Some things just don't turn out the way you envisioned them.

I think I perfected my pipe cleaner animal making this weekend. Eat your heart out, Martha! Pipe cleaner animals aside, believe it or not, it was actually a very busy weekend at the Tiny Bungalow: pulling in all of the outdoor pots and plants, bringing in the patio table and chairs, general cleaning of the yard and garden, trying to teach myself some linoleum printing techniques. In addition to this stuff, I actually tackled some "real" projects too.

I don't know if anyone recalls but some time ago, I made a table for the bedroom. It was done, right? Well, wrong, it may have looked complete but it wobbled and the top was never secured to the base properly. Yesterday, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I took the table apart to try and fix my shoddy craftsmanship. I had moderate success. The table still wobbles but much less than it did and the cross pieces are now nice and even - so it looks good. I also created some notches in the top to install some table-top fasteners and I fastened the top to the legs so the project is all in one piece - no more knocking the top off while reaching for the alarm clock!I had less success with the basement soffit (or anti-soffit), I finished demo on the framing and gyp board and I am going to keep the duct, beam, and pipes exposed - remember, I'm 6'-4" and height is a key here. It doesn't look great but hopefully when I paint everything out, it will look better. The issue I have been working through is how to trim out the "cut" ends of the soffit. On one side, I put in new blocking and then put in 1x pine trim, similar to the rest of the basement. I will eventually stain it to match the rest of the basement trim as well. There are still too many issues here: I hate the wires and need to figure out what do do with them. I am also not completely satisfied with the trim, maybe I need bigger pieces to conceal more, and I also need to get more ceiling strips for this area. It is slowly coming together but it isn't coming out quite the way I wanted. I keep telling myself it is just the basement - but it would be nice to get at least one area of the house "finished". Then there's the opposite side of the demoed soffit - the door to the "shop area" of the basement. What the hell do I do here? I don't want a door and have been living with a curtain. Maybe that's what we'll stay with. I don't know, I have a feeling that this entire project is going to go the way of the table and I will end up re-doing portions of this in a few months - except that this is a much bigger project.