Adam and Kristen

Stories and Babies

2021-10-11T16:41:00.004-05:00

I recently went through a training at work called "Building Success in You." It is designed to ingrain in us our company's leadership behaviors, so that we can champion them and push them out to our teams. As part of our closing "homework," we were told to develop a couple personal stories that we could tell that inspire our teams to follow our leadership, and that could be shared to encourage and uplift our peers.

As a result, I have been poring through some of my old blogs, because I used to write a lot about what was going on with me and in my life. I used to "tell personal stories" all the time. Since getting married and especially since having kids, I have moved away from that. When I post nowadays, it's mostly home improvement / DIY projects. In fact, other than one post, since 2016 I've posted nothing BUT home improvement / DIY projects.

And I've realized something reading those posts from mid-20s Adam. He was going through some relationship stuff when he wrote a lot of those blogs. :) I mean, I knew that, but sorry for anyone who endured Debbie Downer Adam in 2007-08 and was like, geez man. Suck it up. Move on.

My world

Anyway, at this point in my life I am at the tail end of my 30s. I have been married for 12 years, and I have four beautiful children. Four beautiful, exasperating, fun, crazy, sweet, occasionally obnoxious, smart, and great children. Our youngest turned two in June, and we both decided that was it for us. Four is a good number - everyone has a buddy, no one has to sit in the middle seat in the back of the van, we fit around the dinner table just fine.

We started selling or giving away all of our baby stuff. We saved some sentimental things, but mostly started getting rid of it all. Bassinet, baby swings, toys, baby carriers, clothes, etc. Three of our kids are now in school during the day, so Kristen was excited to get to spend time with just our baby boy this year, and plan for what she would do once he's in school too (she would maybe like to open a bakery at some point in the future).

Then in September, I went to see my parents and help my dad out with his deck. While there, Kristen called me on Duo unexpectedly, and held up a pregnancy test.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yep."

This was not what we planned.

I worry about talking about that fact. I worry that this child could grow up thinking that because they were not planned, that they are unwanted. That because we had different plans for our future, that they somehow messed up those plans. And I would say absolutely nothing about it, except for the fact that we told so many friends and family that we were done having kids, that there was no way we could play this off as intentional.

This has been a trial for us. For Kristen especially, who has experienced worse "morning" (aka "all-day") sickness with this one than any of the others, and an inability to take any good medication for her still frequent headaches. For me, that means doing the majority of all household chores (cooking, cleaning, laundry, taking care of the kiddos, etc.) - as she is frequently out of commission - while still working full time (luckily from home).

A few years ago in London, I saw the play Waitress. (SPOILERS AHEAD) And while it includes some terrible messaging (i.e. infidelity with no real consequences for the two protagonists), it also has some great music and some wonderful messages of love, acceptance, overcoming abusive relationships, and...pregnancy! Specifically, the main storyline revolves around Jenna, a woman who has an unplanned pregnancy (with her abusive spouse).

Even if you know nothing about the musical, you may have heard a version of the song "She Used to Be Mine" from it. Here is the radio version by Sara Bareilles (who wrote the music for the play). In it, Jenna laments the hard circumstances in which she has found herself, and sings in part to her unborn child.

And you're not what I asked for
If I'm honest I know I would give it all back
For a chance to start over
And rewrite an ending or two
For the girl that I knew
...
And then she'll get stuck and be scared
Of the life that's inside her
Growing stronger each day
'Til it finally reminds her
To fight just a little

But then the baby comes. The penultimate song of the musical is called "Everything Changes" (I've linked it below), and I think that as parents, this is what we feel when we meet our little ones, regardless of our original plans:

Today's a day like any other
But I'm changed, I am a mother, oh, in an instant
And who I was has disappeared
It doesn't matter, now you're here
So innocent
I was lost for you to find
And now I'm yours and you are mine
...
I didn't know, but now I see
Sometimes what is, is meant to be
You saved me

So little one, when you someday find and read this post, I hope you know that you are wanted, you are loved, and that we can't imagine our lives without you. You came into our lives in an unexpected way, but the one thing that is consistent in life is that it is often unexpected and unpredictable. And just like heartbroken 25-year-old me could not see how I could ever find someone to love, 39-year-old me didn't see what my life was missing without you in it.

New (to me) Table Saw

2020-07-13T11:59:00.001-05:00

I finally bought a table saw. I know, you probably assumed I already had one by all the amazing projects I've been able to do. What? You didn't? Well, you were right then, I guess. Congratulations.

I've been planning to get a table saw for a long time - I really need one to make more accurate cuts, as well as to make rip cuts (rips cuts = along the grain of the wood; cross cuts = across the grain of the wood), and also to make dados and rabbets (grooves in the middle or edge of a piece of wood). It would have helped with a number of my projects: this one, this one, this one, even this one (the paintbrush organizer had a couple weird angles).

Anytime I had to flip a board over to cut longer than my miter saw would cut, or when I had to use my circular saw to rip a board down, I could have used a table saw. Well, now I have one!

This thing is older than me, folks. It's a 1979 model, and when I got it, it was a rust bucket. The handle to raise and lower the saw was broken because the bolt that lifted it was frozen, and someone turned the handle too hard. Here is a list of all the things wrong with it:

Broken handwheel
Broke second handwheel when tried to use it (I epoxied that one back together)
Broken wheel (to wheel around the saw)
Missing blade guard and splitter
Missing arbor wrenches
Rust EVERYWHERE - the extension tables, the legs, the clamp for the splitter, the saw blade, the arbor nuts holding the blade on, the bolt that raised/lowered the saw and tilted the saw, etc. etc.
Due to its age, virtually no replacement parts available

Here are a few "before" pictures.

I started out trying a method I saw on YouTube for removing rust - putting a Scotchbrite pad on a 1/4 sheet sander and using WD-40 to sand it out.

That works if you have some surface rust, but not the kind of rust I was talking about.So I switched to a grinder with flap discs, then to sandpaper, then Loctite Naval Jelly (if you need to remove rust from something you can't submerge, I highly recommend that stuff). There was even an adventure trying to use a sand blaster / make a sand blaster in there, but we won't go into that (it technically worked, but was a huge mess and I moved on to using the chemical rust remover instead).

After I got the majority of the rust out and was mostly down to bare metal, I painted all the formerly rusty surfaces with POR 15. It's made for cars, and is fairly expensive ($30 for a pint). But it works great (stops rust without going all the way to bare metal), and I already had it on hand, so I covered all those surfaces with it.

After I did that, I bought some enamel spray paint and painted the extension tables, the saw inset plate, the miter gauge, and the rip fence.

Next I was able to completely clean out the inside, and get all the rust off that bolt to allow the blade to move up and down smoothly. Once all that was clean, I lubed it up to make sure it wouldn't freeze up again, and reattached the fixed handwheel.

I also had to buy/make a few other parts (some of which I'm still waiting on). I ripped off the ruler when I was getting rid of rust, so needed a new one of those. Also needed a handwheel to replace the busted one, a new set of wheels, some arbor wrenches (to remove and install the saw blades), and a splitter (which helps prevent kickback, which is when the cut wood comes back together after getting cut and binds up the blade, forcing the spinning blade to shoot the piece of wood back towards the operator). I actually ended up making a couple of those splitters out of some 16 GA sheet metal and an angle grinder. Since it doesn't raise and lower with the table saw, I wanted one that will work for the majority of my cuts (lower blade, around 3/4-1" high), and then one for when the blade is raised to its max height.

I'm pretty happy with how it's all turned out. This is a SOLID table saw - if it wasn't, I wouldn't have bought it. But it runs well, and now that I've fixed it up and fine-tuned it, I just need to start doing some projects on it!

Art Table & Paint Organization

2020-06-22T09:16:00.000-05:00

What are you doing in quarantine? Well, with reduced work hours I have had some additional time to work on house projects. Here are a couple I knocked out in less than a day each.

My wife is an artist. Which means she has a whole lot of art supplies, especially paint brushes and paints. Drawing from her Pinterest boards for ideas, I decided to make her a caddy to easily hold her paint brushes when she is painting on her art table (which my dad made when we first got married from plans I found). It usually sits at an angle, so I built it to work with that in mind (slot at the bottom to fit snugly over the lip of the table, water jar set perpendicular to the ground when her table is at her preferred angle).

The other art organization project I did was to help Kristen organize her paints. She has a ton of bottles of acrylic paint, and was storing them in bags on our wire shelves. Again receiving some inspiration via Pinterest, I created a couple simple shelves in an afternoon.

I took some of those craft boards I used for my drawer divider project, and glued and tacked them into place with some 1-inch nails, then filled the holes, lightly sanded, and spray painted them. Then I screwed them into some studs, and voila! Paint storage. She's very pleased by all this. :)

Bathroom Mirrors and Moving the Lights

2020-06-09T11:54:00.000-05:00

What do you do when you (almost) never leave your house? You improve upon that house! At least, that's what I've been trying to do lately to stay busy and not go crazy. For a while now, I've thought it would be nice to frame our bathroom mirrors, which are just those standard construction bathroom mirrors with clips holding them up. After researching it, it was a very simple project. But of course, I like to complicate things.

As I was putting up the first frame, I realized that what only sort of bothered me before really bothered me now: the lights. If you read my previous lighting posts, you'll know that when I replaced the lighting fixtures in the master bathroom, I had an issue with them being too close to the side walls and ended up having to move them. Well, they were also a little too low. The new orientation of the lights (sconces hanging down), in combination with the frame, made it more apparent that they were too close to the mirror. This was amplified in the upstairs bathroom, where I couldn't even get the frame in place with the light fixture as low as it was.

So I decided to move all the lights up higher. It was a great decision, because it looks so much better. I cut new holes, reinstalled the boxes, drywalled/mudded/sanded/textured/primed and painted, and then put the lights back in. Only thing I would do differently would be to get new boxes (remodel electrical boxes) that go in easier into drywall, without the need for studs/wood to screw into. That would have sped up the process. But once that portion was done, I could finish all the mirrors - and here are the steps to do that:

Step one: Measure the mirrors and buy appropriate amount of MDF trim molding (like what you use for baseboards in your house). I opted for pre-primed trim, so I could just spray paint them with an enamel paint and be good to go.

Step two: Measure and cut pieces with 45-degree miters, then spray paint and let dry (make sure to also paint at least the inside part of the back of the pieces, as the mirror with reflect the inside edge).

Step three: Put the bottom pieces up against the mirror to mark where the clips are, then use a utility knife to notch out spaces for the clips (so the trim piece sits flush on the mirror).

Step four: Use white construction adhesive on the back of the trim, being careful to try and focus on the middle/outer edges, so it won't be visible when it's pressed against the mirror. Then adhere it in place.

Step five: Repeat step four with the two side pieces, making sure to check that the pieces are plumb (i.e. like level, but for vertical pieces).

Step six: Repeat steps three and four for the top piece.

I would also recommend that if you do this, you make the frame a little taller on top, so the top of the frame reaches the top of the mirror clips. When all done, you can caulk along the edges if the frame has an exposed edge.

Where the lights were previously (no frame around the mirror)

Post-frame, but before I raised the lights - you can see how they overlap the mirror frame

After raising up the lights, it looks more open

Back when I originally swapped out the lights in the upstairs bathroom:
see how the light fixture is touching the top of the mirror

Now having installed the frame, with the lights at a better height

Bathroom Floors

2020-04-17T15:46:00.002-05:00

We have lived in our home for about 4 1/2 years now. And we've dealt with some ugly, stained, torn linoleum in both our master bathroom and upstairs bathroom that whole time. With the other updates I've made (cabinets, tiling), it was definitely out of place. The upstairs floor was even pink in some places.

So before the stay-at-home orders for this pandemic, I bought a bunch of vinyl flooring for both bathrooms. It is very thin, clicks together and requires no glue, and can be placed directly over the linoleum (the linoleum acts as an underlayment to protect the floor from the concrete underneath). It's also waterproof, which is perfect for bathrooms.

The process is actually fairly simple. The main thing I think I would do differently is buy knee pads. I bruised my knees pretty good by being on the floor for so long. I also ended up using a lot more tools than I thought I would. The main ones were a hammer (used to tap a sacrificial piece of vinyl into the boards to tighten up the joints after they clicked together), crowbar (pry up baseboards, and move tiles that were along the wall), miter saw, and jigsaw (to cut the pieces to fit). But I also used an oscillating multitool (to cut door trim so flooring would slide under it), a tile contour gauge (to get better fits around objects like toilet flanges and wall protrusions), pencil (to mark lines to cut), and a utility knife (to trim pieces that weren't quite right).

Something I had a hard time figuring out were the gaps. To allow for expansion and contraction, you should leave a 1/4-inch gap around the walls. This is fine when there are baseboards that will go over the top and cover the gaps (or a transition piece to the carpet), but along the tub and shower, or the floor by the mirror, it was trickier. I learned a tip from a YouTuber - only leave 1/8-inch gap on those sides (as long as the opposite side will have a gap), and caulk the 1/8-inch gap with white silicone caulk. Another lesson learned - for those same spots, make sure the tile is in as straight a line as possible, so your caulk line looks great. Mine is less than great.

Anyway, here are some pictures - first the master bathroom:

And the upstairs bathroom - I actually did the toilet area first on this one, which I'm glad I did. Made the rest of the floor easier.

Oh, one more thing on those floor transitions. They use easily bendable plastic anchors, so when you drill your holes, make sure they are the right size and perfectly straight. Then go slowly when attaching the transition piece and make sure the bolts go in straight, or they'll bend, and you'll have to redo the whole thing...like me.

The last step was to touch-up and re-caulk the baseboards - the top with white latex caulk, and the bottom against the floor with white silicone caulk. I made the mistake of using an inflexible caulk along the floors before, and the caulk all cracked in the wintertime and pulled away from the baseboards.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

The Family Tree

2020-03-29T15:33:00.003-05:00

We used to have a family wall. It had pictures of all the families in Kristen's and my immediate families. Because we've moved several times in our marriage, we were always trying to figure out the best way to arrange the pictures.

After we repainted our walls, we thought it would be cool to put one of those family trees up that we've seen people do. I think often they're big vinyl stickers, but I have an artist in the family, so I said forget that - I'm only paying for a can of paint (but seriously, go check out Kristen's web site: kristenbuchanan.com).

Kristen did the majority of the work - outlining the tree in pencil, and painting most of it (I did inside the trunk and large branches, and cleaned up the pencil after it was all done). And then we put up our family photos. Take a look at the finished product!

Also, here is a GIF of the process of Kristen creating the tree. Enjoy!

Kitchen Table

2020-02-24T15:59:00.000-06:00

This is a project I did last summer when I was on paternity leave, and it's one that I'm simultaneously proud of and very disappointed in. I'll tell you why later. First, the build.

We got this table for free from a friend who was moving. It came across the country with us 6 years ago when we moved to Minnesota. It has seen better days. Scratches, dents, food build-up, etc. It also had a very old look and feel to it - the pink tile and yellowing wood does not exactly scream modern.

I didn't take a "pre" shot, but there are plenty of the table -
this one has a tea party going on around it

So I decided to refinish it. I didn't think I would, but I love having tile on a kitchen table - you aren't constantly worried about damaging the wood from a hot dish, and it's easy to clean. So I decided to replace the tile to give it a more modern look (it was also practice for my bathroom project). The backing was a really soft material, which made it hard not to damage, but it came off pretty easily.

I also wanted a different color - anyone who has read my blog knows I like the dark color of General Finishes' Java Gel Stain and Dark Chocolate Milk Paint. It's on my doors and all my cabinets. So that's what I used.

I disassembled and painted the legs and table top separately. After sanding out all the scratches, dents, and the old topcoat, I used my HVLP spray gun and air compressor that I used in my laundry room project. I applied two coats of paint with the sprayer, then went over that with a couple coats of wipe-on polyurethane.

I really like the look of the table - the plan was to also do the chairs, but I got into another project (*cough* bathroom *cough*) and never did. But when it warms up this summer, I'll take those on. Here is a GIF of the new tile going on the table (got it from the ReStore).

After tiling, I taped over the finished wood with painter's tape, then I mixed up the grout and went to town. Grouting went fairly smoothly, and once it was dry / cured, I went over all the grout lines with a grout sealer.

With that, the table was basically done. Reattached the legs and stuck it in the kitchen. But I mentioned some issues earlier, so let's talk about them (and what not to do for anyone doing something similar).

The first issue was the grout I used for the tile. Apparently grout has an expiration date - I didn't know that. But if you've opened the bag, unless you're going to use it relatively soon (as in, less than a year), might as well throw it out. I used the same grout on my kitchen backsplash, and it has held up very well. This time? Not so much. First off, it never seemed to harden - even after a couple coats of grout sealer, it was still powdery. For example, if I rubbed my finger along the grout lines, my finger would come away with white dust on it. In addition, as we have cleaned the grout periodically, it has scraped and chipped away in places, leaving an undesirable appearance. So first lesson: don't use old grout.

Some of the grout has chipped out

Second lesson: use more coats of paint and poly. I have four kids, who are hard on my table. In several places, the paint and topcoat have worn away or been scratched away, leaving the light wood peeking through. Part of the issue was only using a couple coats of paint, applied with a sprayer. Spraying means a more even coat, but it also means less paint used. Which is good for saving money and paint, but less good for durability. The wipe-on poly is also a culprit. It means no brush strokes, but it also means that the poly has been thinned, so you need more coats. I later learned that you need about 3x as many coats of wipe-on poly to equal 1 coat of brush-on. Lesson learned - use more coats.

This is in my three-year-old's spot -
no surprise that it's taken the most damage

So this summer, in addition to the chairs, I will be re-grouting and re-painting my table top. But dang it, it will look good. Here's how well it looked when it was first finished (you can see the chairs need to be done too - they don't match AT ALL). So like I said, even though I am a bit disappointed, I'm still pretty proud too.

Drawer Dividers

2020-02-17T18:00:00.000-06:00

This was probably the quickest project I've done that is posted on this site. From start to finish, it took about an hour and a half, but it makes a big difference.

We have a lot of drawers in our kitchen (see my cabinet post). Despite that, we still end up with a free-for-all in several drawers, where utensils are thrown in willy-nilly. Invariably, it leads to a fair amount of, "Hon? Do you know where [X utensil] is?!" So I thought I'd create some organization.

First, I created the layout - I took everything out of the drawer, then added everything back where I wanted it, and used tape to show where I wanted the dividers.

Next, I built the dividers. I used some pine craft board from Lowes. I bought six 3-foot long, 3/8-inch thick, 2 1/2-inch tall boards called "project boards." I took each drawer out to the garage where I was working, and cut each piece to fit as snug as possible in the drawer. I started with pieces that spanned the entire drawer, set them in place, then held pieces up to get the next measurement. The beauty of this project is I hardly used a tape measure at all.

To hold everything together, I used wood glue and 1-inch finishing nails (shot in with a nail gun). So that everything stayed square, I would make a mark at the top of each board to its joining piece, tack in one nail, then flip it over and use a speed square to make sure everything lined up, mark another line, and use that to keep it in place when I tacked the nail in the other side.

I did three drawers, and they all turned out really well. I also still have two boards leftover, so I can do the silverware drawer next. This was a super easy project, and makes everything look awesome. Here is the process for the drawer that was the main reason for this project, and it's my favorite. Enjoy!

The Shower, A Re-tiling Story: Part 2, Tiling

2019-11-27T17:36:00.001-06:00

Wait! Before you read this, check out part 1 if you haven't already. Okay, moving on to tiling.

Kristen and I decided to go with large format tile for the shower and tub. We selected an 18" x 24" pattern, and brought home some heavy freaking boxes. Seriously, each of these weighed about 70 pounds, and they were wrapped together in 2-packs. I won't tell you how many trips to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Menard's I took during this project. Yes, all three. And yes, it was many, many times.

We got a porcelain tile, which is notoriously hard to cut (this will be important later). We also got a tile leveling and spacing system called Lash. It is really good, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who is tiling. For mortar, we used one made especially for large format tiles, so that they would stick to the walls (did I mention that they're heavy?). And we used a pre-mixed, colored sanded grout from Mapei that didn't need to be sealed (yay!).

Three rows in the shower down -
used the laser level to set the first row

So one August morning, I got up early, went to the Home Depot, and rented a huge wet tile saw for 24 hours. Then I came home, set up shop, and started cutting. Kristen helped me where she could with spreading mortar and placing tile, when the children didn't need attention.

This is part A of the Lash leveling system (it needs two parts)

I had to modify my design right away. I realized that because the inset shelves were slightly off-center, the design would look awful with a brick-type pattern (with 1/2 tile offsets), because the center line on the wall would not be in the center of the box. So I ended up going with 1/3 offsets, which proved to be a little trickier to plan (and a bit more cutting), but looked great.

We used a mosaic tile for the box

The biggest challenge was timing. We only had that saw for 24 hours, so we cut and placed tile as quickly as we could. I think I still ended up going to the hardware store(s) 3 or 4 times that day, which made the time crunch even tighter. I don't remember eating that day (except breakfast before starting).

What also made things tricky was cutting holes for hardware to poke through. The diamond hole saw I got for the pipes worked great, but the diamond cutting wheel I bought for my Dremel (to cut the boxes for the handles) wore out after one hole was cut, so I ended up cutting the other hole by cutting one tile piece short, then cutting a square box on the edge, making short passes with the wet saw, then knocking out the remaining pieces.

Everything tiled, finally

Remember how I said we started around 7 a.m.? We finally finished up about 2 a.m. that next morning, and then I was up early to go return the saw. It was quite a day. There were a few small details I still needed to do the next day, and I used a friend's small tile saw to do those (cutting bullnose tiles for the edges, cutting the mosaic tile to fit the sides).

And remember from my last post, where I said my first and third mistakes were about not making sure the cement board was even? Yeah, that made it a lot harder to make sure the tile stayed even on top of it. The Lash system helped, and so did adding a generous helping of mortar behind the tiles, but it was still tricky to get the tile looking how we wanted it to. I recommend making sure the wall is as flat as possible before moving on to the next step.

Lash spacers knocked out (no grout yet)

But in the end, we were both pretty happy how things turned out. A couple days later, once the mortar was dry, we knocked out all the spacers/tile levelers and start grouting. But let me say this - I don't ever want to use a pre-mixed or sanded grout again, if I can avoid it. Sand was everywhere! And because it was pre-mixed/didn't need sealing, we had to work much faster than usual. Which meant way more stop and go, switching from grouting to smoothing with the sponge.

Oh boy - I didn't even mention the door (nor do I have any photos of the process unfortunately). So...I used our existing door, because shower doors are apparently super expensive! But I had to modify it for the new space, which meant cutting and trimming the aluminum, which wasn't a great experience without a table saw. And because I'm an overachiever, it also meant painting everything (door and the fixtures). It was a lot of headache, but eventually it all worked out. I basically followed these two tutorials (the key is, the painted surfaces are now waterproof). Oh, and to attach the door to the wall, I had to get an extra diamond hole saw (the other one I had didn't work) to get through the tile.

All grouted, window frame not attached

Okay, one last thing before the finished look. take a look at the picture above, and then at the very similar one two above that. Can you see what's different? Check out below the window frame. Let me take you back to my #2 mistake from Post #1. I put the tile up too high. So high, in fact, that I couldn't reattach the window trim.

So to fix my error, I bought myself an angle grinder and a diamond cutting blade (to cut through the really hard porcelain tile), plasticked off the tub from floor to ceiling, then went to town. Kristen and I suited up (masks, goggles, etc.), and cut the tile around the window so we could reattach the trim. I cut while she continually sprayed the blade with water to keep it cool. Then I was able to attach the trim, do all the caulking of the corners and the base of the tub and shower, attach the baseboards, and texture/paint the new wall.

Here you have it - a completed shower and tub. It took way more time than the day or two I thought it would, and cost a whole lot more money, but I am very pleased with how it looks. I hope you like it too. Thanks for reading - if you have any questions, please reach out!

Completed shower

Completed shower and tub

The Shower, A Re-tiling Story: Part 1, Demolition & Prep Work

2019-11-27T12:25:00.002-06:00

I had 12 weeks of paternity leave when my little boy was born in June. It was amazing to be able to bond with my little one, but I still had extra time to get some projects done. In fact, my last three posts were done when I was on paternity.

This project was not supposed to be a big project - I wasn't planning to take on any "big" projects while on paternity, just projects I could get done in a day or two. But sometimes things get away from you.

I've never really cared for this shower. I don't like the shiny metal of the door, the white tile is boring, and the grout work has been chipping since we moved in. I filled it in with caulk and redid the caulk along the bottom once upon a time, but it didn't take very well (read: got mildewy).

When we first moved in

But the plan was just to recaulk, clean out the grout and re-grout it, and take out a couple rows of tile and add an "accent row." But after a couple hours trying to chip out the tile, remove the grout, and remove the silicone caulk, I'd had it. The tile wasn't coming out (it was pulling the cement board behind it out), the grout saw attachment I had was chipping the tile edges, and the silicone was not cooperating.

"Honey, I think I'm just going to rip it all out," I said.

"...Okay."

And thus began my adventure. I took out the shower door and half wall/window, and got to work chipping out tile. As before, it wasn't going well, and I ended up pulling off the cement backer board with the tiles still attached instead.

We had a soap dish and weird towel bar
IN the shower, glued to the tile

Half wall with frosted glass window

You can see all the mildew on the silicone

Just ripped the whole board off the studs

I ended up ripping out the drywall above the shower head too

I went around the whole shower, including that half wall, then made my way to the bath tub side. The tile on that side still looked nice, but I couldn't have two types of tile in the bathroom, so out it went too.

All the tile ripped out

Next, I decided that I didn't want a half wall - if I was retiling this thing, I was going to make the shower go all the way to the ceiling. So I framed in a wall (which was pretty cool). I also ripped out the drywall above where the tile had ended, so I could tile all the way up.

Drywall above ripped out

We also decided we wanted a shelf of some sort (since we ripped out the weird towel bar we had been setting our shampoo and soap on). So I built a box out of plywood, attached cement board, and screwed it between the studs on the wall (as that's an outside wall, I just compressed the insulation behind the shelf box).

Framed wall with shelf built in

The next step was to put in cement backer board. This wasn't too difficult. It cuts pretty easy with a regular razor blade, though it dulls the blades pretty quickly (I went through a bunch). I think there are better tools for cutting, but it worked for me. For the holes, I first made a template using a cardboard box. Then I traced that onto the cement board, and used a masonry drill bit / a jigsaw with a masonry bit to cut out the holes. Made quick work of everything. But this is where I made my first mistake. I wasn't careful about making sure the cement board lined up perfectly, or checked that the walls were plumb. This was mainly an issue later when tiling.

After the cement board was in, on the joints I added mesh tape made specifically for it (super sticky - if you do this, wear gloves at this point for sure).

You can see I took off the window trim to get the cement board
in place - I also only did cement board partway up the new wall.
For the rest, I later added in drywall.

Here is the shower with joints taped

Here is where I made my second mistake. When I took the trim off the window, I didn't mark on the wall where the tile should stop. This is going to be a problem later on.

But moving on. I watched so many tutorials on YouTube about how to make sure my shower was waterproof, and didn't leak into the wall, that I probably went a little overboard. But better safe than sorry, I say.

I first took some mortar I would be using for the tile, and mortared over all the joints. This is my third mistake, in conjunction with my first - I wasn't very careful about how I smoothed out / leveled the walls. I just assumed it wouldn't be a problem when I went to set my tile that the walls weren't perfectly smooth. While it's not a huge issue, it does make for a more difficult tiling experience.

One last thing for this post, and then I'll get to tiling in the next one: waterproofing. I went with a roll-on waterproof membrane made by Mapei called Aquadefense. It worked fantastic and was very easy to work with. It is super thick, but rolls on like paint. I bought a cheap, disposable paint tray/brush/roller, and used it the same way I would paint.

Waterproofing Action Shot #1

Waterproofing Action Shot #2

Completed waterproofing

Shot of the waterproofing in the shower

Drywall added above the waterproofed area

There you have it! Technically, I could have showered at that point, as everything is waterproof. But of course, I had to do more. I'll talk about that in the next post.

Laundry Room Revamp

2019-07-13T18:24:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of "before" shots of our laundry room. It was actually pretty cool. We have some shelves in there, with some hanging space for clean clothes that need to be hung up. We have a sink and a cabinet, and have to share the space with our water softener and water meter.

The main issue was laundry baskets. As I mentioned briefly in my last post, YouTuber Jordan Page has some cool ideas, including a great system on laundry. But after implementing her system, it felt like our floor space was very much taken up with laundry baskets, and we wanted something more organized.

I made this out of a sheet of plywood (dimensions specific to our space) and some 1x2's, made to fit these laundry baskets. I had to cut out the backsplash first to make room for this, and then basically just set it on top of the counter and caulked the gaps on the bottom (I also had to cut a hole in the top for the ceiling vent). But it's just a basic box - doesn't even have a back - I just used glue and my nail gun (with 2-inch finishing nails) to make it.

See how it basically just sits on the counter, caulked all the way around

The vent in just barely visible in this shot

Something else we needed was some additional shelving. Though we had two full walls of shelves, it still seemed like we were just stacking things everywhere. So I lowered the shelf over the main wall (it was too high anyway), and added one above it for more storage (which also gave us space for more pantry storage - especially for big items).

From the other side

Last, but not least, we thought it would be good to have extra space to fold clothes in there, so I built a folding table to attach to the wall. I made it out of one of the extra doors that came from when we replaced all our doors. It was trickier than making it with solid wood, because I had to add reinforcements at the edges so I didn't have big hollow spaces. I also used extra door hinges I had lying around from that project, and the rest of the scrap 2x3 from my ladder project for the support pieces underneath.

Table up, with dirty laundry baskets underneath

Here are a couple pictures of the supports. It's basically a cross piece that is screwed to the wall, (and which holds the top piece the folding part is hinged to) and some folding brackets attached to the support piece (also with hinges).

Brackets folded in

Unfolded to support table top

Here's what it looks like folded down - it doesn't take up much floor space at all.

Table folded down, with laundry baskets in front

I almost forgot - I bought an HVLP (high volume low pressure) paint gun a while back from Harbor Freight, because I wanted to see how it would work. It was inexpensive, so I said what the heck? Unfortunately, it needed an air compressor with more power than mine had, so the gun sat dormant for more than a year. Until this project! I recently fixed up an air compressor given to me by a friend (upfitted the supply line with copper tubing instead of rubber, which kept slipping off). I used it on this folding table, and have also used it on a couple more projects since then, and love it. It works wonderfully, and I'm excited to keep honing my ability to use it on more stuff.

Here's a panorama, so you can see the whole space in one shot.

Command Center

2019-07-13T17:55:00.002-05:00

We've been looking for a place to focus for chores, calendaring, etc., so I made a command center board to hang on the wall. The clipboard stuff comes from a YouTuber named Jordan Page, who has some cool organization and frugal living tips (check out her laundry, clipboards, and block scheduling videos).

This is something I've done a million times - make a frame. The tricky part was after I'd cut all the wood and dry fit it together, I had to make the rabbet. A rabbet is a cut out along the edge of a piece of wood, which gives it an L shape. It is often used for insetting glass in picture frames. In this case, I added a piece of hardboard to it for a back (glued in place). To create the rabbet, I used my makeshift router table, with a fence I made from some scrap wood and a straight edge, clamped to my router table.

Here is a view of the command center in all its glory:

It has the calendar, a metal plate for magnets / important papers (recently used for holding movie and theater tickets), the clipboards (summer kid chores), and I attached some pieces of PVC pipe with tape on the bottom to hold "chore sticks" (extra chores they get to choose, instead of being assigned). They have to do two chore sticks a day in addition to their regular chores. Definitely watch Jordan's video for more info on all this stuff. Here are some close-ups of the charts and chore sticks. The "Kid Zones" rotate each week (we have to help Aurora with her zone).

And lastly, here is a view of the command center on our wall. This is near the kitchen, in view as you come in from the garage or front door.

Blanket Ladder

2019-07-13T17:03:00.000-05:00

This project was super basic, and I actually didn't get any in-progress pictures. Sorry about that. But here is the finished product. Basically, it's a ladder made out of 2x3 wood and painted with spray paint and spray lacquer. We got the idea from some friends who had something similar in their living room that we liked.

If you're interested in making one, here are the dimensions: each side piece is 6 feet long, and the cross pieces are 17" each. To put it together, the top of the first rung is about 3" from the top, then they are 15" from the top of each rung to the top of the next rung. To center the rungs in between the cross pieces, I used a 1/2" scrap of plywood underneath each rung and then clamped them as they were screwed in place.

Closet Doors

2019-07-13T16:15:00.000-05:00

The last golden oak in our house was on the pass-by closet doors in the three upstairs bedrooms. In an effort to match our new doors, rather than buy new doors, I decided to make the existing ones into shaker-style paneled doors, with the help of some hardboard. Here is what they looked like before:

I took some quarter-inch hardboard and cut it down into strips about 3-4 inches in width (can't remember exactly - I mostly eyeballed what looked good, and did that same thing for all of the strips). I then glued and clamped them to the existing doors.

By the way, if you do something like this, I recommend adding some support at the bottom if your door (with the bottom support) has been cut down (mine was hollow at the bottom with just veneers showing). This makes it easier to clamp down your panels. Also, I recommend using quarter-inch plywood instead of hardboard. Hardboard doesn't work as well when painting, it doesn't sand well, and it just kind of squishes at the end if it gets hit. I won't use it for anything like this again.

After I got the panels glued and filled and sanded, I painted with my favorite: General Finishes Milk Paint, Dark Chocolate color. After that dried, I added a polyurethane topcoat, and added the door pulls (went with a nickel inset handle - the old ones were shiny brass).

I then of course ran into some issues with finding a door glide that would accommodate the increased width of the door, so I couldn't be choosy. But I finally found one on Amazon. Here is the finished result.

New Entryway Bench & Hanging Storage

2019-03-04T17:30:00.000-06:00

We bought a hall tree about 3 years ago for $50. It was an old, handmade one, and had character. Some mismatched boards in the back, a little rough around the edges, etc. But it looked pretty good, and it suited our needs. We could throw all our shoes in and close the lid, and use it to hang up some coats and backpacks. It even mostly matched our existing woodwork.

Our old hall tree

But as we've made changes to the house, I felt it was time for something new, and decided to make a new bench. I looked around online for plans, and finally found a video tutorial with a bench I felt matched what we were looking for. I had to modify some of the dimensions to fit our space, but I mostly followed what he laid out.

This is made mostly of plywood, with slots routed on the sides and in the middle for the dividers

Here's the bench with trim attached

I painted the entire lower part of the bench white

I stained the top of the bench with a walnut color - I love the grain patterns of this wood

Completed bench, sans drawers

We found some fabric drawers at Walmart to hold shoes

But we also wanted something to hang up some bags and store winter gear / school stuff like folders and lunchboxes. So after looking at a lot of designs online and not finding what I wanted, I decided to design something new myself. I learned how to use the online version of a 3D modeling program called Sketchup, and created this.

I made several iterations of this design before deciding on one

Finalized Design

Finalized design (other angle)

Then I got into the actual build. For the majority of the unit I used plywood, adding edge-banding for the exposed edges, and painted it white. For both the top and front, I used some solid pine with cool grain patterns, stained that same walnut color as the bench (with a polyurethane top coat).

Once everything was cut and sanded, I glued and clamped everything in place, then brad-nailed it together. For the bottom piece that hangs down, I used pocket-hole screws at the back.

Because I painted and stained/finished the pieces separately, I wasn't sure how I should attach the stained pieces to the rest of the unit (wood glue doesn't work great on finished surfaces, and I needed it to hold up to children). I finally decided to use my stepped drill bit I use for pocket holes to get slightly bigger holes than needed, attach the faces with screws, then fill the holes with a dowel and restain/refinish.

Here I have the holes drilled and screws holding the piece in place. I put some wood glue in the hole and pounded in a dowel (with a rubber mallet).

Once I had the dowel firmly in place, I (carefully) used my flush cut pull saw to cut off the excess. I also used a chisel to get the last little bit, and sanded down flush with the surface. Later, I came back and re-stained the area, then gave the whole thing a couple coats of polyurethane. I think it all came out looking pretty good.

The finished product hanging on the wall

Both bench and cubby together

Kitchen Countertops and Backsplash

2018-11-12T17:30:00.000-06:00

You guys - we have a new kitchen. Seriously, look at the before and after pictures of our kitchen, and the changes are drastic. I thought when I redid the cabinets, that was drastic. But now that we've redone the countertops and backsplash...wow, it looks completely different.

When we moved in, and for the past 3 years, we've had a laminate countertop and backsplash. Here is a look at the kitchen post-cabinet rennovation - pretty good, right?

But I wanted a countertop that better matched our updated cabinets. We have about 50 square feet of countertop, though. We also live in a duplex, which means that whatever we do to our home isn't necessarily going to translate well to home value. So anything we spend on our home has to be weighed with that in mind - ultimately we do things that will add to our personal enjoyment but don't cost an arm and a leg. Which means that the expense of adding real stone countertops was going to be outside our willingness to pay.

As I looked into alternatives, I found this company: Leggari. They do custom epoxy countertop kits (and floor kits). But this isn't your grandma's epoxy (did grandma use epoxy?). They say it was designed to be used in aircraft hangers, so it's some sturdy stuff. They send you a kit of everything you need to do the counters. I didn't get many in-process pictures, because you need to go quickly when working with this stuff, but there are number of videos on their site if you're interested in how we did it. I'll give you a basic rundown here:

1. Tape and plastic off EVERYTHING. You don't want this stuff on your floors or cabinets.

2. Prime the countertops with a two-part primer (rolled on with a nap roller) and let it dry to tacky (about 1 1/2 hours).
3. Mix and pour out a two-part epoxy base on all of the countertops.
4. Use a paint roller like a squeegee, and spread the epoxy over the entire countertop, trying to get it approximately even (it self-levels), going over the sides so it flows evenly when it drips.

5. Once the epoxy base color is on, you mix and pour your accent colors on the wet base one at a time (we used two colors), trying to mimic stone patterns.
6. With everything still wet, you take your roller and roll back and forth, up and down, blurring the harsh lines you created with the accent colors (when we did this, we started too soon at first, because our base coat layer was thicker than expected, so we waited a little while to start).
7. Let the epoxy dry, taking a paint stick to the bottom edges every so often to stop drips from forming on the underside of the counters.
8. The next day, mix, pour, and roll the top coat in a similar fashion to the base coat.
9. Let everything fully cure and harden for about 7 days before you put things back on the counter.

We ran into a snag after everything had dried. I screwed up, and waited too long to scrape drips, accidentally creating a lip at the bottom when I did it once (see picture below). I should have waited and just sanded the drips off the bottom.

Notice the "bump" at the bottom

I ended up sanding that out flat (by hand!), and my artist wife went back and re-painted the sides where I had done that. Made it nice and flat and pretty again. I had a little extra topcoat in the containers, and mixed/rolled that on over the sides. This is what it looked like when everything was dry and we took the plastic and tape off.

We also took the opportunity to replace the kitchen faucet with one that has a pull-down sprayer and has a motion-activated feature.

New faucet pre-backsplash

After we finished the countertops, we moved on to the backsplash. We played around with a couple ideas, including doing subway tile (P.S. tile is expensive!). We finally decided on a nice, relatively inexpensive mosaic tile with an unsanded white cement grout. I bought a tile cutter, a trowel, a float, and a sponge, and over the course of two Saturdays, we first put up the tile, then grouted everything as well.

Putting up tile

Backsplash completed without grout

For the island backsplash, I ended up having to improvise, and cut a lot of tiles lengthwise, because I ran out of the skinny tile rows.

Backsplash on the island

Here are the progress shots of grouting, with my beautiful co-grouter.

First section grouted

Beautiful co-grouter

Ultimately, this kitchen is completely different from when we first started, and I love it.

Before and After

Lighting Post 4 of 3

2018-08-06T11:45:00.001-05:00

When I wrote my last lighting post, I technically wasn't finished. Okay, even now I'm technically not finished. However, I am done with the bulk of my lighting adventures. You might remember my previous three posts, where I spray painted some lights, swapped out a chandelier and painted a fan, and completely redid all the bathroom light fixtures (including splitting one fixture into two), and painted the other fan.

In my last post, I mentioned I needed to replace all the dome lights. And...I did. It really did take about 10-15 minutes per light. I changed out six of them. The last thing to do will be to replace our bedroom light with a small fan, and replace the gumball light in the playroom with our bedroom light. (yes, there will probably be a 5 of 3 post in the future). Here are what the lights looked like before:

And after:

The Doors

2018-08-05T14:54:00.001-05:00

This is what our doors used to look like. Flat, golden oak color, dark brass door knobs, shiny brass hinges. I knew when we moved in almost three years ago, this was something I was going to change. I have always felt that panel doors look so much better than flat doors.

Our front door and our garage door were already both 6-panel doors, so I thought it best to stick to that scheme (I think I would have picked them anyway - they're classic). I toyed around with the idea of buying solid-core doors, at least for the bedrooms (to help reduce noise), but ultimately just went with hollow core panel doors throughout (much cheaper).

Fit jig over door and tighten it down, then route out the hinge

Depth gauge

Now, I'd heard that if you don't buy pre-hung doors, it can be difficult to get new doors to fit just right in old frames. So to help me with my endeavor, I purchased a couple of jigs. One, from Ryobi, to do the hinges. And one, from Irwin, to do the door locks / handles. The Ryobi tool was fantastic - it takes out all the guesswork. It comes with a router bit and a built-in depth gauge for it, and has positive stops to adjust the template for different-sized hinges. It also is able to do both rounded and square hinges (those rounded bits are removable inserts). All I did was line up the door I'd removed with the new door, drew some lines with a square to match them up, then used the router template to mortise out perfect slots for the new hinges. That made it super easy to do the hinges.

Irwin tool with hole saws

The Irwin tool wasn't as good as the Ryobi. I did the same thing: lining up the old and new doors and drawing lines, then attaching the jig. This one has two holes where you screw in the door lock screws to hold it in place. Then you use the included hole saws to cut the door handle space (starting the hole on both sides so you don't blow out the other side), then the door lock hole. The biggest issue was that the jig didn't stay put very well. To keep the holes lined up, punch the center drill bit through, then switch to the other side and ignore the jig, using the center hole as your guide instead. And having a drill bit that switches between the two hole saws isn't ideal, as those things can be difficult to separate from the hole saw. But the biggest issue was the plastic template that was included to cut out a space for the bolt plate. The router bit got so heated up in cutting the space, that it melted the plastic jig. I had to be really careful I didn't go outside where the original lines had been.

By the way, here's what happens if you screw up in measuring, and measure from the wrong end of the door. You accidentally drill the door handle hole in the wrong spot. This was a $31 mistake.

After I got a few doors on, I realized that my doors were slightly too wide, when compared to my original doors. So I pulled them off and planed them down slightly with a hand planer, then sanded them smooth. This was something I had to do even later on, when a couple of the doors started sticking (I ended up planing those in place, though).

I also tried painting the doors in place - not a great idea. It took too long and I had to tape everything, etc. So instead I took them off and painted them in the garage (though I did the shiny topcoats while they hung). I wanted to do something different than just white doors, and felt matching the doors to the other woodwork I've done in the house would look pretty good.

I used two coats of General Finishes brand milk paint. The Dark Chocolate color matches their Java Gel Stain, which I used on the cabinets and banister. Then I added a couple coats of Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane Satin Finish for a topcoat.

For the hardware, I replaced the door knobs with satin nickel handles, and added matching hinges.

Here are some shots of the final products! I am really pleased with how they turned out.

Upstairs bedrooms/bathroom

Front door/garage/half bath

Half bath to the laundry room

Upstairs toy room

Banister

2018-04-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

I am on a quest to eliminate all golden oak coloring from my home. The next item on my list was my banister. I used the same process I used on my cabinets: sand, java gel stain, and polyurethane topcoat. This took a while to sand because of all the individual posts with all their little grooves. But I finally did it. Here are the before pictures (notice the change I made in the baseboard on the stairs from this post).

And the after:

Painting the Walls

2018-04-21T11:36:00.000-05:00

Next we moved on to the walls. Well, let me rephrase that. We actually painted the spare room (now the baby's room) and the big girls' room last year. In fact, we painted the trim in those rooms too and used the wrong paint, so we will need to go back over them in the future. Not to mention that we will also need to paint the trim and walls in the office too. Here are the before and after of their rooms:

Panorama of the Girls' Room when we moved in

Much lighter blue with white trim (and bed)

Funky brown accent wall in baby's room before

I researched the crap out of making the painting process easier. I patched walls like crazy, textured them, primed them, and THEN we painted. By the way, priming the patched spots is really important, because it keeps you from getting those flat-looking spots that look like a different color.

We edged around the ceiling in each room first, which I did by hand with a brush (often on a very tall ladder), then rolled the walls while the line around the ceiling was still fresh. To roll the two-story walls, I had to use a very long extension pole. We painted the upstairs living room and hallway, entryway, kitchen, and dining room gray (which ended up looking a little bluish-gray in the light), and are very happy with how it turned out. Here are a few pictures of that.

I keep taking on huge projects - hopefully my next ones will be a little smaller. But the difference is amazing. I love the new white trim, especially with the newly painted walls.

The Trim!

2018-04-20T14:47:00.000-05:00

If there are two things I really don't like doing in regard to housework, it's sanding and painting. Guess what the majority of my house projects have been this past year or so? Yep. Sanding and painting. But this time, I tried a different approach. I now have an air compressor and a brad nailer/stapler, so I decided to take all the trim off and sand/paint it, then reattach it later.

It actually has been a relatively simple process (just time consuming). As usual, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on the subject, then went to work. I bought an inexpensive pry bar from Menards (local hardware store chain), and while we were watching TV one night, went around the room, prying off baseboards and removing nails.

The trick is to first get your bar under the trim and lift up - that will pull the trim away from the wall enough to slide the flat end in there. Then you push it down as far as possible, and rock the bar back and forth gently. If it is getting stuck on the carpet, put the bar back under the bottom of the trim and push it up.

I like to use the curved end once it fits, because it seems like it is better for pushing out the bottom portion of the baseboard. Then I removed the nails from the boards and the walls. There are a couple holes on the pry bar that make for perfect spots to brace the pliers when you pull out the nails.

Anyway, once those were all removed, I replaced them until I was ready to paint. The baseboards were actually relatively simple. The hard part was all the door and window frames I didn't remove. I figured out that there are exactly 26 window/door frames in my house. I decided that I hated painting, and wanted to come up with a better way to do it.

Turns out, there is a great product called Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer. It says you don't need to sand or degloss at all, but I still lightly sanded any big bumps away. Let me tell you, it sticks great. I did two coats of primer (only need to dry an hour between coats) with a brush, then a coat of enamel semi-gloss (and another light coat for touch-up) using a roller that I used like a squeegee to help avoid brush marks (the paint said not to thin it). With the second batch of trim, I actually used a paint conditioner, which I think helped get a better finish.

After I finished most of the frames, I moved the baseboards into the garage piece by piece, marking the backs so I would remember where to replace them when I was done, then going through the same painting process as the frames. It's much easier to paint a horizontal surface, by the way. I wish I was spraying it on, but it still went okay.

After I got everything painted, I took it back inside and matched it up on the correct walls. I sanded or cut off any drips on the sides/backs so everything would line up properly, and went about reattaching it to the walls with 18-gauge brad nails. It took a few times of messing up to get the right pressure and technique on the nailer so I didn't have to pound in tiny nails with a hammer and nailset tool.

After

Before

One thing that was weird was that along the stairwell, there was a piece of (different) trim all along it. I didn't think anything of it before, but after I removed it, I wondered why they had done it that way. It looked bizarre, and it wasn't the same as the other side of the banister (stair-side). So instead of putting it back, I replaced it with some shoe rail. I'm planning on staining it the same color as the banister (same as the cabinets).

Baseboards don't line up with the floor

The house originally had carpet in the downstairs living room / dining room, but was replaced with hard floor at some point, so this was a good opportunity to lower the baseboards to match the floor. Then it was a matter of carefully caulking top (and bottom for the hard floor), allowing extra time to mess up of course, filling and sanding nail holes, then touch up painting everything.

Painted baseboard caulked along the floor

This post probably seems really long, but trust me - doing this trim took longer. I legitimately took a year to do this. I would do 2-3 door frames one weekend, then nothing on it for a while, then more door frames, then a window, then I took off part of the trim, then painted it, then more trim, then painted, etc. etc. If I ever do this again, I will take everything (including door frames) off the walls and spray them. I will not hand paint anything except for touching up.

Random: Collar Hack

2018-04-09T13:39:00.003-05:00

I am required to wear business casual attire to work. Typically, that means a collared, button-down shirt and slacks (though sometimes it's a polo). I like to look nice, so of course I wear clean, ironed shirts, but the collars always bugged me. I don't like button-down collars, but I also don't like my collar spread across my shoulders like I'm John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

So I learned a trick from a friend, about how to get a buttoned-down collar look, without having a button-down collar. Here it is:

This is a stainless steel collar stay, paired with a very small neodymium magnet. I bought a big pack of these collar stays online for a few bucks, and some magnets from Michaels (or Hobby Lobby, can't remember). The trick is to swap out your collar stays for these, and use a magnet inside your shirt to "pin" your collar to your shirt where you want it. That way, my collar always stays where I want it to. Enjoy!

#MeToo - #HowIWillChange

2017-12-06T16:00:00.000-06:00

I used to write more of my thoughts on this blog. It was the place I came to in order to truly express how I feel. It was truly like an online journal. But as I've grown older, I have become more cautious of what I say, where I say it, and to whom I say it. The internet has grown into a place of oversharing and trolling - somehow, the perceived anonymity of a screen seems to give everyone free reign to dump all of their thoughts and feelings out there, often disregarding tact and other social niceties. In addition, I feel (as many do) somewhat of a desire to project a certain persona and maintain my "personal brand." Quite often you see people's education or careers put in jeopardy based on things that were published online, so there is a desire to protect oneself from potential ramifications to education, career, and relationships.

As a result, I find I am less willing to put myself out there, to share more of my thoughts and feelings. I'm not sure if that is a result of what I mentioned above, or if it is just a side-effect of getting older. Either way, I am much more cautious of what I say and how I say it.

But today, Time Magazine posted their 2017 Person of the Year article, and I need to talk about it. If you have not read it yet, you can probably guess by the title of my post, it is not one person, but those whom Time calls "The Silence Breakers." Those who sparked the recent #MeToo movement, and broke open the floodgates of sexual harassment and assault stories.

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017

It is sad and scary to realize how many stories there are. To realize how many women have felt and continue to feel victimized by men. To hear friends and colleagues put themselves out there and share their deeply personal stories on social media. And to realize that there are more stories left unsaid, because many are still too scared to share. They fear backlash, retaliation, and criticism if they share their personal experiences.

I am a father of three little girls, and every day they are in this world, I see more and more of what they are up against. It should not have taken having three daughters, and a whole online movement, to make me realize my complicity in perpetuating a culture of sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination against women. As men, collectively, we need to change the narrative.

In response the the #MeToo movement, Australian journalist Benjamin Law suggested a new hashtag, to allow men to publicly share their commitment to ending the culture of sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination: #HowIWillChange.

Guys, it's our turn.

After yesterday's endless #MeToo stories of women being abused, assaulted and harassed, today we say #HowIWillChange.
— Benjamin Law 🌈 (@mrbenjaminlaw) October 16, 2017

I hope that nothing I have done has ever made a woman think #MeToo. But I have laughed, or (more recently) awkwardly nodded and smiled when people tell sexist jokes, I have interrupted female colleagues in a meeting and not male colleagues, I have "mansplained" something while assuming I had the superior knowledge, and in general I have tolerated sexist talk from others. No more. I will speak up and be straightforward. I will listen more and talk less. I will take Sheryl Sandberg's advice from her book Lean In, and be an advocate for women in the workplace. I will give my daughters a good example of the type of man they should expect to be around, so that they refuse to tolerate bad behavior. In short, I will do everything I can so that no one will ever think back on an experience with me and need to say, #MeToo.

Lighting Final (3 of 3)

2017-11-10T17:49:00.001-06:00

With the exception of buying new dome lights and replacing them (which will take about 5 minutes per light), we are done with lighting changes. Finally. First off, if you haven't seen my other lighting posts, check out number 1 and number 2.

In my last post, I posted about the chandelier, as well as painting one of our fans. So first off, I finished the second fan. The first two times I painted light fixtures, I left them up on the ceiling, then just taped off around them. Spray paint fumes aren't fun, though, so after the success of my chandelier wiring (see post 2), I decided to unwire the fixtures and take them outside to spray paint. That went much more smoothly (though a bit difficult getting the fan back up on the ceiling - the wiring part was easy - the actual mounting proved a bit tricky). Here are the before and after of fan #2.

Next, I decided to tackle the bathroom lighting. As I mentioned in post #1, we had that Hollywood lighting in all our bathrooms, and I was looking for something nicer. So I purchased Hampton Bay Andenne light bars, via eBay and Amazon. As with most things you buy from sources like that, there were a few hiccups and a couple trips to Lowe's for additional parts. The half bath and the upstairs bath were both fairly straightforward. Turn off electricity, remove bulbs, pull out bulb holders, pull off face plate, then unscrew mounting plate from junction box, unwire light.

Then do it in reverse. Install mounting plate (though that was actually trickier than expected - I had to get creative with how I connected it - in the end, I bought different mounting plates than were supplied with the lights), wire light to wires in wall (also tricky with one of the lights which, turns out, was missing a wire - dang eBay) - black to black, white to white, ground to ground. Finally, attach light fixture to mounting screws and secure, pop in bulbs, turn power back on, and voila: light!

Half Bath

Girls' Bathroom

I still need to patch and paint, of course (stupid painting). The tricky part was when I decided to do the master bathroom, and replace one big (eight-light) light bar with two three-light fixtures. Because there was only one junction box originally, I had to move it and install another one. Which also meant running wire through the wall. I basically followed all the steps I found in this blogger's post...mostly.

Because you see, when I decided where to put the lights, it just made sense that I would want to put them directly over the sinks, right? Well, I should have double checked that they would FIT right over the sink. Cuz...they didn't. Here's the process:

1. Remove Lights / Cut Giant Hole in Wall and Holes in Studs / Put New Wire in Wall

2. Put Junction Boxes in Place / Pull Wires Through / Start Patching Drywall

3. Finish Putting in Drywall Pieces

4. Tape Drywall Joints

5. Mud Drywall (Not Pictured: Sand a Ton and Get Dust Everywhere

6. Attach wires to light fixtures, turn back on breaker, screw in bulbs, switch on lights, realize left lights aren't working, take everything apart and put back together and then apart again, realize one of the wires was loose, reattach everything again, then sing hallelujah when all the lights come on

7. (Not Pictured) Cry when you realize you should have held up the light fixtures to the wall before you did all that work, so you would know in advance not to put them too close to the wall, since the window shades won't fit where they are

8. Take everything back apart, cut some more holes, move the lights over a few inches, go through the whole process again, and breathe a sigh of relief that it's all done

Pedal Board for Aaron

2017-08-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

My brother-in-law is a musician, and plays the guitar really well. He also has a lot of pedals for his guitar. Without some way of organizing them, they can get a little unruly. A few months back, he sent me a couple pictures of pedal boards and asked how hard they might be to make. Me being me and loving a challenge, barreled straight ahead and volunteered to take a crack at it.

So I did! Here are the pictures he sent me of a design he found online:

It has a bunch of holes, so you can zip-tie the pedals in place, and places for the cords to go too. Once I had the drawing, I printed it out poster style to the right dimensions, and cut it out to show my brother-in-law, as it was pretty big. Wanted to make sure that's what he was looking for. It was.

I taped it to the plywood I was using, and got to work with the jigsaw and sander.

P.S. I had to make those saw horses before I could get started on the project, because I didn't have any. I also needed them for something else anyway, so this just made me get it done.

I couldn't find anything similar to the metal brackets that were in the original pictures, so I ended up cutting some 2x4's at an angle, and then cutting those in half to give me two supports for the top piece. Also, I didn't get a picture of it, but I only printed the paper template once, so I had to use it twice. Once to cut out the lower deck from the plywood, and a second time to cut out the upper level piece (I had to cut up the paper template to do it).

I routed the edges and sanded them a bit so some of the top layer came off, making a cool-looking feathered edge to it. Then I drilled. I drilled a TON of holes. I did count, but I forgot how many there were. It was around 150-200. Yeah. I drilled all the ones in the picture here by hand, before I was able to borrow a friend's drill press for the rest. That made it a zillion times better.

I finished it off with a coat of natural stain, and a couple coats of polyurethane, the night before we left for our mini-family reunion.

My brother-in-law was pleased. He's already making good use out of it. I showed this to a co-worker who plays as well, and he got really excited, wanting to do something like it for himself.

A more recent version of how he has it set up
(the beauty of the holes is he can move pedals around as needed)