Manly Task #43

Today I finished a project that has actually been a long time coming. I will also say that it has actually been four repairs over a span of two and a half years. We purchased this really great looking kids play kitchen for Avery on her 3rd birthday and unfortunately, it didn't stand the kid test. Our little structural engineer (also known as Cal) gave the kitchen a run for it's money when it first was purchased and due to this, it's first three of four breakdowns happened. The corners of the doors just would not hold up. The wood was cheep and just wasn't meant for boisterous playing. So the microwave door broke off as well as the cupboard door under the sink. Same exact type of breaks right at where the hinge attaches to the kitchen. The microwave door was repaired right away and soon after the cupboard broke and was repaired a week later. The microwave ended up breaking again on the opposite end and it was left off the play-set for about a year and a half. The cupboard door held up pretty good. Well, finally over the last two weeks I found the missing part for the microwave door and repaired it. I took the corner and gorilla glued the piece back onto the main board. Clamped it for 24 hours and then re-drilled the hinge mounts and placed a nut and bolt on the hinge instead of screws. I was very excited to have the full kitchen back again and then literally that night the sink cupboard door completely broke off while Lillian was playing with it. I knew there was no repairing it this time. At first I admitted defeat and after some prodding/peptalk from Michele decided that I was going to build a new door for the kitchen. I went to Home Depot and found a nice piece of MDF that would be perfect. I stripped down the broken door and kept all the hardware. I then cut the MDF to size and painted it (3 coats, 1 primer and 2 of some leftover paint we had from Avery and Lil's bedroom). Today after the final coat dried I drilled all the holes and remounted the new door. The color works out great with the kitchen and I think this door will hold up a bit better. Hopefully the kitchen overall will holdup for much longer.

Time: 2 days for the cupboard door, 20 minutes for the microwave door (2 years if you count since when it actually broke)

Difficulty: Medium (Woodworking involved)

Cost: MDF - $6.99, Paint (free - leftovers from other projects)

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.

Manly Task #30

My plan down in the basement was to build a really great entertainment area as part of the main wall.  I built a custom cabinet that sits behind the wall. so the A/V unites are actually sitting inside the wall instead of on a shelving unit taking up room on the floor.  Once it's completed it's going to be really great.  The spot where the shelving unit meets the drywall had a pretty large gap which i figured would happen.  I patched the gap and sanded it when the basement was finished but it never painted the area.  The twins moved in downstairs and it sat for 2 1/2 years.  I finally painted it this past week and it looks great.  I had to create a line between the black shelf and the green wall and wanted it to look like the shelving was perfectly in line with the wall.  I used masking tape and tape measure to make sure it was straight.  It turned out really nice.  I can't wait to get some major electronics in this room.

Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Nothing (touchup paint is extra from big projects)

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.

Manly Task #14

Last weekend M and I did a large overhaul of Avery and Lillian's bedroom. We are moving towards a transition of Lillian into her own room but the first phase was getting her out of her crib. We transferred Lillian to her big girl bed (Avery's old bed) and built the bottom part of the bunk for Avery which is a full sized bed.  The bunk bed was purchased several months ago on Craig's list at a really good deal but I knew it was going to need some screw tightening and refinishing to get it up to daddy standards for my little girl. We rearranged the bedroom and did a huge cleanup of toys and stuff. I really like the new room setup and the girls are really excited. Eventually I will build the top bunk and set it up but we are currently waiting on some parts to be mailed from the manufacturer. Maybe in a week or so (pictures to come as soon as it is built).

Difficulty: Easy/Medium (Bed building/repair, wall paint/hole touch up)
Cost: $100 for the bunk bed and $36 in parts.
Time: 6 to 8 hours.

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.

Manly Task #3 & 4

We have started transferring our office that is currently located in the master bedroom into the basement.  It's a slow process but it's moving.  I started to back track what needed to be done to clean out the office and realized that the drum set room closet needed to be done to make the transition a ton easier.  So I jumped into the drum studio and did some cleaning and attacked the closet.  I put the door knob on and spent a couple hours in the closet swearing, measuring, and hammering (not in any particular order).  After everything was said and done I have three huge shelves hung and level.   So here is the pict... with all my crap in there.  Manly task #3 & 4, done.

Time - 3 to 4 hours (including painting shelves last summer)
Cost - Scrap wood (free), Paint - $20
Difficulty - Medium (mounting of shelves was tricky to get them level and secure)


Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.

Manly Task #23

About 3 years ago the light bulb above the stove burnt out and I of course went to change it. Like with most jobs it should have been an easy quick switch but it didn't turn out that way. The glass of the bulb broke off and the metal part was left inside the socket (what I didn't know is that they glue the bulb so when the microwave/vent is in transport the bulb doesn't loosen up). It took some serious force using pliers and some swearing but eventually it came out. After the new bulb was installed I decided to change the other light as well since the bulb pack was a two pack and I now knew there was glue on it so lets just get it over with. So I went to change out the other bulb and it popped as I unscrewed it. I thought the light was off and I thought... hmm I must have blown a fuse since the lights didn't come on after that. I couldn't find a fuse and the lights didn't work anymore. Everything else was fine, just no lights. Come to find out, there is no fuse on the lights, there is just the circuit board and if you blow the board it costs about $160 to order a replacement. I didn't find out this last bit of information until just recently. So I felt pretty bad breaking the stove lights. You don't realize how handy lights are there until you don't have them. Recently we took a trip to Traverse City and Michele cooked and made a comment about the light above the stove and I knew I really needed to get ours fixed. I felt bad breaking it so I decided to figure it out. 

After some serious research, I decided that it wasn't cost effective for me to buy a replacement part that would cost almost as much as a new microwave/vent system. A few years back I had set up a lighting system using under the counter lights for a cool desk system we used in our apartment for my computer that closed into a large hutch. I checked into prices and I could fix our stove lighting for about $40 using these same lights and they would have 3 different brightnesses as well. The trick would be rewiring the venting system for these lights. I went to good old Home Depot and found the lighting system needed and went to work. I took apart the light system and wiring under the microwave and began to run the wiring for the new lights. The hard part was running the wiring from the plug above the microwave down into the underside of the appliance. There was just enough give between the microwave and the cupboard to drop a line. I applied a new switch next to the cupboard and the microwave on the right hand side. It is a touch sensitive metal disk. The puck lights were place in the spot where the original lights were (I had to do some cutting of the metal light cover inside to fit the round light casing but it fits like a glove now). After the wiring below was done I set up the dimmer control in the cupboard and hooked up all the wiring. Plugged it in and we now officially have lighting above the stove again. It works great!

Repair time: 3 1/2 hours (or 3 years 3 1/2 hours but who is counting)

Cost: $40 (and a broken wine glass...oops)

Difficulty: Medium

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.

Manly Task #31

Two years ago we finished our basement so that Michele's sisters could live here while they went to GVSU.  With that being said, we were in a hurry.  I spent the entire summer (with huge help from Luke) putting walls up, wiring, carpeting, plumbing, HVAC, and dealing with inspectors (blog to come soon hopefully).  The night I put on the last coat of paint was the evening before Lillian was born and the girls moved in right after that.  So there were some loose ends down there that needed to be finished.  The girls moved in and two years later have moved out and those loose ends are still down there so we are chipping away at them.

 The fusebox door was a custom cabinet door I ordered and it took about 4 months to actually get it in.  Once it was in I painted it white and brought it downstairs to mount and discovered that I didn't pick up the right kind of hinges.  I tried to use cabinet hinges and because of the small amount of space on the left side next to the wall it wasn't going to be possible.  I leaned the door against the wall and the Jess decorated around it and there it has sat for 2 years.  So today I picked up a hinge and mounted the door.

Cost: $60 custom cupboard door, $5 parts
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 15 minutes (plus a drive to the hardware store)

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.

Manly Task #1

So, I can't take credit for this one.  My list is always open to anyone willing to finish a project.  This one goes to Michele!  She put the shadowbox together a couple days ago and hung it up.  It's really cute.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Michele put together a shadowbox for Avery a couple years ago while she was pregnant with Lil.  The box contains the outfit Avery wore home from the hospital when she was born as well as some pictures and other miscellaneous things like a birth announcement.  It's really unique and I look at it every time I go into the laundry and smile.  We had hung a box for Lillian and stuck an ultrasound picture in there to tide it over until she was born with plans to do the same thing after she came home.  Lil is now two and the box has been empty (to my mother-in-laws dismay).  So Michele kicked it into high gear and put it together this past week.  I like it.  Here are some pictures.  Task #1 is in the books.

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.