Project Bradley

Pardon my post, but I have to do a "Brad brag." On top of the endless energy he has been putting in to starting his Chiropractic business, he has been doing some pretty sweet stuff around the house. Checky, checky:Brad loves doing all the yard work and playing with his new lawn mower and weed wacker. And, of course, he had to plant a garden. This picture was taken a while ago right after the planting and already the bushes are much bigger. I promise the little plot does get a good amount of sun, I just took this pic at the wrong time of the day.We're giving the Topsy-Turvy a try. My mouth waters for those homegrown tomaters!With the kids playing out back so much, it was apparent that we needed a picnic table. I wanted one that is longer and seats more than the traditional little kid ones. No prob for handy Bradley--he popped this puppy out from scratch (not even a kit) in an afternoon, thanks to Finn's help! :)The finished product is awesome and I know you can't tell in the pic, but it seats 4 easy on each side. The kids loved it--until we sold it on Craigslist for 3x the cost of making it. But no worries, Brad has two more in the works.Speaking of Craigslist, it is the place for project starters. It's so fun to buy furniture wicked cheap and then refinish it. That's exactly what Brad did with this dresser. This guy is a really nice old solid piece, but we were undecided on how attached we were to the end product. So we decided to resell him and buy the following:I think you would agree that it was a good upgrade. I wish I had a "before" picture of this piece but we didn't think about taking one until it was all disassembled. I'm thinking about emailing the Craigslisters we bought it from and asking them to attach the pic they used for the post because this thing looks so different. When we went to check it out I almost didn't even want to get it because it was so ugly. But it was so cheap I thought we'd take a chance. After 3 trips to Lowe's for paint (I take credit for the color), we came up with this final product and I LOVE it! It's perfect.The drawers behind the doors.Ok, if you've made it this far reading my post you must care about me and/or Brad. And if you know Brad, you know that he's not your typical dude. From construction to cooking, he does it all. This particular project really sets him apart from the normal gardening and furniture refinishing I've been talking about. What you are looking at, friends, is the set-up Brad concocted for activating the 200 year old yeast culture from Italy that he bought. I'm not kidding. This thing was like a pet while he was getting it to activate. Brad would feed it and wash it and keep it at the right temperature (thus the inverted styrofoam cooler with the Christmas lights strand being pushed under slowly one bulb at a time while he kept an eye on the candy thermometer under there). Once activated, after nearly a week, he was able to make the most delicious sourdough bread and pizza crust. It is super tasty like on the pier in San Francisco style!Now the yeast lives dormant in our fridge. When Brad wants to use it, he takes it out and gets it to room temp to activate it (no complicated set-up required). He can continue to "feed" it and use it forever and plans to pass it down to our children and our children's children. :)

I love how fun life is with my Bradley. While his ideas never surprise me, they always amaze me.