Category: craftsmanship

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This Hand-Made Darth Vader Grill Will Ensure Your Next BBQ Is a Big Hit

Summer is almost here and as long as the cicadas don’t get you, that means grilling season!

Star Wars fans take notice, nerd culture is alive and well, and there is a grill or fire pit out there just for you.

Etsy is simply the best for shopping small and finding incredible hand-made crafts, and this grill is no exception.

Artist and entrepreneur Burned by Design from Barnsley in Yorkshire, England has designed a grill and fire pit in the shape of Darth Vader’s helmet.

The charcoal grill is completely unique!

As described by Delish.com:

The grill is about 17.3 by 17.3 by 30.7 inches, and comes with three chrome-plated swivel racks.

and because they are hand-made to order, they take about a month to deliver.

But just look at the Imperial glory that could set your next backyard cookout above the rest:

I mean come on:

And if The Betrayer isn’t really your Star Wars jam, there are other wood-burner options to choose from.

So whether you’re a fan of Boba Fett, R2D2, or the Mandalorian, there’s something here for you.

Prices range from in the $600s for a smaller-sized wood burner to the $700s for the Vader grill and all the way up to $1200+ for some of the larger spacecraft-inspired fire pits.

That’s right. You can hang with your friends and watch for meteors seated around your very own Death Star.

And just in case you are more Rebel-Alliance-minded, there is a Millennium Falcon fire pit, too.

I think I’ve been doing summer wrong for years. Time to hit up Etsy.

What do you think? Did these make you long for summer and nerding out with your BFFs? Tell us what you think in the comments.

The post This Hand-Made Darth Vader Grill Will Ensure Your Next BBQ Is a Big Hit appeared first on UberFacts.

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UFO Chicken Coop Raises Arts and Crafts to a New Level

I think I’m medium-crafty. I knit and crochet. Last year I sewed a LOT of face masks.

But I don’t take on large, ambitious projects that can’t be easily unraveled.

So I am super impressed by people who build actual things, and I loved the story of one couple who took nerdom and crafting to a whole new level.

Back in 2017, Ellen (née DeAngelis) and Brett Wilson of Boise, Idaho expanded their chicken flock.

And as any poultryman knows, chickens need a coop for roosting and to keep them safe from predators.

Being self-described “UFO nerds,” Brett and Ellen came up with a pretty cool plan.

They documented the whole process over on Backyard Chickens so that like-minded and ambitious chicken keepers could do the same.

We quickly determined that the satellite dish would be a stellar foundation. We located two 10 foot dishes on our local Craigslist page and jumped straight into this project.

I didn’t even know you could buy giant satellite dishes on Craigslist, but I guess that’s why I don’t have an awesome chicken coop.

My favorite part of their plan were the mods that they did to make the saucer extra homey and spaceship-like:

We cut window holes for windows and screwed in 6″ acrylic surveillance camera covers we found on ebay. They work perfectly!

They added a laminated wood floor, which can be easily removed for extra cleaning.

After that, the couple cut-to-size 1″ styrofoam insulation, because it’s Idaho and chickens don’t exactly live in igloos.

Next step was covering the insulation with a waterproof barrier. We chose a roofing material similar to tar paper called roofing felt at the local box store.

We cut pie shaped pieces and covered the craft…. hitting the seams with a hardy roofing tape. We then covered the craft with an Aluminum paint to provide waterproofing and a classic UFO color.

This paint is designed for roofing and would also help keep the coop cool in the Summer by reflecting light away.

We had to air the coop out for several days to eliminate any harmful fumes that may be lingering.

I’m just saying, these are some pretty pampered chickens.

After the satellite dishes, the next most ingenious step was placing the whole thing on top of an 8′ trampoline to protect the flock from coyotes and other predators.

Lights were the final touch to truly make it look like a spaceship! (and definitely the best part)

We used 2″ clear tubing to house the LED lights and put the power source on the back hatch door.

The lights are individually addressable LEDs with a 5v 4a power supply controlled by an Arduino mega.

When winter arrived, they added some additional heat that could be monitored remotely using RaspberryPi.

What an amazing home for their chickens.

For Halloween one year, they put out inflatable aliens and more lights, and they were the hit of Boise.

Their next big project was an indoor/outdoor playground for their house cats, which looks like it was also a great success.

Clearly, I need to up my craft game because this is next level creativity!

What do you think? Do they win Pet Owners of the Year?

Be sure to hit us up in the comments!

The post UFO Chicken Coop Raises Arts and Crafts to a New Level appeared first on UberFacts.

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A Handyman Made the Secret Boozy Staircase of Our Drunken Dreams

What would you include in your dream home? A pool? A library? Maybe something entirely novel?

Consider this idea. Murray Berrill of Murray Berril Constructions in Victoria, Australia has made quite a splash on social media with an unusual staircase that holds a delightful hidden secret.

Posted by Murray Berrill Constructions on Wednesday, April 1, 2020

The handyman custom-made the stairs for his sister’s home, and included a wonderfully creative surprise. You can see what appear to be drawers built into the stairs throughout. A clever storage solution, maybe?

Posted by Murray Berrill Constructions on Wednesday, April 1, 2020

But these drawers aren’t for just any purpose. Each one is designed as a sort of segmented wine-rack; the stairs double as a wine cellar. (Insert bad joke about a 12 step program here.)

Posted by Murray Berrill Constructions on Wednesday, April 1, 2020

With all 12 drawers combined, the staircase can hold more than 150 wine bottles, which would be impressive for any storage area, much less one so cleverly hidden away.

Ah, that's looking better Shaun and Trilby langdon

Posted by Murray Berrill Constructions on Saturday, April 18, 2020

Lovers of both booze and interior design spread the post like wildfire, and soon Berrill was doing segments with local news stations like WIN in Victoria.

He told WIN,

“It’s a matter of being smart, and utilizing your space, so that you’ve actually got a lot of good storage, but you don’t have to have a huge house.”

And Berrill joked about the capacity of these steps…

“If you start at the bottom and work your way up, I doubt you’ll get to the top.”

What do you think? Would you put one of these in your home if you could? Would you modify it in some way?

Tell us in the comments!

The post A Handyman Made the Secret Boozy Staircase of Our Drunken Dreams appeared first on UberFacts.