The Side Project

If you saw yesterday’s posts, then you’ve no doubt seen the newly-pimped shed. So you’re familiar with the lattice.

That part of the design – which, for the record, I was unable to visualize until I tacked the sucker up there to measure before cutting it – was the mother’s idea. I think it turned out quite nicely. The lattice was purchased in a 4x8 sheet, a sheet that, because it’s vinyl, we were able to bend up enough to jam in the back of CD’s SUV and just over the top of her 5-year-old’s head.

Earlier this month, the mother helped me hold the lattice while I cut it. Being vinyl, it’s slick. While not all that light, it’s too light to survive the constant motion of a jigsaw without an extra pair of hands to hold it down.

I should have seen the wheels turning then, but I didn’t.

It should have come then as no surprise to me as when I was cleaning up that evening, the mother’s attention quickly turned to the almost 2-foot by 3-foot scrap. “What are you doing with that?” she queried. “Aren’t you supposed to have used it somewhere?”

Nope. It’s just scrap. I was about to ask you if you wanted it for anything. Seems a shame to throw it out though. I must be some kind of moron. There was her point of entry.

To which the mother responded with the four words that when, issued consecutively from her mouth, strike fear in my soul: “I’ve got an idea.”

Hey, no fair! You know you’re supposed to give me at least a 10-minute warning before using that phrase so I can pack! Too late.

So exactly what do you do with a relatively small piece of vinyl lattice and the scraps of a wide piece of composite lattice strip? (That’s what those white strips are on either side of the lattice, framing it against the back of the shed.) You have to first buy another lattice strip. (At Lowe’s. From the same end cap where I bought the PVC vinyl boards for the shed surface.) Then, you can do this:

Once you’ve managed to miter the strips with their corners almost meeting perfectly, then you cobble it all together with very tiny screws. (I think I used 4x3/8 or maybe it was 6. They’re very small and hard to hang onto in any case!) I put my new clamps to good use holding it all in place to make sure that it fit and then once I determined it did, to assemble it.

And once you’ve done all that, your side project – aptly named – can be displayed on the side of the shed. Like this:
The mother liked it well enough. In fact, her response was: “I wish you had some more left – so you could do one for the other side.”

Uh-huh.