Glow in the Dark
THE ultimate material for Xeriscaping: Glow In The Dark Pebbles. (via OhGizmo)
I have to buy a couple bags of this stuff.
Dolphin Safe
A couple weeks ago during a trip to Costco I picked up a bag of frozen tuna steaks. Nice, thick cuts of tuna, supposedly sushimi grade. It was a pretty good deal, so what the heck.
I finally pulled one out of the freezer last night for dinner this evening…
Salt.
Pepper.
A cast iron skillet on high.
2 Minutes a side.
Perfection.
The inside, I swear, was like watermelon… it was incredible.
Stone Fireplace
If you’ve seen the project page dedicated to the Mantle Shelf David and I built for the fireplace, you’ll know already that I’m thinking real hard about putting a stone veneer of some sort over the fireplace and under the shelf. I just really, really, really, hate how dark it is right now. And as I think about how that space will look once the balcony is built, it’s going to be that much darker.
Every summer during high school and even for a short time after I graduated I worked as a brick mason’s laborer. As with most everything I do, I ended up going beyond what’s normally expected. Many days, assuming all the mortar pans were shaken up sufficiently, and the brick piles were stocked, my boss would let me get on the wall and actually lay brick. It’s been a long time (more than fifteen years), but I imagine I can get my groove on with a little bit of practice.
I like the colors on these:
And I really like the stack on this one:
The only concern I have is that my fireplace is an insert style firebox. And considering my house is about 25 years old, I should seriously think about upgrading it before I go through the exercise of putting the masonry in and then discovering shortly thereafter that the insert needs replacing. Plus, I really want a more substantial hearth. Right now, there’s just a piece of the same material used for the surround that’s barely an inch or so above the carpet.
I’ll likely use a cultured/manufactured product. They seem reasonably straight forward in their installation, and while I like the randomness of stone, the regularity of a manufactured stone product will fit with all the other straight lines in the house.
Concrete Countertops
While Mom was here yesterday afternoon we talked about the kitchen. Right now, the kitchen is serviceable, but far from what I want. I have a few ideas bouncing around in my head, but nothing concrete (oh, I slay myself sometimes).
The first thing to do will be to put in new cabinets. After visiting Home Emporium with Mom during my Labor Day visit, I feel like I’m going to do my best to find a source for the cabinetry and install them myself. As for the countertops… I’ve been dreaming about concrete countertops for a couple of years. There’s just something about them.
I love the finish on this:
This one is also interesting, but I don’t think it’ll work for me:
If I end up going with concrete countertops, I’ll most likely do it myself. Some prices I’ve seen are up around $75 or $100 per square foot to have the pros from Dover come in and do it. One account has a DIYer managing around $19 per square foot. I figure even if it costs me $30 or $40 by the time I figure it out I’ve saved some serious coin and taught myself yet another skill. Plus, whenever I get around to redoing the upstairs bathroom, the technique would come in handyfor the vanity.
So, here are some links I’ve found that will require further study.
- Flickr has a nice collection of pictures of what other people have done.
- This implementation is really cool
- Making concrete counter tops for our kitchen
- A nice example of prep work
- Do-It-Yourself Concrete Countertops
- Photos and Information on Concrete Countertops
- Cheng Concrete Countertops
- Design Ideas
- Graniterock Theater (video featuring Fu Tung Cheng of Cheng Design)
- Soupcan
- And finally, an article highlighting the pitfalls of concrete countertops
By no means have I decided for sure this is the way I’m going. I really like the appearance, but the maintenance factor seems pretty high and might be reason enough to pass on this idea.
Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda
Mom and Dad came up for a short visit this morning. Both were very impressed with the work I’ve done since they were here last (10/05). Mom was especially taken by the kraft papered walls in my office. She asked if I’d mind her using the technique in her living room. Of course I said she was free to do so—I’ll even provide the kraft paper.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t it?
Oh… and while I had the camera out, I snapped a shot of the curtains.
The color balance makes them look a little more yellow in the picture. For $30 to cover a sliding glass door, I think it was a great solution.
Ribbit-Ribbit
I’ve been meaning to share this anecdote for a quite a while.
I think it took Mike much longer to build my deck than he imagined. His first estimates had us finishing up possibly in one day, but certainly within two days. In the end, between my constant questions and challenges, it took Mike four visits to finish the project.
Naively, after Sunday came and went, Mike seemed to think we’d be able to finish after work one evening. I know… God supposedly created the entire plant kingdom on the third day, but Mike and I only managed to a install one of the large posts and finish the steps.
The large posts that adorn the seating area are actually six inches square by ten feet long pieces of lumber. We’re talking seriously heavy duty stuff. They’re not called for structurally, but they make one hell of statement architecturally; and by all means, if you’re going to include 6×6 timbers in a design like this in the first place, you might as well integrate them into the support structure. In order to do this, Mike notched each one to slip over and under the edge of the deck. Because the posts are rather unwieldy, it takes a bit of effort to get them situated correctly. Not only do they need to be centered horizontally, they need to be plumbed up and down in multiple axes.
So, we plopped the post into its hole and on top of a hunk of cinder block. Mike began to use the level and I was on my knees levering the post to make it sit true, when, all of the sudden, a frog jumps down into the hole. The hole where I’m pushing and pulling on a sixty or eighty pound piece of wood. The whole where I’m about to pour forty pounds of quick-setting concrete mix that will harden around the post encasing anything that’s in the hole in a hot rocky mass.
Not knowing about the wayward amphibian, Mike started jerking on the post to move it more than adjust it. I shouted for him to stop and reached my arm all the way into the two-foot deep hole.
“Hold on,” I said. “There’s a frog in the hole.”
“Don’t worry about him.”
“Hold on.”
“Well, get him out.”
I will, just hold on a second.”
“Hurry up, man.”
“Chill out. He keeps running around the other side of the post.”
“Give me a break,” Mike said as he joined me reaching into the hole as we tried to remove the dumb little frog who’ll be dead pretty shortly.
“You know we’re not pouring the concrete in there till we get him out, right?”
“It’s just a frog,” Mike said with a laugh. He knows how weird I can be about things like this, but he’s actually a big softy too, and wouldn’t have done it anyway. He’s just taking the opportunity to screw with me a little. Mike is a joker of the highest order, and when we’re together at the office “Screwing with Bruce” is his all time favorite hobby.
“There’s no way I’ll be able to enjoy this deck if I know we killed a frog to build it,” I said.
“I know.”
After a few minutes more of back and forth we finally got the little guy out of the hole and finished setting the the post.
Shortly thereafter the skies clouded over and began to threaten a thunderstorm. It was also pretty dark by then so we called it a night.
Pictures for Mike
The only thing Mike asked in return for building my deck was pictures to add to his portfolio. And even though we finished up over a month ago, he’s been amazingly tolerant of my neglecting the photos. I’ve been holding out until I could get something done in the front yard.
This morning I had a simple plan: Pick up a few bags of mulch to put down under the stepping stones, and maybe, get some plants for the hanging flower pots. I ended up doing this and a whole lot more.
First off, I have to thank the cat for letting me sleep in. I managed not to get up until 8:30 which is pretty much unheard of at Casa Hartman. After a quick shower I went to Lowe’s and bought six bags of mulch, a bag of potting soil, three potted Mums, three potted Asters, and one very strange looking spiny, twisted potted grass.
I brought everything home and laid out the mulch in pretty quick order. And by eleven o’clock, I had also re-potted the plants, all except the grassy thing… I had run out of spotting soil.
The more I looked at what I had done, the more I felt like I wanted to more. So I took a break in the shade and formulated my revised plan. I figured with 8 more bags of mulch I could finish the bed along the driveway. I also looked under the house at a couple of paint cans that were left behind before I moved in and found a third of a gallon of the brown that the house is currently painted. If I bought a paint brush I could cover up the stripes that remained after the old porch was demolished. My other thought was to pick up a sprayer so I could spray the areas I was planning to put mulch down. So, back to Lowe’s.
By two o’clock I had all those supplies used up, I had moved the left over deck wood around to the back of the house, and I had pruned the suckers off the smaller of the two crepe myrtles in the front yard. I was a bit tired, but I felt like I could go some more. I decided to make a dump run.
At some point during my second trip out, the mail man dropped off the cat’s new automatic litter box (stay tuned for a review). The boxes were huge, so I came in and set that up so I could take the boxes to the dump. I also had four boxes of movie reels in my office as well as the box my last computer case came in. Basically, enough to fill the back of my truck.
After I left the dump I went to Home Depot and bought a leaf blower. And on the way home I stopped by Exxon for a six-pack; my intent being to sweep down the driveway and then enjoy a cold one on the newly spiffied deck.
And after enjoying my beer and a nice hour long rest in the shade on my deck, I finally took photos for Mike.
Mulch is the best stuff on the planet.
Curtains in the Office
Mom’s birthday is September 5th, so every year for Labor Day I go down to see the family. It must have sucked growing up with a birthday so close to the first day of school. I can only imagine the presents she got as a kid.
While I was there Mom told me about a store where I could get solid wood doors for $10 a throw. The place, Home Emporium, is a seconds and salvage store with all kinds of stuff (granite counter tops, cabinetry, flooring of all types, and various other housewares). After lunch on Sunday she and I drove up there to take a look around.
The wood doors had been picked over pretty well, and I wasn’t really prepared to buy anything anyway, but I can easily see going back during my next visit to Mom & Dad’s and coming home with a bunch of stuff.
The one bargain I did take advantage of was a great set of curtains for the office. The match the paint perfectly and do a fine job of balancing the wallpaper. For $11 per panel, I had to take three home.
I also spoke to Mom about getting another dining room set for my house. See, a couple years ago, Mom gave me a dining room table that had belonged to her family when she was a kid. My uncle had given it to my Mom at some point and she had refinished it when I was in high school. It’s a great table, but it’s a bit big for my small-ish eat in kitchen and I don’t have chairs for it (current seating is comprised of your standard government issue side chair along with two chairs donated by the Hansens). Finding chairs to match the table has been a problem, so I’ve been thinking about a whole new set for some time. I just didn’t know how to broach the subject with Mom. She’s fine with the idea, just as long as I don’t get rid of the table (this was understood even before she said anything). So, I’m in the market for a new dining set. Not sure exactly what I want, but I’ll know it when I find it.
