January 2, 2005

I mentioned in yesterday's update that the weather had gone bad and that we were receiving an ice storm. This may have been an under statement. The storm continued most of the evening and at one point the temperature rose to 32 degrees before dropping back to the teens. The first tow pictures on this update show the nearly half inch of ice that covered everything this morning. To complicate the matter the sun did not have enough strength to break it up so at this time we still have a sheet of ice as far as the ey can see.

My start on the projects today were delayed a bit as I used an ice scraper to break up some of the sheet of ice on the concrete approach on the house and the shop. The first project today was to install the speakers that connect to the tuner in the office. I moved these speakers out of the finish room yesterday and instead of finding a new place to store them decided they should be installed. I am now able to use the office radio for the shop and in the process have the use of a remote control device so I don't need to open the office door to make adjustments. This will help keep the shop dust out of the office.

The next project was to install the formica on the sink base unit. This took extra time as I searched boxes in the shop to find the contact cement. This also led to loading more paint on the shelves as I found another couple boxes of paint room supplies. I used two different colors of Formica on the counter, a darker shade on the edges and a lighter gray on the top. The lighter gray is a good shade to go with the other gray in the shop but the home center did not have a bigger piece so I made do. I will seal the sink in later when I have the faucet installed.

The final project took more time than it should have. The problem is that I used up pieces from the old finish room and this always requires more time to make all the pieces work. The drawer unit on the right was constructed for my drafting tools and was part of the old finish room counter. I constructed an eight high base to set it on so that the bottom drawer will open over the top of the baseboard heater. The bench top was the old drafting board surface from the finish room and I used it over. Instead of putting it on a slant like in the old finish room I left it flat. I want to use this area for small projects such as models and fine detail work. A slanted surface would not be easy to work on these projects. The red arrow points to a location for a tool drawer where I will store all the small hand tools that I used to keep in the old shop warm room. I have more work to do to complete this project, but this start on this complicated project will move along more quickly now.

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