car stereo [3].

A few months ago, K and I realized we had two of the same vehicles. She had a Yaris, I had a Corolla. Well, basically the same. And when it came time to take our family on an adventure, and bring along the pup, we were out of luck. About the same time, we were driving back and forth to our ski hill, where we witnessed everything from a semi-trailer jack-knifed, splayed across the highway, to a little Prius that got stuck just trying to leave (and I spent a good five minutes trying to help the poor people push it to no avail), to some old Mercedes fish-tailing all over the highway as it crawled up to the pass.

Yeah... all wheel drive might be nice...

Being a Toyota family, we had been looking into a RAV4. The new ones sure look stylish and... whoa, wait - they're something like $30 thousand dollars. Okay, no. Oh, and they only come in automatic transmissions. No bueno. So after doing some research, we learned that Toyota only offered the RAV4 with a manual transmission up until 2005, after which they ceased producing (or exporting) vehicles with that option. Bleh. But no worries, really, because an early-2000 was much more affordable.

After very little time spent on Craigslist, we found what seemed to be the perfect specimen! A 2001, manual (duh), AWD, 1-1/4" tow package, roof racks, sunroof, tinted windows, only 135k miles, and so on. After test driving, we could tell it needed an alignment and an oxygen sensor, but after talking the dude down almost a grand, we drove home with it that night.

Welcome... Luna!

At Stevens Pass this past winter...

And at our campsite in Glacier National Park, BC (yep, not the Glacier in Montana)...

K came up with the name, clearly named after the rugged peak in the North Cascades...

And well, she needed a new stereo, too (the car, not the mountain... ok, ok).

This install was somewhere in between Spencer and Stuart. Meaning, I had to modify the tweeters a little creatively, but everything else was pretty easy-peasy. Particularly (as usual), the receiver -

Boom...

Boom...

Boom... Done.

That is another reason why I really like older cars... their stereos are so much easier to replace! (And older cars are generally just easier to work on and fix ourselves)

Then it was time for the speakers. I didn't spend a fortune on this (yet), but rather just started with a new (Bluetooth) receiver and four new speakers to replace the stock ones. The only tricky part on the door speakers was having to drill a new hole for the new speaker bracket (well, really not tricky - just an extra step that took about five seconds) -

And installed!

Well - maybe worth pointing out is the window insulation I had lying around that I used to create a tight seal for the bracket, and avoid it rattling when the speaker was cranking -

The component tweeters were a little trickier, like I mentioned, only because I ended up having to file them down a bit to get them to fit behind the little sail panels...

Step 1: remove factory tweeters...

Step 2: splice new tweeters to existing wiring/harness...

Step 3: file edges of tweeter with coping saw/metal (or wood) file...

Step 4: reinstall using factory mounting bracket...

Step 5: reinstall sail panel...

And done -

The rear door speakers were more or less the same, minus the separate tweeters. I shoved the factory stuff into a bin in our crawl space, in case there ever comes a time we sell her (highly unlikely) and want to remove all the fancy(-ish) stuff...

The next question is whether or not to add an amp and/or a sub under the seats... But for now, we can pair both of our phones, take calls (yikes!), and play our various iPods with decent sound.

drywall.

My favourite job: mudding sheetrock joints.

Actually, it's not that bad. Plumbing is worse. Way worse. And mudding is part step-by-step, but also, part art. Seriously. People who can mud well are artists, in a building-stuff-sort-of-way.

But anyway... time to get at it. I still use the step-by-step instructions I found online many, many years ago that I more or less wrote up here. Then I was off to the races, whereby I mean this job was won by how long I could drag it out...

(My trusty and accept-no-substitue Marshalltown taping knives!)

Step 1: put tape over all the joints, and scrape basically all of the mud from the walls.

I saved myself time and the hassle of doing the ceiling joints because after we paint, I'm going to hang all of the trim - of which will consist a crown molding along the ceiling edges.

Then fill in the screws. Let dry. Put on the first 'real' coat of mud, about 4" wide. Let dry. A second, about 6" wide. Let dry. A third, about 8" wide. Let dry.

I taped off the thermostat for the heated floor...

Lastly, pull out a box of old-but-still-perfectly-good light joint compound (I swear by a top coat of the light stuff!) and get it nice and gloopy...

Then put on a 10"-wide swath of that stuff. Let dry. Fill in any gaps or raised edges with yet more of the light compound. Let dry. Inspect. If all looks good and there are no more flaws... Sand (yay!). And prepare for dust. Lots of dust.

Then do a final inspection and cross fingers (whilst running your hand all over the wall to determine if you can feel any of the seams)...

That corner by the door and the built-in cabinet was fun... But in the end, turned out looking great! And most of it, in fact, will be hidden by trim.

Next... we get to prime all the walls and ceiling, then paint! I think I'll bring the gallon of paint to the hardware store and have them mix it up because it's been sitting since I bought it something like eight or nine years ago... (if I lose points for dragging out a job, I get a few back for thinking ahead haha!)