Useless Projects

[schild]

Mister and Hipster

[Polysorbate80]

Christmas party is Friday, I’ll take a vote.  Daughter wants Herp and Derp, son suggested two Pokemon I can’t remember  

Kegerator is loaded with IPA and pale ale.  Had to dial back the regulator to 8psi from the expected 10-12 to slow the pour and cut the foam, but I think that’s just due to the system not stabilizing yet (or the microbrewery carbing more than I expected). I’ll have to tweak it again tomorrow when it’s settled.

[Sky]

The main obstacle to doing anything useful with my den is that it's five doorways all opening onto one small room.  It's basically Sigil, the City of Doors.  

That's my living room, 5 doors in a roughly 16x16 room. Except one of the doors is an oversized french door to the patio, there's a large picture window, and the wood stove basically takes up an entire wall. This year I've tried to integrate a reading chair and it's thrown everything into chaos.

Oh, "Statler" and "Waldorf"

[Polysorbate80]

Daughter's new suggestion: Garfunkel and Oates

Top finish is complete, had to use panorama mode to get the whole thing in frame so yay distortion!



No substantial progress on the sideboard yet, too much time spent cleaning house

[Samwise]

Looks awesome!  You gotta repaint that room now though.   

[Polysorbate80]

Before paint would be replacing the counters with granite, and replacing the terrible wall tiles by the wood stove with island-themed stuff.  Which would be a lot of work, since it'll be a lot of random-sized tiles and cutting of others to fill the gaps.  Probably swap the appliances for stainless as well.

I'm not sure how I ended up with those ugly tiles in the first place--somehow the contractor wound up picking them, and then didn't actually finish installing them.  I've got a giant gap where the stovepipe meets the wall, and the outlet covers won't go on.  Longer screws will fix the latter, but the former requires getting out the tile saw and doing some surgery.  

The stove itself has to stay.  It's my backup heat for the house, and temps will be down to around 15-20 during the day and 6-10 at night for the next week or so.

[Sky]

Before paint would be replacing the counters with granite, and replacing the terrible wall tiles by the wood stove with island-themed stuff.  Which would be a lot of work, since it'll be a lot of random-sized tiles and cutting of others to fill the gaps.  Probably swap the appliances for stainless as well.

I'm not sure how I ended up with those ugly tiles in the first place--somehow the contractor wound up picking them, and then didn't actually finish installing them.  I've got a giant gap where the stovepipe meets the wall, and the outlet covers won't go on.  Longer screws will fix the latter, but the former requires getting out the tile saw and doing some surgery.  

The stove itself has to stay.  It's my backup heat for the house, and temps will be down to around 15-20 during the day and 6-10 at night for the next week or so.

WOOOD STOVE STAYS

Can you put a collar on the pipe?

[Polysorbate80]

It's collared where it goes through the drywall.  I'm thinking that's why the contractor (or his minion, some of them weren't too bright) left off that bit of tile.  They couldn't figure out how to get the tile to lie flat over the collar or cut it to fit a round shape.

Me, I would have moved the collar out to sit over the tile, and used it to hide where the tile was trimmed  

Edit: found a photo that had the pipe in it.  It's been this way for over a year, I should just fix it myself but I keep foolishly hoping he'll get back to it.  He is slowly finishing up all the little things, but it's ridiculous.

[schild]

jessica

&

rabbit

[Cadaverine]

Blips and Chitz.

Gonzo and Duke

[Paelos]

Sweat and Tears.

[Viin]

Moe and Curly

[RhyssaFireheart]

Yin and Yang.

[rattran]

Micky and Finn.

[Cadaverine]

Drunk & Disorderly

[Polysorbate80]

That was the first suggestion I made, which got immediately shot down 

Wanted to get further with the sideboard for the bar, but I wound up spending the morning burying a horse.  Got a call last night from the neighbor saying our horse was in distress.  She had a bout of colic a couple months ago but we got to her in time; this time it was too late and she had to be put down.  I don't have an excavator, but a neighbor was kind enough to help out.

I did get a couple of the legs rough fitted.  This would go way faster if I glued & screwed all the parts, but I can't make myself cut too many corners, even though the wood (other than the top) is cheap lumber.  Need to clean up the fit, then two more legs to go.  After that, fit on the base and shelves, and then the back.  I plan on doors over the center shelves (so I can lock the liquor in, daughter is a teenager now...) but I'll probably put them off until later.

[Polysorbate80]

Samwise is the winner (once I explained who Don and Vic were), but Bob and Doug came in a strong second

I had to bring the sideboard in the house for the glue to cure (it's 6 degrees F outside), but it's together enough to function as a shelf



I hoped to get the back on as well but I needed time for baking



Linzertorte turned out deeelicious.  The crust recipe was a little to fragile to properly weave the lattice (-style points) but I think adding a little more moisture to that half of the dough ball would solve that next time.  Definitely on the "bake again" list!

Won't get any more done until I'm back from Hawaii in January.  I hope to find some bar stools while in Kauai, there's a guy in Hanapepe that makes great Koa furniture.  At least I hope so--he's an older guy, I hope he hasn't retired or anything.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I'm so enjoying vicariously living through your pics, Poly, but I'm afraid I'll need to sample that pie/torte in person to properly assess it's flavor.  I'll message you my address and expect expedited delivery. 

(aka looking awesome!  I like the dark-light-dark of the sideboard top there.  It's a nice effect.)

[Paelos]

Wait, did you mention you had to bury a horse in that thread? 

[01101010]

Wait, did you mention you had to bury a horse in that thread? 

My exact thoughts....

[Polysorbate80]

Yes, I did. There is now a horse buried in my lower pasture

[Father mike]

I had to bury a cat in the last month, and it was more labor intensive than I remembered.  I sincerely hope you have access to a backhoe.

[Polysorbate80]

Neighbor’s excavator.  Heavy equipment is the only practical option—you a hole large enough to bury a horse with three feet of soil to keep from attracting scavengers.

Plus it’s snowy and cold back home. Princeville is warm and only occasionally rainy right now

[Polysorbate80]

Stools ordered!  He’s got a backlog though, might be summer. Going to have to buy some substitutes to fill in until then

[Polysorbate80]

Back in town, back to work.  Got the back on and started the trim (I'll be putting bamboo on the sides as well to match the bar)



But progress was slow--I got sidetracked having a beer and unpacking my loot



There was actually more--gave away two bottles of spice and two of the dark, and there's still a couple bottles that haven't been unpacked yet.

I'm fully aware I may have a problem 

[Paelos]

Watch out for Pirates

[Polysorbate80]

I am a pirate at heart.  It's ninjas I watch out for

[Samwise]

So when are you inviting all of F13 over for a party?

[Polysorbate80]

Not sure who wants to come to northern Idaho to visit, and right now is cold and slushy...

For those who don't live on the Palouse (and I think a couple other f13'ers do) the best time to visit is late May.

That's usually when our annual crop of lilacs and kittens comes in 




(nobody can have the cat.  Opal is too much of a sweetie)

[Polysorbate80]

Nearly done, I've got the door glued up but I need to smooth it, and I need to put in the racks to hang the stemware from.  I'm in less of a rush on all that, since I've got an unexpected house guest living in my basement.  It's not my place to discuss my friend's issues, but without counseling he and his wife will almost certainly wind up divorced.  Hell, it might go that way with marriage counseling, but we'll see...

BUT:  it was a good excuse to buy that larger TV I've been looking at for the basement.  The kids watch TV/play videogames on the 60" down there, and I don't want them in his face all the time, so I moved that television up to the second floor where their rooms are, and bought a 75" as well as a wall mount.  Costco had entirely reasonable rates for 4k Samsungs in that size.



I've avoided putting up the wall mount there in the past since that's a wet wall, and fucking up and drilling into the pex tubing or a drain pipe would be a disaster.  Wound up taking the better part of an hour to triple-check and measure, and it worked out.  It still winds up looking small, since the wall is 13'8" from the corner to the doorway, and about 16' altogether.  Putting in the speakers for surround sound will take up some of that open space.  I still need to order the receiver and speakers, so that'll be a while.  The rear two for the 7.1 will unfortunately have to be in-ceiling speakers, which isn't ideal, but it'll work.

[schild]

Not sure who wants to come to northern Idaho to visit

not me

[Polysorbate80]

Not sure who wants to come to northern Idaho to visit

not me

I expect that to be the opinion of most reasonably sane people 

[Paelos]

In one thread Polysorbate80 built a tiki bar, buried a horse, and he's now taking in a boarder.

I mean you're keeping it interesting up there in crazy ass Idaho at least!

[Yegolev]

I don't know about northern Idaho, but I love Yellowstone.  Convincing the wife to visit what amounts to a random internet dude might be a tough sell, but I figure once the boy goes off to college everything is fair game for me.

[Polysorbate80]

Door on? Check!

Glasses hanging?  Check!

Knick-knacks tossed on?  Check!

Tasty beverage to enjoy?  Check!

(must add paper umbrellas to amazon shopping list)

Convincing the wife to visit what amounts to a random internet dude might be a tough sell, but I figure once the boy goes off to college everything is fair game for me.

In all fairness, I do have bodies buried out in the back 40