Have you ever needed to assemble two pieces of wood side to side to make one consistent plank? Have you ever wanted to join a facia piece of material to its base without the need for unsightly fasteners? Are you guilty of overusing pocket holes and screws everywhere? Is there a better solution? Of coarse there is. It's the tool I never knew I needed but now don't know how I ever lived without it. It's the Biscuit or Plate Joiner.

Sounds delicious, right? No no, not those biscuits. Then what is it?

Most simply put, the tool is a calibrated slot cutter. The joiner itself has a blade set back within the tool that allows you to plunge the blade into the wood to cut a slot in the side of your material. That slot's depth is dependent on the size of biscuit you are using, and is positioned evenly with another similar slot on the adjoining piece of wood. You then glue inside the slot, insert a wood biscuit, then push and clamp the two pieces of material together.

The biscuit is a small piece of soft wood shaped sort of like a little football. When inserted in the cut, it fills most of the slot on either side. As the glue dries, the biscuit absorbs some of the water and expands, creating an extremely strong and long lasting joint, almost as if the two items being joined were now one piece of wood.


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The holiday season is chock full of cocktail parties, ugly sweater soirees, casual open houses, family get togethers, and the more formal affairs. Between decorating, baking, gift shopping and meeting obligations in what always result in a jam packed December, hostess gifts can be one of those things that can sometimes get overlooked.

This season I'm going the route of quick, easy, and stress free hostess gifts -- I'm giving wine. I know, I know, it sounds incredibly mundane, but I figure it's something I know my friends enjoy. Best of all, I've found a way to dress it up in a personal manner that make it more than "just a bottle of wine." 

This holiday season, if you're considering giving a gift of wine, try enhancing the presentation with a beautiful fabric wine bag, a sprig of fresh greens, and a meaningful ornament.

In this case, I picked up several enamel Christmas ornaments from Red Barn Mercantile here in Old Town, with holiday phrases on them. I selected ones that I felt had a bit of tongue in cheek nod to the gift inside, i.e. "joy" or "it's a wonderful life."  

Assembling the gift took less than five minutes, but the finished result gives it that little something that says "I appreciate you."


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Friday, December 9, 2011
Put a Cherry on Top: Building a Custom Desktop
Posted by Alex

In our last post about the construction of our custom built in cherry office desk, we covered the basic construction and first steps of staining the lower cabinet portion of the piece. We were off to a great start, though constantly checking for level and plumb against the very out of level floor weighed on my nerves. I was quite glad to have reached a point where the base was done and I knew the rest would be level working up from my established line. At that point my focus then turned to the desktop.

I know that in the past I've mentioned a certain trait I tend to possess. When I hit a point in a project that I don't feel particularly sure or comfortable with, I obsess. Really, I absolutely obsess about the minor and major details of the project, how it will work, if I'm doing it the right way, the ramifications if I do it wrong, and generally dread the idea of working on the project, crippled by my own obsessive tendencies. Is that crazy and honest enough for you? This ugly flaw really came out at this stage of the game as the desktop was one of those points. In retrospect, I really don't know why, but you couldn't have convinced me otherwise when I was in the middle of it. So instead we just kept staining and ignored it for a while.

We decided that we wanted the desktop to be solid pieces of cherry, not the plywood we had used on the interior portions of the cabinets. Our thought was that if we ever nicked, gouged, or scratched the surface deep enough, we wanted it to add character to the desk after refinishing, and not need to be repaired because it showed the core of the plywood. But the problem with the plan wa that our desk top was 24" deep in places, and the widest stock cherry we could get was just 12".


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Thursday, December 8, 2011
All I Want for Christmas is...
Posted by Wendy

You? My two front teeth? A hippopotamus? Custom built storm windows?

Even though we all might have very different items on our wish list this holiday season, Alex and I wanted to do a roundup of a few items that have caught our eye. Whether they're on our own list for Santa or are gifts earmarked for friends or family, we thought you might have as much fun looking through this eye candy as we had shopping. And hey, you might even check someone off your holiday shopping list.

For Our Four-Legged Friends

Seat Cover for Pets 
Lulu we're looking at you here. Lulu is great in the car...for the most part. But when we went skiing last year and started the drive up into the curvey and steep part of the trip, Lulu's stomach got a little upset and she got sick in the back seat. With our new car we want our seats protected if and when pet nauseau sets in, so this cover should be perfect. Besides a little pet vomit, it will also be great to protect the leather seats from Lulu toenail scratches and fur.

Skinneeez Dog Toy
These happen to be Lulu's all time favorite toys! She loves to tear around the house like a tornado with these stuffingless animals. They're also great because she likes to rip open the other animals and pull out and/or eat the stuffing. This isn't really an option with these animals, since there's none of that to rip out. Problems solved and Lulu still has fun. Now if only we could teach her some coordination and to learn how to catch.

For the Kitchen/Entertaining

Cupcake Carrier
Frequent readers of the blog may remember my penchant for baking cupcakes. I absolutely love the process as well as taking finished cupcakes to friends and parties to put a little smile on everyone's face. A big problem comes into play when you hit a bump in the car or do something clumsy and end up slamming your perfectly decorated cupcakes into one another. Problem solved with this little gem. I'm really hoping Santa will bring me one of these bad boys so I can say sayonara to wobbling trays and smashed baked goods.


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Just a reminder that there are only just over two weeks remaining before the deadline to submit your entry in our first annual DIY Gingerbread House Challenge! We've had some good entries thus far but we're looking to you to flex your DIY muscles, take advantage of the extra time this weekend will afford you, and get your gingerbread on! Remember, one entry will win $50 towards your purchase in store or online at Red Barn Mercantile, one of our favorite shops in Old Town. And all of our readers get 15% off through Dec. 31 by using coupon code OLDTOWNHOME online, or mentioning our blog in store. 

If you'd like the rules on the competition, go to the main challenge page. If you already have a house ready to go, be sure to submit it today!

Our neighborhood event is scheduled for this weekend, so Alex and I have been "strategizing" our approach for days now. Let's just say some illegal contraband is planned and we're hoping to avoid a TSA-style pat down. We have just two words for our neighbors -- bring it! This group is so competitive, one of its members actually created a maniacal PowerPoint presentation, set to the music of Final Countdown, to taunt me. Sheesh. (Okay, I secretly loved it.)

Scope out your competition and take a look at a couple of our latest submissions. 


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