Projects

I've got a few projects that I've done, or am working on.

The Studebaker came with a ring of keys, but that was all. It has a hidden release for the shaved handled door. My dad had some sort of fob with the mechanism to release it, but I have no idea what became of it. It wasn't hard to make up a design of my own to replace it, but I had to have something worthy.

I bought some cherry wood sheets and fashioned it into a new generation 512 key chain, with the requisite mechanism contained therein. Sanded it down to buttery smooth, and I've quite pleased with the result!!!

On the subject of key chains, several years ago the younger came up with his alter ego character, Catnip. When I was doing CAD design, I took a few moments and came up with a couple of designs for a Catnip key chain. Back around that time, one of his friends was taking classes for CAD design and machining, and I sent him the file hoping he would have the machine time to whip one out, but that didn't happen. If I get back into the game, maybe I'll get a chance to do it myself.

Back a little before Christmas, he had made mention that he was interested in getting a wood Catnip medallion made up. It would have been cool to have made it up and had it ready before Christmas came around, but that didn't happen. I'd started in on it, but it wasn't ready for prime time yet. In both of the pictures I've got of it here, it's on the jig saw that my dad had gotten from somewhere and didn't have a place for or a use for, so he had given it to me. I've done a few things on it, and I did a lot of the medallion on it.

When I was drilling the eye or string holes (I'm pretty sure it was one of the string holes) it split down the length of the left side. I used some wood glue to put it back together, and it came out pretty good. I can still see where the break was. Bought a length of leather string and set it up on it. Kind of looks like he's got a headband on with the leather string!!! I was pleased with the way it came out (other than the break) and the younger likes it.

It's been more than 10 years since I had the windows replaced by the most incompetent and crooked contractors shysters I've ever done business with, YYB Construction, and I'm still cleaning up the mess they left!!! They always say you'll save so much money with double pane windows, but I haven't seen it. They are better than what we had, but not so much on the savings. Oh, and naturally the rat bastards never made with the actual window price information so that they could be deducted from our taxes. The window frames were left a mess, as you see.

They had been behind some light blue curtains, so they were largely out of sight, but I knew the shoddy condition behind them and have wanted to fix them up for a while. That's been another project that's still in the works. So far I've finished the two in the corner where I had my work desk, and they came out excellent!!! The two behind the couch are still in process, and their location behind the couch makes it a bit more difficult!!!

We have 5 panel doors in several of the rooms, and I've painted the transitions around the panels and the door frames in different colors for various rooms. The bathroom is black, the kitchen is green, and the front room is orange. If I get to it, I'll probably do the bedroom purple and the laundry room yellow. The doors have been used as the backdrops for a few of my shirt posts, as well as the costume the younger had on the most recent Halloween. The frames of the windows are also to be painted to match. The orange had been a quart that my parents had left over from some project, and the original paint had gone over, so I had to pick up another quart.

Oh yea, don't know if I ever made mention, but I bought a window mount air conditioner years ago, and took one of the sliding window panes out and added plywood sheet with a 12” x 24” Plexiglas window (the largest size my previous employer carried) installed. In the upper portion I put in an electrical junction box with a motion detector light over the outside stairs. This may be the first picture I've posted of it!!! I've been thinking for a while of getting a mini split air conditioner system installed, and if I do, I'll have to find a new way to mount the motion detector light.

I'm really happy with the way the two that are completed came out!!! It will be nice when the other two are done. I'm also thinking of doing an accent wall on the wall with the heater and TV on it. I plan on using the same orange, but starting at the top with the full color, and fading it lighter as it goes down. That wall has been splotchily repainted when the crap improvements were going on.

The final touch, my wife found some curtains that go nicely with the color. I repainted the curtain rods black to match the rings, and it came together really nicely!!!