fixing the bar cabinet

Over the holidays I noticed the bar cabinet door wasn't staying completely closed. I wondered if it was cold enough in the house to cause some shrinkage, but actually, the bottom shelf had too much weight on it and was sagging!

I had my post-Super Bowl Monday off, so out came the bar clamps and an extra wood screw or two.

Viola! One square cabinet again.

It felt good to be productive, even if I was fixing something that wasn't quite holding up as well as I hoped it would. I was glad to have the time at least.

The dog was a little confused but she appreciated being able to get this done with a minimum of machine noise.

Free time? Yeah, say good bye to free time.

So things have gotten kind of crazy at our house. Besides work, school, and sports, we added a puppy to the mix last week.

Meet Bear.

We were going to meet her as a family on Saturday at her shelter in South Bend, but with a storm coming in I went Thursday night by myself. Four hours round trip after work, including eating gas station breadsticks in the car, to meet her and bring her home. Worth it.

out for a 'get to know each other' walk at the shelter.

Of course, 6 inches of snow made her first weekend in the house an interesting one but things are going well.

This will probably put a snag in my project time for now, but I'm already looking forward to having a shop dog in the future. Again, I just have to find the time.

Some day soon, I will turn the girl's old dresser into a desk for her, but who knows when. Actually, I know when. It better be before she starts kindergarten in the fall. Until then, I might not have much time for DIY'ing.

YT-1300 Corellian light freighter

My phone died last week, so I was looking for a way to keep occupied in the evenings. I came across the metal earth model kits the in-laws got me last Christmas that for whatever reason I just hadn't found time to work on yet. This seemed like as good a time as any.

So no phone meant no build shots, but I have plenty of finished shots once I finally got my new phone and had a camera to play with.

Some of these pieces were crazy small! I wish I had build shots just to document how insane some of these were.

I've build major pieces of furniture, and parts of this were driving me crazy. I guess my beefy hands are better suited for rougher work.

But in the end it doesn't look too bad.

Here's a butt shot. The struts those landing feet are on were insanely tiny. That was probably the hardest part of the build.

With this one done, I also have a batmobile and Iron Man set to maybe build. We'll see. And in bigger news, I'd like to build the girl a desk at some point. I better get crackin' while I have some time before my next classes start.