Home Improvement projects

My latest project is a wine rack made from 1×2 wood beams. I’ve got one side cut completely, got a few more pieces to cut for the second side, then I’m going to stain it. It’ll be a very dark mahogany stain which should go well with the wall color in the living room.

This past weekend, I finished the living room walls.  I’ve got some touch-ups to do on the crown molding and later on the baseboards, but the walls are painted.  It’s a rich reddish color – the name is “Tawny Bluff”, probably thought up by an interior designer with an insecurity complex.  Regardless, I like the look.  The shelves are very different insofar as what’s on them – very few books compared to what I used to have, lots more decorative stuff and knick-knacky stuff.  I decided to not run component video and audio cables across the room under the floor, and I left the floor network jacks in place as well.  It’s now time for me to get serious about the basement; I need to finish stapling the network runs, run the A/V cable for the “gaming” environment, then close up the ceiling as the first steps.  I figure that should take me the better part of six months…  Hopefully less, but I know all to well how slow I can be.

The second coat is done, I’ve got two walls left to paint in the living room.  I’ve started putting the shelves back up; one will require some repair work, but I think I’m going to only put four shelves per side up this time, the fifth shelf was a bit low to be practical.  I’m also planning on moving most of the books somewhere else – I’m going to try for a semi-minimalist approach this time.  That will require some creativity in finding other homes for the books, but that’s okay since I can just box them and put them in the second bedroom for now.

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  The last post had the chairs not yet finished, and now I’ve gotten a lot more done, though a lot still remains to do.  The chairs were done, and they look great.  I still need to get two more for a set of 4, but that’s on hold.  Right now, I’m in the middle of repainting the living room.  So far I’ve gotten one wall done, another three with the first coat, and two yet to even edge.  I figure I can edge two of the three tonight, then finish everything up tomorrow and Friday.  Once that’s done, I can really start ripping apart the basement – it’s partially turn up now, but things down there have been on hold for a while.  The interesting part?  I’ll be putting in a kegerator and bar – I haven’t decided if it’ll be a wet bar or not, but it’ll still be damn cool.  For now, you’re mostly caught up on what I’ve got going on, so I’m headed home for the day to paint and then to hang out with a friend to celebrate something.  We’ll figure out what to celebrate later. 

The first coat of poly just went onto the chairs – at least, the top bits.  I’ll put the first coat on the underside in about 2 hours after the top is relatively dry, then hopefully I’ll have time to put the second coat on tomorrow.  If not, Sunday.  Probably pick up the other two chairs next weekend, get those done the following week.  Damn but I’m doing good…

The kitchen chairs are progressing well.  I put the first coat of stain on one chair, the second coat of stain on the other one, this morning.  Hopefully I’ll be able to put the second coat of stain on the first chair this afternoon, then Tuesday I can start poly’ing them.  Yes, I’ve decided to do polyurethane on the chairs – lacquer wouldn’t take as long, but since the kitchen table is poly, I figure the chairs should be poly as well.

Well, I had an unexpected home improvement project yesterday.  I woke up and turned on the shower, to about 1/3 of the normal pressure.  Not able to figure out what was going on, I finished my morning routine, got ready to go to the gym, and then opened the front door to a miniature waterfall next to my front stoop.  The main water pipe had burst.  Amusingly, it was after the water meter (which is about 40 yards away from my unit – ridiculous!) but before the main shut-off inside my townhome, which means I had to call the town to have it shut off.  Which of course means I was still getting charged for that water use, even though it wasn’t even getting to the inside of my townhome.  And of course the HOA won’t take any responsibility for it, even though it’s a case of poor placement of the meter and (as I learned from the plumbers that fixed it) shoddy construction practices on the part of the original builder.  So, I got to spend just shy of $600 that I didn’t really want to spend just so I could take a normal shower.

I think I’m going to accelerate all my home improvement projects as much as possible so I can put this place on the market and get into a better home.  Maybe even one I have built.

If a bit slowly.  I’m finally putting the first coat of polyurethane on the kitchen table today.  The first coat is going on with it as fully disassembled as I can get it, then I’ll sand, assemble, and put on the second and maybe third coat(s).  So it won’t be done today, but maybe by tomorrow, then starting Tuesday I’ll have a real kitchen table that I can actually use and that doesn’t make my kitchen look like it was sized for dwarves and hobbits.  Surprisingly, there’s very little of the “fume effect” from the polyurethane, as compared to lacquer.  This is probably a good thing, since there’s so much more of the kitchen table than there was of the end tables or coffee table.

In case you’re curious as to why I went with poly and not lacquer, it’s very simple.  Lacquer isn’t food-safe, poly is.  Thus, for the kitchen table, lacquer is decided contra-indicated.

Well, I finally got some time to put the second coat of stain on the underside of the table and the table legs; with luck, I’ll be able to put the first coat of poly on tomorrow, and then I can prep and stain the top of the table.  I was a bit worried about the color of this stain, but it turned out beautiful – a little darker than I’d anticipated, but that’s okay.

The old kitchen table disappeared this morning – dad and uncle picked it up to take back to my parent’s house to begin it’s new life as a garage workbench.  Which means until I get the new kitchen table done, I have nothing to eat on, so I figured I should start work on the new table.  I’ve got the first coat of stain on the underside and legs, and will be putting the second coat on before doing the top.  Yes, some of you will think it’s very strange for me to do it that way, and you might even be right, but that’s the way I’m doing it because it makes sense to me.  I’m using a different stain this time – slightly darker on the can, but it seems a lot mroe darker than I’d anticipated on the wood.  It still looks good to me, though, so I’m considering it a pleasant surprise.

Anyway, while I wait for that first coat to dry, I’m going to figure out dinner plans – as in where to get dinner from since I’m not eating at home.