I spent a few days last week at our pokey house, getting it ready for the summer. One thing I needed to do was to create an opening into the “dog room”:
Before:
Inside the dog room, as I was opening the wall:
Finished, spackled and painted:
I’m a terrible drywaller, it probably took me 3x as long as a pro.
I do not fuck with drywall. Except for this project I’m working on at the present in the bathroom. And it’s a project I’m doing so I do not have to replace all of the drywall. So-- absolutely fantastic job on the drywall, beowulff!
The legions of my fans who follow my posts here assiduously will recall that last spring I built Tevye’s milk wagon for my wife’s middle school production of Fiddler on the Roof.
This year’s show was Into The Woods Jr., for which I made Granny’s bed. This bed is used in he scene where the Wolf eats Little Red Ridinghood. He has previously eaten Granny, and when the Baker cuts him open to release Little Red, Granny also pops out. So the bed has to hide Granny underneath.
This picture shows the pillowcase for the quilt that covered the bed and the Wolf stapled to one end. In the end I removed that and stuck two pieces of thin ply painted black at each end instead. They and the quilt hid Granny when the bed was wheeled out for the scene.
This was a much simpler project than the milk wagon.
The show came off well, and the bed has already gone into the dumpster, after I salvaged the door stops and casters for possible future use.
Doing things like this is what started Adam Savage from Mythbusters down his very unique career road.
I’ve been a fan of Adam since the start of Mythbusters, and had the opportunity to spend a few hours over drinks with him, Kari Byron, and Michael Shermer at James Randi’s The Amazing Meeting in 2006. He’s a very impressive and admirable guy, and I very much enjoy his YouTube videos.
However, although these pieces are challenging and fun to build, at age 68, i don’t think think this marks the start of a career as a theatrical prop maker. My wife may direct three more school shows before she retires, so I may build a few more such pieces before I bow out of the business.
I’m also the technical director for the shows, designing, hanging, and running the lights, and this year programming and setting up projected digital scenery. This year’s was the third show at this school, and every year Danny Glover’s famous catch phrase becomes more apt.
“Every day of my life I walk with the idea I am black no matter how successful I am.”?
“OK pussyface, it’s your move.”?
Now I’m dyin’ to know, too.
I am too old for this shit
From the first Lethal Weapon.
Not original to that 1987 movie. I heard that phrase used in Stripes, released in 1981, spoken by the drill instructor played by Warren Oates.
When we bought our twenty years ago, it came with a pink clamshell bathroom sink that we were going to get rid of. We finally did it a year ago. It only took almost 20 years. The new sink did not come with a backsplash and the plumber tried removing it as gingerly as possible but he still made tiny tears in the wallboard. We were also going to get on that right away. Top picture is what those tiny tears looked like a year later. So I took things into my own hands.
I owe it all to YouTube. That’s peel and stick, btw. Used construction adhesive too because I didn’t trust the glue. Most proudest of the silicone. Hubby did silicone around the tub a few moons ago and, although I do love him, I did NOT want mine looking like his. And it doesn’t.
Nice lookin’ sink!
Hey, thanks!
Well, the “Dog Area” is more-or-less done. I had to rebuild the shade structure, and put up the fencing:
Does it include a grassy area for them to poop in? Or is that what the mulch you’re standing on is for?
I’m standing in the gravel poop-area. But, only the little one will use it. The Chocolate Lab is blind, and doesn’t like to walk in gravel, so he does his business on the pad, and I clean up after him, like the elephant keeper at the circus.
Back up at the pokey house.
Today’s project was removing the dish washer, cutting the countertop, removing the upper and lower cabinets, and moving the fridge to where the cabinet / dishwasher used to be. In this photo the cabinet is where the fridge was, but that’s only temporary. We are re-arranging the whole kitchen. removing the low cabinets on the right is tomorrow’s job.
So, what is a “pokey house”? The closest relevant meaning I know of for “pokey” is “prison”.
Right.
It should be “poky,” but since “pokey” is correctly spelled, it didn’t get caught by spell check.
The original house is under 1,000 sq. ft., but some previous owner added a master bedroom w/on-suite, which brings the place to around 1,300 sq. ft.
It was built in 1959, and needs a ton of updating and some minor repairs. I need to replace all the original 2-prong outlets with GFCIs, for example.
I think the phrase you’re going for is en suite (or en suite bathroom, which is what an attached bathroom is called in some countries).
