One of the most valuable tools I have isn’t a woodworking tool at all.  It’s software & it’s indispensable when I’m building a woodworking project!  I’m of course talking about SketchUp, the 3D modeling program that’s available for free.

I use SketchUp on every project.  It helps me conceptualize and design a project so I can figure out before I even start cutting wood exactly how a project will be assembled.  This helps me work out any problems I might run into and even though it’s a lot more work up front, it actually saves me lots of time and trips to the hardware store!

I used to draw all my projects out on paper, but having a 3D model that I can manipulate and look at from different angles is the real difference maker and I’d love to teach you how to use the program.  If you haven’t used it before, there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve, but once you “get” it, building 3D models and turning them into plans and cut lists is pretty easy.

SketchUp comes in 2 versions, a stripped down free version called SketchUp Make and a pro version.  Everything I show in my video series (and the projects on this site) can be done with the free version.  You can learn more about the program here or jump right to the download page.

I think one of the best ways to learn a new software program is to jump right in and start drawing something.  I created this 4 video series to help you with that by walking through a farmhouse table plan from start to finish, including making a helpful materials and cut list.  You may also want to check out my SketchUp playlist to see shorter videos of some of the basic concepts.

Video 1 – Drawing the Table Base

In this first video, I’ll show you how I draw the legs of the table.  This project is a good one for learning SketchUp since there are a variety of joints that will help you learn a variety of SketchUp tools and manipulate faces and objects.  I’ll introduce you to the basic drawing tools and then we’ll use them to build the bast of the table.

Video 2 – Finishing the Table Base and Tabletop Support

In the second video, we’ll finish up the table base continuing the use of drawing tools, measuring tools, guides and the move tool.

Video 3 – Drawing the Tabletop

Next I cover drawing the table top.  This is pretty easy once you get the hang of copying, pasting and using the move tool.  I’ll also show you how I group the tabletop into its own object and position it so that it’s centered on the table base.

Video 4 – Creating a Materials List and Cut List

In the final video, I’ll show you how I create a list of the materials I need to buy and a cut list so that I can ensure that I’m cutting all my wood to the right size.  This takes a little extra time, but it more than pays off when I’m working through a project!

Now that you’ve learned how to draw a model of the farmhouse table, head over to this post to see how I actually built it so you can build your own (along with a matching bench).  If you want to download this same model from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse, you can access it here.

The first and most important part of your marketing automation cycle is your website.  While this isn’t technically a “tool of automation” it serves as the foundation for your marketing platform and all of the strategies I’ll discuss are built around it.

While many advisors have websites, they are often not tapping into the potential of them at all.  In many cases, advisor websites function more like a digital brochure than an interactive lead generating tool.  But the good news is that there are tons of technologies and strategies that you can use to begin directing traffic to your website and funneling that traffic down to prospects and clients.

When I refer to marketing automation tools, I want to be clear what I’m talking about.  I’m referring to the systems that will help you utilize the content that you create in order to attract prospective clients to your site and then develop a sales funnel that will convert those visitors to clients.  These technology tools provide the scaffolding for building and executing your marketing strategies, but you still have to develop the actual content and devise your strategies.  Again, the good news for you is that the financial services industry is full all kinds of raw materials that you can draw from.  You already have ideas because that’s what you’re talking to your clients about today!  And if you need some help coming up with content, just ask your brokerage firm or any company wholesaler and you’ll have more material than you can manage!

Your strategies for marketing to your existing clients will be similar to this, but because you are working with existing clients, you can move on to ‘building your list’ and start segmenting your clients and prospects based on what you already know about them.

Here’s how the marketing automation cycle works:

Develop Content

You likely already have great content right between your ears!  Developing online content will typically take the form of a blog, videos or a podcast or a combination of all three.  For producers who are just beginning to venture into online marketing, a blog is probably the easiest way to get started.

Many websites have blog capabilities in them, but I personally recommend using a website content management tool called WordPress.  Having used a number of content management systems build websites, I have found that WordPress is one of the most user friendly systems for non-technical people.  First of all it’s free, so all you need to pay for is your domain name and a hosting account.  Also, many of the “tools of automation” such as email marketing and email list building have ready made integrations with WordPress.  Lastly, most web developers are very familiar with WordPress and often use the platform to build sites for their clients.  Of course, it will require some time and effort to set up a site, but once you’ve gained a basic proficiency with the system, adding content is a breeze.  The work is in deciding what your content will be.

The job here is to develop online content that will add value to prospects and clients, say for example, a white paper about “5 Secrets to Pay for College”  In which you educate your clients on basic college planning strategies.  Your paper (and accompanying landing page) are designed to entice your visitors to trade their email for your content and the result is that you both win.  This is one specific example of content and I’ll talk more about other kinds of content in a few minutes.

Promote Content

You have two main options to promote your content.  First is paid advertising using platforms like Google Adwords or Facebook Ads.  This is generally what you’re going to do if you don’t have an email list or marketing database or you’re looking to grow the list you have.  You will want to do a little research on using both of these platforms as they can be extremely effective tools for driving traffic to your website.

If you already have a large book of business, an existing social media network or significant traffic to your website, you can promote your content using those platforms.  There are a number of strategies to target this content to your ideal audience profile which I discuss in more detail in other articles.  I’m focused here on those who don’t have a significant list, or any list at all, and are looking to build one.

Building Your List

Your ads will drive traffic back to a landing page on your website where visitors can download your white paper.  At this point, you capture their email address and other information about them.  You’ve probably seen these systems in action yourself.  Maybe you saw a report that you wanted to read and to get it you had to give you email address.  You then verified that you’re a real person by clicking an email link that took you to a web page where you were able to download the goodie.

There are sophisticated tools to automate the fulfillment of this, such as Lead Pages or Infusionsoft, but you can also get started with this yourself with a tool like MailChimp and a bit of grunt work.  In addition to capturing your visitor’s email address, the content you deliver to them will also include a call to action, such as a request to schedule an appointment or request for more information (another task that can be automated – more on this below).  This is likely to generate some inquiries, however this is just the tip of the iceberg in profiling your clients and developing targeted marketing strategies.  The real magic is in your growing list!

The Deep Dive Survey

Once you’ve built a meaningful list, the next step is to gather information and insight into who your prospective clients actually are, down to the deepest detail you can get to.  The typical way to do this is to survey your list to gather information about their needs using a tool such as SurveyMonkey.  There’s a science to developing effective surveys which will improve your response rates and help you to segment your prospects and clients.  In fact, if you design your surveys well, you may be able to gather contact information for telephone interviews.

This “deep dive” survey is designed to understand what your clients need by identifying their struggles and challenges.  Based on the information you gather through open ended questions and key demographic data, you then segment your clients into distinct groups with unique identified needs.

Developing Targeted Marketing Campaigns

Here’s where you begin to build very targeted marketing campaigns built on adding value to your target audience.  This will usually look like a series of emails to a specific segmented email list (in MailChimp) that educate your prospects around their needs.  For example, let’s suppose one of your target segments, as identified by your survey findings, is families with young children that need college planning.  You develop a series of emails designed to educate your clients about saving for college and the most common strategies, such as 429 plans, life insurance with cash value, prepaid tuition programs and other strategies.

These emails will direct prospects back to specific articles on your website or blog.  You use effective content writing techniques like Derek Halpern’s POD technique that add value to your prospects by educating them while at the same time intensifying their need and providing a specific call to action for your prospects.  While when you initially get started, you will likely have one or two campaigns, but it will not be uncommon, once you build a significant list, to develop a number of different marketing campaigns that will be occurring simultaneously to different segments, all triggered by the initial request to access your proprietary content.

The Call To Action

Every piece of content that develop has a call to action.  This is a specific step that your prospects should take that gradually increases their commitment.  Your original call to action was to download your white paper.  Followup calls to action may be as simple as a “click here” button for more information or to watch a video.  Whatever the call to action, it should be clear what it is, move your client to the next step in your campaign and be easy for the prospect to do.

Again, using technology tools can help you facilitate and filter these client interactions.  For example, you can have use an automated system like TimeTrade or Calendly to enable your clients to book appointments with you by selecting a time slot (which you determine) and integrating with your calendar application, such as Outlook or Google Calendar.  The system can be designed to automatically send them a checklist of the information they need to gather before the meeting.  This will automatically book your calendar and notify you of the meeting without you having to do anything other than set up the systems!

Wash, Rinse and Repeat!

At the end of your email marketing campaign, you will have people who responded and those who didn’t.  If you’ve used a service like MailChimp, you’ll also have a set of analytics that will tell you who opened the emails, who clicked on links to your site, what links they clicked and other market intelligence.  This gives you an opportunity to do an end of campaign survey targeted at those who didn’t convert, commonly referred to as the “Why do you hate me?” survey.  This is a final email that essentially asks why the prospect didn’t “buy” the next step and can help you better refine your marketing campaign by providing you the questions that you didn’t answer or objections you didn’t address.  Build a new campaign using the knowledge that you’ve captured and repeat.

For those that did respond, you’ll want to drop them into an automated customer follow up system using a customer relationship management system so they don’t fall through the cracks. Your existing customers represent your best opportunity for cross selling opportunities!  Again, your automated email marketing solution will be the cornerstone of this, prompting both you and them for quarterly contact and annual reviews.  You know you need to do this, but if you’re like most advisors, you’re not where you need to be in terms of automating this follow up!

2 Kinds of Content

When I talk about developing content, there are different kinds of content I’m referring to and they have different purposes.  What I’ve been describing in the first step is what I’ll call “list bait.”  This is typically downloadable content, most likely a PDF document or maybe a video, that contains valuable content that your visitors what and can use.  It should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway!) that the content you provide has to be useful and valuable.  If it’s not, that’s the last time that visitor will engage with you!  This hits on the difference between marketing and sales.  If your content doesn’t add value and is a thinly veiled attempt to sell them something, you lose the opportunity to engage with the prospect.  Fortunately for you, the financial services business ripe with useful tools and resources that you can share with visitors.  For example educational resources about types of products, needs analysis tools, Excel based financial calculators, videos that explain financial concepts, and the list goes on.

Another type of content is what I’ll refer to as “evergreen content” and this is the content that you’ll use to direct people to through your email marketing campaigns.  This kind of content is typically articles or blog posts on your website that are educational in nature, but always include a call to action!

In our college funding example above, you may have an email marketing campaign that consists of 5 emails, each linking to an article that describes each of the possible funding options for college expenses and the pros and cons of each.  These articles will live on well past your marketing campaign and the content can be re-purposed for periodic promotion on social media platforms and in future email communication to your database.  So you want to include a call to action on every page to engage with you.  Remember, a call to action is NOT a sentence at the bottom of the article that says, “For more information call…”  Rather, a call to action is a specific action that the reader (or viewer) will take to schedule a consultation or request more information.  The goal is to lead the prospect through incremental commitments until they become a client.

While tools of automation such as email marketing campaigns and email list building tools can be running while you’re meeting with clients, automation doesn’t mean that you don’t do any work.  Generating “inbound marketing” requires continually refining your content, developing your marketing campaigns and further segmenting your prospects and clients based on their needs.

Want to know the actual mechanics of building your email list with downloadable content? Well, you’ve come to the right place. This lesson will walk you through exactly how the process can work for you on your website!  A warning is in order though… we’re going to dive deep into the weeds and go over all the details on getting this set up.

I’m assuming that you already have a WordPress website set up. If you don’t, check out my How-To Guide to Setting up a WordPress Website for Financial Advisors. If you’re using a different content management system such as the FMG Suite, you can apply the principles and techniques illustrated here, however the specific tools will be different from what I’m about to show you.

If you recall from The Marketing Automation Cycle for Financial Advisors, list building begins with value added content that your audience wants. Let’s suppose you’ve developed an eBook entitled “Insider Secrets to Paying for College” and you’re going to promote this free resource through social media to prospective clients through Facebook ads or Google AdWords.

This eBook is written to educate your prospective clients on the alternatives available to them to fund their children’s college education expenses as well as build credibility and brand awareness for your business and is part of your marketing automation cycle:

• Develop Content
• Promote Content
• Build Your List
• Segment Your List
• Launch Targeted Marketing Campaign
• Refine & Repeat!

Of course, this ebook is just one of many content marketing programs you’re putting in place!  By the way, this is an actual ebook that I created to accompany this course.  You’ll see how to get a copy of it later in this lesson!

Now that you’ve developed your content, you’re ready to develop the first step in your list building strategy.  I’m talking about the actual mechanics of delivering your content in exchange for email addresses.  The second step is developing an automated on-going marketing campaign to send to those emails, but that’s the stuff of another post!

I’m going to show you how to do this with your WordPress site, a plugin called MailMunch and the free basic version of MailChimp.

Your Landing Page & Download Page

Let’s start with your WordPress site.  To build your content delivery platform, you’ll need to create 2 additional pages about your ebook. The first page is your ebook “landing page.” This is the page that you will link your Facebook ads to which contains your sales pitch to visitors to download your ebook in exchange for their email. This is also where you will place your email “capture” box, the one that we’ll build with MailMunch.  More on that in a few minutes.

To illustrate this process, I’ve built an example of everything I’m talking about so you can see how it works.  First, create a new page in WordPress:

Then create your landing page.  Here’s an example of mine which you can actually visit:

Your Download Page

The second page you’ll create is the actual download page.  This is where your subscribers will be redirected after they enter their email address.  You want to take advantage of this page to re-affirm your prospect’s decision to get your ebook, so don’t just have a link.  It’s really important here to use the New Page function in WordPress (not New Post) to create this download page. The reason for that is so that you can hide the page from both casual visitors to your website as well as from Google’s search engine.  You’ll also want to give the page a name that’s not obvious so people won’t be able to guess the URL and type it in since the whole point is to use your ebook to capture email addresses for marketing, you don’t want people linking directly to or stumbling onto your download page.

Here’s a picture of my download page.  You can get there yourself by signing up!

Not only do you want to use a URL that’s not obvious, but you also need to keep your download page from being indexed by search engines.  There are a number of different ways to do this, but for me, this is where a handy WordPress plugin called All In One SEO comes in handy.  In addition to the core functionality of enhancing your posts and pages visibility in search engines, you can also use it to block your page from showing up.  I mean really, you don’t want someone coming to your site and then just searching for your download page!

If you’ve installed this plugin, just scroll down to the options below your page and select the NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW options.

You’ll also want to make sure that you don’t have new pages automatically showing up to the general public in your main menu.  To do that, go into the Menus option under Appearance in your dashboard, find the menu settings and uncheck the “Auto add pages” option.

OK, so You’ve Built Your Pages, Now What?

Now that you’ve got your pages built, let’s take a minute and talk about the flow of your content delivery platform.

• A prospective client clicks on your ad or promoted post on Facebook
• They are redirected to your landing page and because you’ve written compelling content, they’re sold!
• Once they enter their email address to get their copy of your ebook, they are immediately redirected to your download page where they click a link to download your ebook. Remember, this is a different page from your landing page. This is the page with the actual link to your downloadable content.
• Their email address is added to a specific list in MailChimp and at this point, your targeted marketing campaign is ready to begin.

You also have the option of adding an additional verification step to “double opt-in” the user. This means that the user has to confirm that they are a real, live human being and that they want to be on this list (i.e. that they really want your ebook!). If you decide to do this – and there are good reasons to do it – there will be an extra step in the flow, but we’ll talk about that later.

Meanwhile, you can check out the single opt-in strategy here.  But read on so you can see exactly how this works.

Create a List in MailChimp

Since we’re on the toping of single and double opt-in options, it’s a perfect time to take our first quick dive into MailChimp.  Like these other tools, MailChimp offers a free basic account so that you can get your feet wet and try it out before upgrading to a premium account.  You can get everything in this lesson done with the free version, however to create multi-email marketing workflows, you’ll need to get the premium version.  But again, that’s the stuff for another lesson.  Right now we’re capturing emails!

You need to go ahead and set up your email list so that when we create an email capture box on your landing page, we can map the fields to your MailChimp list.  When you create your list in MailChimp, the default fields will be “first name,” “last name” and “email.”  You can add more if you want, but these will generally cover it.

Now that you’ve got your list created, you’re done with MailChimp for the time being.  Don’t worry, we’ll be back to it in a little while!

Now How’d You Get That Email Capture Box?

I’m so glad you asked!  We’re going to use MailMunch, a free WordPress plugin, to create your email capture box at the end of your landing page.  You’ve got to have a way to capture someone’s email, right?

Once you’ve installed and activated MailMunch and set up an account, you’ll go to the MailMunch plugin and select “New Form.”

From here, you’ll walk through the new form steps.  The first one is to choose a template.  In my example (the landing page you can check out yourself) I’m using the Embedded form.

Once you check the form type you want, select the form theme you want to use.  I’m showing you how to use the free version of the MailMunch plugin.  There’s also a premium version that gives you more options and design flexibility, but you can work your way up to that as you get better and better at content marketing.

I went with the first one.

Follow the prompts in MailMunch to design your email capture form for your e-book.  The basic MailMunch will allow you to change the basics on your form, so make sure you have compelling text that’s consistent with the copy on your landing page.  Make it look like you’ve done this before!

Always include, at a minimum, a first name field in addition to a required email field.  You can add others, but by capturing a first name field you will be able to personalize future marketing emails.  Studies show that emails addressed personally are more likely to be opened and read than emails that are impersonal!

This First Name field will be synced with your MailChimp list.  That’s why we went ahead and created your list in MailChimp.  But before we get there, let’s tell MailMuch how you want this form to show up on your landing page.  You can have the form show up at the top, in the middle or, in my example, at the bottom after your sales pitch.

Next, you need to tell MailMunch what to do After User Subscribes.  This is where your workflow will be different between “single Opt In” and “Double Opt In.”  I’ll talk about Double Opt In in a few minutes, but for now, we’ll add the URL of your Download Page in the “Redirect On Subscribe” box.  This will immediately redirect your subscriber to the download page to get a copy of your ebook and is the most immediate gratification workflow you can design.

You may be familiar with similar processes if you’ve requested downloadable material yourself and you may be thinking, “I usually get an email with a link also.”  This is an important point, because some people may request a copy of your book, but not be in a position to actually download it or may not want to download it right away.  For Single Opt In list building, MailChimp DOES NOT automatically send a “final welcome email” which would typically have the download page link in it.  In fact, you have to do some work to set this up and it is one of the downsides to the Single Opt In method.  MailMunch has a tutorial to show you how to do this with MailChimp.

So with Single Opt In, you get the benefit of immediate gratification for your subscribers, but there’s a little more work to do on the back end.  With Double Opt In, you have to do a little more work up front, but you will generally get a higher quality of subscriber.

Before we integrate your form with your MailChimp list, you need to tell MailMunch where you want to put your form.  You don’t want your ebook form to be showing up on every page on your website!  Or, maybe you do?

In this example, I’m setting a display rule to show the form only on my download page.  I do that by copying & pasting the URL of my download page and setting the appropriate parameters.  Don’t forget this step.  It’s important.

Lastly, you want to integrate your form with MailChimp.  In the integrate step, select MailChimp (or whatever email automation tool you’re using).  Use the settings to pick your MailChimp list – the one we set up a few steps ago – and then match your MailMunch first name field with the MailChimp first name field.  You need to do this so the first name on your form goes into your MailChimp list and then you can create personalized emails when you set up your automated marketing campaign.  You don’t need to integrate the email address field.  MailMunch does that automatically.

Once you’ve integrated and mapped your fields, you can publish and finish your form.  You now have your Landing Page with your Email Capture Form set up and ready to promote.

Using Double Opt-In Verification

Using Double Opt In is a way of ensuring that you get better quality leads in your email list.  While the Single Opt In form is nice for giving immediate gratification to your users and quickly building a list, you run some risks.  You might get your email list filled up with spam emails from automated programs cruising the internet.  If you have poor quality emails in your list, you also run the risk of a high rate of bounce-backs or unsubscribes when sending out future email marketing campaigns and getting your MailChimp account restricted or your own email “black-listed.”

This is why MailChimp required double opt in verification for their own email capture forms.  Yes, that’s right, MailChimp will let you create your own forms just like MailMunch, however I like to use MailMunch because it integrates better with WordPress and allows more options with your forms without having to know much on the technical side.

With double opt in verification, once your subscriber enters their email address to get your ebook, they’ll receive an email from MailChimp asking them to verify their email address. Once they click the link in that email verifying that they are a real person who indeed wanted your content, they will receive an additional auto-responder email with the link back to the download page. To do this well, you’ll need to tell MailMunch what message to present to your subscriber on your landing page and you’ll configure the MailChimp emails – both the “double opt in verification email” as well as the “final welcome email” to tell your subscribers exactly what you want to say.

You can see the single opt-in strategy and the double opt-in strategy in action for yourself.  But first let’s dive into exactly how to make this work.

All of the instructions for setting up the single opt in method above are the same except for a couple different steps in the Message and Integrate tabs in MailMunch.  First the Message tab.  You will need to add a “Thank You Message” to your form.  This is because once your prospect enters their email, they won’t immediately go to the download page.  You need to set expectations.  In this example, you can see that I’m telling subscribes that there’s one more step and that they need to check their email to confirm their subscription.

Next, make sure that you select the Double Opt-in checkbox on the Integrate tab. Then choose the active list in MailChimp that you want to use. More on the MailChimp settings for this list below. Don’t forget to match up fields like first and last name so that the appropriate fields update in your MailChimp list.

Now, Back To MailChimp

You will also want to configure the Opt-in confirmation email, the Confirmation “thank you” page and the Final welcome email in the signup forms options in MailChimp so that you clearly communicate with your subscriber during each step of the process.

Edit the Opt-in confirmation email by personalizing the message to your subscriber. Let them know that they need to confirm their email address to get your ebook and that they will immediately be redirected to your download page.  Edit the text of the email letting them know that they need to click the link to confirm that they’re subscribing to receive your ebook.

Next, choose Confirmation “thank you” page and add the URL for the download page for your ebook in the box that says “Instead of showing this thank you page, send subscribers to another URL.”  This will automatically redirect your subscriber to your download page as soon as they verify their email address.  You don’t want them to have to wait around for anything to get your ebook!  This is as close to instant gratification as double opt in verification gets.

Lastly, Select Final “welcome” email and personalize it for your subscriber. This will be the email that they get that has a link to your download page.  So for example, if they’re responding to your Facebook ad for your free ebook and they’re using their phone, they may not want to – or be able to – download your PDF ebook.  This way, they have the email with the link and can download it whenever they want.

Here you can see that in addition to putting my download page link in the final welcome email, I also uploaded a small graphic of the ebook – I like to include graphics on all my communication because it’s a subconscious reminder of what they requested – and hyperlinked that graphic to the download page as well.  I want to make it as easy as possible to get back to my download page from their final welcome email.

And that’s how you do it!

That’s how to set up your landing page to convert visitors to email list subscribers using WordPress, MailMunch and MailChimp.  Now that you’ve built your landing page for conversion, you will need to promote it on the main page of your website, through organic social media traffic (you do leverage social media groups, right?!) and through Facebook ads and Google Adwords.

Once you get more sophisticated with your content marketing, you can purchase premium tools that will handle the list building and fulfillment of your free content, but those of you getting started, this is how you do it with minimal investment and a little work!

I recently updated a couple of my woodworking plans with more detailed and thorough assembly instructions and updated the cut lists.  Since I wrote the original plans a couple years ago, I thought it might be helpful to post new links to them.

Moveable Workbench

The moveable workbench is probably the best project I ever did.  It was a one weekend project, but I can’t imagine not having it now!

Rustic Farmhouse Nightstand

I built the nightstand to accompany the Rustic Farmhouse Bed and when I was showing my plan to someone who wanted to build one, I realized that I hadn’t quite finished the post (it’s done now!).

Make a lenten cross with it!  We started this as a family tradition a number of years ago and it’s become woven into the fabric of our holiday seasons.  I love the continuity of celebrating Advent and Christmas with our Christmas tree, decorated with years of family ornaments, then using that same tree through the season of lent leading up to Easter as a reminder of the reason that we celebrate.

We spend the evenings of Advent – those where we’re not overcommitted to activities! – sitting together as a family reading one of these great advent stories.  But after Christmas, the LED lights dim, the ornaments are stripped away and dry needles litter the floor.  This death of our family tree foreshadows the atoning death that we observe on Good Friday.

In my tradition of contemporary evangelical protestantism, there’s a lack of emphasis on the church calendar.  Personally, I think that’s regretful as the observance of traditional Christian seasons help me to tie the rhythms and flow of life to different aspects of the ministry and work of Christ.  Of course, I’m not saying that Christians have to observe seasons like advent and lent, but for me, being mindful of them adds a richness to life that’s missing in our media-fueled, celebrity culture, materialistic world.

The joy and expectation of Advent gives way to the more pensive season of lent, which is traditionally observed by the Church as a season of reflection on our sinfulness, our need for repentance, the exercise of self-denial and particular focus on prayer.  During Lent, our Christmas tree cross provides a vivid visual reminder to not lose sight of the whole purpose in the midst of our busy lives.

Having a cross, even a little one made out of a Christmas tree, isn’t a cute decoration or a seasonal ornament.  Not anymore than having an electric chair or a guillotine displayed in the house.  The cross is an instrument of torture and death and that’s how we should think of it.  The beauty of the cross isn’t it’s ruggedness or it’s chunky trendy aesthetic.  The cross isn’t a Pottery Barn accessory for the season.

The beauty of the cross is because it’s empty.

It’s beautiful because there’s no one hanging on it, bloody and suffocating to death.  It’s beautiful because I don’t have to hang there, although like that thief two thousand years ago, I deserve it.  That’s worth thinking about for a moment.  Hey, I’m not that bad, I might be inclined to think.  I haven’t killed anyone or robbed a bank or embezzled from a company (although there’s grace for you even if you have).  At least one of those guys hanging with Jesus was a thief.  Dare I even say a petty thief?  For the wages of [any] sin is death.

Death’s not something we like to think much of, but perhaps we should ponder it a little.  After all, it’s really the only thing that is 100% guaranteed for every one of us.  It is something that we are one day closer to every day.

There are a couple things that I really love about our Christmas tree cross tradition.  First of all, it’s a great visual way to connect Advent and the birth of Christ with the ultimate purpose of his incarnation which was to be the substitutionary sacrifice for my sin and the sins of the world by dying on a tree (St. Paul references Deuteronomy 21:23 when he equates Jesus’ death on the cross in Galatians 3 as being cursed in our place by hanging on a tree).  By using our Christmas tree which is ever present in our home throughout Advent to become a cross during Lent and Easter, there’s a direct connection between the two seasons.

There’s also something that I find cathartic about actually creating the cross.  Cutting all the dead branches off the Christmas tree is kind of a pain.  It’s messy, prickly, cold January work.  It brings to mind associations of Jesus the carpenter, Jesus the “righteous branch,” Jesus the atoning sacrifice.

I can’t help but reflect, as I make the cross, on the fact that it was a tree that Jesus died on and that my own sin deserves the same fate.  Usually, it’s just me out there in the backyard preparing the cross.  How can I not think of Jesus’ words in Luke 9, “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

When I was a kid, it was always a sad day when we took down the family Christmas tree.  Looking out the window as it laid out front, vibrant green needles faded to brown and gray, waiting to be picked up by the garbage truck.  It seemed like an anticlimactic end to all the Christmas cheer.

Now our trees stay with us through the cold gray days of winter, out of the way, until the promise of spring and the Easter season approaches.  Then our tree comes back out to take it’s place in our home, this time reminding us of the triumphant conclusion of Christ’s earthly work and still reminding us of the advent that is yet to come.

One of the recent issues that I ran into with InDesign is that the program doesn’t have the same brushes and advanced masking capabilities that Photoshop does so when it comes to creating a document element like an object frame that looks like it was made from torn paper, InDesign presents us with some challenges.

There are probably a handful of ways to do this.  You can, of course, take the easy route and use the pencil tool to freehand the frame, but you’d have to be pretty good with the mouse or Wacom pad to get a realistic look.

Here’s a method that may seem complicated, but you can actually do it in less than 5 minutes.  This will also create a path based frame mask that can be re-sized with ease and can be used as a container for any graphic.

Here’s my process:

Find torn paper graphic to use as a model.  

There are tons of internet resources available for free.  For this example, I used this graphic from DeviantArt: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Torn-Paper-Big-Yellowed-3-176770942

Place the graphic into Photoshop & crop to size

Use the magic wand tool to select the paper.  I set tolerance to 180.

Make a new layer from copy and delete the originals so you have the paper on a transparent background.

Then, using the paint bucket tool, fill the selection area with black.  You may need to set the tolerance to 255 to get a complete fill with the color.

Add an alpha channel… 

…and make a work path from selection (these will be used in InDesign)

Save as a PSD file (I called mine Torn Paper Frame).

Now, let’s dive into InDesign…

Place the file in InDesign.

Select the object and choose the Clipping Path option under Object and select Options.

In the Clipping Path dialogue box, you can select either Detect Edges or Alpha Channel from the Type dropdown.  This is why we saved the Photoshop file with an Alpha channel.  For this example, select Alpha Channel.

Next, convert clipping path to Frame.  This is also under the Options>Clipping Path menu.  Notice how the border of the clipping path is now highlighted with a tan (in my example) border.

With the object still selected, choose File>Place and then select a graphic.

What if you want a solid color, not a picture?

Let’s say you don’t want a picture in the frame, you just want a solid colored object.  To do that, use the selection tool to highlight the frame, then click the graphic within the frame (the circle in the middle).  Your graphic will be highlighted by a brown border.

Delete the graphic leaving the path in its place.

Select the path with the Select tool and use a swatch or the color picker to select a fill color (and or border color).

This is how you can create a torn paper style frame which you can use to insert any graphic.  You can then select the graphic contained within the frame and resize it however you want relative to the frame to get the desired effect in your InDesign document.

Here’s an example of a different project in which I used the same methodology to create the torn paper looking elements:

Again, there are probably a ton of ways to achieve this effect, but I think that using a torn paper image and converting that into a path and then a frame in InDesign gives you a versatile object to use for your documents.  Even though there are a handful of steps, this is actually quicker and easier than it seems.  The thing that will take the longest is finding the graphic to use as a template for your torn paper.

If you really want to get fancy, you can pull the frame into Illustrator, convert it to a symbol and use 9 slice scaling to preserve the aspect ratio of the torn sides of the frame so that when resizing you don’t get any distortion in the edges.  But that’s material for another post!

I hope you’ve found this helpful & good luck on your own designs!

Ed

So I’m the poster child for writing niche content these days!  Here’s another one for those of you who want to put interactive calculators in your PDF documents, but need some more advanced functionality than basic arithmetic functions.  Like, who would read this stuff anyway??

Well, here goes… I ran into this when putting together my recent “Insider’s Guide to Paying for College” ebook, which I put together in InDesign and then exported into an interactive PDF document. When discussing the costs of college, I wanted to do better than having a static grid showing the anticipated future college costs in, say, 18 years at an interest rate of 5%.  That might work great for a reader who’s expecting their first child, but doesn’t really help when you have an 8 year old and want to know how much you need to be saving each month for college.

Adding interactivity to an ebook is a great way to add value to the content.  This way your reader doesn’t have to click out of your ebook to another resource or have to download a separate excel spreadsheet and you’ve got total control over the format.  Adobe has a relatively easy way of embedding very basic mathematical functions in a PDF using the prepare form tool, but it’s not that user friendly for for anything more advanced than adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.  But the good news is that you can do it!

In my ebook, I’ve actually got 2 interactive calculators.  The first one calculates the future cost of college based on today’s published average tuitions using a time value of money calculation.  The second one calculates the future value of a monthly savings amount invested over time.  This one used a future value of an annuity calculation.

Both calculators allow the reader to enter a several variables including interest rate, time (in one case years and in another case months), and amounts, depending on which calculator you’re using.  In this example, I’m going to use the first calculator, but you’re welcome to download the ebook and have a look at the other calculation.

So what’s the process you ask?  Well, I’m glad you did!

I designed the ebook in InDesign and made a table for the calculator.  Actually, on this page, I made 2 tables, one for the user defined variables and one for the actual calculations.  You can see that the calculation table is a 4 row by 4 column table and has an additional header row.

This calculator is made of two tables in InDesign

I created all of my static information and formatted it the way that I wanted it to look using InDesign, but once I export the entire ebook to a PDF document, I’ll go into Acrobat Pro DC and use the Prepare Form tool to create fields in all of the empty table cells.

Access the “Prepare Form” tool in Acrobat DC

For this table, I created 10 fields: an Interest Rate field (IntRate) and a Years field for the user defined variables.  Then corresponding fields for the annual cost: TwoYear, FourYearIn (for instate tuition), FourYearOut (for out of state) and Private.  Then, I wanted to multiply each of these by 4 to get a total 4 year cost based on the future value calculation, so I created 4 more fields: TwoYearTotal, FourYearInTotal, FourYearOutTotal and PrivateTotal.  These 4 fields will use the simple calculation functionality that pretty much anyone can do if you’ve ever used basic Excel formulas.  The first 4 are more complex and involve creating some scripts, which may sound scary, but really aren’t that difficult once you get the basic jist of how they work.  Hopefully my code will help you logically think through the calculation so you can use the principles to create your own calculations.

This form consists of 10 fields. They are sized to fit perfectly in the table that was originally created in InDesign and exported to Acrobat.

It will also help you to give your fields names that make sense as you build out a complex formula, which I’ll show you below.

For each of the fields I created, I set the Text Field Properties to match what I created in InDesign.  Note that the tabs on the Text Field Properties box will give you a lot of formatting options including appearance, position, format and other stuff.  The main one that we’re going to focus on is the Calculate tab at the end.

Use the text field properties to format the data fields to match the formatting of the PDF.

Use the “Custom Calculation Script” field in the Text Field Properties box to add code for more complex calculations like this future value calculation.

Type (or copy) your code into the JavaScript editor in the Text Field Properties.

I’ll start with the more complicated calculation since you can probably figure out the simple calculation (but I’ll go over that below just in case).

Acrobat Pro DC allows you to create JavaScript code to embed in the field properties, so that’s how you’ll need to create a more advanced function.  By ‘more advanced’ I mean anything that’s got more than the basic 4 operators.  In this case, the future value calculation involves using an exponent, so that’s why I couldn’t use the basic function.

The basic Future Value calculation is Future Value = Present Value * ((1+ Interest Rate) ^ Years).  In this formula, there are 3 variables (with the Present Value being the published yearly tuition and fees today).

So here’s the code I used:

var interestField = this.getField("IntRate");
var yearsField = this.getField("Years");
var TwoYear = this.getField("TwoYear");
var FourYearIn = this.getField("FourYearIn");
var FourYearOut = this.getField("FourYearOut");
var Private = this.getField("Private");
var TwoYearTotal = this.getField("TwoYearTotal");
var FourYearInTotal = this.getField("FourYearInTotal");
var FourYearOutTotal = this.getField("FourYearOutTotal");
var PrivateTotal = this.getField("PrivateTotal");


function calculateFutureValue(intRate, years, pubRate) {
    return (Math.pow((1 + intRate), years) * pubRate);
}

function calculateTotalCost(rate, periods) {
   return (rate * periods)
}
 
if (interestField.value == '' || interestField.value == null) {
    interestField.value = 0;
}

if (yearsField.value == '' || yearsField.value == null) {
    yearsField.value = 0;
}

if (interestField.value != '' && interestField.value != null && yearsField.value != '' && yearsField.value != null) {
    if (interestField.value == 0 && yearsField.value == 0) {
        TwoYear.value = 0; FourYearIn.value = 0; FourYearOut.value = 0; Private.value = 0; TwoYearTotal.value = 0; FourYearInTotal.value = 0; FourYearOutTotal.value = 0; PrivateTotal.value = 0; 
    } else {
        TwoYear.value = calculateFutureValue(interestField.value, yearsField.value, 3347);
        FourYearIn.value = calculateFutureValue(interestField.value, yearsField.value, 9139);
        FourYearOut.value = calculateFutureValue(interestField.value, yearsField.value, 22958);
        Private.value = calculateFutureValue(interestField.value, yearsField.value, 31231);
        TwoYearTotal.value = calculateTotalCost(TwoYear.value, 4);
        FourYearInTotal.value = calculateTotalCost(FourYearIn.value, 4);
        FourYearOutTotal.value = calculateTotalCost(FourYearOut.value, 4);
        PrivateTotal.value = calculateTotalCost(Private.value, 4);
    }
} else {
    TwoYear.value = 0; FourYearIn.value = 0; FourYearOut.value = 0; Private.value = 0; Private.value = 0; TwoYearTotal.value = 0; FourYearInTotal.value = 0; FourYearOutTotal.value = 0; PrivateTotal.value = 0;
}

There are a couple things about this code that are important to point out.  It was written such that it will return the entire calculation for all of the calculation fields.  As an alternative, it could be written specifically for each calculated field, in which case the script/formula would be shorter, but different.  The way it’s coded above is such that you can assign it to either the 2 variable fields (Years, IntRate) OR you can assign it to each of the 4 calculated fields (TwoYear, FourYearIn, FourYearOut, Private), but not both sets of fields.  The choice is yours :).

To calculate the totals fields, this is a simple arithmetic calculation and you can use the Simplified Field Notation option in the Calculation tab on the Text Field Properties box.  Here you can use simple operators like you might find in Excel or Numbers to do basic formulas.  In the example, you can see that I’m multiplying the TwoYear field by 4.  With the Simplified Field Notation feature you can do basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division without having to code any scripts.

Use the Simplified Field Notation for simple arithmetic calculations.

And there you have it.  Special thanks to developer Jon Hart for helping to figure out this JavaScript code!

Working on a full size version of the rustic farmhouse bed that’s lately been getting a lot of traction.  Here’s a SketchUp model of the overall dimensions and I will soon have a detailed assembly schematic and cut list.  Since these take a little while to create, I wanted to go ahead and get an overview out there for the more ambitious folks who have been asking.

Rustic farmhouse bed – full size version!

The fill size box spring and mattress combo measures 54″ x 74″ so both the width and length of the original queen version change.

Because of the thinner header and footer (@ 59″ wide), I used 8 1×8 panels, but because they don’t divide evenly to the appropriate width for a full bed, the two end panels need to be trimmed down to 4 1/4”.  Remember nominal sizes vs. actual sizes… the nominal size of a 1×8 is actually 7 1/4” wide.

Also, note that the length of the bed rails is 76” instead of 82” for the queen & king.  That also changes the bed rail construction, particularly the “shelf” holding the 6 supporting 2×4 slats.  Cut a bridle joint 3 inches from each end then space the slat joints 9 51/64″ to evenly space them (Of course, if you’re not that anal about measurements to the 64ths, you can go with 9 3/4″).

More to come soon!

I have a fixation with pathways.  While others entertain themselves with the latest series’ on Netflix, I sit in front of my computer looking a aspirational landscaping pictures on Pinterest (or surfing documentaries, but that’s another story).  It’s hopeless.  I definitely need some help!

Ever since I moved into my current house, I’ve wanted to build a path in the backyard.  Our backyard has the features that could make for some really cool landscaping designs.  Just add hearty portions of time and money and season with some backbreaking manual labor and balzingly humid summer days!

That’s why it’s stayed pretty scruffy for almost 3 years now, until a friend of mine had some flagstone to get rid of, if I’d just be willing to haul it away.  That was the spark that I needed to get this project underway.

Our lot slopes down a fairly steep hill that bottoms out in a shady area where we’ve had a hard time getting the grass (or anything for that matter) to grow.  This area gets a decent amount of foot traffic because it’s the fastest path to take the trash out, but because of the slope of the yard and the lack of consistent sun, most of the topsoil has washed down leaving a rocky, clay mess.  I really don’t even like to go out there, unless I’m dreaming of turning into something cool.

On the left (looking up toward the deck steps) is a grungy hill that’s a catch all for leaves that I’ve blown off the deck. This strip of dirt seems to stay a mess although I suspect that it would be a great place for a row of hydrangeas which don’t need a ton of sun and could help with the erosion problem while adding a splash of  summer color to this otherwise drab spot.

The bottom of the hill runs up to a natural area that gets some shade for the better part of the day.  Depending on the weather, this is either a muddy bog or a dry, dusty and dirty area where moss and weeds and scrappy grass battle it out.  The moss is winning with the weeds not far behind.  This area needs a lot of TLC and probably a lot of lime as well!  Or I could dig it all up and build a pathway.  I’m opting for the latter.

The idea I have is to build some natural steps, probably with some railroad ties, leading down from the deck to a path that will run along the old fence and then open up into a patio by the big rocks, big enough for some lawn furniture and a fire pit and maybe, one day, some kind of gazebo.  This area is relatively flat and I’m hoping to create a clean barrier for the grass using the path and then turn the soggy bottom into a nice flower bed along the fence for shade loving plants.  Maybe add some outdoor lights and create a manicured, cultivated look.  All on a shoestring budget!

You can see from the markers where I’ve paid out the path.  The big space at the end is 16′ x 16′ and my idea is to use pea gravel to create my path and patio and maybe put the flagstone in the pea gravel to add some aesthetic interest.  Like many of these projects, I’m making up as I go, something I would definitely not recommend to anyone asking for advice!

Day 1

I’ve been perusing the internet for ideas and some basic instructions for a simple garden path and checking out some local gardens for ideas.  I’m pretty much a one man show as far as the labor force is concerned, so I’m going to take it one step at a time and keep it as simple as possible.  The first step is to dig up the grass along the path at the bottom of the hill, saving what I can to transplant.  I’ve measured my pathway to be 4 feet wide.  I did some reading and while there’s not really a “right” size for your path, most of the landscaping forums say that 2 people can walk comfortably side by side on a 4 foot path.

I’m going down about 1-2 inches on the left side of the path and a little less on the right in an attempt to keep the path as level as possible.  I don’t mind a little slope, left to right, because my theory is that I’ll need a little drainage.  Digging the pathway up is utterly back-breaking, especially for a guy who spends more time typing about projects on a computer that actually doing them!  I have a newfound appreciation for the guys who do this everyday!  Despite of the roots that I have to regularly stop and chop with a hatchet, the digging goes surprisingly well.  It just takes a long time!

Early this morning, I picked up a load of pea gravel (1/2 yard or 1 bobcat bucket) from a local landscape supply company.  I’m pleasantly surprised by how reasonable pea gravel is, which is part of why I even started this project in the first place.  A bucket of gravel, about the max I can fit in the back of my son’s old pickup without absolutely crushing the suspension, is about $23 and will cover 80 sf approximately 2″ deep.  I’m going to need about 4 times that for the whole project, but that’s going to take a few weeks.  Not only can the truck handle just one load at a time, that’s about all that I can manage in a day along with the digging and dirt hauling.

I also picked up a railroad tie for around $15.  I’m going to need another one of these to make a total of four 4″ stairs going up the hill, but again, there’s only so much I can do in one day!

The splurge for me on this project is the metal edging.  I bought these 8′ strips of steel landscaping edging for $10 a strip.  That’s a big investment, but they will be really durable and I’ve got some of the plastic stuff around other parts of the yard that I’ve found tear up pretty easily.  I want to have clean, manicured lines around my path and patio that I’m not going to have to replace anytime soon.  I’m hopeful these will do the trick.  I also sprung for the professional grade landscape fabric as a weed  & mud barrier, buying the 4′ wide roll to fit my path.

After digging and shaping the main path, I went ahead and placed the base railroad tie step.  Railroad ties are brutally heavy, so I’d recommend having someone help with moving them around.  My steps will be 4 feet wide, so I can make 2 out of an 8 foot railroad tie.  The creosote smell of them brings back old memories of being a kid and playing on railroad tracks (how dangerous was that!!) and I’m enjoying building the steps even though it’s a blazing humid inferno outside and I’ve already spent like three hours digging and hauling dirt.

The problem with cutting the railroad ties down to size is that they are thicker around than my circular saw can handle, so my strategy was to cut around each side of the tie with my saw blade as deep as I could get it and then make the final cut through with a reciprocating saw (or you could just as easily use a low-tech hand saw.

The tie is actually about 8 1/2 feet long so I have to go through the cutting exercise twice, measuring carefully with a carpenter’s square so my saw cuts line up.  That’s a bit of a challenge since used railroad ties aren’t exactly S4S!  But after some cutting and lugging and more digging to make sure my base step is level, I’m ready to start laying some gravel down on the main path section.

It’s around 1:00 and I’ve been hard at it since 8:00 this morning.  Finally some helpers start to show up!  We roll out the landscape fabric to cover the main pathway.  The idea here is to keep weeds and mud from getting up into the pea gravel.  This lays out nicely and I finally feel like the path is starting to take shape!

Next step is to lay out the steel edging and stake it down.  This sounds like it’s easy but it is not!  Not so much because the edging is itself hard to put down but because the stakes that are attached to each end need to be “popped off.”  After what amounts to working out for about 5 hours straight, there’s not a lot of strength left for breaking steel stakes off the end of the edging strips!

I’ve got just enough gas in the tank to lay a thin layer of gravel down and see how it’s going to look with the flagstone in it.  I’m not sure how much I like the stone/gravel look and need to decide if I want it to be just gravel or if I want to stick with the combo look, but I don’t have to decide that today.  I also need to work on how the path will terminate at the fence.  I didn’t really plan that out carefully, but I can easily see that this is an area that could get messy if I don’t work it out.  But that’s a job for next weekend!

Cheers!
Ed

Mud & pea gravel definitely don’t make for a nice garden path!

Today is actually not the 2nd consecutive day of my garden pathway!  I didn’t have quite as much time to invest this weekend and ran into a bit of trouble, so most of my work this time was repairing a section of the path and figuring out how to make a nice terminating end by the fence, which I hadn’t really thought through until I got into it.

The weather was rainy last week with a late afternoon thunderstorm every day.  I was pleased for the most part how the partially built pathway held up, but when I got out on Saturday morning to continue working on it, I noticed that the lower edge by what will become my stair steps was a mess.

I had used a bunch of rocks that I repurposed from being strewn around the backyard as a kind of border of one side of the path coming down the hill which you can see along the bottom of the the picture below.  But when the rain came, the dirt in my future flower bed turned to mud and oozed between the rocks into the pea gravel.

When I saw it, I pretty much jumped right into repair mode & didn’t take time to photograph it… sorry!  I scraped all of the muddy gravel up and hauled it to the driveway so I could figure out what to do about the problem & then deal with cleaning the gravel off.  This was a great lesson in providing drainage and an adequate solution for water flow and is something any landscape designer (which I am not!) knows about!

It was clear that the rocks wouldn’t cut it as an edge to the path, so I used one of my 8′ steel edging pieces to create a clean edge for the path.  But first, I had to move the landscaping fabric out of the way and do some clean-up of the dirt, and dig away enough of the left edge to put the metal edging in place between the bottom step and the fence.  That still left me with the question about how to end the path at the gate (or if I even wanted to end it there).

Since my path was 4 feet wide, I decided to use a couple of 4′ strips of edging (which yes, I had to go buy) to create an “L” shaped terminus for the path.  But this actually cleaned up, from a design perspective, the path very nicely and I was able to give this section of the path a very neat and finished look.

The thing that was clear to me (and this is a matter of personal preference) is that the edge of the garden path is much prettier with the edging creating a clean barrier than the rocks that I was trying to use, so I’m going to need to work that up on both sides of the “staircase.”

This repair job was quite the effort and took up a couple hours.  I wasn’t able to get much more done on the other side of the path except for moving more dirt in the patio area.  But at least the rain and little mudslide forced me to find a solution to a nagging problem that I had been mulling over for the week!

Next weekend is supposed to be HOT, so I’ll try to get at it early in the morning and knock out as much as I can in the patio area.

Cheers!

I’m making some great progress on the patio!  Getting up and at it before the heat really cranks up is the key, I’m finding out.  Even at 7:00 in the morning it’s 80 degrees and at least 80% humidity.  I’m soaked with sweat just walking around planning what I’m going to try to get done this morning!

The work would go a lot faster with some heavy equipment like a bobcat, but alas, I don’t have one and since I only have a few hours a week at a time to work on it, it wouldn’t really make sense to rent one.  But after working to level out about 400 square feet (including the pathway) using hand tools, I have a new appreciation of what real equipment could do for me!

But even so, I’m making considerable progress.  After repairing the mudslide last week, I’m back on the patio and spent my time digging and leveling the main area.  Because of the slope of the yard, I’ve had to go down 6-8 inches on the upper side of the patio, past the topsoil into much harder clay.  Again, I’m no landscape architect, but I left a slight slope to the patio to promote drainage.  Also, I was able to get the steel edging installed around the perimeter of the patio.

I’ve re-purposed the topsoil to use for a flower bed between the path and the fence.  The plan at this point is to mix some flowers, herbs and maybe larger decorative plants next to the pathway, but because this area gets a mix of sun and shade, I’ll need to get some ideas from the folks at the garden center on what I should use that will be both functional and pretty.  I’d really like to use this for some fresh herbs, but I’m not really sure how they would do there.

After getting the dirt moved and the patio area levelled pretty well, it’s time to put down the landscaping fabric and get ready to start spreading the pea gravel.  Or at least, that was the plan until I realized that I’d made a measuring mistake and didn’t have enough fabric!  Which was actually ok, since by this time I was pretty spent and it’s getting really hot.

I’m also pretty sure that I don’t really like the flagstone sitting in the gravel.  I’m developing another potential plan for the flagstone involving stairs built into the slope between some of the rocks surrounding the patio, but that’s an idea for another project…

Landscaping staples make laying this fabric so much easier. Definitely worth the extra $10!

I kicked off another weekend by putting a few hours in on my pathway.  I’m continuing to make slow but deliberate progress!  I’ve made a few decisions that have changed my original plan.  First, I decided that I really don’t like the flagstone in the pathway and I plan to repurpose it to build some stairs and a veranda next to the patio by the big rocks.  Also, I decided that I really don’t like the bright white pea gravel as much as I’d like a more brown color.  Lastly, I’ve decided that the pea gravel by itself rolls around a bit too much, so I want a bed of crushed gravel to create more of a substantial base so that the gravel locks together more!

That’s the benefit of working on the project a little bit at a time!  The path area will ultimately need 3 yards of gravel to finish the project.  So far, I have only spread one yard of the white pea gravel, so I’m still in good shape.  My old pickup can only handle a half-yard of gravel per run and so I made a couple runs to get crushed gravel instead and mixed that in with the white creating a pretty good base.  I can already tell that it’s much more firm than it was when walking on it and particularly when rolling a full wheelbarrow over it.  The brown has toned down the white and confirmed that I really want to use the brown gravel as my top layer.  That will take me two more loads… hopefully just one more weekend!

I also moved all the flagstone to the side and I like the clean pathway much better!  I think that the flagstone will make a really cool stairway built into the ground leading up the hill and I’m planning on tackling that one as soon as I get the pathway done.  Things are really shaping up and I can already imagine sitting out there on fall weekend evenings with a fire pit and some rustic outdoor furniture!  I know it’s pretty bare now while I’m in construction mode, but in my mind I can see it lined with a variety of flowers, flowering bushes and herbs and illuminated in the evening with soft outdoor lighting.

Got some ideas or thoughts?  I’d love to hear them!

My summer (and my pathway) got away from me a bit with a few unexpected events that took up a handful of my weekends.  But such is life and projects will always be there!  So after my brief hiatus, I was able to finish up the project.  I’m labelling this “Day 5” and so it is, but it certainly wasn’t 5 consecutive days!  I do have longer term aspirations that include raised beds for flowers, herbs and edibles complete with benches and lights, but that will have to wait for more time and more money!

When last I posted, I reversed course a little and worked in some crushed gravel to give the pea gravel a little more stability and “bite”.  But I still had the issue of building steps on the hill and then finishing things off so that I could feel good about bringing this phase of the project to an end.  I built the steps by cutting 8′ with railroad ties in half.  That was a project in and of itself that included a skil saw and a reciprocating saw and then a pruning say when the battery ran out of that.

Using the reciprocating saw to finish the job

When the reciprocating saw batteries died, I finished with a pruning saw!

I found that the biggest challenges with building the steps are getting the spacing right, having an adequate “rise & run” that isn’t too short or too long and then making sure that the steps are level.

The hill I was working with had a 3 foot drop to the top of the base step that I had already laid over a span of 12 1/4′.  Since the railroad ties were about 7″ thick, that worked out to 5 additional steps in addition to the one that the bottom, making the treads right at 29″.

The soil in this area was pretty rocky, so levelling the ground for each railroad tie took a good bit of work and some landscaping sand to even things out.  I also covered the ground with landscaping fabric and added the steel edging to keep my gravel contained.

To bring this project to a decent stopping point until I can work on lighting and raised beds and get some outdoor furniture, I bought a truckload of mulch – so much cheaper this way! – and used that to give the path a nice finished look.

So I’m please with the result.  What was previously an unsightly patch of mangey weeds and dirt is now a functional space with lots of potential to become a relaxing outdoor room.  Just add furniture, a fire pit and maybe – if I’m feeling really ambitious – some kind of overhead trellis.  Complete with café lights.  Yea, now you’re talkin’!

After way too much time, I’ve finally compiled and released a downloadable project plan for the Kendal Extra Wide Dresser project.  You can access the plan page from any one of the blog posts or you can go straight there from here.  Star Wars Legos are not included… sorry!

When building my Kendal Extra Wide Dresser, I was also simultaneously building another smaller Emerson 3 drawer dresser.  This classic dresser style is so versatile and can be used in just about any setting for either children or adults and is a great project for someone just getting into woodworking with maybe one or two previous projects under their belt.  While I stained the Kendal dresser for a more rustic look, my plan for the Emerson is to paint it white and give it to my daughter to compliment her multi-colored room!

The dresser frame construction in this project is very similar to the Kendal dresser, with the legs made from 2x2s and 3/4″ plywood and the frame and supports mostly made from 1x2s.  The dresser top is also similar in that I used 3/4″ plywood with some 1×3 trim around the edges.  The trim is optional, but nicely covers the edges of the plywood for a more finished look.  The same thing could easily be accomplished with some thin strips cut from 1x boards, so if you generally follow this plan, you’ve got options.

I also made the drawers out of 1/2″ plywood with 3/4″ face panels.  A lot of the dresser plans on the internet use 3/4″ boards to make drawers and while they’re a little easier to join and you can more easily screw or nail the drawer bottoms on the bottom of the drawer panels,  I think that makes the drawers a little more chunky and heavy.  I prefer the 1/2″ board construction with dado grooves holding the drawer bottoms in place.  I’ll walk you through the construction below.

As with my other plans, I’ve uploaded a complete 3D model of the dresser built in SketchUp.  SketchUp is free and you can download my plan and modify it as you like.  If you need some basic instructional videos on how to use SketchUp, there’s a ton out there on YouTube.  Here are some that I made.

I’ve also created a printable PDF version of this plan which you can purchase for $5.  It’s all the info from the blog posts, but I’ve compiled it for easy printing and included shopping lists, cut diagrams and helpful pictures.  Basically, if you want a handy printable version so you don’t have to get sawdust all over your iPad, you might consider purchasing this download.

Cut List – Dresser Top & Frame

• 1 – 1/4″ Plywood @ 39″ x 28 1/2″ (dresser back)
• 2 – 3/4″ Plywood @ 28 1/2″ x 15 1/2″ (dresser sides)
• 1 – 3/4″ Plywood @ 36″ x 15 1/2″ (dresser top)
• 3 – 1x2s @ 36″ long (dresser face frame)
• 3 – 1x2s @ 15 1/2″ (top supports)
• 1 – 1×2 @ 16 1/4″ (bottom support)
• 3 – 1x4s @ 36″ (back supports)
• 2 – 1x3s @ 20 1/2″ (top trim)
• 2 – 1x3s @ 41″ (top trim)
• 2 – 2x2s @ 36″ (frame supports)
• 2 – 2x2s @ 33 1/2″ (dresser legs)

Cut List – Drawers

• 3 – 1/4″ Plywood @ 34 1/2″ x 15 1/2″ (drawer bottoms)
• 3 – 8″ wide 1x boards @ 35 3/4″ (drawer faces) – you may find 8″ wide project boards, but you’ll more likely need to buy 1×10 boards and rip them to 8″ with a table saw.
• 6 – 1/2″ Plywood @ 34″ x 5 1/2″ (drawer frame)
• 6 – 1/2″ Plywood @ 16″ x 5 1/2″ (drawer frame)
• 6 – 5/16″ Pine Lattice @ 35 3/4″ (drawer trim)
• 6 – 5/16″ Pine Lattice @ 8″ (drawer trim)

Cut diagram for the frame and top

Cut diagram for the drawers

Shopping List

• 1 – 3/4″ plywood @ 4′ x 8′ – Buy a nice sanded hardwood plywood since this will be the sides and top of your dresser.  You will only use about half of the plywood.  If you can find a half sheet (4′ x 4′) that will work!
• 1 – 1/2″ plywood @ 4′ x 8′ – This is for your drawer boxes.
• 1 – 1/4″ plywood @ 4′ x 8′ – This will be for your drawer bottoms and the back of the dresser
• 2 – 1x2s @ 8′ select pine or hardwood boards
• 2 – 1x4s @ 8′ select pine or hardwood boards
• 2 – 1x3s @ 6′ select pine or hardwood boards
• 3 – 2x2s @ 8′
• 2 – 1x10s @ 6′ – These are for the drawer faces and will be ripped to 8″ wide.  If you can find 8″ project boards, that will work as well.
• 3 – 5/16″ pine lattice @ 8′

Cutting Your Wood

I recommend that you have the store make initial cuts on your plywood when you buy it.  These will be your dresser top and the sides.  This makes the work at home much easier (unless you have a table saw large enough to handle a full sheet of plywood!) and also helps with transportation.  The folks at Home Depot or Lowes will do this for you, but make sure that they measure carefully and get the cuts exactly… you don’t want that 1/8″ thick saw blade to turn your 15 1/2″ strip into a 15 3/8″ strip!

*Ripping wood means cutting it in the direction of the grain.  Cutting against the grain is referred to as “cross-cutting.”

I would also suggest that you wait to do your cross cuts until you’ve built the dresser frame and measure them individually.  Even the best measured plans are dealing with wood which can contract or expand slightly based on humidity.  Measuring the drawers individually takes a little longer but may save you some work in the long run.

Constructing the Frame

Before we get started, here’s a vision of the frame so you can see what we’re going for.  I’ve added measurements so you can make sure you cut your 1x2s and 2x2s appropriately.

Here’s a picture of the frame “skeleton” so you can get a good visual of how it’s constructed.

Once you’ve cut your plywood sides, the 4 2×2 legs and the frame (which consists of your 2x2s and 1x2s), you’ll want to drill your pocket holes all together.  This takes a little while and I’ve definitely found it helpful to knock all this out at one time.

You’ll use pocket holes to attach the plywood sides to the legs as well as to the dresser top.  For the top, the screws will actually attach to the trim, so that’s why my plan has additional cross supports to attach the dresser top (more on that later).

Side panel & frame supports with pocket holes

You’ll notice that my wood looks really different in these pictures.  That’s because I used a good bit of “reclaimed” wood to build this particular dresser (you’ll see my Kendal dresser that I was building with it in the background!)

A note on the hardware… when attaching the 3/4″ boards to other 3/4″ stock, you’ll use 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws.  When attaching 2x2s to other 2x2s, you’ll use 2″ pocket hole screws.  Make sure that when you are drilling your pocket holes that you measure and make adjustments to your Kreg Jig and the drill bit itself or you’ll end up drilling a hole in your jig (like I did!)

Notice in the frame construction that I used 2x2s for the top rear and bottom front frame supports.  Be sure to carefully follow the plan!

Also notice that the bottom 1×2 support is a different length (16 1/4″) from the top 1×2 supports (15 1/2″).

The cross supports (I’m using 3 on the top and 1 on the bottom) are different sizes because the back frame has a 2×2 on the top, but 3/4″ thick 1x4s on the bottom.

Frame Assembly

I’ll start this section out with a few pointers on constructing the frame:

• Sand your wood before assembling everything.  Sanding is the biggest pain and I like to try and knock it all out at once.  It makes a total mess in the garage or workshop ir basement or wherever.  Also, make sure you sand after you drill your pocket holes since they will leave rough areas around the holes.  Even though these will generally be hidden, it’s good form!
• Second, glue all your joints with a good quality wood glue before joining them with screws.
• Third, notice that the inside of the side panels – the side you drilled the pocket holes on – attach flush to the edge of the 2×2 legs.  Be careful here!  This can create some aggravation when you’re trying to clamp the sides to the legs to attach.  Don’t make the mistake of assembling with the outside facing side of dresser panel flush with the edge of the legs.  The inside facing side of the panel should be the side flush with the edge of the legs.

You may also find that you like certain sides of your legs and want a particular face to be more visible, especially if you’re staining the dresser, so take care to make sure that the legs are attached such that the best faces are visible.

Start with the side panels for the dresser:

Here’s what they will look like.  This is a view of both the left and right outsides of the dresser panels.  Note that the sides are flush with the inside of the legs.

I found that the 90° Kreg clamps are really useful when joining the legs.  They’re a little more expensive than basic clamps, but well worth the investment to make your project go smoothly!

Using a Kreg clamp to hold the dresser legs to the panel for joining

Another look at the inside of the drawer sides.  Note that I drilled the pocket holes on the inside of the panel which is flush with the inside face of the legs.

Inside of the side panel should be flush to the edge of the dresser legs

Next, attach the back supports, again with pocket hole screws.  Your frame will look like this.  Remember that the top rear support is a 2×2 while the bottom 3 are 1x4s.

Another shot of using the right angle Kreg clamp to get a solid joint.

I don’t know how I managed without this thing before!

Using the Kreg Right Angle clamp is a major time saver!

Next, attach the front base support.  This is another 2×2 board.

The bottom frame support is slightly longer than the top frame supports.  This is because the front frame support is a 2×2 and the back is a 1×4 whereas the top is a 1×2 placed horizontally across from a 2×2 so the distance spanning the top and bottom (for the supports) is different by 3/4″.

Attach the 1×2 face frame supports with wood glue and pocket hole screws:

Here are the 15 1/2″ top supports which will help support the dresser top.  Again, attach with pocket hole screws.  And yes, you might have to do some arm gymnastics to drill your pocket hole screws in.  The regular Kreg clamps will be a lot of help when it comes to  attaching the frame support.

Dresser Top Construction

In my Emerson Dresser version, I’ve constructed the top from 3/4″ plywood trimmed with 1×3 boards cut at mitered angles.  This will require some precision cutting with your miter saw and while I think it makes for a nice decorative top, you can certainly trim the top with butt joints (i.e. non-mitered joints) instead.

Also, I’ve linked a video here that will show you some tips on setting your miter saw to cut at 45° angles so you don’t have gaps.

Here’s the schematic for the top:

Top assembled with measurements:

After cutting the trim pieces, I drilled pocket holes on each face.  Additionally, I’m using a biscuit joiner to align the trim pieces with the plywood top board.  This way you can make sure that the whole top of the dresser is flush and minimize any additional sanding.  You’re pretty certain to find that the trim pieces and the plywood have slightly different thicknesses, even through they are both supposed to be 3/4″ thick!

I used both the pocket hole jig and the biscuit joiner to join the trim to the dresser top.

It’s also important to attach your trim with the appropriate sides facing the top.  It’s easy to make an error here if you’re not paying attention.  I suggest writing the surface face on your wood when assembling it.

Dresser top and trim pieces

Here’s a shot of the fully constructed top (bottom side facing up so you can see the pocket holes.  If you’ve got access to long clamps like the ones shown, that’s great.  If you have a Harbor Freight in your area, that’s a great place to find inexpensive clamps!

Attaching trim to the dresser top with pocket hole screws and wood glue.

Drawer Construction

Emerson Dresser drawer with trim

After building out the frame and the dresser top, I moved to the drawer construction.  I chose to make the 3 dresser drawers out of 1/2″ plywood which to me made the drawers feel slightly more spacious and also to be less heavy.  I used pocket holes to join the drawer sides to the front and back and for the bottom, I used 1/4″ plywood fitted into dado grooves cut 1/4″ deep and also 1/4″ up from the bottom of the drawer frame.  While you can certainly just glue and nail/screw the drawer bottom to the bottom of the drawer frame, I think the dado method provides a little more support.

The drawers are also constructed so that there’s a 1/2″ gap between the sides of the drawers and the side of the dresser so that the drawer slides will fit.  Because of the importance of a correct fit, I would also strongly recommend that you build the drawers after you’ve completed the frame assembly to compensate for variations in the frame measurements.  Unless you’re an engineer and make everything perfectly (and you’ve got perfect wood, which I’m convinced doesn’t actually exist!), you’re probably going to have some slight variation in your frame construction.

It’s really the front and back drawer boards that you need to really pay attention to.  Since the drawer depth will all be the same, you can cut your drawer sides all together.

Drawer box pieces with the dado groove

Don’t be intimidated by cutting dado grooves.  It’s really not difficult.  You just need to have the appropriate tools, be patient, measure correctly and test your cuts!  I have used this Freud dado blade set on a number of projects and think it’s a great value for what you get.

Freud dado blade

Here’s the schematic for the drawers.  I suggest using wood glue in the dado grooves as well as your pocket hole screws on the drawer panels for additional strength.

1/2″ plywood drawer boxes are cut with a dado that is 1/4″ from the bottom and 1/4″ deep.

Also, make sure that when you drill your pocket holes, you drill them on the outside of the drawer panels.

Drawer box panels with pocket holes

Start by joining the drawer sides to the back leaving the front off in order to insert the drawer bottom.

Start by attaching the back and 2 sides of the drawer together with wood glue and pocket hole screws.  Then you’ll slide the drawer bottom into the dado and attach the drawer front.  With the drawers, as with the frame, you’ll find the Kreg right angle clamp pretty indispensable.  However, it can be a challenge clamping the pieces so they don’t slide when trying to attach them.  For these drawer box panels, I used a block of scrap wood and a clamp to stop the panel from creeping in when screwing.  The Kreg clamp that I used on the frame legs is a little heavy duty for this 1/2″ plywood, so I found this method, while requiring a little balance with your hands lining things up and clamping, to be much easier.

Another shot of a partially assembled drawer. In this shot I went ahead and inserted the drawer bottom for additional support.

Next, run a bead of wood glue down each dado and slide the drawer bottom into place.

Notice that the drawer bottom is inset. This is because the front panel will butt joint to the insides of the side panels.

Next, attach the front of the drawer, again with wood glue and pocket screws.

Next, attach the front drawer panel and secure with wood glue and pocket hole screws.

Your construction will look like this.  The reason you want the pocket holes on the outside of the drawer panels is so that you won’t see them on the inside of the drawer.  Once the drawer face panel is attached, you won’t really see the holes, unless you’re looking for them.  You can also fill them with wood filler if you’re so inclined.

Front drawer panel attached to the side. Remember, the front is inset into the sides so the length of side panels is the same as the depth of the drawer. Pocket holes are also cut in the front and back panels.

Next you’ll want to attach the faceplate to the drawers.  Here’s where I’m going to again suggest that you measure and cut each face panel individually.  This will take a little longer, but since these drawers are inset into the face frame of the dresser, it’s important to get the measurements right so the gaps around the drawers look consistent when they are closed.  TO do that, measure the width and height of each drawer space in the dresser frame and cut accordingly.

The drawer trim is made from pine lattice.  You can buy strips of lattice at Home Depot or Lowes and you’ll find them in the moulding section.  You’ve got a few options; they come in pine either unfinished or finished or you can find them in a synthetic material like PVC.  The benefit to the PVC is that they are perfectly straight.  You may also find them in PVC with a laminate that’s supposed to be stainable and paintable.  They’re probably great, but I’ve stuck to the old school pine ones.  I guess I’m just afraid that the paint will peel over time.

The drawer trim is made from 5/16″ thick pine lattice strips cut to size with mitered corners.

Like the dresser top, you can either miter the corners at 45° angles or you can butt joint them together depending on the look you want.

I used pre-primed lattice trim pieces.

Check out those precision cuts!

You’ll want to use wood glue and finishing nails to attach the lattice.  Here I’m being creative in holding the lattice pieces down while the glue dries!

Gluing the drawer face trim and setting with something heavy, in this case some paint cans

Here I’ve got both dressers laid out for additional sanding!

Attaching the Drawer Slides

Adding the drawer slides can be a little tedious, but it’s not particularly hard. In my opinion it’s better to add the slides after assembling the frame so you can make any minor adjustments that are necessary.  But doing that does involve contorting yourself so you can measure, hold the slides in place and screw them in.  It would be really helpful if you have 3 hands for this step! I’m using 16″ bottom mount drawer slides for the drawers.

For attaching the drawer slides, it will be helpful to have an awl to mark your screw holes in the dresser side.  This will enable you to start the screw slightly with your hand before you screw or drill it in.  When you’re trying to reach in between the drawer face frame to attach these things, you’ll see what I’m talking about!

I’m using an old strip of 1/4″ wood underneath the drawer slide.  This is so that the bottom of the drawer is not flush to the face frame and there’s a little space to ensure that the drawer opens and closes smoothly.  You can measure this out, but I think it’s easier to use a spacer.  That will ensure that your spacing is exact for every drawer.  Make sure that your slide is level!

Here’s a shot of the bottom mounted slide on the drawer.  Once you get the first drawer in, you’re going to have this amazing sense of accomplishment!  Making drawers seem like it’s a really complicated thing, but if you break it down step by step like I’m illustrating here, you’ll be making awesome drawers in no time at all!

Tackling the Drawer Face Panels

Now you should have your drawers made, your drawer face panels trimmed with lattice and it’s time to do the final drawer assembly.  That means drilling a hole for the drawer pull in the center of the drawer panel and then attaching the drawer face so that it fits precisely into the face frame of the dresser.

Drawer illustrated with attached face. This will be inset into the dresser frame.

Below you’ll see my drawer pull and a couple drill bits.  I’m drilling the hole in my face frame with the drill bit in the middle.  Then I’ll drill my hole in the front of the drawer using the larger 1/4″ drill bit.  The reason I’m doing this is to give the drawer face a little “wiggle room” when using the spacers to position it.  This will make more sense in a few minutes.

You’re going to need drawer pulls and a couple drill bits.

Use your tape measure to mark the vertical and horizontal center of the drawer panel:

It’s fine to use a hand drill to make this initial hole, but if you have access to a drill press, that will guaranty that you get a perfectly perpendicular hole.

Drawer face with hole for the drawer pull.

There are lots of posts on the internet about how to get a perfect fit with your drawer face panel, but the method I’ll use is to slide each drawer into it’s place, use craft sticks (or tongue depressors) to space the drawer face in the frame and against the drawer, then use a hand drill to drill the hole – through the face panel hole which I’ve already drilled – into the drawer front board.  This makes sure that the holes for the drawer pull are aligned and also when I attach the pull it will basically hold the face panel to the drawer (along with glue & nails of course!).

Before I actually attach the drawer pull, I’ll take the drawer out and using a slightly larger 1/4″ drill bit, I’ll “overdrill” the drawer front, making the original hole a little larger.  This will allow me to make very slight adjustments to the drawer face even after I’ve attached it with the drawer pull.

Here’s the method that I used for fitting the face frame drawers into the face.

Oh… and One Last Drawer Step

This is a totally optional one, but I wanted to create a sectional divider in the top draw of this dresser.  For this I used some of the leftover 1/4″ plywood to cut some thin strips and a divider.  I glued the thin strips to the inside front and back of the drawer making a slot for the divider to slide down into so I can remove it if I want to.

Drawer divider pieces

Here’s the top drawer finished with the divider panel. This is, of course, optional.

Here’s a shot of the fully constructed dresser and drawers before a final sanding and painting.  We’re on the home stretch!

Here’s the dresser with the drawers completed, awaiting the painting!

Painting & Finishing

Upside down view showing the internal construction and top attachment.

Painting the dresser top

The dresser, primed and painted, ready for coats of polyurethane

If you like this plan, consider my printable PDF version which you can purchase for $5.  It’s all the info from this post formatted so you can print off the sections you want, included shopping lists, cut diagrams and helpful pictures.  Basically, if you want a handy printable version so you don’t have to get sawdust all over your iPad, you might consider purchasing this download!

Here’s the dresser set up and ready for decorating!

I just finished a video on using Adobe After Effects to re-create an animated text effect that I see every time I look at videos on my Weather Channel app on my iPhone.  I really like the effect and wanted to use for a project and it may help you too. It’s a simple “reveal animation” where a line appears written on the screen and then text appears above then below the line making for a quick and stylish way to use text to enhance what’s happening in the video.

This is a pretty simple effect to create in After Effects, and one that is both really useful and a good exercise to learn some basic concepts in the program such as keyframes, the track matte function and the trim paths parameter.

For those who’d like to watch the final part of the same project where I “reverse engineer” the animation effect, here’s that video:

Ever need to look up data in one Google sheet and use that to populate a different Google sheet?  It’s pretty easy to do, but you need to use the VLOOKUP function and the IMPORTRANGE function and it takes 2 steps:

For those who don’t want to watch a video on it, here’s the step by step process:

1. Open both Google Sheets in 2 separate tabs or 2 windows if you’ve got the display space.  One of them will be your source sheet and one will be your destination sheet.
2. Link the spreadsheets together with the =IMPORTRANGE() function.  For the “Spreadsheet_URL” variable, use the identification string for the source sheet.  That’s the long alphanumeric string in the source sheet URL.
3. Here’s the syntax: =IMPORTRANGE(“unique sheet identification”,”tab name!range”).  Make sure that you don’t have any typos in the tab name, that you use the ! between the tab and the range and when typing the range have a : between the start cell and the end cell.  Refer to the video or the graphic for a visual walkthrough.  It will help you to copy the IMPORTRANGE formula into a notes application or somewhere out of the way on your sheet.
4. The formula will return REF# in the cell, but if you hover or click the cell, you’ll be prompted to allow the destination sheet to access the source sheet.  Once you allow access, the entire range will be copied into the destination sheet.  You can delete all of the data since the 2 sheets are now linked.
5. In the destination sheet, use the VLOOKUP formula as you normally would, however for the range variable you will use the entire IMPORTRANGE formula for that argument.  Remember to use the $ in the source range to keep the range fixed if you’re going to be copying the formula to other cells.

I hope you’ve found this helpful!

I’m in the middle of creating plans for another piece of furniture that has a number of pocket hole joints.  I thought it might be helpful for some of my woodworking readers who also like to use SketchUp to put together a really quick tutorial on putting 3D renderings of pocket holes into your models.  This comes in handy where you have joints where you’re using pocket holes on multiple sides and you want to drill your holes so that the screws don’t hit each other.

I threw this together pretty quickly while working on my plan so please accept my apologies if I ramble a little.  In this tutorial, I’m using a “1x” piece of wood (remember that’s nominal size and the actual size is 3/4″ thick).

I’m grateful for the component that Tim D. added to the SketchUp 3D Warehouse.  This is one of many sizes that he created and here’s the 3/4″ pocket hole:

You can link back to it in the warehouse and see his other components there.

If we are called by God to be culture makers through the creation mandate and within the context of the second commandment, how then shall we live?  In lesson 5 of Christ and Culture, Ike Reeder explores the approaches of 2 great thinkers, J. Gresham Machen and C.S. Lewis.  Join Ike as he unpacks their writings on the impact that engaged Christians can can have on our culture.

You can download the audio file here.  Please note that this is a fairly large audio file (approx. 53MB).

Follow Along With Ike’s Slides

The Apostle Paul exhorts us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God. However, the way we express this out in our day to day lives and in our relationships with others can look very different depending on our philosophical approach to the broader culture. In this episode, join Ike as he concludes our study of C.S. Lewis’ “suburbs of Jerusalem” and explores Richard Neibuhr’s 5 categories or approaches to Christ and Culture.

You can download the audio file here.  Please note that this is a fairly large audio file (approx. 50MB).

Follow Along With Ike’s Slides