Purchased a Coca Cola Bench

...and I know what you are thinking...."another bench?"  I thought the same thing but this bench is different.  What do you think?

Need a closer look?

This isn't a new bench nor is it a reproduction of an old bench.  Instead this is a bench cast to look like an antique.  I doubt if an antique version of this bench ever existed.  It's a little froo froo for my taste but yet I am looking forward to painting it.  If anyone runs across a photo of one of these benches that is painted, please pass it along because there are just so many elements that need to be painted.

The bench itself is narrower than a traditional park bench but still sits two people quite cozy.  This is perfect for a smaller porch. 

First off we will need to disassemble.  Just like the last bench, the bolts will need to be cut off because they are very rusty.  The slats are actually 2X4's and there are only 3 of them.  So that will keep the cost down.

Next on the list is for R to grind out all of the excess flash and smooth out some of the grind marks where they quickly tried to smooth the seams.

There are some areas of porosity and even a larger spot where there is missing metal in the field of the cameo on the left side.  I proposed to fill in the small pin holes and the missing metal in the cameo with JB Weld or Certanium.  But we will wait until we are ready to paint and see if the holes really show up.

The metal bench parts are pot metal and not cast iron or cast aluminum.  Pot metal is mostly zinc but also has tin, lead, and even copper added.  It is common for pot metal to have pits from small holes to large holes.  This is caused from air getting trapped in the mold when the metal is cast.

It was hot today.  We picked up the bench at 10am and had hoped to finish top dressing the hosta bed around the garden shed.  But it was just too hot.  So we watered the pots and stayed in the shade doing nothing but drinking water.  Some days it is best to do nothing and nothing we did.

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Progress on Cast Iron Bench

  I feel like I keep repeating myself but gawd was it hot today.  We had a brief downpour that caused the humidity to go through the roof.

 I don't know what we would have done had we not had this fan.

The bench progress started with the back portion because of the cast iron insert.  Once we framed out the insert, this set what the width of the bench would be when completed.

The frame around the back insert will be biscuit joined and glued.  Once they are dry, we will run the router around the outside edge with the round over bit.

We cut the slats for the seat portion.  They will also have the router with a round over bit used around the top side 4 edges.  This will make sitting on the bench a little more comfortable. 

I originally thought about painting the wood in the same grey as the house but now I think I am going to paint the wood in a black satin the same color as the cast iron.  I hope that this will make it look like a full cast iron/metal bench.  I was concerned that painting it grey would make it too country or busy looking.  R votes for dark grey.  Hmmmm this could be a battle.

After cutting all these wood pieces we had one 9 foot 1x3 poplar board left from the five that we purchased.  I needed 5 slats for the small table that we will make out of the short cast iron legs that I purchased for 5 bucks many many years ago.  I came up with the length by dividing my board into 5 pieces and rounding down to the closest whole number because it was just too hot to deal with fractions.

9 feet = 108 inches

108 inches divided by 5 = 21.6 inches

So we cut 5 boards at 21 inches and called it a day.

Cost as of 7-4-18

Bench pieces $40

Short leg pieces $5

3 cans of satin black spray paint $9

5 nine foot poplar 1X3 boards $62.96

Misc screws, bolts, washers, and nuts $11.50

$128.46

I asked R how much did he spent on screws, bolts etc. and he said "I know exactly how much I spent.  It was 11 something."
Exactly, you say?

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Working on the Projects

It was a hot one today.  We basically went from temps in the 50's to the 90's.  The lilac bushes were about 3 weeks behind and due to the high temps they came and went pretty fast.  I did get a few photographs but photographs can't give you the olfactory experience that lilacs have to offer.  

The June 21st deadline project is where we concentrated our efforts today.  We biscuit joined the boards but first we cut each one at 40 7/8 inches.  This measurement will make the "project" 40 7/8" X 40 7/8 inches.  We left the boards clamped to the saw horses and then I placed my bay leaf plant on top of an old piece of vintage pink laminate to weigh it down.  I could have used a cement block but it was just too hot to walk to the cement block pile so I grabbed the closest thing I had and that was my bay leaf plant.

After we ate lunch I gathered pieces for tomorrow's concrete pour.  Of course R reminded me that I wanted to throw out a couple of those pieces during one of my cleaning frenzies.  My goal with the #Quikrete One Bag Wonder contest is to only buy the bag of concrete and one other piece necessary for my design.  All the remaining pieces are items we have in our stash or are items we have but will be used in another fashion.   

Speaking of stash.....R saw me going through the 1 X scrap lumber pile and he gets all upset thinking that I am wasting wood that he has so lovingly saved. He doesn't like the thought that the scrap pile went from 25% of the room to a very small stacked pile.  The picking is getting slim but I found enough boards to make the other project which will go on the back of the house once the shingles are hung and painted.

I am really excited and anxious about the barn wall project because it is so different than the projects that other bloggers are doing right now.  The Quikrete project is equally exciting because it falls right into our ethos of reuse, repurpose, recycle, and we always try to use materials that can be repaired or materials that will last for years such as concrete.  We try never to invest big money in plastic items like patio furniture.  As you might know we stick with vintage wrought iron furniture rather than plastic furniture that fades, gets brittle, and then breaks. 

On the agenda for the rest of the week, make my concrete project for #Quikrete One Bag Wonder contest, finish building the barn wall project and then paint it, strip the paint off the pieces of scrap lumber, that I found today, and then sand them.  I also need to finish weeding around the garden shed.  I have 3 sides done but I left the weediest side for last.  I also  need to mow yet again.  I know this sounds like I am exaggerating but some areas of our lawn are getting mowed every 3 days.  You might have noticed in the fence repair post at how long the grass was in those photos.  That was 3 days growth.  

We also need to add the extra floor joists under the deck.  We added extra joists and hangers to 2/3rds of the deck already.  That really stiffened everything up.  We've had the wood since last fall so it is just a matter of cutting to length and adding the hangers.

  If it stays hot outside this is actually a good project to do because it is in the shade and somewhat below grade. The deck is elevated about 6 feet off the ground in that area so no crouching is involved.

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How Am I Doing?

Well I will be up front...we haven't made as good of progress as I had wanted.

Here's the excuses.

It's hot outside.

One half of Friday was used to do a unexpected project at the Torrey Rd house. The opportunity arose to have our neighbor (owns nursery) to use his equipment to clear the area under the purple martin house/Bradford pear tree. This required us to remove all the irises buried in the weed infested mess. When they were done using the tractor, they laid down plastic and covered with mulch. It looks much better now. This was a project that needed to be done but this was unexpected.

We added to the list. We edged around 4 more trees.

We needed to get more black mulch and the employees at Home Depot are slow slow slow. A 10 minute trip turned into also 45 minutes.

We weeded the 3 hosta beds. One bed is huge. We decided to do this because it is in the shade.

Did I mention it was hot?

Here is the 'To Do' list

Complete all mowing today. DONE
Finish putting down black mulch that was bought on Saturday. DONE
Spray Round Up (this alone should take 4-5 hrs) large yard plus need to refill.
Sand trim on sun room exterior.
Caulk all new trim on sun room exterior.
Prime sun room exterior.
Strip paint on next section of house.
Sand, caulk, prime this section and the doorway section that already has new shingles and trim.
Work on painting the chain link while fence is in the shade.

That's not very good progress. If I could fire myself, I would do it immediately. Oh but wait, I guess because I own this house that would make me part of the management. In that case, I just gave myself a raise and hey what the heck, a bonus, too!!!!!

Life is great!!!!

Did I mention how hot it is outside????