It’s about time! LEDs have finally broken the 100 watt light bulb nostalgia barrier. The lights over the workbench are, quite literally, brighter than the sun. You can see shadows in sunlight coming in the window. I said, “Blinding, brilliant, glossy, high-tech lab white”. Six gallons of Velspar Base 2 later, that has been achieved.Continue reading “No More 100 Watt Nostalgia”
Category Archives: Rapid City
Restoration
The garage project was patching the crumbling brick near the floor on one wall. It was half tuck-pointing, half stuccoing. Quickcrete sells (via Knecht Ace [corporate really needs to work on that site]) handy little buckets of mortar. Since I didn’t expect to be mortaring ever again, all my equipment is in the Denver landfill,Continue reading “Restoration”
Unit Alpha – Garage 1
The Laird decided upon the “Unit Alpha” terminology. I agree that it is much superior to “Apt. A” or “Unit A”. Due to the lack of contractor availability, I’m playing contractor, yet again. I decided to start with the garage – how hard can that be, right? Let’s start with the tennis ball. It’s importantContinue reading “Unit Alpha – Garage 1”
Size Matters
With all the useless documents involved in buying and selling real-estate, why isn’t a basic floor plan required? I spent the weekend measuring and drawing. I’ve realized that my orientation is very relative (e.g. left/right) not absolute (e.g. north/south). The lot plan is north-up by accident. I started with the back of the house, whichContinue reading “Size Matters”
Hot Tub Saga Begins
We got a hot tub, sort of. We put down a deposit on a hot tub. We have the size (84×84) so we can get a pad poured. We have the electrical requirements (220×60) so we can get that upgraded. Alek at Splash City (no link because they don’t seem to have a web presence,Continue reading “Hot Tub Saga Begins”
Kudos: Little Print Shop
This is a couple of days late, but a big “thank you” to The Little Print Shop for the “we’ve moved” cards. They turned out great. Most of them have been mailed, hence the Write The F’ing Manual post a couple of days ago. I always seem to drastically over-order. Hint for next time: It’sContinue reading “Kudos: Little Print Shop”
Kitchen Elevations
I drew these at twice (half?) the scale so I could get better precision. It didn’t really help; this is still definitely NOT a blueprint. I’ve reduced them to share here. The shapes are made for floor plans, not elevations; that’s why they look so strange. That and the exhaust fan is actually a CRTContinue reading “Kitchen Elevations”
Kitchen Remodel
A blog is an odd place to keep track of this sort thing, but it needs to be written down somewhere and I can share this for feedback. Here’s what we’re starting with: That is more-or-less to scale with one big diagrams.net (formerly known as drawio) grid squares being a square foot and the resolutionContinue reading “Kitchen Remodel”
Gas, Electricity, and Groundhogs
A guy from the gas company came over today to turn on the meters. I’m not sure what that means, exactly, since the hot water is hot and presumably the people renting over the winter had working furnaces, but it is now in our name. Meta-Update: Mike’s name. I handled the bills in Denver forContinue reading “Gas, Electricity, and Groundhogs”
Grandma’s Bowls – Back in Rapid City
Seems as good a place to post the update as any other… Grandma’s Bowls are back in Rapid City – along with us, of course. The two that have seedlings in them in the picture at the linked post had full grown, harvestable dill and parsley in them before we left Denver. However, I hadContinue reading “Grandma’s Bowls – Back in Rapid City”
Marked Up 