Fireplace mantel, under stairs door and dog house :)

cormie

Hey folks,
I've been away from wood for a number of years unfortunately but have been doing little bits and pieces recently in a friends place.

They needed a door to close off the space under the stairs but the only wood they had was ply and it was already pretty warped. The door needs to be 120*70 and about 12mm thick. I'm not the biggest fan of MDF and prefer using natural solid wood, but the cost for a pinewood sheet in this size is about €60, whereas I'd get a full 8*4 of MDF for about €25. It's going to be painted anyway so probably end up going with MDF, but just thought I'd mention it here for any other suggestions?



The next thing was to get a mantel piece for above the fireplace. It's only a small fireplace and I think something only around 1m in length would do. Looking for something like this: http://www.countreeliving.com/HEWN_TIMBER_MANTELS.html

I was in touch with http://kilndriedtimbersuppliers.com/contact.htm and they can get me a piece for €60, but I see there's someone on adverts selling railway sleepers that were used for outdoors for €25 locally. Would I be mad using a sleeper that has been outdoors for this?



Lastly, for now, my friend got a shipping crate that they want to use as a dog house, it's built pretty solid and is a good size for their larger dog, but it's constructed out of ply and chip board with a few solid lats too. Would this be ok to use outdoors as long as it was varnished once a year? Thinking to put a slanted roof on it and cover it in felt.


Any feedback on any of the above would be great