Step Zero

I've agreed to try to make built-ins for the house, which I have no business doing. We're picturing something that will cover one of the walls in the family room, and will have toy storage, a window bench, and a spot for the television and related accessories. I have a really beautiful picture of it in my head, but it will probably come out looking more like this:

At any rate, if I have any hope of pulling this off, I need someplace to work on it. Luckily, the house came with a big, ready-to-collapse barn. More on that later, but suffice to say for now that it makes for a perfect workshop. But I needed a work table. So I figured I'd make some sawhorses-- it would be good practice cutting and screwing things, and I could throw a piece of plywood over them to serve as a work table.

I found a good design for some sawhorses online, and got to work. They came out pretty good, if the only thing you have to go on is this low-resolution photo I took from my cell phone:

You can't see the cracked wood, huge gaps (well, actually you kind of can), and stripped screws here, and the legs don't wobble much in a still photograph. Still, they are very sturdy. I did some pretty amazing donkey kicks off of them as a test, and they were rock-solid. And I did get better using the circular saw, and even figured out what the random spinning part with numbers printed on it was on my drill-- a clutch!

When I left for the evening, the sawhorses were safely stacked back in the barn, radiating a heavenly glow from the sun streaming in the window.