WOOD?!

[insert Full House Uncle Joey reference]

WOOOOD?!

Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I go into home improvement stores like Lowes and Home Depot.  Mostly because I only ever went into those stores with my dad, who is a general contractor/engineer and has home improvement skills (he built our family's beach home in South Florida).  But being the productive person that I am, I try to do as much background research as I can before I go into any purchase (shoes are an exception).  And when it came to building raised garden beds, all the content I found was similar.

1. Buy the wood
2. Cut the wood
3. Stain the wood
4. Nail the wood
5. Install the wood

So I walked into Lowes confident on what I wanted and how I wanted it cut.  Until the lumber guy asked...'what are you doing?'

"I'm building raised garden beds. They are going to be 2 feet high, 3 feet wide and 5 feet long.  I'm going to need ____ pieces cut into ____ feet long blah blah blah blah blah" I replied confidently.

"Did you know that this wood here is treated and when it rains those chemicals will seep into your soil and cause issues with your growing? You'd be better off using cedar wood, it's untreated and it will last longer with the proper care" the lumber specialist explained with an air of....you didn't do your homework did you little girl....YES I DID SHUT UP!

Special Walnut stain on the wood

...by the way, cedar wood is more expensive and has different dimensions so I had to redo all my math...

But it is also the name of my family's contracting company (Cedars, Inc.) and the symbol on the Lebanese flag, so I didn't mind the change in wood choices. 

$500 later....I had wood, a brush, a bucket of exterior wood stain, turpentine to clean the brush between stainings, a tarp to protect the patio area and a nail gun. Over the next week and a half I spent each sunny afternoon staining all the 75 pieces of the wood, both sides. 

YOU ARE NOT HELPFUL

Unfortunately, the nail gun required a compressed air hose to power up and I didn't have that option so I returned the nail gun and instead bought some screws.  Mark said I could use his power tools to drill the holes I needed to attach the wood to the braces and corners. 

Up next?! 

CONNECT THAT ONE PIECE OF WOOD TO THAT OTHER PIECE OF WOOD!