Log Cabin for Play

We are currently building a play house...well...it is a play cabin. Here is where we are so far. My neice was here for a week and helped out.

There he is hard at work! Nathan has traded the giant chainsaw for his light weight electric chainsaw. This allows him to spend more of his energy working in the lumber than managing a huge chainsaw on smaller more detailed cuts. Don't you worry though, That heavy chainsaw still sees plenty of action in the mountains.

We are having a great time as the weather cools some and allows us to get more work done in the evenings around here. It is a joy to work along side him. Though I am not as much help as he will give me credit for. The cabin will take a bit more time to complete as we are still searching the exact pattern we want to use.

Hope all is well with you and check back again...we may have started a new project!!!

Itching to build again.

It has been a while since we built a project. And we have the itch. We are planning on some fun swings for your swing set and some larger adult swings. Look for us in the local Farmer's Market. With the shop nice and cleaned up and our log storage in place, we should have no trouble at all getting our projects out. If you need something or have questions about a project please comment below or send us a message. We would love to hear from you!!!

Triple Bunk Bed

It has been a little while since we installed the triple bunk beds for a friend of ours. (Sorry, I haven't been feeling the best.) They just had baby #5 and another girl totally 4 girls. So a change needed to happen in the bedrooms to make room for all the growing girls. After doing some surfing the web and finding a design...ok...so we love Pinterest. My friend and I ran across this bed about the same time! And an answer was given for the changes needed in their rooms. The actual blog site is here: The Handmade Dress. A great place for plans and all sorts of fun things. The directions are great until towards the end. It seems that they kind of  just get tired and stop giving enough detail for measurements and instillation directions. Keep on your toes there or just send us a message. Here are the pictures. The kids were so excited.

They wanted to paint them themselves so we just put a nice fine sand on it and installed. Can't wait to see what they choose to do!!

Soap Box Derby Car

We have not been taking a break since the King Sized Bed was hung. No, Nathan has been working on a very fun and exciting project. The Soap Box Derby Car. Yes, it has nothing to do with furniture but it has everything to do with who Nathan is!! FUN FUN AND MORE FUN!!!

Nathan is the scout master for our local Boy Scouts of America troop. A month or so ago he sat his boys down and asked what they wanted to do this year. Weeding through some of the silly ideas of video game parties and water parks they finally got down to some really fun ideas. This was one of the ideas. Build and race Soap Box Derby Cars. So it is now into actions.

The National Soap Box Derby Association has a ton of great things but they all were more spendy than the troop could handle or some of the boys. So, what did Nathan do? He jumped right in and started designing a car that would only cost the boys $35.00 each. That does not include the shape and design of the body of the car. Only the mechanics to make it run and be safe. From there he is requiring each boy to design the body as he wishes using only recycled materials. Keeping all the boys on a level playing field. They have come up with some fantastic ideas and off course being farm boys, they have many materials available to them. They just have to go out and salvage them. They will be racing in March or early April. Can't wait to see all the finished products. I will give you a sneak peak at what Nathan as done so far. (Don't mind the junk everywhere. We have so many projects going at once there is little room for a photo booth...hmmm. That should be on the list of projects...)

 His original idea was to go for a tow truck but realized there isn't much room for the back end. He is sticking with the semi-truck style though. Like I said, Nathan is only part way there.

 And of course, he has to deck it out with all the bells and whistles. Or blinking lights in his case. And the stereo!!

This has been a fun project and he is looking forward to getting the boys working on their cars as well. With the help of their dad's these cars are going to be great!! Look forward to posting more pictures and sharing all their hard work pay off in the race!!

King Sized Hanging Log Bed (Part 2)

I am so very excited to share this post with you today!! Well...tonight. I LOVE THIS BED!! And I think you should too. 
Nathan worked so hard on this bed and to all our pleasure it turned out perfect!! 

We started off Friday night with the idea of painting our bedroom. For a year we have lived with just taped and textured but thank you to my wonderful brother, Aaron, we ran off to Lowe's for some paint. (He gave me a gift card to Lowe's for Christmas. What a thoughtful person.) 

Lets just get down to the pictures. Here is what we started with when we cleared out the old bed--we hated our old bed. So uncomfortable. In fact, so much that we don't even have pictures of it!! We slept on the floor for about a month now. Here we go:

 You have seen this next picture in a previous post. But here we are a work in progress still down in the shop. 

All our wood is personally cut with the creation in mind. We not only select lumber with character but with beauty and durability. 

 In the process of painting we had to take down our closet. You can see all our shoes and clothes in the back ground but here you can see the colors we chose for the walls. The one wall is "apple-a-day" at Lowe's and The wall in which the bed is against is "gravity" LOVE Them BOTH!!!I wish I were a better photographer so you can see it. As Nathan would say "the bed is our main focus here. Don't distract them." (I am kind of good at that!) This picture lets you see the bed as is. The half logs are anchored to the trusses. We hung from the ropes (swung on the ropes more like it) before they hung the bed. Pretty solid.

  Here we are finally with the bed made. It takes a long time to get it made with taking so many pictures. But we wanted you all to see it as we went along. Totally worth it! 

 We have to show off Nathan's favorite part of this bed. He selected this pole with this bed in mind when he was in the mountains. And as it was peeled in the shop it became even more beautiful.

And of course, here are our little ones. They had to be our models! They wanted to get up on the new bed so badly and have their pictures taken. 

And we can't leave out our knot tier, Cody. He did a great job. For how complicated these knots look as a finished product, he was quick and made them look so easy to do. Thank you CJ and Stephanie for getting him the books that interested him. He has such a gift!!

This is how we attach it to the ceiling. Beautiful!!

Each piece of the bed is loose from the others, only connected via the rope and gravity. The fraying is still in the early stages. But as time goes on it will fray better and look fuller. 

This has been a very fun project. In fact, so fun that Nathan has been talking about the next one he gets to build. And we look forward to having more orders. This bed can be customized to any size bed or bedroom. We work with our customers to make sure their personality shines through. 

Please contact us with any questions or inquiries on this or any other products showcased on our blog. We look forward to working with you! 

Hill Country Wood Working @ yahoo.com

King Size Hanging Log Bed

Yes, that caption is Hanging Bed!! I am really excited about this. Mainly, because it is my bed he has been working of for so long!!! And it looks so good. Not good, GREAT!!

Here it is sitting in the shop. I just can't wait until he has time to get it hung in the bedroom.

It is a bit blurry. I was not ready to take pictures. He snatched this one and put it on facebook so I stole it for our blog!! Again, I LOVE THIS!!!the two half logs are for the accent on the ceiling from which it will hang. OH I cannot wait for it to be up. More pictures then!!!

Stand Alone Swing

So excited to show you our newest creation!!  And we are so excited for our clients. Though the weather has been cold and windy; snowy and miserable the work inside the shop has gotten pretty crazy. Our floor is covered with projects and the fireplace is going strong.

This was two days ago. The fog had settled in through the night and early morning and by 10 this is what we had. Everything covered in a layer of ice. The moisture from the fog was left behind. Pretty neat if you ask me. With the cloud cover it was a decent day. That is the sun trying to poke through the clouds behind the frozen tree.

 Went out to visit the chickens too. Icicles everywhere. They were expecting food from me. When they saw me just standing there taking pictures they went back inside where it is warm. Pretty spoiled birds!

OK, now that I have distracted you let me bring you back to the Swing. Nathan loves working with wood and he did some serious research on a new design. "This is my favorite swing so far." to quote him directly. In all the pictures I took you can't see it but there is a pole running between the A frames. It gives it durability and stability.

 

Here is the swing up close. We use rope to hold up the swing and to give it a bit of flare. I LOVE how this turned out!! The rope is a big favorite around Hill Country Wood Working's shop because of how natural it keeps the finished product. In the next few days we will pin Nathan down and have him take us into his shop and help us find a whole new love for the natural materials.
We cannot forget to give a big shout out: A BIG Thank You to Cody for his help with the knots!! That boy knows his knots!

The Swing is finished with a deck sealant for weather proofing. Because of the beauty of the wood we chose to leave this in a natural color. It will weather some but with the proper upkeep it will remain a treasure for years and years to come.

This swing runs anywhere from $300.00 to $400.00. Any shipping or delivery may effect final pricing.

If you are interested in a swing like this please leave us a message here or feel free to send us an email at hillcountrywoodworking@yahoo.com. 

Coming very soon The King Size Swing Bed!!