Remember me? I re-finished a Magnavox AstroTuner

I know it's been awhile.  Many new people have come, and some old favorites are still around.  My friend (http://ravennaroad.blogspot.com/) is still busy knocking out big improvements in his Ravenna and blogging about it.  Being slightly competitive in nature, I decided it was time to knock out something of my own I can wow you with.
Behold, a cedar planter.....

I decided we needed something to flank the garage door and add curb appeal.  The whole thing is out of cedar except the legs.  Those are 2x2 pine stained to a cedar tint. 

If you like, I sell them as well.  email if you are interested.


But wait, there's more.....

Several months ago, I scored a 60's Magnavox Astrotuner.  A co-worker bought his grandfather's house and wanted to pitch it.  I can't find an original pic, but it looked close to this:

It seemed like it could be a great piece for the family room to hold the TV and components in a more stylish way then the crappy Ikea piece we have had since moving in a year back.

Tammi (http://ifyoucouldseewhatisee.blogspot.com/) motivates me with her blog furniture projects.  I decided to jump in and try it.  Worse case scenario, I bust it into pieces and burn it with a beer in hand.

So I gutted it.  I pulled out all the old stereo, turntable, speakers, amp, etc..... in it leaving it in this state:

Then my wife went to work sanding and cleaning it.  I already had measurements and started making saw dust.  With it still in pieces, I primed it with grey tinted Gripper primer.

Then we painted it going with Benjamin Moore "Ben" paint.  Black.  Eggshell.  I applied it with a foam roller and my trusty Purdy brush.

With it painted, it was time to build "in-place" the shelf box you see in the above two pictures.  I used 3/4 MDF and a select Pine 1x2 for the shelf lip.  The sides, shelf, and lip are secured with pocket hole screws.  The top (of the box), which is unseen, is literally just sitting in place.  Then I tacked on a 1/8 hardboard cover on the back.  The very top is again, 3/4 MDF cut in roughly a 1/3 - 2/3 pattern.  You will see why here:

The space above the shelf box and below the very top is dead space I used to hide router, speaker wires, plug strip, etc...  I drilled holes in the top of the shelf box to route components plugs.  Two holes in the back to get wires in and out of.  Then I put the 2/3 size lid on and place the TV.

The 1/3 size lid, with a finger hole, allows me easy access to router and plug strip without having to remove the TV. 

 Not the greatest pictures in the world.  But you get the idea.  The bottom shelf holds the speakers.  I have also added some books, a picture, and some glass globe.  I am sure my wife will re-decorate it promptly.
The only thing left to do is add some handles to the front for the faux drawer appearance.  That one is up to the wife to find and like.  Then I will install.  But I am thinking a nice brushed nickel would be nice.
So, there you have it.  My latest project.  I am halfway through some wall boxes and will post those soon.
That is all for now.....Carry on.

Almost a year

It really is hard to believe that we are just about 1 month out from our anniversary in the house.  When we decided to jump into this; i.e. sell the old house, build a new, I was worried that at some point I would regret it.  We had to take a loan to cover the difference in the old house sale, our new house payment jumped up with the new. 
But you know what?  I don't have any regrets.  "Money well spent" I believe is the term here.  In fact, paying less for something I was no longer happy with was the money wasted. 

So here we are.  Our ten month was completed in whole.  Ryan did a great job.  They installed that new hose bib on the back of the house.  They fixed the wavy/bunched flashing on the porch.  And of course they fixed numerous nail pops. 

My wife has every intention to increase our holiday decorations every year.  But for now, she is happy with a decorated fireplace mantel and some lights and decoration on the front porch.

So go forth fellow Ryan home owners.  Live your holiday....assuming we make it past the end of the world.  I got a box of MRE's and several gallons of water just in case.  And bullets...don't think about trying to get my MRE's, I love them things!

"ten month" touch up done....almost

Warning, no boring pictures of drywall repairs will be produced in this post.  But if you have perused my blog before, this won't surprise you.

We got the letter about a month back asking for a list of discrepancies that needed rectified.  The letter specified yesterday as our 10-month inspection day.  I took our running list and sent off as an email. 

I would not consider anything strange or out of the ordinary.  A few issues, like the front door deadbolt binding has rectified itself in the cold weather but was still listed and attended to for record purposes.  We had the normal assortment of doors to be adjusted and nail pops to fix. 

The supervisor, Gary, and two other gentleman handled the issues.  Everyone was very nice, cordial and polite.  No complaints what so ever. 

A couple of high notes. 
-I listed the lack of hose bib on the back of the house.  I was told front and rear at pre-construction meeting and then when I got front and side installed, PM told me it was "plumbers discretion".  I should have pushed it then but thought I could live with it.  I can't.  More glaring to me was the other three Ravenna's around me that had front and rear.  I wasn't sure if Ryan would install a (third) hose bib on the back of the house, but I asked anyway.  And sure enough, the plumber will be back Monday to install the hose bib on the rear of the house.  Awesome!  Ryan Homes gets big kudos on this one.
-The electrician came out and dropped another outside outlet down to reachable heights.  I still have the 10ft off ground outlet, but I will use that for xmas lights.  I then got him to give me a estimate for a new 220circuit and three outlets in the basement for my wood shop stuff.  Bonus.
-The flashing on the porch has been bunched up since install and can look pretty shitty when you see it.  Gary has the siding guys scheduled to come out on that one.

For you second floor laundry owners, you are not alone if you deal with high speed shakes.  I asked Gary about it and it's considered normal in every second floor laundry.  If you are building, I would highly recommend installing cross bracing on the joists below the laundry.  

So I am happy.  Ryan has continued to impress me with their post sale attentiveness. 

That is all for now,
Carry on.

Family Pics in the new house

My oldest son came home for the weekend.  My daughter moved home about a month back.  So with everyone in the house, it seemed a great time for a family pic.  I am looking for that big 11x17 framed shot to hang on the wall.  Plus a few others for smaller frames, collages, etc...  We borrowed a nice camera from our friend Dawn and went to town.  We had better luck with nice shots outside as the interior shots seemed to be a bit blurry except for a few.  But we took probably 50-ish out front so we have some choices.  

Having this house gave us a chance to include it in our "family" shots.  We used the fireplace and front porch.

Unfortunately this is one of those "not perfect" shots.  But it will be fine in a smaller 5x7 frame.

This was one of my wife's favorite fam pics.  This will likely end up in a nice large frame.  

Second Floor Laundry, who knew?

It's me again.
I know, you missed me and my pearls of wisdom. 
Today, I want to talk second floor laundry rooms and even remind you about something.

First, the reminder.  It seems fitting that if we are talking laundry rooms, I should remind you that having your PM install the dryer vent higher on the wall so that the dryer hose can be attached AFTER it's moved into place is a fantastic idea.  One that I wish I would have thought of BEFORE I moved in.  But, hind sight is 20/20 and I didn't discover this morsel of ingeniousness until I had to hook up my dryer.  What a pain in the .... any way.  Some have heeded my warning and had the vent moved up.  Lucky.

Moving on.  The Ravenna has a second floor laundry.  My wife enjoys the proximity and I like not having to lug several baskets overflowing down two flights of stairs to the laundry dungeon.
BUT, did you know that you COULD deal with house shakes when the washer is on it's spin cycle?  I should preface by saying this seems to limited to certain front loaders.  Do you know one of the worst offenders of high speed shakes?  The LG Trom series.  Wanna take a bet which I own?  Winner winner chicken dinner.
So we move in, hook up the washer and start a load.  When it gets to the high speed cycle, it sounds like a helicopter is hovering over the house, and everything is shaking just a bit.  A little research and it's not uncommon for second floor laundries to have this issue.
I blogged a recommendation to have your PM nail in some cross bracing under the washer during the build as a precaution.  Again, wish I would have known during my build.  Hindsight gets me again.

I took it off the pedistal, added anti-vibe feet, shoved swimming noodles between the washer and wall/dryer.  We got some improvement, but left something to be desired.

The current solution.
We had two choices.  Buy a new washer ($700 +) or buy a 0Vibe washer stand.
Behold:
http://0vib.com/

The 0vibe stand costs $200.  I called and talked to the designer/engineer.  According to a test they ran on a 2008 LG Trom Washer, they realized a 85% improvement in shaking transferred to the floor.
We decided the stand was worth the cost.

We received it last weekend and have done several loads.  It's not perfect but there is enough improvement to believe it's worth keeping and not returning.

We will go through another round of laundry this weekend and make our final mind.


Cliff Notes:
move dryer vent up
some washers cause shaking houses more then others
LG Trom is evil
0Vibe stands are expensive and do not make a good birthday gift for your wife.
the couch is comfortable

Updates and Changes

Well folks,
I'm still here.  I wish I could blog more, but I have to build stuff or have stuff happen to make it interesting for you to read.
First let me start by passing on a tip for purchases.  We are horrible with keeping track of receipts.  The Morning Room fan has been an issue for months.  The light turns off after about 15mins of use.  That's no good AND we could not find any of the receipts for stuff we bought at move in (but I did write the purchase date on the manual).  Luckily, Lowe's helped me out by exchanging out the parts.  So last night I got it taken care of and we are good to go.
What about the tip you say?  If you are like us and never lose a manual but horrible with receipt, staple the receipt to the manual. 

Updates,
We chose a darker brown carpet through out the house minus the Living room and "office".  So in the Family room, we moved in with a darker brown couch and two lazyboy chairs.  It looked very un-colorful.  Brown Blah.
So rather then replacing furniture at higher costs, we chose to "decorate".

We chose Sherwin Williams "Peppery" for the fireplace wall.  Hobby Lobby had 50% metal, hence the designs hanging.  Also added some flowers on the fire place hearth.  Replaced brown couch pillows with color.  Moved a lazy boy into the Master BR and moved a Paong chair in it's place. 

Took the brown dimensional blinds down and put up curtains with pull backs.

We are very happy with the results.  I have a late 1960's AstroTuner console I am refinishing/updating to use for the TV in the Family room.  Then I will take the Ikea table it currently sits on, add a wood top and use it as a coffee table.

The Change
My daughter has moved home.  We put her in the "game room" (first door top of stairs for you Ravenna owners).  We moved the "game room" down to the "office".  We like the change.  The game room being just inside from the garage means the neighborhood kids will no longer trample up and down the stairs dragging their dirty hands on my walls.

Next up, Kitchen back splash and corner shelves.  Stay tuned

Curtain Rods

I love that industrial feel to interior decorations.  My wife on the other hand needs to be sold a bit.  Luckily, in this case I was a good sales person.
My wife wanted a curtain in his room to replace the dimensional blind we put up initially.  Having picked out a grey curtain, I pushed for a "different" kind of curtain rod. 
I like it and now I will make some basic shelves using pipe for the brackets.  Pictures to follow.

Not the greatest pics, but you get it.  What you don't see is the pipe "pull-back" on the side that allows my son to pull the curtain to the right side.