Stacking Seats

Free Stacking Seats

I couldn't help myself. After my run the other day, I noticed that someone was throwing out a bunch of seats similar to the Eames stacking chair. After I got home and changed, I drove over and snagged them. There are probably around thirty seats in total with no bases. Most of them are the yellow and green you see here, plus a couple somewhere between yellow and tan. Some have a little damage, but they're mostly intact.

I don't really have a plan for them at the moment, but I felt that they would be wasted in the trash. I might make a couple of yard benches out of them. Perhaps I'll make them stacking chairs so I can have unique dining and overflow seating. I have a feeling that I'll give some of them away, but for now they'll probably be stored in the cellar. At the moment I don't really have time or space for projects such as this.

Canvas & Canvas @ designsponge

I would love to have a chair like this. It's from a designsponge post I just happened to see today. I don't think I could find a base like that and I don't currently have the skill-set to make one. Maybe I'll come up with something to turn one of those into this.

No Termites!

Beats turning the house into a circus tent.

I had found evidence of what I thought was termite frass in the upstairs apartment. After the tech from EnviroPest took a look,  he informed me that I didn't have termites. I didn't even have carpenter ants. It turns out it was just black carpet beetles, which eat keratin. 

Riding Dirty

Free dirt!

After the last rain, which was perhaps the only real rainfall I've had so far, I noticed that the grading around the house isn't sufficient. Luckily, someone in the neighborhood's Facebook group was digging a foundation for a new garage and posted that they had some dirty to give away. On Saturday morning, I went and picked up about four wheelbarrows full in my barely not a compact truck SUV. It was just enough for the space between the sidewalk and foundation in front of my side entrance.

I had to rake and shovel all the annoying landscaping stones that had been used as fill. Apparently someone thought, or perhaps didn't think at all, that a flat flower bed filled with rocks would carry water away from the foundation. After about four hours, I had the old stuff removed and the new dirt watered down.

While picking up the dirt, I noticed that someone was throwing out a decent-sized, hard-shell car roof cargo carrier. I had thought about buying one in the past, but couldn't justify the $400+ price. Later that day, I went back and brought it home. To my surprise, the paint even matches my car. 

There are some holes in the bottom where it appears they had used improper mounts that caused premature stress and failure. I also don't have a key to lock it. I ordered a patch kit to fix the holes in the bottom and I plan on using U-bolts with plates to spread out the forces. 

It is a Volvo-branded box, but I'm guessing they don't actually design or make them. The lock core serial number looks to be a Thule code, so I ordered a Thule lock core removal key, a new core to match my current Thule rack locks and another key. I'm hoping that will take care of the lock issue and I'll have a good cargo carrier for less than $100. It might actually be less than half of that.