Time at the Desk.....

The desk is done....done but for a few final lights etc that I am waiting on.... but done enough to start using as my desk again.... It has air vents, a feature often missing from 50 year old furniture, showing a distinct lack of foresight regarding the cooling requirements of computers...

So I ended up spraying the inside panels and the ones that face the wall too, probably no need, but it would bug me to know they weren't....

so it is a little bit Dr Who's Tardis a bit steam/cyber punk and quite functional.

So the sound system for the PC is now inside the cupboard, still a bit messy as I need to get extension cables for the speakers to move them up underneath the sliding shelf...and at the moment I am using a battery powered night light to illuminate the green glass, but that will be replaced by 240v LED strips, that will go underneath too....just waiting for it to arrive from OS...

A wireless keyboard and mouse keep the cables to a minimum.... the flip out mouse case is out of an old sewing cabinet...I will eventually line it with foam and black velvet to make a safe mouse hole. There will be a final polish and when I am happy with the door and drawer they will get a seal coat, maybe with a crackle finish. But for now it looks like it belongs...

Halves......

Got about half what I wanted to get done, but that's not to bad since a few set-backs slowed things up. A broken hole saw and a shelf that wouldn't budge without a large lever and a ton of brute force....also changed plans mid way through and decided to paint some things i was going to.

I decided that in addition to the holes for cables it might need a few speed holes....

Of course that made things a bit rough looking.....so paint became a good idea.

Might just leave it black for now.....Kind of like the look of it..... So I am going to do the underneath too.... Hopefully the stuff I ordered from Hong Kong turns up soon, so I can finish the tech parts.

Finished the door....well as close as it is getting this month....I may do a few more detailed layers after the other projects are done....and the desk it self is finished....

The door is a bit busy on its own....but in the desk it is more subtle, well as subtle as a glowing green light surrounded by cogs can be. Ordered some LED's that work off 240v, so I will have a very big nightlight to keep the bogeyman at bay....

Fumes.....

The plan was to complete a project today....instead I have been working on a few and sharing the destruction and paint around. Found the worlds most hideous valet chair....I like a challenge.

It is horrible but I think it can be saved.....Leather and paint and a tweak or ten.... Also started work on my computer desk....Well started on the destruction phase anyway....It started like this....

I made a door and drawer for it a while ago....nothing fancy just pine.....So i am now going to give it a bit more character and tech bits....But first the saw and proper old fashion measuring and cutting stuff.

Wish I had paid a bit more attention in school, but Internet to the rescue on how to find the centre of a circle....and speed and accuracy with the jigsaw is probably an acquired skill, a few more holes and I might be a bit quicker with it.

Running out of time to do anymore before pick up the kids o'clock...So a quick undercoat and back into my school run clothes....

Starting work on the design for the door and drawer now....This will be done in quite a few layers...So I am spray painting the first few to speed things along. A bit messy but I think it will look right by the time I get to the hand painted bit....

Layer 2 is spray paint in satin black cogs....and then while it is still wet Layer 3 is stippled with a brush, this is not for any reason other than impatience....tonight I will dig through some boxes and see if I have any metallic model paints....

Nine o'clock and layer four is done....might leave it there for tonight. Austin Powers is on TV in fifteen minutes, the kids are in bed and I have a bottle of wine in the fridge....Time to put the feet up and relax....

Never on a Sunday.....

No projects today as it was market day....A very slow day at the markets.... I was even in danger of spending more than I made, but a few sales late in the day put me in the black...  and I got another boxed vectrex and games, which is a bit like money in the bank...stupid impulse purchase of the day....old mannequin.... disturbingly now wearing a star trek uniform, and also need to find it a place to stand where it stops scaring the crap outta me when I forget it is there....

Worried I will have taken it too far if i stick a phaser in his hand. Going to throw myself into sorting mode for the next couple of days, the house is stressfully disorganised...to the point where it's a bit embarrassing. So weather dependant projects aside, sort toss and sell is the plan for this week....

Hard rubbish days are the devil!!!! I need a project intervention, or at least a picking up junk patch....Got some items that I am really not sure about, or at least not sure what to do with them yet items. I will just focus on the items I have a clear vision for first, and maybe that will help me come up with a plan for the other pieces....

Life on Mars.....

Only one project today....in that lazy mood that strikes before a Sunday market... Quick sand and clean-up and a bit of oil and elbow action, and if you wander into the hall drunk you will get the feeling you are back in 1974....

Framed!!!!.....

Spring came and went....It is frosty today....So I switched to indoor projects, well I switched to sitting around drinking coffee with my father, well green tea.... and started on the interesting frame I found last week.... Not a big job but a delicate one...

Getting the glass out was a delicate job, with a bit of nervous pliers work required to get at the pins that held it in. So the glass is out and clean....Didn't want to break it as it is the original glass by the look of it....So all the rusty hardware removed and the old painted finish removed from the two wood sides, sanded and ready for paint....Many years of tarnish removed from the brass sides, which took way longer than expected.

Derailed by lack of masking tape that is where the job ended today.... The big trick will be what to put in it when its done?

A Fair Exchange of Ideas.....

Maybe I should make a list of furniture that's days are numbered....There are some items in the house that scream compromise.... I am sick of so many items in this house, but financial constraints require financial restraint.

So I will continue the swap system that is working well at the moment....find new piece...sell the item it replaces. The latest furniture freebie is a sideboard thing in a Parker-esqe style, not totally in love with it, but I will clean it up and sand it down and give it a coat of danish oil... It can then replace something I don't like....

Other find of the day....an iMac G3....A bit of a design classic in its own right. Not sure what it will be, selling it doesn't appeal.... I have been doing a bit of research and upgrading it a bit is very easy... Ram is very cheap, a new hard drive and a few other tweaks and it might make a interesting media centre.

One of the mothers at school might also have the mouse and keyboard from her original one that she will give me for free....If so I will keep it and pimp it a bit....

More of the Same....

Odd weekend....Ups and downs....Finally got to go to markets and get some money...Had the ex in my house being awkward and sad....Made enough at markets to get the bills paid, now just need to get the savings back in the black....She may want the occasional weekend off but it can really play havoc with my income...I can only earn dollars on the weekend and only good dollars if the weather is v.good...Maybe I should take the same attitude about my work that she does about hers....it comes first...because it sucked being that close to broke. And the lack of $$$ slowed down buy materials for the next few projects.... A backlog that needs to be cleared fast. I have drawn up a budget for each piece and a timeline...just to make sure each is financially worthwhile, meaning will the end product sell for more than the cost of producing it? Yes it will.... Hard rubbish day has now started in Lawson, some v.good finds today, some amazing vintage frames and a great mirror stand...The mirror stand was found today but has moved up the project list to next, as I have a very good idea of what it should become...This will either work v.well or not at all, no middle ground here.

 It was a weekend full of other peoples problems derailing my plans, I am not coping well with that... But on the upside I got my first every real fathers day, with a card and present...Made me v.happy and v.sad that my Son had to be eight years old before that happened.

The side table will also be mostly done by end of the week I hope.... Got a bargain Dremel type multi tool cheap, so I can get on the de-construction part. Did a bit of a mock up to see if the look I was thinking about...So a bit of balancing a some black electrical tape and I am happy to move on to the next step...



That wont fit me....

Feeling a little uncomfortable in my own house at the moment....Markets in the morning....Not a v.productive day...not a bad day....just not real productive....Baked lunch has filled the belly and a little drawing filled the book of round things a little bit more....

Welcome to Man Land.....

Thursday's things found, a nice foam mattress that I intend to go with an electric carving knife, to fit in the back of the cruiser....4 Dining chairs.... I really don't like the 40's walnut ones I have now....The other Bose speaker (that i picked up the working one of on Monday), with a damaged cone.....and a 50's dressing table that is delightfully ugly to everyone one else, but I have a few ideas that might turn it into the newest addition to man land....

I had driven past it a few times this week, today I got out to have a look....it was a lot more attractive closer up....the veneer is about 2.5mm thick, Sycamore and walnut.... It is missing one drawer, but the removable back panel is made of the same thing as the missing drawer....Strangely it is the incompleteness of the item that has given me the idea of how to make it something more than it is....The problem is the solution....very zen.