Repurposing pallets leads to a new living space... costing 1 week of hard labor and <$200

As part of Kathy's Architecture masters program, she is taking a class on ecological issues with a project requiring reuse/repurposing waste into something usable and architecturally related.  She planned to use the opportunity to advance some of our home improvements and cleanup we're still doing from our move.  She decided to focus on scrap wood/pallets we see around the local area going to the dump, along with some random metal scrap, barn wood, and other stuff that we've come across living in the country with our Amish friends nearby.  The projects she chose included making an outdoor chandelier from an old hay rake wheel and some mason jars, a set of outdoor furniture from pallets, and kitchen backsplash from slate room shingles off an old 1850's barn.  As you'll see, like usual we went a little overboard...

The area she focused on is under our deck which had more or less become a dumping ground for stuff we hadn't found a spot for yet after moving.

The goal was to create a sectional sitting area looking out at the swimming hole/pond we had dug out for this kids.

Sammy spent an hour or so dragging out junk from under the deck, left from the prior owners that has clearly become a comfortable home for mice or chipmunks.  The spiral staircase was a Craigslist find we discovered in Michigan that we had put up last summer.

We started with the chandelier, made from an old hay rake wheel that our Amish friend John gave us that he was about to take to the scrap yard.  Our neighbor had a bunch of extra mason jars and we used an old strand of Edison-bulb style Christmas lights for lighting.  We also had a leftover light cover from an old home in Grosse Pointe that we had salvaged, matching the ones we now have hanging in our entry, and an old butcher block we recovered from a fish market in Grosse Pointe that we had been hauling around forever.

Kathy worked on the mason jars while I used some old chain we kept from a punching bag and hung the wheel. 

Here's the nearly finished result...

Next came the pallet furniture, right after a stop at an old 1850's barn up the road to see if we could convince the guy to part with some of the wood.  Little did we realize the treasure trove we'd find, including slate shingles, wooden plank doors, and glass electrical insulators.

Kathy finding buried treasure... $40 for all the shingles we could find...

Daddy being out-lifted by his 9 year old... 

work harder little brother... 

all scrap, free for the taking... 

our haul... one of several loads... the small spools were free, the large ones were $15 each

Material all assembled, time to work...

Kathy starting on the furniture...

Awesome old wooden door (ok, not free, but at $40 for 2, couldn't really pass up)

Slight detour as Kathy decided we needed to build on the Wyoming log cabin feel by putting up scrap wood under the deck to give the feel of an old west ceiling.

Grampa & dad shaving off 100 years of fish guts... 

I still can't get over the width of these boards, you just can't find hardwood like this anymore

Kathy almost has the seating complete...

nearing completion!

While my dad and I worked on finishing up, Kathy got to work cutting up slate shingles for the kitchen backsplash while Meme helped put a nice edge on them

 That wife of mine has some mad skillz...

 

My dad taking a well-deserved break...

We also had been dragging around a non-working grill that we planned to convert to charcoal, and decided to integrate this into a bar/cooking area built up out of railroad ties we found near my brother's place.  I used an angle grinder to cut a section from a 55 gal drum and fit it into the grill area, then wrapped the old grill with RR ties.

Meanwhile the pond started coming back together with the new liner in place

Good enough for a bunch of kids (and over-grown kid Meme!)

With things functionally done, Kathy got to work on her favorite part, making it look great.  Using stones, plants and leftover gravel from the yard, she works her usual miracle...

After a brutally exhausting and fun week, our own little bit of western-style paradise with a mid-west pond-pool for the kids to play in!