It's a start!! - NovaFirefly

So, I spent the Wednesday and Thursday (7/26-7/27) working on building a riser for my dolls to display on my dresser.  A riser, you ask?  It's a 2 step thing that one of my adopted brothers described like a stage, so that I can fit more dolls on the dresser (Shh, I may have a doll collecting addiction...), and so that I can see the ones I have.

I think I better explain.  I have 2 biological brothers, A and R, in FL.  (Went on vacation with my biological family in June with R).  I have an "adopted" or "second family" in MD... and this includes S and C.  And then, another adopted little sister, N.  Confused yet?  A & R are related, and S & C are related.  C is pretty good at problem solving... though not conventional.

It was a Wednesday afternoon into Thursday afternoon project.  Started out with my brother C trying to use scrap wood from around the garage, and not understanding what I drew/what I saw in my mind's eye.  He didn't want to build a traditional staircase type thing, and that was what I wanted.... so we spend the better part of 2 hours "discussing" various solutions, and working through a trial and error marathon. I may have mentioned going to Home Depot more than once to just get fresh, unwarped wood.  You know, once or twice.  Maybe three times.  C may have shot me down, saying that he thought the scrap we had around the house would suffice.  It didn't.

Exhibit A: The "mock-up" set of risers... A.K.A. the "butt-ugly" ones. C may or may not have tried to piece 3 or more types of wood of varying thicknesses together...

This was, needless to say, not going to work.  At this point, I was missing my Dad and his need for perfectionism (I got it from somewhere), because all I could figure was that I would use this til I could get to good power tools.  I suppose C figured out how disappointed I was (he was too after he took a break and came back), and he, I, and S piled into the truck to hit up Home Depot, armed with a plan (thanks to Exhibit A), a list of supplies, and measurements.

Then we felt the need to hit Sweet Frog... I forgot to take a pic of the froyo before I devoured it...

I awoke Thursday morning to the sound of a electric saw running, and, after walking Dini and Darcy, went into the garage to investigate. I was rather pleased to see everything being cut properly, and starting to fit together nicely.  I took the role of sander (I attract splinters), and S even came out to help us out (he's good with artistic flair and design, and we'd also bought trim for the Riser).

This is pre-painted, after C was finished:

And post paint:

I plan to try and get a bit lighter paint to try and highlight the trim work, but I've never that before, so it should be an adventure.  For now though, all this needs is some felt to keep it from scratching up the top of my dresser, and voila! A nice way to display!!