Quote :

""

is that a homemade m80 on the table on the left?



[Edited on October 24, 2011 at 7:26 PM. Reason : pic]

10/24/2011 7:25:45 PM

lol that's a engine mount bushing and an allen wrench inside it.

^^yeah, I should have taken a better before picture. before I had an undersized walmart entertainment center meant for like A component, a cable box, and a 32" tv. I have about 8 video game consoles, a dvr, slingbox, rackmount 1400VA ups, 24 port switch, qam tuner/dvd player, and patch panel for my house in this unit in addition to my tv. my entire floor was covered in controllers and wires and my coffee table was basically games and batteries. this also allowed me to plumb the unit to put outlets and inputs up front under the shelves, though I need to fab a panel. now you can connect any hdmi, component, dvi, or vga input or hdmi accepting display. power and networking ports are also available -- without having to pull anything out.

[Edited on October 24, 2011 at 10:58 PM. Reason : there is also an 8 sqft 12" powered subwoofer/enclosure inside and the power supply you see next to the xbox controls 120mm fans behind the components for active silent ventilation

[Edited on October 24, 2011 at 10:59 PM. Reason : ,]

10/24/2011 10:57:11 PM

^^^^ nice job!

[Edited on October 25, 2011 at 12:11 PM. Reason :  ]

10/25/2011 12:10:35 PM

more painting this weekend. The house had pretty decent wooden blinds in all the windows but they were "builder beige" just like the walls when we moved in. Once we had walls painted and started trimming out the windows (in white) the blinds just looked dingy. Luckily the slats can be removed. So we bought some nice foam rollers like you use on cabinets and are painting them white, window by window. Four windows in and the improvement is huge and much cheaper and easier than getting new blinds.

We also found a lamp on clearance we loved for the living room (and we've been looking for awhile) except the only color it was available in was icky. Repainted the whole thing and it turned out great.

On the bad side of painting for the weekend, we decided are probably going to redo the entire downstairs neutral color. We really debated it for awhile because it isn't terrible it just really didn't turn out like we wanted once we had it over most the first floor (did it a few months back and kind of hoped it would grow on us). But, since it is a really big piece of the puzzle for our design scheme it really needs to match the fabric and accessories better. It matched ok with the sample but somehow after all the walls were painted in all the different lighting it had a weird tint to it.

/blog

10/30/2011 8:58:47 PM

My parents had this enormous table in their basement, and they didn't want it in there any more. We tried to figure out how to disassemble it and save it, but no luck. We're pretty sure someone built the table in the basement, because there's no way they could have moved it in through any door or window.

Now its time for basement renovations, and the table had to go. They cut it in half, and I took half of it (the other half is still available if someone wants it). each half is in 2 pieces, the table top and the legs/drawers. The table has a leather top in bad shape, it's dry and cracking and peeling up in the corners.

It would make an awesome workbench, so I peeled the leather completely off and I'm now trying to decide how to proceed... Initially I thought about taking the top surface down to smooth wood, then staining it and covering it with polyurethane. That's going to be a lot of work, so now I'm thinking about cleaning all the adhesive and junk off, then putting a sheet of veneer down and polyurethane over that. thoughts?

Pictures:

11/3/2011 12:01:25 PM

Looks to me like it is not worth saving with that much wood damage. Is it just 2X4's 4X4's and plywood? If you want to use it as a work bench, just slap some laminate on top of it, but with that much rot/damage i doubt even that is a good idea.

tl;dr
Burn it

11/3/2011 12:23:35 PM

no, there isn't any softwood in this thing at all, and really there isn't much damage apart from what you see in that picture

there isn't anything in those pictures for scale... the top surface is 42x72", 2.5" thick, 31" off the floor, and the table footprint is 38x50"

anyway, i'm just looking for some ideas/suggestions for finishing the tabletop

11/3/2011 12:51:22 PM

If it were me, I would take that top layer of lamination off (looks like a sheet of ply) and see what youve got underneath it.

You are going to have to replace that sheet anyway, so might as well look.

If it looks like a butcher block under there with all of the wood laid side by side, you could always take a planer and plane off enough to get the effect you want. You might be suprised at the different looks you get from each layer as you plane off old wood like that.

Then I would get that thick acrylic coating, or some type of spar varnish and coat that whole table once you had planed/sanded every edge.

11/3/2011 7:33:29 PM

Little more headway on the cabinets. Fully constructed. Need a final coat of paint and getting the doors and drawer fronts done soon.

11/3/2011 9:16:57 PM

great work on the cabinets. i'm tempted to do mine myself now that my dad is retired and can help but I really don't wanna have my kitchen unusable for a month

11/3/2011 10:37:34 PM

Damn Senez, that looks great!

11/4/2011 12:35:05 PM

Thanks guys...having a father in law who's a carpenter/general contractor is a huuuuuuuuuge help.

Problem with doing a kitchen is it is so far beyond expensive. Anybody want to chip in on paying for the new oven???

11/4/2011 12:55:57 PM

those cabinets do look great, congrats on being (almost) done. Hopefully i'll be able to do something similar in my kitchen someday

as for the tabletop: I was hoping to get the it all the way down to the "butcher block" pattern. it looks like the grain alternates for each piece, and I'd really like to be able to see that when its all done. as for the thin piece on top, any ideas how to get it off? i assume its glued on or something..

once i'm done messing with the surface, i'll probably re-frame the edges with a lip higher than the tabletop, then pour on clear epoxy as the work surface

11/4/2011 3:40:35 PM

Quote :

"putting a sheet of veneer down and polyurethane over that. thoughts?"

Since the core wood is good, you should just carpet tape a piece of hardboard on top of it. It'll be flat and stable, and when you screw it up you can just put down a new piece.

11/4/2011 11:38:04 PM

Quote :

"any ideas how to get it off?"

If it's glued, I would just run a planer over it until you take it all off. I wouldnt want to risk damaging the wood beneath by trying to peel it back.

You could also try a heat gun, maybe that will soften the glue enough to pull it back.

11/5/2011 9:08:28 AM

We are currently redoing our pantry that has this ridiculous set up before. As a result we have several planks of wood from the old shelving now at our disposal. I have some project ideas for a few of them but am wondering if anyone else has repurposed wood like that for projects around the house? Seems like a waste to just throw them out when they're decent sized solid wood pieces.

11/11/2011 8:48:21 AM

Depending on dimensions and character and the style of your house you may be able to use them as wall shelves somewhere else in the house with a blacksmith style support or something.

11/11/2011 9:24:52 AM

Good call. I'd have to saw them in half lengthwise to make them a normal sized shelf but that could definitely work.

11/11/2011 9:26:37 AM

Senez: Looks like you are going to be cutting it REALLY tight on the door clearance for a lot of those cabinets. Doesn't look like there's any spacers in the whole kitchen. That's pretty daring man

I don't think I ever even took pictures of it, but this spring/summer I put in about 150ft of trench drains for our backyard/garage. It was a nightmare. Ended up finding a side-sewer existing connection which saved about 8grand for running a new sewer hookup. Also ended up having to put in a wet-well with an active sump pump and a clean-out uphill from it. We're the only people on the street who don't have an above-ground pump

Good news is, the backyard that had literally been a swamp for almost 25 years is now completely normal and walkable

11/12/2011 7:13:40 AM

Yeah, we built these on the wall. We're fairly certain we've got enough clearance through triple checking everything. We're not making the doors ourselves, but having them laser cut. We'll see how it goes. I'm hopeful.

11/12/2011 11:23:55 AM

occamsrezr and I took on our first project in the house. Sadly I forgot to take a before picture of our ridiculous pantry. We measure the shelves after taking them out and they were 24" deep No wonder we could never find anything in there.

We also repainted the walls from this 70s cream color to grey. Next weekend I'll paint the trim and doors white. Too tired to do it today.


Our cat testing the strength of the shelves





[Edited on November 13, 2011 at 5:30 PM. Reason : a]

11/13/2011 5:27:14 PM

Ooh I like the side baskets.

Redoing the closet & pantry shelving is on my to do list for our place. But after the bathroom and building a screened porch.

11/13/2011 7:39:29 PM

Yeah I love those baskets. On the opposite side we have hooks for our broom, etc. We're thinking of redoing the closet in the master with this elfa stuff too.

11/13/2011 8:41:21 PM

anyone know of some good resources to learn the basics of house/interior design. I'm proficient in AutoCAD and love dreaming/drawing up possibilities, it's just that I am not familiar with standard dimensions, design principles, and rules of thumb.

11/15/2011 10:46:49 AM

I would go to Barnes and Noble and browse their interior design section. They have tons of books out there on the topic. Pick a few that look up your alley and thumb through them before purchasing one.

11/15/2011 1:44:36 PM

i dunno about that pantry, but then again i am pretty spoiled when it comes to pantries

11/24/2011 9:27:05 PM

my husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law are currently jacking up the house to level out the floor in our bathroom that we will be replacing along with the joists underneath. quite the DIY project. I'm a little nervous

but it's step one of remodeling our master bath (and the guest bath shortly after), so for this i am very excited

11/25/2011 12:25:49 PM

finally got around to fixing my fence from the tornado today. found a pole so bent I'm gonna have to dig it out and pour more concrete

11/25/2011 10:15:51 PM

another kitchen update. got the countertops cut and roughed in...will finish them soon.

11/30/2011 10:15:08 PM

how much is that butcher block runnin you? I thought about it but I don't think it will look good with the color wood I'm using

11/30/2011 10:39:27 PM

Not completely DIY, but I created a component model in Google Sketchup for a coffee table and I am having a guy I know who makes furniture on the side quote me a cost to make it. My wife and I were looking for a specific style and had seen a few different tables online that fit the general requirements but imo they were all fairly expensive considering the design and construction is relatively simple. Plus we were limited to whatever sizes they actually came stock in on that site. My model combined different elements of a few tables but let me customize the overall dimensions.

I'm hoping the quote comes back lower than buying it online + shipping. We'll see though.

12/1/2011 10:20:35 AM

progress on the table, thanks to a belt sander and some 40 grit belts



i need to rip those old pieces of wood off the sides so I can get the rest of the junk off, then its time for polyurethane

12/1/2011 6:36:04 PM

Wow already looks much better!

12/2/2011 9:49:00 AM

thanks! I like how it looks "naked." Now it's ready for some fine grit:





the edge is messed up in that second one... that side will face the wall

12/2/2011 5:12:44 PM

You going to poly it?

12/3/2011 3:24:56 PM

i bet a nice stain and wax would look cool

12/3/2011 4:59:54 PM

For this one, I'm doing a several layers of poly right over the unfinished wood so I can use it as a workbench and not worry about getting solvents on the surface.

I have another table just like this one, I might do something different with that...

12/5/2011 9:10:02 AM

Stupid phone picture...countertops in and four coats of tung oil applied and, what's that?! A sink?!

12/8/2011 10:58:33 AM

cool sink

12/8/2011 12:00:32 PM

^ agreed... i love that look

12/8/2011 12:44:39 PM

^^^ I thought butcher block wasn't supposed to be installed around sink areas because of discoloration? Do they have some sort of sealant now to help protect against that? I'm curious because we've thought about doing butcher block but maybe using a different material around the sink area.

12/8/2011 12:56:56 PM

Any waterproofing finish you choose is sufficient. We're just using tung oil to seal ours, being diligent to clean up spills. Best part about butcher block is that refinishing is as easy as sanding and re-finishing.

12/8/2011 1:03:02 PM

Quote :

"tung oil"

Since it's made of nuts, I've heard some people with nut allergies can't touch it.... just FYI. It's great for wood bowls and such, but I've never heard of entire countertop finished with it.

Also it's not waterproof, it's water-resistant. Tung oil is susceptible to water vapor (steam from hot plates) and wood is porous. I'd invest in a nice dish-drying rack to put next to the sink and be sure to use trivets as much as possible.

It looks great though!

[Edited on December 8, 2011 at 1:14 PM. Reason : .]

12/8/2011 1:10:11 PM

Yeah, all things I've considered. We have no nut allergies in our friends or family, so that's not a significant concern. If it turns out we don't like this finish, the possibility of sealing it is still there. Which would be more tedious if we sealed it first and didn't like the results.

12/8/2011 2:00:37 PM

Little project I did a few weeks ago. HOA says there has to be a blind if you plan to keep your trash cans on the side of your house. And it has to be white plastic fencing

We laid 12'' pavers first the put up the fencing.

12/19/2011 8:57:15 AM

Anyone have any experience with stair cases and handrails?

I have a project I would like to do in my house but I really have no idea how easy it would be to DIY or how expensive it would be. Basically right now (as seen in the first picture below) we have a half-wall serving as the handrail on the first portion of our stairway from our living room to our upstairs. I would like to cut this half-wall down to a certain point and create a closed-stringer staircase type look with actual spindles, posts, and a handrail. I also tried to find two examples online that are sort of like what I had in mind. Both of the examples are 180 turns instead of L/90 turns but you get the idea as far as closed-stringer and a basic, non-milled design using 1x2s for the spindles, a simple lumber post with a nice cap for the posts etc. It would only be for the portion up to the first landing and then continuing on until it would anchor into the full wall that you see the current half-wall butting into.

Please ignore the 3 separate tones of color on the walls in this photo as we were (and still are actually) messing with paint colors in this part of the house haha.





Does anyone have any advice or experience here?

[Edited on January 5, 2012 at 8:25 AM. Reason : ]

1/5/2012 8:23:59 AM

Stairs are fun to trim.

1/5/2012 1:22:59 PM

Quote :

"HOA says there has to be a blind if you plan to keep your trash cans on the side of your house. And it has to be white plastic fencing "

lol what a dumb rule with the plastic fencing.

1/5/2012 1:51:13 PM

^^ I've never done any before so I'm not sure if it's something I should wait and hire a contractor at some point or just try and do myself with the help of some friends. I feel like my project would be fairly basic but I dono.

[Edited on January 5, 2012 at 2:15 PM. Reason : ]

1/5/2012 2:15:28 PM

[Edited on January 5, 2012 at 4:12 PM. Reason : nm]

1/5/2012 4:12:01 PM