My MIL is living in a log cabin she just had built. My husband and his brother are doing projects for her there when they can to cut down on construction costs. They installed a light in the loft bathroom on Independence Day. Then my BIL went home. My husband and I did several projects for her, with breaks for good meals and lovely visiting times in between.
I painted a trestle table for her that was purchased at a local thrift store. My husband had made it narrower and routed the top edge to round it over. I sanded it down and painted it green (Canadian Fir Green, to be exact) and then sealed it with polycrylic. She plans to have it up against the cabin outside between her entry door and the grill. It will double as a grill table extension and a put-my-stuff-down-so-I-can-unlock-the-door-and-can-make-one-trip-in-from-the-truck place.
Next up was sealing her deck. There is the same decking that runs on 3 sides of the cabin. On the long sides of the house, it has a roof over it. At the front, however, it is completely exposed. It was looking all dried out and not very nice-looking, so we helped her seal it. She cut in from the edge of the cabin and around the roof support posts. My husband and I rolled on two coats of sealant. Now it looks like a fine piece of furniture. The tape line demarcates where she cut us off so she could still get into the house. It is not supposed to be walked on for 48 hours.
Lastly, but not leastly, was tiling a small wall and an area between her sink counter and bar counter. It also had been painted Canadian Fir Green. She did not like the green, and my SIL helped her select these adhesive tile sheets. My MIL was not thrilled with trying to put them up. I volunteered. What could possibly go wrong? I was quite nervous, but got the hang of it pretty quickly. Unfortunately, we realized we would be two sheets short. I pieced together the rest like a scrap quilt, from small pieces. You would never be able to tell, and we saved an extra trip to Lowes. Win-win!!
