Prepping a replacement pocket door

I'm going to kill two birds with one stone, start the interior door upgrade project my wife asked for and cross one item off the to do list. The master bath door is constantly falling off the track. Several times, my poor wife or daughter has been trapped, hollering for rescue when the door has gotten wedged. I'll find the unfortunate lady, peering furiously through a five inch gap.

I initially wanted to replace the track with a two rail type, where the wheels cannot easily disengage. However, based on my research, removing and replacing the track requires highly customized tools to get at screws deep in the pocket where you cannot reach, or opening the wall up. I'd rather not open the wall and get into a bunch of drywall repair and painting. I'm going to see if I can simply replace all the hardware and tighten up what I can get to. I'm replacing the beat-up, scratched, over-painted, bleeeechh slab door.

I picked up a 28" W x 80" H hollow core, six panel door at The Home Depot for $30 along with new hardware. Like all of our interior doors, the standard size was too big. I had bought a new tool, a handheld planer. I'd never used one, but I'd used a jointer, the same principle, just move the tool, not the work piece. I chose a Bosch 6 amp, 3 1/4 planer. (Maybe I'll review it after I've done all the doors in the house - so far, so good). It took a few passes to get the hang of it, but slowly felt comfortable taking deeper cutting passes.
Notice my work bench? Yep, that's the (still) unfinished hall organizer project.
On my first couple passes, I got some splinter-out as the cutter leaves the surface, following the cut. I used a little trick I saw Tom Silva do on This Old House, although I think he was working on window casings at the time. I clamped a sacrificial strip of MDF to the exiting edge of my cut with three way clamps. The MDF took the blow-out and the snipe, keeping my edge straight. (shown to the right above)
I took the door down to 27 5/8' W x 79 3/4" H, in multiple passes, learning the feel of the planer. It threw a fair amount of sawdust, but not a ton. The collection bag filled up twice. If it was green, it would have looked like Easter Basket grass.
I hit the freshly planed faces with the Random Orbital Sander and slightly eased the edges by a quick 45 degree pass, to keep the veneer from chipping out later.  
Grace always loves playing with my sawdust. These shavings took it to the next level. She made some sort of dinosaur / Angry Birds amusement park. It was a constant, "Watch this Daddy,...Daddy watch!,.. Look at this guy!,...  Hey, watch this!,... Daddy look!...Daddy,..." She had an absolute ball,... then she tracked it into the house. 

Since I had taken all the factory priming off the edges, I hit the bare wood edges with two coats of a good primer. Since this is a bathroom door, subject to moisture, I want too make sure it's sealed up really good.  

I applied a couple coats of semi-gloss, white latex on the whole door and left it to dry. Well, at least I painted five sides out of six. Even though today was a beautiful 70 degree day, the paint was still a little tacky when I decided to clean up and head in for the Super Bowl.

I headed out to the shop and checked it at halftime. The paint took beautifully. I'll probably paint the reverse side tomorrow after work.

So far, this is a pretty easy, enjoyable project. Follow the exciting install next!

Replacing our interior doors - planning


The whole family is sick today. We're laying around like limp dish rags. No projects this weekend.

blurry picture / blurry brain
 I had hoped to dig into the next reno project, replacing interior doors. Our current ones are simple, beat up, flat slabs. The doorknobs throughout the house don't match at all and some of the hinges are painted over. My wife asked if I'd do this as a birthday gift for her.

Unfortunately, it takes all the energy I have, just to put dishes in the dishwasher. I'm down to doing research while laying on the couch, between bouts of slipping into feverish sleep.  In the end, I don't even know if this post contains a single, coherent string of thought.

We're going to need a total of 5 interior doors, plus one for the garage. I'm pretty sure that one has to be metal for fire resistance.

Par for the course, our door openings are too small for standard size doors. I'll have to see if I can plane them down enough to fit, rather than tearing out all the trim and framing. I read a few articles about resizing doors, and a planer is apparently, by far the way to go. Of course, I don't have one, so that's going to be picked up specifically for this project. It will probably be something we use again in the future, but I wonder just how much use I'd find for it. I'm not sure which route to go; do I go high quality/price (DeWalt, Bosch, Makita, etc.), mid-grade (Porter Cable, Craftsman, Ryobi, Skil), or über cheap (Harbor Freight)? Would the Harbor freight last 5 doors x 4 sides each? Hmmmm...

As for the doors, I think we'll go with a simple hollow-core, six panel. We haven't visited the home centers to look at their in stock doors, but, I've been couch surfing-them. Here's the showdown:

The blue versus orange smack down.
 
I've never taken a bare door and installed hinges, latches and knobs. I'll probably need one of the hole saw door kits to be sure I'm right, I'm pondering routing out for the hinges by hand.
 
I think we're going to go a with satin nickel lever style
Maybe next weekend... Now, it's time for medicine and some hot tea.

School Projects in the workshop

A home workshop lends itself naturally to kid's school projects. It's nice to draw on leftover paint, scraps, and widgets from previous projects and applying them to school projects. It's been rewarding to start working with the kids on kindergarten posters, through elementary school dioramas, and even cub-scout pinewood derby cars.

The best part is the transition from working significantly hands on as a parent to protect the kids from sharp blades and to teach them the possibilities of school craft projects, to a point that the kids take the lead.

Jack had to do a project showing the layers of the earth, for 7th Grade Science (which of course he dropped on us Sunday morning). The concept was his idea completely, he asked us to pick up some Styrofoam spheres to make a cut-away, and questioned me on how to decorate them. He described what he wanted, right from the start.

No the sander was not used on this project, but the pliers were!
So it's a messy workbench.

Aside from some assistance with spray painting and sawing the unwieldy globe (with a hack-saw), he really ran with it.

Spray-Paint?!!! Yeah, we learned that spray-paint and Styrofoam are not really friendly together. The paint melts the Styrofoam, shrinking it, pitting it, and making a lovely snap-crackle-pop sound. We managed to get a decent finish by lightly dusting it with the paint.

Together we experimented with spray painting a continents on cardboard before we attacked the globe. We sliced up smaller globes, painted them, and assembled the whole thing with toothpicks. He labeled the whole thing using a label maker. It was a four-handed job to wrap the labels on finishing nails to make flags.
Another decade of projects on the way.
 
 

(Hijacked) Review: DeWalt Deep Pro Organizer

I have two inexpensive plastic tray style organizers that are pretty trashed. Years of lugging washers, nuts, screws, bolts and the like have taken their toll.  I picked up this beefy DeWalt Deep Pro Organizer thinking it would be perfect for carting my common nuts and bolts stuff from the garage to my various projects. Personally, I like the portability of tray organizers rather than a bench or wall bound drawer system, just my style. At $30 it seemed like a fair deal.

I like the features. The construction is really tough as well as smart.The deep yellow bins are removable so you can take just what you need, if it's a small job. The lid has indents that keep the bins in place while carrying suitcase style. The latches, hinges, and handle are heavy-duty. You can even stack & clip multiple organizers together for bulk carrying action.

As far how it works for using it as I intended, for lugging my project hardware, my experienced advise is... I have no idea.
 
I could almost feel the heft of this beast loaded with 7 varieties of
washers, before it was torn ruthlessly from my grasp.

You see, when today's modern, tool-weilding Daddy-about-town shows up at the house lugging a rig as sweet as this one, the entire family responds with the obvious chorus, "LEGOS, LEGOS, LEGOS!!!!!!" Out-voted. Even my beloved wife, my steadfast partner against the world's challenges, sided with our rapscallion offspring.

My yellow & black, bullet-proof, hardware-toting man-satchel was mine no more. It would never taste the pleasure of lightly machine oiled hardware. Not a single 10/32 machine screw would rest in it. No, it now serves a new master and she offers no quarter:

The Wee-Pirate and her loot.

Admittedly, ....<Insert overused comedian cliché, but true, story about stepping on Legos in your bare feet in the dark>..., so I guess it's a good idea, to keep those little hellish, foot slaughtering rascals sorted away nicely. The kids absolutely loved sorting various Lego figures, weaponry, "cool-stuff", wheels, windows, etc. into the totes.  Maybe now we won't have meltdowns when one of the Ninjago or Star Wars figures is missing one of their trusty side-arms.

I think I'm going to quietly grab another couple of these and smuggle them into the garage, undetected.

The Great Family Room Remodel: Part VII

This is the final episode of the Great Family Room Remodel, the last five full days of work. The electrical trim, crown molding and baseboards get wrapped up.

Spoiler Alert!  If you've stumbled into the mess without first reading the exciting beginning of the saga, head over to the beginning at The Great Family Room Remodel - Part I

Workday 15:

Electrical Switching is done and the can lights are lit!

I'm really excited about these dimmable L.E.D. fixtures. The light is decently warm at 3000k, much better than the CFLs I've seen. Each puts out the equivalent of a 75 watt incandescent at only 14.5 watts. They dim to 5%. We have more than twice the light of the old twin 60w ceiling fan for less than half the energy. It's spaced more evenly around the room. Plus, they generate less heat, which reduces the A/C load. They supposedly last 32 years. Commercial Electric T91: $39 each at Home Depot. They take about a minute to install in a standard can, including opening the box and climbing the ladder.

t took a bit of fiddling around to get the dimming to work. Dimmer switches specifically for LED fixtures didn't work. I ended up going to their website and figuring out which standard dimmer to use.

The three gang switch box includes a dimmable toggle switch, a speed control switch for a ceiling fan, and a standard toggle switch that controls a receptacle hidden above the bookshelves for Christmas lights or perhaps a string of future LED rope light for ambient lighting.

Workday 16:

I put up the ceiling fan, which is pretty much a must-do for every room in the house when you're in Phoenix. We chose one without the light kit this time since the cans do so well. We gained a lot more vertical space in the room. This will be much more comfortable on the old noggin when I'm jumping around like a fool with the kids, playing with the Xbox Kinect.

 Rather than more white on white, we went with a brushed nickel with dark wood blades. We may change the blades in the future, but we like the way it looks now.

We pulled down the plastic sheeting protecting the bookcases. Aaaaaaghhhh. Everything was coated with drywall dust. Jennifer & I spent the rest of our work time cleaning everything up. I'm still going to do some work on the shelves to make them a bit more usable later.

Workdays 17 & 18:

 80' of crown molding in 16' lengths loaded with less than 5 feet of bed space.

Putting up the crown molding was slow going since I hadn't done it before. We chose a simple, clean profile since there is so much detail on the dentil molding and the bead board in the room. We thought it would look too busy.

This is Trimfinity Crown Molding from Home Depot. It's is made from 90% recycled plastic (50% post-consumer, 40% pre-consumer). Mostly polystyrene. It's economical

too, much cheaper than wood and a bit less than MDF (which chips too easy IMHO).

After fighting the 16' lengths home, I decided to only put it up about 4-5' at a time. It's just too floppy to work with a long stick and make it look good, by myself. It cuts , nails, and takes paint like wood. I can hide the scarf joints pretty good.

<update - I wouldn't do this again in the future. Too many joints across the room, in four months, about half of them have opened up and need to be caulked. I'll have help next time instead of stubbornly doing it alone>

I'm using the method (from Tom Silva of This Old House) where I butt a stick to the wall and back cope one mitered cut rather than a dual-mitered corner that will open up later.

Note the gap at the wall and the face screwing at the edge, hidden by the crown.

Workdays 19 & 20:

Final details. We decided on a 6" tall, simple profile base molding. It seems to go with our somewhat classic look to the room. It was a bit tricky to place because the floor was so wavy. When I installed the first piece using a level, with the highest point touching the floor, I had a 2" gap by the edge. It had to be torn out. I ended up warping the molding to keep it somewhat uniform in it's distance from th

e floor. It looks good to the eye. Once again, I wish our predecessors had originally put a flat floor in. No way we can afford to tear it out and re-do it now. 

I decided I really do prefer the green Frog Tape for masking. It leaves a much crisper paint edge than anything else I've tried. There was a lot of hating on their FB site, but it sure worked well for me, on pretty fresh paint, with no issues. It worked equally well edging the crown molding. Those are my cheap computer speakers on the left. I use them with an iPod or the Kindle Fire (as show in the awesome Dodo case) to play music while I work.

That's pretty much it for the project. Just a final clean-up and moving back in. We need some new furniture to get it right. I'll do a final reveal when it's all set.

The budget was about 10 - 20% high, but I really blew the timeline. 5 workdays turned into twenty, plus several evenings during the workweeks. We're really pleased with the results. I'll check back in with more updates as more tweaks get accomplished.

And the next major project is... ?

 

The Great Family Room Remodel series:  

Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI • Part VII  • Before and After: Family Room.

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part VI

After tragedy, travel, family illness, and getting back to work, it was tough to get rolling on the project again.

Spoiler Alert!  

If you've stumbled into the mess without first reading the exciting beginning of the saga, head over to the beginning at 

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part I

As I have been recounting The Great Family Room Remodel story on this site, I've known this chapter was coming and planned on glossing over a big gap in the progress due to family tragedy, as I had originally done on my Facebook posts. I like to keep my stuff light, somewhat humorous, and not too personal. Now, months later, I feel it's an integral part of the story and I should share it; it's reality of life. Life has a way of getting in the middle of projects. Plans get derailed.

Jef:  12/21/1971 - 05/09/2012

May 9, 2012, my youngest brother Jim called me at work, from Michigan, to tell me that our other (middle) brother Jef had been taken to the hospital with some sort of heart trouble, and was in intensive care. Jim was far from the hospital, but on his way, and would call me back when he got there. His next call, an hour later, was the absolute worst news; Jef had died. He was 39. Jim, his wife, and Jef's wife were in really rough shape at the hospital. I had to tell our parents, via telephone, that their son had passed. That memory will haunt me forever. I was, and remain, crushed and heartbroken. I'd never lost anyone close to me in my entire life. We left that night, on the red-eye flight, for Michigan.

The next days were a blur. Visitations, the funeral, and family visits were an overwhelming crush of emotions. We got back home, exhausted, roughly a week later. My poor wife was severely sick. I had no steam left, or interest to working on projects. The house remained a wreck.

Jef was a truly good man and I miss him terribly. He left a beautiful family, his wife and three very young children. The amount of friends and people he had touched in his life was simply staggering. At the time, we had no idea what had caused his young heart to stop working. Now we have an idea, a belief. I'm not sharing specifics at this time. However, my personal decision and advice, based on my belief, is to stay away from energy drinks,

especially the popular shot-size energy supplement drinks

. I'd boycott stores that sell it, but there don't seem to be options for stores that don't. I've blocked them from advertising on my site.

Jef's family, May 2012, in Florida, on vacation.

Before we returned, Jef's wife encouraged me to get back to work on the family room. She said she and Jef had been following my Facebook posts, and enjoying the progress. He'd want me to get back at it.

Throughout the summer, a group of Jef's friends, still close since childhood and high school, my brother, parents and I set up a trust fund for the future education of his children. This will be an ongoing project for years.

Hug your spouse and your kids.

Workdays 13 & 14:

After tragedy, travel, family illness, and getting back to work, it was tough to get rolling on the project again. My heart just wasn't in it. But once I got started, it was really great to be using the tools, making sawdust, and blasting the iPod. Mr. Nugent may be a bit of a nut lately, but some of

his old stuff

sure gave me a boost in production. All the planks are up and it looks great.

The last row was a bear to slip in place, getting the tongue and groove together without too much gap at the wall. I also had a devil of a time with dark fingerprints this time for some reason (easily cleaned with Costco baby wipes). I still can't believe how well it worked out; in all the cuts for length, edging, can lights, A/C, and the fan, I only screwed up once and cut a board backward; measure 3 times and cut once.

By over ordering by 10%, just in case, I have a box and a half of spare planks to put in the attic, in hopes that I'll never need to make a repair. If we didn't have them, certainly the roof would be leaking by tomorrow and we'd find this particular plank out of production.

Of course there's still lots of work to do, but the end is in sight. We're ready to stop living like cave people in the dining room.

 

THE GREAT FAMILY ROOM REMODEL SERIES:  

Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI • Part VII  • Before and After: Family Room.

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part V

The Weekend Warrior is back. After a getting back to work for a week, we get back in action on the weekend. Real progress continues with more framing, insulating, and the actual installation of the ceiling planks gets underway.

Spoiler Alert!  

If you've stumbled into the mess without first reading the exciting prequels to the saga, head over and start from the beginning at 

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part I

All tucked in.

Workday 11:

Saturday: I managed to finish the framing at the sloped edges of the room to allow for end fastening of the planks. I had to rip some 2x4's on the table saw for the width of the room and create a bunch of short brackets to hold them. A slow process, since no two framing members were alike up there. I managed to get them up and finished insulating and taping the ceiling by the end of the day. Once again, the DeWalt Chalkline Laser Level  was invaluable for getting everything level.

A close up of the clip for the groove on the planks.

Workday 12:

Sunday:

Finally,

the ceiling planks are going up. It's a neat system. It took a bit to do the math, rip, and fasten the first edge piece, by face screwing the edge into the framing. 

Once that was done, the planks started slipping in quickly. It's all tongue and groove with a screw-in clip for each rafter.

 I launched a bunch of those screws around the room throughout the day, before finally realizing I needed a #1 Phillips driver bit instead of the standard #2.  I used my impact driver to drive the screws which really sped things up and was lighter than lugging the full size drill overhead all day.

It's starting to look like a finished project!

The can lights and vents slowed me down a bit, due to all the cutting with a jigsaw. Masking tape on the shoe of the jigsaw kept me from scratching the finish. I had to make cuts on three to four planks for each can light because the openings were wider than the planks. I used a paper template that came with the cans.  By the end of the day, four cases were installed, about 1/3 of the room. The room already looks better and is holding temperature nicely.

I really like the plank system. As I mentioned in Part I, they are Woodhaven 1148B Ceiling Planks by

Armstrong Residential Ceilings 5" wide x 84" long x 3/8" thick. They are an engineered board, like hardboard with a smooth, white painted finish.

We ordered them online through Lowe's and picked them up at their local home center.

It's a good looking system. You take the cut end from a finished row and start the next row with it. This way the plank seams are nicely staggered, creating a diagonal pattern.

Next, I'm derailed by family tragedy, but return with: The Great Family Room Remodel Part VI

THE GREAT FAMILY ROOM REMODEL SERIES:  

Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI • Part VII  • Before and After: Family Room.

Installing an LED Miter Saw Worklight

It's a little dim by my miter saw work bench. With my less than perfect eyes, its a little tricky to hit my marks. Yesterday, I received a work light system designed specifically for my saw. It's also supposed to project a shadow-line that gives assistance, similar to a laser. I'll review it later, but I wanted to share what the install was like.

This is the contents of the DeWalt DWS7085 Heavy Duty Miter Saw LED Worklight System. It includes a switch assembly, a LED assembly, a T-20 Torx tipped Allen wrench, and an instruction manual.

The manual is short and sweet; it's illustrated and easy to follow. I gave it a quick preview and could tell this was going to be a simple operation. I briefly considered following the French instructions, but decided to use English, since I am admittedly, completely clueless about French.

Working with the unit unplugged, you start with removing a couple of the Torx head screws to open an access point located on the top of the saw, just back from the main trigger / handle. The access cover gets discarded (or squirreled away forever, if your a pack-rat like me). Save the screws.
I locked the saw in the down position to make it easy to reach.

With the access cover off, there are two wiring connectors tucked in the cavity. It's an interesting testament to DeWalt quality that the cavity is totally enclosed; I had expected to see the electronic and mechanical guts of the saw visible when I removed part of the outer shell. The cavity was clean and sawdust free. This is obviously designed for easy consumer access for upgrades.

The switch assembly, termed the "Worklight Power Supply (WPS)" was straight forward. The two wiring connectors snap into their respective mates. The connectors only fit in their proper locations and configuration, so even a knucklehead like me couldn't screw it up.

It takes a little fiddling to make sure they are tucked properly in the cavity and the wires don't get pinched. The WPS fits perfectly where the access cover once was.

Next it's time to remove a black plastic thingie (a scientific term)that sits just above the leading edge of the blade, inside the blade guard. I raised the saw to the open position.

Again, using the supplied T-20 Torx wrench, I removed the screws holding it, two on each side. The two on the right and the one top left are easy to access from the basic, open position.

The forth screw is accessible by raising the blade guard. All four screws are easy to get out.

Two of mine were also very easy to drop, ricocheting off the floor to hide under and behind nearby stuff. I wonder how DeWalt engineered them to do that. They must have known would be time for me to take a stretch break and crawl around on the floor with my butt in the air, cheek pressed against the concrete looking for hiding screws.

The black plastic cover ("thingie") is fairly easy to wiggle out from behind the blade guard. There is another wiring connector tucked into it. Again, I squirreled the part away for the future. The directions state that it is unsafe to run the saw without either this cover or the work light installed, or risk "...serious personal injury". Good tip. They also warn you not touch the sharp point of the blade with fingers or hands, again at the risk of "...serious personal injury". That seems a bit more obvious. No warning about jamming my thumb in my left eye though.

The cast metal work light assembly slips on easy enough. First, there is another simple wiring clip connection to make, followed by tucking the wires neatly inside, again without pinching them.

The four T-20 Torx screws taken out earlier (and found hiding under a tricycle) are replaced in the same way they were taken out. A quick test to make sure the blade guard moves easily, and surgery is complete Doctor!

The whole operation took about ten leisurely minutes, including the dropped screws and an interruption from a pint-sized visitor wanting Daddy to whip up some chocolate milk. It was not a serious challenge (the worklight or the chocolate milk); it was a pleasure to install. I suspect anyone that knows "righty-tighty / lefty-loosey" can handle it without sweat. If you see this as a difficult procedure, I submit that you stay away from a tool that includes a 12" carbide-tipped blade, that spins at high RPM.

I'll review this unit soon, when I get a chance to make some sawdust, but I couldn't resist setting the mood in the ole workshop before shutting down for the night:

Good night sweet prince. May you dream of large boards.




UPDATE: Check out that sweet shadow line! I'm loving this thing!

Finally: A good comparison of photography with
a DSLR camera instead of a camera phone.



Inexpensive Foot Pedal Switch for Dust Collection

I picked up this foot pedal switch at Harbor Freight last weekend on a whim. It was only nine bucks. I meant to use it with my dust collection system on the table saw, because I have to walk over and switch-off the rear mounted switch to kill it.

Of course I bought the wrong one, not paying attention.  I bought the Momentary Power Foot Switch (#96619) rather than the Power Maintained Foot Switch (#96618) that I would have preferred. The difference is that the "momentary" pedal only switches on while your foot is on it, not good for table-saw work, while the "maintained" pedal clicks on and stays on until step on it again.


This sucks!
I ended up installing my little Craftsman "Clean and Carry" 1.5 HP /  2 gallon vac to my miter saw. I plugged it into the load side of the switch, plugged the switch in, turned on the vac. It worked perfectly when I stepped on the pedal. The miter saw is a walk up and cut type operation. Just step on the switch while you cut. It was pretty good. The dust collection pick-up on the saw on the other hand wasn't the best. But it still was better than nothing.

  Watch that first step, It's a doo-oozy!
    -Ned Ryerson, Insurance Salesman 

I've seen how expensive these types of switches are elsewhere. Shopsmith charges $38.65, plus freight for theirs, of course it's a lot nicer unit. But for this price, the Harbor Freight unit seems pretty decent. I'll grab the maintained switch next time. Let's see how long they last.

The DIY Guy vs. Dealership Challenge 2013!

I'm not a car repair guy at all. I don't have much experience, or interest. But, a dealership repair quote socked me in the gut. Surely, I can take a crack at it. A little off-track from my normal subject of DIY around the house, I'm taking this fight to the driveway.

You don't know jack!
I love my Honda Ridgeline. It's a mid-sized, 4-door, short-bed, pickup, perfect for hauling the family or my piles of project material. Mine is the middle trim-line, the RTS, which includes a 3.5 mm auxiliary audio jack for plugging in iPods, MP3 players, etc and playing them through the excellent audio system. Mine simply stopped working, the radio wouldn't even let me select "AUX" as an option anymore. I figured it was the connection, because it cut in-and-out for a while, when I wiggled the plug before it died. I took it to the dealership to get an oil change and to have them look at it; I realized I had slipped just past the warranty mileage expiration. Lovely. The quote to replace the jack came in at $120.00. It was actually a little higher, but my ears turned off at "One hundred and twenty..."
 
Looks like a snap.
While waiting for the oil change, I sauntered over to the parts counter, just to see what the part cost. $35.84. Hmmmmmm.... If I can do it for less than $84.16, I'm ahead, even if it takes me a several hours of weekend time. I ordered the part. If I failed, or it didn't fix it. I'm only $35 at risk.

Holding the part in my hand, it looks like a snap in deal with a plug-in wiring harness in the back. Fairly easy, for $84 in labor? Can I get to it behind the dash. Any of those pesky clips you can't figure out and end up breaking hidden in there. Still, I'm pretty sure I can beat it. Thus,...

 The DIY Guy vs. Dealership Challenge 2013!
 
 
On your mark, get set...
In the Dealership corner:
  • A trained, professional automotive mechanic, wearing dark-blue coveralls (coveralls assumed)
  • A full set of specialty automotive tools
  • Experience with this procedure, in this vehicle
  • A heated work space (it's 35 degrees in my driveway)
  • Manufacturer's reference material
  • Smug, professional confidence
  • free coffee in the waiting room
In the DIY Guy corner:
  • My lucky Dunedin, New Zeland ball cap (a gift)
  • (2) mugs of Kirkland Signature, Pacific Bold, Dark Roast Coffee, Extra Bold coursing through my system
Pop out these thing-a-ma-jigs.
GO TIME!
I opened the glove box and emptied my junk onto the driver seat. There were some sort of bumpers that keep the box from falling all the way open. They were a little flexible and the glove box itself was a bit rubbery as well, so I took a chance and pushed them through from the outside. They popped out pretty easily, one on each side of the box. Then there was a plastic, plunger / piston thing on the right side that simply unhooked from it's connection. The entire box flipped all the way open and hung upside down, leaving an open access behind the passenger side dash. 35 seconds.
 
Nothing broken! I got one of those early bursts of confidence, you get when nothing goes wrong early in a project. Dangerous.
 
I stuck my hand up in there, like I was birthing a calf, and felt around for the back side of the jack. There was enough room for my fairly large hand to feel around in there. I could feel the wires and some sort of plug. I couldn't tell if there was any sort of locking mechanism holding the wiring clip in so I didn't pull on it.  I didn't want to damage a wiring harness that I can't get to the other end of the cable. (That would probably cost at least  $800.00 at the dealership!) I could feel the spring clips I had seen on the replacement part. A quick, tentative squeeze to both clips and I could tell the jack assembly was free, no retaining clip. Sweet!
 
I gently pulled the jack forward and fed a little of the slack cable through the opening. There was enough to twist and rotate the assembly so I could get a good eyeball on it. There wasn't even a clip on the little green plug for me to break! I grabbed the plug and the jack assembly and slowly pulled / wiggled it apart. Bingo! No problems so far. The plug popped into the new jack and the jack snapped into the dash. I clipped the plunger / piston onto the glove box, reinstalled the two bumper things, removed them both when I realized I needed to semi-close the box first, reinstalled them again, and, using the most difficult technique of the day, flipped the box closed. That was easy, too easy, waaaaay too easy...

I stopped the timer. Barely over 2 minutes, TOTAL, from opening the glove box.
 
Knucklehead. I didn't even test it before reassembling everything. When it inevitably didn't work, I have to do everything all over.
 
I plugged in an audio cable, turned on the ignition and pressed AUX. The radio actually displayed it. There's a good sign. Pulse, pounding in my temples, I hooked up the Kindle Fire (The iPod battery was DOA)...
On button,...
   Music,...
      Songs,...
         Shuffle....
            DETROIT ROCK CITY!!!!

Get up, Everybody's gonna move their feet, Get down
Everybody's gonna leave their seat
You gotta lose your mind in Detroit Rock City
  
     Veni, vidi, vici           
          - Julius Ceasar, Tyrant

 
POST GAME SHOW:
 
2 Minutes, 9.9 seconds. No tools other than my hands.
 
Let's call it three minutes. Let's add 10 minutes for the mechanic to go grab the part. Lets add another 5 minutes just for, whatever. Call it 18 minutes. What the heck, call it 20 minutes, . That calculates to an hourly labor rate of $ 252.48 / hour.
 
Using my totally SWAG* methodology, that calculates to a Mechanic making $25 / hour + 25% employee burden and 10% overhead, leaving $218.11 / 634% in profit!
 
*Scientific Wild Ass Guess
 
     We Came, We Saw, We Kicked its ass!
            - Dr. Peter Venkman, Ghostbuster
 
You think it was the hat, or the extra bold coffee?


Safety: What are you hearing?

That's not a Princess Leia hairdo, honest!
Someone at work made a comment that in a lot of my remodeling action photos, I'm wearing hearing protection. It's not just because I think I look so darn manly / macho in my bad-ass, bright-yellow 'muffs. (and I certainly do!) It's because I truly think hearing loss is serious business. You loose it and you don't get it back. Some of our saws, nail-guns, and the sort are just stupid loud. Plus, I like to hear my tunes while I'm working, rather than that ringing in my ears following the savage aural ripping fury of a circular saw.

Listen,..do you smell something?
   - Dr. Ray Stantz, Ghostbuster

The earliest I recall being exposed to potential hearing damage was when I won tickets to a Lynyrd Skynyrd  concert at my High School graduation party. Mind you, I was not the Classic Rock aficionado that you find before you today; being from suburban Detroit, I had no idea who these guys were. After arriving at the show, we were: A.) the only teenagers, B.) in the only 4 wheeled (non-Harley) vehicle, and C.) not wearing black leather, we were greeted by the unfurling of the largest Confederate flag I'd ever seen at the back of the stage, "uhhhhhhhh...ohhhhh" ( remember - we were in suburban Detroit, waaaay before I lived in the deep South). What followed was actually an awesome concert, but LOUD! I remember my buddies and I having to yell our conversation afterwards; the other late night denizens of Denny's, (breakfast served 24 hours, were not pleased). My ears were still ringing the next morning. A couple years later, I think an Edgar Winter concert may have actually made my ears bleed with his outstanding Frankenstein.

"Nah - Nah! I'm not listening to Daddy!"

"Still not listening!!!"
My sweet wife's hearing is damaged, permanently, most likely due to getting horribly sick while traveling, in her mid-twenties. She does fine, but hearing aids are not fun or cheap, and they don't give you anywhere near 100% of your hearing back. I know that when we become shriveled, little old people, together in our old age, eating applesauce and peas, I'm going to be the ears; she's going to be the eyes. So, I wear the dorky ear-lids. It's not too bad, I just wear them when working around the house on my projects, not jogging around the neighborhood,... or posting pictures of myself wearing them,... on the internet,... for thousands to see me look like a gump...

Both of our kids have always seem to be extra sensitive to loud noises. Gracie started grabbing my earmuffs from the garage when we vacuumed, ran the stand mixer in the kitchen, or anytime I used power tools. I ended up wearing those pain-in-the-butt, little foam inserts so she could have them. She never put them away. Jack started wearing them when he got old enough to run the popcorn air-popper. He'd leave them out on the kitchen counter.

There's several stories here.
I finally bought a couple of those cheap red ones from Habor Freight, specifically for the kids. They probably won't last too long, but they are inexpensive enough at $2.99, that I can replace them, no sweat. They love each having their own pair when we're all working out in the shop together.

I slip on the ol' earmuffs with the table saw, the circular saw, the framing nailer, and the air compressor, especially if I'm working with the garage door closed when it just seems louder. The tool that really got me in the habit was my first table saw, a direct drive Delta, that was louder than a heartbroken banshee. I finally sold it after I bought the Shopsmith, because I didn't use it all that much and I simply hated that horrendous scream.

I've not been abusive to my ears, but like almost everyone, I been around loud stuff throughout my life: power tools, aircraft, racecars, concerts, etc. Still, when it's quiet I hear that ringing. It's enough.


Attack of the Irrigation System

So I thought I'd be a nice hubbie this morning and run out to get the paper for Sweetie. It was actually supposed to hit freezing last night, so I braced myself for the cold, dark dash to the curb.  I opened the door to realize it was raining, lovely. As I raced out from under the awning, in my flannel PJ pants, and ran down the bone-dry walkway, my sleep addled brain to turned me around to look for the single rain cloud parked over the front door. Instead, there was a geyser, spraying from the ground, raining ferociously on the roof.

It took a minute in the dark to find a irrigation line protruding from the ground with a nice little split in it. Craaaaaaaaaaap!  Happy New Year's, old bean. So much for a nice Daddy breakfast. I get to play in the mud at a balmy 36 degrees this morning.

"Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!"
                            -Phineas


See? I'm delighted!
I excavated the mess and found the line was basically scratched below the surface about 2" deep. There were two more holes in the same area, saturating the ground. All told, I pulled up about 15' of the tubing before I hit dry ground. I shut off the water flow at the irrigation timer. Dang it, I thought I heard it raining yesterday too. No wonder our water bill hadn't come down much after I fixed the valves. This rascal has probably been blasting away every morning while we are at work. I only noticed it due to the holiday. In the dark, I closed the wooden door covering our utility hookups and managed to snap the cover clean off the irrigation control box, ahhhhhhh,.... so 2013 is going to start like that, eh?
Yep. Deee-lighted!

I broke the news to Sweetie, got dressed and headed out; the sun was up. I hit the water on again at the controller. Yep, a busted 1/2 black line, just barely breaking the surface of our desert landscaped front yard. A gusher, but not black gold or Texas Tea here. Twenty minutes of this on a watering schedule is a bunch-o-water, down the tubes. There isn't even any plant life anywhere near it to benefit from the dousing. Probably just a nice clean spot on our roof.



Another little bonus I uncovered is a 1/2" PVC Electrical conduit. I have no idea where it's going, but it's not at 18" depth where it should be, more like 6". Nothing I can deal with today. I've never messed with this drip irrigation line before. It branches 1/8" runs out to little drip nozzles near the plants. I'll have to install two of these branches in the section I dug up. Off to Home Depot I go, 8:30 am on New Year's Day! Woooo Hoooo!

Sent a geek to do a man's job
At least Home Depot was open at 9:00; it was like a ghost town. Only obvious service technicians trolled the aisles, plumbers and electricians grabbing supplies for likely emergency calls. In my weather-beaten old Carhartt work jacket and my Sunstates Equipment rentals cap, I blended in nicely with the pro's. I gave one guy the classic manly nod and offered a, "How ya doin?" Yep, one of the pro's. At least I thought so, until I happened to glance down and notice I was still wearing my "Send in the Wookie" t-shirt I had slept in. Dork.

Exactly 1 bunch of stuff.
I was pleasantly surprised that compared to most DIY tasks I managed to grab a pretty big haul of material, including a ton of extra parts and pieces for future problems, for a pretty reasonable $29.54. Of course it's because it's mostly inexpensive plastic, but still it seems like even inexpensive plastic crap seems to quickly spike up to a hundred bucks or so every time I make a run for the store. I needed 15' of the tubing, I bought the smallest quantity available 50'. If I save it, I'll probably never need it. So, I'm saving it!

The tubing cut with a utility knife. The pressure couplings worked pretty good. Pressure held nicely. I used the little punch tool to poke a hole in the tubing, and stabbed the little 1/8" connectors in the side for the branch line. It's too easy. It took me longer to dig the hole and expose the line than it did for me to repair everything. With the water back on, everything held nicely, maybe a little sweat drop of leakage at the connections, but nothing serious.

I took a little time making sure there were no rocks against the tubing as I buried it a bit deeper than I found it. I filled in the trench, tamped it down a bit and took the rake to the area. DONE!!!

 
We were too hungry for a good old Daddy breakfast as planned, so I got cleaned up, loaded the family loaded into the truck and landed in line at IHOP by 10 am. Somehow, we squeaked in during a pause in the holiday rush. I was eating a meat-infused Colorado omelet, hash browns, and hot coffee before 10:45. This has got to be a record for a household emergency repair for me, especially one I started without any prior experience.

Happy New Year to all!






Review: General Tools EZ Pocket Hole Jig

I picked this pocket hole jig up at Home Depot because I had a couple gift cards burning a hole in my pocket.

“What have I got in my pocket?"
                                - Bilbo Baggins*

I have haven't done a lot of pocket-hole joinery, but I have done a bit. I had a really good experience using a dedicated Porter Cable Machine about a year ago, when taking a community college woodworking class. It was pretty sweet; I blasted out  at least a couple dozen holes in just a few minutes,  each was perfect. I've also done them on my Shopsmith, using the horizontal boring mode with the table at a slight angle. That's fine, but a little laborious. Looking at the General Tools kit, for about $40, I figured it would do the trick.
 

The General Tools 849 EZ Pro Pocket Hole Jig Kit as described on their web-site:
The E-Z Pocket Hole Jig Kit! Before embarking upon your next project, be sure to grab one of Generals E-Z Pocket Hole Jig Kits. The innovative design allows you to create three popular types of pocket hole joints with accuracy and relative ease. Made of heavy duty aluminum, the Jig can be mounted to a bench for stationary use and also includes a clamping system for when portability is desired. A great choice for building cabinets, furniture or other high precision woodworking endeavors. Includes free DIY project plans!
It looks nice though.


The clamshell plastic box is decent enough but the divider is terribly lightweight. I can see it ripping up in short order. You get some screws and dowel plugs which, along with the box, is what makes the kit I purchased the deeeeeeee-lux version. The jig itself seems to be constructed pretty well, nice and straight without sharp mold marks etc. The stepped bit seems good. The long Robertson tip driver bit seemed a little goopy with its chrome coated finish.

Here's the deal. I tried it out. I'm not going to rave about it. It performed for me reasonably as advertised, but I just wasn't pleased with it from a standpoint that I had dropped 40 bucks on it. I also thought it would not be a long lasting tool.

  • There was too much slop for my taste between the jig and the drill bit. I kept getting aluminum shavings along with my sawdust, not good I would think. It think the hardened chrome steel (?) guide bushing at the opening of the jig should have gone deeper into the jig itself and protected the aluminum body. I never hit it, but even adjusted for depth, I could wiggle the bit enough for the tip to hit a ridge at the base of the jig. If I adjusted the bit too shallow it just didn't leave much room for the supplied screws to bite enough for my preference.
  • The whole concept seems like it only works for thin stock, perhaps 1" thick max. Anything larger and the screw would be too far to the edge of the work piece and be floppy. This is what I experienced when testing it on a 2x4.
  • The Robertson tipped driver was nice and long, but after running two screws, the chrome was already flaking off on the tip and on the chucked end. Why chrome it at all?
  • As mentioned before, the storage box divider is just plain cheap. Basically worthless in my opinion.
It had a sticker on the box that said it was a 2007 Popular Mechanics award winner for best new product. I remember liking Popular Mechanics, and think they are a respectable magazine, but for them to rank it as "best"? I don't know, maybe I had a newer, cost engineered version. It's a great concept, but I just can't get excited about it as an addition to my shop.

If you want to give it a whirl, Amazon has the kit I bought here and a less expensive version here, without the screws and dowel plugs.

I took it back. I almost never take stuff back. I like a quiver of gadgets in my toolbox, even if I barely use them. But, I'd hang on to this for $19.95 tops. I hate being negative, but here I am; it just doesn't do it for me.

Search "Pocket Hole Jig" and you are bombarded by Kreg products. The DIY Blog world seems to have a near love affair with their stuff. It looks pretty good. At some point I'll give that a try. Sure it's expensive, but they have one at 40 bucks, so maybe I'll give that a whirl.

"Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?"
 - Gollum* 
 

*The above quoted text belongs to JRR Tolkien & co. No copyright infringement intended.

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part IV

One last big weekend of atop a ladder leveling and insulating the ceiling before the end of my time off of work. Major problems are solved and this project is taking shape.

Workday 9

I went with leveling the ceiling using kiln dried 2x4's nailed to the side of the framing members. After much thought and a couple conversations with the resident "expert" old dudes at Home Depot, I thought it would be better. They are bit wider to nail to, will split less, and were much straighter than the 1x material I was looking at. Believe it or not, the price was about the same.

Why did I still have that sheet rock saw on my belt?

I made the little wooden T-Square that's sticking through the top of the ladder in the picture. There's a pencil line around the vertical, hanging part. I'd hang it off the 2x4 and adjust height until it lined up with the laser. I'd throw on a quick clamp, hang on tight, and zap it with the nailer. Skadoosh!

The whole room had dead level framing members in about half a day. There's no way I could have done it alone, without a nailer.

I moved into wiring can-lights. We're going to have more than just the ceiling fan for general lighting. I plan to use dimmable LED's, if the light color isn't too harsh. The new work style cans were about $60 at 'Depot for a box of six, including the trim rings (which I threw away).

From this angle, you can't tell my head is shaped like a toaster.

The LED's I want to use only require a small octagon box, but I want to have the option later to go for a full can light.

I had the whole electrical diagram sketched out in advance. It's easy to get lost with all that spaghetti in the ceiling and miss a crucial piece. There's will be no attic access in this room, so recovering from a stupid omission would be darn near impossible.

I love Moleskine notebooks. They are fun to flip through months after a project is completed.

It takes a plan to be The Man with a Plan, so here's my plan,... man.

For this same reason, I ran good speaker wire from the entertainment center area to the walls and buried it, just in case we want to install a surround sound system in the future.

In an attempt to get ahead for the next, and last, full workday before "vacation" is over, a late run for insulation was in order. I brought Jack as the loading crew; I told him it builds character to load a truck.

Lift with you knees boy!

At 6.5" thick, R-19, it's not quite as thick as recommended for ceilings in the blistering hell-fire heat of Arizona, but we are nearly doubling the thickness of what was up there, just 3.5".

Workday 10:

The insulation is up and mostly sealed with tape, except for the East and West tapered edges. That will take some extra framing work to create a nailing surface to fasten the ends of the planks. I left a few inches above and around the soffit vents for air circulation. I also kept the craft paper backing away from the can lights (which were rated for direct insulation contact), just in case.

Burn baby burn,... lights that is.

The can lights work with temporary compact fluorescents installed to test. There is already a change in temperature. It's staying cooler.

It's Sunday evening. I'm out of time and not completed. Vacation is over; I have to go back to work tomorrow and have evening commitments most nights. Time to clean up a bit and aim for substantial completion next weekend.

I really thought I'd be relaxing with a completed project the last couple days of my vacation. I clearly underestimated the amount of work this project would take. I figure I'm at about 85% complete and I'm tired...

Cleaning up for the week. So that's what the floor looks like again.

The "vacation" blitz-week is behind us. Now we have to shift into pure weekend-warrior mode.

  • This project will be done in another day or two tops!...right?..right?
  • We're coming in under budget!,...right,...right?
  • What new tool comes out next?

Visit us next time, hero's and villains, for the next stunning chapter of America's favorite: The Great Family Room Remodel - Part V

THE GREAT FAMILY ROOM REMODEL SERIES:  

Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI • Part VII  • Before and After: Family Room.

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part III

Leaping headlong into the a large-scale dry walling adventure, I learn a lot,.. and it gets messy. It's really not that difficult of a job, but it's also not the most fun of the DIY tasks I've tackled.

Work Day 5:

The wall is mostly skinned with sheet-rock and the electrical receptacles are adjusted forward. I made a big mess, wore myself out, and really didn't have much fun. I learned some things I'd probably do differently next time. After much study and consideration, I have come to the educated conclusion that I am not a rabid fan of the dry wall installing arts.

Dry Wall Madness and a Green Handled Broom

This was only the second full-day workday, but I don't feel like I accomplished much. It's probably due to buying, loading, and unloading all that drywall. I simply must pick up the pace tomorrow. I did enjoy the time I took to grab a "Bad Dog" Italian Sausage, Chips, and a Coke combo from the stand in front of H' Depot.

I tried a drywall dimpler driver in my impact driver, (BTW - of the most awesome tools ever) by but didn't really like it much. A simple magnetic driver tip did the trick. You can still see the header sticking out at the upper left. I'm skinning it over with a thinner 1/4" sheet of sheet rock.

Workday 6:

Another grueling day of drywall. I had to fix and add a bit of framing here and there. The new wall is getting close to finished. Another coat of compound and a sanding, it will be ready for paint (primer?). I'm using sanding screens purchased from Amazon.com on a Kobalt sander / stick thingy I bought at Lowes. Both worked pretty good. My shoulder muscles are begging for mercy. If I had it to do again, I'd look into some sort of vacuum equipped sander. The dust gets everywhere,... EVERYWHERE!

This back, outside wall is going to be a trick. I started cutting a nice neat line where you see the laser from the awesome DeWalt Laser Chalk Line.  The dang wall crumbled about an inch lower, at the top of a sheet, right where they had nailed the edge track for the suspended ceiling. It was a thick gob of drywall compound the length of the room, leaving a ragged edge.

As a little bonus surprise:

(Future Challenge #1)

I found three 4" electrical junction boxes hidden up there, with the covers facing the opposite direction where I couldn't get into them. No cable clamps either. An illegal installation / code violation, by some putz ahead of me. I'd already sealed up and finished the wall with the previous box so I can't easily run new wiring at this point. I'll have to move on with the project. I've mapped them out and will open up the house's exterior sheathing later to fix it. Who'd do that Jake-leg wiring crap in their own home and leave it like that?

Workday 7:

The drywall is finally completed. No more header sticking out! There were a couple old places I'd liked to have given some more attention, but the clock is ticking.

 My lovely wife took a couple days off to help.

The back, outside wall's existing texture was so rough it would scrape the skin off a passing rhino. Sweetie spent hours first sanding with the screens then used the random orbital sander with a heavy grit paper to knock down the horrible texture.

She sanded, and sanded while I mudded and cut in the new sheetrock, filling the strip around the top of the three remaining walls. My poor wife seems to be allergic to drywall dust. She's feeling miserable.

See the lights? Because it's flipping DARK! No more leisurely afternoon completions,  we're burning the midnight oil and we're exhausted!

Workday 8:

<Ozzy mode = On>

I... am...TEXTURE... MAAAAN!...

nuh-nuh-nuh, nuh-nuh-nuh-NUGHT!

<Ozzy mode = Off>

Texture Man

Nice Shootin' Tex

This little Wagner "Power Tex" texture sprayer blows chunks!.. in a good way. It's worth it's weight in gold. Not counting tarps and taping the room up, it took one hour to shoot the whole room. That's from taking it out of the box, thinning the compound, practice in the back yard, and two cleanups.

Done!

It looks pretty good too. I blasted it over the formerly rough / now sanded wall, the new flat wall, and the one with the weird troweled texture. It's all a spatter-ish / knockdown texture now.

No compressor, just a small electric turbine + thinned drywall compound = nice textured walls and one heck of a mess on every surface in four of the surrounding States. Next time I'll wear a hat and keep my mouth closed. That stuff tastes like... unpleasant.

We got a quick coat of primer and two coats of paint on the wall before shutting down for the night. It looks pretty good.

 Now that this dark chapter is behind us:

  • Are you sick of hearing me whine about #&$*%#$!!! dry walling?
  • Wanna' see that big bad nail gun come out to play again?
  • You like gladiator movies Timmy?

Well then kiddies, tune in next time as the most exciting adventure of our times continues in: The Great Family Room Remodel - Part IV  (A New Hope)

THE GREAT FAMILY ROOM REMODEL SERIES:  

Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI • Part VII  • Before and After: Family Room.

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part II

The remodel gets truly underway. I unleash an unrestrained fury of cleanup, rough wiring, and hard-core, precision nail-gunnery.  

Spoiler Alert! 

If you've stumbled into the mess without first reading the exciting prequel to the saga, head over to 

The Great Family Room Remodel - Part I

April 21, Workday 2:

Pretty much a cleanup and haul out day. There were mountains of stained ceiling tiles, heaps of itchy, dusty insulation rectangles, and a mess of twisted metal t-track to get rid of. I had Gracie, the little "helper" demanding to be part of the action. It slowed production; I had hover to make sure she didn't hurt herself, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It was some good old Gracie &Daddy fun time .

Sometimes on these DIY remodel projects you just have to

 swallow your pride and bring in a seasoned professional.

Today, I had an apprentice Electrician.

Workday 3:

  Jack helped feed a couple cables to feed existing lighting on the back porch. He was a big asset, while Mommy kept the little dynamo occupied in the other room. With an open ceiling it's easy to route the new cable around the room. It's a 20amp circuit, so I'm using 12/2 wire (2 - #12's plus a ground). We're going to add switching next to the French doors for the patio, rather than the opposite side of the room where my predecessor put it. We're taking this opportunity to get the switching the way we want it.

Gracie got ahold of the camera. 

With workday #3 is complete, it's the last day of my pint-sized superintendent being underfoot; she's back to pre-school tomorrow. Basic rough in of electrical is complete. New cable TV / Internet home runs have been pulled through the attic (at a delightful 102 degrees today). A new data cable is installed from the office internet router to the X Box under the TV. A new phone line is coiled in the attic for a future expansion. 

Raticus Nesticus

The rats-nest will be a 3 gang switch box. There will be switching for can lights, the ceiling fan, and a receptacle above the bookshelves for holiday lights or maybe a string of rope-lights for ambient lighting. There are also cables from here to the back patio door area where I'm relocating switches for exterior fixtures.

Green baggin' it today

Workday 4:

Jack's hanging out with the Bagster Bag before heading off to school. All the old insulation, tiles and track fit, no problem. There's still some room for topping off. $29 for the bag at Home Depot, about $100 for Waste Management to come get it.

We have an empty room to work with.Blitz Week begins. 8:00am and it's already 90 degrees. I have the castle to myself.

Skadoosh!

I decided to fur (furr? phurr? pfurr? ) out the wall with 2x2's. I don't know the best way to hide that header, but this is what I chose to do, for timing. I'm really sold on the new framing nailer. I'm running it with a 2 gallon Porter-Cable pancake compressor, sitting outside to keep the noise down in this unfurnished echo chamber. Compared to using a hammer and nails or driving screws, it just gets the job done, right the heck now. Plus, it's good fun!

I like to say, "Skadoosh!" when I pull the trigger. I managed to still feel manly when saying it due to the good 3 day stubble beard.

A tidy worksite is a happy worksite

Done for the day. The wall is furred out. Only nailing to the studs inside the wall, it's weird that half the wall is 24" stud spacing while the other is 16" spacing.

I even swept up and put everything away, nice and neat, before the family came home, and met them at the door with a smile. Out for dinner everyone! I'm sure I'll do this every day.

<UPDATE: What an idiot. Later, the project, the room looked a cruise missile hit, and I was working past dark, exhausted beyond belief.>

Overall, a good day with a lot accomplished. I cannot wait to use the framing nailer again. I've had a 3 gun set for a couple years (brad, finishing, and stapler), and they really do their jobs, but this big beast is heavy-duty fun, big board, big nails, and big BANG!

It's a Porter-Cable FR350A Round Head 2-Inch to 3-1/2-Inch Framing Nailer that I bought on Amazon. I did my research first and I'm really pleased with the choice.

Please leave me your comments on the project so far. I'm figuring this out as I go.

Next, I'm looking forward to the experience of large scale dry walling. I've done a couple small projects over the years like patching the removal of an in-wall medicine chest. Easy stuff, how hard can a one whole wall and a 12" band around the top of the room be? <UPDATE: Idiot. Drywall work suuuuuuuuks!>

Check it out in:  The Great Family Room Remodel - Part III

 

THE GREAT FAMILY ROOM REMODEL SERIES:  

Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI • Part VII  • Before and After: Family Room.

Stubble: The Ultimate Power Tool

I've learned a lot from the DIY type shows on TV. There's one power tool all the guys use that just gets the job the heck done. I've had the pleasure to sample and to master it on my own projects. Of course, it's stubble. The ole' five o'clock shadow isn’t quite enough to pull it off; you need a professional-grade semi-beard to achieve success in today's demanding renovation projects.

AZ DIY Guy w/ full stubble and kung fu grip
AZ DIY Guy with full stubble & kung-fu action grip

I support my claim with first-hand experience. Over many trials, I have broken my weekend projects into meaningful data. Then it's a simple analysis of mathematics and production.  I have found that I complete 80% of my weekend projects on Sunday, with a healthy two-day stubble. Normally, by Saturday, I'm only halfway through my planned weekend projects, naturally due to the mere overnight dusting of a single-day's chin whiskery on my mug. Coincidence? I think not. Conversely, if I had to appear somewhere on Saturday as a clean-shaven gentleman about town, my weekend projects tended to suffer, when starting fresh on Sunday. It's almost as if I lost a day's work, just because I am elsewhere half the time, in a semi-smooth faced condition.


Features
Stubble actually enhances the brain's neurological problem-solving center. Men are subconsciously trained from birth that a good scratch of the stubble* sends a blast of mental adrenalin to quickly devise an appropriate solution. This knowledge is reason that generations of cartoons have portrayed countless legions of idiots and feeble-minded morons as fools, scratching the top of their heads. They are so stupid that they are scratching the completely wrong side of their head!

Wouldn't you prefer to see your hired electrician silently rubbing his stubbled chin, as he assesses the complexities of your electrical service panel, using his knowing, steely gaze, rather than a smooth-chinned, slack-jawed yokel, scratching his unkempt hair, poking at the panel, glassy-eyed, with a bent twig, "duuuuuuuhhhh...."?

* A proper stubble scratch should be performed with a loose fist-like gesture, palm downward with a good, slow thumb and index finger stroking motion. Additionally, at no time should a single-sided, multi-finger rapid scratch be used. It just looks like a hound trying to dislodge a chigger, and is clearly beneath the status of any true tool-wielding craftsman.

Confidence.
Do you really think you can handle an 18 volt reciprocating-saw, with a heavy demolition blade, while perched smooth-faced and daintily on your eggshell-white step stool, in your khaki Dockers and a Polo shirt? Or are you going to get your grizzle-jawed self up a 8 foot, class III ladder in your Carhartt's and rip through a nail encrusted wall in a shower of sparks, drywall, and burning sawdust? Damn right you are! Confidence man!

The Research.
You don't have to trust my experience. Again, look to the cable TV renovation expert dudes. Nine times out of ten, they're sporting a good, perfectly-maintained stubble. Would the homeowners even trust them to touch their home otherwise?

There's that Property Brothers show where the twin brothers find and fix up a house for a young couple that can't afford to buy what they want outright. One is smooth-ish faced, the other measurably scruffier. Can you guess which one is the realtor and which one knows how to sledgehammer out a non-load bearing wall and create a high-end commercial kitchen out of a musty coat closet full of dead mice?

Pop Quiz: Which one is the Realtor and which one can jackhammer the floor out of a basement?
Hint: Compare the area between their ears and their collars.
The real rock stars of the craft sport old school, full-time facial trophies. I'm talking about Tom Silva, Roger Cook, and Norm Abrams of This Old House. Heck, they don't even comb their hair on the jobsite, they're too busy kicking old house ass with their full beard and / or moustache. But this is about what an everyman can accomplish, not a deity of the construction realms.

Even fictional Hollywood handymen follow the rule. Why do you think clean shaven Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor's projects so rapidly imploded into chaos, while the Al Borland shook his head knowingly, luxuriating in his Bob Vila beard?

The only guys that can pull off a smooth face reno without being laughed off the project seem to have decided to go spear bald. I haven't figured it out yet, but the chrome dome look seems to share some of the same powers as the stubble. I'm not yet willing to do any personal experimentation on this aspect.

I further recognize that the cadre of female cable TV fix-it-up experts don't go the facial stubble route, but they seem to finish their work admirably well regardless. I can only surmise by the evidence I can gather from my observations that this is accomplished through one of two methods.

  1. The use of tousle-haired meathead sidekick carpenter that seems to change every few episodes. These guys are each outfitted complete with stubble, an empty leather tool belt, nail guns and a sliding-compound miter saw.
  2. The too-tight, V-neck lady T-shirt. You know, the one with the weirdly too short sleeves. I don't understand the science, but there seems to some commonality to their garb on these shows. I suspect that it is the female version of man-stubble and should be attributed the same way to their success. They can't reasonably pull off a successful chin-scratch power move, but there seems to be a maneuver involving the position of the camera in relation to a quick hint of cleavage whilst circular sawing or shooting a nail gun. I truly think it's the tasteful use of boob-age that does the trick. I haven't put it to the test myself because I simply get good results by letting my facial hair grow out a couple days; I don't see the need to work dressed in a too-tight, V-neck lady T-shirt, plus I look terrible in pastels.
Value.
The stubble, employed properly is one of the most economical additions you can use in your shop or work site. The cost is not too overly bad and compares very favorably against power tools equipped with laser targeting. The cost consist of:
  1. The pain of carving it off your face Monday morning as well as the price of blades. 
  2. The uninitiated simply don't realize the toll stubble takes on your wardrobe. The 60 grit sandpaper on your neck tears the heck out of the collar of an otherwise serviceable flannel work shirt.
  3. The degraded feeling you get when you see that baby-smooth chin in the mirror, your cheeks flush with razor burn and your fresh shaven whiskers laying in the sink, their power ebbing back to the cosmos.
An added value is the pure entertainment and quality time you can have with your kids each week as you purposefully and creatively shave ever larger amounts off and pause to pose for their momentary admiration. One can share the enjoyment of the various forms of the goatee, pork-chop sideburns, and the handlebar mustache before moving to the ever-popular "molester" pencil moustache, the "Hitler" tooth-brush looking thingy under your nose, or whatever various artistic free-form oddities your mind can create. Caution: For some unknown reason, wives don't seem to appreciate this benefit. Why an eye roll is necessary when their loving husband struts around the house for a few minutes with a good ole' Hitler mustache, I just don't know.

I believe the addition of good quality man stubble to your toolbox will improve your work quality and productivity. Give it a try. If all you can pull off is a peach fuzz, or a mangy cat look , perhaps try the chrome dome or the too tight, V-neck lady T-shirt method.

Then again, there is an exception to every rule.



So I Married A Craft Blogger<UPDATE> Stop the presses! This manly, manly post won the coveted "Manliest link up so far to Man Up Link Up." award over at So I Married A Craft Blogger. Check his site out, a Man's view of the world of craft blogging.