Built-In Dresser

It's been several years now since this photo was taken, but it sure doesn't seem like it.  This is a much younger Lyric playing with his play tools.  When we originally built the stairs to the attic we recognized that there would be a nice little usable space under them accessible from Lyric's bedroom.  Our idea was to have a little book nook complete with an overhead reading light.

That's just what it was for quite a while, albeit an unfinished one, but recently we decided to reinvent the space.  The original room was the largest in the entire house at 13' x 16' so we didn't feel bad about stealing some space from it to put in the staircase and a hallway to the bedrooms.  However, we are also enclosing an HVAC system into a closet in this room.  That system will service the second and third floors.  Even after we steal this additional space, it still leaves the room at roughly 10'x12', so it is still a generous bedroom size.  But, we thought we'd use that extra bit to its fullest potential with the next owners in mind.

So, we pulled out the light, disconnected and terminated the wiring within the junction box, roughed in some heavy duty drawer slides using 2x4 lumber and started putting together drawers and a drawer face.

I used some drawer facing boards that I got for free on Craigslist years ago.  Youth Of The Ozarks (YOTO) Thrift Store had been given a container-full of brand new cabinet scratch and dent stuff and mis-sized doors that they knew they couldn't sell so they were giving it all away for free.  Jacob and I spent a good hour filling the 8-foot bed of my truck with perfectly good material.  There were several other people there, as well, filling their trucks, vans, and cars to the brim.  The container was unloaded and cleaned out in no time.

I made the top three drawers by attaching two desk drawers together side by side.  There was a nice solid wood desk at work that was unwanted.  If no one wanted it, the manufacturing engineers were going to destroy it and toss it in the dumpster.  Of course, I wanted it.  And, they were almost perfect for the space.  The bottom three drawers were built from high-grade finished cabinet plywood from the truckload I mentioned earlier.

All in all, we only paid a few dollars for this built-in dresser.  We bought the pulls back in 2008 for 50 cents each at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I bought the screws and wood glue I used at some point.  But, the rest was all free.  I love the way that it turned out.  And, it's a ton of storage.  These drawers are 32" wide and 33" long.  I love creative and practical use of space.

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For Sale

Well, it's time.  We bought this home back in February of 2007 and have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into the thing.  We love it.  We always did.  But, it's come a long way.

If you've been following my blog for any length of time then you know just what a trip this place has been.  But, it's been totally worth it.  Now that we've put it out there on the market, it's a little sad for us.  Just a little, though.  We're still focused on getting all the last little things wrapped up and done so our minds are mostly preoccupied.  AND, selling the home has been our goal throughout the process, so it shouldn't come as any surprise to us when it happens.

One thing we did this last week that we're very excited about and busy with is our new storage unit.  I rented a 10x20 unit so that we could do a partial move-out.  We want to stage every room and get them as uncluttered as possible.  The rooms we live in aren't that hard to stage, but every storage space in the house is full of our stuff.  EVERY storage space and there's a lot.

So, we began the process of loading up our things we don't absolutely have to have at our house right now.  Three truckloads have been taken so far.  And, let me tell you, I'm great at stacking things in a storage unit.  We have tons of more space available which is good because we're hardly done.

The end product will be a lovely, spacious and inviting home in every area.  We will even have lovely closets.  :)

Please let people know about our home for sale.  We are doing a "For Sale By Owner" and would like to create an incentive to get people to share by word of mouth.  So, whomever the buyer names as the person who told them about the property, we'll pay them $1,000.  So, tell everyone you know.

I created a website for the property at 1036WestScott.com

And, we have it listed on Zillow.com, as well.

Wish us (and yourself) good luck!

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I'm Not Color Blind

You:  "Wait.  Didn't you just write a blog back in November stating that you were color blind?"

Me:  "Yup."

You:  And, now, you're saying that you're not?"

Me:  "Yup."

You:  "Explain."

Me:  "Glad to."

I'm surprised that I actually let that negative statement slip out of my mouth in the first place.  It's amazing what curses we put on ourselves out of habit, really.  I've been saying it most of my life actually.  But, I've decided to change all that going forward for two reasons.

First of all, I believe that our words have power beyond what we know and that they change things that we cannot see.  The Bible mentions the power of words a lot.  They not only destroy and cause damage but build up and bring healing.  Matthew 12:36 explains that we'll all be held accountable for all the words that we speak in our lifetime.  If they were inconsequential then there would be no need to be held accountable for them.  Now, don't let this get you down.  In case, like me, you've let your mouth run around unbridled in the past, there are such things as salvation, grace, and forgiveness that God freely offers, as well.  Thank God for that.  It's all very clear that we are in certain need of it.

That said, I'm no longer going to curse myself by claiming color blindness.  Instead, I'm claiming the truth.  I don't see black and white.  I never have.  I see colors just fine.  Now, in the past, I have struggled with certain colors on the spectrum.  However, I believe that I am being healed of that, which brings me to my second reason.

About a month ago, Jodi attended a conference at our church that was about healing and activating people to pray for strangers for physical healing.  I had just written the aforementioned blog the week prior to this conference taking place.  I had taken the color-blindness test twice that I linked to on that blog and both times had received the result: Strong Protan.

Fast forward to Jodi coming home from the conference and praying for my eyes.  She had me take the test again and I received the result: Medium Protan.  That's an improvement!  So she prayed again.  She had me retake the test.  I received the result: Mild Protan.  Boom!  Another level of improvement!  We repeated this 5 or 6 more times and I continued to receive Mild Protan as the result every time.

So, I may not be completely healed, yet.  But, what I have accepted to believe is that God was showing me something even more important than a specific color wavelength.  He was showing me that He has the power to heal, that He wants to heal, AND that He wants to reinforce the truth in me that He has given us a level of verbal power, as well.  I feel like He didn't completely heal me because He's also given me the charge to heal myself and others.

I've claimed color blindness for three decades  30 years, I've been using that God-given power incorrectly.  No more.  I'm not color blind.

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Christmas (A Celebration of the Creator)

It floors me that I grew up in church, here in the "Bible Belt" even, and somehow never put it together that Jesus was around for Creation Week.  Perhaps, I was just a bad listener back in the days of Bible School?  I'm not sure.  At any rate, I've come to realize the truth of Colossians 1:16.

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.

With Christmas only days away, I thought it only appropriate to have a Christ-centered blog to write.  I think that most of my confusion on the eternal Jesus started with my understanding of Christmas being the birth of Jesus.  Naturally, I treated His birth as being His beginning.  But, scripture shows that this was not so.  John 1:1 puts it this way.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

So, Jesus created the earth and everything in it.  The Holy Trinity is definitely a little difficult for us to understand at times.  This verse says three things:

1. Jesus was in the beginning already.
2. Jesus was with God.  (in other words: distinct from, yet connected to)
3. Jesus is God.

This blows our little finite minds.  But, this is a pillar of Christian (and Biblical) theology.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all the same God yet distinct from one another.  1+1+1=1 in this case.

Recently, I saw this article on Google News.  There's been a lot of speculation about life on Mars in the scientific community and all sorts of things are being tossed around as possibilities.  This article tried to summarize what the scientists all agree upon.  I don't know if you can make out the text in the photo but is says this:

For lifeless chemical compounds to organize themselves into something alive, scientists generally agree, three sets of things must be present.

■ Standing water and an energy source.

■ Five basic elements: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus and nitrogen.

■ And time, lots of time.

I would like to point out that which has been pointed out by many already and yet is still not very well known.  Invoking "lots of time" as a supposed catalyst for creating life is transferring Creation from God to a mindless randomness.  It is, in essence, creating a new god.  Because, to believe time and chance created all we know, is done so with faith, faith in time and chance.  It robs the true and only God of Creation of the glory that only He deserves.

What I find ridiculous is that anyone with any amount of education could so easily fall for the illusion that time is a solution to bettering one's chances. 

A simplified model can make the somewhat difficult model easier to understand, so I'll give you a simple one.  Suppose there are three overturned cups like in the photo to the right and I put a coin under one of them.  I ask you to choose one.  Obviously, you have a 1 in 3 chance in choosing the one with the coin.  Suppose you got it wrong.  Then, without changing anything, I ask you to choose again.  Now, your chances have become better because, as an intelligent being, you won't pick the same cup you did previously.  Thus, you will have increased your chances of choosing the cup hiding the coin to 1 in 2.

Notice that this model has a requirement of an intelligence being present in order to have an increase in the odds of success.  If the exact same scenario ensued, but I made you turn around while I rearranged the cups after you initially got it wrong, then your odds would remain 1 in 3 regardless of how many times we repeated the exercise.

Now, with 1 in 3 odds, it is likely that sooner or later you'll pick the correct one.  But, that doesn't transfer to impossible odds.  This is where people get confused.  If your chances are 1 in a million, and those chances never get any better, it's a very safe bet that you'll never get it right regardless of the amount of time you dedicate to trying.

Scientists that propose time does in fact help the chances of life creating itself, have to first propose that there is a chance that it could happen in the first place.  In 1953, the Miller-Urey experiment attempted to prove the possibility and they failed.  With all the advances we've made since then, it's still not ever been shown that life could be created by time and chance.  Yet, articles like this one show that somehow, despite all knowledge and logic, the scientific community still insists that it is a possibility.  Why?  Because, all of their models are based on the assumption that it is.  And, wouldn't that turn out to be a foolish waste of resources?

The author of the article makes it known that "scientists generally agree" that "time, lots of time" can replace intelligence in the equation.  Furthermore, all involved assume that water, an energy source, and a list of some basic elements all happened to exist in a suitable environment just to start this impossible scenario.  They don't even bother to try to explain where the elements originated, how they were organized or why they adhere to natural laws of molecular structure.  For that matter, where did the laws of nature originate?  Can laws of physics organize themselves?

Attempting to create origin models without God the Creator only leaves one having to build models on assumptions that defy all known logic.  Make no mistake.  God the Father created all things through Jesus Christ.  So, this Christmas, celebrate Jesus who not only was born in a manger, not only died on a cross, not only substituted himself for all of our shortcomings so that we could be reconciled to the Father, but also created you, the earth, and everything in it.

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Health Insurance (Wealth Redistribution)

I know I've discussed this before, so sorry if you've heard it before.  But, I've got to get something off my chest.

We live in a free country, so we're told.  But, I have been threatened to be fined by my government if I continued to decline purchasing health insurance for myself.  I went without health insurance for years and I'm no worse off then I was when I had it.  And, neither are my fellow citizens.  I didn't use any medical services nor did I require any.

Now, maybe you're asking sarcastically "Well, aren't you lucky?".  My answer is "no".  I'm not lucky.  I'm healthy.  I choose healthy eating habits and healthy foods and pay for them with my own earned money.  I use products to maintain my health that I purchase with my own earned money.  I feed my children good foods and encourage physical activities for them some of which are organized and I pay for with my own earned money.  I limit my children's time to be inactive.  I'm an active guy because I choose not to be an inactive slob.

I'm a responsible human being with my health and with the health of those in my charge.  How am I rewarded for this?  I get used.  As demonstrated here in this snippet from personalhealthinsurance.com, my government "mandated" (made mandatory, a.k.a. forced) me to buy insurance.  Why?  Because, they know I won't use it.  The money I pay in, therefore, can be used by the insurance companies, to pay for other people's bills.  It "dilutes" the risk (reduces the risk, a.k.a makes more profitable) for the insurance company.

So, insurance companies, who already make up a billion dollar industry, are going to be able to make more money with less financial risk.  According to this same site, "Fortunately, the insurance market will be different by then (2014), ... insurance prices should begin to decrease." (emphasis added).

So, we healthy people are forced to join in the fray so that they can use our funds.  If we don't join in, they will forcefully take our funds.  Either way, they take our money and give it others.  But, at least the price will come down in 2014, right?  Because the market will be different by then, right?  No.  As the House of Representatives were told by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius back in March, "Health insurance rates in 2015 are likely to increase."  And, they have.

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I'm Color Blind

I've never blogged about this before.  I don't tell very many people this.  It's not that I'm ashamed or anything, but I have experienced that when someone learns that I am color blind the very next thing that happens almost invariably is they begin to point at things in the room and test me.  And, not surprisingly, they always pick out the most primary colorful items.

I'm not offended by this or anything.  I completely understand how color-blindness is a fascinating thing.  The struggle for me is how to explain as someone who is color blind to someone who isn't how what we see is different.  I see colors.  And, I can make out primary colors quite well (I call them Crayola colors).  But, it's the shades of colors that start messing with me the most.  My ability to differentiate between colors exponentially decreases as colors break away from being primary and start taking on shades of other colors.  Take the example above.  I found this photo on a guy's blog about color blindness.  Both images look exactly the same to me.  I mean, exactly the same.  As a matter of fact, I would believe that they were exactly the same if not for the comment section on that blog where people were blown away that the author couldn't see any differences in the two images.  Apparently, that author is even less color blind than I am because he said he did notice a slight difference between the red shirt in each photo (duller in the right image), but that he wouldn't notice that difference if the two images were not right next to each other for comparison.  I, on the other hand, see no difference even with him pointing it out.

I found this test on Google images.  I can tell you that I see an obvious 25 in the upper-left circle of each set, a fairly easy 56 in the middle-right circle of each set, and a very-slight 20 (or maybe 28?) in the upper-right circle of the left set only.  Aside from those, if there is a number in the other circles, I am unaware of it no matter how hard I look.

So, you may be wondering how this has affected my life.  And, I can tell you a few things for which I know I am at a disadvantage.  I hate clothes shopping.  Before Jodi graciously agreed to marry me, I bought almost exclusively jeans and t-shirts.  I understood that you could always match those two items so that was my entire wardrobe.

Laser pointers don't work with projected PowerPoint presentations.  Presenters are very fond of standing off to the side of the screen and saying things like "This and this makes this over here do that thing you see right there."  The audience then all in unison says "Oh, okay" and start scribbling notes about the amazing thing they just learned because they must have seen a bright glowing dot moving to the tune of the presenter's voice.  I just growl under my breath because the screen is full of information and I have no idea what is being talked about.  There is no dot.

Also, red text on blue background, or blue on red, or red on green, or green on red, or orange on green.  Or many other ridiculous color combinations are illegible.  I can't see them.  And, seriously?  Some of them I can make out that there's something there but I get almost dizzy trying to read it.

People ask me sometimes how I tell between a green light and a red light when I'm driving.  Well, the red one is on top.  Sheesh.  They are right to ask though.  I can't nonchalantly glance at the light while texting 'LOL' to my bestie.  I have to actually look at it to see which light is lit.  Some small towns will have just a single blinking light and I have no way to distinguish the blinking red from a blinking yellow.  Likewise, late at night, even in Springfield, Division Street will all go to blinking lights at a certain hour.  I know which ones are blinking red and which ones are blinking yellow by memory.  Yes, I have driven right through a red one before.

Back in the 90's, those cheap low-profile disk cones became popular to use for soccer practices instead of the traditional cone-shaped tall ones.  I could spot the tall ones by their shape and their height above the grass.  These stupid things were invisible unless I stepped on one.  I can't count the number of times I would dribble out of bounds and wonder why everyone was looking at me like I was stupid when I just kept on going like the ball was still in play.

Some electronics don't properly communicate their intended message to me as they were designed to do.  For example, I have two battery chargers for my Canon camera batteries.  I prefer to use the one that has a charge indicator light and a separate full indicator light.  The other one has one indicator light that shines amber while charging and green when charging is complete.  Maybe, everyone else distinguishes those two with ease, but I don't.  I have to study it for a few seconds and then make a judgement call.

I found a pretty cool website for a company that makes sunglasses that supposedly help correct color blindness.  They range from $380 to $460.  I took their test and got these results.  Notice that I tested as a "Strong Protan"?  Also notice that their recommendation has a disclaimer that these glasses may not be fully effective for me as a strong protan.  I wouldn't ever buy a pair of color-blindness-correction glasses, but it would be neat to try a pair out to see what they do and if they help at all.

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Les placards sont finis!

Translation:  The closets are finished!

This makes the third time that I have blogged about these closets and for good reason.  We started this project a year and a half ago.  It didn't take but a day or two and I had the closets all framed up nice and solid, but it would take 18 more months to finally be able to sit back on our bed and admire their completion.  But, as they say, something worth having is something worth waiting for.

I spent the weekend quite determined to get all the trim work done.  And, I'm proud to say that it is, in fact, done.  I was a bit nervous to start cutting into the crown trim.  It can be a trick to make sure that you get the angles just right, but I've come to the conclusion that all my previous trial and error on previous projects has served itself well.  I have now come to the place of cutting crown with confidence.

I'm sorry for the grainy picture.  It's certainly not worthy of a true "after" photo.  But, rest assured, I will make sure to get a proper one soon that we will use for our listing.  In the meantime, it works for the purpose of this up-to-the-minute home improvement blog update.

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