Yes, the Project Continues

Yes, the project continues. Amazingly, the posters finally came in the mail! It took weeks, and I had given up on them, but they did come. I'm glad. The pictures here are pretty bad, but, well, you get what you pay for, right? Anyway, the two giant posters are Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars. The two smaller ones are Flash Gordon (the original 1950s picture) and The Blues Brothers.

Also notice the stage below the TV. It looks much nicer now with the curtain in front. What you cannot see is that the stage is completely hollow and underneath it are video games, a subwoofer, and DVD players, etc. That makes for a nice neat place to store all that stuff. Also notice, looking back a few posts, the lack of wires. Sure, there's some in the corner by the computer, but I'm working on that. But there's none on the wall. THAT was a pain. The wall has insulation in it, so running wires through that was was insane. Sure, it looks nice, but just running those wires took literally hours!

It's almost done (finally). I'm still working on curtains around the edges of the TV and the counter still needs a bit of finishing. I finally just installed it because I couldn't come up with any way to attach it except by screwing down through the counter-top. Now I have to try and hide those screws, repaint it, and finish it so it will survive when drinks get spilled on it. Hopefully not more than a week left, then I'll have to start a new project!

Another Few Days

A little more got done, but I'm still slow. You can see the desk in place and a few more things on the ground. I'm again slowed by the cold. There's two major pieces left: the stage and the walls.

With the walls, it has now been three weeks since the people who sold me the posters were sent the wrong ones back. They STILL claim they haven't received them back. I'm starting to not believe them. I wonder how long I should wait before I realize they just screwed me out of some cash.

The stage (which will go under the TV) needs to be painted. Actually, the wood has to be primed twice, then painted twice. Once it's painted, I can assemble it, as it's already cut and ready to go. But it's been in the 20s in the garage, so no painting. This Friday should be painting day. Then perhaps Saturday afternoon will find the stage assembled and in place. I also hope to seal the counter on painting day, and that might get installed first so we can use it. The counter scares me--I'm completely making this up as I go along. I'm going to attempt to screw the counter top down to the counter from the bottom (without sending screws through the counter) and I'm supporting it with just two bookshelf supports. And I'm not using an actual counter, I'm using a sheet of MDF. So I have NO idea if this counter is going to work at all, or if it's going to fall off as soon as someone touches it. Check back after Saturday, and maybe we'll find out together!

Day Next

FINALLY! After a week of putzing around, the carpet guys FINALLY came. I guess you get what you pay for. Anyway, the carpet guys were nice and professional, and did a great job. As soon as they left, I quickly assembled the platform and used the spare carpet on it. Then I moved a bit of the furniture to see how it would look. Not too bad, eh? The curtains were a quick fix, and then I put the TV on the wall, too. I hope to hide all those wires in a day or three. Also, the space between the couches looks large, but it has to be that big so they can both recline at the same time.

It's still sort of odd, but I think that's because you don't expect to see a platform in the middle of a family room. I think it will look even better when all the accessories are in place. I'm waiting for it to warm up above 50 degrees so I can paint the stage that's ready to be assembled and put in place. The posters are quite delayed, as I just heard from the poster people that they haven't received my return yet, and it's been a week. Ah well, slow progress beats no progress.

I think tomorrow I shall attempt to move the computers. There's only 276 miles of wires that have to be moved, too...

Day Nine

Still moving slowly, waiting for carpet guy. Did a few more touch-ups here and there. Bought two 8-foot rods for the curtains. We think we've found curtains-- they're not actually light-blocking, but they are a nice maroon color-- and they were only $10 a panel, so that's nice. I painted the two shelves with a clear coat to seal them and started painting stools. We realized the counter top is more difficult to paint than we thought -- since it's going to be so visible, we really have to make it perfect with the painting. So another coat on that and some wet sandpapering.

The last two movie posters arrived today that I bought on eBay. They're not what I ordered. One was supposed to be Conan the Barbarian, but it was a Superman comic. The other was supposed to be a movie poster, and the picture on eBay shows it as a movie poster, but it's not. The poster is the same picture, but it's missing the "Walt Disney and Walden Media present" words. Kind of disappointing, but I'm not sure if I want to send it back. Of course, I already have to send the other one back because it's not Conan...

Day Eight

Things have slowed down a bit as we wait for the carpet estimate. They're in no hurry for business, apparently, as we requested an estimate on Wednesday and the earliest he could come give us one is Tuesday. I guess Lowe's is doing better than they look by the empty parking lots at 10am Saturday mornings.

Today I cut and placed the baseboard around the new wall and the quarter round. It's not perfect, but that's also the first time I've done that. We also got the rest of the paint up-- touching up the brown and putting up a second coat of the "Bermuda Sand." The painting is almost done. The baseboards still need paint, and the outside of the new half-wall needs paint, then that's all done. There's not a lot more I can do until after the carpet is installed, so things will continue to be slow for the next few days, I think.

Day Seven

Today was really a scheduled off day. Other things going on. But I still managed to find a little while to cut the last of the trim for the hidden bookcase and install that.

Day Six

Not much visible progress today. We did finish the second coats on all the brown stuff, finished trimming up the painted frame on the wall, and got one coat of the other color on (some sand color, but it looks pink) on the other walls before we ran out of paint. So late tonight got more paint, and I found some frames on-line for the movie posters (two arrived today: The Blues Brothers and Flash Gordon).