I spent most of this weekend constructing a new deck that adjoins the old deck by the pool. This is phase 27 in the 4 year long backyard project. Building the small deck was surprising easy. I wasn’t 100% sure I possessed the skillz necessary to do it on my own, so I recruited dad to help devise the plan, acquire materials, and get me started. I enjoy showing how things are done, so here is how to build a simple deck:

Normally you would start by setting some concrete posts for the deck to rest on. Since there was already concrete underneath several of these posts, I skipped this step and went straight into building the frame. Make sure it's level and square. If your building in a predetermined space which happens to be off-square, then you'll have to deal with that as I did.

Next, use those deck brace things and attach the cross bars, which probably have a real name besides cross bars.

If your deck is awesome like mine and has to go in a space that is not square, you will have to cut at least one board at an angle. I decided to make it the next to the last one, both for aesthetics and to hopefully prevent the narrow end from splintering over time.

Now all that's left to do is screw in the planks across the top and trim them to length with the skill saw. Now the deck is done!

The last step (not pictured) is the call mom and ask her to power-wash the existing deck since it now looks worse than ever with a nice new deck connected to it.

I’ve been wanting an electric outlet in my basement and in the stairway for quite some time so last night I decided to try my hand at being an electrician. I am generally intimidated by projects that involve tampering with devices marked “HIGH VOLTAGE” but after googling “how to install an electric outlet” I felt like I could pull it off on my own.

The first, and also the most intimidating part of the project involves adding a breaker to an electric panel. Since my house is extra cool, it has no less than 5 electric panels, 2 of which are no longer functioning. I chose the one under the kitchen to connect to since it was the closest to where I wanted to put the outlets and it also had 3 open slots.

Once you’ve added a new circuit breaker and all the connections are made, run some wire from the panel along the ceiling towards the target location. If you need to get over some duct work, use a 10′ piece of conduit to pull it through. If you’re in a pinch and don’t have conduit handy, a broomstick, scrap piece of lumber, or in extreme cases, a broken tree branch might all get the job done. Just ask yourself, “how would a redneck do this?”.

Take the conduit you just used to fish the wire across the ducts and cut a short section to run up into the location of the outlet. Attach the outlet box to the wall and run the conduit through one of the pop-out openings on the box. I chose the bottom. If you do this step before fishing your wire across the duct work you’ll be out of luck so don’t get trigger happy and start skipping steps.

If you want extra outlets, you can make it easy on yourself and connect them all one after another. There weren’t any (functioning) outlets in the basement so I decided to add one here. The post I attached it to is pretty rough so the outlet looks stupid and not very straight, nonetheless, it has electric current so I’m happy. Once it’s firmly attached, spray paint a random yellow squiggle mark on the post so everyone knows how awesome you are.

Back in the stairway I have now installed the receptacles and used my cool electrical meter thing to test it. You could also use such things as a fan or radio to see if the outlet works, but if you want to feel like a real electrician I suggest using the meter thing. I got mine at wal-mart for $1.50. Also, putting the receptacles upside-down as required by many building codes eliminates the 1 in a billion chance you could somehow electrocute yourself by getting a flat piece of metal to connect the hot and neutral terminals while something is plugged in.

Done! Now you have one more location in your house that is capable of running up your electric bill.

This past weekend we changed things up in the house a bit. Thanks to some help from the moms we tackled this project in just a few hours!

Sometimes the process of painting isn’t very fun, but it is pretty cool being able to completely change the feel of a room in such a short period of time.

I am all about eco friendly things and one such thing I have been interested in is buffalo grass. Buffalo Grass is a turf grass native to the southern great plains, including parts of Missouri. It is slow, and low growing and tolerant of prolonged drought and extreme temperatures. I have decided to seed a couple areas of my yard with buffalo grass, just to try it out and so far I am convinced that it’s great. Here are some general thoughts:

1. It looks and feels cool.
2. The seed is expensive, so doing the whole lawn will be a multi-phase project.
3. The grass germinates and grows slowly, so it has to be weeded regularly while it’s establishing.
4. Depending on how ‘manicured’ you want it, mowing is done anywhere from once a month to once a year.
5. Buffalo Grass likes full sun, so if your yard is full of shade, then it’s probably not the best option.
6. Once established it doesn’t need to be watered. I think watering lawns is a big waste of water anyways, but if I did water my lawn then I guess this would be another plus for me.

So, I am pretty excited about the buffalo grass and plan to pick a section of yard each year and convert it to buffalo grass until I have the entire yard done. Native plants are so killa!

Last night before the storm hit I put the finishing touches on this section of my backyard landscaping project. I am pretty excited about it for a number of reasons but mainly just because it looks nice.

I am not generally all that great and coming up with landscaping arrangements and ideas, so I will credit mom with telling me where I should put the plants. I basically just went to the store and picked out some things I liked and decided later where to put them. I tend to prefer plants that are green year round… which is why about 75% of the things I planted are dwarf conifers of various types.

The biggest dilemma was the lightning. I wanted to use solar, mainly because i like the idea of it… but I don’t really care for the blueish light that most solar fixtures give off. So I’m working on a way to power these normal low-voltage fixtures with solar and I don’t think it will be very hard… that will be a “how-to” project for another post!

[SinglePic not found]I’ve had so many people tell me I should sell some of my photos I’ve finally decided to give it a shot. The result of this idea is my newest web creation, Shortleaf.com, which features my latest and greatest (mostly) nature photos. They can be viewed much larger than on this site, plus they are available for sale in a variety of sizes and options. It’s fairly limited now, but as most things, it will grow with time. To the right you can see how very excellent these look hanging on a wall! (Click image for a larger view)

The name Shortleaf comes from my obsession with conifers and Missouri’s native Shortleaf pine – one of my favorite trees. A guy in Maryland had already registered the domain, but he was kind enough to let me have it for my site! So a big thanks to him.

Also, I am not alone in my creative web ventures… Bridget is making neat earrings, Ian & Co. are doing a project with Adam’s grandpa’s treasure-trove of old slides, and Shelf-life is making some pretty cool “hang-downs”. So I must know a lot of creative people. I bet all of these project doers are left handed.

Anyways… this concludes the promotion of my new photo site for the time being!