Fixing a settlement crack

At least I HOPE that’s a settlement crack, and not something major. 

Yikes.

We have a huge crack on the ceiling in our living room. Not huge as in deep, but huge as in long and running along an obvious seam between panels that was hastily patched by the previous owners so it didn’t look terrible during showings. At least I don’t recall seeing a HUGE crack on the ceiling while we were at showings or walkthroughs. But not long after we moved in it started creeping across the ceiling. Eight months later and there are whole sections of the paper coming off. I’m hopeful this is just a bad job vs a serious structural issue. Let’s patch it and see what happens. 

First step, knocking all this down. Man I am tired of having to clean up drywall mess.

Jeez those are big chunks of tape.

Initially I was thinking mesh tape, but as it turns out that was mesh tape coming off anyway, so why not try some of the tons of paper tape I’ve got left over. Maybe I’ll do a better job mudding than the last guy and this will be fine. Based on the bubbles I’ve already got to cut out, probably not. Still looks better than a huge crack though, even though that leads to a new step of cutting out the bubbles. 

Rough patch, bubbles, miss-matched color, still looks better than a crack.

Finishing this is going to have to wait until I have more time, but hopefully an extra coat and prime isn’t impossible to fit in. Then I’ll see about matching the patch to the rest of the ceiling. For now, I’ll be satisfied with not looking at an unsightly gash in our ceiling once I figure out exactly when I’m going to be fixing this, then patching the one that crept across the other opening there.

I need a "gore" warning

B/c I left a recent grilling experiment a little bloody. This might not fit the typical fare I usually post here but it's enough of a "try something new and see what happens" post I thought it would work.

The kids have been hitting the library a lot this summer and it’s been great. I’ve picked up a few things too, and I noticed that "tri-tip" was all over a pair of grilling cookbooks I brought home last weekend.

I had never even heard of that cut, but apparently it’s a long-time staple of bbq around Santa Maria, grilled up with a spice marinade on and sliced up for sandwiches. Hey, I’m up for anything. Let’s give it a shot.

So after a few trips to local grocers I finally found someone behind the meat counter that knew what I was talking about, and I was bringing home a little over two pounds of decent looking meat. I should have taken a picture but I was excited to put that thing on the grill.

A quick aside; I will admit I don’t miss living in the city as much as I thought I would. But having to go to three different shops before I found someone that didn’t look at me like I was crazy for asking for a cut of meat they didn’t have was one of those moments. I couldn’t find a butcher shop to go to so I was at the mercy of the suburbs. But hey, it worked out.

The simple plan: coat this thing in seasoning and char it, then leave it on in-direct heat for around ½ an hour or so. Slice and serve for sandwiches.

Viola.

That's a little more graphic than I usually like my photos. I am not a food blogger.

It was delicious. I used “Chicago” style weber seasoning, which complimented the tri tip like a champ. It was just about perfectly cooked for me, the wife could have maybe used a few more chunks tending more toward medium. But no real complaints, just big sandwiches for all involved with a handful of raw onion on top with a brioche bun, I’m drooling again just writing about it. More meals like that please.

Do a project and try to win some tools? Sold (although I better win at this point).

I don’t think I needed to be too worried about a normal work schedule slowing down my project time at home. Not even a week in and I’m running home to build some shelves I saw online to try and win some tools. I have no expectations on winning, but the excuse to build something else was too good to pass up (although you’ll read why I wish I had at the bottom. Ooooooooooooo, ominous).

BTW, I love Ana White’s site, I go there all the time. Every time I’ve made something inspired by her site I’ve changed it either by accident or design, but it’s full of great ideas. So good.

So anyway, build shelves to enter a contest. I can do that. And they seem like something that would spruce up our downstairs bathroom too. The wife’s onboard so let’s roll.

Before I’m even done buying supplies for this I’ve made changes to the plan, figuring it’s easier to buy one 6 foot 1x10 and chop that to different shelf sizes. Add a pair of 2x3’s and 1x3’s and we’re ready to roll. Have I mentioned how much more I like buying lumber for inside projects versus outside?

Angles

Shelf building

Attaching

Staining. My god the shop is a mess right now. Dealing with molding and trim has really caused a lot of chaos.

 

Ta-da! An afternoon’s worth of building, a few days’ worth of letting stain dry, and we’re done. For a bathroom that doesn’t see much use that might work. It does seem a little dark though.   

Unfortunately, needing to slam on the brakes as I was leaving HD with materials for this ended up sending a 1x3 into the touchscreen on the dash, shattering it. Thank you, asshat cutting through lanes in the parking lot. So now I have a very expensive car-related DIY to attempt in the future and winning this contest is about the only thing that will make these shelves worth it. I’m trying to think of what I could have done lately to earn this kind of karma but I’m not really coming up with anything. Oh well. This is me taking a deep breath and accepting that sometimes things just pile up on each other.

Purchase list:
1 1x10 6 ft common board
2 2x3 8 ft stud
2 1x3 6 ft select pine

scrap wood stool

This was a fun build from a few days ago.

I could not be happier with how much the kids love playing in the sandbox. It gets them outside, they use their imaginations, and it does us good to do the same. But I’m old, and my body can’t sit there forever with them. Especially if they’re out there after I’ve spent the morning mowing or adding a fence gate or drywalling or god only knows what other kind of physical labor. Thankfully, I have tons of scrap wood sitting around after all these builds and some of it was the perfect size to try and put a stool together to leave outside.

That looks like the start of something at least

This really seemed to come together quickly thanks to necessity. One minute I was in the garage looking for something else, the next I had a flash of inspiration and was slapping this together. Even had my phone in my pocket to snap a few pics real quick. Chopping a spare board, a quick 10 degree trim on the miter, trimming the back legs to length, sanding the corners down, and that’s it. Easy.

I can sit on it, so it's done.

The seat could have used some additional shaping but (butt?) it’s sturdy and that’s all it really needs to be. Doesn’t add much to the ‘pretty’ side of the equation but it can support my 220 lbs when I need it to. Using scrap from other projects means the only cost to this stool was time, and it was well worth it. That’s my kind of project.  

Boo, 5 day work weeks

I’ve been able to mix some posts on smaller stuff in lately now that the basement has rounded into shape, but I’m not sure how much that’s going to continue now that summer is wrapping up and I’m back on (gasp) five-day work weeks this week. Cry me a river.

Part of me wants to joke about the reason to have a shop is to have someplace to be away from the family during free time, but honestly that’s not really my thing. Three-day weekends all summer are just too perfect for really getting to work on something, and I hate losing that extra time. Case in point: I snuck in some baseboard caulking to try and get things done on Sunday while the kids were napping. Made some progress but had to cut it short when everyone woke up and wanted to go to the park. Gotta do that kind of thing when you can.

The killer is I still had so many more things I wanted to get done. There just weren't enough days with space open, and I realize it's always going to be that way. One big project in the basement just ate up a lot of my free time this summer. At least it got done without taking too much away from my family time, or at least close enough to meet my definition of “finished” with some caulking still left. 

But are we really ever finished? I have to add some quarter rounds to the baseboard to fill some gaps where the flooring stops short of the wall. The wife has some ideas about trying a spray texture. But there's always something else too; I noticed a rainy July really did a number on my gorgeous patio table, so a re-finishing project just got bumped a little higher on the “to-do” list for fall. Always something else to work on, the trick now is finding the time to do it.

HO-LEE COW!

Sorry about the yelling but it’s kind of warranted. 

I was googling our address to try to find a good picture of the front of the house to look at how the house numbers are set up right now (writing that down just struck me as very strange; I can find literally anything as long as I’m comfortable sharing it with google). I found something even better.

A bunch of the recent listing photos came up, but so did a picture that matches the color scheme you see if you get the google earth view of the address. It’s probably from when the previous owner bought from whomever he bought from. Well of course I’m going to click on that.

Yup, that's our basement two owners removed.

Wow. Just, wow. I like those chairs though.

I know I've mentioned how I kind of wondered what the previous owner was thinking with some of his design choices, but seeing the rest of the house I actually have to give him some credit. There were some pretty awful colors and tile in those photos. Without shots of the rest of the house it doesn't make sense to put the others up too, but that basement one just takes the cake. That’s a pretty big progression, from that, to what we moved into, to what it is now. Just crazy.

As a reminder, here it is after we moved in...

And here it is now.

The seller’s realtor tried to describe the house as it was when her client first bought it but I don’t think she quite did it justice. Jeez. FYI, I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since we sold and started looking. I see potential even under these old photos, but I’m not sure if that’s how much I like the house now biasing me or not.