The Next Episode

Soandso must have returned from his island vacation that he was on. I would imagine that he is probably tanned now and ready to get back to working on his house. I see that he posted again today. I mention all this for not other reason than to irritate Meredith.

posted by Scott in Washington at 11:48 AM | 9 comment(s) |

Such an amazing coincidence..

I see that Soandso182 posted to his blog again today. Man! Its amazing how much that guy and I have in common. I wish I were cool like him.

posted by Scott in Washington at 6:09 AM | 2 comment(s) |

Random Bed Picture...

...I found while looking for pictures of beds built into closets. Maybe they should spend less on furniture and more on fixing the roof??

....Some Like It Hot.... which I've never seen.... I just put it in my Netflix queue - anything for house project research, right?

Jason, I'm headed for the studio tonight. I'll get those pictures you asked for.

Received this in email from Cousin Steve, "Caught up on your blog. Are you going to build that bunk bed project yourself? What size mattress are you going to use? I could help you design it to be Navy style if you like, but we will have to run a leaky water pipe over the bed and mount a little speaker next to where the head will be that emits a constant machinery hum and an occasional ruckus of a couple of guys arguing and then wrestling on the floor. I think it's a great idea, all kidding aside."

I like the idea of a slight nautical theme but I definitely don't want the haze gray and underway theme. I'd like to create a space that slightly evocative of a tall ship berthing space or a train sleeper car but not completely so. I also have been thinking of the sleeping cabinet from Wuthering Heights but without the window.

As for the contractor/who is helping me on this one question; I figure I can use all the help I can get (both hired, sired, and related to – OK, maybe the boy is too young to help but I’m looking forward to that day), both from time and expertise standpoints. We called the father of some people we went to school with who is a retired mill worker/master carpenter who takes building furniture to a high art form and has filled his own house with gorgeous wood floors, etc. He said he was too tired to take on another project right now and it turned out that most of his sixty year old carpenter friends were too.

We did make contact, though; with a man who had been recommended by several too busy or too old and tired carpenters who it turned out is also the father of a former classmate. He said he booked solid through November or December but that he’d stop by the house (last weekend) to take a look and give us advice. He ended up spending almost two hours poking around the house with us, looking at what we’ve already done and talking about future projects.

He ended up saying that he could take Fridays off from the house he is building to come work with me on my project on days when I am in town and have the day off (I don’t work Fridays in the summer usually). I’m hoping that he can help me keep from making stupid mistakes and be there for the parts that experience and expertise help with and that during the rest of the week I can do the principal of the work. As for the size of the mattress, we’ll probably buy a single ahead of time and build to match that.

SD

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:31 AM | 3 comment(s) |

Anther Post about the wall bunk project

It is turning out to be surprisingly difficult to find pictures on the Internet of the type of berthing spaces I am interested in. Imagine the lower part of this photo being part of bedroom wall on either side of the room. There is an 11 foot long section of the wall that will have a sleeping/storage space built into it with a four foot wide access opening. There will be drawers and storage below and to one side of each bunk.

Things I like about the pictured bunk:
1. The edge of the bunk is a little higher that the mattress
2. There is a cutout for swinging one’s legs over the edge.
3. The wood looks really good with the heavy lacquer.

Things I don’t like:
1. There should be more headroom (not Max Headroom…)
2. There should be a reading light and a little storage rack/shelf on the outboard wall
3. There should be curtains
4. The wall and bunk edge should be flush.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:58 AM | 6 comment(s) |

Helping Soandso..

In order to help my, ahem, friend Soandso with his project, I'm looking for plans and pictures of either A. bunks and beds built into walls or B. Ship's berthing spaces. Does anybody know of any cool links?

posted by Scott in Washington at 10:33 AM | 2 comment(s) |

Good Productive Day Today

But why would I want to blog about that? I see SoandSo182 posted to his blog today already. Why don't you go check that out?

Dyah see what I just did there? Eh? Do yah?

posted by Scott in Washington at 2:14 PM | 1 comment(s) |

Exactly....

SD1 has a good point....

posted by Scott in Washington at 7:44 AM | 6 comment(s) |

I'm coming out, so you'd better get this party started...

Actually my wife sort of kind of outed me on another blog right after we got back from Vegas. What I'm talking about is my decision to run the Vegas Marathon this coming December - a plan that I've sort of been avoiding talking about on my blog because I wasn't, well, ready to talk about it.

I have Hal Higdon's novice training schedule tacked next to my desk at work. I'm not supposed to start the official cycle until August 1st but I've been unofficially training since we got back about a month ago. I've never run more than 14 miles before, so this will be a pretty big step for me. I've wanted to run a marathon since I was a little kid and my dad ran them. Plus I have to think running up the strip after running in from the desert has to be one of life's Great Experiences.

Question for the Blogosphere: Do you prefer reading blogs where people talk about many varied aspect of their lives or do you prefer reading blogs where people keep it to one topic? This blog started out as a strictly home renovations blog and that what I still mostly talk about but recently I've been thinking maybe I should start a second one to talk about the blah blah blabbity blah things that don't have anything to do with working on the house. What do you think?

posted by Scott in Washington at 3:27 PM | 8 comment(s) |

Why I Like My iPod Shuffle

Weekly Run Total:
Tuesday: 3.57 miles
Wednesday: 3.57 miles
Thursday: 3.57 miles
Sunday: 7.14 miles
Total: 17.85

Still not a lot of miles total, but its coming up.

posted by Scott in Washington at 12:42 PM | 3 comment(s) |

Jonah; Head Groundskeeper

Keeper of keys, pee'r of pee's, snuffler of snuffles, I am Jonah, charged with keeping deer out of the garden even though I'd probably totally ignore any deer I saw unless maybe they had a tennis ball.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:49 AM | 4 comment(s) |

DSCF0020

zukillishish

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:47 AM | 0 comment(s) |

DSCF0017

Not knee high by tomorrow unless maybe I got down on one knee but making progress.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:46 AM | 1 comment(s) |

DSCF0014

Not much happening at the bean house yet. A few of the plants have taken off and are shooting up the strings but for the most part they're still a two or four leaf bunch of ground huggers.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:44 AM | 2 comment(s) |

DSCF0012

How do you know when radishes are mature? These ones are about 2.5 feet tall and are growing flowers. Maybe a should dig up a plant and take a look.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:43 AM | 1 comment(s) |

DSCF0011

first tomatos

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:41 AM | 0 comment(s) |

DSCF0008

Last year someone had told me to nip off the suckers or smaller branches that grow up from the joint between the main plant and other branches. Somehow in my addled brain, I translated that to needing to nip off all the blossoms and so grew a tremendous bushy tomato plant that only had one tomato and a green one at that. This year each plant has at least 40 or more blossoms. Can't wait.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:40 AM | 0 comment(s) |

DSCF0005

The fun thing about growing from seed, at least for me, is that you water, and water, and wait, and just when you start to think there must be something wrong with these seeds, or the temp. or the amount of water, or whatever, up pops the teenie tiny little plants. These are Brit's from before she went to her mother's.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:29 AM | 0 comment(s) |

People who wear tin foil hats shouldn't throw rocks

You know, I've never been pregnant, never had a baby, never gotten addicted to a prescribed substance, and I've never been a supermodel. I'm pretty sure this is all a part of a condition I share with Tom Cruise, except maybe the supermodel part.

In the immortal words of Jack Handey, “Never criticise a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes. Then, if he doesn't like it, it doesn't matter because you're a mile away and you have his shoes.”

posted by Scott in Washington at 5:38 PM | 1 comment(s) |