When I was in the 3rd grade, I mostly rode the bus, but sometimes my mother (or another mother in the neighborhood) would drive us to school. One of these other mothers always played the tape Greatest Hits by Air Supply in her car. During those rides to school I didn’t just listen to this music - I became affected by it. I felt listening to these songs increased my capacity for love and heartbreak beyond that of any other 3rd grader. I knew that I could become “Lost in Love”, that I had the ability to “Make Love out of Nothing At All” even if I was “All out of Love”. I understood that “Even the Nights are Better” more than any 8 ½ year old on the planet could ever hope to know. However, these qualities were well masked by a love of Star Wars, Tigers baseball, G.I. Joe, LEGOs, Punky Brewster and the A-Team.

When I didn’t get a ride to school, I usually sat near a particular girl. Not always sharing the same seat with her, but at least sitting in a seat adjacent to hers. We would chat quite a bit, but I can’t remember what we discussed. Most likely it was combination of homework, teachers and the topics mentioned previously. This was the closest I came to having a girlfriend until I was 18 or 19.

There was a new girl in my 3rd grade class. Immediately she was the prettiest girl in the class. I remember a classmate on the bus telling me that she would someday be his girlfriend. Years later he ended up marrying her younger sister. His mother drove the Air Supply car.

I'm not sure if that's fate or irony.

Leaky Faucet

Just a quick post about a leaky bathtub faucet...

The faucet in our master bath was dripping so we replaced the seals and springs. This didn't work because I bought a kit for a two-handle faucet (ours is a single-handle faucet). We went back to the hardware store and bought the correct seals and springs, but that still didn't fix the leak. Fortunately when we were at the hardware store we also bought the replacement cartridge and that did stop the leak. Unfortunately, the kit only cost about $3 and the replacement cartridge cost about $40.

I found this very helpful website that we used as a reference by googling "delta tub faucet repair":

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/plumbing/bathtub/faucet1/deltarot/replseal.html

This is just a quick fix, as we plan on re-doing the bathroom. Here's what we are planning to replace/update:

Floor
Currently white vinyl. We'd like to replace this with tile. We took a tile class at home depot this week and would like to try tiling it ourselves.

Countertop & Sink
Currently a white laminate countertop & a steel sink with white enamel. We'd like to replace them with a one-piece cultured marble countertop.

Cabinet
We're not sure whether this will be replaced yet. Once we decide on the colors for the tile and countertop, we may want to replace the cabinet.

Light Fixture
We definitely want to install a new light fixture to match the brushed nickel finish on the sink faucets we've already replaced.

Tub
I'm not sure how much work we want to do on the tub. We definitely want to install a new faucet and spout with a brushed nickel finish. The tub itself is a one-piece fiberglas tub with a sliding glass door and is in good condition. I'd prefer to not replace the tub but Mrs. Dufrsne would like to remove the glass door. Hopefully a fiberglass repair kit will disguise the holes where the glass door was installed.

Shoe Rack

The Tale
When we moved into our house, I put a black plastic crate into the each corner of the front closet and then placed a 3/4" thick piece of white particle board on top of the crates to create storage space for our shoes. Sorry, I forgot to take the before pic, you'll just have to use your imagination. I thought the arrangement was fine, but apparently I promised Mrs. Dufresne that I would replace it with a custom DIY shoe rack.

The Design
After a brief period of contemplation, a design finally popped into my head. I would build two stacked 12" by 12" cubes on each end of the closet with two longer shelves (34") running between the sets of cubes. Fortunately I did snap a picture of the plan, so you won't need to use your imagination any further. The walls of the closet formed the ends of the shoe rack and I would use the existing piece of particle board for the top. The dimensions in the plan are not wholly accurate, as they do not account for the thickness of the materials.

Materials List for the Shoe Rack:

The size of the materials listed were appropriate for my closet, which is 58" wide on the inside. Alter these dimensions wherever necessary to fit your needs.

Screws

44 - #8 by 1 1/2"
12 - #10 by 2 1/2"

Particle Board coated w/white melamine

1 - 96" x 11" x 3/4"

1 - 36" x 11" x 3/4"

1 - 58" x 13" x 3/4"

Scrap Wood

10 - 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of wood

2 - 2" x 2" x 10" pieces of wood

At the Hardware Store / First Cuts

I had the hardware store cut 34" off each end of the 96" long piece of particle board. These pieces are the long shelves that span between the cubes. This also made it easier to fit the pieces into my car. Then at home I cut the 48" piece into two 23" pieces. These cuts left me with 2" leftover from the 48" piece and 28" leftover from the 96" piece.

The First Shelf

First attach 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of wood to each end of the 34" shelf with two #8 screws. Then clamp one of the 23" pieces between a few blocks of scrap wood so it will stand vertically. Prop one of the 34" shelves with a stack of scrap wood 7 1/2" tall and then drill two holes through the 23" vertical piece and into the 1" x 1" x 8" piece attached to the shelf. Drive a #8 screw into each of these holes. Repeat the process to attach the second vertical piece to the other end of the 34" shelf.

The Second Shelf
The process for the second shelf is similar to the process for the first shelf. First attach 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of wood to each end of the 34" shelf. Then prop the second shelf on top of the first shelf with a stack of scrap wood about 7" tall. Drill two holes through the 23" vertical piece and into the 1" x 1" x 8" piece attached to the second shelf. Drive a #8 screws into each of these holes. Repeat the process to attach the second vertical piece to the other end of the 34" shelf. Once you have attached both shelves, it should look like this:

You can see the pieces of scrap wood I used to secure the joints sitting on the second shelf. There's also another piece of scrap wood already attached to the top of the left side of the shelf unit. This will connect the top to the shelf unit.

Trapped in a Closet

Center the finished shelf unit in the closet and measure the distance from the sides of the unit to the wall. Then cut two pieces from the 28" left over from the original 96" piece of particle board. These side shelves separate the top cube from the bottom cube. They are attached to the ends of the unit and the wall using the 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of scrap wood and #8 screws. The bottom of the shelf should rest 11" from the floor.You can see in the photo on the left where I attached the scrap wood to the end of the shelf unit. The photo on the right shows the cut side shelf with the scrap wood attached that will anchor it to the closet wall with the #10 screws. Repeat the process on the other side.

Over The Top
The next task is to attach the top piece to the if you haven't done so already, attach a 1" x 1" x 8" piece of scrap wood to the top of each side of the shelf unit. Place the top piece on the shelf unit and mark where the underside of the top piece lines up with the closet walls. Attach one of the 2" x 2" x 10" pieces of wood to the closet wall with two #10 screws. The top of this piece should be level with the line you just marked. Repeat the process on the other end of the closet. Place the top piece back on the shelf unit and attach to each 2" x 2" x 10" piece of wood with 2 #10 screws.

Final Notes

My shoe rack has 1/4" gaps between the ends of the top piece and the wall. I plan on adding some 1/4 round molding to hide these gaps. The top piece was 2" wider than the other pieces, this gave the bottom shelves a recessed look that I liked. You could use lumber with a uniform width for your project. The edge of my top piece was also rounded, which I thought looked nice. I pre-drilled and used a countersink drill bit for all the screws. I highly recommend you do that as well. Particle board tends to chip or crumble if you do not use a countersink drill bit. Bar clamps were very helpful as well - you can see how I've used them in a few of the photos. Here's a final shot of the completed project without all the shoes. You can see where many of the screws are attached.

Chewbaccad

...so way back in the fall of 1996, I was hanging out with a group of guys (some combination of Lopez, Bob, Wells, etc...) in Crazy MotherFORTRAN Paul's room on 2nd Eicher listening to the then-new Spacehog album. The album ended (or so we thought) and we continued discussing the news of the day. But the album had not stopped. The music for the last song, To Be A Millionaire.....Was It Likely?, ended around the 2:30 mark, but the track continued in silence for another ten and a half minutes and at around the 13:00 mark strange, evil-sounding noises erupted from the speakers. We quickly identified the song as a few creepy piano notes accompanied by the horrible wailing, screaming noise of two Wookies making sweet, sweet love. Thus the name Chewbacca.
If you wish to Chewbacca someone, you must sneak into their room while they are napping. Fortunately for you, college kids nap more than babies. Find their CD player, turn the volume down all the way and then flip the power switch. Insert the Spacehog CD, skip to track 10 and fast forward to the 3:30 mark. Crank up the volume as high as you dare and then sneak out of the victim's room. You now have 8 to 10 minutes to make your getaway.
The hidden song starts out rather quietly, so it probably screws with the victim's mind on a subconscious level before he or she awakes. I hadn't edited the track or looped it, so I had to run downstairs and rewind the CD every 6 or 7 minutes. But it still freaked out all the kids in our neighborhood.

"chewbacca [ choo baa ka ] verb (past and past
participle chewbacca'd, present participle chewbacca·ing, 3rd person present
singular chewbaccas)

To wake a unsuspecting napper with the sweet, sweet sounds of Wookie
lovemaking"

- Websters 11oth Edition Dictionary

Halloween

This is my first post in any blog. I decided to start a blog to publish the progress I made creating various props and decorations for Halloween. But obviously that didn't happen until after Halloween, so maybe I will post the in-progress photos of the individual projects in the weeks leading up to Halloween 2009. We had a great turnout for Halloween. Many people complemented our decorations and some even asked to take pictures in our yard. I didn't get a chance to burn a CD of spooky music, so I just Chewbacca'd the neighborhood.

Not many people know what it means to Chewbacca someone, so I'll address that another time.

I know, I know... my first post and there's already a cliffhanger...