Trash to treasure

There's a project I've been working on the background for a few weeks now. Thankfully, I finished it up before I injured myself (and thanks for all the kind words - it still hurts but I'll survive!), and now have a chance to unveil it.

Back in spring, I marked my fifth anniversary with my company. As a gesture of thanks, I was allowed to pick a gift from a small catalogue. And I chose something that I've wanted for a very long time...

A BBQ! It's just a little portable one, but since it's just me and Dave, it's the perfect size. But there was one small problem... we didn't really have anywhere to put it. For a while we made do with the patio table, but it wasn't ideal. I wanted to make something like this...

 ... and had been on the lookout for discarded pallets ever since. There are quite a few places around here that throw them out for scrap. A couple months ago, I was driving by one such place when I spied something. It wasn't a pallet.....

.... but I saw it's potential right away. Dave thought I was crazy (and much hilarity ensued when I enlisted his help to get it in my car.... no one ever believes me when I tell them you can carry almost anything in a convertible when the top is down.) It needed to be stripped of all that useless chipboard.

 And then Dave set me up with some googles and a sander, and I set to work.

It took a while, but I was able to get rid of most of that nasty orange paint.

Dad, who also thought  I was crazy, was kind enough to hook me up with some salvaged plywood he had kicking around. With that, and a couple coats of a pretty apple green latex....

She was really starting to live up to her potential. (Also, I forgot to mention -she's on wheels!)
So... a few hours of work, and half a can of paint later....

I have the perfect, mobile work station. The top is the perfect height for BBQing, and the middle shelf stores it all away nicely when not in use. It also hold my spare pots and garden tools, and provides a great work surface for potting and other gardening chores.

Not so crazy now!!!