A Squatter Christmas

Our Glorious Tree

Happy holidays from Mr. and Mrs. Squatter! We put our 4 day weekend to good use, though most of it involved running errands to prepare for doings. The highlight was definitely the creation of our new light fixture, which now proudly hangs in our foyer with Albie the Ram.

I had found similar fixtures online and fell in love. Unfortunately, they were in the $300-500 price range, and the sizes weren't necessarily ideal. Josh made it with a few supplies from Home Depot and some stuff we had laying around for under $20, and it turned out cooler than anything I saw online. The Edison bulbs bumped the price up, but were well worth the cost. The biggest bonus, though, is that it is 100% CUSTOM!

Since then, we've been enjoying our "After Christmas Christmas." You see, us Squatters are simple folk with simple tastes who are appreciative of the most basic of gifts: cold hard cash. We are putting it to good use, with packages arriving regularly containing items such as bouquets of dried thistles and  feathers, a fancy salt pig and a Stendig calendar. Some was spent on a new DeWalt power drill/ driver combo for Josh, who'd had his cheap Black & Decker since long before he got stuck with me (and for $40 and 15+ years, that thing was a champ... kinda sad to put it out to pasture). I got a coordinating palm-grip sander, and am surprising even myself with my level of excitement over it. After trying a furniture refinishing project with just a sanding block and elbow grease, my poor hands are thanking me.

Speaking of, I started the refinishing a vintage chair set I've had for about 15 years. I foud them separately for only a couple bucks each, and only now realized they're from a local company that existed until the 1950's.

What I found underneath the vinyl

I used some patterned velvet my mom and I purchased a huge remnant of over a decade ago for the cushion, and chose some Minwax White Wash Pickling Stain for the wood. After sanding the lacquered one (BY HAND) and finishing the crap out of it, I ended up with a result a bit too "Shabby Chic" for our tastes.

My new sander will fix this.

 Please excuse the awful background, but also make sure to get a good look. Today is the first day of Josh's second 4-day weekend in a row, and we are spending it BUILDING A KITCHEN! As I type, Mr. Squatter is downstairs putting our new power tools to good use, building me a kitchen counter based on this project by Ana White. I'm hoping to have the "brick" finished and installed within the next couple days, and picked up the glaze medium for the painted walls.

On that note, I should get back to work! Hopefully we'll have some "after" pictures to share soon.