy Pine Books after Tom Hanks did the super bowl commercial for them

Bigfoots baseball! Local small baseball games are the best

The Boone Bigfoot himself

July 4 fireworks at Sugar Mountain Ski Resort

Where else can you watch fireworks on a ski slope?

Out on a walk in Banner Elk

Just enjoying a cup of coffee on the back porch

It really is a magical place and I can't get enough of it up there in the summer.

Banner Elk Bunk Beds

 As we got furniture moved into the Banner Elk townhouse, it created an opportunity for me to build a lot more stuff. I started with a really cool quad bunk bed for the kids bedroom. It's got 2 fulls and 2 twins in an L-shape, I measured the back wall of that room and had only about half an inch to spare. Also, to be sure that there was enough room for grandmothers to get into the twins, I needed to move them forward. Again I measured the side wall to be sure I wasn't going to cover up a light switch or something. The void created by moving the bed I used to build in a nightstand. The end result is pretty neat. 

It always starts with a shitload of lumber into the shed

Started building the frames and cut all of the supports and slats to length

Assembling the frames

Assembling the supports

Rough layout of the finished product, full, twin, nightstand in the corner

All 4 frames

Assembling the bunks

Now with all 4 together and safety rails

Lena picked out the stain color and helped me apply

Loaded up and ready to head to the mountains. We also brought the fraud bed for the back porch

Installed! And my kids are super happy with them

So, 2 fulls, 2 twins, 2 happy kiddos. You can see how that room has a blocked off part where the chimney goes up to the roof, it created a space that I could fill with beds. There's no overhead light or fan in this room, so the light source comes from a lamp on one of the nightstands.

The first weekend we moved into the townhouse, this was in the first load of furniture that I brought up. I can't remember now if it was a thursday or friday - but I had to work a full, stressful day and only had one kid with me (the other was already up there with Kelley). After work we had to disassemble the beds, load up the truck, drive 4 hours to Banner Elk, then unload the truck at like 10 pm and build up these beds that night. Shortly after midnight I finished the assembly in place. Then we all 4 had to sleep in these beds, since they were almost the only furniture in the house at the time! But I can report that I slept like a baby after that. These are really comfortable beds and make a great use of the space