Summertime projects?

[eds1275]

Well my plans for the summer were going to be building that arcade machine I've designed... but the other day with no warning I got laid off for 2 months. Kinda BS and I'm really pissed, I would have liked some notice, for example before I spent a grand buying maple hardwood for my renovation.

So now, I'm going to be doing lots of free stuff like camping and kayaking, mountain biking and hiking. And sooo much guitar. But since I ALWAYS like to have a project on the go, I'll be leveling my lawn, digging out another parking spot in the front yard, trimming the trees, and removing a big concrete slab that runs water back towards the house. All these things have been on my list since I bought this place 2 years ago, but I've been busy renovating the inside... completely gutted the basement and built it again from the ground up. Redid all the wiring and plumbing [looks like it was all a bad DIY job, and I couldn't live with it - some of the wiring was just dangerous]. I'm not finished my renos, but without disposable income there's not much I can do.

Anyone else have big plans for the summer?

[HaRuMaN]

Other than doing lots of 12 ounces curls in the pool, no, not really.   

[TOK]

Finally converting Florida/junk room into a gameroom. The room is all aluminum framed windows and it's a lot of work since I have to frame it, then sheet and side the outside after pulling them.

I'm in the home stretch for the outside, but its till too much of a disaster inside and out for pics. Today is my only full day this week to work on it, and its 104 degrees out. I started early and stopped at lunchtime. 

[Frigo]

Right now I'm hand-sanding some furniture that the wife and I "inherited" from her grandmother, after it became evident that she could no longer take care of herself and had to be placed in assisted living. Apparently, she loved to use spray paint for EVERYTHING, as I have chairs, stools, tables, chests, and even lamps that were all spray painted at some point, some more than others. Thank goodness for paint strippers! Once I buff them out using 60-220 grit, I'm going to prime and finish them with either an oak or cedar, depending on how well it matches up to the rest of the house.

Other than that, I'm planning on wiring my house for CAT6 within the next couple of months.

[eds1275]

Wiring up my house was awesome! Every room [except the bathroom...] has cat5, telephone, video from my security cameras, motion sensors, video from the cable company [I don't have cable but i might one day] and audio from my control room so you can hear what I'm working on from any room in the house. It's connected to various amplifiers and in some rooms just the television has a a/v input running the audio only. The recording studio portion of my house also has extra cat5 connections for a headphone monitoring system I plan to buy, regular headphone jacks, 30 mic inputs and 2 outputs, VGA and USB so that I can work from any room by myself with a screen and mouse, and I have a small equipment room that houses my computer and runs everything that needs into my control room [firewire, usb, 1/8 TRS audio, VGA, HDMI, extra cat 5 just in case, and a wire I just ran and attached inside the wall in both rooms for pulling cables in the future should the need arise].

Also, I wired a pair of 20 amp circuits outside for when I get my shop put together, and 20 more amps for lighting and yard power. And then a 65amp circuit for the future hot tub. Yeah, I like to dream. And be prepared.

[LLUncoolJ]

I've been trying to put my back yard back together all summer so far after the pool construction. Other than a boatload of landscaping, I did wire some outside speakers up and hooked then to my old Sony tuner. Then bought a FM transmitter for the juke box to play on it. I gotta say, of all my projects, the jukebox is far and away the most used.

We also pulled up a flagstone area of our patio, dug it out, laid in gravel, replaced the flagstone, then cemented polished pebbles in the gaps. Looks very Mexican and hopefully accomplishes the goal of preventing weed growth in that area. The next item up I am researching is installing an under deck drainage system, so that rain water don't drip throught the deck to the patio underneath. This may be a next season project, I don't really have $1200 in the slush fund that it will take to get it done.