Of course blogger goes into read only when I want to blog! Wow, it has been a while my friends. So sorry! Things have been really rough for us these past few months. Work, School aside we've been dealing with some health challenges (mine, the baby(ies) are doing great) which have really impacted my ability to do much other than make sure there is food on the table.
But the summer is here with all its resplendent wonder and opportunity and we are going to make this summer a summer to remember! So far we've managed to actually almost get our home in shape! Hooray for us! To celebrate the end of the semester I spent some time working with some nice scrap wood (thank you home depot, 51c a piece!) and built Superman a little bench so he can climb up onto the reading chair as well as look outside the window in the living room.
Here is a shot of the work in process sitting on my work bench at my hacker-space (solidstatedepot.com FTW!)
I got to use some new tools that I bought at Harborfreight.com I got their cheapest circular saw (29.99) and their cheapest corded drill (17$) along with a few safety items, clamps, counter sink drill set, and other random hardware. Lucky for me they had a Brick and Mortar location about 30 min away from our house so I got to inspect things up close before I dropped my money on anything. You know the maxim that something that sounds too good to be true usually is? Well, I learned that sometimes that is true, and some times the cheapo stuff works just as well as the expensive. For example, I got a pair of ear muffs to block out the noise of the drill / saw / whatever and at HF they were 2.99, the same model (different packaging but they look EXACTLY the same) was for “sale” at another hardware store I was at for 9.99. You do the math. The circular saw worked out great (which was what I really was hoping for) but the countersinking bits I bought were 50% trash. The collets with the countersink part were fine, but the drill bits they were on were not so good. I bent the 1/8 bit the second time I used it. Luckily the collet was removable and I was able to use it with another bit set I had.
Things worked out ok and pretty soon I had this little guy all drilled and glued together. I used my Jig saw to cut out the circular bottoms (made making the whole thing level a lot easier!)
A can of spray paint I had left over later with a little sanding and we had a nice distressed blue look
The little guy on his bench
Taking a break to read himself a book before bed. Makes my job easy!
The other project we completed was refinishing an old hutch into a media hutch for our living room. Megan wanted to go bold with a lighter blue, I think it looks fantastic.
Some Sanding and annoyed neighbors later.....
In between Coats, you can see the messy desk / tv combo we've got going on. I was so ashamed of it that I didn't even take a picture
Finale
This summer things are going to go great. We've got an actual family vacation planned! Taking a week to go "rough" it at a cabin. I'm employed part-time (which is great as I'll be able to spend time working on my own company) and have lots of hacker space related things to do. Also, look out for a neat announcement around June 5th or so :)
Ross
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