Sounds like an odd title, doesn’t it.  That was my thinking when it came up on one of the remodeling shows on DIY.  What can you do with a musical instrument?  The two primary uses that were shown were to convert them to lamps or arrange them into a piece of wall art.

Before you consider using an old instrument you have stored away somewhere, please be sure that  the instrument is no longer playable nor easily repaired.  Instruments are so expensive today it would be a waste of resources to destroy a working instrument that could be donated to a local school program.

Instruments are easy to find at weekend flea markets if you don’t have an unusable instrument.  Two lamps were shown on the program, one from a clarinet and another from a saxophone.   The projects to convert these to lamps were uber simple.  You need to purchase a light kit and shade and identify your base material.

The light kit includes a cord, light switch, lamp socket and harp.  These are sold at most home improvement stores for less than $20.  Most of these same stores sell lamp shades as well.  The bases used on this show were scrap wood cut into an appropriate size with a routered edge.

The largest cost variable for these projects were the cost of shades which can be all over the cost spectrum.

The project begins by determining the method of attaching the base and lamp socket to the instrument.  The base looked to me the easiest buy screwing and gluing the instrument to the base.  A hole was drilled at the bottom of the instrument to accommodate the electrical cord.  Both the instruments left off the pieces containing the reeds to allow for the attachment of the lamp socket.  In the program they used glue to attach the lamp socket.  I would be concerned with the lamp generating enough heat to melt several types of glue .  To me a better attachment would be to mount the lamp socket to a round piece of scrap metal and attach the scrap metal piece to the instrument with set screws.  Once the lamp socket is attached it is a simple task to mount the harp and attach the shade.

Both the sax and the clarinet made stunning lamps.  A french horn would be another good alternative but the best repurposed  musical instrument I’ve seen was an old upright piano that had been converted into a bar.  The sheet music rest wood was removed to expose the harp of the piano.  A manufactured stone shelf was attached in the opening and lighting was added inside to show off the harp as well as the bottles and glasses located on the new shelf.

The piano may have still been playable since the key were not effected with the other work of the project.  Part of my memory for this piece was the finish of the piano.  The crafty people who did this conversion glued old sheet music on the piano such that non of the original piano finish was showing.  Once the sheet music was dry the used several coats of urethane to make a smooth shinny surface.

While these are some examples, all instrument represent craftsman workmanship of one kind or another which would be a shame not to celebrate by reusing.

Recycle and repurpose your home when you are decorating.  Today’s HGTV channels and the DIY network all have an abundance of shows encouraging different ways to decorate with recycled  or repurposed goods. Suggestions and methods of doing so can be very helpful.

A number of shows offer ideas when redoing an existing home.  Methods of removing walls, working around  heater vents and plumbing lines.  Bear in mind, that these shows must be fully aware of the existing city codes which allow them to  take down walls, etc.  A structural engineer should be consulted before removing any walls. 

Recycled wood planks and beam are in big demand since decorators on TV have use them for ceiling finishes, headboards, accent walls, coffee tables etc. again making everything old new again.

Another recent addition to HGTV’s lineup  provides information on  the possible purchase price of antiques or items that might be sold at an Estate sale.  Some  wall décor and furniture pieces  are repurposed, cleaning  the item up, painting, sanding and staining, making recycling an affordable option for most people.  Especially those that are interested in pieces of a different era.

Take for instance an old wire basket , once used for carrying eggs from the chicken coop. They  clean up the basket and use the light bulb socket kit to turn it into a hanging lamp. If purchased at an Estate sale or online, a person can have a current look as seen in many name brand store catalogs for much less compared to the store cost. 

 In another show using an  old wooden headboard and painting the headboard in stripes to coincide with the rooms colors.  Bringing the headboard into this decade.  Recycling the old and outdated headboard, while keeping the cost down and making the room more current. Another new show demonstrated a similar fashion statement using colored tape to create the stripes.  I suppose if you we decorating for your teenager, duct tape could serve the same function in a manly way.  As always, remember that recycling a  good solid piece of furniture and reupholstering (if needed to  match your style and décor) will last a long, long time, save you money and support recycling.

Year round you should be thinking about how you can repurpose and recycle for outdoor living. 

Getting a new driveway or patio?  Cutting the old drive or patio into even squares or rectangles make one of the more longlasting stepping stones you can come up with.  While there is some labor and likely the rental of a concrete saw, recycling your old patio also has the obvious benefit of not being placed in a land fill.

 After looking for several weeks for an end table to put next to our outdoor furniture, we found cost were high and the end tables we saw were either not atttractive or over sized for our application.  We were rearranging some patio plants when our solution appeared in the form of plant stands.  We do have a lot of plants that we move in the house and out to the patio depending on the time of the year.  In the house, plants either sit on plant stands or in trays on the floor.

Several of the plant stands were perfect size and made out of a material suitable to put outside in the elements.  If they needed anything to be used, they needed paint and they work great.  On one stand the top wasn’t in great shape so I attached a sample piece of granite, now it’s a very expensive looking end table.

While we are talking about plant stands another several other thoughts come to mind.  We have a lawyers table from India which is about 18 inches square and since it is made for use while sitting on the floor it is only 6 inches high.  We topped it with a plant tray and we have a great way to display some larger plants we have.  Over the years we have used milk cans, scrap lumber, old collinders and any other thing that served for this purpose.  And while we still do this I was glad to have a couple plant stands to use as end tables.

I’m also seeing a resurgence in recycling products for outdoor use.  The most widely seen example of this is the mulch made from recycled shreaded tires.  Several issues are resloved with this product.  First and foremost these tires don’t end up in our landfills.  For those who re-mulch year after year the second issue should be crystal clear…the tires will not deteriorate in the course of the year so the product stays in place and remains attracive for many years.  Several pieces of furniture for outdoor living also appear on our site .  I would encorage you to take a look at then.  Most are goergous, more like art forms than recycled products.

On the creative side, home made wind chimes provide an outlet for your creative juices as well as provides an opportunity to reuse, recycle and repurpose items around the house.  

I know I’m bouncing around a little but the ideas are endless.  As long as the item is capable of withstanding the weather it is being place into, the option for its use are limited by your imagination.

This article may apply to some furniture products but mainly applies to roofing and exterior siding materials.

As a recent victim of a severe storm packing baseball and softball size hail we had significant damage which included a  roof, gutters, skylights, pool safety cover, and combing the condenser coils where hail had impacted.

 As a former home builder and owner of a construction company I look for several things when hiring a roofing contractor.  My main criteria required; the company was local so that if I had a problem someone local could service it, good references which should speak for itself and someone I felt was honest to deal with.

All the roofing contractors I spoke with would not give me a fixed quote, all said they would do the job for whatever the insurance company would pay.  This certainly was not the way I was used to contracting a job, however all we singing the same tune so I checked references and made a selection.

At the same time I made initial contact with the person who would be handling my claim and told them that I would expect to be kept in the loop with all correspondence and conversations.

When you contract to allow the contractor to do the job for the amount of insurance payment, most of these contractors look for ways to escalate the claim which puts more money in their pockets, it may be revenue neutral to you now, but when it is all done, we will have to pay higher premiums.

So to the subject at hand sub roofing material.  As I spoke with each contractor I told them all exactly what I wanted.  I wanted an upscale shingle and I wanted “radiant” plywood.  The old roof was cedar shakes which is about the best venting roof covering you can get.  In all climates you need a well ventilated attic space to allow the insulation to work properly.  Since I was going from shakes to asphalt shingles I needed some assurance my attic would not bake in the summer and contain moisture in the winter.  Radiant plywood fit the bill by lowering the attic temperature nearly 30 degrees.

The first problem I had with this contractor materialized when the product for my roof was delivered.  No radiant plywood, in fact no plywood at all, OSB was substituted.  OSB stands for oriented strand board which is wood from small trees which are quickly replaced bound together with glue in layers oriented in different directions.  Sounds like something an energy freak like me would like huh?  My memory from my days of building houses was that OSB warped easily if it got wet and that was not something I wanted on my roof.  So I told them to remove the OSB from my driveway and bring me radiant plywood which they agreed to.

The day they are beginning the tear-off of the roof still no sub roofing.  Finally it showed up, it was radiant OSB, again not what we agreed to, so I stopped the job.  Instantly the head field guy showed up to convince me radiant OSB was what I should have.  By the way the local company I contracted with to do the job, sub contracted it out to a Texas firm (I’m not close to Texas).

1000’s of roofs are being replaced in our area from the large storm that came through which had supplies in large demand.  With my contacts I got on the phone and computer and attempted to find the sub roofing I wanted.  It wasn;t available anywhere so I looked into the OSB radiant panels.  My main concern from days gone by was that if the edges of the OSB got wet they would swell and you could see the edges of all the panels show up through the asphalt shingles.

The manufacturers had evidently heard this from other builders and was treating either the edge of the panels or the entire panel with a waterproofing product to prevent swelling.  So I conceded they could use the OSB radiant panels however I made sure that these panels were covered on the ground and on the roof.  I’ve seen sheets of OSB sitting in driveways for weeks now as thunder storms come rumbling through and I’m concerned for them.

OSB is used in some furniture as backing material and sub-structure because of it’s strength and low cost and because it is not normally exposed to moisture.

To finish my roofing story, the roof went up quickly, broken skylights took four attempts before they could get that done correctly.   The contractor has tried to back-load the cost to the insurance company which I have prevented by having good communications with my insurance company.

A good roofing company may be an oxymoron, there are some and following a storm like we had, those companies are booked well into the fall.  It probably would have been advisable to wait until the fall.

Reuse has created new companies on the Internet to deal with demand for products of the past.  Likely the the greatest demand has come from textiles and wallpaper from prior decades.

It seems that everything old is new again is particularly true with colors and patterns.  When we fled the 60’s and 70’s bright colors and patterns for jewel tones and then earth tones, a lot of fabric, paint, and plastic remained in storage.  So far the plastic furniture hasn’t made a rebirth, but the colors and patterns have become the accents of today’s designer pallet.

You need only watch a few HGTV shows to find a designer using fabrics from the 60’s or earlier to make accent pillows, recover a seat cushion or bedspreads and duvets.  Many of the old pattern wall paper has also made it to mainstream design as an accent wall or an entire room.  Some patterns have found their home as a stencil patterns.

While it may be obvious to you that reuse of these products is a good thing, most will not think of the enormous amount of energy consumed in the manufacture of these products.

Fabric for example first has the raw cotton or other material washed (often with heated water).  The product is drawn, dyed, woven, and sometimes printed, cut and prepared for shipping.  And while there has been some energy consumed in the manufacture the next step consumes more than the manufacture…….shipping.

Where products come from over seas as many products do these days,  energy consumed with ocean transport is somewhat minor compared to the truck and train transportation once it arrives in the US.   Today’s transport and distribution network is nearly 75% more efficient than in the past.  However, if you have a vintage product in you hand, it has already completed its trip to you and the energy has been expended compared to having a product shipped.

As more Internet sales occur distribution programming becomes more and more efficient, although it will never be as efficient as reusing or re-purposing a product or material already in your possession.

We asked several people who had recently had furniture worked on, who they used and how pleased they were with the service.  From this list of people and information regarding local upholstery services we compiled a list of companies that we might used and narrowed that list down to three that we would ultimately get quotes from.

We tried to tell the same information to each company we received quotes from.  We would provide the fabric to be used which was not going to be a stripe which makes the installation a little more tedious.  Any need for piping they would construct from the fabric provided.  They would construct the seat and provide cushion material.  Any point of attachment that they needed for the application of the fabric that needed repair to use, they would repair.  Schedule was not a problem, we had plenty of time.  And aside from a request for price and delivery time we asked for the amount of material they would want us to buy.

The quotes had a large spread to their cost.  The high quote was $850 and the low quote was $350.  This was an easy decision to make.  We spent the time up front looking into the companies and only took quote from a company we would let do the work, so we selected the lowest bidder.

They indicated in their written quote that we would need 5 yards of fabric and since they were very busy they didn’t want our piece for another month.  This gave us a liberal amount of time to look for fabric.  We wanted a fabric that was true to the time the piece was originally made.  We looked at old photos of the love seat and did some research for the period which gave us a good idea of the types of fabric and patterns that would be appropriate for the period.  Ultimately we found a tone on tone, botanical pattern. 

For those of you who work with fabric all the time, you will think this is funny.  When the upholsterer told me to get 5 yards, I assumed they meant 5 square yards.  So I took the width of the fabric and figured the length I would need to make 5 square yards.  And then the engineer in me looked at the overall dimensions of the love seat a thought I would make the installation easy and add a little.  I took the bolt of fabric to the counter and told them I wanted  13.5 feet of fabric.  They looked at me like I was crazy and asked again the amount of fabric I wanted.  I now know when the upholsterer told me to get 5 yards of fabric they wanted 5 yards of whatever fabric I purchased.  I was very fortunate the store clerk added enough fabric at the beginning of her measure and at the end that I barely had 5 yards, but I did have 5 yards to work with.

We delivered the fabric and love-seat frame to the upholsterer and began our wait which was estimated to be around a month.  Three weeks past and they called to tell us it was ready.  You can see for yourself how it turned out.

We are extremely pleased with the final results.  The love seat looks good everywhere we placed it.

As my wife explained to our grand-daughter how she would lay sideways on this love-seat and read in her room and some day she wanted our grand-daughter to have it, I could see how this was becoming a heirloom that would pass down memories for years to come.

When technology changes as fast as it does today, it’s just as likely you will replace an electronic device because it is obsolete rather than not functioning.

I’m talking about; TV’s, computers, printers, modems, routers, gaming devices, hard drives, cell phones, telephones, remotes, batteries, cameras, etc..  All these devices now have materials worth salvaging.   The copper alone in the printed circuit boards can support recycling today and there are many other materials that can be economical to recover and re-use.

 Recently I had a HP printer that had some problems with the case closing which prevented printing.  After using duct tape for a while to hold it closed which kind of worked, I decided to buy a new wireless printer.  I was lusting over a new printer for too long before buying a new Epson Artisan 835 which I have to tell you is fantastic.

I had the old HP printer and my thought was to take the printer cartridges out and trash the rest.  I knew the printer refillers would want them but the rest of the printer had little value.  I noticed when I was looking at printer while at Besy Buy that they had recycling bins, strategically placed near the front door, for cell phones and batteries.

And while I was shopping I noticed HP had a printer which advertised that it was made with 60% recycled parts.  The more I thought about it the more I thought before I throw the printer away I’ll call around and see if anyone wants my printer.

I called Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and Best Buy.  All of them were interested in my printer cartridges but only Best Buy wanted the entire printer.  I loaded my printer into the car and went to Best Buy.  When I arrived the gentleman at the door asked if I was recycling the printer, I told him I was so he placed a sticker on the printer that said “recycling” and ask that I give it to the customer service desk.

With four people in front of me and me holding the printer I so became disenchanted with this procedure.  I decided to leave the printer next to the customer service desk, shop a little and come back when they were less busy.  I did just that and when I returned the line was down and the printer had been picked up and moved into the back.  I asked if there was any paperwork that was necessary and was told there wasn’t.

It is obvious the electronics that are in the biggest demand for recycling are batteries and cellphones.   These recycling bins are seen in most major chain department stores.   Many of the component materials are easily separated and reused.

However, I do feel there are some precautions that should be taken when recycling electronics.  Many of these devices contain personal information that you would not want shared.   Computers obviously have hard drives with information which should me removed and destroyed.  Likewise any remote hard drive, memory stick, flash drive, RAM, etc. should be removed and destroyed.

Cell phones have a small chip called a SIM card that not only contains your phone number but also a history of your calls, your contact list, photos you have taken, music and so on.  I would remove the SIM card and destroy it before recycling a cell phone.

In a similar fashion home phones store similar information about contacts, call records, ect..  I think it goes without saying that you should remove any memory cards from a camera you are recycling to remove and photos you have left on the memory.  Even erasing the memory card does not totally remove images.

Gaming devices today are getting smarter and smarter.  Not only do they hold your game preferences they have contact information, Internet logs, Netflix account numbers and so on.  Here again remove memory and destroy it.

 It may sound like I’m not in favor of recycling electronic devices, which isn’t true.  I am saying be careful to remove any electronic memory for your own security.  We do not want all the devices mentioned in this article in our landfills.  Recycling Electronic devices makes real sense for both the donor and the recyclers so don’t be afraid be careful.

After looking at the skeleton of the loveseat for a while it was obvious the frame itself would need some real repair before we thought about having it re-upholstered.  The overall frame moved back and forth with great ease indicating most of the joints need to be reglued.

The leg on one corner of the loveseat was a deterioated claw foot while the other front foot was in OK shape.  The skeleton needed to be sanded and refinished. 

I thought the sanding might be the easiest thing to start with and I thought get all that sanding done before glueing it all back together.  I had not developed a plan for the front legs yet.  I sanded and sanded but the red color in the wood continued to show through.  Absent a plan for the legs and the technique required to disasemble the skeleton to glue it together I reluctantly started looking for professional help.

As always I started on the internet.  There were several companies shown, many with photos of there refinished furniture.  I began calling them looking for an idea of cost to do what I couldn’t, prepare the wood frame for the re-upholsters.  Most wanted to see the piece before they gave me a price so I loaded it up in my SUV and drove it around for the companies to look at.  Ultimately I selected a small business (operated out of a building behind his house), run by a craftsman who studied in Europe under master furniture restorers.  He was the least expensive of the companies I spoke with, knew exactly what to do with the front legs, and had some confidence he could deal with the red coloring prevalent on the frame.

We decided to eliminate the claw feet and replace them with an appropriate tapered leg.  The red stain he thought he would introduce green in the finish product.  As a painter I knew the way to neutralize red is with green so this made perfect sense to me.

This company was also very busy so we had to wait some time to get the piece back, but when we did it looked like this.

The frame is very strudy now and the color of the wood is as much as we could have hoped for.

The next step is the re-upholstering which will be the last installment for saving this family heirloom.

To be a heirloom only requires one thing, a story or a memory to go with it.  In this case we are dealing with a loveseat that was given to my wife by her mother who intern had it given to her by one of her parents.  Beyond that we don’t know any more history.  The loveseat was in my wife’s room as she was growing up and like many things was largerly forgotten.  One weekend I was helping my father-in-law do some work in his crawl space when he point out the loveseat and told me that his wife, who had passed a few years earlier, wanted my wife to have the loveseat.  As I looked at it, with it’s legs buried in mud and seat cushion badly deteriorated, I wondered if we wanted it.

Since it was her mother’s wish we brought it home.  In my mind it looked like one of those projects that wouldn’t take months to finish.  As it turned out, my mind was the only thing that was working on the loveseat for about six months.  Then, one winter day when I was looking for a project, I thought of the loveseat, so I got started taking it apart.

 The photo shows the seating part of the loveseat without the covering fabric.  In the back of the loveseat you can see quilting used as padding as well as flat cloth straps to support the backing material at intermediate points.   The seating cushion doesn’t show much here other than the covering of the base cushion and the connection of the internal box springs.

Under the base cushion was even more economical stuffing, straw along with expanded cotton.

While not a great picture it does show the hand tied springs and straw I mentioned.  It also shows the arms and color of the loveseat.  The stuffing with straw and quilts dates this loveseat around the turn of the century.  While most furniture of this time was made with walnut or oak on occasion, this piece is made from birch.  Birch is a good strong wood just not as popular as the others for the time.  The reddish color of the wood comes from a dye rather than a stain which further identifies this around the turn of the century.

The photo also shows some damage on the leg in the photo.  Orginally the two front legs had claw feet which will need to be addressed later.

Many issues will need to be addressed in saving this loveseat but first all the stuffing needs to be removed, the entire loveseat needs fto be stripped, torn apart and glued, then stained before we can go much further. 

The next installment will deal with getting the piece ready to go to the upholsters.

This project has taken much longer to complete than anyone might have imagined.  However it is done and it looks great.

I left off in our last episode with new veneer being ordered with a thin PVC backing to prevent it from shrinking and expanding.  I mistakenly thought both the supplier and the contractor would move mountains to get the veneer to me ASAP.  A couple weeks went buy and no info was comming my way so I called the contractor.  He said the product was being shipped directly to us and he thought I was calling to tell him it was there.

My wife and I head North for the summer and we were concerned that it might not get done before we left.  Then just in time the new PVC back veneer showed up.  I opened the large boxes and found the dark pieces that were to go on the master and guest baths didn’t look like a large piece of wood that matched the rest of the cabinet doors, rather it looked like the planks of a hardwood floor stained the color of our cabinets.

The contractor came right over when I called him with this info.  He said he ordered a roll cut and they sent something different.  The contractor said he would see if he could find any material in the area since they had also sent stain.

By now we had ran out of time and headed north for the summer.  I told the contractor I was withholding $400 from the project payout so that I could get the job done if he lost interest.  Suddenly time wasn’t a factor and our work took a backseat to other work.  We made a trip down a month and a half later and some of the veneer that was bad had been torn off, I assume to see how hard it was going to be to remove.  Again I called the contractor who was appologetic, but not much had been done.

 The contractor called us after another month and was ready to complete the project.  This was good news to me because enough time has passed that it would have been easy to walk away from the project.  We made arrangements with a friend to let the contractor in the house, which he did on several occasions.

The contractor emailed me to let me know the project was complete and for all our trouble he was going to write off the $400 and so our account paid in full.  I was pleased the project was complete according to the contractor but I wanted to see the results before I jumped up and down.

Another month passed and we finally got down to see the work.  The first thing I noticed when I walked into the house was a note from the contractor thanking us for our patience along with a gift card to a restaurant.

I looked at all the work and it did look very good, much better than we imagined.  

Master Bath Cabinets & Mirror (notice legs added to look more furniture-like)

Pool Bath

Nautica Bath

Guest Bath & Mirror

Over-all the project turned out stunning and while the project had unforseen problems that extended the project way beyond what even the most pessimistic buildier might have anticipated, I have to hand it to my contractor for sticking with the job until it’s completion.  My contractor was About Face Cabinets in Tampa Florida.  In another year we will likely be ready to reface our kitchen cabinets and we will call About Face again because of the quality of their work and our working relationship throught some trying times.