Turns out Autumn and Winter are the seasons for me to start new DIY projects around the house (I am as surprised by this as anyone). Must be a nesting/hibernation instinct kicking in. Last year I built the new hutch and did the first round of arcade machine updates, and this year I again had a couple of things that needed doing.
A big motivation was that Autumn in the Pacific Northwest is spider season – so some things needed fixin’…
Project number one was adding a drawer to my desk (which is a hefty board on legs). When I chose a desk I specifically didn’t want drawers because they take up a lot of space (which I needed to park the PC). But after having odds and ends lying all over, I decided I would add a small drawer. I got a bamboo cutlery organizer and added some rails, and presto:
It holds some blank CDs, USB cables, post-it notes, that sort of thing. The rails I used can probably hold about 25 kilos of weight, but I suspect the drawer will bulk out before ithe rails fail… 🙂
Project number two was to add one more shelf above my desk – the previous two were getting too crowded. But also, I had over-spec’d the brackets massively, so they were unnecessarily bulky and took up too much space. So I got three lighter shelves with slimmer brackets (this also frees up the original larger shelves for project number four, which is still classified…)
Another motivation was to move my Saitek Radio and multi-panel controllers off to the side (as opposed to above the monitor), to free up the space above the monitor for future addition of a TrackIR 5:
Project number three was the one to do with spiders. Spiders love hiding in dark little places – and a firewood pile is their favourite sort of spot. We keep our firewood in the garage, but I have been seeing tons of the creepy little buggers running around there, so I decided it was time to move the wood pile outside (the major hint was every house I have visited does that). Problem: I have no eave projecting far enough to protect the wood from rain. So time to build a shelter.
Although this was a largish build, it came together far more quickly than the hutch, mostly because for the hutch I had to sand all the parts and ensure that everything was bunny safe (no sharp bits sticking out, lots of extra wood for them to chew on, etc). This was just a roof for outside, so I could cut a lot of corners. Total cost was about $120. There is enough space to store the firewood as well as some garden tools:
I used the build as an opportunity to experiment with mitered joints, as well as adjustability – the major parts are held with bolts and butterfly nuts, so you could if needed raise and lower the roof:
The evening after I finished it, I went outside to admire my handy work, but discovered that the corner where the shelter is located is absolutely dark. So if some evening we run out of firewood and I need to go out to fetch some… time to add a new waterproof light housing (add $35 to the project):
I tapped into the existing outside light, so that all back yard lights are controlled by the same indoor switch:
The new housing is just around the corner from the original light, about 3 meters away:
And it all comes together nicely. The space taken up by the shelter was previously unused. In fact, there are three wooden studs in that area built into the concrete, so I suspect in some previously there was a similar construction here:
And there you – ready for Winter. Remember guys – if women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
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Dave Nunez Blog v2.0 