Look what I made!

I have a really great relationship with my dad.  Like any relationships worth having, it hasn’t always been easy but I think that’s because we’re essentially the same person… and you know how that usually works out.
 

Some of the most memorable times in my childhood included doing things with my dad… or at least him relentlessly bugging me to do things until I said ‘yes’ and finally realizing that 90% of the time, they were worth doing (I can think of a few things I could have done without… like eating cauliflower).  So when the time came to add things to my list, I thought it would be a good idea to do something with him… something that was my idea for once.  But of course, if my idea was something that interested him, it wouldn’t be hard to get him on board.
 

Now you see, he has a phenomenal wood shop. He has a habit of jumping head first into things and going all out so his wood shop looks like it belongs at the North Pole (minus the tiny elves) and should be pumping out wooden Jack-In-The-Boxes like Jack-In-The-Box pumps out cheeseburgers (except for that little E. coli incident in ’93).  I’ve made something in his workshop before but not with him so I thought this would be a great thing to add to the list.  I can add to my (minimal) carpentry skills while spending some QT with the father figure.  Seemed like a good idea to me!
 

Mom and Dad and I have all been collecting old skis for quite a while but we were still unsure as to what to do with them but when forced into a decision, one gets pretty creative!  So behold… our ski bench.  It was measured to fit on the back porch of our condo at Sugarloaf (more on that in another post sometime soon) and will be painted (the wood, not the skis) to match the grey exterior paint of the place.
 

It’s about 65″ inches long.  I know… I measured that shit.

 

Now let’s rewind for a second while I throw out some mumbo jumbo to really impress you.  We did this WITHOUT A PLAN.  That’s right, here I was squabbling through woodworking books looking for a pattern, a measurement, ANYTHING that my Type A/Perfectionist personality could grab onto as a source for making the perfect bench while my dad whipped out a piece of paper and a mechanical pencil and went to work.  He may as well have been writing in German for how well I understood his drawings at first.  But once he translated, I was on the same page and we went from there.

 

This was no joke.

 

We based the width of the leg braces on the width of the skis all lined up.  We chose the skis based on the amount of space we had in the location on the deck that we wanted to put it and the height was based on a pipe that we needed to clear that stuck out of the wall.  So yeah, no rhyme or reason to this project.  It was the epitome of “let’s make this shit up as we go along.”  But you know what?  It worked.  And it looks damn good.

 

Lining the skis up to figure out how wide the base needed to be.

 

Leg brace #1 complete.

 

Dad screwing down the skis on top.

 

We used SCUBA weights to push down the center of the bench while we braced it with another smaller pair of skis – clearly, we’re resourceful.

 

Done and…

 

… done.

 

Testing out our handy work.

 

Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Darcie, there are no pictures of you ACTUALLY doing any work” but trust me… I worked.  I measured, I cut, I drilled, I caulked and I lifted.  AND I took the pictures.  How ’bout THEM apples.

 

The best part of the whole thing?  We didn’t even fight… right Dad? 

 

I had a really great time between figuring out what we were going to make, putting pencil to paper, getting halfway through and realizing we needed to make a Home Depot run and pointing out that we could indeed place the screws in a straight line along the skis with just a little more effort than our first go around.  I learned a lot in building this project but more importantly, I had a really great day with my daddy… because apparently, no matter how old you get (almost 30 ), you’ll still be his little girl.

 

29. Make something with my dad in his wood shop

 

A father is always making his baby into a little woman.  And when she is a woman he turns her back again.  ~Enid Bagnold