Why am I nearing my demise, you ask? I didn't say that- what I said was "I'm 'bout dead." Around here that means I'm worn out, exhausted, dragging myself around, and usually pretty stinky to boot.
Last weekend I built a set of shelves (and a prototype), learned how to use a new tool (hence the prototype), backed up the computer (files and pictures), installed kitchen cabinet locks and generally worked on my honey-do list.
During the week we painted the shelves, rearranged our bedroom, and had various church meetings to occupy our time.
This weekend we built and painted another set of shelves, I cut the grass and weeded, we rearranged the kids' rooms, and I helped with other general yard work and honey-do list activities.
After all that mess, I'm ready to get back to work and sit on my butt for a few hours. Ha ha ha!
Another thing that amazes me is that no matter how hard I work on that blasted honey-do list, it just gets longer. If new tools help me to finish project more efficiently, Beth must have some new pen technology or something because she stays ahead of me with that list. Guys out there, does it ever end? Will I ever get ahead and be able to sit and watch a little Kung Fu or Star Wars on a Saturday afternoon? I doubt it.
10 August 2008
I'm 'bout dead - part 2
First, let's rewind.
A while ago Beth came up with a simple design for some shelves- 4' wide by 4' tall and 16" deep with 3 shelves- about as vanilla as shelves can get. If you want a copy of the plans, just ask- prices are listed below.
Plywood is about $35 for a 1/2" thick 4'x8' sheet and we needed one sheet per set of shelves, so that's $70. 1/2" molding costs about $4 per 8' strip and we needed 48' for a total of $24. After tax, each set of shelves cost about $60. A little steep, but think about what you can get for $60 at your local *mart. It'll be made of fiberboard and laminate, or it'll be made of real wood but be tiny- either way, it'll have cheap hardware. Click here, here, and here for examples.
Armed with my nail gun, I made a mock-up of the shelves in about 3 minutes. I love air tools!
The first set took me about 6 hours- 3 to build, 3 to finish (sand, putty, paint, etc). The second set took about 4 hours.
And here they are- finished.
Seth's:
The girls':
A while ago Beth came up with a simple design for some shelves- 4' wide by 4' tall and 16" deep with 3 shelves- about as vanilla as shelves can get. If you want a copy of the plans, just ask- prices are listed below.
Plywood is about $35 for a 1/2" thick 4'x8' sheet and we needed one sheet per set of shelves, so that's $70. 1/2" molding costs about $4 per 8' strip and we needed 48' for a total of $24. After tax, each set of shelves cost about $60. A little steep, but think about what you can get for $60 at your local *mart. It'll be made of fiberboard and laminate, or it'll be made of real wood but be tiny- either way, it'll have cheap hardware. Click here, here, and here for examples.
Armed with my nail gun, I made a mock-up of the shelves in about 3 minutes. I love air tools!
The first set took me about 6 hours- 3 to build, 3 to finish (sand, putty, paint, etc). The second set took about 4 hours.
And here they are- finished.
Seth's:
The girls':
I'm 'bout dead - part 3
Yellow room activity wall, before and after:
Yellow room bed corner, before and after:
Green room activity space, before and after
Green room bed space, before and after:
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Yellow room bed corner, before and after:
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Green room activity space, before and after
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Green room bed space, before and after:
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Seeing it coming a mile away
I was working on a blog post (soon to come) when I got up from the computer and came back. This is what I saw:
Now, in case you didn't notice, I'm a big guy. When I sit in that chair, the back of it just about reaches the arm of the couch.
So I stood there looking at it and then my eyes wandered to the rest of the room and I started thinking about how I could position the couch to avoid the situation pictured above.
Beth looked at me and saw the gears grinding and said "Rob, you'd better go get the camera and take a picture, because I'm sensing a 'before'." Ha!
True to the name of the blog, we have rearranged just about the entire house. Check for more posts soon. If we move the couch, you'll know it.
Update: I fixed Beth's quote. Thanks for letting me know, darling. I tend to make stuff up!
Now, in case you didn't notice, I'm a big guy. When I sit in that chair, the back of it just about reaches the arm of the couch.
So I stood there looking at it and then my eyes wandered to the rest of the room and I started thinking about how I could position the couch to avoid the situation pictured above.
Beth looked at me and saw the gears grinding and said "Rob, you'd better go get the camera and take a picture, because I'm sensing a 'before'." Ha!
True to the name of the blog, we have rearranged just about the entire house. Check for more posts soon. If we move the couch, you'll know it.
Update: I fixed Beth's quote. Thanks for letting me know, darling. I tend to make stuff up!
I'm 'bout dead - part 4
Rearranging and reorganizing is contagious for us around here. If one room is affected, it'll probably spread through most of the house before it's run its course. About the only room that doesn't get hit much is the kitchen- and that's only because there's not too much we can change about that room.
So when we began rearranging the kids' rooms, it wasn't too surprising that our room got hit as well. In fact, its infection only lasted a matter of hours. Beth and I made a few general plans before she went grocery shopping on Thursday night and by the time she got home I had finished. So here's the classic "before" shot (I know, it's way out of date- we didn't even have the bed frame then, but it'll have to do):
And here's the after shot:
Beth was pretty happy because I was able to vacuum every square foot of our room. I just had to do it in 2'x5' strips.
In case you're curious, here's how it went.
I pulled the dresser from the wall by the door over to the wall by the bathroom and set up the TV table in its place. I stood my exercise bike on end and leaned it against the dresser. Then I removed the mattress from the bed and leaned it against the dresser as well. Next I pulled the bed boxes out from under the bed and stacked them in the doorway. I scooted the bed forward until it was right up against the TV (by the door), leaving nearly the entire back wall empty. I vacuumed the back wall and transferred Beth's sewing table to it. That cleared up the right-hand wall by the window. I vacuumed that wall and then maneuvered the bed into place on it, which required some pretty impressive use of physics to get the mattress to balance vertically on one corner without tipping. Then I put the mattress back in the bed and vacuumed under where it had been. I replaced the bed boxes (under the bed, of course) and vacuumed where they had been. I shifted the dresser so it was flat against the back wall next to the sewing table and vacuumed where it had been. I put the exercise bike beside the dresser along the wall near the bathroom and vacuumed all remaining open floorspace. I then rewired (corded) the electronics on the TV stand so that everything was organized neatly. As Kaitlyn would say: Tada!
So when we began rearranging the kids' rooms, it wasn't too surprising that our room got hit as well. In fact, its infection only lasted a matter of hours. Beth and I made a few general plans before she went grocery shopping on Thursday night and by the time she got home I had finished. So here's the classic "before" shot (I know, it's way out of date- we didn't even have the bed frame then, but it'll have to do):
And here's the after shot:
Beth was pretty happy because I was able to vacuum every square foot of our room. I just had to do it in 2'x5' strips.
In case you're curious, here's how it went.
I pulled the dresser from the wall by the door over to the wall by the bathroom and set up the TV table in its place. I stood my exercise bike on end and leaned it against the dresser. Then I removed the mattress from the bed and leaned it against the dresser as well. Next I pulled the bed boxes out from under the bed and stacked them in the doorway. I scooted the bed forward until it was right up against the TV (by the door), leaving nearly the entire back wall empty. I vacuumed the back wall and transferred Beth's sewing table to it. That cleared up the right-hand wall by the window. I vacuumed that wall and then maneuvered the bed into place on it, which required some pretty impressive use of physics to get the mattress to balance vertically on one corner without tipping. Then I put the mattress back in the bed and vacuumed under where it had been. I replaced the bed boxes (under the bed, of course) and vacuumed where they had been. I shifted the dresser so it was flat against the back wall next to the sewing table and vacuumed where it had been. I put the exercise bike beside the dresser along the wall near the bathroom and vacuumed all remaining open floorspace. I then rewired (corded) the electronics on the TV stand so that everything was organized neatly. As Kaitlyn would say: Tada!
19 July 2008
Getting a head start on Arbor Day
Much like the one on the top of my head, we have a growing bald spot in our front yard. So instead of doing a whole bunch of work, we have been wanting to make use of what is essentially a landscaping toupee. We want to plant a tree right in that nasty bald spot. Not that it would FIX the bald spot, but grass doesn't grow under trees- so we would go from being lazy and cheap to being justified and chic within hours.
Well, I've got plenty of work in me but (as I mentioned before) I'm cheap and trees are expensive. Seriously, go to Lowe's or Home Depot. Trees are like $40 just for some little sapling that you have to nurture carefully and hope it doesn't keel over and die on you right away. Let's examine this phenomenon for a minute (this'll sound a bit like Bill Cosby here): Trees grow NATURALLY all over the world- with literally no help from human beings. But we brilliant, capitalistic, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses suburbanites go and BUY them from stores and then study books and web sites to learn how to care for something that would normally care for itself quite nicely.
No way- not this family. We are not about to spend money on something that grows in abundance within 1/4 mile of my house. In fact, there used to be a nice one growing in my neighbor's yard and now it's growing nicely in mine. Just kidding- I didn't swipe any trees from my neighbors. I bundled up the twins and Seth and we snagged one from a nearby forest. OK, so I didn't really "bundle" them up, since it was every bit of 187 degrees outside today- I put summer hats and loose shoes on them, stuck them in the wagon, and pulled that sucker about a mile total through some off-road sweetness.
Seth was so helpful- first he pointed out a lovely weed. When I told him that wasn't even a tree, he began to get the picture. He next pointed out the most gnarled, stunted little thing on the side of the trail- it would have made Charlie Brown proud. I told him we wanted a tree that would look nice in front of our house. So, he pointed out (I know, you see it coming a mile away) a massive hulk of a tree that might have made a Southern lumberjack cry. I told him I would have a little trouble carrying it, but he assured me I could do it. I can't tell you how flattered I was that he really thought I could just haul off some 2-ton mass of scrub pine. I therefore cleverly hid my ineptitude by telling him that I COULD do it, but he'd have to pull the wagon with the babies all the way back to the house so that I could get the tree. He decided we should press on and find something smaller.
And find something smaller we did. It was on the edge of the trail, which will make Grammy happy because I didn't "abandon [her] babies" while I chopped down the cherry tree. It had a couple of large roots which were a little tricky, but all in all the thing came along without too much of a fight.
We brought the thing back home in a bucket, but we had to wait for the babies to go down for their nap before we could dig the hole for it. And when Seth and I went to dig the hole, we discovered that the combination of "sandhills" soil conditions, coupled with the recent drought had conspired against us to create a close approximation to concrete in our front yard. I poured water on it and that loosened things up enough to dig down with a shovel and spade. We excavated, measured, excavated, and measured again until we had a perfect hole for our asymmetrically-rooted friend. Because it took so long to haul back and to dig a hole, the poor thing is looking a little parched at the moment. I fear we'll lose those nice leaves but we're hoping for a new set of buds in a while.
And here it is in our front yard:
If this works, we are SO going tree hunting again. Our yard will go from patchy to hair-plug heaven! But don't worry- I never will! I'm retired from hair.
P.S. Getting a HEAD start on Arbor Day... Get it? HEAD?! Ha! ;-)
Well, I've got plenty of work in me but (as I mentioned before) I'm cheap and trees are expensive. Seriously, go to Lowe's or Home Depot. Trees are like $40 just for some little sapling that you have to nurture carefully and hope it doesn't keel over and die on you right away. Let's examine this phenomenon for a minute (this'll sound a bit like Bill Cosby here): Trees grow NATURALLY all over the world- with literally no help from human beings. But we brilliant, capitalistic, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses suburbanites go and BUY them from stores and then study books and web sites to learn how to care for something that would normally care for itself quite nicely.
No way- not this family. We are not about to spend money on something that grows in abundance within 1/4 mile of my house. In fact, there used to be a nice one growing in my neighbor's yard and now it's growing nicely in mine. Just kidding- I didn't swipe any trees from my neighbors. I bundled up the twins and Seth and we snagged one from a nearby forest. OK, so I didn't really "bundle" them up, since it was every bit of 187 degrees outside today- I put summer hats and loose shoes on them, stuck them in the wagon, and pulled that sucker about a mile total through some off-road sweetness.
Seth was so helpful- first he pointed out a lovely weed. When I told him that wasn't even a tree, he began to get the picture. He next pointed out the most gnarled, stunted little thing on the side of the trail- it would have made Charlie Brown proud. I told him we wanted a tree that would look nice in front of our house. So, he pointed out (I know, you see it coming a mile away) a massive hulk of a tree that might have made a Southern lumberjack cry. I told him I would have a little trouble carrying it, but he assured me I could do it. I can't tell you how flattered I was that he really thought I could just haul off some 2-ton mass of scrub pine. I therefore cleverly hid my ineptitude by telling him that I COULD do it, but he'd have to pull the wagon with the babies all the way back to the house so that I could get the tree. He decided we should press on and find something smaller.
And find something smaller we did. It was on the edge of the trail, which will make Grammy happy because I didn't "abandon [her] babies" while I chopped down the cherry tree. It had a couple of large roots which were a little tricky, but all in all the thing came along without too much of a fight.
We brought the thing back home in a bucket, but we had to wait for the babies to go down for their nap before we could dig the hole for it. And when Seth and I went to dig the hole, we discovered that the combination of "sandhills" soil conditions, coupled with the recent drought had conspired against us to create a close approximation to concrete in our front yard. I poured water on it and that loosened things up enough to dig down with a shovel and spade. We excavated, measured, excavated, and measured again until we had a perfect hole for our asymmetrically-rooted friend. Because it took so long to haul back and to dig a hole, the poor thing is looking a little parched at the moment. I fear we'll lose those nice leaves but we're hoping for a new set of buds in a while.
And here it is in our front yard:
If this works, we are SO going tree hunting again. Our yard will go from patchy to hair-plug heaven! But don't worry- I never will! I'm retired from hair.
P.S. Getting a HEAD start on Arbor Day... Get it? HEAD?! Ha! ;-)
10 June 2008
Rob's dream car
This is actually Beth posting for Rob...if we're not rearranging the room, we're changing something else. After 6 years of the Dodge Neon (with the last year and a half having major problems) we finally bought another vehicle...my only regret is having spent $800 of our tax return this year trying to get the major problem fixed with no success!
This is a Scion XB 2005. Rob loves this car and it is perfect for tall people. He has plenty of clearance above his head, and room for his knees, and can even sit in the backseat with room for his knees (with the front seat pushed back all the way)! And we got it within our budget (Rob did a good job planning that and car shopping.)
Seth thinks the "x" on the side (see paint details) is cool!
This is a Scion XB 2005. Rob loves this car and it is perfect for tall people. He has plenty of clearance above his head, and room for his knees, and can even sit in the backseat with room for his knees (with the front seat pushed back all the way)! And we got it within our budget (Rob did a good job planning that and car shopping.)Seth thinks the "x" on the side (see paint details) is cool!
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