Dropping My Daily Stool Sample

Plugs
Malicious Intent’s favorite webcomic, Kid Intense is updated.  Ch 1, PG 20.  More with the “flying mailbox”.  Also, MI sent me a webcomic she did, I will post it Friday.

Also, 8 1/2 by Eleven has returned, and I am slightly disappointed; they discuss 6 legged sea creatures, and I thought they were going to sneak in a shot at Fat Bug.  More specifically (warning nudity and violence) this episode.

Speaking of Fat Bug, FB vs. CTR+ALT+DEL has been getting a ton of links from Something Awful.com.  Close to 4000 unique visitors in the past 2 days.

You are listening too . . .
A further theme song, Hey, from the Pixies.

My Latest Home Improvement Project
All I have left to do, is a couple of edges, and of course hang things on the wall, but I got pics today.  Lets get to it, here is the before.

Wow, I had forgotten what that looked like, it is so different now.  Well, I got multiple views but let’s post the after from the same view, don’t mind the ladder, and a little mess of tools on the floor.

Can you say, Holy Crap what a difference?  My parents haven’t seen any of it yet, so this should shock them.  A couple of other views?

Close up same view

Oh yeah, that is stripes you see.  From the second landing on the stairs:

And finally from the Dining into the Front Entry/Stair:

Yeah the door’s not done I am still considering colors.

So, what do you think. Should I not be a designer on one of those TLC Programs ? As you can see from the first pic, I had to essentially rebuild the wall to the left of the stairs. I liked the open look, so I kept it like that and made it more of a railing. For that I ripped all the lathe and plaster down, reframed it, resheetrocked, and then did all the moulding (the angles are interesting to try do, but I had an cool angle tool, and since I was painting, I filled any gaps with a patch). In addition, I put some moulding in to cover the damaged ceiling.

I hate paneling, and as stated, this house has a plethora of ugly brown paneling. So my first step was to rip that all down. Then I stripped 6+ plus layers of wall paper dating back to the late 1800’s, patched the walls, and fixed any holes. I then primed the whole thing, moulding included with Kilz. Kilz is by far the best primer and stain cover I have used and will only use that for this purpose.

As for the painting, a plugs first. I only use Behr paint. I do not skimp and buy cheap paint. Why Behr? It is more expensive and such, but it covers awesome, has supreme colorfastness, is easy to clean, and wears forever. Quality stuff. Worth the $25 a gallon.

The painting itself. I decided I wanted stripes. I did not want them to be overpowering though, I wanted subtle. It wasn’t hard to do, but it requred patience, and accuracy. Here’s what I did. I wanted green, I wanted light, and I wanted warm. I went to Home Depot, and picked two greens, both on warm side (more yellow than blue), and one a slight hue lighter than the other. Also to distinguish them, one was eggshell finish and the other was a satin gloss. It makes a interesting yet subtle effect on the wall that is impossible to pick up unless you see it live, the slight gloss difference. I also wanted to tie into the wall of the dining area, which attached to the wall, which is a bright yellow, a spring green accent, and a cream color.

How did I get the stripes neat and clean? Again, it was fairly easy though time consuming, and required accuracy. I have a large level that is 2′ long. I used it to measure 2′ for each stripe, and then using the level drew in straight pencil lines on the walls. I taped off the lines for one color first. I marked the areas I was going to color with an X. Here is the important part, make sure you are putting the tape down correctly, as you will only paint one color now. Your X’ed stripe, the tape should be out side of the line with X’ed area in the middle. I then painted one color, let it dry overnight. Retaped the next day (doing the opposite tape job) and did the second color. Now, you will have some peeling and damage on the first color, but just use a straight edge and touch up, if you let it dry overnight, it shouldn’t be too extensive. Your lines will be straight, but the lines of your house might not. It will be worse in a older house, not really a lot you can do about that unless you want to rebuild what your painting.

Now the trim and moulding, I wanted a similar paint to the moulding in the dining room, a deep red, but did not want red (red compliments green and would too much of a color bounce). I chose a greyish red/brown, more of a chocolate brown. I made that paint semi gloss, again, a visual contrast.

The whole effect rocks, the walls are very subtle, and moulding pops right out. It is one of my more favorite interior design pieces I have ever done. Again just a couple things to touch up.

Best part the whole project only cost about $150.

Celtics/Pistons
Awesome game, two great teams, C’s took a big lead, but Detroit came roaring back.  Tied in right now beginning of forth.

Staring to pull away up by 10 with about 2 minutes left.

Hillary’s back
Interesting night last night, especially seeing how the demographics worked out.  This is going to be interesting, whomever “loses” this really never loses, and I think the Democrats have learned a thing or two the last couple of elections and Clinton is already broaching the subject about creating a Clinton/Obama dreamteam, which I LOVE (sorry Murk).  We shall see.

And now that McCain has the lock, it will be interesting to see how he tries to win back some of the more conservative parts of his party, especially the Evangelicals, which he has distanced himself from over the years.  His running will be very interesting too. 

Man
The cast of Roadhouse is taking a beating.  Patrick Swayze has cancer, and Jeff Healy died the other day of cancer.  No more singing at the Double Duece.

Autism and Vaccinations
This is a very interesting case.  There is a long running deabte about vaccination and the role they might play in autism.  It will be interesting to see what this opens up.

I always found it strange, that the incident rate increased with the introductin of the MMR vaccine, especially in adults, if you caught the Mumps and the Measles at the same time, you can develope Autism like brain issues.

Who says the Dollar is weak?
Were all millionaires in Zimbabwe.

Malach’s Video of the Day

I am Malach and tomorrow for Dr. Murk, I will show you how much I confuse search engines.