Babies Can't Stop Bald Hands From Making!

Long ago, I built a changing table for our daughter.  It was in her room, and built on top of the window sill, due to the lack of space in the room (and every room).  When the addition was made, the wall with said window/changing table was smashed to bits, but not before I unscrewed the guy.  I added a jumbo storage drawer underneath, slapped on some legs, and now the newly configured monster lives in baby Nate's room!



The murphy bed also got some new neighbors. Two storage bros, and a reading lamp.

Bottom bro is tricked out with a slide out nightstand! 



Lastly, in ye olde shoppe, it's the return of the Longboard Pendant lamp in Bamboo...  My bamboo source dried up on me, so I had to find a new well.  I should have a couple made soon if I can squeeze them out admist all of this pesky child rearing.

Play Kitchen... REVEALED!

Can you even believe it? I cannot. Baldy is blogging. Don't even know where to begin with the goingson since the last entry one million years ago. Here's the heavily abbreviated version. Christmas came. I made a toy box for my nephew. January came, and we had our second baby- sweet baby Nate. We made room in our house by adding a new bedroom for Claire (see above). I made her a little table, and a kitchenette which I guess is going to get some love here today. Goes like this:

My mom-in-law had these leftover white shelves and molding from an Ikea entertainment center that she gave me. Pa and I just got done building a murphy bed (did I mention I've been busy making murphy beds too?), so we had a bunch of deck screws left over. There was a bit of leftover 1/2 inch plywood from the toy box, so I threw all that into the kitchenette stew.

Some neighbors down the street were throwing out some stuff, and I snagged this corkboard off their driveway, and tacked it to the back of the kitchen. I also had this leftover radiator grill material that I used to make a table lamp, and it magically transformed into the oven door pretty well.

Besides a couple leftover handles and an old towel rack we had lying around, the hinges, spigot knobs, plumbing parts and the oven burner cover/sink all were purchased from the hardware store down the street.

My mom-in-law lives down the street from an Ikea, so I swung by there to pick up the little pots and pans, as well as 4 mouse pads/burners that I saw someone else use when they made their own play kitchen. Claire's pretty into it. Not really in the traditional way I guess, but more in the "Let's-rip-off-the-sink-and-drop-food-down-the-hole-and-retrieve-it-from-the-cabinet" sort of way. Sometimes she puts her fancy lady attire in the kitchen. I'd like she'll still be doing the same thing in about 25 years.

What, am I NOT going to put a picture of this new addition in this post? I'm NOT gonna NOT! More posts to come??? We shall see!

Dad's day, Claire's away, No time to play

It ain't easy being at the spray park with the paparazzi all up in your bidness, but our baby finds a way to cope.



She took my dad and me to eat for father's day... out of the limelight and into the burritos! Zocalo!!! My parents pulled a fast one on me, and took my child away for 5 days... Tis bittersweet. I began/yet have not finished several needed projects.



This dood's stereo that's been in our backyard for months has finally been sanded down quite a bit, and had a couple test runs with the finishing. It's gettin somewhere.



I took down some old lady blinds, painted window trim and put up some new blinds. This is the most finished project, hovering around 94 percent complete.



Julie got me this awesome book for father's day... Yeah brah, that cover is real plywood!



The book got me in the mood, so I wobbled down to the local cool wood store, and picked up this here gigantic piece of bending birch plywood. That project to come is entitled, "New Nightstands". Julie calls it, "Get That Giant Piece of Crap out of the Dining Room", yet she only calls it that in her head.



I'm whipping up some cabinets for the bathroom that are in the following condition. They've got a ways to go. This is the small top cabinet.



This here is the bottom large cabinet. If they were running a marathon, and being on the wall with towels in them was the finish line, I'd say these guys are on Biggest Loser and are walking eating cheeseburgers around mile 7. Someday though, they'll be a sweaty puking mess, but they'll be on that wall, by god!! Going to get claire tomorrow, so we'll see if anything else gets accomplished. I have yet to begin the bathroom finishing details that we paid someone else to do, however, so add that to the mix.

mirrah mirrah...

To distract my mind from being swallowed by the bathroom and our contractor woes, I bought this here mirror off craigslist for 15 bucks. It was made in 1974, and was covered in a walnutish laminate that was in pretty good condition, but not that cool overall, except for its rad shape. After a little primer and a can of red spray paint, it turned into this doooozy. We'll see if this "big mirrors make the room look bigger" talk is all a farce or not. I ain't crossed into any alternate universe on the other side of it yet, but I'd like to think I have a huge afro on that side.

Bathroom Chronicles, Part Two : Floor Tiling

Oh bathroom... how I love and hate you. Sometimes you let in the cold, and contractors neglect you, but someday, you'll be a star. New walls are up, and the shower pan poured.



Two baldies at work. Pa came down to Austin to help lay some of this wickedly large 12x24 inch tile. You'd think a kind son would be down on his knees instead of letting the old man oldman do it, but...



look at the thinset that guy lays! Julie said, "textbook." She would know... Mine always looked really gloopy and bad. In a few years, when tiles start cracking, we'll know which few I had a hand in.



We rented a tile saw, and went to town. This tile was our Piece de Resistance.



Like a friggin glove.



This tile is NOT the daltile Fabrique, but it's a knock off brand called Strands. Can't find anything about Strands on the internet, but the old Tile Guy is always in the know... Made by the same company and cost 1/4 as much per tile. With saw skills peaking, it's like this tile just grew up and over the shower curb. Baldy's getting a little toot tooty up in har.



Still have the walls of the shower to do... and some grouting, but it's looking pretty sexy.



Oh, and BOOOOOOOOOOOOYAHHHH!

Bathroom Chronicles, Part One

Observe the master bath. It's this here 5ish by 5ish square foot zone. It's hard to take pictures of because there ain't no room. I take a shower in that tiny area behind that door there. Picture that, ladies.



Welcome.



Please enjoy your dank cavern shower.



It's easier to take pictures of the area when big boys knock out a wall. Unfortunately, the toilet was the newest feature of the bathroom, and it took a sledge to the face.



This area is about 5 feet from where we sleep at night. Julie's freaked out about what is going to crawl into the house and cozy up beside her.



I feel like the morning light is going to look a little nicer when it shines in the bathroom window in a few weeks from now. To be continued...

Hot New Couple

Here's something wicked sweet for local yokel types... The friggin Bohn house, which is down our street, and I've blathered about before, is going to get a remodel job by friggin Dick Clark Architecture!



Dick Clark, not the old sad brah you'll see on TV this week, but the local architecture firm, do some of the badassedest stuff in town. I could blather on and on about the lofts, n homes, n remodels these cats have done, or you could just go to the website and see for yerselfs... or check out their flickr page. That house is going to be a dooooooooooooooooooooooooozy! Invite some friendly neighbors over for cocktails lucky new homeowners! Did I mention I got a used laptop for xmas, as to not intrude on sleepin baby claire and blog blather on the computer in her room? Now you know. And will be kept mo up to date on the world according to bald.

Bathroom lookin Sharp!

Been watchin quite a few DIY shows these days, pertaining to bathroom renovating and the like. Just saw this one where they ripped out an old medicine cabinet, and found about 700 used razor blades behind it.



Word has it, that back in the olden days, medicine cabinets were made with a slot in the back where jolly fellows tossed ye olde blades after their shave and moustache waxing. Our medicine cabinet is from said days. What is lurking behind that cabinet? Probably an army of old razor blades will be the least of our problems.

File that under DONE.

Honestly, I don't know how it happened, but I finished some golldang projects up in har. I painted those supports, (and the screen door- might post a pic if I'm bold enough to go back outside ever agane)- but check it out. Filing cabinet turned planter is DONE. I built some quicky planter boxes and put em inside each drawer slot, then spray painted it yellow...



Then I blew my entire Big Red Sun gift certificate (thanks Amber) on these succulents, and WHAMMO! BIG YELLA PLANTER!



Luckily I timed my excursion to the place after they had just picked up some new plants from their growers. Unluckily, I also showed up on said day they decided to go to the growers/close the store.



Need to get me some mo potting soil to raise these beds a touch. This succulent is pretty radical.



To keep on the painting tip I MAY git a wild hair to paint those poles that hold up our party cover (read weird old carport in the backyard) that are all rusted and seen in the background here. I also might wait til Texas is moved to Canada before starting that project.

The Battle is Over...

The Before:



The After:



Finally these supports are done! Geez doods. Never in a million years did I know the pain of paint scraping in 100 + heat. I gotta hand it to those roofers... they are nutzo.



The real lame part is that there are still chunks o old paint that I just couldn't scrape. I tried, mind you, but could NOT get it all... and after several attempts, stubborn 70 year old paint and heat induced delirium win the battle.



Think I'm going to paint the screen door this navy-ish color too. Then get on those concrete planters to put in that empty zone on either side of that sidewalk. I'll be sure to get on all that soon as it's January. For now, it's icy beverages in the AC, and dreaming about that cool Michigan lake that we'll be diving in come this time 3 weeks from now.

Paint Paint Go Away

For the past few weekends, and a few days in between, I've been out scraping these metal supports on our front porch.



I would say short of having a kidney stone lodged in my ureter, this is one of the worst times I've gone through. Putting on a mask, hat, goggles and gloves, whilst glopping crazy bad chemicals on top of cancer inducing lead paint in 100 degree weather does not a happy man make. The worst part is the amount of paint I get off per scrape. I want all the effort to yield massive amounts of paint/paint stripper sludge, but taking off the white paint, then the brown paint, then the white paint underneath is taking waaaay too long.



Our next door neighbors busted me in the late afternoon when I'd hit some sort of sun induced delirium, and had a burst of dance funk singing-out-loud energy listening to King Khan & The Shrines do their hit Welfare Bread. I'm hoping some Lead Paint fairy comes in the middle of the night to finish this job, as it seems like it won't end any time soon.