Ladder shelving

This week has been full of ups and downs.  Monday morning found me chased and attacked by a gaggle herd swarm of yellow jackets as I blew the leaves off of the back porch. Stung 9 times, mostly on my legs.  (Note to self: go back to NOT cleaning, it's safer!)

Wednesday, Sassy went to the vet to check out a large, egg-shaped knot on her back.

They took a sample to send out and had to shaved her back to get it.  Sassy was not amused by this haircut, but was pleasant and didn't complain until we got in the car.  Then she swore she wouldn't ever go to that hairdresser again. I didn't tell her it wasn't actually a spa.

While we are still waiting on the pathologist's report, the vet took a look at the sample and said there was some indication that the bump might be a mast cell tumor.  *Cancer*  BUT, I will not borrow trouble until the fat lady sings!  At least Sassy is her usual happy, demented self!

Friday looked to suck as well when I was stung by a wasp while repairing the compost bin.  Seriously,  I think I need a bee suit to work outside this year!  So just when I thought this week was going to end on a bad note, the Fedex man arrived and brought me this!

A new Shark vacuum to test drive for a consumer panel I'm on. For free.  And I get to keep it!  It has a removable dirt canister and it swivels to get around and under things.  The cord is nice and long (avoiding a pet peeve of mine) and you can even adjust the suction so I won't throw my back out trying to push it on my area rugs.

Of course, I whipped it out of the box immediately and set about playing with all the cool attachments.  And I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed my doggy house!  I even (*gasp*) vacuumed the lampshades.  However, I refuse to show you how much dog hair and dust this thing took out of the house!  Let's just say, I emptied the canister 6 or 20 times.  We'll leave it at that, except to say that I think I'm loving this vacuum!

I haven't gotten much done on the things I picked up in the last post, because I've been working on a big project for Liz's apartment.  We liked the look of some re-purposed old wooden ladders on Pinterest, but never could find one to convert.  Furniture stores offer a newer version, but for lots of money.

Back to the internet and I found plans on Ana White for a short model using plywood and pine boards.

Photo by Ana White

Liz wanted the shelves to be 6 feet tall, so I had to make a few changes.  I really wanted to keep the unit from sticking out into the room too far, but just couldn't wrap my head around changing all the geometry, so I just went for it.

This was the first time I've built a frame that had angled cuts in it.   A bit scary, but I finally pulled the trigger.  There would be 5 shelves instead of 4, each one deeper than the one before.

The whole project took a number of layers of  stain and paint.  First went down 2 colors of wood stain.  Then I added random strokes of turquoise blue.

After that dried, everything was dry-brushed with white paint.

After the shelves were assembled, I decided that it wasn't "white" enough to go with the television stand in Liz's living room.

So a heavier coat of white paint was added.  That's the great thing about this kind of creating and re-inventing!  If it doesn't quite look the way you want, just keep adding and sanding off paint!

Here it is in place.  We tried it in a couple of different spots and came back to the first place in the end.  I'm sure the items on the shelves have been changed already.  

Pasquale insisted on being moved to a higher, more prominent shelf.  In return, Liz insisted that he wear a sign!

After this project, I had lots of wood scraps piling up, but I got an idea.

I found this metal file cabinet at a thrift store for $5.  I took out the shelves and attached wheels to (what was) the back.

Now I have a wood bin that rolls! And maybe I can quit tripping on wood scraps and get to more projects!