The bookcase update

I thought I'd post you guys an update on the bookshelves that I've been working on. This weekend my dad and I built a makeshift paint room in third car part of my garage and brought in the bookcases. As I mentioned previously, I bought a paint sprayer to use with my compressor. We never seem to have a lack of projects around here and painting always seems to be a part of them, so we figure this was a good investment.
These are the bookcases in the middle of their first coat of paint. We have been using Olympic Premium Interior Latex paint lately for both walls and projects like these bookcases, and have been very happy with it. Not only is it affordable at $17-$20/gallon, but it is Green Seal Approved with zero VOC's so we're able to keep costs managable, while keeping out environment free of toxic vapors and odor. Not to mention a much more environmentally-friendly cleanup. I recommend this product if you are planning any painting in the future. You can find it at Lowes.
And this is me, clouded by the haze of the atomized paint. Let me just say again how glad I am at the zero VOC status of this paint, because I sucked in a bunch of it. Mask or not, it was a mess. Tonight I applied a good second coat, and they're starting to look really good. Of course you know I'll post again when they're done, maybe even before that. Till tomorrow.

P~

The Library

Well since I was talking about it in yesterdays post, and since today I finished the rough assembly of the last of 7 bookcases that we'll be putting in the basement, I thought I'd share my progress so far with you.

It all began when my wife and I decided that we wanted to get some bookcases for our smallest basement room. We took a quick run down the street to our local furniture dealer. We looked around and got an idea of what it was that we (she) wanted and what they would cost. Once buying enough to fill the area that we wanted to fill was out of the question (It would have cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2100.00), we decided that I'd try to replicate as best I could the cases that we had decided on. That's them in the catalog picture that we modeled our cabinets after.

So I drew up some plans that I think should be pretty solid, yet not look it. (That's my biggest shortfall in carpentry; building too solid, to where they look utilitarian rather than like furniture you'd want to display.) I was pretty nervous when I got ready to start this project. I always feel like the more ambitious my projects become, I'll eventually overstep my abilities, but A~ has faith in me so I try my best. Anyway, I purchased the MDF board that I planned to build it with, and made the good decision to have the board ripped at the store. They have the proper equipment to do the job much more consistantly that I do and if you've ever tried to rip 4x8 sheets of plywood on a home-use sized table saw you know it's not fun. I spent the next week and a half or so a little at a time cutting and prepping boards for assembly. Basically I was getting the pieces for the cabinets trimmed, drilled for screws and all the small connecting pieces to a state similar to when you buy the furniture in a box that needs assembly.

Last weekend my Dad came out on Sunday to watch the Superbowl and helped me in the morning with assembling some of the bookcases. I was able to get another couple done through the week and today, as I said, I finished the rough assembly of the last two. Here's where I'm at so far. You can start to see how they mimic the style of the ones from the store. Today we also made it to the hardware store to pick up some moulding that we're going to place over the seams after the cases are in place to give them the effect of looking like one solid built in unit.

All told I think they'll end up looking pretty good. When you factor in the fact that we'll only be into them about $550 - $600.00 compared to the projected $2100.00 and they certainly start to look even better! I'll make sure to post a couple of pics of them when they're all finished and in place. Should be another couple of weeks since we're planning on prepping through this week, and painting next weekend. Then with some finish work, and moving them down the stairs and we should be able to be finished by the weekend of the 24th, just in time to start building my new chickens home. The work of the faithful do-it-yerselfer is never finished. These home projects are one of those things that I never necessarily look forward to, but always begin to enjoy while I'm in the middle of it, and am immensly proud of when I'm finished.
Doing this type of work and building things to meet our needs is sort of my equivilent to my wifes baking our bread, or cooking from scratch. It gives us the ability to live at a level that we otherwise may not be able to if we did things like everyone else and bought everything we needed premade. It's a big part of what makes us succesful on a single income, and something I hope we can pass on to our boys. I watched it in my father to a great degree, I remember him putting bookshelves up in their master bedroom, and fixing things until they just couldn't be fixed any more. It's not the easiest way, but I realy do believe that it is the best way for us. You never know what your capable of till you try.

P~

Bookcases finally finished.

Well? Whattya think? They're all in and stocked. Click on the picture to open the image and view an animation of the install process. Start to finish they took me roughly a month and cost approximately $600.00. For custom cabinetry I'd say we came out ahead considering I was estimating around $2100.00 if we had bought bookcases, and then they wouldn't have been custom fit like this. All I need to say is that Momma's happy so I'm happy! (Well trained aren't I?) This is a picture of the book cases that we had seen at the furniture store and picked up a brochure for. I modeled them after these, and am pretty happy with the result. I didn't put any doors on the bottom, but I can add those any time if I feel I need to.

Now, I am happy to say, I have finally finished all the big projects IN our house. Time to move to the outside. This weekend I am going to figure out a way to construct a temporary green house under our south facing covered porch. It is washed in sun from about 10 through sunset so I can't see why it shouldn't work to get my cold weather crops started early. As always, I'll detail my trials with this here on the blog.

Another big thing coming up this weekend is to spend some time working with my fifth grader K~ on his science fair project. He came up with the idea of doing a project about comparing earth sheltered homes with traditionally constructed homes. I guess I've been rubbing off on him. We found an earth sheltered home on accident last year, and he's been talking about it ever since. Phelan, I'm sure you'll be interested.

Finally, the chicks are a little over being a week old now and they're feathering out so nicely. It's like they were just delivered yesterday... they grow up so fast... I'll post a bunch of new pics of them tomorrow. Hope you'll stop by.

P~

Welcome & Weekend plans

Well I suppose at least a quick welcome message is in order. A comment of mine with regard to the 100 foot diet challenge over at path to freedom was posted today and I've noticed a bunch of new visitors, so welcome and I hope you'll take a few minutes to look around. I'm a bit eclectic I know, but hopefully that will mean there's a little something for everyone. If you don't find a lot of 100 ft diet posts right now, it's because this weekend is the first time since the beginning of December that I've seen my yard through the snow. But keep checking in, Seeds should be getting an early start soon.

In other news, (sounds like I'm an anchor man doesn't it.) it's shaping up to be quite an eventful weekend around here. I went to work early today so that I could get home early and get right to work in the garage. All the building of the bookcases is completed, and they are sanded and rough prepped for painting. Tomorrow, I will get an early start again so that I can do a final dusting in the garage, tarp off the "paint room" and situate the cases for painting. Later that afternoon when the sun has warmed the garage a bit, we'll do the painting. We bought an air powered spray gun that we'll be using to shoot our favorite paint; Olympic brand, zero VOC Satin. We're doing it this way to get a more even coat and better finish. I mean, no point trying to save a little money by building our own furniture if it's going to look homemade right? My dad will be up visiting again tomorrow, lending a hand where it's needed and spending a little time with us.

Sunday, our boys will be heading into town to spend the holiday with their grandmother so A~ and I will be having a rare day alone together. I suspect there will be some finish painting to do, but I think we'll still have a bit of free time to enjoy each others company.

Monday, I'm heading up to the mountains for a ski day at Snowbasin, home of the downhill runs from the 2002 Olympics. This is the only day I go skiing anymore. It's just too expensive to do more often than that. There are a couple of guys from work and I that started this tradition about 6 yrs ago and it's become just that, a tradition, one that I'll no doubt be paying more that just dollars for. (Hopefully the excersises I've been doing will keep me from paying for it too much!!)

Wednesday next week should be a big day around here too, but I'll leave you guessing about that one for a couple of days.

Hope you all have a great weekend. Watch for final pictures of the bookcases next week.
P~

This and That

I was thinking about what I wanted to post today, and as things are a bit slow, I thought I would give you a little bit of "This and That".

When I introduced you to our new house hens the other day I was going to show and tell about the setup I'm using for my brooder for those out there who might be wondering or are looking into getting some birds of their own but didn't have time or the room for it. Basically what you have here is your standard re-purposed Dell computer box from the office. I took a piece of scrap PVC and made it into a cross beam to hang a 150 watt heat lamp from. The Chicks need to have an approximately 95°F temperature. I hung the lamp about 18inches above the floor of the brooder and the chicks love it. So much so in fact, that when we turn the light off for more than about ten minutes (Which we were instructed to do by my new book 'Living with Chickens' that my wife got for me and I love!) they gradually start to chirp and squeal louder and louder until they are down right vociferous. So what happens when the light goes back on? Well, then it's lights out for the girls. They suddenly quiet down, take a couple gulps of food and water, and then crash, they're out cold for a nap; obviously exhausted from all the commotion.

In other developments, I can finally see my yard. Well, at least part of it. Somewhere around the end of November or the first week of December '07 I lost my yard. Literally! And I didn't see it again until last week when the current melt off began.

Now I can see at least a third of my garden beds, and a good 3/4 of the back yard. So, Pro's and Con's? First of all, it's great to see a little ground in the back, and Lord knows A~ and I are both tired of shoveling snow! Those are Pro's for sure. But now I'm starting to smell spring in the air. It's not here yet, but it's around the corner. This means I'll get hit with spring fever any time now, and yet not be able to get out and work the ground. That and the fact that we'll soon be in the season here where we could potentially have to shovel our driveway, and mow our lawn in the same week. Definitely a Con!

Also, I've updated my to-do list with some Spring items that I need to take on. This weekend, I hope to finish getting the bookcases into the basement, perhaps not stocked with stuff yet, but down there nonetheless.

Till next time!

P~

DIY for dogs

I like to try to take a little extra time to make things myself when I can. Every Christmas for instance, I make some kind of wooden toy for my kids. It's just something I do because I love them and it's become a tradition. I make things for my wife and our home too. The latest such thing was the bookcases that I finished last week. I do this, of course because I love my wife, but also because it allows us to have things that we may not otherwise be able to afford, and because it increases our self reliance. Why should our pets be any different?

Look at that face; he's been going crazy because it's warming up and he's getting spring fever too. We haven't been able to let him out much because his old collar broke and if he's not on a lead and we don't watch him all the time, well, let's just say he likes to wonder. So I decided to make him a new collar. I made the last one as a prototype, and he seemed to like it. He didn't scratch at it nearly as often, I think because it didn't have the big adjustable buckle that the store bought one's have. I used a nylon string that will stay cleaner, and should wear a little better than the cotton one that I made the last one out of.

If you've never tried macrame, try picking up a book at the library and giving it a shot. I taught myself this basic little knot set when I was in high school and have used it a few times for things. This was a perfect match.
After I got halfway through the collar, I made a loop and wrapped it with some finer nylon string, (actually it's cheap fly line backing material from the fishing section at the store.) this will act as the connection point for the lead, and again, will decrease annoyance because it's softer than metal. After the whole thing was done, I attached a button with the end pieces of the center portion of the string, and made a loop out of the other end. his I wrapped too, just for durability.

Now look, isn't that better? I made this last night, and he was outside today, very much happier. It doesn't matter what it is, when you make it yourself it always means so much more. You get a sense of accomplishment and pride, even from silly little things like a dog collar. Don't be afraid to try, what's the worst that could happen? Just start small until you gain confidence.

P~