SS bike?
I recently converted my road bike into a SS. Basically it was this or spend a bunch of money on new parts (cassette etc) so I went the cheap DIY route and converted it with a bunch of old parts I had that would work. It’s been a fun project so far. I still want to make it”Mobbed out” by painting everything black, but knowing my schedule I knew that would take all summer. Plus I’m toying with chopping off everything that’s needed for shifters (cable housings etc) so I figured I should build it and ride it as a SS before I commit to that. I expect painting it to be a fun fall/winter project if it happens. For now it’s a fun SS bike to cruise on and ride to get in shape. It’s noticeably lighter and very simple.
Baby/Nursery Update:
I know some of my family can only get update via the blog right now, so I’m trying to post a bit more often, especially when it comes to baby updates… (Hi Jess, your shots from Korea are awesome!)… The shot to the left is an updated shot of what the nursery looks like. I posted one on my PAD a few days ago, but I had converted it to B+W because of some color issues (geeky photo reason: we’re using CFLs in the nursery because they slowly get brighter and they’re new lights, the closet/hallway lights are incandescents because that’s what was there when we moved in and they haven’t burned out yet. When both are in a picture they each turn that section of a shot a funny color… So it’s almost impossible to make the image look right.) Anyway, we’re getting pretty closed to done with the nursery. If he doesn’t come by this weekend I’m sure we’ll add/change something, but it’s ready for a baby either way…
The 3 big additions to the room are: 1) a pet gate for the top of the stairs, 2) hanging some curtains because our cats can jump said gate!, and 3) hanging an awesome family heirloom from the ceiling. Items #1 and #2 were a giant PITA. The gate is great and will be needed anyway. But it was difficult to hang because nothing in our house is really square. Combine that with the fact I used pine blocks to screw it into and they split in half, and I had to hang it twice… That was Saturday. Saturday night Sterling and Kobe both jumped over it (we had a pretty good idea they would). We had already bought the curtains, but Sunday was spend getting them up, and getting a system to get them tight enough to keep the cats out (they snap to the wall).
We also hung the quilt on the ceiling. This was made by my mother’s, father’s, mother (so my great grandmother). It’s handmade and it’s something my Nanoo gave to us for Nikki’s birthday for the babies room. We were both honored to be given such an important piece of my family’s history… we just had to figure out how to show it off w/o risking any sort of damage to it by the pets or the baby when he gets here. Living in a small house and being a bit of a photographer our walls are pretty full…. So I though of the ceiling! It took a little bit of work to figure it out, but with some help (thanks Mom for stitching the second and third rod holders & David for helping with the end pieces!) we got it sorted out. M&D came over Sunday and helped with the install with this and the curtains, and I must admit it looks even better than I imagined! The quilt is really the cherry on top that finishes the room.
I also received a 20″ x 30″ canvas of one of my shots this week. I hadn’t had time to hang it or even sort out where to hang it yet but I wanted to show it off to M&D (it’s of the boat). Once they saw it they insisted on helping to figure out where to put it and helping to get it up (they know it would sit in the box for a few weeks if they didn’t). We ended up hanging it at the bottom of the stairs. We’ll see how it handles the traffic on the stairs but it’s looking good.
The next thing we need to hang is the awesome Boston Marathon posters my sister got Nikki for her birthday. I hate marathons and anything related but even I’ll admit they’re cool. We just need to finish matting them and then find the perfect place in the house for them.
DIY Bathroom remodel.
OK, this one has been a long time in the making. Nikki and I have lived in our house for almost 3 years now. It will be 3 year in February (we can’t beleive it…). When we moved in we painted every room in the house a new color as we weren’t too fond of the previous owners decorating choices. The only room we didn’t touch was the downstairs half bath. We’d always wanted to do something to it, and over time we picked up ideas along the way. When we originally painted the house I was chalkboard and magnetic paint and thought they could be interesting… Months later we happened to walk down the tile isle at home cheapo and saw some cool black and white tiles on close out (and only 2 boxes) so we picked those up too. Once thing led to another and a few weeks (months even) ago I tore into the downstairs half bath…
Here’s what I did:
- Removed toilet/sink
- removed old vanity
- patched hole where old vanity was
- painted top half of walls with 3~4 coats of magnetic paint
- painted top half of walls with chalkboard paint
- painted ceiling
- installed crown molding
- installed new vanity
- tiled floor
- installed beadboard
- painted beadboard
- installed new low flow toilet (it actually flushes better than the old one!)
- reused sink, but with new “chrome” faucet
I think that covers it. We both LOVE the new look. The only thing we have left is to find a simple blind we like for the back window, but the window is high enough you can’t see right in. If I were standing up and someone my height were on the deck, they’d see my chest and head, so it’s no huge deal. We’re also hoping the chalkboard walls will make people sitdown and have some fun, so less mess. Enjoy the shots, as we had a blast doing this. We’re planning on making it a mini photo gallery as well as collect anything funny anyone has to put up. If you’re in the area and need a restroom feel free to stop by and test it out!
DIY hardwood floors.
Well our animals have done a good job on our carpets… They love to tear up little pieces of the rug, and we’ve been doing an OK job of hiding that with throw rugs… Friday was the end though. We came home from work and found the reminents of a bird all over the floor and the carpet had some new “stains”. They were a mess and not worth cleaning, so we ended up jumping into this project a few weeks earlier than we expected, but oh well…
Holes in the carpet. Here you can see the holes that the animals were putting in the carpet. Sorry about the toes on the bottom… 12mm really is a WIDE ANGLE. There is a lot of extra furniture here because we hadn’t moved it downstairs yet, we were moving it from room to room as we worked in different rooms before we relaized how much easier it would be to move it all downstairs…
Floors under the carpet We tore up all the carpet and were surprised to find “hardwoods” under part of the floor. It’s actually really old (1941) wood subfloors. The wood is in OK shape, but it’s not anything nice enough to finish, and it’s also been screwed down. It’s only in one of the rooms we need to do, the rest are plywood and lenolium, so we have to go over those anyway.
WRX loaded to the “gills” with wood. We both drive small cars. Here you can see my WRX loaded with the wood. Anything short enough to fit sideways in the car went in, all the 5~6′ boards went on the roof. We picked the wood up at lumber liquidators in Boston, so we had to drive 1.5 hours with the car loaded. We bought Canadian maple for $1.99/sq ft.
New wood ready to go. Here you can see the new wood stacked in the “den” ready to go down. We started in the bedroom, and will then do the hallway and den last.
Bedroom 1/2 done. This is what I’ve gotten done so far. Half the bedroom. It’s looking pretty good if I do say so myself. Some gaps, but not bad, and much better than the original hardwoods downstairs.
Bedroom so far. The other “good” thing about this project is that I “needed” some new tools. An Air compressor and nail gun were needed to nail the boards to the floor. Good tools make it a lot easier and faster.
Downstairs Bedroom This is a shot of our downstairs bedroom. It’s got all our crap from all the upstairs rooms in it while we put the wood down. We actually sleeping on our pull out couch until we finish, so that should help motivate me to get finished ASAP.
Finished Bedroom Floor This is a shot of the bedroom with the whole floor installed.
Finished Bedroom Floor This is a yet another shot of the bedroom with the whole floor installed.
Finished Bedroom Floor This is a yet another shot of the bedroom with the whole floor installed.
