Apr 20
Billprojects beds, Garden, landscape timber, raised
Spring is hitting in full force, and pretty early to boot. For the past few years my lady has requested raised beds for growing veggies. I kept putting it off and putting it off until I decided that this year would be there.
I stole the design from my buddy Rob, who put in 3 raised beds at his old house in the past few years. They looked great with the landscaping timbers, versus using boards. I went to Home Depot and purchased 20. They timbers are normally 4 bucks a pope, but they were on sale for 2 bucks. (Bonus!) I bought a box of 6 inch nails and came home.
The plan was for one large 4 foot by 6 foot box, and whatever scrap I had left I’d turn into something else. I cut down timbers to the shape I wanted and put them on the ground for placement. After deciding on a spot that would get adequate sun, I dug up the entire area. My yard is pretty uneven, so I wanted to make sure that the box was level. I removed all the grass and dug in accordingly. I laid out the foundation in the dug up frame and used my level to make proper adjustments till everything was just right. Construction was simple. Cut the beams, and place them, log cabin style, and to secure them I used 1 six inch nail at each end.
At the end of the first box I had enough material left to make a 2 by 4 box, so I put it together the next day by the fence. The 2 by 4 box will be an experiment for me. I’m not sure what I want to put in there, but maybe some super hot peppers, or maybe something simple like pumpkins.
We have yet to get soil. If the weather holds out for the weekend, I will probably do that tomorrow morning. I did layer sand at the bottom of the first box. I had about 200 lbs of sand left over from my turtle egg box (I had a turtle, she laid eggs a lot so I filled a gigantic rubbermaid box full of sand so I wouldn’t have to spend 4 hours outside with her every week all spring). The sand will retain moisture, as well as aid in drainage.
I will take final pics when our gardens are planted, but till then, here’s a pic of the current set up after the cut.
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Mar 13
Billprojects cabling, entertainment center
See that? That’s the wrong f’n way to run cable. There’s a back story too it. I was in a super hurry to get this job done. I woke up at 5 AM that morning to paint the room, put together my new TV stand, and get everything hooked up and ready before people were coming over around 7. Not my best planning, and because of that I did some shoddy work. For some reason I was real paranoid about making a hole in my wall. I had made and patched holes before, but with all the painting I’d already done that day, taking a chance on screwing that up didn’t seem worth it. Those wires are for my rear speakers, cable, and an ethernet line. I thought about putting a giant plate on the wall with ports for the speakers, a cable jack, and an ethernet jack, but that seemed unnecessary. I just wanted something to look better and contain the cables.
This left me with one option. The face plate hole. This is how it ended up on the right. Overall making the hole into the wall wasn’t such a big deal. Like most houses as old as mine, the walls at one point had been plaster. Some pieces of the plaster were still in there mixed in with the installation. Cutting through the drywall I also ran into wood slats. I cut through those with a saw. I actually made the initial incision into the wall with my “prison knife”. I need to buy a small drywall saw in the future if I plan to do this again. I used a thick metal wire and I fed it down into the basement below. I taped on my cables and pulled them up. No snags. Very easy. I need to eventually purchase a wire crimper, so I can cut and crimp coax, and ethernet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, wireless, but I still trust a wired connection over a wireless one any day. The face plate, and the underlying plate frame were purchased online at monoprice.com, my favorite source for wiring and cables. After I made this mess, I used it as an opportunity to redo the cabling of my entertainment center. It is now much less of a mess, and probably less of a fire hazard too. Everything is run through cable management on the back of the unit, so it’s mostly invisible to someone sitting on the couch. That was the main part of the project, other than just going back and doing something I did wrong “right”.
Feb 29
Billprojects coat pegs, shelf, wall shelf
This is my current project. A simple shelf with coat pegs. Time permitting, I’ve been working on this for a half hour or so a week for the past few weeks. Nothing fancy. Did some routing along the edges of the sides. The top is left over pine, everything else is a from a left over slab of poplar. This is before sanding. I’ll probably do that next week. I just wanted to have something to post.
Jan 16
Billprojects coffin, Coffin table, table
As an update to the coffin table, I wanted to show you all its final resting place. This is the living room of the couple that commissioned it. I’m pretty happy how it came out. It also fits right in with their decor.
Jan 16
Billprojects dog, dog proof, proof, simplehuman, trash can
We recently got a couple of dogs. They’re 3 years old rescues. Overall the experience has been really great, but dogs also have a tendency to cause mischief here and there. One source of frustration for us was them getting in the trash. Fair enough, I’ll go out and buy a “dog proof” trashcan and be done with it. I picked one up by Simple Human, and it had a simple latch on the top. It was 40 bucks. Pretty expensive for a injection molded trash can with a latch, but whatever, if it works it will be worth it. It lasted 3 days before they broke through its defenses. The problem was they could knock it over, and then put pressure on the barrel and the top will open. I have to wonder if it was a plot by both, where one would lay across the top, while the other would pull the lid off. Suffice to say I was ticked I wasted 40 bucks, but I was determined to make it work. I had some left over hooks and eyes in my misc. parts box so I came up with this design. I screwed the piece of wood into the wall, and attached the eyes to the back of the trash can. I drilled a pilot hole and just screwed them in. I then attached the hooks to the wood on the wall, and voila, they haven’t been able to pull it over. Of course if you don’t latch the top, they can still get in and pull stuff out, but other than human error, my solution has worked pretty well. The only bad part is that the bag hangs over the edge, and they tend to chew at it and rip it apart. I’m content with that, as cleaning up a few small pieces of plastic is much better than coming home to trash spread through out the kitchen.
I also know I haven’t posted in 6 months. It’s been a wild ride, and the budget has been tight, but the ideas are still there. I just made some modifications to my workspace in the basement. I have a ton of projects on deck, I just need to get my time and finances in order. I plan on being productive this year, but maybe a little less intense than last year. I don’t want to burn myself out in 6 months again.
Jun 05
Billprojects Coffin table
There she is with her final coat of paint.
Now I can finally move on to the next project.
Mar 22
Billprojects frankenproject, table
Remember ages ago when I made that random table top out of scrap wood? Well, I finally got around to using it.
Mar 21
Billshelves
I like shelves. I have a ton of crap, and that crap needs to be organized and displayed, and what better way to do so than with shelves. I’ve made a ton of shelving units in the last year, from small shelves, to more ornate shelves, to shelves for DVD’s, and little shelves for my monitors. It’s an easy project, yet satisfying because they are instantly functional and something that’s typically always out on display for everyone. I guess the easiest way to explain this one is a before and after shot of where these went.
On the left, the before. The little shelf box in there was actually something I made in woodshop in high school in the mid 90′s. I didn’t have any place else for it when I moved in here, so I put them up there. I think the most interesting thing between the shots is that the second one has the same amount of stuff in it, but since its better spread out, it looks like I have a ton more room. Originally I wanted them to be snug fit into the cubby, but the walls are really uneven and I couldn’t get it right, so I eventually cut them down to settle into it like they do. I also have a whole lot more comic books that can go up there to fill up some of that space. They’re not the most complex things in the world, but a good example of how something simple can make a big organizational difference.
Mar 20
Billhome improvement, projects dresser
I’ve had this dresser my entire life. My earliest childhood memories revolve around it, and I don’t know if I ever had anything else. I’m not sure where my parents got it for me. I figured I probably inherited from someone, as even when I was little it already seemed like it was kinda old.
The big issue as of late are the drawer pulls. After 30+ years of me tugging on them, the two big ones in the large drawer snapped in half. It looked crappy, and I couldn’t find a way to fix them. They were made out of a relatively cheap metal, and were thin in some parts, and that thin part is where they snapped. I tried to glue them, I tried to even solder them, and nothing worked. For the last month and a half or so after the second one on the big drawer snapped off, I was using my pocket knife to pry open the drawer. I searched extensively on the Internet for something similar to what I already have. I came to two conclusions, one, that those drawer pulls were long gone, and two, the length between the holes was way outside of any current standard. The length between them was 5 and a half inches. Googling for drawer pulls, I never found anything big enough. Correction, I did find one, but they were expensive and ugly.
I figured the easiest thing to do would be to just drill new holes and put modern pulls on. I went out and bout 4 handles, and the knob to match. I also bought a drawer pull drill jig that helped me mark and line up the holes appropriately. It wasn’t rocket science by any means, but the new pulls cover up the old holes for the most part and look pretty nice too. And no more pocket knife to open my drawer. I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of the thing, and the more I can do to keep it in good shape, maybe if I ever have any wiener kids I can pass it down to them.
Mar 20
Billhome improvement bathroom, light fixture
I’m a week late, I know, but the work week is super busy since I got my new job. Last weekend I was able to get a lot done around the house. So I thought I’d share some of that.
The first thing I decided to tackle was replacing the fan/light combo in the upstairs bathroom. As you can see from the pic, it looks like it sucked up a rat. Years of dust and moisture coated the entire inside with fuzzy dust. I’ve tried cleaning it before, but it still rattles and really has no power.
The first challenge was getting it out of there. I didn’t know it was connected to and I couldn’t see any screws in the side securing it to anything. I pried around the edge trying to see in there, but I was afraid of screwing up the surrounding drywall. After removing the fan assembly and disconnecting the wires, I still couldn’t see how the damn thing was hanging in there. With that, I did the only logical thing I could thing of: beat the ever loving crap out of it. I started by punching it upwards, hoping to kick it back into the roof. I had some progress, but eventually it started taking a toll on my fist. I then used a hammer and after a half hour battle I knocked it up in there and could see how it was supported. It had expandable supports coming out of it and attached to a joist on one side. This thing had to be installed before they closed up the ceiling, because there was no way it could have been done from below.
Eventually I got it out of there. 
and was able to pull it down through. I got the wires fully disconnected and started figuring out how I’d get the new one in. Interestingly enough the new one is pretty much exactly the same as the old one. I googled the model number of the original and the website for the current manufacturer kept coming up. I wonder if there was a buy out at some point. Anyway, getting the new one in didn’t take any major effort. I used a scrap board and nailed it to the closest joist to have something immediate for the fixture to connect to. I connected the wiring, shoved it up there, screwed it in to the joist and boom, done. I attached the light element to it, and ran downstairs to flick the power back on, and it worked.
The biggest challenge for this fixture was the unknown of how it was connected. That’s actually been the biggest challenge of most of my light fixture replacements. I’m never quite sure what I’m going to find when I take something apart. Especially since my house is 130 years old. The only thing kinda interesting that I found in that section of the ceiling was a random piece of PVC pipe that they cut off and left up there. Probably when they were running the fan exhaust line. Overall this was a fairly easy job, and hopefully I won’t have to worry about replacing it again for great long while.
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Spring is hitting in full force, and pretty early to boot. For the past few years my lady has requested raised beds for growing veggies. I kept putting it off and putting it off until I decided that this year would be there.
