Building Modern on a Budget Ep. 12 | Exterior Corten Steel, Stone & Concrete

 

*This blog post is sponsored by The Home Depot Rental and DAP Products. All opinions are my own.

It's been forever, but WE'RE BACK with the latest episode of #BuildingModernOnABudget. I'm sharing all about the unique finishes we used on the exterior of our custom modern house. 

I've got a confession: Although I love living in Arizona, I don't love typical "Arizona style" houses. In our Phoenix suburb, we pretty much live in a sea of beige stucco. I mentioned in Episode 1, although our house incorporates a good amount of white stucco cladding, I also really wanted to make sure to include some unique textures and finishes, like Corten (rust patina) steel siding and custom blended faux stone veneer. 

Master Bedroom Reveal + Purple Hybrid Premier Mattress Review

*This blog post was sponsored by Purple and all opinions are my own.

 You guys have been asking alllll about our house. I know, it's been a while since I've given you an update. I'm currently editing the next two episodes right now, but in the meantime, we just finished up the master bedroom and it's time to share!

I created a bonus episode of #BuildingModernOnABudget covering the highs and lows of the bedroom build and design. Spoiler Alert: There was an EPIC fail. 

Rolling Folding Shop Loft Ladder

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products and The Home Depot #thdprospective, and contains affiliate links. 

Where have we been?! Well, have you been following along with our custom house and dream shop build? We recently finished building an ultra-modern house, as well as a 1,200 sqft detached workshop on a budget and have been up to our eyeballs with projects.  If you want to see what we've covered so far, make sure you head over to YouTube where I've set-up a whole playlist, covering every step of the process #BuildingModernOnABudget. 

The FIRST Finished Room | Ep. 10 | Building Modern on a Budget

*This blog post is sponsored by The Home Depot and contains affiliate links.

Holy cow guys! Where have we been??? Don't worry, we've been busy. Thank you so much to all of your who have reached out through Instagram or YouTube to check-in! We're okay. Just tired. 

I know there's been Radio-silence for a couple months, but you may remember we had set the goal to be moved in before Christmas. During November and December, I was finishing up some project videos (coming soon!) and Bryce was still working full time in his day job. That meant finishing up the house happened after hours and on weekends. Sleep got moved down pretty low on the priority list. 

It's been rough, but I have good news! We made our goal! *cue the angles singing 

Episode 1: Budget & Design
Episode 2: Foundation & Pad
Episode 3: Framing
Episode 4: Roofing & Windows 
Episode 5: HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

Episode 6: Mini-Split A/C & Heat

Episode 7: Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

Episode 8: Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

Episode 9: Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

Episode 10: The First Finished Room | Upstairs Loft

ULTIMATE Adjustable Sawhorses

 

*This post is sponsored by BuildSomething.com and The Home Depot #thdprospective, and contains affiliate links. 

Don't worry! We are still crazy busy working on our Building Modern on a Budget house building series (in fact, we're getting close to finishing up the house!), but I came up with a really cool idea for the ultimate adjustable sawhorses and had to take a day to build a pair. 

At first my only goal was to allow the top of the sawhorse to raise and lower, but after brainstorming for a little while, I realized there were SO MANY other bells and whistles I could easily add. Basically, I took an off-the-shelf Burro sawhorse from Home Depot and created a simple wood tray that receives a sacrificial board or unique drop-in insert. It's a really quick and easy project that almost anyone can tackle, even a beginner! I teamed up with my buddies from Kreg Tool and BuildSomething.com to share the free building plans. 

Building Modern on a Budget Ep.9 | Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

 

*This blog post is sponsored by Concreate and The Door Stud and contains affiliate links. 

We are finally working on the inside of the house! After living through the hottest summer in Phoenix history, the shade is a welcomed break. We have electrical service (more or less) but for safety reasons, only a few outlets are energized and definitely no A/C yet. It's okay. I'm so thrilled with the beautiful elements we are installing, I can deal with the sweat.

As I've mentioned before, we're going with a super modern design with this house. Since both Bryce and I love the look of natural colored concrete, we decided to use it throughout. Today, I'm talking about our DIY sealed concrete floors and our two-story concrete panel fireplace. I'm also sharing the deets on our interior doors (although not concrete but still good). 

Episode 1: Budget & Design
Episode 2: Foundation & Pad
Episode 3: Framing
Episode 4: Roofing & Windows 
Episode 5: HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

Episode 6: Mini-Split A/C & Heat

Episode 7: Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

Episode 8: Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

Episode 9: Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

Building Modern on a Budget Ep.8 | Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

*This post is sponsored by Pinky's Iron Doors and contains affiliate links. 

When we drew up the budget for our custom house and detached workshop, I knew there were a couple areas where I was going to splurge. I was willing to scale back on light fixtures, cabinets, and even forego flooring all together (*spoiler: we sealed our concrete slab instead), but there were 3 big things I wasn't willing to compromise on: stairs (more on those later), garage doors, and a front entry door. We made sure to allow a pretty generous allowance for those line items.

In my opinion, the minimal style of contemporary architecture puts extra weight on the few ornamental elements it does feature. Basically, if your house has gorgeous moulding and dramatic rooflines on the exterior, a generic garage door is less noticeable. But, if your house is a smooth, white box, details as small as the front door knob will make a huge impact on it's overall look. 

Building Modern on a Budget Ep. 7 | Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

 

Well, I knew it was coming eventually. We've had our first problematic sub-contractor experience on our custom house build. If you've been following along, you know that we were lucky enough to secure Bryce's Dad as our General Contractor. He's incredibly knowledgeable and has been invaluable through out the construction process. However, he is absolutely swamped with work right now, so he has allowed Bryce and I to handle most of the day-to-day business. Bryce actually used to be a Foreman for his family's construction company for about 8 years, so it's definitely something he's familiar with. 

We have found most of our sub-contractors ourselves and it's gone smoothly, until now. But don't worry, we were able to create a happy ending! 

Building Modern on a Budget Ep. 6 | Mini-Split A/C & Heat for the Shop

*This video is sponsored by Mr. Cool and contains affiliate links.

I know, I know! I've been terrible about updating you guys on the house progress. The good news is, if you follow me on Instagram or YouTube, I've been much better at posting updates over there. I've decided I need to finally catch up with our progress and give you some more information about our custom house build. 

Episode 1: Budget & Design
Episode 2: Foundation & Pad
Episode 3: Framing
Episode 4: Roofing & Windows 
Episode 5: HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

Episode 6: Mini-Split A/C & Heat

Episode 7: Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

Episode 8: Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

Episode 9: Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

Not only are we building a cool, modern house, we have also built a 1,200 sqft detached workshop for my husband and I to share. We live in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, so you can probably guess it gets pretty dang hot here. In fact, this summer has been brutal here (record breaking actually). The temperature inside the shop typically exceeds 105 degrees + from late-May to mid-September. In order to be able to work year-round, we really need some sort of air conditioning. 

How We Got Heavy Duty Shop Walls | The Home Depot Rentals

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot Rentals.

I feel like the house we're building is trying to kill me. Well, maybe it's not the house. Maybe it's building a house during an Arizona summer. Also, it's just our luck that we would happen to be building a house and detached workshop ourselves during the hottest summer on record since 1895. 

Building Modern on a Budget Ep. 5 | HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products and Simpson Strong-Tie. This post contains affiliate links.

The house is finally "dried in", which means the roof is finished and the exterior walls are wrapped with a water-proof membrane. It also means we can start working on the inside, bringing in more trades. As we talked about in my last post, we are dramatically over budget and we've been desperately trying to bring costs down. We decided Bryce and I are going to try to do more of the labor ourselves, splitting the jobs with contractors, like we did with the roof. 

The hardest part wasn't rolling up our sleeves and laboring, it was finding the right contractor who is willing to be patient enough to work with us. 

Building Modern on a Budget: Ep. 4 | Roofing & Windows

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products and Simpson Strong-Tie. This post contains affiliate links. 

It's getting hot here. Like, 105° by 11 am. I guess since it's June in Arizona I shouldn't be surprised by that. We were lucky enough to get a really mild May for Arizona standards, just in time to get the roof up on the house. 

New here? Did you know my husband and I are building a modern-style custom house ourselves? Check out the links below to get caught up on the series up to this point. 

Episode 1: Budget & Design
Episode 2: Foundation & Pad
Episode 3: Framing
Episode 4: Roofing & Windows 
Episode 5: HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

Episode 6: Mini-Split A/C & Heat

Episode 7: Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

Episode 8: Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

Episode 9: Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

Building Modern on a Budget | Ep.3 Framing

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot, DAP Products, and Viewrail. This post contains affiliate links. 

It's getting hot here in Arizona. I know it's still technically Spring, but we've already crossed 110 degrees. I'll just say, I'm suuuuuuper happy we finished up the major framing of our new house and detached garage. 

If you're not up to speed, make sure you check out:

Episode 1: Budget & Design
Episode 2: Foundation & Pad
Episode 3: Framing
Episode 4: Roofing & Windows 
Episode 5: HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

Episode 6: Mini-Split A/C & Heat

Episode 7: Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

Episode 8: Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

Episode 9: Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

Building Modern on a Budget: Ep. 2 | Foundation & Pad

*This post is sponsored by Simpson Strong-Tie and The Home Depot. This post contains affiliate links. 

We are full steam ahead on the new modern house! We have been working our tails off and making good progress. I just shared the newest video, episode 2 of the Building Modern on a Budget. I'm talking all about getting the site prepared, building the pad, and pouring the concrete foundation. 

 Have you been following along with the series?

Episode 1: Budget & Design
Episode 2: Foundation & Pad
Episode 3: Framing
Episode 4: Roofing & Windows 
Episode 5: HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

Episode 6: Mini-Split A/C & Heat

Episode 7: Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

Episode 8: Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

Episode 9: Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

Although we are trying to DIY as much of the house as possible, we knew there were certain trades we didn't feel comfortable tackling ourselves. Our foundation was something we figured was best to leave to the professionals. 

Building Modern on a Budget: Ep. 1 | Budget and Design Q & A

We have a new house! Well, sorta. We have the beginnings of a house. We are in the process of building a custom home ourselves in Mesa, Arizona. We are producing a YouTube video series, walking through the entire process of trying to build a modern style house on a budget

(SPOILER: it's not easy)

Have you been following along with the series?

Episode 1: Budget & Design
Episode 2: Foundation & Pad
Episode 3: Framing
Episode 4: Roofing & Windows 
Episode 5: HVAC, Electrical & Plumbing

Episode 6: Mini-Split A/C & Heat

Episode 7: Insulation, Drywall & Stucco

Episode 8: Glass Garage & Front Door + Painting

Episode 9: Concrete Floors + Fireplace & Interior Doors

We officially broke ground in January of this year and I've been sharing the progress over on my Instagram. I've received an insane amount of questions (especially about money) so I decided to kick off the series with a budget and design Q & A. So, if you ever wanted to build your own home or are just curious to see how much it costs to build a contemporary house yourself, check out the video below. To see photos, the floorplans and get more juicy details, keep scrolling.

DIY Small Space Hall Tree | Video + Plans

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

How are you guys doing? Are you hanging in there during quarantine? Are you staying home and going nuts like me? I'll be honest, trying to build a new house, keeping up with work and doing my best to home school the kids is a challenge for sure.

Speaking of challenges, my best friend Sam from Diy Huntress wants to make the most of her time at home and decided to get 15 of her friends involved (including me!). She challenged me to #BuildatHome using only scrap materials I have laying around. Check out the links below to see what everyone made!

HEAVY DUTY DIY Folding Sawhorses | Video tutorial + Plans

*This video is sponsored by The Home Depot. This post contains affiliate links.

Holy cow! Things are nuts right now guys! So since we're all currently on lock-down at home, I imagine most of you are like me and trying to be productive with what you have lying around. A few weeks ago I shared my SUPER SIMPLE garage shelves if you're in an organizing mood, but what if you need more work space? 

Cheap and Easy DIY Garage Shelves | Building Plans

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I've shared with you guys a few times that we are building a custom house this year. I'll spare you all the drama, but it has taken us WAY longer to get started than we thought it would. We sold our home back in May of 2019 and have been in a rental ever since. The lease is up on the rental and we are now getting ready to move into my in-law's guest house during construction. In the meantime, we have struggled to find a place to store all of our crap. My in-laws cleared an area for us in their RV garage, but to make the most of the space I wanted to go vertical. It's time to build some cheap and easy DIY wood shelves. 

How to Build a Modern Cable Railing Bed | Building Plans + Video

*This post is sponsored by SawStop and The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Remember a few weeks ago when I shared the waterfall edge plywood nightstands I made for my sister? (P.S. you can get the free building plans HERE) I mentioned that she was downsizing into a smaller home and needed new furniture to fit the new space. I told her I was happy to hook her up with a new bed to match her nightstands but the one catch is, she would have no say in the design. 

DIY Slide - Rule Wood Desk Calendar

 

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products and The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Like I'm assuming many of you do, I love making handmade holiday gifts for my friends and family. Last year I made several wood candy machines and the year before that was easy DIY mancala game boards. 

This year, I found some gorgeous 3/4" x 3/4" hardwood square dowels / rods at my Home Depot. They were only labeled as "hardwood" and didn't differentiate between the species of wood. A group of darker colored, redish rods caught my eye and I was pretty sure they were mahogany. 

Holiday Gift Ideas for Tool Lovers and DIY Fans

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Holy cow! How is this year going by so fast? How is it already December? I have a confession: I am a horrible procrastinator. I haven't bought a single Christmas gift yet. 

My twin boys are ten years old now and that means they are still super easy to shop for. We draw names for the extended family, so that means we only have a couple people to shop for there as well. My husband on the other hand, he's the tricky one. He's a super handy guy and possibly loves tools as much as I do. I combed through HomeDepot.com and made a list of gift ideas in every price range. Truth be told, it's really just a collection of my favorite tools and gadgets and several new items I'm itching to buy for myself. 

If you have a tool lover or DIY fan on your holiday list, keep scrolling and feel free to add those things you've been needing to the shopping cart as well. 

Ryobi 3/8 Inch VS. Ridgid 1/2 Inch Impact Wrench Head to Head

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Alright guys, it's been a while but it's time to talk tools again!

Unless you do a lot of mechanical work or heavy duty construction, you might not be familiar impact wrenches. Easily confused with an impact driver, and impact wrench has a  male stud as opposed to a  female collet or chuck. They are designed to accommodate sockets, not bits. Traditionally, impact wrenches were pneumatically powered and often found in mechanic's shops. 

I own a couple impact wrenches and I actually use them WAY more than I thought I would. They are extremely powerful tools that can be used for a number of different jobs.

DIY Modern Plywood Nightstand | Video Tutorial + Building Plans

*This post is sponsored by Kreg Tool and The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

My sister is getting ready to move into a much smaller house and needed some new furniture to match the new home's more petite scale. Good thing she has a sister who loves to build furniture. 

I've been wanting to try a project with a continuous grain, mitered edge design that kinda creates a waterfall effect. It's traditionally a more advanced technique, but since I've been using my Adaptive Cutting System from Kreg  more and more, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to test this tricky design element out. 

NO WELD Metal & Glass End Table | Brazing Aluminum

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I know. The idea of welding is scary. I think professional welders encourage that idea to keep people away from it and keep paying them for all their metal fabrication needs. The truth is, my husband taught me how to weld years ago and I was SHOCKED to learn that it's not nearly as hard as it looks. It takes lots of practice to get the feel of it and produce pretty looking welds, but it's not too hard to get two pieces of steel to stick together. Now, even with that being said, I'm sure many of you are reading this and saying "I don't care what you tell me Elisha, there is no way I'm ever going to try welding". Well, there's good new for you my friends. You have other options. 

Have you ever heard of brazing aluminum? Admittedly, it's is a lot more limited than welding and doesn't work on steel, but brazing gives you the option to join metal together without having to purchase an expensive machine or have lots of technical experience. I've been wanting to experiment with different materials lately, and that's what I just did on this modern aluminum pipe and glass end table. 

Outdoor Sofa with Hidden Storage | BUILDING PLANS

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I know building outdoor furniture in September may sound crazy to you, but here in the desert, our weather is just starting to get nice. In fact, its a bit too warm for my taste during the day, but the evenings have started to cool down a little, which means it's time for grilling and entertaining outdoors again. Even though I built us a cool wood and glass outdoor table a couple years ago, we've never really had someone comfortable to sit on the patio. I figured it was time to build a outdoor sofa / couch, but I had a couple requirements. 

Let's think about it. Patio sofas are great, but what are the downsides? The cushions are ALWAYS dirty. No one wants to sit on dusty, or wet upholstery. Also, have you ever had an unexpected wind storm sweep in the blow your cushions into the pool? When I started to sketch up the sofa design, I knew it had to involve some hidden storage for the cushions and pillows. 

Epoxy Resin + Wood Live Edge Hair Comb | Video Tutorial

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

It's hard when your best friend lives on the opposite side of the country. But when your best friend is an insanely talented DIY blogger and YouTuber, you find excuses to go see her for a "collaboration". Somehow, this is actually the second collab Sam From DIY Huntress and I partnered on this summer. The first was that segmented round coffee table Foureyes Furniture helped us build. 

While I was on the east coast last month, Sam and I took a road trip down to Philadelphia to learn from woodshop master/ best teacher ever - Erik Curtis. Erik took Sam and I under his wing and showed us some more advanced woodworking techniques. We learned SO MUCH! It was awesome. All three of us created our own version of the same project, which I'll be sharing in a few weeks. So keep an eye out! 

EASY No Sew Tufted Bench Hack | Video Tutorial

*This post is sponsored by Arrow Fastener. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Remember 2013 and how everyone had to have a tufted headboard? That was back when I was building custom furniture for other people and I got a lot of practice making them. I wrote a Easy Tufting Tutorial years ago (I was a baby blogger back then. Don't judge the horrible photography!) but figured it was time to finally publish a video. 

Even though styles seem to be moving more into contemporary waves, I think tufting is classic and still has a place. I built a simple, modern upholstered bench from some leftover plywood and was able to incorporate a tufted cushion. Check out the video below for the full process or to see the pretty photos and get more info, keep scrolling. 

BLEACH + INK | Round Coffee Table | Foureyes Furniture & DIY Huntress

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

What's better than hanging out with your best friend? Hanging out with your best friend, going on a road trip, and being able to create something awesome together!

A couple weeks ago, Sam from DIY Huntress came to visit me here in Arizona. The next morning, we loaded up the truck and drive to Whittier, California to meet up with our buddy Chris from Foureyes Furniture (if you follow me on Instagram, you got a sneak peak of some of the shenanigans). Chris is a pretty big deal in the YouTube woodworking community and I've been dying to get to work with him. He build some of the most stunning modern furniture and was kind enough to open his shop for a fun collaboration!

Father's Day Gift Guide - Tool Lover - 2019

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Father's day is just over a week away! I've shared several DIY gift ideas in the past, like the Cigar Dispenser that I shared yesterday or the Desktop Football game I made a couple years ago. If your rushed for time, or maybe just have an eye on some tools for yourself, this week is a fabulous time to hit up the sales The Home Depot has going. 

I've put together a list of some of my favorite tools and gadgets and broken them down by price. Most of the items are eligible for free shipping and everything on the website can be set-up for free store delivery. Keep scrolling to check them all out and make sure to click the links for for details. 

How to Make a Wood Cigar Dispenser | Video + Building Plans

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

These past couple months have been CRAZY friends! We are in the process of selling our current home so we can get ready to build our new custom house. Then there was the end of school, Mother's Day and my sons' birthday. In the next couple of weeks we have my birthday and Father's Day as well. Is this time of year equally busy for you as well? 

I've just barely caught my breath and had a few minutes to think about Father's Day gift ideas. My mind usually goes straight for tools, but if you're interested in creating something hand-made for your Dad, I have a fun little project you could have put together in time. A simple wood machine that dispenses cigars. 

How to Make a RELAXING Swinging Terrarium | Video Tutorial

*This post is sponsored by Kreg Tool. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

I get some crazy ideas from time to time. Like that one time I decided to pour epoxy resin over OSB sheathing and turn it into a dresser. Experiments are awesome things happen! Think about it, the first time a S'more was invented I bet someone in the room was thinking "you're going to stick that marshmallow where?". I've been itching to try two new techniques lately and finally thought up a cool idea to test them on. 

I've seen a few examples of bleached hardwood and knew that was a game I wanted in on. *Spoiler alert: it's ridiculously cool! I also have wanted to try my hand at drilling holes in glass. I know that sounds terrifying, but people do it all the time and after cutting the glass myself for my stacked cabinet kitchen remodel, I've discovered glass isn't nearly as intimidating as I once thought. 

Getting the House Ready to Sell

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

I know it seems like forever since I announced that we will be building a custom house. Trust me my friends when I say it's definitely felt longer to us! We thought we would have the house sold, be living with my in-laws, and hopefully broken ground by now. Don't worry! We're still moving forward with the plan. We've just been delayed a few months, but we're finally making progress! Here's what we've been up to:

Simple Metal Leg Beam Bench | Video + Plans

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

I love the look of metal and wood together, and I know I'm not alone. Not only does steel allow you to create shapes and profiles that aren't always possible with wood, I dig the clean and simple lines. I've done a couple steel projects in the past, like Faux-Brass Leg Media Console and my Hairpin Kitchen Table.  

Plywood Dresser with Dowel Legs | Video + Building Plans

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products and The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

I thought I was pretty much done building furniture for my house and then the other day I went to put away some of my twin boys' laundry. I built them their modern dresser/bookshelf combo a couple years ago and it's still going strong! (one of my favorite builds to date btw). But, I had totally forgotten that we placed a crappy little particle board 3-drawer unit in the closet for a little extra storage. It was an inexpensive hand-me-down and as you can imagine, after 9 years of abuse from two very active little boys, that little piece of junk was on it's last legs.