another day.

Started off the day waking up early then going back to bed. I love that feeling. It was still dark. Woke up the second time opened the blinds and sun. Surpised. A list of things to do so no time to waste. Let's see ... another coat of mud, clean the kitchen, pick up the house, laundry, weed some more, mow the lawn, jumpstart Oliver and drive him around the block then give him a bath. And other little stuff.

After picking up and cleaning the house a bit it was time to head outside to jump Oliver and give him a ride around the block (he'd been sitting for a couple of months). Did. It was fun - I do love that little car. Fifteen minutes later after getting back I gave him a bath then went to move him afterwards - but the battery it turned out did not hold a charge. Assuming it was dead after testing it with a voltmeter I headed out to get him a new one. Put me off a bit, but all in a day's work. He's running just fine now.

And a day's work I had. And it felt good. I love weekend days like this to myself just spent working not relaxing it nice enough outside to actually open the kitchen window over the sink for a bit. Sun most of the day then clouds winding the day down. Mowed part of the lawn and started wrapping up as it clouded over, turning my attention to things inside like finishing up the laundry. Lit a candle. Put on some Moby ('Blue Paper' from Hotel Ambient on repeat sorta quiet) and just enjoyed the fact of having spent the day being productive. Not necessarily working on my house this day but still working on things. It is a good feeling. Did not get to everything but it's okay. I still have my list.

I am so looking forward to warm weather and more days like this. Productive.

the laundry room part 1.

So I am well underway in the laundry room. Over a year ago (I think) I ripped out the drop ceiling back there and installed a new one, wired in three recessed lights and before that I had updated the floor when I did the kitchen - and now I am getting to the walls and everything else that is left.

When it is finished, the paint will be the color that's smeared on the wall by the dimmer switch for the overheads (which was just a test to see how it looked when looking through the door to the kitchen color). The doorway will be trimmed out like the kitchen door. The cabinets will be painted white, have new hardware and a crown molding just like the kitchen cabinets. All the rest of the trim will be installed (7" baseboards, the door to the bathroom, out the back of the house and window) to match the rest of the original trim and stuff that I have updated. Oh, and the recessed lights will have trim - as opposed to just loosely hanging out of the cans.

I plan on keeping my steam with the walls so it hopefully will not be much more than a month and this room will be finished. Or so is my plan. We'll see. But I will of course take another shot from this same angle when it is all finished for a good before/after. Well, kind of. A truly good before/after would be if I had a photo of how it looked with all the wallpaper and crappy floor and low ceiling etc. like it was when I moved in. That would be good.

drywall 101.

Ah, the joy of mudding and taping sheetrock. In order to be successful, you must approach it with a zen-like mindset. It actually can be somewhat enjoyable and I have kind of missed doing it. The last time I was doing this was for the back bathroom. So now I am in the laundry room next to it and finally getting to doing it (uh, the drop ceilings were removed from both rooms at the same time so I've been needing to get on this for a while now).

But zen-likeness aside, there is definitely an art to mudding and taping drywall so I will quickly go over some of the key points in which to keep in mind.

1) Tools: I spent a small fortune on my knives, but worth every penny. Not only should you get good quality knives, but lots of different sizes is very important. I stay away from the blue steel kind and go straight for stainless steel (blue steel will rust and as I will point out below, mudding is all about water - lots and lots of it). I had to get some of mine online cos the local mom and pop hardware store didn't have every size I wanted (and the Big Box guys don't even carry Marshalltown which is the brand I would highly recommend).

Anyways, I have just about every conceivable size: 2" (for cleaning tools), 4" (for general prep, knocking down the last coat, and other miscellaneous tasks), 6" (for the first coat I put on after the tape is up and dry), 8" for the next coat, 10" (for applying each coat of mud - much faster with a wide knife then a narrow one when you're looking at a 12' section - and for the following coat), and 14" (for those bad seams and repair jobs where having an über-wide knife is essential). Do not underestimate the need for that many tools - a knife too wide will get you in trouble, and those really wide knives are important for seams and areas that require a wide feather. I also have a corner tool (not necessary and sometimes I do corners without it) and a ceiling tool - it's kind of a pain getting mud on it from the pan but it works really well for applying mud on the ceiling. Definitely worth it.

2) Tape: like in the photo, I only use and recommend simple ol' paper tape. It has a seam down the middle so it can be folded perfectly for corners. Do not bother with mesh or any other kind of seam tape. Oh, but I do use the mesh kind for repairing holes in walls - just not for drywall seams.

3) Mud pans: get two, one stainless and one plastic. I use the stainless for the mud (do not bother with the cheap plastic ones for mud - they are much, much harder to clean after you've finished) and the plastic just filled with water that I use to run the tape through and dip my knives.

4) Water: as I mentioned above, mudding is all about time and water. You have to be quick once you get the mud on the wall, but more importantly you need lots of water! That's why I keep a plastic mud pan full of water. I run all tape through it completely before embedding in the mud, and when I am taking off a coat I dip the knife in the water before running it down the wall. This is essential. Keep all of your knives wet!

5) Feathering: like I also mentioned above, make sure you work progressively. For novices like myself, I first apply the tape and, once it's dry, then apply the real, first coat. Pros combine this step but a pro I most certainly am not. But when you put on the tape, only use just enough mud to embed it and create a tight seal (very important!) with the wall. No extra mud. Then the first real coat is applied with the 10" knife horizontally across the tape just as wide as the tape because it will be taken off with only a 6" knife. You do not want a wide feather for this first coat. Each successive coat is then applied slightly wider than the last - I typically do three coats.

6) Mud: I use a 5-gallon bucket of just standard mud for everything but the last coat. The last coat I use a topping compound which is lighter (finer might be a better word to describe it) than standard mud and easier to sand.

7) Sanding: never sand until you are finished putting on all coats. You do not want to sand in between coats! That is a waste of time and you should be putting on the mud and taking it off with the knives good enough to not have to be sanded in between coats.

And I realized sanding mud is just like feathering a mask in Photoshop - the softer the better (i.e. a soft edge obviously will not show once the walls are painted). If you can feel the edge, sand some more because it will show. Nice feathers are key to never seeing the seams.

8) Inspecting: use a 500W halogen lamp and shine it at an angle at the wall. Every conceivable defect will show. It's your call then to decide just how perfect you want your walls.

Hmm, I think that's about the gist of it. Good times. Now back to work.

uhh ...

But I took this in the beginning of February ...

For what it's worth, February or not I really enjoyed getting my hands dirty in soil as I went around to all my flower beds and pulled weeds, checking to see what was all coming up. Apparently the daffodils think it is Spring.

living room stuff - audio/video #2.

At long last. Well, almost three years after moving in. I finally wired the surround speakers in the living room. It took a few hours. No swearing involved. It actually went quite well, and very systematically. Measured from the east wall to where the outlet behind the stereo equipment was, then went up in the attic and did the same thing. Drilled into the header and wallah - I could see the light I shone into the hole I had cut for where the low-voltage Leviton structured wiring outlet plate would go. Hallelujiah! Then I had to break out my fishing tape (the actual speaker wire was too flimsy and I couldn't successfully grab it from that hole behind the stereo) and drop it down the inside of the wall. I grabbed it, secured the speaker wires to it, went back up into the attic and, well - went fishing. For wire. Up it came and I tossed it across the attic to the opposite wall.

Then it was just the fun matter of crawling on top of the insulation into the far corners to run the wire. Back in the living room, up on a ladder, I cut the holes, secured two more Leviton plates and the mounting brackets and that was pretty much it.

Oh, and cleanup. And now I have surround sound.

Well, about that. I was looking into DACs because my LG only has optical audio out and, well, since I have had my receiver since I was in high school it ... does not have optical ins. A DAC was about sixty bucks. Then I checked good ol' craigslist to see what a used but slightly more modern receiver might cost. Much to my surprise (or not), I found a really nice Pioneer (my old one was also Pioneer) for one-fifty. It had three digital ins (two optical and one coaxial) and one optical digital out.

So after work the next day I hit up the guy's house and took it off his hands. The next day, I spent wiring it and the components all up. Dolby Digital, 5.1, 7.1 etc. etc.

So I ordered some cables from Amazon after, uh, of course checking Best Buy just to confirm that yep - still true - Best Buy charges approximately 1500% more than any online retailer for cables. I can wait a couple of days, and then the TV will have a digital audio out (yea! so all the movies I stream I will be able to watch in 5.1 surround), my CDR will be all digital in/out along with the DVD and Xbox as well. Not sure if I'll really hear a difference but really, the plugs were about eight bucks each.

Tonight I get to set up the surround. It comes with a small microphone which I am supposed to clip to myself sitting where I normally sit after I tell it my speaker configuration so it can adjust the output of all of them. I also might just put my SPL meter to the test for good measure.

Ah, audio. Good times.