dining table light!

Hmm... I had to dig up this gem, but I knew I had it...

When Jeff came out to visit back in April 2013 he helped me drag up the dining table I had bought cos it was too hard to pass up, but didn't have room for it the way the living room was organized - so I had shoved it down in the basement.

(Jeff relaxing after that bit of hard work... )

Anyway - yeah, that was back in 2013... Since then, the table has stayed. Without light. It was cool in the summer cos it didn't get dark until after nine o'clock. In the winter, we used the living room lamp over by the Bechstein.

Until tonight.

This past weekend, K and I stopped by the new Habitat For Humanity store and - in searching for a desk or table or dresser (something, anything) that we'd turn into a bathroom vanity (we bought a Mid-Century Modern credenza at a different used furniture store for dirt cheap - along with a sink from a salvage yard - but more on that when we get going again on the bathroom... ) - I came across an old lamp for $18.

What the heck, we bought it.

And just to test it out, tonight I bought a $6 hook and a $4 extension cord - of which I cut off the end and wired it to the end of the lamp cable after hanging it above the table.

Turns out... we really, really like it.

It's a gorgeous Tiffany glass shade that, well, just happens to coordinate really well with the beautiful mission lamp K bought me two year's ago for Christmas that's over in the opposite end of the living room -

It'll be downright weird to have, well, actual light over our dining table! Now I'll just need to wire the circuit - which I'll do after I wire the lights in the bathroom (it'll be on the same circuit - all the overhead lights now are run off one circuit - well, they are since I wired the porch light six years ago).

a slight change of plan.

So it all started - as most things seem to do - sort of randomly ... in this case, Cost Plus apparently was blowing out all their furniture. Some more than others. The key being their mission table and chairs which I had already sort of had my eye on for a while cos it's beautiful, solid (the table must weigh in at easily over a hundred pounds) and quite affordable. But 60% off was unbelievably affordable.

I might have bought the table and six chairs ...

So currently then - our kitchen set up -

Well - not entirely - I just sold the Dania bar table and chair set that used to be in this corner -



But now that's what we've got. An old, tiny table I bought from Pier 1 I've had since before Julian was born and refinished plus a smattering of garage sale mission-style chairs. So Katie got me thinking - kind of out-of-the-box thinking that's good from time to time.

My original plan for this place was to gut the entire back of the house - move the bathroom (and reduce it from a full- to a half-bath) and put a kitchen nook where the shower currently is, an island with a cooktop and a pantry. But a while back I came to the conclusion I needed a reality-check and that this place - though I love it - is not going to be my final house and is only worth putting so much into it. Gutting the back of it to put in a bigger kitchen - though a nice amenity and such - just didn't seem realistic. A bit over-the-top for such a small house. This place is what it is - a starter house for someone. It seemed unrealistic to build out a dream kitchen in such a space.

But I miss having a real, big, solid kitchen table that isn't tiny crammed in a dark corner of the kitchen. To come home in the evening and gather at for dinners. To wake up weekend mornings the sun streaming in through the blinds to plop down and have a bowl of cereal. Play a game of Settlers of Catan.

So - I hadn't really thought up a new plan until now ... and while the newly-acquired mission table and chairs sit unassembled in my basement that plan is -

- where that little table is now (and the fridge to the left) - build out a pantry like originally planned and enclose the fridge with cabinets above and to the right (or the left and move it to the opposite corner along the wall) sort of like this (although I'd only have two doors and they'd be painted white and match the 5-panel doors I installed a couple months ago - with cabinets likely overhead as well since the ceilings are 9' tall) -

- completely rearrange the living room - move the piano to the front of the room and put the TV and two couches in the basement (more in a sec) to create a media room space down there
- where the piano is now - put the mission table (I, umm, bought it and six chairs)
- move the recording setup to where the TV and audio equipment are now
- in the middle of the living room, get a small loveseat and matching chair or two, a bookcase (possibly build - this has been on the wishlist ever since I moved in cos I still have all my books spilling out of various boxes stacked against a wall) and hopefully still have room for the coffee table I bought last year - hopefully sort of all centered in front of and around the fireplace
- more or less leave the laundry room and back bathroom the way they are - well, finish the laundry and back entry - do something like this with the laundry area (I like the countertop for folding laundry and stuff and the utility sink that I'll need once the last bathroom is finished cos right now it's serving as my utility room) -

(Sans the random smiling lady)

That'll of course mean finishing at least one room in the basement. Flooring. New tiled ceiling. Wiring for all the audio and stuff. Redoing the corner and gas fireplace there now. So it'll be a work in progress. And I've got a bathroom to start and finish which I think will take priority. I've put that thing off too long.

But anyways - it'll be a lot of shuffling but in the end I'll have a nice, big, solid kitchen table next to some south-facing windows that'll be beautiful and work well for all the reasons I've mentioned.

fireplace and hearth finally finished.

So I had a deadline to finish the fireplace by Christmas. I don't know why - I guess I had it in my head it is sort of a center-piece for the holiday and so wanted it finished. Or maybe I just wanted it finished.

First I had to tear off the plywood subflooring whoever put in that raised the ceramic tiles they had installed (but never grouted - it was one of the things they literally froze and stopped doing as soon as I put in an offer on this little house) above the level of the wood floor. I never understood that. So I ripped it out. Which revealed the original clay hearth and fir floor -

The fir flooring was slightly lower than the clay hearth so time to mix up some Presto Patch -

I've used to level flooring in the past (in the guest bath to even it out with the kitchen subfloor before installing tile way back when) and had some leftover -

The thing that took the longest - maybe surprisingly, maybe not - was choosing the tiles to place and the pattern to use. I needed ten and had maybe fourteen or so - some were more grey than others or had less orange so I tried to get them to all look as close as possible. I love love love slate and how each tile is different but since it was such a small area (maybe eight square feet or so) I wanted less irregularities between the ten tiles I had to place. Over a larger area the irregularities would have seemed less - well - obvious I guess. Or so went my thinking.

But after a bit of time I had a pattern figured out and headed out to the garage to break out the $20-garage-sale-find tile saw to cut the slate -

Then mix up some leftover thinset I had from when I tiled the shower in the guest bath a couple years back and set everything in place -

While it set I switched gears to finish trimming my bedroom closet. Fit the baseboards in perfectly - and finally realized that if you don't have to use a hammer to wedge trim to fit you cut it too short ...

(like here I'd hit that scrap 1x4 on one corner a few times, then slide it over to the other corner and tap a bit, then back - and forth - and back - and forth - until it was firmly wedged in place). Then I cut out the threshold and finished off the 'step' into the closet -

And the closet was finished -

Then back to the hearth. And time to grout. I thankfully had the foresight to read up on grouting slate beforehand and got the little tip to pre-seal slate - since it's so porous. Without presealing the tile I guess it just soaks up the grout and it becomes nearly impossible to get the grout off the tile. And another tip to use a frosting-like applicator bag (frosting as in cake frosting - tapered to a point on one end so you can squeeze out the grout directly into the space between the tiles) - which I just happened to have gotten at some garage sale years ago probably with most of my other tiling and grouting tools.

I have to say even after all that - getting grout off slate is next to impossible. Ugh. I was admittedly glad I was only doing eight square feet even though I'd love to have a complete slate floor in my kitchen and back in the laundry room. I'd have to test some sealers on scrap tiles first to try to minimize the extreme work required to get the grout off the tile.

But after some time on my hands and knees with a toothbrush and half vinegar-half water solution that did work quite well to get all the grout haze off the tile (the toothbrush was used to try to scrub the grout from all the crevasses and unevenness of the slate) I got most of it off -

And after touching up some spots on the fireplace that got scratched while installing the slate (I used Benjamin Moore hc-104 copley grey) it was finished (and actually level with the rest of the flooring) -

So now - finally - with the paneling I installed above the mantel this past January - the paint and now the slate - the fireplace is complete. I had wanted to strip the paint from the brick but after testing some spots I discovered the brick wasn't very pretty. Nor was it above the mantel - I had ripped off the beadboard years ago hoping to find beautiful brick. Nope. Just plaster. So I built that paneling.

But now that it's done I like it. Some old original brick would have been cool but oh well. I still like it. Oh yeah - and here's what it used to look like when I first moved in -

it's all a question of balance.

Or so David Helfgott's piano professor told him when describing his playing of Rachmaninov's piano concerto in D minor.

In this case, though ... uhh, white balance. As in - for matching paint swatches.

All because of the shot I (*ahem*) Photoshopped the wall colour in I decided I would paint just that corner of my living room. Afterall - I was going to be looking at it while I worked so I might as well not stare at a boring white wall waiting for me to actually remodel this living room for real.

So I trucked up to Lowe's to blow twenty bucks on a gallon of Olympic flat paint matched to the beautiful Benjamin Moore HC-85 fairview taupe (the colour I've had picked out for the living room for at least three years). Got home and started cutting in around the window by the Bechstein.

Hmm ... it was too red. That's weird - I'd never had a problem with Lowe's matching Olympic paints to my Benjamin Moore Historic Collection swatches. But the gal that mixed the paint hadn't exuded confidence - hers or mine. And I hate to be 'that guy' but in this case (like I did for the stain I had mixed for the cedar shakes) - I opted to take it back and ask for it to be remixed.

Uh-oh - same girl. Yikes.

Well, this time I watched her go through the screens and when she got to white balance I noticed she picked 'incandescent.' I also noticed there were other options - including 'daylight.' Now the first can was too red compared to the swatch - i.e. too warm. So I asked - why incandescent when all the lights over the swatch areas were daylight-balanced (well, supposed to be was more like it - some were closer than others and every booth had a slightly different temperature but this was Lowe's afterall)? She told me that's what they had told her to do. I sorta wondered if she even knew the difference but quick tossed that aside to settling the task at hand.

OK - could you please go with daylight? I don't really care if the paint matches some incandescent colour temperature - I want it to match in the, you know, daylight. So she did. And it matched the swatch perfectly. And now I know what to ask for the next time I have Lowe's mix up paint for me.

So anyway - with nothing better to do then on a Saturday I figured why not paint that corner?

And, uhh - as long as I was at it - in my typical fashion then why not just paint, well, the rest of the walls?

And Julian - so cute and naîve asked 'so why don't you tape around all the trim?' To which I modestly replied 'taping is for amateurs' (haha).

So then ... something like five or six hours later (with the help of Katie - who meticulously painted the five window stops and a couple of patches on the baseboards where there once were lame baseboard heaters I had ripped out long ago) my living room was painted (granted, these pics were taken the following day, i.e. today and I finished with barely an ounce of paint left to spare) -

Now - since I've gone and started - I have to finish ... the fireplace. I'll re-paint the brick next, then quick throw together some paneling above that I sketched out this afternoon (using a router - I need to remember more often that I have that handy power tool - like, for mortising the doors and to fix the trim in the guest bath) -

And once that's finished - it'd be nice to get the bedroom doors swapped out with the beautiful solid fir 5-panel shakers I have waiting in the wings. Oh - and the front door.

Just like everything - some vast project started cos of one little thing ... good times.

entertainment.

So I have been enjoying the Mac Mini as A/V hub. I figured out a few things that bugged me -

• How to control the Mini (running 10.6.x) via my Powerbook (running 10.4.11) - had to install a VNC client (I used Chicken of the VNC) on the Powerbook but OS X (from 10.4 and onward) has included the VNC server configuration built-in - just have to enable it (albeit differently for the different OS versions) in the System Prefs
• How to fit the screen of the Mini to my 42" LG - turns out you have to disable 'Overscan' in the Display Prefs and change the LG's resolution to 'Just Scan' instead of 16:9
• Fiddled w/ the Mac OS DVD Player app to get it tuned up to play DVDs (trying to rid myself essentially of everything besides the Mini and my receiver) - I'm not sure it's up to par with a stand-alone DVD but I haven't done a comparison yet - just my initial thought

Oh, and I also finally went through the process of doing the configuration of the surround (I had manually set it up a while ago) - using the supplied mic I attached to myself and let my Pioneer receiver run through its thing (it calls 'MCACC') to determine the ambient room volume, speaker types, distances from me, each other, etc. etc. etc. It did make a pretty big difference - an improvement - over having manually set the distances and speaker sizes. Sweet.

So I kicked back -

Then went to test out running the VNC client -

(which I subsequently set up on all my other Macs - especially nice for the G4 server I have running with all of our music on it).

The speakers I bought when I was in high school (after doing months of research, making a test CD and bringing it to various places to listen with on different speakers to which I had narrowed down the search) are still cranking out awesome sound. It was fun cranking some stuff on them through the Mini. And I messed with all the different surround options on the receiver - sounds awesome, too.

Ah - good times. Trouble is now I won't have much to put in that Gator case I was going to get ...

coffee table.

So this past Friday I braved the yuppy-laden Bellevue Square to pick up my coffee table - driving up there in my beatup old Toyota pickup (love you Stuart!) to pick it up. Apparently I've had my eye on this thing for years (yes, 'years' = plural 'year') and finally it went on sale a couple of weeks ago. So I ponied up for it to add to my rather sparse collection of furniture (it's a slow process but someday I will also own an actual dresser) -

It serves as a good footrest and place to put the collector's edition coffee issue of Seattle magazine.

Oh, and my National Parks coffee table book -

Oh, and my coffee -

It just needs some maps in the drawers. Or some music paper. Or both.

And about the footrest thing - the timing couldn't have been better as I spent some time this weekend in between crawling around the attic and under the house running electrical cables setting up the Mac mini (for which I can now prop my feet up on the coffee table and put the keyboard in my lap) -

Compared to the Xbox media center (running XBMC which the Mini can also run) the Mini rules - it is absolutely silent (the Xbox sounds similar to a small airplane taxiing down the jetway) and runs digital video/audio out without an adaptor (well, I have to convert the DVI out to HDMI but that's an easy $8 cable solution) whereas I had to get a special connector in order to run optical audio and component video out of the Xbox.

I'll keep the Xbox for playing the old video game ROMs (like Super Mario, Tetris, Raiden and the like) Julian and I do from time to time just for a hoot but the Mini will be the new media center. It sounds awesome, too - I had to get a tiny female optical coupler to put on the end of the mini optical cable out of the Mini cos my receiver is fresh out of optical ins (using the available ones for the TV, DVD and CDR) but it works perfect. I just unplug the optical cable from the TV (plugged into the receiver) and connect it to the optical cable with the coupler attached cos I do not need both of them connected at the same time (I have to admit it took me a little bit of a configuring headache to come up with that nifty little solution after I tried figuring out how to maybe move around the components between the optical and digital coax audio ins available on the receiver).

And for video we can now stream Hulu (episodes of The Office I'll never be around to watch when they actually air) and all sorts of network TV and other stuff (in addition to the LG that already streams our Netflix). No need to ever actually, um, watch traditional TV anymore (i.e. time to cancel our $15/month über-basic cable). Sweet. And no more headaches trying to convert stupid proprietary iTunes playlist XML files to .m3u files which was giving me a total migraine. To celebrate - the first thing I tested listening to was the playlist I tried to convert a few weeks ago but from which couldn't get the XBMC to see more than one song (of the 60+ in the playlist).

And - when the living room is finished there will be white paneling like this and the walls will of course be painted a beautiful Benjamin Moore HC fairview taupe and the LG will be mounted to the wall and ...

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.

end tables.

So wandering through Target I found these end tables in the clearance section. They will match the coffee table for the most part which is just to say I think the color of the stains will match and the little drawer pulls are pretty similar. But not match in the sense as being identical like from the same living room set – lame, I don't like things to match to that extent. In the little drawer pulls I labeled one of them 'Remotes' and the other 'Magazines.' And I really did put all of the remotes in that drawer and loaded up the other with a bunch of magazines – This Old House, National Geographic, Backpacker, miscellaneous Rejuvenation/Pottery Barn/Crate & Barrel/etc. catalogs out of which I had gotten some ideas.

But anyways ... now if only I would someday get a bookshelf or two so I would not have to keep all of my books in boxes. Yeah, that would be awesome.

Oh and the book makes a great addition (if only these were a coffee table) - thanks again Dana.

living room stuff - audio/video #1.

So a month ago when Jeff was here he had to go get me started wishing I had a new TV. Now granted - there is absolutely nothing wrong with the incredible 19" CRT that currently graces my living room despite the fact it is difficult to see from the couch (I have to squint - with my contacts in - which give me 15/20 vision) and I have had it for over ten years. It still works. But Jeff was going on (OK, maybe not going on - more like mentioned) how when his ten-year-old behemoth of a rear-projection monster died he ponied up and scored a rockin' deal courtesy of newegg.com on a 50" Samsung plasma. Which got me thinking ...

And so after much searching (of my soul - cos there really is nothing wrong with that 19" beauty - and of the web) and watching prices I came across this website called todaystvdeals.com which I would highly recommend for anyone looking to buy a TV and not interested in hitting up the local Big Box. It has lots of deals and random "coupon codes" and such that only seem to last for a few days, so I got a smokin' deal on a 42" broadband-enabled LG LCD (read: stream video over our LAN from Netflix and possibly Vudu).

It's pretty. And I'm sort of stoked regardless of the fact I really do not watch all that much TV. Our Xbox Media Center will look way cooler - which I do use on a daily basis.

So anyways - that's really not the cool part of this (at least not to me, but afterall this blog is really only for me anyway). The cool part is the fact I need to find an updated audio rack for my stereo stuff. Updated because I have had the same Ikea cabinet for at least ten years, too. And no - there is nothing wrong with it, either. Well, the doors fell off a few years back but it looks perfectly fine without them. They were actually sort of in the way. But I want to hang my TV and move the stereo in between the two sets of windows in my living room.

And out of nowhere got a killer idea. Again, killer only to me I am sure but whatever.

Instead of some lame wooden stereo cabinet like everyone else has - why not go the route of a Gator road cabinet!?

That was rhetorical, by the way. Of course I am going the route of a Gator road cabinet. These things are awesome - and how even more awesome they will look in my living room as a stereo cabinet. Granted - my audio equipment is not made to be mounted in a rack like this. But that is precisely why Gator makes rack shelves. This thing is modern and retro and cool all rolled into one burly (albeit slightly expensive) package. And when my fifteen-year old stereo components finally give up the ghost - my plan is to simplify and upgrade at the same time to pro-level amps and a preamp (because that's all you really need anymore with servers and Xbox media centers and the like hosting all your music) - rack-mounted of course.

OK - I am done now.

Oh - one more thing: this means over the holiday weekend I get to crawl up in my attic and snake some wires for the surround speakers. It is about time I set up my whole surround sound system now that I will actually have a TV that can match the sound level.

More ideas.

So Friday was a good day on the idea front thanks to a forwarded link from Katie. In that single link came two really big ideas: one to solve my fireplace dilemma and another to provide me with the perfect kitchen cabinets for the real kitchen remodel in a few years.

The problem with my fireplace has always been (despite the gas insert someone installed, which I will remove and return it to just being a wood-burning fireplace because there is nothing better than the sound of crackling wood on a chilly winter evening) the fact someone painted over the bricks at the bottom part of it. And I have always wanted a brick fireplace (one of the things the house I bought had to have was a fireplace–along with a big, covered front porch and window over the kitchen sink among a few others) and I was looking at either a) somehow successfully stripping the paint off all the bricks or b) completely tearing it out and redoing it. Neither one a great prospect. But here is this idea ~

Now I realize it is not brick and I am still coming to grips with that (there could be nothing cooler than a wall of old bricks in my house–especially in my bedroom). But I could make this work with the top half of the fireplace and have a great mantel dividing the two. I could perhaps figure out a way to create a border of bricks and paint them black just like this idea (along with the inner hearth). For the outer hearth right now it is some lame ceramic tiles that were laid (but not grouted) when I signed on the dotted line. But I never grouted them because I knew I was going to rip them out. I had envisioned a nice big (it's 18" x 5') slate slab (ideally, one big piece as opposed to tiles) but I am not 100% sold on that yet.

Okay, and then for the kitchen cabinets ~

What I noticed of course right away was the moulding at the top of the cabinets. Uh, which totally matches the moulding around the windows and doors and will go with the crown moulding that I'll hang along the high ceilings (from that earlier post). I am not sold on the supports they have beneath the cabinets and probably will leave that part out because they don't fit with my style, but this was priceless. Even the lower cabinets with the baseboards are perfect. I love the bin pulls for the drawers but would have to replace the small circular cabinet knobs with these because, well, I like squares and rectangles and right angles in my designs.

And I also really dislike dark cabinetry because it's, well, too dark. And makes the whole room darker. So I would paint them (most likely) just white. Or maybe a light grey. But the point would be to have light cabinets contrasted then with a dark (maybe granite, maybe concrete–not sure yet) countertop. And stone flooring (like a dark slate).

Another thing about it that caught my eye that I'll be debating is the wainscoting. Wainscoting is super-classy so I might just be inclined to put it in my kitchen like this, reaching up the walls at least four feet (maybe more) with a dimensional stock border going around it (4" or 5" I think–like the window casing along the sides). And of course then the color of the kitchen would be a rich one that would contrast with the white wainscoting, moulding and cabinetry (not–like this picture–white!).

So anyways, a couple of really good ideas all from one post. I was excited. And thanks Katie.

fireplace idea and other moulding musings.

So a year or so ago I was wandering around downtown Olympia with a friend and we found ourselves in this tiny little bookstore with an actual decent sampling of Bungalow books (hard to find unless you are browsing around Powell's in Portland). And I found this perfect little book called Small Bungalows that was filled with a smattering of good ideas for my house and so I had to buy it. One of those ideas that I will be incorporating in my living room is this one of a fireplace ~

This will go wonderfully with this idea for paneling that I got out of some advert at a local door and trim shop ~

Which now just happens to match the pattern on the rug. Perfection.

And then finally–the idea for all of the crown moulding of my house probably starting with my bedroom once I get to that point since that will be the first 'real' completed room (the kitchen and guest bath will be torn out eventually so I did not hang this moulding up in those rooms when I updated them) ~

A piece of crown molding combined with a piece of dimensional stock (probably 4" I am thinking) and then at the bottom a piece of fillet that matches the window moulding (in the background–mine already is exactly the same which is why I loved this idea). I got it out of a painting book I think I found at the library and think it will look quite nice when finished.