Friday, July 17, 2009


Front Steps, originally uploaded by rowdyman.

I added these really simple LED deck lights to the front steps this week. It was probably the simplest addition to the house I've done. I have to say they look surprisingly good considering how cheap they were (and the transformer can support 24 of these little lights so maybe I can find a way to add 18 more).

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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Step-by-Step

This post is really just taking advantage of Flickr video — a curious new feature of Flickr.

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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Step Up

The madness of porch upgrades continue. Call it porchography and I won't stop until every piece of our porch has been replaced. In a yearly ritual, on the first weekend in September I stride into the bright early morning light (or alternatively, mid-morning light), and while military aircraft maneuver overhead I rip some wood from our porch and then affix some new wood. Since we moved here I think I've spent every Labour Day Weekend labouring. And labour I did! Behold the fruits of mine labour;

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Bugs 'n' Stuff



Sometimes it's surprising just how quiet our backyard can be and how loud that quietness can be. I just stepped outside and I was struck by the sound of the crickets chirping and cicadas buzzing. Beneath the insect flitter was the flutter of bamboo leaves and the breeze through the grasses. Even after walking back inside I could still hear the hum and shuffle of the sounds outside. It was a shame to close the door but the bugs have been real bad this year.

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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Summer Garden



Summer Garden from rowdyman on Vimeo.

Our little backyard has finally come back to life. The Virginia Creeper is creeping and the grasses are growing (both the Karl Forestor and the Bamboo) and the potatoes look fairly healthy too.

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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Dude, Did You Just Clock Block McLovin?



Yeah tha's right, an actual "Clock-block". Okay, unfortunately I can't set the order of this slideshow, but I think you'll get the idea. I'd seen this clock at Swipe Books and I thought, "cute idea... you could make one yourself if you knew where to get a really bright LED clock". Then I saw this article at Readymade Magazine and realized you could, in fact, get a really bright LED clock anywhere. So, rather than pay $250, I went to the mall, bought a clock radio for $19.99, got a piece of 1"x3" finished pine, cut it, made a frame and faced it with some left over birch veneer (left over from this project). There you go; $20 and a Saturday afternoon and you've got yourself a block of wood with a clock inside.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

Batten Down the Hatches, Becky




Saturday, I closed in on further winterizing the house. I added that leaf trapping mesh to the front gutters, which also allowed me to replace the storm windows. Once I knew the windows were in place, I sealed the huge gaps around the frame a la silicone. Repeated this sealing around the living room window and finally swapped out the bug screen for solid glass on the front storm door.

I guess it was appropriate too, that a couple of nights ago I turned on the furnace for the first time. It's such an act of psychological defeat to turn on the furnace. Only a week before we had +30 C temperatures on Thanksgiving! For reasons of familial schedules and a week of non-stop eating, we had a Thanksgiving brunch this year, so combining that with the weather, I feel I need a Thanksgiving Mulligan - a do-over if you will. Perhaps the dollar parity should suggest a holiday parity and maybe for a first I'll do a mini-American Thanksgiving this year to make up for the misplaced one. At any rate, now I'm digging out sweaters, turning off the water line to the back yard and bringing in the hose. It's like that point when you switch back to wearing socks from a summer of bare-footedness. Generally, I have come to prefer naked feet to besocked ones. Still, it's difficult to have it both ways. Autumn brings us stylin' scarves and po' boy caps, upturned collars and heavy footwear. I like Autumn if only for the variety. It could be warm, cool, sunny or overcast. You get it all. Including the wind off the lake that wants to seep through your storm windows and door seams.

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Monday, October 08, 2007

Porch Pics
Ok, I relent, here are a couple of better pictures for your reference.

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Face Lift




I was going to post a bunch of pictures of the porch, but it just seemed like overkill. Even looking at this side-by-side comparison, it doesn't look like much of a change or even show how much effort went into it. But, I'm OK with that. A lot of the fixes are kind of behind other things - a rotten facing board is behind the new fascia, rotting wainscoting in the ceiling was replaced with trimmed-to-fit new lumber,a damaged eaves trough was replaced with a matching one*, and a very poorly done molding was replaced (don't try to tell me, "they did it better back in the day." The goof-ups on our house are evidence enough that, in fact, "back in the day" some people had no idea what they were doing.) Actually, this photo probably shows how our neighbours have done a lot more than we have on the porch - check out those sandstone steps. That's for another day, right now I hear a drip that needs fixing.

*Yes, it was me that damaged the eaves trough in the first place, but that's beside the point.

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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Did Sisyphus Have a Porch?


Why is September always so busy? Does everyone just decide to make up for the lazy days of summer with a super-work-deadline-freakout? This time of year Angela steps up her "ordinary busy" to "extraordinarily busy" (putting the "extra" in extraordinary). I actually had a week without work obligations, so I made some. I spent a lot of time ripping off the perfectly good eavestrough on our porch so I could remove the old rotting facing board and fascia underneath. Then I had to replace them both (thankfully with the help of our neighbour Neil and his marvelous extendable ladder) and finally, finally, paint the porch (it really needed it). There are still a few details to finish but once it's done I'll post some photos. I'm sure absolutely no one will notice the difference.

Bustin' my hump working on the porch was like some kind of Sisyphean triathlon. Two hours in the crouch and paint position, 2 hours of holding hands above the head and finally, the ladder assent - two hundred reps. There were days when I felt like I had undergone "rendition protocols". Let me just say Saucony running shoes may be perfectly good for running, but are terrible for standing on a ladder all day (though I can't attest to that - as I've never really run in them. They are excellent for crawling, limping and shuffling however.)

Alas, the days when the only things I worried about were roofing nails vs latex sealant, paint chips and paint drips, drip edge or eaves starter, are all but gone. It's back to the gritty world of design. The only fate that awaits me now are grueling hours slouched in front of my monitor and typing pianissimo over a clean white keyboard. The strange thing is, I keep succumbing to tiredness more than the week I spent painting the porch. When I was fixing the eaves and painting, I had to take advantage of the daylight so I would work as late as possible then hurry to barbecue supper, again, rushing to avoid darkness. Once that was done, then and only then could I collapse in a heap of sleep. Yet, going back to work on the computer seems to have thrown a thoroughly modern wrench in my circadian rhythm. Despite not really doing anything that physical, I find that afternoon gray period becoming very dark (as in, eyes-slammed-shut dark). Sometime between 4 and 5 it hits. It's like I've been shot with a tranquilizer dart. I'm like one of those bears on nature shows, walking along wondering how in hell I weigh 400 pounds on a diet of berries and raw fish when suddenly I feel a pinch. What's that? Was that a big bug or some kind of lucy in the sky with diamonds... and plop. I'm out. I'm only half-surprised I don't wake up wearing a radio collar with a yellow plastic tag in my ear. The theory as to why some of us get tired in the middle of the day is that we're just not sleeping well at night. Thus it follows that some 8 hours after you wake, and about 8 hours before you go back to bed, your body feels the overwhelming need to be not entirely conscious. I'm not sure what causes this collapse but luckily, I have a couch near my desk to break my fall.

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Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Idle Hands, Busy Work


Hey, I've taken up cross-stitch - well at least those cross-stitch frame things. For ages I've thought you could use those embroidery frame things to make a some kind of lamp shade, and after seeing a $150 birch light, I thought - "Hell, you could make that from $10 worth of birch veneer, embroidery frames, some steel rods and a little bit of ol' fashioned elbow grease (available in 500ml and 1L tins)." ...and by Gum, you can!
See the pictures for proof.

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Monday, January 01, 2007


New Porch Rail
Originally uploaded by rowdyman.

Here's the latest of the 'home improvements' - actually installed in November. We discovered that all of our neighbours had installed porch rails, usually temporary ones, because their insurers insisted upon it. Ours never has and probably never will, but after two different people took a slide off the steps last winter (I believe alcohol may have been involved - I can't say for certain), I thought it would be prudent to install a railing. I figured that a lot of these temporary things become more permanent the longer they are left, so I wanted something nicer than 2x4's but I also wanted to avoid going into the ground becuase a vertical post between the porch steps would be impossible to clear of leaves or snow. The solution, which isn't perfect, was to use these stainless steel connectors from a marine supplier. I also got the aluminum tube to go with it (which doubled the cost) but I didn't really like how it looked so I simply swapped out the aluminum for 1" dowel (oak is my guess, not sure really). I added some stain and voilà - instant porch rail. It only took about 10 minutes to install and probably less to remove. So at last we have the required railing and I'll assume our liability lessened.

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Sunday, August 27, 2006


curtains drawn.jpg
Originally uploaded by rowdyman.

When we moved in, the first thing I wanted to change was the curtain in the living room. Well, three years on, we finally replaced that with a blind and finished it off with these curtains... ah relief.

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Sunday, August 20, 2006


(comic) book shelf
Originally uploaded by rowdyman.

After a week or so of having pieces of cut plywood leaning against the wall, then another week of applying paint, then sanding, then adding layers of varathane, I decided to put this project out of its misery. I guess I shouldn't have thought a few layers of paint would have hidden the flaws of some crappy plywood or that such an endeavour would be a quick fix but by Friday I could take it no longer. Because the bookcase was destined for the third floor, I assembled it on the deck - in the afternoon sun. Perhaps not the best idea. What should've been an hour of assembly became a 4 hour Sisyphean ordeal. I'll never understand why they sell 'knock-down' hardware in sizes that don't match common drill bits. You know you can't put a 3/8" nut in a 3/8" hole so why should I need to buy a 7/16" bit? Couldn't they just make it that much smaller - say 5/16"? It's the whole, 6 buns/8 hot dogs math of it all that drives me nuts. Anyway, after much dehydration and cursing a streak blue enough to remove paint, I eventually got the thing together. I photographed it almost as much as proof to myself as to the rest of the world.

When Angela suggested I move my comic books from the living room to the new bookshelf, my first thought was, "What? Embarrassed by having comic books in full view?" but I quickly realized she was right. I like having these books close at hand. I refer to them all of the time. It's a strange thing that I rarely re-read my comics, but I'm always perusing them, tracing their panels for revelation or truth like Champlain trying to find the route to the Pacific. It is a sorry admission, that some of my favourite comics are not the new classics like Maus or Jimmy Corrigan (stories so depressing, laying in front of a moving car might seem a reasonable response), but the cheesy 70's style comics.

There is a single "Conan the Barbarian" that has several panels of our anti-hero atop a galloping horse, or a Conan knock-off, with a name and premise too stupid to mention that has a stringy, messy inking style that I can never take my eyes from (maybe it's the sexy witches in their fur bikinis). Even stranger is my affection for an Italian comic, pulp detective novel, Dylan Dog - I actually swiped a scene set in an abandoned rail tunnel for a student film while at Sheridan. The story seems absurd, even though I can't read the Italian text, yet the absolute black and white (not a single shade of gray), the balance of the heavy and fine line, holds my attention for ages (and after). Lastly, there is a wildly convoluted story of Cadillacs & Dinosaurs drawn in emulation of a Wally Wood sci-fi comic that I love so much that it pisses me off to have to flip through the inferior filler sections drawn by a lesser (much lesser) artist.

What's the worst part of these trysts? All of these books favour style over substance. Comic books must be the only medium that can get away with this. Few music fans put up with protracted guitar solos and certainly there are plenty of films that have amazed the audience with their beauty, but disappointed with their plot, or characters. We watched a poetic, eccentric and vision filled film last night, The American Astronaut, that was like a cross between Plan 9 from Outer Space, a Guy Maddin film and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but without a reasonable story or characters, large portions of the film, that on their own may have been charmingly odd, just seemed tedious. The style alone could not carry you for 84 minutes. Comic books never have to worry about this as you don't have to read it all - just look, if you feel like it. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of my comics that I love both the style and the story; Chester Brown's "Louis Riel", the Hernandez brothers' "Love and Rockets", Dan Clowes "Ghost World", Seth's "Palookaville" or Joe Sacco's "Palestine". Still, it persists that there are some terribly vapid comics that I can't let go off.

Thankfully, I'm not obsessive-compulsive about comics, I wouldn't even call the few I have as a collection (THIS is a collection). Still, I may have to build another book shelf.

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Monday, August 07, 2006


living room
Originally uploaded by rowdyman.

This is a quick note to let everyone know I'm feeling much better - and my diet is increasingly solid - scrambled eggs no less! Last week I was in some pain, but after talking to the doctor he prescribed something that helped. It was a strong anti-inflammatory drug - which really helped with the pain. I guess it acts as a pain killer without any of the usual drowsiness or hallucinatory side effects (shame really - I was sort of hoping for a "Beatles go to India/ Timothy Leary" type of experience). It allowed me to sleep the whole night through which I think really improved my disposition. That drug is done now. It can be quite harsh on your stomach so you can only take it for a few days in succession. It got me through the rough spot and today I've just taken a few Advil and it hasn't been that bad.

Other than that, things should return to normal this week. We finally got our new blind for the living room and replaced the dreaded main sail that had been an imposing presence for 3 years. Of course, when we moved in, I said that curtain was the first thing that had to go. We'll be adding a curtain soon, but it looks nice without it. I've started building a new book shelf and I've got a couple of contracts lined up and if this fantastic weather holds up (sunny days, bearable heat, cool evenings) then August should be a very fine month. I'm looking forward to starting physio on my hand, which is healing well, and looking forward to general Santé! It would be nice to just be healthy for awhile.

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Thursday, June 08, 2006


living room
Originally uploaded by rowdyman.

This is our new living room light. In the background is our new dining room light. The significance of the living room fixture is that it replaces the last remaining light on the main floor from the previous owner. Now I don't want to judge the taste of others, but for me that old living room light hung over my head like a dark cloud - a dark cloud in the shape of an amber/bronzey/faux Victorian fly trap. Needless to say, I sleep better knowing the old light is now in the basement - except now I'm afraid to go down into the basement - for it lurks there still - lurking, waiting to illuminate a room in an unattractive manner. Click on the photo to see some more photos from May.

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Saturday, May 14, 2005

New (old) mower
New (old) mower,
originally uploaded by rowdyman.
This weekend and the previous weekend have been pretty busy. Last weekend we finally got our new furnace and water heater, and we tore down our back fence. This weekend, I took Friday off and with our neighbours help we dug out holes for posts needed for our car port. Then, with perfect timing, our new mattress arrived. After 5 hours of jack hammering and augering, a good night's sleep was had by all.

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Monday, October 11, 2004


Autumn's here. You can tell by the wind and angle of the light. I always feel that if I were suddenly cast into a coma and lay there for twenty years (like Rip Van Winkle) and was roused on a sunny afternoon in October, that I could tell you it was a Saturday in October. This Saturday was the convergence of our eleventh anniversary (I know, I know...) and Thanksgiving weekend. We spent the day at the Butterfly Conservatory near, Niagara, Ontario. It's an enormous greenhouse where butterflies float and dodge like snowflakes. Some drift like scraps of paper while others flap furiously to hover above an alien looking blossom. If you lean in closely to examine a particularly iridescent specimen, you might be misted by automatic sprayers or collide with a brightly plumaged wing. No silk can match their colour, no map can chart their course (though of course, some entomological nerds claim to). Birdlike they ascend and like ash they fall. It's remarkable how fragile they seem. People walk along the pathways as though they were trying not to break spider's webs. You watch your step for fear of crushing one resting on the stones below. For all of this caution, these bugs have an average life span of a few weeks. Some varieties live longer and can last the winter by essentially filling themselves with a natural anti-freeze. My predominant thought was why are we so careful not to squish bugs in a green house, but seem thoughtlessly destructive anywhere else. Maybe it's because we paid $10 to see these bugs and didn't want to mess up what we just paid for. It just seemed odd that someone took great care to construct this conservatory, just for the beauty of butterflies, in which, we tip toe around the artificial nature, but in the world outside we just stomp around crushing actual nature at every opportunity. Ironically, just down the road from the conservatory is one of Canada's first hydroelectric stations. Finished in the '20's, Sir Adam Beck Power Station, was the largest of it's kind upon completion. At once a zenith of our engineering acumen and simultaneously a nadir of our reckless misuse and destruction of the world around us. I guess we pick and choose just what part of the environment we protect and what we neglect. After all, nobody is planning on building any Bat Conservatories any time soon.

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Saturday, September 04, 2004

August Photos
Another August has come and gone - here are the photos to prove it. Usually we cap off the summer with a big meal with family and friends yet, this year we really didn't have a big splash for Angela's birthday. Plus we thought we'd wait until her surgery was done before we do anything. Despite that and the cool weather we still had quite a bit of excitement this week. We had visitors from Vancouver, Ottawa and Rochester and before we knew it - Angela had another niece. Lucia Giuseppa McLaren, was born September 1, 2004 at 7:08 AM Pacific Time, at a small but healthy 5lbs 11oz. Unfortunately, no pictures at press time, but I'm sure I'll be posting some soon enough.
Peter

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Wednesday, March 24, 2004

There is a time and a place for everything. So they say. I purchased enough flooring to cover our third floor - thus it has a place, but, does it have a time? Seeing as this flooring is still inside some boxes (does that make it 'boxing'?) I guess it has ceased to have a time. Or perhaps, its time has passed. More likely, its time is yet to come.

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Monday, October 06, 2003

I spent last Friday night, most of Saturday and a good deal of Sunday digging up a poorly built flower bed, tearing off lattice, replacing said lattice with chicken & vermin wire, custom cut cedar lattice and the flower bed with about 200 lbs of gravel and patio pavers. All I can say is that I am glad that was a poorly built flower bed, if it were well made, I might still be there trying to rip it up. Now, I'm not saying I 'did the right thing' and crafted a porch screening of such quality that it shall never be removed. On the contrary, I am glad Dad (or worse Dave) wasn't around to comment on the proceedings. I cut corners...measured those corners, and then, cut them again. In fact, I have discovered that the beauty of cutting corners is that, really, you don't have to worry about it now...only later. Later, when the whole thing falls down because it was built on corners which had been cut, you can say "Well, that's what cutting corners gets you." I've realized that our society is built on cut corners (as is our electrical grid, apparently) and though Rome wasn't built on cut corners, I'm sure if it had occurred to a Roman engineer, he would have cut some corners pretty quick. You see, doing things right - with care - is really a very grey distinction. Oh sure, I could've have stopped once I discovered the rot in the porch and said - good golly, this whole porch has got to go. A stressful month and many thousands of dollars later, where would I be. Exhausted, impoverished and angry at the world. Yet, by ignoring the rotten beam, filling it in with a spacer, some glue and nails and just forgetting whatever I saw, I spent about a couple hundred bucks, was done in time for tea, and was filled with what realtors call "Pride of Ownership" (yes - P.O.O.) - Yes - after a weekend of digging, hoeing, sawing, cussing, nailing and screwing...I AM FULL OF P.O.O.! Thank God for Property!

You see, I am satisfied that to me, "cutting corners" would appear shameful to a journeyman carpenter, but to the previous owners, my version of 'cut corners' appears like an ancient Roman engineer. I can hear them now - "He used galvinized screws! Is he nuts? Those are 12 cents more - and I don't even know what 'galvinized' means? Why not use staples and string?" Oh and I can hear the artisan too. "Galvinized screws! You big Yuppy Girl's Blouse! Dowels and Shims, a drop of glue and dovetail joints only! - You lil' wuss!" And that is why I am full of P.O.O. - it is our house and if I want to to muck it up - I will. Then I will have a beer and survey my manse with my head held high. I almost spit out my Perrier when after I suggested that we remove the tub and just have a shower (it's a small bathroom) and Angela's mother said - "but you have to think about resale value - people like bathtubs". I was within a hair's breath of saying "To Hell with People! I live here - if I want a shower, I'll put one in" Besides, if you really want to improve the resale value, you hire a designer to make the place look like last month's Home and Garden, dab some vanilla extract on a lightbulb and Bob's your Uncle.

This weekend I want to just scream... Shout it from the mountaintops, I want the world to know that I couldn't give a tinker's cuss what anyone thinks! And as soon as I find out what a Tinker's Cuss is, I let them know that too.

All and all, work has been gettin' me down, and the only cure for that is liquor - liquor and yelling from mountain tops etc. and getting used to getting back to work is really bringing me down. Previously, I thought getting brought down, was something that only happened to Hippies in the presence of 'bad vibes' but now I see that it can happen to the best of us. Let's admit, we are "the Best of Us". I mean, we aren't out there, homeless, junkies, corrupt politicos, or other evil doers. That's not us. We really are the Best of Us. Being the Best of Us, means we deserve a little self-indulgent drinky time. So. Go to that movie, have a premium brand beer, eat a $20 steak cooked in a $10 pan, don't take your vitamins, and let others know who they are dealing with - We are "The Best of Us" and "It" has finally happened "Us".

Working Men in a funk - Unite - or do what you want. It's your funk after all, so you enjoy it!

sleepy at work,
Peter

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