good/bad

I love getting ready for Halloween.

Not bad for a $10 old navy sweatsuit and some felt.

But I also hate it, b/c by the time the work is done, you realize your two day-old pumpkin is already too banged up and rotten to carve, and it's going to be too cold on the 31st to wear anything other than a winter coat anyway.  Oops.

That's if I can even convince the kid to wear a costume anyway.  Oh well.  I was really looking forward to carving a pumpkin last night but we made the best of it.  Got out the chalkboard paint instead and then the chalk markers.  Didn't turn out too bad.

Would have looked better carved though.

Now is the part where I mention I just have to make it to Friday, b/c I hate my job and each day is slowly bleeding the life out of me.  I need a beer.

Current beer-scale: 9.3

every time I look at these I smile

Yes, the holes behind the tv bothered me but I wasn't looking at them every day.  But I have been looking at these speaker wires for two-plus years now.

Seriously, I know you're in for the short sale but can't you take 15 minutes and at least put those back in the wall?  No?  Okay, fuck you very much.  Oh, it's b/c you just painted over the covers while they were on the wall?  Fan-fucking-tastic.

There were five of these, now patched, painted, and closed back up.  And it makes me happy every time I think to look at them.  But I don't look very often, b/c there aren't random wires sticking out of my walls anymore.

And that's why it finally feels like this place is coming together.  Get some frames back on the wall, possibly some shelves, and we'll be good to go.

current beer-scale: 6.9

slowing coming together

So ignoring having to replace things like the AC or water heater, painting our condo has convinced me the place is slowly but surely coming together.  Just in time for a new baby to blow things up again, but it's looking pretty good right now.

It's not like we can see all these with our massive tv up, but just knowing they are there has bugged me since we moved in.  What the hell was wrong with the people that sold us this place?

The patches aren't perfect by any stretch, and painting around the bracket instead of taking it all the way off will surely cause me problems down the line, but I feel so much better putting the tv back on over that versus having all the holes in the wall.

Oof, that thing is a beast to put up and get connected.  What a fucking pain.  But things are looking decent.

Current beer-scale: 7.8

May got off to a great %*(^ing start

I took some time off to get some things done after the stress of planning Commencement, so I've got some painting before & after shots to put up over the next few days.  All day on the 5th, all day on the 7th, and then finally the big wall this past weekend.  But in the middle of painting the entire house, suddenly our hot water wasn't working.  Oh goodie, something else to check out.  Let's clear out the pantry so there's room. 

So yeah, our tank was leaking and had to be replaced.  There went another 2 grand replacing something else the piece of shit developers cheap-ed out on when putting the building together.  Hey, if it gives someone else peace of mind when we try to sell then good for us. 

A wet spot on the outside is not a good sign.

We painted for pretty much the same reason, but it looks so much better in the meantime.  There aren't a bunch of holes in the wall, no speaker wires sticking out, and there aren't any milk or throw up spots on it yet.  I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

Current beer-scale: 8.1 & ready to schedule some interviews this week

worst-case scenario

It dawned on my last night I still have a spare frame attracting dust in the garage.  It's the old frankenbike road frame, which if worst comes to worst would be a suitable placeholder for the pilot's components if I can't get the frame replaced.

Actually, it might make for a pretty formidable ride.  Ugly as sin, slightly heavy, but sturdy and able to take a beating.  Plus, I could mess around with spray paint more.

Current beer-scale: 9.1 & looking for a lunch-time whiskey.

coming together

The paint is finally done in the nursery. Or at least it's done to the point where I hopefully stop noticing all these spots that need touching up and can concentrate on putting stuff together after having the shower on Saturday.Things look pretty good, even though the room is a disaster area after bring home a stroller and piles of baby clothes. All adorable, all something we need to wash and put away to get the room ready.These pics were taken before the shower to show everyone how the room was coming together. The shower that I wasn't supposed to be at, but ended up sitting through when my plans to visit a microbrewery fell through. Thanks a lot guys.One more shopping trip and we might actually have the room in ready condition. There are still some pretty big ticket items on our registry to pick up, but at this point we're approaching the finish line. No more classes, no more showers, hopefully no more visitors as we get ready for the big day. I've got to brush up on my swaddling technique.

Current beer-scale: 7.7

Get going'!

I'm home today, tearing through my huge to-do list on a day off. After driving the wife to her latest drs appointment, to work, breaking down old dresser drawers, switching the fyxation tires to the raleigh, washing a rug and some towels, letting the maintenance guy in to paint our front door, and painting my palm trees in the baby's room, I'm waiting a few minutes to feed and walk the dog. So much for watching a movie today.

The painting was fun though. Drawing the pattern seems to have been the easiest part. You don't have to worry about edging when you've just got a pencil.
Details, details, details. That looks a lot more yellow than green...
But I guess it looks better dry. A second coat, even better. Keeping the brown and green separate is proving challenging...But in the end doesn't look too shabby. Almost done at this point, then we can break down the bed and really make it the baby's room. Good times.

And done for the day just in time, as dinner and drinks just an hour away. Beer!

Current beer-scale: 7.1

taking shape

I am old.

The wife and I have started work on the nursery and honestly it's been a ton of work. Putting together a crib, no problem. Figuring out where all the other stuff is going, painting, and furnishing the room? Problems.
With no real football on Sunday the first coat of paint went on the walls this weekend. And this was with Saturday to prep; get supplies, laser level and tape up the outline of the two colors we have going up, clean the walls. With an early trip to the hardware store for dropclothes Sunday was time to get moving. It was a long day.

I wasn't about to let my pregnant wife spend the day in a roomful of paint fumes, so I was doing most of the work solo. Edging, climbing the ladder, rolling, touching up, it was an all day affair. With the window open in January. Good times.
As the sun set I was wrapping up and happy to be able to breath normal air again. I was sore as all hell the next day though, surprisingly so. I guess all the crouching and crawling to tape everything and edge along the baseboards took its toll on my legs and back. And that was just the first coat! I'll probably do a second this week. At least it's in the 50's today so it might not be as bad with the window open.I've still got big plans to paint a palm tree on one wall, to go with the water and sand theme. We'll see which gets here first, the tree or the kid.

Current beer-scale: 5.3

Saturday fun, part II

So with everything ready to go, the question remained: how exactly to hang this bastard somewhere paint wasn't going to get all over something important? I had a few ideas in mind; with the fork still on, I could have locked the stem to the fence and used the fork to prop the frame out from the fence, but that might get into the neighbor's yard. I could have tried newspapering the garage and working there, but the heat was making the trashcans in there smell unbearable. The backyard was the best option, and since I was already wrapping parts in grocery bags and masking tape, why not go all the way and just white-trash it up. Out came the dry-cleaner hangers and gaphers tape. One hanger in the fork's wheel-wells, another around a tree branch and plier-ed into shape. A little more tape, and voila: one bike hanger. Far enough away from the house and deck that I could spray with impunity. Itching to begin, I gave the primer a quick shake and away we went. Now was when I actually started to get nervous about the project. Cleaning Frankenbike, sanding, even hanging, all those things were important but if they hit a snag it was early enough in the project that I could probably think up a way around it to keep the bike ride-able. The paint going on was the point of no return.

Fortunately there was no need to worry. The sanding seemed to do it's job, and the primer held to the bike really well. The entire can ended up on the bike, but by the time it did the bike was pretty much unrecognizable.

First coat on!

I did get a little over-zealous at points, leading to some drippage, but all in all the bike looked really good at this point (I actually liked it better white than I did with the silver on at the end of the day). BTW, the dog loved this project to the point I was a little concerned for her. I couldn't go outside without her each time, and she'd tear ass around the yard, blissfully uncaring about the heat or the sun. She practically collapsed at the end of the day she was so tired. It was great, as long as she's recuperated today.

Primer was on a little heavy at spots.

A little sanding over the drip spots, and it was time to try the silver. All in all, the painting took a little over 2 & 1/2 hours. I waited around 20 minutes between each coat, sometimes longer if I was playing with the dog. 3 primer coats, 2 silver coats, 2 clear coats. A lot of painting.

One of the silver coats; the second I think.

By the end of the day things looked pretty good. I was glad everything seemed to work out, even though I did like the bike better just plain white vs the silver. But now that I know it works, nothing's stopping me from sanding back down and re-applying some white gloss. Things are a little rougher-feeling than I thought they would be with so much clear coat on, we'll see if it requires more clear coat for the paint to stay on the bike and not on my pants. It was probably a little too humid for this yesterday, but some things you just can't control. I can always hope for better weather if I try this again. The real test is an actual ride, out in the elements with clothes rubbing and salt spraying. Hopefully it's a good long time before I get to try that for real.

Paint definitely didn't make the welds look any less awful, but all in all not a bad touch-up.

For now Frankenbike is waiting for reassembly, possibly even a re-christening once everything's back on. We'll see. Suburb days always go longer than expected, so by the time we got back there was only time to get ready for work today and that was about it. Re-assembly is probably tonite, with a pic or two to come. For now, I'm happy basking in yet another hare-brained idea panning out relatively well.

Current beer-scale: 3.0

Saturday fun, part I

Yesterday was the day. Finally, after an absolutely horrific move and spending a week trying to get the place set up, I had a day to sand down Frankenbike and see if I could rattle-can it back to some semblance of inconspicuous winter usability. Off came the stickers, and with a lot of goo gone and a little time it was relatively clean. I didn't realize just how much crap I had on that bike until it was time to take it off. It looked better already at that point; I was sad to part with my surfside sticker though.
With everything cosmetic off, it was time to get down to the frame, or as close as I could get without bothering to get some crank pullers. I ended up leaving the fork on too with the old stem just so I wouldn't lose any parts when it was time to put everything back together. There was a new rattling noise coming from the rear wheel, and when I took a closer look I saw this:
Crap! Not a major problem, but one more thing to take care of before this bike is ready to go again. Teaching myself how to re-spoke a wheel wasn't really on my to do list for the end of summer, but I'll figure something out.

While researching how to best try this project, I read that aluminum, especially the kind used for cheap walmart piece of crap bikes, has a clear coating that makes it resistant to painting. The good news is, that b/c it's on a cheap piece of crap, it's not especially durable coating and sands off really easily. A few quick brushes with a 150 grain block and you're down to the duller-looking aluminum that holds paint fairly well.
And yes, if I was lazy enough to stop short of getting down to only the frame, I was also cheap enough to just wrap everything in grocery bags and masking tape and hope that was good enough. The seat post came out as well once I figured out how to hang the damn thing somewhere I wouldn't get spray paint all over the in-laws deck or house. More on that in the next post.

First, a quick tangent here on the city vs. the 'burbs. It's impossible to purchase any kind of spray paint in the city, or at least in the four shops in lincoln park and lakeview where I looked. Of course this is a graffiti deterrent and not something I'm going to get all worked up about. There really isn't anywhere too conducive to spray painting a project in my building anyway, so one way or another this project was heading to the burbs. It does make me wonder just how people do end up getting spray paint in the city though, especially when there seems to be more and more of it in my neighborhood. I was also wondering if anyone was desperate enough to buy my left-overs. If I hung out in an alley with a trench-coat filled with half-full spray paint cans, would it be better or worse than someone selling drugs? Would my paint be too lame for someone to graffiti with? Would someone be that selective? Just the things I wonder when I have to go the suburbs to buy something, and then still have to flash id. Anyway, here's what I ended up with:
A primer, silver metallic finish, and clear coat to top things off. I also researched the best paints to use, and though there wasn't consensus these seemed to be solid bets. Also, the most important tool of all, my beer. It was 90 degrees yesterday, of course I was drinking. It mixed with the paint fumes nicely.
Still to come: shots of the first primer coat, the metallic finish, and final thoughts on the project so far. Good times!