Weekend Builds

After years of getting by with an old corded drill, I finally bought a cordless one for these weekend projects. Here is an honest look at whether it actually made a difference.

I put together a potting bench out of leftover boards from three years of projects, including one crooked cut and a batch of screws that were absolutely the wrong ones.

I added a small trellis to one raised bed for the vining plants and spent more time fighting its lean than I expected. Here is how the build actually went, wobble and all.

Six years in, our raised beds have taught me more about wood choice than any buying guide did. Here is what warped, what rotted, and what I’d choose differently if I were starting over.

I added a simple wooden seat along the side of one raised bed thinking I’d use it constantly. Here is why it turned out to be one of the least useful things I’ve built in that yard.

A first hand account of the Saturday I built our fourth raised bed, including the corner I cut twice, the digging I underestimated, and why it still took twice as long as planned.