Wild Weather

Last Saturday, I went to Louisiana to get Jacob for Christmas.  I knew it was supposed to be raining, but I wasn't at all thrilled to find that it was raining the entire way there.  There were long stretches of the trip where visibility was down to about 100 ft. Once I got to Jacob's house, it wasn't bad at all.  It was 73 degrees, a full 40 degrees warmer than Missouri, and the rain was down to a slight drizzle. We got him loaded up and we hit the road about 3:15.  We were just pulling into the south side of Ruston, Louisiana when it got very dark very fast.  My phone started blowing up with a tornado warning telling...

Read More

World Cup Excitement - Free Download

ATTENTION! If you downloaded the World Cup spreadsheet before June 21, 2014 then you have a copy that has errors.  A fixed version is now available for download here with scores filled out up to June 21 or for a blank version download this one. I apologize for the calculation error.  Technically, it's not my fault.  I originally built this spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel 2003.  Since the first round is a point system that breaks ties in points by goal difference and ties in goal difference by total goals scored, the formulas to determine the ranking for each group are surprisingly difficult to write.  I wrote formulas...

Read More

Is Self-Defense Biblical?

Photo Credit to funnycuteanimal.blogspot.com I recently got into an online discussion that prompted me to do some studying.  The discussion was about Luke 6:28-30, or at least it was initially.  As all conversations do, this one took many turns.  What started as a question (evidently not meant to be answered) became many statements of position from both the question's poser and a couple people, myself included, who read the question. Let's start with the scripture (NIV): 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes...

Read More

Cease and Desist

In a matter of only about 3 weeks, we've managed to get the deck from just a plan in our heads to almost a completed physical reality.  Considering the fact that I haven't taken any time off of work for its construction, I think 3 weeks is a really short amount of time for such a large construction project. Despite all of our best efforts, though, we can't do a whole lot about the weather.  Now, I didn't mind being out there working in the cold too much.  But, I can't work very well while the whole thing is covered up in snow.  I keep waiting for the snow to melt away.  This is the Ozarks, right?  I mean, it was...

Read More

10th Yeariversary

Yesterday, was Jodi's and my tenth yeariversary.  I've explained what a yeariversary is before, I'm sure, but to those of you who don't know: it's the anniversary to the day we met.  It started with weekiversary then transitioned to monthiversaries.  You get the idea. Why do we celebrate that day, you ask?  Probably, because it's pretty much when we fell in love.  I say 'pretty much' because love is more than just a moment of infatuation.  It's more than just a connection being made.  It's not a moment in time, so to speak.  You know exactly when you fell down the stairs.  Falling in love isn't...

Read More

The Whole Tomale

So, I couldn't resist.  Once I got to thinking about the photo that I could take from atop the garage roof, it was all over.  I knew that I could capture the whole thing and I hadn't really done that yet from any previous angles. So, I rather nonchalantly scaled the roof to our outdoor closet, quickly walked across the top of our garden wall, and stepped up onto the roof of the garage to get this photo.  Getting down, however, proved to be a bit more difficult.  My old fear of heights tried to revive itself.  It took me close to a full minute to get myself to step down the 5 or 6 inches onto the wall from the garage...

Read More

Really Coming Together

Just as the title states, the deck is really coming together.  I apologize for the fuzzy photos.  They were all taken in the dark. As of last night, I managed to knock out the last of the stairs.  Then, I got a great start on the privacy fence.  I got two sections done (minus the top part that will come later).  As you can see, Jodi was adding the first privacy boards to the fence and having a lot of fun doing it.  I love my home renovator wife. :) This is the part that I really like, because up until now, I've essentially been building a platform pedestal for us to be easily spotted from the street.  This...

Read More

Thanksgiving Deck

Sorry for slacking off with the updates.  This Thanksgiving was a success, I believe.  We hosted it at our house for my wife's family.  We also had some friends of ours and their children with us since they have no family in town.  It was fun and there was some great food, as always.  I ate a nice lunch and then found myself maintaining a fullness through 5 o'clock through random bites of the various dishes every 10 to 15 minutes. We got quite a bit accomplished with the deck over the long holiday weekend, though, not quite as much as I would have liked.  I'm notorious for underestimating the time it takes to...

Read More

Breaking Bits

So, I have been using these Phillips deck screws and they're great. They're very strong. I like them. BUT, I have been tearing up bits left and right. I finally got a #2 Phillips driver bit that advertises that is lasts 5 times as long (I forget what brand). Well, I agree with their advertising.  I used the junk out of that thing and it never even showed wear.  However, all of a sudden like, the tip snapped off at an angle.  Time for a new bit.  You served me well, though, little bit.  I'll be getting another just like you. Unfortunately, the broken bit signaled the end of my decking installation tonight....

Read More

Lazy Sunday on Deck

It doesn't appear that I got much done. It's because I kind of didn't. I didn't get started till almost 2 and I needed to come in and eat and feed the children just after 5 so I only really pulled out 3 hours worth of work. Perhaps some real construction pros are reading this and are like "that should've been enough to finish it." Well, not for me. I got all the posts cut, notched, drilled, and bolted to the deck where they belong. Earlier today I posted a blog and I said my goals were to get the posts installed and get a good start on the decking.  I suppose I met my goals if you consider a "good start" to be screwing down two...

Read More

Quick Deck Update

Well, this is the deck as of yesterday's improvements.  I had more on my list to do, but I also did some things that needed done that weren't on the list.  So, I'm still good. Notice that the stairs are in and worked out perfectly. They fell JUST below the door just as planned. Also, I added all the perimeter boards. I got all the tall posts for the privacy fence notched out and predrilled and ready to install. One is in, which you can see on the far left. Four more to go. Then seven more short ones. So, today, I plan on having all the posts installed and I want to have a good start on the decking.  I'll have a limited...

Read More

Door Glass Replacement

As I mentioned in a previous post a couple months back, I found these brand new replacement windows for our double doors in the back of our house.  I never did show the before and after of that little project.  But, it's never too late. The installation went very well throughout the whole process.  I did have to make some adjustments to the doors as the glass was slightly too tall and about three quarters of an inch shy from being the correct width.  So, I filled the gap with a strip of wood along the side and I cut into the door to make the opening tall enough for them.  Then, it was just a matter of trimming them...

Read More

Ran Out Of Deck Puns For Blog Titles

Well, it's Thursday now.  I was supposed to have had all the joists in and the upper stringers done.  But, alas, I have yet to touch a stringer.  I did, however, get all the joists done.  And, they look great! What set me back a bit was not having the material with which to make the stringers.  So, I moved on to planning out the decking.  We're going with the pattern pictured here. (No, this is not our deck)  The boards will make squares wrapping around the tree that comes up through our deck.  So, we'll have four lines of connection points as you see here radiating out from the tree.  The problem...

Read More

Stacking the Deck

So, last night, I commenced to adding joists to our deck in progress.  This is the part that I really love since it really shows it coming together.  I worked from almost 4:00 until 10:30 stopping only to eat a quick dinner and then get the children ready for bed and in bed. Getting the joists up really shows how big it actually will be.  Jodi and I sort of like to do things big.  I mean, if you're going to do something, why not do it big, right?  Go all out.  I can almost guarantee you that I won't be saying later "Man, I wish we would've made this deck bigger."  Conversely, I can't imagine any scenario...

Read More

All Hands On Deck!

The time has finally arrived!  We will now commence to building the deck.  Oh, how we have looked forward to this day.  As a matter of fact, we started planning the design of our deck shortly after the renovation of the back room of our house back in January '08.  You should definitely go and check out that blog because it has a pretty good slideshow of the before and (almost) after of that project. The renovation of that back room changed the layout of how one exits our house from the back.  This path was originally through the back door located in the kitchen then through and out through the side of the mudroom. ...

Read More

Gender-Neutral Parenting

Gender vs. Sex. Have you ever thought about it?  Have you considered the differences between the two words?  Well, some have and while it seems that the vast majority of people haven't given it much thought at all, there is a very small but growing faction of those that have apparently thought about it so much that they've filled the thought quota for the rest of us. The words 'gender' and 'sex' are used interchangeably throughout our culture.  Though, according to some sources, it is said that sex is biological and therefore more black and white, while gender is sociological and better thought of as a scale. They say that...

Read More

I Love Weekends

We had a pretty productive weekend.  It was nice to be around the house and do some fun things.  I started it out by drafting up a long "to do" list on Friday.  I knew that there was not much of a chance that I would get even half of it done, but I thought that having it all on there would help to give me choices as to what project was best for any particular moment. Lyric had a soccer game at 9:00 for which the weather was hardly ideal.  It was cold and everything was wet from the overnight rain.  The kids played great, though, and walked away with a 11-0 win. Shortly after the game, the sun came out and dried...

Read More

Grouponitis

My friend Ralph and I were having a discussion a while back and he said something profound that made me think about it several times since then.  He pointed out the problem with using Groupon to market your business. He explained that when consumers use Groupon for a product or service, they may feel good about the deal that they just received, but they also will likely associate that good or service with the price that they paid.  Here lies the problem.  If you get a nice meal for your family for $30 at a restaurant you've never been to before, you likely won't feel good about visiting that restaurant again at a later date...

Read More

Home Renovators!

Almost everyone who knows us, also knows that we are DIY home renovators.  But, what is a DIY home renovator?  What does that mean?  Allow me to explain. We are a rare breed of human.  We're superhuman.  We aren't natural.  We're supernatural. We see into the future.  We don't gaze upon the work to be done, we visualize the finished result.  We peer into the possibility of a potential project and see what others cannot.  With our house, even our realtor tried to talk us out of it.  "Too much work", she said.  Scoff.  Quiet thy tongue, mortal.  This is our destiny. We walk...

Read More