Sunroom at Rear of House at Red Range. This house at Red Range received morning sun on the front veranda, but by mid afternoon it was the back of the house that received the most sun.   So Lionel sought Council approval and built this sunny extension. The weatherboards from the original wall were moved to the outside and it was lined inside with re-cycled tongue-and-groove oak panelling. Four fixed windows and four double-sash windows on each of two sides (making a total of sixteen plate glass windows) bathed the interior with sunshine. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

  Upholsterer's Spring Compressor Lionel made this adjustable chair spring compressor so that he could re-upholster some old chairs as a courteous gesture for a friend. It consists of a wooden base (to protect the chair seat), a hinged metal frame, a threaded rod with a handle on one end and a swivelling wooden disk on the other.      One side of the frame hinges out of the way to put the chair underneath the disk.   The under-side photo shows that there is a wide groove under the disk to allow the webbing to be stretched while the springs are compressed. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

  Hand-cut Painting Stencils   Over the years Lionel has made hundreds of these hand-cut stencils for signage and decorating items that he has made.  In 1987 he had a lie-flat book published for beginner stencillers (The Novice Stencil Handbook, Volume 1).  It contains of some 370 of his individually hand-drawn stencils including alphabet characters and numbers, animals, objects, places-of-interest and signs.  His book is available for FREE download from his website at www.lrhartley.com (or direct download from [ HERE ]. Permission is granted to use the illustrations in the book for personal use. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

Raised Garden Beds  These three raised garden beds were made from re-cycled hardwood fencing.  The rails form frames along the outside of the boxes and metal brackets are bolted at the corners to give it strength and rigidity.  The top of each box is finished with a long plank of 1x4 to form a seat.  Each box is eight feet long and four feet wide. The top of each box is 18 inches above the ground making it possible to comfortably sit (side-saddle) on the edge of the box to attend to the plants.   The palings were cut into 18-inch lengths (with any rotted ends discarded and used as fire-wood), pre-drilled to accept galvanisd nails, and nailed inside the frames.  The boxes were then lined with weed-matting and filled with bails of straw topped with rich garden soil, fertiliser and compost and finally layered with potting-mix and lawn-clipping mulch. Two of the beds are covered with an arched shade enclosure, made from the two halves of a 12-foot circular galvanised-steel trampoline frame

Sandpaper Disk Dispenser  An off-cut of timber rounded at one end, two strategically placed dowels glued in place and a few sanding disks placed (upside-down) form this handy dispender.  The positioning of the dowels was determined by the location of the holes in the disk, and Lionel made several of these for different grade disks and sizes.  The sandpaper is stored upside-down for at least two reasons: it keeps the sanding surface clean but, more-importantly, simply aligning the dowels with the holes in the disk-sander faceplate, the disks fit perfectly on the disk-sander operating surface.  The Grit-size is written on the underside of each disk for convenience. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

Planter Box from Recycled Refridgerator Drawer.  This planter box was made from a plastic drawer that was given to Lionel by his son, David.  He painted it inside and out with Liquidstone Terracotta paint, cut drainage holes underneath, filled it with potting soil and put it on one of the many metal plants stands that he had earlier made.  His wife Rosemary used it (in this case, for string-beans). Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .