Kid Book Shelves

It's been a while since I finished and posted a project. It's not for lack of trying. I'm still waiting for some brackets so I can finish my current kitchen project, and have been trying to nail down what I need for some window treatments. But rest assured, those will be on their way (hopefully) soon.

This project was one that Kristen got from Pinterest. Kid book shelves! Now, as you can see, we have some book shelves already. The white one we picked up on the side of the road (marked "free") and the other one we bought for around $25. But if you know my wife, you know she loves books, and that certainly has been passed along to our kids. They have a ton of books, and they don't fit (well) into our current shelving situation.

The solution was to build some shelves into our kid area (which I realized I haven't blogged about yet - I need to get on that). What someone on the internet realized was that house gutters work perfectly for children's books. Earlier this week, we decided to give it a try.

We used one vinyl 10-foot gutter (purchased for $4 from Lowe's), and measured the area. We have a half wall that is six feet long, and our current book area is about three feet wide. I tried the six-foot shelf by itself at first, to see how we liked it.

We decided it worked, so today I went and got the second shelf, and cut it to match the first one. The four-foot pieces worked perfectly on our other wall (since we didn't need to cover the vent on the floor). Here's how it looks. What do you think?

Toy Room

Scarlett and Felicity have a TON of toys, and we try to keep them corralled as best as we can. We have a room in our house off our upstairs living room that is more like a big closet.

  

When we moved in it was just an empty room, so I decided to add shelves to help make it more useful. I added two shelves initially, and put up board games and some of the bigger toys up there.

First set of shelves

But Scarlett has a TON of princess dresses, and I thought it would be good to hang those up, to make room for other dress-up items in the dress-up box. I also thought that even with the initial shelves, there wasn't a lot of room to play. So...I added two more shelves along the long wall. We also got an extra stepping stool to make it a little easier for the girls to get stuff on and off the shelves. Here is the final product. This picture makes it seem a bit cluttered, but when toys get put away (on the rare occasion), there is lots of space for playing.

Panoramic Shot with all shelves

New Bed

Kristen and I have slept on a full size bed since we were first married, and it was about time for an upgrade. That's right, we moved up to a king. We found a metal frame and box springs gently used, and bought the mattress online from Tuft & Needle. We found our bedspread and pillows at Bed Bath & Beyond.

This project is similar to the workbench, in that the headboard is made entirely of inexpensive pine. I followed a pattern Kristen found a online, and it turned out pretty good. After I figured out how to use the jig, the most difficult part was probably sanding all the edges, but it worked out fine in the end. I probably didn't spend more than three-four hours cutting, drilling, screwing, and sanding, then two or three hours priming / painting.

Our new bedspread (pre-headboard)

Dry-fit

Sanded down and ready to paint

Close-up of the holes the jig made

Prime coat, ready to paint

Final product attached to the bed

Workbench - Revisited

I've always wanted a work bench, and I found some plans online for one. Made entirely out of 2x4's and one sheet of plywood - not bad, huh? If you're interested in the plans, you can find them here. 

The only regret I have making this is that I had not yet purchased my DeWalt drills yet. Those would have made everything go SO much faster / smoother. I also probably wouldn't have broken two drill bits.

Tabletop and bottom shelf, plus the rest of the cut pieces 

Frame assembled

Added the tabletop and bottom shelf plywood pieces

Took me an extra week before I got around to adding the top shelf

Since building the workbench, it's gotten a lot of love. I've also made a couple modifications. Take a look and let me know what you think.

I found some routers at a garage sale, and built a folding router table for one of them.
I have some legs that go underneath the table when it is pulled out.

I looked for a paper towel holder, but couldn't find one I liked for cheap,
so I made this one out of some scrap wood and a dowel I had lying around

Similar to the router above, I bought this bench grinder and needed a place to put it, so I attached this side table with hinges, with some legs for underneath it when in use. Also visible: my swiveling bench vise. Out of the way yet still accessible.

The Garage

When we moved in, the first problem we had to tackle was the garage. Apparently, the people who lived here before us smoked like chimneys...and they did it all in the garage. You can see by the photos how yellow the walls were from the smoke. We used some serious paint, called Killz. It's an oil-based primer made specifically to seal odors, stains, etc. like smoke and mildew. It worked great, but had some serious fumes (hence the masks).

Next order of business was organization. I installed shelves at the front of the garage for moving boxes right above where we keep our garbage cans (our HOA requires us to keep them in the garage). Kristen thinks I'm crazy for keeping those boxes, but moving boxes are expensive! I also added insulated panels to the garage door, to keep the temperature a little more moderate.

I also got some wire shelving units to store boxes along that wall, and hung up the bikes.

I also built a workbench (which will be the subject of another post), and bought a motorcycle dolly. I wanted to be able to fit both cars and the motorcycle in the garage - the dolly allows us to move the motorcycle around easily and fit it where there is room. We also got a laser parking guide that I installed on the ceiling.

There are still some things I want to do with the garage, but I like how it's turned out so far.

Here is a picture of the laser parking guide - it's plugged in near the garage door opener.

House Projects 2016

In August, we bought a house. It's not a brand new house, so of course there are things we want to change about it. We've done a lot so far, but still have a lot we want to do. So for the next year, I'm going to catalog the things that I've done to make our house into a home. Stay posted!

My Personal Strategy

*Note: I wrote this posting on a separate blog for a class project last year (originally posted April 2013). I am shutting down that blog, but I wanted to retain this post, so I moved it here.

This blog is in response to a requirement for my MBA Business Strategy class. In a couple classes, our professor gave us the opportunity to think about our personal strategy - where we are and where we want to go. I started out by doing a personal SWOT analysis: thinking about my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In conjunction with that, I took a look at my potential "Blue Oceans" - what is my unique selling proposition? I feel that one of my strengths is that I am good at striking emotional chords with people through my writing, so I decided to use a blog to capture my thoughts.

In class, our professor heavily emphasized asking the right questions (as did my market research professor). If we don't ask the right questions, we're not going to get useful answers. While reading my blog, I realized that a large majority of my posts from the last year talk about how much I love my family, how grateful I am for them, etc. I wrote a blog post specifically about what is most important to me: How Will I Measure My Life?

"The most important thing to me in my life is my family - not my career or my material possessions."

This is video of me singing to my wife at our wedding
She and I have performed in several local plays together
Performing brought us together and continues to draw us closer to each other

The first question to developing my personal strategy was, "What is most important to ME?" I also needed to know the answer to "Why Am I Studying Business?" I liked what I wrote there, so I'm going to say part of it again:

"We need good, ethical leaders in business who will create and reinforce positive company cultures. Leaders who don't motivate with fear, who don't create negative work environments for their employees, who don't make stupid decisions that end up costing people their livelihoods. I want to be one of those good leaders."

In our first semester in the MBA program, we created a leadership profile which consisted in part of contacting friends, colleagues, former co-workers, etc. to find out what they felt our strengths were. What was surprising to me was what they told me. By and large, the most repeated strength they mentioned was "kindness." I had never thought of myself specifically as a kind person (not that I'm mean), but I try to show respect for others and help those who are in need. I also try to be sensitive to others and stay in control of my emotions (to think before I speak). Other strengths were my organization skills and my ability to stay calm in stressful situations. These other skills help me to be kind. Because I am organized, I usually have contingency plans for when things go wrong. Even when I don't have plans, because I think quickly, I am able to stay calm and collected in those situations. And when I handle stressful situations well, I am able to interact well with others, staying sensitive to their needs and feelings. Relationships are extremely important to me.

Looking toward to my future after the MBA program, from a professional standpoint I want to start out working in a B2B marketing function, but I'd like to try different functions: supply chain, M&A, human resources. I guess the point is that I want to have an influence on the lives of others. I want to make their working days a positive experience, so they can go home and continue to have a good day.

In the long-term, I'd also like to serve my community through supporting the arts. I am passionate about theater and music, and want to continue to work with local community theaters, supporting their productions. But ultimately, my first question drives my personal strategy. What is most important to me? My family. And I will do everything I can to spend as much time as possible with them. Even if that means turning down a potential career advancement that would take me away from them too often, that is a sacrifice I will make.