Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Month: September 2022

The right tool for the job.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on The right tool for the job.

So I recently discovered that our aged, and busted dryer vent cover was not put in place properly the first time. Instead of being held in place with masonry screws due to the brick/concrete combo, it was glued in place with silicone. So now I needed to pull off the broken cover shards, scrape away the silicone, and then mark & drill four proper holes to mount the new cover. Sounds easy enough. Well I don’t have any masonry bits. I don’t have a dedicated hammer drill, I have a combo from Black & Decker that’s seen some hard wear in the last three to five years. No good. So I grabbed a 6 amp hammer drill from Canadian Tire on sale no less, down from regular $129.99 to $59.99!, and the masonry screws I’d need and pow! 90 seconds later and all four holes are drilled to depth. Nice! Worked like a charm. 5/32 bit to set some 3/16th concrete screws. Love it. It feels great when a plan comes together.

But here’s the kicker, in between finding the 1/4 inch socket from the set, putting it on my impact driver via adapter, and walking from the garage to the yard I lost the gods be damned socket. I heard no clatter. It’s a tiny 1/4 socket so it wouldn’t clang very loudly if at all, more like a ‘ting’ sounds if that. So boo. My 1/4 socket has disappeared into the shrubs, the grass or flipped into an alternate dimension. I retrace my steps five/six times, and bubcous. Damn! But the drill came with some assorted bits, one of which is a 1/4 inch so I plugged that into my driver and away I went. Another 90 seconds and all four concrete screwbolts are locked in nicely. Spend more time looking for the damn socket than actually fixing my dryer vent issue. I’m happy and annoyed. Strike one more item from the list of things to-do, but lost a socket I’ve never used before, and may never use again. At least it wasn’t my 10mm. Ha!

Water Softener Salt.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Water Softener Salt.

The unit had run dry, and today I added 176lbs of Saflo cubed salt to the softener and it didn’t even reach the max fill line. We really have to get a tech out here to stop this thing recharging twice daily, as I’m using four to six bags of salt per month, per month! That’s insane. Waters soft as all get out though. Silky smooth hair and shampoo that froths up like a glob of horny horse goo. But still, that’s just too much salt per month.

Trying to think on what to do today. I dropped the kids off at school, then grabbed the salt I needed. Even remembered to pick up a new dryer vent cover for the exterior of the house. Was even going to take the old one down and add the new one. But as it would turn out, the original was glued in place with construction adhesive and silicone, and has no screw holes or screws/bolts to hold it in place. So I need to find a hammer drill and suitable bolts/screws/fasteners to be able to attach it. Add it to the list. I picked up some new blades too, always handy to have sharp exacto blades at the ready. Bought a larger hacksaw as mine is very petite, and no good for anything beyond small brass rods I use to pin resin model kits together.

It’s hard to describe it, but the living room now feels peaceful since I put the shelf unit in yesterday, and spent an hour or two cleaning up. It won’t last, it never does, but for the moment I feel at ease in the space. Which I haven’t done in ten weeks or more. I probably should have given it another few days to finish off gassing both the stain and wax polish finish. But it’s not awful, and the peace of mind is almost zen like. I can see the floors again. I didn’t step on any toys and injured my foot before school. I didn’t kick a thing, my toes (this far) are un-dinged. Blissful. I do have a stack of recycling to tackle that’s about 18 inches tall though.

The dreaded previous school years work to be sorted & recycled.

Sooner I start the sooner more paid work will come in, so there is that to look forward to. Sent out a couple invoices this morning. Have a big one outstanding elsewhere that’ll come one once I start to get about it. With more work to come, and more invoices left to send. Glorious!

I did four loads of laundry yesterday, and did the main floor vacuuming then too. So Domestic Duties Monday is a bit easier today. I’ll hit the toilets with some cleaners and a scrub brush. Give the sink & tub a once over, and call it a day. We have after school extra curriculars now, so I have newly reinstated chauffeur duties to attend to again. Oh joy! Kids. Gotta love’em. Ciao Bella!

The Big Reveal Day.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on The Big Reveal Day.

We managed to get a substantial coat of wax on the shelf unit yesterday, and we’ve given it twenty four hours to dry, and now I’m going to bring the shelf unit inside and begin to tidy up the living room and all of the loose toys. We have canvas bins that will fit nicely, so I’ll bung loads of gear into those, and leave the top for dioramas and play sets to get left in situ.

So far so good the wax is dry, and the unit fits in the space. Though I seem to have misjudged the thickness of the baseboard. Most likely due to the quarter round against the floor, which I failed to notice. Oh well. It fits in between the fire place and the front windows, and tucks under the windowsill of the fireplace wall. Fits over top of the fireplace kick out, and does not cover the wall socket/plugs/outlet. I am mostly happy.

Fits in the space, given all of the restrictions. Just not as snuggly against the wall as I was aiming for.

Next steps. Clean and sort toys on the floor into bins and cubby holes, and then sigh a breath of relief that it all works mostly as intended. I may still need to cut a 2″ hole in the top for power cords to more easily access the wall sockets/outlet, but we’ll see.

Looks as though I can get a vacuum underneath it fairly easily, which is a plus with my messy family. Updates to follow, as I get through the last leg of this project. Looks as though with the help of the toy box, and a couple canvas bins I have been able to leave as much playable surface as possible for the kids, and can still access both windows, and not interfere with the floor vent or fireplace. I’ll call that a win!

Floor is now empty of toys – for the minute the kids aren’t here that is!

My only qualm about it now that I’m done, well – beyond one corner not being 90° against the fireplace so the error is very easy to see. Is that I should have put in a second tier to one of the cubbies. Most likely the one with the wall socket contained within. Then I could have used that shelf to store the kids chrome book and have a dedicated charging spot that won’t get bumped or knocked. The shelves are 16 inches deep, so you really have to try to get at something pushed all the way to the back. But whatever. I can build an insert out of plywood for that, if it becomes absolutely necessary.  And to think I sat on this idea and ruminated over it for weeks before I got started. How did I miss a dedicated charging shelf? Idiot. No matter. It’s done, it works, and I’m happy with it. Mostly. For now. To think if I had of made it from Walnut that would have been a $1500.00 job, easily. Just in materials, not even time and effort. It would also weigh about 200lbs if done in Walnut. Using pine cut both costs and overall weight, by an awful lot.

How I see it when seated to watch tv when I’m at home alone. Looks reasonable to me. Yes, I wear crocs, how suave of me.

The Remote. An exercise in patience and general futility.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on The Remote. An exercise in patience and general futility.

It started when the battery cover became loose and would just slip off dropping both batteries, constantly. Then the button for the number seven (7) stopped working completely. Then my eldest spilled an entire glass of juice over the remote and it initially went dead for 24 hours, but I saved it via a bowl of rice. Now we have an uneasy truce where it kinda sorta works most of the time. But otherwise you may have to over shoot and come back to the channel you want, or go at it via the guide (which is my preferred method) but that only lasts as long as the guide button remains, the selection button keeps working, and the page up-page down buttons unbusted. Soon to be yet another item that needs replacing with only an option to upgrade to a more expensive version. Our communications bills only ever go up, never down.

Lord help you if you try to use the thing if you aren’t exactly in line with the receiver. You can click, fuss and shout all you want. Hope you like sit ups to move where the signal wants to be. Or sit off to one side to remain in the signal path indefinitely. First world problems, if that. More an annoyance.

A lovely warm Saturday to look forward to. We have some movies to cuddle up to this afternoon. I’d like to sneak out to get some polish on my shelf unit, but it could wait until Monday if it had too. We’ll see how everything shakes out.

Feels like a slow moving train wreck.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Feels like a slow moving train wreck.

Where all of the pieces are circling very slowly, just waiting to collectively fall into place to make me sick. I felt it in my nose, then my throat, then my muscles, but I have managed to beat it back over a period of ten days, then I got busy and started to feel some stress and my guts went off, and then I stopped sleeping all the way through the night, and my nose threatened to start running, and my throat got noticeably more “here I am, something is off!”, but without being clinical about it. Just a vague sense that I was noticing my throat more during the day. And a silly post nasal drip cough was trying to settle in, which makes me notice the new sense of rawness to my throat even more. And I started waking up feeling just as tired as when I went to bed. But it has been days if not weeks of this, so yeah. A slow moving train wreck waiting to collapse in on itself and ruin my day, or more likely week(s). Fun times.

But what a week it was. Got loads finished. Which is always great news. Means I can start sending out invoices once I start the clock. Had a trip to the bank today (got paid! Yeah!) And then did some grocery shopping. Mundane stuff, but at least I got out of the house. Wearing a mask obviously, since I can feel something tugging at the loose threads I’ve gathered about myself in the last two weeks. Testing negative, however that makes you feel. I’ve had the two main shots, and two boosters, so I’m up to date until these new fangled shots come around. Weee!

I am looking forward to doing very little this weekend beyond watching movies on the couch and eating/drinking. Have been meditating, resting and exercising more to stave off whatever it is that’s been seeping in around the edges lately. Vitamins, more fresh water, fresh air, the whole works. Positivity and reframing obstacles seems to help lessen the weight and stress. But I can only do so much.

The kids are both in three activities after school each week. I think three is too many. Two was great. But now the schedules are all jumbled and the kids are over tired and moody. But someone keeps pushing for the kids to do more & more stuff in an attempt to make up for the loss during Covid. I don’t think the kids feel that way. Now it’s just stressors and personnel shuffling all week long. It’s going to crash and burn at some point. Hopefully we can scale back to two after Christmas. Or figure out that the kids really love it all and keep it going with fewer fights and tantrums about driving, hunger or supposed thirst. We’ll see how it all turns out.

Yeah – so Friday huh? Nice to be here, it was a bit of a rough ride to get here, but we made it, safe & sound. Hats off to Larry, and bottoms up! Ciao Bella!

The Shelf Unit Episode: A Tale Told in 275 parts.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on The Shelf Unit Episode: A Tale Told in 275 parts.

The unit is finally taking shape after a few weeks of lingering on the bench, languishing in stoppage after stoppage. I still have quite a ways to go on it, but progress has been made over the last week.

I hand cut all twelve mortises. Well two of which, the through and throughs, were done on the table saw once I had build a quick & nasty jig to clamp the legs to so as to not put my hands near the blades. But all of the .25″ deep mortises were chiseled out by hand over two or three days. I am currently busy with paid design work. So I’m slow moving with home infrastructure projects.

Hand cut chisel mortises.

Then I completed a dry test fit which lead me to do some last minute rasp work for better fitment. Nothing major. I put the whole base together to test things out which was tricky to do single handed, as my pressure fit mortises are shallow, and I knocked it down a half dozen times tugging on corners that weren’t square. But I got it to stand freely of it’s own accord.

Test fit of first two hand chiseled mortises.
After considerable wrangling I did manage to get the whole base dry fitted together and it stood by itself for 24 hrs without collapsing. A good sign!
You can see here how shallow I cut those mortises. Just a tiny pocket to rest in. So delicate.

Then as of yesterday I began to glue up the cross braces for the base, three pairs of them. Glued and clamped for assembly. No real hassles here. I glue up on my bench over blue plastic garbage bags. Only need to glue a vital piece to your wooden bench once to know never to do it again.

The braces in glue up. One tricky leg needed a set square clamped in place in order to remain 90 degrees. Probably should have done them all like that. Next time!

The top box was formed several weeks ago. Measured, cut, built using a dowel construction method, sanded, glued up, and sanded again. Still needs more sanding and then I can stain both it and the base portion together. Then I will use dowel to connect the two pieces, apply finish and bring it inside.

Fixing a dowel burst on the display surface. Peeled back a strip of pine, chopped out over long dowel, glued and clamped pine strip. Seamless.
In need of about two more hours of focused sanding. Then it’ll be ready for stain & finishing.

I’m excited to see it all come together. I used three 72″L x 16″ W x .75″ H pine laminated boards for the top box. Plus 1.5 72″ x 5″ x .75″ pine boards that I cut down into 2.25″ H strips for stretchers and braces and used along the back of my box to strengthen it against any possible racking. The six legs are made of Ash, and are 1.75″ x 1.75″ x 8″h. That I had laying around from a new set of stairs that got put in at the cottage two years ago. I’ll post a photo once I get it all completed and set in it’s final resting place in our living room.

**UPDATE** I managed to get Walnut tinted Danish Oil stain on the base and shelf portion, as well as put in the dowels to join the top & bottom together. Waiting on the glue to dry as we speak. Last item is a 400 grit scuff followed by some Osmo poly clear wax to pick up the shine/gloss. So excited!

Walnut tinted Danish Oil on the base.
Walnut tinted Danish Oil applied to all of the shelf unit.
Test fit for base placement prior to drilling out and fitting the dowels to join the two pieces. Almost finished. Can see the finish line from here!

There is something to be said about doing lots of something versus trying to do it once perfectly.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on There is something to be said about doing lots of something versus trying to do it once perfectly.

I have come across this time and again, in everything from sculpting, drawing, and wood working right through to cooking and writing short blurbs daily. When you can afford to not give a shit about the end product, and focus solely on the process and the actual ‘doing’ of the thing, stuff tends to fall into place after a while. It’s not fool proof, and mastery is never guaranteed (not that I seek mastery of any one thing anyway.) If you can fall in love, or at least in-line with the process you can usually achieve a fairly high standard in that medium once you really start to apply yourself, and add in a little reflection or introspection about how you operate within the process, and how you’ve come to understand the process. Mayhaps, like myself, you achieve better results though you make the wrong choices. Enough of them that they cancel out and you get a little better at the thing you work at inspite of yourself, or your failings, and short comings.

I do love to watch YouTube videos about the hobbies I have, and I tell myself I’m learning about it as I watch others ‘do the thing’. I have, learned a thing or two, but mostly it’s an escape from working and learning deeper about the process of whatever I’m attempting. Videos aren’t bad, there is a tonne of noise and needless entertainment there, but don’t get carried away. You will certainly learn more by just going and ‘doing the thing’. A morale boost is great if that keeps you going. But try not to mire yourself in a YouTube video rabbit hole, you’ll loose hours of your time that way.

I’m no expert, and this is solely based on my personal anecdotal experiences. Your experiences may differ – greatly – from mine own. But that’s ok. We’re not all one size fits all.

In alternate news I had put my workout regimen on hold for five to six weeks this summer, which I now regret. I was creeping closer to 200lbs, getting under 2 bills was my goal, and I was roughly three pounds from it, but now I’m back to being about 10lbs from my goal. Ideally I’d reach 185lbs, but I think that will require not just a shift in picking up weights regularly, but fundamentally eating better. I’d rather run, cycle, swim and lift weights every day than go back to a veggie heavy diet. Wreaks havoc with my insides. My ulcerated bowel does not enjoy excess roughage, like at all. Too much dairy in a day – forget about it. It’s a tricky see-saw balance act. But in the end I’d like to work towards being under 200 lbs again. I need to revisit my plan. Perhaps to back to two a days with the weights, and add in more lunges, squats, sit-ups, and push ups. Like everything else. It’s not about perfect, but doing some of it, everyday, even if it’s ugly and unrefined. Ha. Yes, unrefined is a great way to view myself in a workout session. Just look at how skewed my sunglasses are. Unrefined fits me well. Ha!

Now I need to have breakfast and get ready to start my work day clock. Ciao Bella!

Unsalted Butter. All of the intestinal distress and none of the taste.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Unsalted Butter. All of the intestinal distress and none of the taste.

Don’t use unsalted butter, what a waste of calories, and to add in gut wrenching intestinal distress with no flavour boost is just nonsense. I’m sure for folks with heart disease or some medical/cholesterol related illness the rubbish golden block is unavoidable. But, that being said, if you’re going to do that damage to yourself via food, use the salted, flavourful, delicious, sunshine in a mushy brick of gold, butter with all of its glory intact. Made the mistake yesterday of using unsalted butter on a fresh from the farm cob of corn, and it was so bland. Oily and bland at that. I had to stop eating and worry if my taste was disappearing as I ate. But no. Not Covid symptoms, rather a disappointing salt application. Or lack thereof.

So here we are – again. A Tuesday in September. School is back in session once more, and while I’m WFH, I have the house to myself, some peace and quiet before I start the work day clock. Yesterday I caught up on some household duties, which was laundry. Merely gathering it all up and pushing it through the wash/dry cycle. Today I will actually sort it all and put it away. I’m telling myself that once I get the shelf unit done, that’s when I will actually tackle the interior messes. Papers to sort, broken toys to either fix or throw away. Sorting toys into their appropriate bins, boxes and bags. It’s about a weeks worth of work. So I want to settle in to focus on it, rather than attack it piecemeal in between paid projects. A lull is coming. Usually by early to mid November, then I’ll have all the time in the day to do home DIY projects, and clean like a maniac. But as I have paid work coming in, that stuff needs to sit and wait some more.

So what is new? Not a whole bunch. I have a new Elf bust on the sculpting pedestal. The shelf unit is well underway, with the dry fit completed yesterday of the base portion. Any model kits I have will wait until it gets snowy outside, and I’m mid lull. I haven’t roughed out any plans for book threes collected short stories. I wrote a couple of interesting characters earlier in the Spring and summer that I could follow around. Some criminals, and some detectives. Not necessarily linked, could be two very different things, or get smashed together to be one big conglomeration. I don’t know. I love the freedom of not knowing. Makes it fun. My children’s book will come back into vogue when the winter hits and I don’t want to go outside – like, ever. Hate the god damn cold. I have finished busts that need to be painted and clear coated.

The Markham Fair will be upon us in a few weeks, so we have to get on top of our entries. Building, harvesting, cleaning, tagging & bagging for display. It’s a whole thing. Plus we have to get it all over to the fair grounds, that’s a major task in and of itself. Then you have to deliver and move the giant pumpkins. That’s an endeavour, believe you me. But the air gets crisper, and the sun sets earlier, and the fair food smells so damn good. The midway lights and sounds and smells really brings it all home. The kids love it. We’ll be there for portions of all four days. Starts September 29th and ends October 2nd, 2022. You should go. It’s a lot of fun.

At some point I do need to finish the trim in the downstairs bathroom, but that’ll be two hours work, and not much fun. But I can strike it off the list. We need to think about our Fridge, which is temperamental, and the water heater overflow is filling a bucket per week, one drip drop at a time. So that needs seeing to. Might as well have the water softener looked at too. I can’t get it to not run every single day.

New projects, gotta jet. Ciao Bella!

Basking in the afterglow.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Basking in the afterglow.

What a weekend we had, two in a row of rock’em, sock’em outdoor adventure fun. The weather held out for us so that we could all enjoy the whole Saturday on the water experience. I cooked various meals for all of us who gathered. Mainly on the bbq, and stove top but nonetheless I didn’t set the kitchen on fire, or burn the house down. The bbq on the other hand may have let me down just a bit. Burned my bacon twice! Luckily that’s how my wife and kids like it so it didn’t go to waste. I went low & slow the second time, but failed to turn them in time and it went into over cooked territory. If I had a large flat top grill, I’d do it all together and nothing would get missed. But that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it.

Everyone who wanted to got a turn on the 3 person tube, plus the ski-Bob, and had a chance to attempt to wakeboard. We spent much of the summer getting out eldest to be able to reliably wakeboard, so she put on a show for her cousins. The other two had admirable attempts to get to their feet and stay up on the water. Which they both did, briefly. Golf claps and cheers for all! Well done. The water was rather cool this late into summer, bordering on Fall. So big props for swimming and going in the lake of their own accord.

We didn’t party much into the evenings, as the fresh lake air made us all sleepy by 10:00pm. Did watch the Blue Jay’s pull out an 11-7 win one night, which was great. Texas was really leaving their pitcher out to dry by bringing him back in after the second and third innings punishment. It was a weird one. Pretty early on it was evident they didn’t have anyone warming up in the bullpen. Kinda odd. But again, late in the season, I’m sure injuries and tiredness play a part.

I think I will mosey on down to my office by way of the kids laundry baskets and get some Domestic Duties Monday chores on the books. It’s two weekends we’ve gone away so there is lots to catch up on around the house. The sooner I get the shelf unit done, the sooner I can start cleaning the toy zone disaster area. I was informed some big projects won’t come until next week, so I need to finish up what I have now in preparation for those two or three items dropping next week. Happy Monday! Ciao Bella!

A Breakfast Fit For Royalty.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on A Breakfast Fit For Royalty.

My go to big hot breakfast spread is made up of the following items: Bacon, eggs, sausages, waffles, toast and beans. If I had a big enough cook top I’d add the potential for pancakes into the mix. Also a waffle iron wouldn’t hurt as I am not a huge fan of these pre-made frozen waffles I can get my hands on. Actually, now that I think about it we have an Olaf waffle iron that my kids got for Christmas last year. We just never brought it home, or to the cottage. But then I need to make batter too. One more step in the process I suppose.

It isn’t all that fancy but it tastes good to me. I used to make that sort of hot brunch for myself a lot when my kids were little, or when we only had the one child. Now I’m working more so I don’t cook myself lunch anymore. I’d bung something into the microwave without another thought, rather than break out any pots, pans and fresh ingredients to chop up and prepare.

Gotta get prepped for water sports on this lazy Sunday morning. Time to get dressed and splash through some waves. Ciao Bella!