So long 2017

Yeah, turns out even a holiday week is not enough time for me to wrap up a big project. Not having time off of work didn't really help though, so I don't feel too bad. Still, I'm happy with where things are at. If I don't look too closely at the glued up desktop things looked pretty good. But I need something I can set a PC on and work off of without noticing bumps or rough sections, so there's a lot of finishing work to be done here.

I can move it all as one big piece, so that's probably a good sign.

Which is why I picked up the power planer. My in-laws did something very nice for me the other week; on top of a pizza steel for Christmas they also bought me a saw as a "thank you" for helping with the kitchen over the summer. Unfortunately, they bought me a saw I already had, which is how I ended up with a $98 store credit at HD. After some internal debate, I ended up realizing a hand plane would really help if I wanted to try a desktop build, but store credit can't be used online, and they don't have any hand planes in store anymore. So I went with the power option, which was cheaper so I could grab some extra clamps to help with this too. Not my first choice, but it turned out to be a real time saver. Some of those glue joints were WAY off.

Hooray, new tool un-boxing.

Like anything other project, I want things to look as nice as possible, but I also realize I don't know what I'm doing so I'm used to fixing mistakes. The planer was really easy to figure out though, and as much of a pain it was to constantly have to empty the collection bag, it did a good job cleaning up some of the bigger bumps. My block plane was enough to really clean things up, plus get rid of some mistakes I made with the power tool, and after an hour or so the first side was looking good. 

If you squint it looks pretty good.

Quite a collection of shavings.

The other side went pretty much the same way, and after sanding that side too I was feeling pretty good about where I was at. When I flipped things over to sand what I considered the top, I realized some of my gaps probably had to get filled just to make things a little more presentable. So after one more trip to the store, the gaps were filled and I was waiting to sand again. 

Whoops. Thankfully nothing like this to fix in the middle of the block.

The more I filled the more I found to fix.

Wood filler dried, things are looking pretty good at this point. It might not be counter top quality butcher block, but for $30 in materials I'm thinking I've got a nice desk coming together.

I was thinking about how to finish this, and at this point I'm kind of stumped. I've got some natural stain and enough poly left that would probably work, but the idea of spending night after night getting this finished doesn't really appeal to me right now. At least not as much as having a few drinks and saying goodbye to this weird, strange year.

Rough one

Whew! First interview in a while was a rough one! Good thing I have some of my buddies from Munich by way of La Crosse waiting for me at home. I think I'll go paint a while.

It's a palomojito, I guess?

After a 12 hour day at work yesterday, but before going back to work Saturday morning, I thought I'd come home and spend a pleasant night drinking and enjoying some family time. I was planning on having a few mojitos, since I could have a couple and not wake up feeling horrible on the way into work tomorrow. Unfortunately I was an ingredient short; my club soda supply was non existent.

However, I did have some grapefruit-focused soda around, and since I really wanted a (more than one) drink, I thought I'd give it a try. It wasn't half bad, and would definitely do in a pinch. I make home mojitos a little off recipe anyway, so tossing in some different soda isn't really that much of a departure for me.

Here's my usual recipe:

-One healthy scoop of sugar. Refined if we've got it, if not regular is good.
-Half a lime, halved again. If they're big limes I use whatever ratio gets me the same size.
-Handful of mint leaves. My plant looks really good right now, so it's all good.
-Two jiggers of rum. Yes, jiggers. I don't know how much this really is.

The mint looks really good right now. 

Start with the sugar, and squeeze the lime bits over it. Drop the rest of the lime in, and add the mint. Give it a good muddle, really getting the lime busted up. I use a single-drink shaker since it's tin and can stand up to it. Add the rum, and if it hasn't been in the freezer it never hurts to add an ice cube or two either. At this point, you can add extras if you're going for other flavors. This is when I typically add coconut. And yes, since I use a shaker I give everything a good couple shakes. I like it frothy.

Dump everything in your vessel of choice, and top it off with the appropriate amount of club soda. If you've got it. Which I did not. But other soda ended up working fine. B/c the kids are in bed and I'm on my third one of these tonite, so mission accomplished.

Tomorrow at work should be fun. This recipe is not perfect; it's a good mix of practical technique and short cuts, but still close enough to a mojito recipe I feel alright calling it that. It took a lot of trial and error to get it to something simple enough to replicate each time but complex enough to be close in flavor profile to solve a craving. But even with club soda it still doesn't quite capture the pure awesomeness that is well-made bar mojitos. Adding different soda took it a step further away from that but these are definitely still palatable. Maybe it I have some tequila around next time I'll toss that in too.

As soon as I get home tonite...

As a quick aside...

“You can never have too many bottle openers” is one of the many mottos I live by. I have a few I’m ridiculously sentimental about: the waiter’s friend my college roommate’s dad gave everyone when we graduated, the card opener I’ve had in my wallet for a decade and never leave home without, the one with the ad for a random Japanese beer from the weird karaoke place we used to frequent in the city. There are always a few scattered around whenever we have people over just in case. And now we have a permanent one outside and I love it. 

Way back when we moved into the new house, I wanted to change the locks on the front and garage doors. This is partly b/c that’s just the sort of thing you do when you move somewhere, but also b/c you couldn’t open the front door using the outside handle and that seems like it would be important. 

So I ordered some matching sets online and when I did this bottle opener and cap catch set came up as “people also purchased.”

“Sure,” I thought. “Why not? We’ll use it somewhere.” Damn you Amazon, your algorithm works again.

It took a while, but I eventually figured out how to put it up in a spot where it would be most useful, outside next to the grill. I just so happened to have a scrap board that fit between the railing slats, and using some scrap wood and kreg screws it fits just fine. It’s gotten quite a workout this summer with all the guests we’ve been having so score one more for having mottos to live by.

I’m not taking this down to take pictures of how it got secured, so you’ll have to use your imagination. But I had some scraps from trimming the 2x10 boards that I kregged to the inside of two railing posts as supports. With those on, I stained the board I was putting the opener on and attached it to the supports. Then it was as easy as putting the opener and catch on, and we’re ready to go. Leaving the screw exposed makes it look sloppy but it opens beers fine and that’s all I was really going for. Sometimes it’s alright to focus on function over form. 

First times for everything

Holy schnikes that was a shit-ton of work. So close to being done though. So close.

Quick shot of a first coat. So many damn corners.

I didn’t follow my own advice on not going cheap on tools but I don’t think it hurt the final product. Or rather, I don’t think getting better tools would have made things much better. 

More first coat, more corners.

Walmart had a finishing kit with a mud trough, 10-inch blade, and a 6-inch blade all for $10, which made me feel better about getting a corner tool and fancier corner beads with paper from HD. I never thought I would be shopping at Walmart so regularly, but these things happen in the burbs I guess. Considering just a trough would have cost more at HD I feel like this was a win (well, a win in that anything involving a purchase at a store you’ve been increasingly dubious about due to statements/political affiliations of leadership…basically I feel like I can’t shop anywhere these days). 

Second coat done, looking alright.

Anyway, it’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools and I don’t think the quality of what I bought would have made much of a difference in the final product. The paper-covered corners seemed easier than normal tin corners at least. It’s not a perfect job, but I think it looks pretty good and it’s nearly ready for some primer. Things went surprisingly quickly too; taping everything made the initial coat go a little slower, but once that was dry the second coat basically took a day, and I’ve been getting third coats done in the evening so far. I keep seeing little things I need to fix too, but since we’re on a dead-line at some point I just have to accept it’s not going to be perfect and move on.

More second coat. Yes, I think that will do, minus the bit at the ceiling.

This is where my motivation starts to dip. So far, everything on this project has been a first. I’ve never hung drywall, never taped or mudded it. It was fun to try something new, especially with it seemingly going well and quickly. I’ve painted before, so I’m not really looking forward to the steps remaining. Add to that the sheer enormity of options available to finish a project with and I start to wish I was just done already. Pick a paint color, a trim, might as well pick a grain of sand from the beach. So many out there.

Well, maybe not so many. I’m hoping to use trim to hide the joints at the floor and ceiling, so that means pretty large pieces for the most part. I want to go simple and affordable, so that narrows it down more. There are some foam options that sound pretty good, we’ll see what we end up with.

Who knows, maybe using a bucket grid will be enough of a difference that priming goes okay. I might say I’m not looking forward to painting but I find myself antsy to get started as I sit here writing this. With so much work behind me on this why not get excited about starting a next step, even if it is something that I’m not always fond of.

Ice emergency, I hadn't refilled my big cubes!

This is usually when I say something about “let’s get to work” to try and stay motivated, but instead I’m going to say “let’s have a drink and savor reaching this point of the project” b/c that’s sure as shit what I did. I mixed a few mojitos with mint we’re growing on the deck, and when the rum was gone I moved on to old fashions with the fantastic rye the wife got me for my birthday. Throw in a wedge one of the oranges we constantly have on-hand and viola, cocktail time. Nice.