tiki puka puka 3.0

ahh, back to this little project. i preface this by saying it won't be a full post due to the camera pooping out - i guess i could pull out the memory card and load the images onto this computer sitting on my lap, but i'll save that as a rainy day project.

anywho, i installed astroturf on the floor to give a "grassy" appearance and also to conceal the roughness of the concrete, etc. i also walled the interior with plywood and then painted it all red (again, barn paint). of course, prior to walling everything off, i cut and framed an opening, attached a hinged door to it, and a small countertop that faces the deck. this is essentially the bar. like i said, i dont have full pics, so i will post the ones i do have along with the hilarious narratives you have come to love:

this was the first piece i cut and installed. these triangle pieces and the walls were really easy to do, but ... arggggh ... putting up the ceiling by myself was a pain. i basically had to balance everything on my head and then screw it into place. the kind of thing that would have been hilarious to watch some other fool do, but not so hilarious when you're the aforementioned "other fool".





here are the support pieces i put into place to help support the ceiling boards:

i put these up in multiple places in the center and corners, where needed (where the boards met). fascinating.











action photo of me looking through a hole:

after i measured out my window thingy, i pre-drilled some pilot holes in the corners to make it easier to cut with the jigsaw. after i cut everything out, i used a belt sander to smooth the edges, then i framed the opening with 2x4's and added a pine top. i cut a piece of particle board for the door, which i wouldn't normally use for exterior applications, but i 1) had a shitload of it leftover and 2) used three coats of polyurethane on it, so it should be okay. i hinged it and added a latch to lock it from the interior.



if you remember back a ways back, i had ripped a bunch of shit out of this shed, because it was a somewhat filthy woodworking shop that looked like it had never been cleaned. junk removal revealed quite a bit of termite damage in the structure and at the time i think i believed i would replace most of the damage. upon further inspection of the shed, i realized that it wasn't built that well from the beginning and if i really put much time, money and effort into it, i would probably just tear it down and build something else. everything i did definitely helped to reinforce it and offset the damage and probably didn't cost me more than $100. when the time comes, i can knock it down and put up something really cool, but for now, this will do.

also of note, i had predrilled and wired everything for an outdoor sound system with all of the wiring hidden behind the wall. a few weeks ago i went ahead and set everything up with some old (but killer) hi-fi equipment i had sitting around and gathering dust. now we have music pumping through the hi-fi outside in the back yard. time to boogie, my friends. time to boogie.

i shoved a knife into my hand.

it's true. this was back in october when my brother came over to help me reroute the power going into the shed (a.k.a. tiki hut) and the garage, which is surprisingly the first time i have hurt myself. it was at the very end of the night when all of the wiring was done and i was trying to cut the insulation off the last wire. as it turns out, the knife really wasn't sharp enough to cut the wire, but was, in fact, sharp enough to find it's way deep into the palm of my hand. no worries, i just rubbed some dirt on it and kept going.

anyway, as you may or may not remember, the wiring going to the shed wasn't inside a conduit and the insulation was actually missing from one wire. it was actually running out of the attic (from behind a gutter) and then straight into the shed just below the roof. not cool. not only that, but as i tested things at the fuse box i realized that the same line was used for parts of 5 rooms, the front exterior light and the power to the shed (both sides). seemed like a bad thing waiting to happen.

i cut all three wires where they were going into the shed and pulled the wire back up into the attic. i capped off the line that was running through all those other rooms. this left a dedicated wire for the shed and then the one that was carrying power to the garage. i bored a hole out through the side of the house (via the attic), rant the wire into a box and then through some conduit directly into another box in the shed. the garage power (which is buried) was spliced back together at the box and the power for the shed was split into two lines just to make my life easier based upon the outlets that were already in there and the light i installed at the top.

exciting, eh? that's wiring, folks. non-stop action. these pictures will elaborate on the magnificent story above:

that's the box out the side of the house connected to the conduit.
















here's the whole thing. seems so simple, but even with someone helping me (my bro, standing on the left), this took all day. of course, we stopped to watch the titans game, which probably slowed us down.














"hello! i'm high on insulation and blood loss!" me in the attic, smiling for no reason at all. i certainly wasn't having a good time.











here's the "junction" box. this is where all the real magic happened:















and here's a lovely medley of everything coming together:

































that's the bulkhead light that i bought. it has since pooped out (i tested all the wires, changed the light bulb, etc.) and i think i will probably just replace it with something very simple (and cheap). now that the interior of the tiki hut is done (next post), i have alternate lighting in there (red net christmas lights, etc.) so i am not that worried about it, but i would like everything to work as it should.











ok, i still have a bit more to update, but this is a good chunk of it. also, the camera finally died. i think double E has an old one, but i need to check.

birthday present showcase.

double E bought me a variety of lovely gifts, but the only one that had much relevance here is the picnic table (kit) i asked for. once it was assembled, i sprayed it with green barn paint, available at an lowe's and highly recommended by this dude as exterior paint not only because of it's low price, but it's durability and color consistancy. anywho, once it was done and had dried, it looked like this:

not sure what that white spot is on the front corner, just some photo magic, i suppose.












that's it. great update, eh? here's one more pic of the whole enchilada:

who's that on the bench? looks like a little friend i like to call PBR. umm hmm, that's right.












also, you may have noticed that in most of these shots only a few of the screens are in the windows. i dug the rest of them out of the attic and put them in a few months back. it was a bit of a puzzle figuring out which screens went where, but after a little trial and error, i got it all worked out.

has it really been 3 months?

eek. well, fear not, homies ... i have been hard at work. kind of. i am going to randomly post the things I have been working during the hiatus, but i'm sure i will miss some items. thems the breaks.

ok, so when i bought this place there was a horrible fluorescent light in the kitchen incased in a long blond wood box. it got yanked only to reveal an imperfection in the ceiling that was basically making it concave. my brother actually cut it out with a keyhole saw with the plan being for me to go back and re-drywall it and smooth it out. it took a really long time for me to get around to it - here's what the "skylight" looked like:

there were lots of rough spots, screw holes, excess putty, etc. whoever put the box up looked like they did it with their eyes closed or had maybe subcontracted it out to a monkey.










behold a little thing i like to call progress:







































































... and finally, with the light installed:

arrggh. my neck hurt like hell when this was done and i swallowed about a pound of insulation, but it looks really good. moving along ...