Cooler Caddy

We (Eric and I) kind of slacked off this year when it came to Mother's Day and Father's Day presents for his parents and my mom.  I'm kind of getting tired of the usual go to, gift certificates, and I figured I'd rather receive a thought out personal gift at a later date than an quick fix on the date.  I could be terribly wrong though.  *shrugs*  (By the way, for my mom, I am aware that we still owe you something...I'm working on it.)

For Eric's parents I stumbled upon a certificate (go figure) on Groupon for a Steam Engine Train ride excursion that I thought they both might appreciate.  Him for the technical aspects of the steam engine and her for the many photo opportunities.  But of course it was a great deal and cheap cheap so we wanted to do something else for them as well.  So after browsing through her Pinterest account we found something to make for them.  A cooler chest for their deck.  Now of course we could have made it using pressure treated wood as well and it would have been more cost effective (for those looking to do something similar but don't want the expense of cedar), but Eric really wanted to work with cedar for this project.

We picked up the cedar, piano hinge, and screws at Home Depot and came in around $70.  The cooler we found at a garage sale, in brand new condition for $5.  But the real snag of this project was, in fact, the wall mounted bottle opener and cap catcher.  They don't seem to sell those puppies anywhere in Canada.  Who knew?  So that was a fun little side project that held the whole thing up a couple of weeks while we waited for delivery.

Eric started out with the base and built the sides around the measurements of the cooler, which of course is removable for ease of emptying the cooler of melted ice after use.  He then built the chest lid and added an adhesive onto the top of the cooler lid/bottom of the chest lid so it comes off upon opening but properly rests on the cooler to keep the cold in upon closing.  We also included a personalized wood burned plaque for his parents inside the chest.

I'm pretty sure his parents liked their homemade gift and now it has a prominent place on their back patio waiting for BBQ's, parties, family functions, and backyard events.  Plus this saves everyone traipsing in and out of the house to get drinks.