A whale for the wall

My parents sent Blake a jig saw for his birthday earlier this month.  He's been itching to use it and has a list of things he wants to make with the wood that the previous owners left in our basement.

Last Saturday we spent the morning at the doctor's office, then rewarded ourselves by spending the following hour at Home Depot picking out a new work table and clamps.  Home Depot is sometimes the best cure for weekend ennui.  You're so busy thinking about all the possibilities that you can't think about anything else.

So after a very helpful employee spent half an hour with us explaining the merits of various work tables, we set out with the Black & Decker model along with a sawhorse and two industrial clamps that look like torture devices.

We also picked up several bags of mulch for good measure.  When we got home we were side tracked by yard work for a bit (the yard has never looked better! Time to enjoy it before the mosquitos take over.)  But once we'd dumped the last bag of mulch and clipped the last climbing vine, it was time.

Blake set up a work space in the lair (the unfinished portion of the basement really does look like a cave/hideout) and got to work drawing out samples on the boards.

Half an hour later and he had a finished whale.  He'd drawn it himself, cut it out, sanded down the edges and sanded off the ugly stain.  Bada bing, bada boom. That's an attorney with some weekend pizzazz.

Originally it was going to be made into a coat rack by adding a row of hooks, but I loved it so much that I convinced Blake that its new home needed to be on the stairwell gallery wall.  I think it goes perfectly over the two Pebble Beach photos that Blake took last year.

Unfortunately we didn't have the hardware on hand to hang it, but I did pick some up yesterday.  Now it's just awaiting the final hanging.  It's a two person job, though, so that I can be sure it's level and centered.  A weekend project perhaps?