Curbside find + $7 = nifty thrifty dog bed

So, I love my dog. I'll just throw that out there. He's almost 9, and I've had him since he was 6 weeks old. I bought him when I was stationed in Japan, and paid to fly him from Japan to Dallas. Yeah, NOT cheap. And I do spoil him. Not in a "Look how cute my dog is in his new sneakers and doggy hair dye", nothing weird like that. 

I don't know how much longer he'll be around. About a year ago, he started yipping when I'd pick him up. I figured it was arthritis. You know, the whole "dachshunds have bad backs" thang. But after doing an x-ray, the vet said that Jasper has a inoperable golf ball sized tumor on the underside of his spine. Do you know how big a golf ball is to a miniature dachshund? So basically the tumor is putting pressure on two of his vertebra and caused small fractures. So we do pain meds and anti-inflammatories, and he's comfortable and happy and runs around like normal. And when his quality of life starts to decline, then we'll have to make that hard decision.

Anywho, back to the fun part, enough of the sad. 

About a week ago, we were pulling into the driveway, and I saw that the idiot neighbors that I hate had thrown out some wooden boxes. Now, as much as I love a deal, especially free, I can't dig thru the garbage. I mean, what if someone saw me? 

Can you do it? I can't. 

So I send my oldest daughter over there, and she brings home these three wooden boxes, and I knew that I wanted to make a new bed for Jasper. I originally was going to purchase a small low table off of Craigslist and make him one, but hubby wasn't thrilled with the idea of something else in our living room. So when I told him that I was turning one of the drawers into a bed, he said something along the lines of "I thought we agreed not to put something else in the already crowded living room?" I just said "Oh, I thought you meant that you didn't want to spend money on it?" Yeah, played dumb, did what I wanted to do originally. I totally knew what he meant. Sorry bebe. At least he loves it now. I always tell him that I know best, and sometimes just have to shove him in the right direction.

This is what I started with. Good size with those dovetail joint thingies that I always hear about.

And snagged these bad boys at Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon.

My first attempt sucked. Realized (luckily before the glue had a chance to set) that the legs weren't looking so hot there. So I popped those off and placed them along the lip. This picture shows my lame first attempt.

I used the color Beach Sparkle, it's a Valspar color (had to love that free sample giveaway they did). Don't the legs look better there?

Then I put on some stain with a foam brush, and then wiped it off after a minute. Make sure you get in all the crevices. The color I used was dark walnut. I would have called it done at this point, but hubby kept giving me dirty looks when I told him I was finished.

So one more coat, plus a sheet of $3 piece of foam, and a piece of fabric for a couple of bucks. And voila! Pretend that the fabric is straight in this pic. I just noticed that it's crooked. Grrrrr.

Hubby loves it, Jasper loves it, my pocketbook loves it. Score.