Update

Well, it's been awhile since my last update and boy oh boy have we been busy. Between getting ready for little guy to get here Sept 6th, potty training (yep our little girl is potty trained at 16 months old), and house projects - it's been crazy go go go. And to top it all off - I am finally back in the 15* range (159 lbs to be exact) - haven't been that low since second year of college - wahoo.

So in a nut shell here's topics I'll be posting soon -

• Building Mario shelve and Mario rug (my wife did a great job on the rug and painting the doors for the shelve - we used some other blogs for the ideas, but I'll be posting the templates and full instructions, etc.
• Bought a Cedar Works Playset (modified Frolic 9) so I'll be posting information on putting it together and review on it all said an done - it ships this Friday, so exciting.
• Review of NextFit carseat - very excited about.
• Exercise information - I found out that I have been unknowingly training for Tower Running  and never even heard of it - I was just trying to loss weight and get in shape for cheap on lunch (who knew).
• Microsoft CRM stuff (work related) - tips and tricks and best practices that I have learned.
• And probably a few other things randomly for good measure.

House +1

Well I went to open the garage door on the side of the garage I was working on the new desk and the door didn't budge. However I was unable to see what was going on since the desk was under the opener. I moved everything to the other side last night and opened the opener only to find a completely stripped worm gear. What are the odds the opener would break at the same time I started working on my desk. I thought I did something (mutter saw or piece of wood wedged against the door or something) but it was pure chance. I just ordered the parts from Amazon $16.47 with shipping. So that project will get added to the list.

Teach me to try and do a fun project! My house said - none of that nonsense.

Status

Well, yesterday was my daughter's 4 month check up so my wife took her to get her shots and she wasn't a very happy baby. So we only got a little bit done as Kyrie enjoyed cuddling lots last night with the both of us.

I was able to get the drywall patched and done in my office, so we can start painting. And my wife had a really good idea for putting some shelves in my office so I could get rid of my old TV entertainment stand. We'll be using 10" or 12" pine with some nice look brackets (have to decide which I like) running the full length of the wall so I can put all my DVD's, CD's, and even my home theater stuff on it.

And my wife was able to get another coat on the table. I really am liking the stain finish. We'll see if I regret this later or not, but right now it looks good.

So, first thing I did was get a 88" x 28" piece of particleboard 1/2" thick. Then I measured in 3" from the edge and snapped my caulk line. This is for my carriage bolts that will attach the top to the legs once done. I wanted them to be hidden and strong.  

I drilled my holes at 9" and 20" from the back of the desk.

Here is a side shot of the carriage bolt anchored in to the wood.

I am using my leftover 3" x 3/4" thick red oak hardwood flooring for the top. To make the edge a little different i trimmed it down to 2 1/4" so it would stick out from the main work area. With my measurements, I am able to hang it over just enough that my final desk top will be 89.5" by 30.5".

This is the corners being clamped down. As you can see, I forgot to put the carriage bolts in this side before working... Opps. Luckily I had enough room to still add them.

This is what the carriage bolt looked like next to the trim (told you I had barely enough room to still add them). To make the board fit over the head of the bolt, I simply drilled several holes. I had a bigger wood bit, but with the pilot point it would have been through the wood before I got enough dug out to hide the bolt.

I placed another carriage bolt in another 16.5" from the right side to allow me to bolt on an additional leg brace that I can mount 16" w X 24" d shelves to. 


Here is the final product. I made the center piece bigger (30") and the two sides 25", for a slightly different look. However, it appears I should have made the center bigger and the sides smaller as it seems like it's hard to tell there's a difference. 

Here is a picture of my office. I meant to take a complete before and after, but we got started cleaning and I realized I hadn't done that yet. So this is actually much cleaner than it normally is. But as you can see, still a mess and nothing matches. I am going for a Asian theme in my final room. Let's hope it goes well.

Next is the legs and to paint the office. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. We will be leaving in a week, so I'll see how much I can get done before I'm out of town.

Oh, I also ordered a dual monitor mount and some desk grommets which should come in the week. I plan to have 3 grommets (one on each side and on in the back middle).

Here's the links to those. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R9HQLI/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00 and http://www.cableorganizer.com/flexible-soft-top-grommet/. I went with the gray grommets and the monitor mounts are by MonMount (great reviews and some of the cheapest mounts you can find).

Status

So over the weekend, I was able to get the top done with the help of my wife and my little girl. The only thing that is left is to finish the polyurethane. Since it is hardwood floors it already has a several coats on it, but I wanted to smooth it out between the boards. We had some leftover stain finish and I really like the look it gave but it doesn't appear to have filled in anything. It seems it just ran in between the boards. I know with the high gloss stuff it will fill and smooth the surface. Anyone have any suggestions on this or ideas? Thanks.

New Desk Ideas

I had two ideas for my desk and they have merged together in my head to have a clean look. First was this - http://aubreyandlindsay.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-new-desk.html. That was a great blog and I really liked the idea of the big desk. So my new desk is 7'6" by 30.5" deep. That is almost the full width of my office which will make it so I can finally put my printer and lamp on my desk instead of a old PC and some binders. 

The second idea was something I saw at NFM. I really liked the cross brace legs. I bought 2x2's to make them, but they are too small. However, my wife had the great idea to reinforce them with some of the hardwood flooring which if I do that will make them 3x3's which should be perfect.

New project!

Tomorrow I start a new project and my first since my little girl was born. So we'll see how it goes. Plus I'm excited as this is the first project in awhile that's a fun want to do project, instead of a have to do because something broke.

And the project is....... A new desk! Might sound boring but working from home two days a week, the cheap 5 year old Wal-mart desk is showing its age.

I plan to use left over hardwood floors for the surface mounted to 1/2 mdf and 2x2 for the legs. My goal is to make a solid beautiful desk. I plan to use lag bolts, carriage bolts, bolts, and screws to hold it together. This desk will be 7'6" by 31" deep and 29" height.

If I do this right it's going to be a awesome desk. Wish me luck! Pics to come