Our house modeled in 3D...revisited

Google notified me that my 3D house model was rejected. All models require photo realism. I'll have to take some pictures of the house and stick'em to my model. I haven't done this before, but I know there are some tutorials on line showing how. I'll work on this and try again.

My original post on this can be read by clicking here.

Laundry room make over

Kathleen says I gave her a honey do list this weekend - tile the laundry room back splash. Well if this is true she gave me one right back - finish painting the laundry room drawers. Now I really didn't give her a honey do thing. I just suggested she stop by Home Depot to pick out tile. She goes by one to and from work.

She picked out a nice looking tile mat. Instead of using mastic to glue the tiles up, she tried a newfangled product; an adhesive mat that first gets applied to the wall and the the tiles are stuck to it. It worked really well and the tile went up super easy with no mess. By late Saturday night she had it all grouted. Her project is about 98% finished. I'll do the last 2% this week by putting up a piece of molding to hide the gap at the top.

And I did get the drawers painted as well thank you very much.

Sitting at my computer

I took this self portrait sitting at my computer. I was trying different exposure and flash settings.

Two Payton's

Our house modeled in 3D

I mess around with Google Sketchup every now and then. Today I attempted to model our house in 3D. It turned out pretty well. I submitted it to Google to put in Google Earth's 3D Warehouse. If accepted you can see my model in Google Earth. To see it, and other 3D models as well, you have to have the 3D Buildings layer turned on. Here is a what it will look like.

Can't take the Cincinnati out of the kids

Yep, some of Cincinnati is still in the boys - and me too. Payton and Parker still love Skyline chili. I'm fortunate that I can get this wonderful stuff shipped to me by the case. Believe me - because no one else does - the stuff is that good. Just ask my boys!

And now for something completely different

I have, er had, a problem with our powder room remodel. No matter how tight I tighten the toilet seat bolts, the darn seat would slide from side to side. This toilet doesn't have the normal bolt and nut holding it on. It has a special newfangled nut that I didn't want to strip out. I found what seems to be a nifty solution - Safe-T-Bumpers. These little plastic L brackets screw to the seat and eliminate the side to side movement. I just installed them and they seem to work, but time is the true test.If you have this same problem and want to give them a try you can find these on Amazon.com. They cost four buckaroos. I got two packs to fix two toilets.

BTW, I put our old sink and toilet up for sale on Craigslist. Within a few days I had sold them. A lady bought them and said they would be perfect for her vintage style bathroom. I didn't ask much, just $50. I was glad to get rid of them.

Update: These little brackets have done a good job at eliminating the seat's side to side movement. I am pleased.

Making good choices

Today I received a call from Payton's school. Usually I say "Oh Crap" when the school calls, but I didn't this time because I didn't look at caller ID first, I just answered the phone. Payton's teacher Mr. Marrone called to let me know that Payton had been doing well and making good choices at school. Whew, that's better than bad choices. It was a good call to receive. I got Payton a special donut for him to enjoy when he got home from school.

Our new garage

On December 5th ground was broke marking the beginning of construction for our 2-car garage. Since then work progressed steadily until it was stopped January 13th. The garage structure is complete except for the exterior finish. That will have to wait until warmer temperatures in the spring. The electrical contractor will soon begin running power from the house to the garage.

The garage has 2 bays and is 24'x30'. It has stairs leading up to an attic. Now I have a place for all my tools and lawn machinery. The new attic provides loads of additional storage for the things we have now and seem to be collecting.

I was happy to see the project started!

One week later the foundation and floor were finished.

It didn't take long for the walls to go up.

The roof took shape quickly after the walls.

The exterior finish will match the house - eventually.

The dormers add lots of space upstairs.The (almost) finished garage.

The attic is big and I've already started filling it.

Ahh, a nice shop area.

There will be no running water in the garage. There was really no great need for this. Maybe some year in the future we'll add plumbing. The building would make a nice studio apartment.

Jungfrau mountain

Now I think this a pretty cool. To celebrate the 100th year of the Jungfrau railroad the Swiss have lit up their mountain with their flag. El Paso, TX has a star on their mountain, but with this the Swiss have topped them 100 fold. But I doubt the Swiss will be making this a permanent display. I wish I could have seen this with my own eyes.

Our newly remodeled powder room

We finished our powder room remodel. We just didn't like the pieces or fixtures. The pieces were a grayish putty color. The fixtures were brushed nickel, but they had gold trim. But worst of all the room didn't have an exhaust fan.

Now the room is painted a pleasant blue - a steel blue sort of. We added crown molding. The fixtures are biscuit and the sink has a nice furniture-like vanity that offers good storage. An exhaust fan was installed in the wall. The house's framing layout didn't allow for the usual ceiling mount. We are quite pleased.