January 4th, 2010
I just acquired this from close (and slightly mental) friend of mine. He is dealing with some family estate items and gave it to me because he knew I really liked it. I’ve been a big antique roadshow fan for years, and anyone that has seen that show has heard of the infamous “card table” that turned out being one of the highest valued pieces they had.
Now, I’m not claiming this is one of them. The thing is, my friend said the appraiser took a quick look at it, got “very” interested. She said it was most likely an authentic late 1700s antique table. I know a little about these things, but not enough to claim I have anything extraordinary. I’m not sure I would sell it even so, I really like how it looks and would want to keep it in the family.
I can say with certainty, this came out an authentic 18th century farmhouse. It was a farmhouse on a local farm run by the same family since 1683. The house is literally a museum of authentic, pristine colonial and federal relics. This table was just one of three similar tables my friend has.
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November 23rd, 2009
Nearly two years ago I wrote a post about “my attempt to finish a stone wall basement“. It was shortly after I purchased my first home and was overwhelmed with the desire to start some projects. Well, it didn’t really even get started until about two and half months ago, but the project is now underway. With our first child quickly approaching, I figured it was time to dive in and start the basement project while I still had some free time.
It’s the biggest home project I’ve ever attempted, so I wanted to be sure and plan everything as well as I could. I’m not new to construction, but I didn’t want to half-ass it.
My basement is dry, but has a stone wall. That presented a number of unique challenges, and I was not sure of the best approach. I drew up some plans and talked to the local building inspector. He told all about the code requirements and limitations for the “proper” usage of the space. The ceiling was already finished, but is too low to actually declare the space additional “living space”. Instead, it’s going to be used as “storage space”. Granted, I want carpet, drywall, crown molding and an electric fireplace in my “storage” room – maybe I want my stuff to be comfortable. 
One of my biggest concerns was the ability for the foundation to breath. I’m going to vapor barrier and drywall, so it’s not going to be very easy to get access to the stone if there is ever an issue or moisture problem. My solution was to build the walls about 3-6 inches from the stone. This allows for a cavity of air between the wall and the foundation. I’m then going to put a ventilation fan at one end of the basement to pull the air from that cavity and vent it outside. This way, I can occasionally turn a switch and change the air. Got stale air? Not me.
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Tags: Basement Finishing, Home Improvement, Stone Wall Basement
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August 18th, 2009
It’s Tuesday, and it’s like a million degrees out. All I wanted was something cold from the vending machine. I don’t ask much.
I walk out of my office and down the hall to the building’s community vending machines. I look at the selection of fluids and decide that some sort of cold energy drink would be totally sweet right now. So I reach into my wallet, take out my funds, deposit them into the machine… and click E9.
After a second or so, two of the little gates holding the bottles back clicked open and spew two cans of “Full Throttle” energy drink on to the little conveyor belt that carries the purchase to the shoot. I was like “whoa… jackpot!” and watched them drop into the opening that delivers the purchase to me.
Then, thinking that this must be some sort of special or something, I put in some more money and clicked the same set of buttons. To my surprise, it did it again. Two cans of energy drink fell down on to the conveyor belt and began to be delivered to me. But, there was a big problem this time. One of the previous cans had become lodged between the exit slot and one of the channels holding more drinks. As the little belt driven shelf came up, it ripped the can open and covered the inside of the machine with energy drink.
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Tags: energy drink, fail, vending machine
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