Need a door hanger

The lever and deadbolt have arrived! However, I can't get in touch with our trusty old door hanging crew, Angel and Oscar, so we need to find someone to hang the door.

Stuttgart lever and deadbolt ordered

We are getting closer to finally installing our beloved front door! I ordered the lever and deadbolt from Knobs-etc. for a pretty incredible price.

Speaking of good deals, I noticed that our door, the "Burbank" is 40% off right now at Crestview Doors.

Solar is back

We got some new electricians in to look over our system -- it blew two fuses after my last attempt at that fix, so something else was up. Either a faulty inverter or faulty wiring. They pulled up all the wiring, tested each panel, reinstalled them at a better angle than the original, rewired everything, fired it up and we all crossed fingers. It's been three days and everything is working great!

Modern birdhouse project

I love this project -- a DIY Mid-century modern birdhouse done up in Baltic birch.
Read more here.

Fuse

This fuse is blown. It's the fuse that is now preventing my solar power inverter from turning any of that ample California sun into electricity.

Steel chef's table

I just purchased a steel table from a co-worker and I think I'm in love with it. It's a stainless steel chef's table from John Boos & Co. It's 40x24x40 48x24x40. I think I'm going to use it as a standing computer desk. Or for food prep. Or for just gazing at.
Right now I'm using it as a workbench for some projects, which is a horrible idea, as a conductive surface isn't the smartest thing to have when dealing with electronics. As soon as I build a new wood workbench in the garage all of my projects are moving out there. Then I can put this beauty to better use.

Media Rack

This is the Project Precita media rack. Wow. I'm trying hard not to run out to Norton Sales and buy a bunch of old NASA control panels to mount on the wall in our living room.

Fuselage

I'm going to post photos from the Telstar Logistics home remodel over the next few days. I'm in love with everything they've done.

Flush trim

This is the flush trim on our door. Its beauty makes me weep. All hail David and Christiane at Crestview Doors.

The door has arrived

Hurray! Here it is, waiting to be unpacked and ogled.

Mom! Dad! The Google Spy Van's here!!

I just noticed during my Google Map fest that we now have Street View. This means that the All-Seeing Google Van drove down our block merrily snapping photos of everything. Weird!

Current satellite photo

This one, from the much hipper Google, is up-to-date. You can see the solar panels doing their darnedest to save the planet.

Mid-construction photo

This satellite image from Microsoft's maps.live.com shows our place during construction. Notice all the piles of lumber in the driveway. Now notice how I'm starting to twitch just thinking about it.

Pre-construction photo from the air

This is what our house and lot looked like before we began.

jpixl . net blog

I've started a new site to post all of my MAKE Magazine related stuff, and other things that are non-house related. If you're interested, please check out JPIXL.net

Unleaded

Huge sigh of relief. Our daughter's lead level is absolutely normal. The more accurate blood draw test from the lab gave totally different results than the finger-prick test. Not sure why, but who cares. Whew.

Atlas office

My friend Tanja pointed me toward this lovely, Elfa-like (but seemingly higher quality) modular hanging office system. It's modular day here at Parkhaus!

Kithaus

I saw this in the New York Times today. It's a flatpacked, freestanding 9'x13' room for around $45,000. That works out to about $385 per sq. ft. Insulated and pre-wired for electricity, it's not a bad option for an extra bit of space. Not as cool as a renovated Airstream in your backyard, but definitely more subtle.

Elfa master closet

Here's some photos of my closet build. Please note my awesome hand drill (also a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad) and the little magnetic level I got at the hardware store. The beer is optional.

Our Burbank door

David, of Crestview Doors, has designed our door, and even named it the "Burbank"! We're ordering it, finally, and can't wait to get it on the front of the house.

Light tent

I shoot photos for my Make magazine articles, so I built this light tent using these instructions.


I used about $12 worth of PVC pipe, three $8 lights, and a $9 shower curtain liner from Target.

Onion art

I poured this latte art this morning. Not great, but an improvement over my usual blob.

Roasting coffee

I got some green coffee beans and a stovetop roaster from sweetmarias.com as a gift for Christmas from my Mom, as well as a book on home roasting from my sister Silvia. These are the fruits of my first labor -- I under roasted them, so I may actually try to see if you can bring them back up to temperature to darken them up just slightly.

Feeling guilty

Contains Lead by cindy47452

Our daughter, who's now 20 months, failed a lead screening. Even though we were out of the house for the worst dust, I have to think it's because of the demolition/construction, which encompassed the first 16 months of her life. Her finger-prick test was 17; the cut-off is ten. I'm taking her for a blood draw this week, which is a more accurate assessment. In the meantime, I'm trying to up her iron intake, and have ordered a HEPA-filter vacuum, because our current vacuum is old and dusty, no matter how new the bag is. In addition, I'm going to wipe down the walls and windowsills with disposable wipes and wash all the toys.

Out pediatrician says this isn't such a high level that we need to freak out. I'm crossing my fingers that this will resolve itself without too much fallout, but if I had to go back, I'd have bought a HEPA-filter vacuum before construction and used it frequently.