The Christmas Tree Box

SO, I am so happy with how this box for my Christmas tree came out!!! 

I used scrap lumber from the garage. These are the old slats from the park bench. I replaced them on the bench in the back yard a few years ago, gosh back in 2012!  I just cut them to 22" and made 2 frames.

 I just guessed at the 22" size by putting my tree stand down and measuring with little bit of room to spare. Turned out, it was perfect!

Oh and I got a new POWER TOOL!!!!!!! I LOVE this thing!! It's an air nailer and it will handle brads and staples. I got it at Harbor Freight in Cedar Rapids on sale for only $15! YES-WHAT A DEAL!!!

 I've never used an air nailer before and I couldn't believe how easy and FAST it was! I whipped up these frames in just a few minutes.

 Then I used some of the last pallet wood boards I had around to start filling in the sides. I took a measurement of the length of the Christmas tree trunk to the floor and went with 9" tall for the box.

 Then I started cutting 8 1/2" long boards from the pallet wood. It was kind of like a Jenga to figure out which pieces would fit in to fill the 22 inches of space. Being weathered pallet wood it broke into smaller width boards, and that was good. It all fit in great!

 The air nailer made quick work of nailing the boards in place. I was amazed at how fast it went!

 SO I got it all together, and see how I was thinking ahead and left a little ledge around the inside? Pretty smart! I cut a scrap piece of Masonite-like cardboard-like stuff to the correct size and then drilled a hole in the center, just a little bit larger than the tree trunk with my saber saw.

 I hoped that the branches would pretty much hide the cover on top and luckily it does!

 I can't get over how good those rustic pallet wood boards look! You might notice that all ornaments at the bottom third of the tree are unbreakable plastic or metal-the dogs tails are a weapon! They can fling a poorly wired on ornament 10 feet in one wag!

 This tree is kind of narrow-it's the same on as last year-I know, I know, but I just wasn't thinking about using a different one this year. And the box fits just right. I'll have to test it out with the other trees next year to see if it would look good.

 I got Ringo to sit still for a moment.......

Just one moment!!