Week 70

Odds and ends this week. Cleaning the garage and mouseproofing. Nothing riveting, so here are some odds & ends photos:

Our neighbor up the hill is selling their house & moving to the South Pacific to retire. I found this tiny bus lapel pin in a box of stuff they put out on the sidewalk for people to take:

I keep forgetting to mention that one of the cabinet doors in the Duserhaus is a corkboard covered with a map of the city. I thought the bus would make a nice addition to the map:

Another detail I keep forgetting to mention is how I used a bunch of small end cuts as part of my scheme to level out the counter top. It worked well enough, and it looks interesting:

I also used some wine and champagne corks to fill knots in the wood (as anyone who has heard my story about fixing the trunk of a rental car with a champagne cork knows, I keep a bunch around for just such an occasion):

Also, AJ found this interesting shelf and drawer unit on the sidewalk. It should clean up pretty nicely:

Lastly, it doesn't count as a project around the house, but we are building new bikes at a local nonprofit bike shop. I didn't mention it here, but someone broke into our front porch and stole our bikes about a month ago. Instead of buying new ones, we decided to sign up for this place's "build a bike" program, where you can dig through their thousands of used parts, and work with the volunteer mechanics to build your own. We've put in about five hours now, and so far, so good! Here is AJ's bike, with her perfect newly trued (i.e. straightened) wheels:

And here is mine, waiting for me to find some brake levers I like:

This week, we'll put some more time in on the bikes, and then take some time off for some much needed rest & relaxation.

Week 69

Cabinets: done!

On Saturday, I leveled out the countertop, using a block plane:

There are other types of planes that are better suited for this kind of task, but I'm trying to limit the amount of equipment I'm buying -- this is considered somewhat all purpose, and it was able to get the job done. Certainly, the army of hamsters that AJ has always wanted will be happy with the volume of shavings it produced:

After that, I plugged gaps and filled holes, and then sanded the whole thing down. On Sunday, I sealed it with polyurethane, added magnet closures to the cabinet doors, and then moved all the brewing equipment and beer bottles in:

Done!

Next up: More cleaning and rearranging of things in the garage to tidy up the space and make it more usable. Also, waterproofing and mouseproofing in the front left corner of the garage,