On Monday (MLK day, and a holiday for most) I installed the entertainment center that I have talked about before.

Here’s the space that needed to be filled:

My first step was to install the loose base, and ensure that it was level – which turned out to be a bit tricky, as there was a large hump under the tile on the right side. Without a level base, the entire project would not have been square, true, and plumb.

Next step – place the main case. In this instance, I was only one person wrangling a box that was 90″ wide, 28″ deep, and 48″ tall. I had picked up a couple of mover’s dollys from Harbor Freight (they were on sale for $9.99, all wood, with padding on the ends and heavy-duty casters) and they turned out to be the tool of choice here. I was able to maneuver and place the box single-handedly. I also needed to cut in the electrical and cable outlets, moving them to inside the box for access. This view shows the side trim also installed, which made the whole thing look like it grew there.

At this point, I have cut and fit the wood top to finish the top.

Here’s another view, with more of the wood top showing:

In retrospect, I’m thinking I should have made the center taller and deeper than the end sections; it would have required more wood, but it would have made the install go easier, the outlets would have been easier to place, and the wood top probably wouldn’t have been such a bear to fit. I’ll keep that in mind for the next one.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

The daughters of our good friend came over today – (note to self: don’t let the guy who can’t keep track of days write entries) – I meant, yesterday, to watch MEG so I could take some concentrated time to assemble this latest project. Trying to start a business out of your home can be frustrating at times, if you don’t have the time to actually DO anything, so this was a blessing.

I mentioned over here about chopping the heck out of a bunch of birch – this is the end result:

I had already put the loose base together. It’s the ladder-looking thingy in the middle of the floor. (Sorry if the technical language gets in the way.)

Let’s start from the bottom – here’s the bottom piece, propped and ready to receive the dividers:

The center dividers in place:

…and the ends installed:

Technical note: I use staples and glue when going through ply into ply, and nails (headless brads, really) when attaching hardwood.

I would be remiss if I did not show you the second most important tool that I use: The first most important, of course, is the stuff that keeps my ears from sticking together.

Top rail in place, with glue and brads, and the fixed shelf (for the television) ready to be installed:

Now it’s starting to look like something:Wait, something is missing.With a back on the box, it becomes very stable – amazing what a sheet of 1/8″ ply can do.

Here’s a front view with the box sitting on the loose base:I used a loose base because the overall hight is 53 inches, and it would have needed twice the plywood to cut the ends and dividers in one piece with an integral base. This way, I can install the loose base and level it so that when the main box is installed I don’t have to try to wrestle it around – that sucker weighs in at about 150, without the adjustable shelves.

The front will be trimmed out with rosettes and ribbed moulding. I will be using the mouldings to actually scribe the unit into the niche. There is a wood top planned to finish this off.

Funny side story: I went to Lowe’s last night to pick up a few last-minute items. Since I had gotten there about ten minutes before closing, I had to hurry. So, I made a beeline to the moulding section, culled out the best piece to be the nosing for the woodtop, went straight to the paint department and picked up a quart of stain for the project, stopped off at the brushes to select a new one, and then grabbed a nailset off the shelf as I rushed to the checkout counter. When I got there, the cashier rang up my three purchases, and it was just short of the $25.00 needed to use a $10.00 off coupon. When I got home, I figured out why: I had set the stain down while selecting a brush, and failed to pick it back up before moving on. D’oh!

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

[GRAPHIC PHOTOS INVOLVED]

In the interest of full disclosure, and I wasn’t going to show you at first, I must admit that yesterday I pulled a pretty bone-headed stunt.

For those not familiar with the safety rules of a table saw, keep in mind that one of the most important rules is that you have control of the wood on BOTH sides of the blade at all times – meaning the tail side, away from the rip fence (if one is being used) and the stock side (the side between the blade and the fence). Failure to maintain control of both pieces could result in the stock piece either jamming between the blade and the fence, or, in my case, being grabbed by the blade and spun back towards the operator at a very high rate of speed and lethality, also known as “kickback.”

I was not in the correct position for handling the piece I was cutting; if I was the kickback would not have happened. I was using the table saw for a cut that I should have grabbed a circular saw for – and I paid:

Keep in mind this picture was taken well after the oozing and everything had stopped. The shirt I was wearing has a nice high-speed wear pattern on it, too. Oh, and this was a glancing impact, since I wasn’t directly behind the blade.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

UPDATE: To any member of the Lubbock Marine Parents – the requirements to get me to take a side trip to visit with ya’ll are hereby waived. I am more than willing to take the side trip needed to meet with you and shake hands, hug necks, and hold each of you and your offspring in prayer. That would be on Friday, January 18. Please let me know if any of you are willing to meet with a road weary old Marine…

Travel: I leave the fair environs of my humble abode on January 14th, 2008 (gotten used to writing that yet? me either – it took me three tries…) at about 0700 MST for a short flight to Denver International, where I have a four hour layover. Cheap tickets are one thing, only one flight that will get me to a connecting flight four hours later is something else. Luckily, I have cousins in the area, and they plan on visiting with me while I am there. If you are in the Denver area on January 14th, 2008 (two tries!), between the hours of 0843 and 1240 MST, drop me a line and I will forward contact information.

Once I leave Denver it is but a short hop to Tampa International, arriving at 1800 EST. Once I get my rental car, I’m off to my Uncle’s house, where I will visit and gather my Grandfather’s genealogy files for my other blog. I will be in the Tampa/Clearwater area until the morning of January 16th, 2008 (first time!), when I depart on my road trip home. Yes, I am driving home with the files, because they are original documents, including letters from ancestors, and there is no way I am allowing Brown, or White, or Yellow, or any of those guys the chance to misplace one or two of the boxes. While I don’t have a lot of stops planned, I will be traveling north on I-75 to I-10, then west to Lafayette, LA (bypassing NOLA, unless someone has come to their senses and decided to rebuild it where it won’t flood the next time the tide comes in a little higher than normal) where I will be jogging north on I-49 and picking up I-20 in Shreveport. Continuing west, I plan on spending the afternoon/overnight on Thursday, January 17th, 2008, in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area (TMBWitW’s adopted mama’s mother lives there, and GG is really taken with MEG. I will be delivering Christmas and Birthday photos). The morning of the 18th, I continue my travels and spend the next three and a half days crossing the expanses of Texas – OK, not really. I pick back up on the I-10 and carry on into Arizona and home. Maybe Friday night, maybe Saturday morning. Depends on how hard I push it.

I tell you all that to say this – if you would like to be a part of my “People and Places” entry/entries, with photos (if you are camera shy or blog anonymously, you will be photographed from the back), please drop me a line. I would like to meet any and/or all of you along my travel path, even if it is only for a minute or two to get the photographic proof of my being there. If you are not on the direct path, I may be persuaded to deviate slightly if there are home made baked goods involved, or a genealogical link.

Work: I spent all day yesterday surgically cutting several sheets of 3/4″ cabinet grade birch ply into parts for an entertainment center for my latest client. After only three trips to Lowes for this and that (I’ve got to start making a list!) I finally got to the point where it was too dark to make any more cuts, and I only needed one more trip to Lowes. Of course, they were closed by that time, being New Year’s Day and all. As soon as MEG wakes up and has some breakfast this morning, guess where we’re going?

Homelife: TMBWitW is up to her pretty nose in month end/quarter end/year end at her place of employment. She is also about three classes away from her Bachelor’s in Accounting. Yay! She will be finished in April, and walk in May. Talk about a party – she will finally be finished with all the crazy schedule stuff. By that time, also, the plan is for me to be working enough to support us so she can back off and maybe do CPA stuff from home while she spends much, much more time with MEG. That will be a good thing.

Gotta go – someone is waking up.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

With age comes great wisdom and, sometimes, a memory that is like swiss cheese.

Some time ago (okay, it was a month ago) I let you all know that an interview on Political Pistachio Radio had been rescheduled for Saturday. If you check the comments of the previous post, at least one of my loyal readers remembered.

I did not.

Doug Gibbs tried to e-mail me on Friday. I didn’t check my e-mail on Friday. Saturday morning I started attending a series at church called “The Truth Project” – a fascinating tour of what the world wants everyone to think. It was a three hour session, and when I finished I was scheduled to go to a remodel project that I had started Friday evening. Well, I checked my voice mail when I got out of church, and there was a message from Doug. He had called, with a twinge of panic in his voice, to remind me about the show.

I called him back, and we chatted a bit. I thanked him for reminding me (actual words: Doug:”You do remember you are scheduled for the show today, right?” me: “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I remember the conversation where we rescheduled…”) and headed for the job site; when the time came I sat down and took a break from the first phase (painting – and a face shield was employed after the first drop of ceiling paint landed square on the contact in my left eye – everything had a satin finish to it after that) and had a great interview with Doug. Wild Phil called in and asked a terrific question. Check out the archive, provided BlogTalk Radio has the sessions listed…

Wild Phil, it was great talking to you. Doug, I promise I will never forget again. I’ll start blogging about my appearances from the time I make the commitment until the day of the interview.

(Note to lefties, libbies, and the msm: this is called character growth, where someone makes a vow to improve themselves. it is not flip-flopping on the issue of scheduling.)

And the rest of you who listened in – thanks for listening! If you have any questions for me that we did not address on the show, drop me a comment here or an e-mail. I may not get right to the response, but it will be answered!

If you are the host of a radio show, BlogTalk or otherwise, I would not object to appearing on your show. I’m not afraid of the questions, as Saturday’s show demonstrated, just understand that I don’t have a bank of advisers filling me in on all the details of every issue in the world. I do, however, have two things most politicians appear to be lacking: common sense and the willingness to work for a living.

As for the rest of the weekend: church Sunday morning, and more painting Sunday afternoon. I’m watching MEG today, and I’ll be starting phase two – flooring – tonight. First order of business – remove the twenty year old shag carpeting that is currently being used as drop cloths…

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008