When we moved in we just threw boxes into the garage. That works for a while, but it doesn’t scale very well. So today I built some shelves, from scratch. I went down to Home Depot and bought some lumber and screws and headed back home. Having the mitre saw from the tank stand project came in handy. We already had a corded drill from a previous project as well. Those two tools would cost a pretty penny if you had to buy them together.
1 lb. of 2 in. deck screws
$6.97
5 boards of 8 ft. @ 2×2
5 * $2.19 = $10.95
1 sheet of 8 ft. x 4 ft. 1/2 in. plywood
$18.88
4 boards of 8 ft. @ 2×3
4 * $1.74 = $6.96
Tax
$3.39
Total
$47.15
The first step of this project was to visit Home Depot to get the materials. To be honest, I didn’t find everything in one trip — it took about 3. If I’d planned a little more ahead of time, it would have worked out better. Since I don’t have a table saw or a circular saw, I had the guys at Home Depot cut the plywood for me. I made it easy on myself by deciding that 4 ft. wide by 18 in. deep shelves would be great. That meant they just had to make 5 18“ cuts and I’d be all set. Plus, the sheet wouldn’t fit in the car.
Once I got everything home I got to work cutting the 2×2 and 2×3 into the appropriate lengths. Each 2×3 was cut to 6ft. in length. Since boards come in standard 8 ft. lengths, and my shelves are 4 ft. wide, I could just cut the 2×2’s in half to get front & rear supports. Once everything was cut to size I put away the saw, got out the drill, and realized I needed shorter (2 in.) screws. The box I had was 3 in. — we’ll use those later. Screwing the shelves onto the supports is pretty simple: one on each end (not in the corner!) and one in the middle. Repeat on the other side, and you’re done.
Once that was done we laid down the 2×3’s and screwed in (time for those 3 in. screws!) the top and bottom shelves. Now that the two supports (back or front, whatever) are in we screwed in the rest of the shelves. Once that was all ready, we flipped it over and repeated with the other 2×3’s. At this point we stood it up to see how sturdy it was … or in this case, wasn’t. All the shelves tried to rotate about their one screw independently and made everything very unstable. The problem here is that I used 2×2’s for the front supports. That meant there was only room for 1 screw between the vertical and horizontal supports. One screw means they can pivot freely. Crap. The better way to have done this would have been to use 2×3 for the supports so that two screws could be used. Luckily we still had 4 x 2 ft. of 2×3. I quickly cut them down to 18 in. lengths and put supports on two of the shelves. That really stabilized the whole unit.
At that point Jess abandoned me. I got the pile o’ junk out of the way, put the shelving unit in place, and put all the boxes back on it. Everything looks much nicer now! To recap: shelves are very easy to build. This recipe isn’t quite as inexpensive as those plastic units you can get at your local home improvement store, but they’re much stronger and they’re custom fit. Plus it’s fun to build stuff! The total cost in materials came out to $47.15. Had I been smart and used 2×3’s instead of 2×2’s it would have cost $2.42 less and I wouldn’t need those dopey looking supports. Oh well, live and learn — I’ll get it right next time!
I’ve got some pictures of the tank coming out, and going in. Check it out.
Here we can see the garage in it’s post move-in state: stuff everywhere. Total mayhem. As we moved boxes and such off the truck we just threw stuff in the garage, wherever it landed. Jess and I paid for that this morning having to arrange everything. On the right you can see what about 20 minutes worth of arranging did for the garage.
You can see all the frags in those two trays near the front of the U-Haul. After that there are the two buckets of live rock on the left and right. In the middle is the bucket of sand. Everything in there is quite heavy. Once it was all in the springs on the truck stated getting awfully squeaky!
As you can see, the garage was nearly emptied with the tank out of it. It’s quite a sight! The garage hasn’t been that empty since we moved in 2½ years ago! We managed to cram all of the equipment related to the 220 (live stock, rock, stand, tank, sump, misc. equipment) into the 10′ U-Haul truck I rented. The picture on the website showed essentially a box on wheels. The truck we ended up with looked like the larger truck with “Mom’s Attic” and boxes for the wheel wells. That kind of screwed things up, but we made the best of it.
While I was out getting water Marla, Jess, and Charles got the stand where it should be and leveled everything out. You can’t quite see it, but on the left side of the stand there are some 2“ boards that are being used as shims. Yes, the garage has a 2” slope. And it’s got a slope going front → back, too! Once we had the stand and tank up Charles & Jess started playing with plumbing while I got the sand in. Once the sand was in we started pumping in the first load of water. By the time I got back with the second load a lot of the rock was in. We topped off the tank and they started putting critters in.
We moved in on the 15th. Yesterday was the 20th. In those 5 days I managed to forget to call SDG&E to say “Hey guys, leave the power on!” So, on the 20th a very nice man in a truck went to the back of our house, flipped a switch and put a zip-tied note on the meter. So I called SDG&E…
Me
n00b, stop hacking!
SDG&E
lolololol t3h sux0rz!
Me
stfu stupid n00b. fix this shit right now
SDG&E
roflmao PWNED!!!1!
Me
stfu! fix!
SDG&E
lol, not till next weds, NOOB lolol!!!!1!!!
Me
bribe?
SDG&E
403!
Me
“expedite” fee? “priority” fee?
SDG&E
brb
Me
… fucking n00bs…
SDG&E
120 gold to stop teh hax tomorrow
Me
stupid hackers, when?
SDG&E
9-930
Me
stupid n00bs
SDG&E
PWNED!!!!1!!!!! kthxbye
and this morning the same nice man came by with some wire cutters, clipped off the note, flipeed the switch and said “They charged you $120 for that? Lame-o”.
Lots of things. The flooring matters more than I thought. So does the neighborhood — not the schools, I don’t have brats, the vibe of the area and it’s available services. The available lighting is quite important. Heat and cold management is a big deal for me so I have to pay a lot of attention to that. There’s some more that’s important to me as well, check it out.
Flooring
The floor is obviously very important in a house. Concrete foundations are best for all uses since they’ve got a lot going for them. Weight considerations don’t apply: no need to be nervous about setting a 500g tank on a concrete foundation — it’ll take it. It’s also perfectly even, provided there aren’t any major cracks or roots or anything underneath. Finally, it feels very solid. That firm feeling contributes a lot to peace of mind, subconsciously.
The problem is that people tend to put carpet, or worse yet tile on concrete foundations. Tile has no place on interior floors, end of story. Trying to clean grout is nearly impossible and there’s better things to spend your time doing. Our current kitchen does have decent tile on the floor: the grout is maybe 2mm below the level of the tile. It’ll be relatively easy to clean up and can’t accumulate too much crud.
The correct application on top of concrete foundation is hardwood flooring. Hardwood is awesome for multiple reasons. Primarily, it’s pretty. Secondarily you get all the sock-sliding fun of linoleum or tile without all the ugly. Finally, hardwood was meant to be put on concrete, not floor boards. Floor boards warp and you end up with rolling hills in your house instead of outside. Concrete foundations are level unless there’s some root damage or you hired a retard. And for the love of God, don’t use some pretty-but-rare wood for your flooring, use something relatively eco-friendly. Also, buy some extra boards for when you need to replace any “problem areas”.
Cabling
There should be power outlets EVERYWHERE. This is the 21st century, 1 outlet per room is not OK! Having one outlet per wall is a good start, you may need to expand depending on the size of the wall/room. If you’re going to that trouble, do the safe thing and make the first outlet in the series a GFI. Wiring it correctly means that all the outlets down the chain are protected as well. This is a Good Thing ™.
Oh, and please, label the damn circuit breaker box. If I decide I want to add a ceiling fan at some point I don’t want to go through every circuit before finding the one for the right room. That just sucks. If possible, keep each room on it’s own circuit, with the garage getting it’s own as well. If you’re going to be doing heavy duty stuff in the garage (like, say, running a 220g aquarium) 2 circuits might be better. Ask an electrician, bitches.
There should be coax to every room. You’ll probably end up with at most 2 TVs, but it’s nice to have lots of options about where they go. Odds are pretty slim you’ll need to have two or more distinct runs of coax (e.g. if you needed 4 DirecTV dishes). If you decide to do this, make all the runs go back to a central point. Then, when you decide you just need one source (a la cable) you can buy some splitters and make them all one big circuit. Simple, no?
UPDATED: And for the love of God. If you decide that you don’t want certain outlets to work, don’t just cut the cables, disconnect them properly with a little note saying “These cables go to outlets X, Y, and Z.” Don’t be a dick.
Doors
Every door should open and close smoothly without getting stuck on the floor. This can be a problem with hard wood floors that have floorboards since they tend to warp over time. Every door should have a stopper either on the wall or on the door. End of story. All exterior doors should have lock knobs on the inside, not key-holes. Having to walk around the house with a key is just lame — and generally you can’t put a key in the inside key-hole and still have the exterior key-hole work. Lame++.
If you have more than one entrance, make the door closest to the parking the biggest. This is where you’ll be bringing in furniture, groceries and big items anyway. If that means you’ve got a big door out to the garage, and a nice big garage door, fine. Keep this pathway in mind when arranging hard to move appliances, like stoves and refrigerators.
Storage
Built-ins suck. They’re never the right size or shape for your stuff and they tend to make rooms darker. Not because the built-in itself is a black hole of despair, but because they don’t tend to be lit and you won’t put a lamp in front of them. Lame-o. If you want to hide a dresser in the closet, that’s fine. Don’t fall in to the “but the room looks so much bigger” trap. Sure, maybe it’s a bit bigger, but it’s a bigger dungeon.
Kitchen
Stainless steel appliances suck. They look pretty out of the box. About 5 seconds after that there are finger prints everywhere and they start to look funny. If you must have stainless steel appliances, make sure the faces are magnetic. Magnets on the fridge doors are fun. It’s a great place to put blackmail and such.
New appliances rock. They’re more energy efficient, they’re smarter, they’re (hopefully) quieter. I’m a decently tall guy (~ 6 ft) so tall appliances make the difference between my back killing me and not. The sink should have one of these cool cutting-board-over-the-disposal dealies. If you can pull it off, both sides of the sink should have disposals. Wire both disposals to the same switch, you should be fine. Further, sinks should be in-set so that you can just push stuff along the counter and into the sink.
Bathroom
Get one of those ultra-modern low-flow toilets. They work like magic. Just when you think nothing’s going away, FWOOSH it’s all gone. Fun for the whole family. Also, get a raised sink. It should be high up so you’re not breaking your back to use it. Again, get an in-set sink to make splashes and cleaning easier.
Make sure the water pressure to the shower is high enough. You may get a little wet while looking at places, but you’ll be upset if you end up in a low flow situation. If the flow is too low, ask the landlord (or whomever) if it can be adjusted. When it’s cold you’re going to want a lot of hot water on you righthefucknow!
The big-sheet-of-glass-instead-of-a-shower-curtain thing is OK. I’m actually neutral about this. On the one hand, cleaning it is very easy and it doesn’t try to cling to you like certain kinds of curtains do. On the other hand it restricts the shower’s water pressure, otherwise the splash won’t be contained. It also means you don’t get a tub. Tubs are fun, just ask your orgasm partner.
Bedroom(s)
Windows are good. Ceiling fans are good. Lack of exterior shade devices (trees, over-hangs, etc.) is not acceptable. Mirrored closet doors are not OK. The 80’s just called, they want their sense of style back. They don’t make the room look bigger, they make the cat try to fight itself. That’s funny as shit until the cat has a concussion.
Lights
Everywhere. Usually recessed. Use the funny purple bulbs that have a higher color temperature and give you good colors. That doesn’t mean that each fixture should be eighty bazillion watts, this is where you want a high quantity of low power bulbs. If you really love yourself (or your friends, or tenants, or whomever), get a sharpie or something and label the 3-way switches. If possible, leave at least 1 switch per room to run an outlet for user selected lights.
Heat
Heat management is the name of the game in San Diego. All windows must open and close. To that end, most windows should have screens on them so the cat doesn’t get out while you’re not looking and eaten by a goddamn coyote. That sucks.
Central air is nice, but cross ventilation is better. Both is best. Put some damn insulation in the walls. Insulation has come a long way and can do a lot to keep the hot side hot and the cold side cold. Unless you’ve got historic 1929 windows, get new double-pane Argon filled windows. They’re good for insulation, too. Of course, all this insulation really helps with keeping your energy bill down, our dependence on foreign oil down, and our troops home. Oh, sorry.
The Garage
Attached garages are better than detached. Detached is better than no garage. No garage isn’t an option. Put the laundry machines in the garage. Don’t put them in the house — they’re noisy. If you’ve got superb audio insulation, you might get a pass.
Insulate the garage, even in temperate areas. It sucks balls to walk from your nice warm house into the Arctic wonderland that is your garage, trying to find some warm socks the whole time. You may think “but there aren’t interior walls in a garage!” I know that. Build some. Then put up that peg board stuff so you can hang/zip-tie/whatever stuff to the wall.
This place is wonderful, it’s been basically rebuilt in the last few years and has a pretty decent location. I’ll have lots of pictures before we move in on Saturday!
UPDATED: with Zip+4 and the realization that I didn’t take lots of pictures before we moved in. That’d be dumb. I’ll have some photos of the place once we’ve unpacked and all that jazz. The only pictures I took were of existing problems with the house (cracks here and there, etc.)
Our first dive back in chilly waters. It’s almost been a month! We got parking right on Vallecitos St. — quite nice. Got geared up and headed out after fumbling with my car alarm for a while. Swam out for quite a while and dropped in to the muck. I had a bit of difficulty descending — I think my wet suit had more air in it than normal.
Once on the bottom we headed south (note: should have been southwest) and found relatively lame visibility along the way. We did find a thornback ray on the way. Since we’d gotten so turned around it took much longer than normal to find where we were going. Just as we hit the 1 ft. of visibility wall and Jess was about to call the dive, the water cleared up as far as our lights could see as we found the canyon lip. Right on the top of the lip was a baby horn shark guarding a california sea slug. Our first shark encounter! It was a cutie, 10 inches - 1 foot long.
We descended into the canyon and found a few more misc creatures. Nothing too amazing. While down there we did find a giant sheep crab skeleton, upside down, apparently in tact. While it could have been a molt, I doubt it. There was a fish living under it! Crazy. On the way out of the canyon and back along the flats we found a couple brown shrimp to play with. If Jessica keeps her HID near the sand to attract the plankton and I keep my halogen on the “low intensity” setting we can have them going in circles indefinitely! We got to play with one for a few minutes before getting bored and moving on.
Over all this was a fun dive, but our buoyancy sucked. We were both all over the place and it was pretty awkward. I think it’ll take us another few dives to get back to where we were. Darn. More diving!
Not that we’ve got anything invested in real estate. Our land lord has decided to sell the house we’re currently living in. The house across the street and down one is in escrow — they were asking $519k for a 1,631 ft2 4 bed / 2 bath house with a 1 car garage, deck/patio, and canyon behind the house. I think Mark is going to ask $525k for the ~ 900 ft2 2 bed / 1 bath house with a 1 car garage and giant scary windows and a little termite damage. I don’t think he’ll get it, but I don’t want to be around for realtors stomping through the place looking through it.
All of this just weeks after setting up the 220g and selling the 120g! Gah. I guess we’ll have to reduce our aquarium. We also need to sell the 55g ASAP to get it out of the way. And we need to find a place to live that will make an aquarium feasible. We both are quite spoiled paying very little rent ($1300/month) for our awesome house with it’s garage and large back yard and patio. Though it’s got some draw backs (the heat mainly) the benefits really outweigh them. It’ll be hard finding another place this nice for anything close to that rent.
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Once I got everything home I got to work cutting the 2×2 and 2×3 into the appropriate lengths. Each 2×3 was cut to 6ft. in length. Since boards come in standard 8 ft. lengths, and my shelves are 4 ft. wide, I could just cut the 2×2’s in half to get front & rear supports. Once everything was cut to size I put away the saw, got out the drill, and realized I needed shorter (2 in.) screws. The box I had was 3 in. — we’ll use those later. Screwing the shelves onto the supports is pretty simple: one on each end (not in the corner!) and one in the middle. Repeat on the other side, and you’re done.
Once that was done we laid down the 2×3’s and screwed in (time for those 3 in. screws!) the top and bottom shelves. Now that the two supports (back or front, whatever) are in we screwed in the rest of the shelves. Once that was all ready, we flipped it over and repeated with the other 2×3’s. At this point we stood it up to see how sturdy it was … or in this case, wasn’t. All the shelves tried to rotate about their one screw independently and made everything very unstable. The problem here is that I used 2×2’s for the front supports. That meant there was only room for 1 screw between the vertical and horizontal supports. One screw means they can pivot freely. Crap. The better way to have done this would have been to use 2×3 for the supports so that two screws could be used. Luckily we still had 4 x 2 ft. of 2×3. I quickly cut them down to 18 in. lengths and put supports on two of the shelves. That really stabilized the whole unit.
At that point Jess abandoned me. I got the pile o’ junk out of the way, put the shelving unit in place, and put all the boxes back on it. Everything looks much nicer now! To recap: shelves are very easy to build. This recipe isn’t quite as inexpensive as those plastic units you can get at your local home improvement store, but they’re much stronger and they’re custom fit. Plus it’s fun to build stuff! The total cost in materials came out to $47.15. Had I been smart and used 2×3’s instead of 2×2’s it would have cost $2.42 less and I wouldn’t need those dopey looking supports. Oh well, live and learn — I’ll get it right next time!
