Kitchen Reno Part One - Design criteria

The house I live is from 1959, and has a lot of original components to it.  The gorgeous pink bathroom with a commercial grade toilet bolted to the wall and everything.  The kitchen is also mostly original.  The oven was but we swapped it out immediately, the fridge too, but otherwise we haven't changed anything

                                            Current Kitchen View

                                                Current Kitchen View

Now, ideally we want to knock out a wall and open the whole 2nd level (of the 4 level split), but for this year that scope is out of the question.  This year's project is the 1st level pink bathroom I mentioned before. However an opportunity has presented itself to redo the kitchen on the cheap with a scope that requires a lot less structural work.  This reno is meant to pull the galley style kitchen into something to at least this century.

There are two things that will allow this renovation to happen.

Cabinets - My parents are redoing there kitchen and all of there 10 year old modular white cabinets are up for grabs.

Another house's kitchen - In my community of Chinook park there are a lot of houses that are the same configuration as my house, and a few that are on the market.  We found a few pics of the kitchens of some of these places online and with one that we liked, we went and checked it out.  My wife and I like the configuration of this place's kitchen

Other house's kitchen

Other house's kitchen

So we measured, took pictures and documented that kitchen and I decided that pending a few added, and a few less details, I am going to build exactly that kitchen in my house using the free cabinets.



Here is the design scope for this project

• Configure the kitchen using the free modular cabinets from parents.  
• Design to accommodate new cooking range (induction), refrigerator  and dishwasher in terms of size, plumbing and wiring.  This appliances can be purchased and installed at a later date.
• Permanent Hood Fan is to be installed
• Flooring will be updated with new linoleum in kitchen and mudroom until whole level is updated with in-floor heating and engineered flooring.
• Vegetable sink on the opposite wall from the sink to be considered
• Larger size Kitchen sink and new faucet to be installed
• New lighting will be required
• Utilities will need to be moved to accomodate new configuration
• 
  

Here are some of the design limitations for this project

• Have to design so that when we open up the 2nd level, that we can pull out the cabinets and reconfigure them into an island.  
• This means we need cheap countertops installed in the interim until this scope can be done.  After the walls are down all new quartz countertops will be installed kitchen wide
• Temporary countertops means I can't finish the backsplash, need a cheap interim option in the meantime
• Limit need to build new cabinets as much as possible

Bioshock Cosplay - Prop Shotgun

You could almost call it making a steam punk prop, but to complete the Bioshock Infinite costume I needed a weapon.  Now it is not an exact looking prop from the video game, and I had considered chopping the gun up for the handle and replacing it with a longer, bigger piece of PVC and some trim for the pump.  Ulitmately, due to time I couldn't try this, but that was a fortunate consequence.  I am very happy with the result.

Here is how the prop started it's life.  As a Nerf Super soaker.  The other wood one is a prop for the holster but I resprayed it later to a straight black.

First thing I did was sand off almost all the tags on the sides of the gun.  I used a 100 grit sandpaper for this to soften a lot of the material up.  Some parts were a bit tough so I used a wood scraper to shave them off.  Then sandpaper to smooth it out.  Here is the result.  Compare the tagging between the pic above and below to see the result.

 Once the guns were sanded, I dropped them in a sink of warm soapy water and dried them up. To spray them I hung them with coat hooks in the garage and hung them from the garage door opener.  The spray I used was a silver that gives a bit of an aluminum texture right from the can!  I pulled the pump handle all the way out, and unscrewed the back cap a bit to get optimum coverage on the threads.  I also tossed some tape on the nozzles.  After paint it is still a functional water gun.

This is what they look like after spraying.  I taped the handle on the pistol to paint it brown but I abandoned this idea like I said and sprayed it all black.

Here you can see the texture of the spray slightly.  After the guns dried all night and all day, the next evening I started to paint them.  I used cheap paints that you get from Michael's, a craft store, in the following colors.

• Black
• Brown
• Gold Metallic

For brushes I used a 

• Half inch wide soft brush, 
• A wide thin brush
• A small brush I use for model painting. 

To apply the paint I would trim with the small model brush to make a nice 1/4" line and then use the larger brush for better coverage.  To avoid brush marks on the final product go over the areas painted with a dry brush to remove excess.  Here is what they look like after the black paint is applied

The brown paint was applied to the pump and the handle.  It is of note the paint was old and did not dry well.  It took 36hrs to dry in the furnace room which is the driest and hottest room in the house.

On the bottomside of the gun I mixed the Gold metallic paint with the brown paint.  The top part paint was coated with a mix of gold metallic and black.  It gives it its luster and changes the color without needing to buy more paints.  I avoided painting all the bolt bits to keep them the silver color. With the mixed colors of paint, the wet paint bunched a lot.  You really have to go over the wet paint with a dry brush to spread the paint and even it out.  For all the paint I only applied two coats of each for coverage.

The final element to painting the prop is the weathering effect.  There are several methods.  One I have read a lot about is mix some black paint with some water and using a finger apply to the surface and get that dirty look in every single crevasse. My method is the dry brush method, and that is where I take the wide thin brush and lightly put on some black paint.  Then brush back and forth on a scrap bit of paper to effectively knock off as much paint as possible.  Drying the brush.  Then rapidly back and forth run the brush over the surfaces and the edges.  The dry brush not only weathers the gun but it also makes the edges and the detailing pop out.  If I applied too much I used a paper towel to rub off excess black. Compare the pictures below to the ones above.

Lastly, to really make the paint stick, and make it usable, you need to seal the paint, and for me I used a clear semi gloss spray and applied 3 coats by hanging it in the garage again.  This way I can still use it as a super soaker and it won't ruin the paint, and you don't have to worry about any accidental transfer with wet hands or anything.

So that's it.  All in all I think I only spent about five hours working on this thing not including drying time.

Calgary Expo Bioshock Costumes

For the 2013 Calgary Expo my wife and I decided to go all out and cosplay from Bioshock Infinite.
May I present Booker Dewitt and Elizabeth Comstock from Bioshock Infinite

 Us with one of the sons of silence.





Above is some of the costumes we wore.  Here are the images from the game that we we used to make the costumes

As a part two of this blog I am going to show you how I painted the gun from a super soaker!

Rain Barrels

I love to garden.  I used to do it with my grandma when I was knee high before she passed.  My parents had a big yard when growing up and it was a way to earn an allowance by mowing the grass, trimming the many bushes and trees and watering.  What started as a chore has become a hobby now.  I really enjoy tracks of the mower in the grass nice and straight.  Trimming bushes and trees into cubes, or round shapes.  Plucking all the weeds from the green and the dirt become an OCD dream.  I enjoy caring for the perennials, trimming the flower heads and cleaning the beds.  My favorite though has to be my vegetable garden.  It is great putting seeds into mud, watching them grow, and bear fruit (or vegetables) and then harvesting it all in the fall to fill up my stores and share with friends and family.

Something else I also enjoy doing is making conservative efforts.  Living my life I try not to be wasteful and find ways to recycle or make my home and lifestyle more energy efficient. I mean I won’t ever get a hybrid car or make my own clothes but I will rebuild my house so it is more energy efficient.  Things like slowly swap to LED bulbs and eventually install solar panels onto my roof to decrease my carbon footprint.  I love the idea of using gray water from the sink to fill a toilet bowl.

Now watering my vegetable garden does tend to use a lot of water.  So in an effort to try to decrease my water consumption, I have undertaken a project to collect rain and snow melt.  We all know about how useful rain barrels can be for water conservation, but one barrel isn’t enough to effect a lot of change based on how often it rains in Calgary, and considering how much water the garden uses.  So I decided that a series of rain barrels would be beneficial.  So that is what I did and am going to do. 

I have 5 downspouts all around the house that I can attach rain barrels to.  It is better though if I set up barrels so that they are tied together such that the water that enters from the downspout into one barrel also fills a second barrel beside it.  The system is sealed to the downspout so if the barrels are full the water just continues down the downspout.  The water travels from one barrel to the other through the out spouts that are tied together with an off the shelf piece of plumbing that ties two spouts and into one output.

To get better water flow from the barrels and make them more convenient to use it made sense to put them onto their own table.  Like a water tower, the higher the tables the better the water pressure.  So I built a simple wood table to house them on.  A hole in the top of the barrel with a plug fitting helps keep the barrels closed for overflow, and open to increase the flow.  The flow is still a bit weak so I may need to figure a better way to get the water out of the barrel.  Possibly an electric pump attachment.

The tie into the downspout came from where we bought the rain barrels which was part of an environmental sale the city puts on throughout the summer months.  The barrels were about $80 with the spouts attached and the downspout attachment.  The attachment had to be cut into the down spout so it sticks in line.  There is a plastic hose that connects the two and had to be glued and sealed to the barrels.  For the winter months you disconnect the hose on the downspout piece and then stick on a stopper piece that closes the hole.

Now I have only done this with one downspout but my intent is to put this onto every downspout I have to harvest as much water as possible for use in the garden.  It does get a bit costly purchasing the barrels and the wood for the tables.  This is a long term goal though.  The idea is the upfront cost will provide later savings in my water bill and more importantly it will reduce how much processed clean water I essentially pour onto dirt to grow things.

I will make a new post to show each barrel set up as I install them

I'm Back

After too long of a hiatus I am back to blogging.

In the time that I have been gone I have gotten married to my lovely now wife, Nicole.  For work, I am no longer located at site since the project is done, or near enough.  I am back in the office at home.  What this means is I have a bunch of projects that I am excited to not just dive into but to also blog about.  I also have a bunch of topics that I have been banking up and will be pounding out over the coming weeks. Things like my rain barrel system, thoughts on the US election,the Edmonton Expo, best weapons to have for when the world ends, my wedding day, my wedding comic and a whole lot more.

I have decided to change up the format of this blog a little bit to add more content.  I want to include more Home Improvement projects, Recipes and cooking feats, tech projects around home, automotive projects, and a whole lot more. So you can expect to see more of those and I intend to use the label feature a whole hell of a lot more, but in a way that is a lot simpler so if you want to see topics about my garden, or my thoughts, that these will be there and grouped together for easier navigation.

I have to say guys it is good to be back.

Joss Whendon's S.H.E.I.L.D. TV Show

It has been announced that Joss Whedon is going to go back into TV with a new entry from Marvel for ABC in the 2013 season.  His new show is titled S.H.E.I.L.D, and it looks like the show will be spearheaded by his brother Jed Whedon and Jed's wife Maurissa Tancharoen.  

Also in the news about a month ago, is that Joss is signed on to not only to do the Avengers sequel, but is contracted with a free pass to write in all the other Marvel films in the coming line up. Basically what this means is that he get to shape these other movies for the lead in to The Avengers 2.  These movies include Iron Man 3, Thor: the Dark World, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ant Man, League of Guardians, and then the Avengers 2.  And then there is talk about Marvel making shorts with run times about ten minutes each to introduce more B characters into the Marvel movie verse.  Characters like Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, maybe even the Black Panther.  And now a TV show. 

Marvel is trying to do in the film industry essentially what it does with it’s comic franchises.  They are making a universe where each character has their own story but they exist as part of a larger community.  This is what I was talking about before with my Marvel Movie Rights blog.  Since I have written that blog, Joss has the chance to make a project of tremendous scope that we have never seen before in Hollywood.

Let me tell you a little something about mister Whedon.  His writing style for the projects close to his heart like Buff the Vampire Slayer and Firefly is that before we ever see the first episode, he already has the whole series mapped out.  Like all Eight seasons of Buffy had the main arcs made or that Serenity was to be at about the end of season 2 of Firefly if it wasn’t prematurely cancelled.  He knew where he wanted the characters to go, what trials he wanted them to face, and how to make them who they will finally be.

Now knowing this, he is given a free pass from Marvel studios to dabble in any of their coming projects, make a movie that puts all the heroes together, and now a TV show not about any big heroes, but about the people in an organization that puts so much of the Marvel comic universe together.  Do you see where this is going?

S.H.E.I.L.D. can be a platform where you develop a show that maybe doesn’t directly interact with the film franchises but perhaps sets up small points for, or reacts to the outcomes of the films.  Maybe S.H.E.I.L.D. makes a weapon in the show for Captain America to use in his film.  Maybe Thor uncovers a piece of tech from the Elvish world that S.H.E.I.L.D develops.  Or maybe the characters discuss the ramifications of what the heroes do in a critical way, or about rebuilding after the destruction the hero fights often cause.  In the deleted scenes of the Avengers Joss wanted to set a darker tone that cast doubt on the idea of superheroes.  Maybe Joss makes us care about the characters he develops in the TV show so that he can kill them in the Avengers sequel and evoke emotion from the audience about these deaths who would otherwise just be fodder.

He could use it as a platform to further develop the characters and back stories for S.H.E.I.L.D. agents like Widow, Hawkeye, and even Fury, that haven’t been given a lot of attention in the films.  Of course it will all depend on the contracting, but you could even guest star the movie stars, and B characters into some of the episodes and story arcs.  You can explore a lot more of the concepts about S.H.E.I.L.D. and more of the more sinister global factions like AIM or Hydra.  It is a great platform to further develop the state of the world that the movies, being so action orientated, can’t spend the time to develop in the detail we would love to have not as fans but as people who enjoy stories.

With a writer like Joss, this idea is exciting because if anyone can do this it’s him.  With the movie franchise and now with a TV series, he can essentially pull the whole universe together and a story in magnitude that has not been known.  All of he infrastructure is there and now he just has to have the ambition to put it all together and if anyone could do this, I firmly believe that Joss Whedon could take on this monumental task and make something great.  In an interview about the Avengers Joss stated that the movie wasn’t a great movie, but rather a great experience.  Now he has everything he needs to not just make a great movie, but a great legacy of films.

Emotional Satisfaction at a Desk Job

This blog is inspired by the Max Brook’s book, World War Z.  In this book at one point it details how America has to go into a state of Total War and in the process, first generation Americans who have more craft based trades, and a lifestyle where they try to extend the life of every luxury they own are far more valuable wartime skills then the skills that executives or paper pushers have in living life.  The book goes on to detail how the paper pushers start to own the work of the new manual labor jobs the government thrusts upon them and that they find the new war time jobs far more emotionally satisfying then their previous jobs where the skill sets were emails, contracts and telephone calls, and paying a plumber to fix their toilets.

This struck a cord with me.  A cord the reverberated within me so much that I was stricken restless in my bed unable to sleep for a long while.  I considered just getting up and spilling this cord onto here, my blog, but chose not to as I get so little sleep at camp anyway.  So it is a week later that I am not pounding this one out.

The cord that it struck was a very personal one.  I am more or less a paper pusher and on that particular day I was focused on a task of logistically figuring out how to move our company's couple hundred night shift to a new camp, while solving bag transfers, transportation and all other details that would make it go smooth.  Of course, despite high hopes and all the planning in the world it didn’t go smooth and every day I would have new problems come to me that are my responsibility but not in any way my fault.  That is a big part of my job.  The other part is completing paper work.  Now I say completing but that is a lie.  I revise the same paper work on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Be it reports, or forecasts or gathering information that aides my managers but really that is the sum of my job at work and although it is critical to the job itself, it is very emotionally unsatisfying on a regular basis which can be frustrating.

This brings me to my next point.  When I have time off, I am seldom relaxing.  I develop projects when I am at work that I execute when I get home.  Gardening, organization, home improvements, automotive work and a plethora of hobbies that make a list so long I care not to mention that occupy so much of my time when I am home.  I will have people ask me why I don’t just kick back and see friends, or play video games or do anything to relax and for the longest while I didn’t have the best answer.  I would always say that I like being busy.  I like to work hard.  Part of that is a lie.  I do my work job but I don’t love it, but when I am home I love what I do and that is because of this concept of emotional satisfaction in what I do.  I never made that connection before but I am always so proud of the things I do when I am home, even if it is simply mowing the lawn in straight lines, or hanging pictures or rebuilding a room.  The only time I am proud of my job at work is when I manage to burn through a bunch of it at a rate that impresses myself.  Which is sad. 

It gave me an idea though, but it is not my idea, it is one I heard on Extra Credits, a video blog on Penny Arcade.  It is an idea called GAMIFICATION.  This is an idea where you take principles that make playing a video game interesting and applying it to life in a very real way.  Please go to the links below they explain their idea way better than I can paraphrase and perverse it to meet my needs at work.

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamification
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamifying-education

Now imagine this, every task you do is mapped out to a certain number of (for simplicity sake) experience points that are earned upon completion of that tasks.  So take for example if you do an activity daily, like say a Daily Report.  When you complete that report you get XP for completing it, you earn points.  For fairness lets say that each different task is weighted based on complexity or the amount of time it takes to do so ideally you can hit out the same amount of points per day.  This would also make workers want to find ways to be more efficient at their tasks to earn more points in less time, so there is some incentive there.  You can challenge yourself to beat your own scores, or to grind.  It gives you something to say that at the end of the day yes you achieved something, even if all it was the same shit you would be doing anyway but now it is more satisfying because you get some points from.  It is a bit like wearing a pedometer all day.  If you hit your target you feel accomplished.  If you exceed your goal it feels good.  Or if you miss it, you think of why and how to improve tomorrow.  And with a pedometer all it is is walking.  Something that you have to do on a daily basis, but once you measure it and are aware of it can be a more satisfying activity.

You can also show your bosses how much work you actually do, so your value is known.  I am not saying that you should have a minimum threshold as to what people you keep or not but use it to level people up when it is time to give them a raise.  In writing this it would be a much better tool for self evaluation then to have your bosses own but still I think the idea of gamifying work could be a powerful tool to help people like me who push paper feel a bit more emotionally satisfied with their work by feeling like they actually accomplish something and are not just revising the same reports.