Saturday's Shutter Assignment

So...we have been wanting to add some shutters to our house for some time now, but I don't really ever see any out there at the typical Lowe's or Home Depot stores that I like.  Plus, if you know me well I always think I  (excuse me-my husband and I) can make that object I am eyeing and at a lower cost than what the retail value is! Anyways, I mostly knew what design I wanted at this point because I had been doing some research on different styles, and when I say research I mean staring out the window at houses.  My husband finally had the itch to make them himself (usually the timing on when things get built at our house is based on his itch to do a project or my hinting I want "blah blah" built for mother's day or something).  I am not exactly knowledgeable on all those tools he has in that garage of his.  I mostly stick to my paint cabinet and occasionally toy around with hanging some pictures on the wall.  OK, man I am rambling.  It is way too late for me to be writing this.

First we measured our windows to figure out how tall the shutters needed to be and selected 3 pieces of wood per shutter to reach the width we wanted.  These were only about $2.00 each.

Here is my husband working hard at sawing the wood off to be the right size.  The back of his truck often becomes his work bench.

Here is what the shutters look like all nailed together in its raw form.

I decided to stain the shutters instead of paint them.  I wanted to warm up the front of our house a little and give it that slight touch of country charm.  This was the most expensive part of the project since I had to buy a gallon of stain.  Oh well, I am sure I will find a way to finish that can off on something else.

Next we added the hardware to make them look like they were operable.  I also think it adds something to them that without they wouldn't be as interesting.  This is adding "bling" in the construction world as I would say.

And here they are up on our house.  You will need special screws that are meant to go into brick and a good bit for your drill.  My husband learned that the hard way when he was using an old bit and it took him like 30 minutes to get one screw into the brick.

I am very pleased with how they turned out.  Now we just need to work on our landscaping.  Ahhh...lost, help!

Happy Making!
Anna Landers