Monday, August 10, 2015

Taking Care of Turtle

While huzz and I have been moved into our new home for over a year now, Turtle's home hasn't changed.  In fact, he has spent more than a year in his aquarium which sat on the floor of our living room...so classy.  I really wanted to give him some new digs but couldn't find a small table that fit my style, the bill, and could hold his heavy 10 gallon filled tank.

Enter my old beat up aquarium stand from my tweenage years.  This beaut used to sit at the end of my daybed with a 20 gallon freshwater tank atop it in my childhood underwater themed bedroom.  Eventually the only living fish in it was the algae eater and even that died.  I'm not a good fish Mom.  Luckily turtles are more resilient.  I remembered the shape of the stand and asked my parents if they still had it.  Lo and behold!


Rust covered and dirty, it was still in structurally good condition.  After Mom & Dad brought it over I cleaned it and gave it a good coat of matte black spray paint in the backyard and put a second coat on a couple hours later.


I measured the distances between the rails and thought for sure I could use a leftover 2x10 from our farmhouse table to be a tabletop.  I was a tad short because even though a board is called a 2x10 it's really more like 2x8 and some partial inches.  So we made a trip to Lowes and got a 2x12 which fit like a glove once cut to size. 


This was how I spent part of my 30th birthday.  I was told I should "do something I loved" on my birthday...which at the moment is using my new power tools and making things.  So while everyone in the nation was celebrating freedom and my birth (I'm a 4th of July baby) I was in the backyard using my power sander, staining the planks, and later on applying a spar varnish (the same from the farmhouse table).


I bought liquid nails thinking that would be how I'd secure the planks to the metal stand, but no need.  The stand is stable on its own so I didn't need any binder or screw to hold the planks in place.  They fit perfectly across the rails, so I let it stay that way.


Later on huzz gave Turtle's tank a ridiculously good cleaning and we hung some artwork above his abode.  The bottom shelf needs some styling but right now it's housing Turtle's tank things and his food and some cozy blankets for TV time.  Harry and I are big blanket fans.


Turtle seems pretty happy to be off the floor.  He actually can see our faces instead of our feet.  The only downside is he's losing his face to face time with Harry who would stick his nose into the small opening of Turtle's tank.  But now during TV time, Turtle can watch too!  And he does, I swear.  Turtle gives this project a high five!