dan makes stuff, too

It's high time I shared some of the projects Dan has been working on around the house!

First up, Dan built us this digital family calendar. True, our schedule has been depressingly empty over the last month, but before that, this was really helping us keep ourselves organized. It's also been useful for teaching Mae the days of the week, and she loves to check the weather forecast and temperature every morning! Dan built this from a Raspberry Pi Zero. The display is made from an LCD screen he removed from my old laptop, and the operating system is powered by Dakboard, which displays our shared iPhone calendars on this device and rotates through backgrounds sourced from my Instagram account. He built the wooden frame to hold all the components, and now it hangs in the kitchen so we can use it every day!

Here's a picture of the guts.

For Christmas this year, my parents bought Dan a miter saw and table saw. His first project was to build this work table. It has a recessed spot to hold the table saw, a big workspace, and shelving for storage.

Two little projects were next. These playing card holders have been ESSENTIAL for our current work-from-home situation. We have played countless games of Uno. These help Mae's tiny hands to manage a lot of cards (and for us to keep our cards on display while we work on our laptops).

Okay, I know this post is all about Dan's projects, but I have to share a little one of mine since we're talking about Uno here. Growing up, my aunt had made us a plastic canvas box to hold our Uno cards. With how frequently we've been playing, I was getting frustrated with our small cardboard box (and nostalgic for my childhood), so I made one for us! It’s much easier to manage this big deck of cards now.

Lastly, Dan built this little wall-mounted bookshelf for Mae. I recently cleaned and repainted our "Harry Potter closet" (the little storage space underneath our stairs) so it could be a hidey-hole for Mae. Dan built the shelf and then painted it with Mae. So cute! We also bought a bean bag chair for her, which has been useful both in the closet and in the basement when we have to take her downstairs in the middle of the night for tornado warnings!

Next up, Dan is going to build us a storage solution for the laundry baskets in our bedroom. I'm excited to see the result!