649 6th

varnished oak

Michael put the snow day to good use on a dozen oak planks, sanded, cleaned, and sealed with 50/50 varnish & naphtha. tomorrow, a very light sanding, more cleaning, then a full vanish coat, followed by another light sanding. undetermined whether that will be enough or if another coat of varnish will be needed. at any rate, snow day = productive, and would could possibly finish the second floor shelving once and for all this weekend!

out of the shadows

 
late last night we finally clamped and positioned the other set of bookshelves for the living room that are matching extensions of the ones in the dining room the floor below. I had been waiting for this moment eagerly, wanted to see what it actually did to the light that we installed to play off it it some 4 years ago.

It is NOT screwed in place and the books are simply for this photo. more of the real deal soon, but I couldn't wait to show the light effect.

DIY CAD

A lot of the early design work for our house renovation was done in Microsoft Paint. Pick your scale, eg 1 pixel = 1 inch, and start pushing those pixels around like a desktop Lite-Brite. Compare the work above to the picture of the real McCoy in previous post, and you'll see that for a simple tool it could be very effective, even accurate. 

These days, I've moved on to a newer generation of digital tools. Inkscape is my favorite vector graphic app, and for the money (it's free!), nothing beats Google SketchUp for 3D design. Not the smoothest learning curve for either of them, but if you can make it to the first plateau you'll have begun to appreciate their potential and power. 

it's alive (again)

The weekend before Christmas, and all through the house, two creatures were stirring--and thanks to this mouse, here's a pic and a post. (Can you spot the blouse?)

Amazing how long this project took to mature. The plywood cabinets and shelving boxes have been stacked more or less in place for close to two YEARS, waiting for paint and assembly. To be fair, we thought the entire construction would require leveling for the long intersection to run true, rather than askew. Also we weren't settled on the best way to hang the shelves off the cabinets. But most of all, we were lazy and accepted their disassembled state as placeholder. 

No more! The entire space is receiving fresh attention. The dressing room on other side of the shelving will be receiving clothes very soon. And that means no more trips to the basement just to get dressed. What wild times we're living in!

shirt off my back

We keep a few frayed white shirts on hand, primarily as beach wear. On the tension rods I picked up this afternoon, they serve as temporary window treatments, anticipating the sheers that'll go in their place (soon). 

Minor improvement over the old sheet look. 

design week

After a week of version and revision we're pretty close to having the designs for the cabinets (shelving) in the kitchen and on the second floor complete. We had always had a pretty good idea what they would be, but this week we spec'ed them in enough detail that we can have the "boxes" built and afterward we will finish and install them ourselves.

I know it's still many weeks off but it's amazing how having something as simple as bookshelves is making me very happy. We should be able to place the order on Monday. The project plan said that task should be done today, but you know how it goes; last thing Friday, first thing Monday, same diff.

hall of science II

Many, many months back I posted about the beetle collection that was the beginning of the "hall of science" that is rapidly becoming the second floor living room. Over the past week the framer finished a few more pieces for the collection. As this is "the house that the internet built" I'm almost positive they were all ebay or on-line purchases. Wait, I take that back, the "correlated history of the earth" I got on Naxos at the end of the Greek swim trek (of course the trip was found on-line).

From left to right:

1) An early 20th century French teaching poster of the nervous system
2) An Apple I schematic signed by Woz
3) The collection of beetles (56 in all) from Malaysia
4) A raven map of North America
5) A correlated history of the earth

I'm still looking for the right periodic table

day 29: southfield green

day 28: paint and prep

With the additional hands (thanks Lily) we got a big leg up today. The second floor has two coats on the ceiling and one on the walls, all thanks to our hired help. Because the computer, camera, and all of those tings that make the blog more than words are somewhat packed away tonight, I am going to wait til tomorrow morning to give the blow by blow. I promised 30 days in a row and I'm just making good on my word ;-)

Suffice it to say, the living room is now really green.

another brick in the wall

A few people have asked for detail about the diluted Elmer's glue solution we used to seal the brick walls. Unfortunately, I didn't track the forum page where I found the idea (amongst a sea of posts debating pros and cons of commercially sold sealants), but I'm sure it's out there for the industrious surfer.

Can't swear to the exact proportions, but I know I used a 1/2 gallon sprayer so there was about that much warm water to either a 1/2 cup or a full cup of wood glue. I'm leaning toward the full cup. Honestly, I think this is very forgiving approach so it probably doesn't matter whichever way one goes.

Sorry I can't be more precise. Personally, I'm inclined toward using recipes and formulas to get this sort of thing "right". I'm an instruction-reader, and I'd be frustrated if I came across a handy solution that failed to provide adequate detail. On the other hand, what DIY task doesn't involve some personalization and decision-making? It's why we do this.