I took Friday off from work and did the prep work in the garage. This involved triple-sweeping out the whole floor and getting rid of every last bit of dust and debris. Next was washing, degreasing, and etching the floor. I donned some rubber boots, gloves, and safety glasses and got to scrubbing the entire floor and hosing it down afterward until “the water flowed clean.” Dry out took overnight.
Saturday morning finally arrived and it was time to paint. It went on pretty easy other than the fact that the paint/epoxy doesn’t have a lot of life.. it thickens and is impossible to apply after about two hours. Work quickly is what I learned.. I just barely finished the garage. I even broke a paint roller halfway through trying to apply the last bit of the first can of paint (it was like mud). All in all though, it turned out beautifully! Here are pictures from this morning.
The floor will take a few more days to dry and then we can park the cars in the garage again. The remaining gladiator pieces are coming on Thursday (bench, gear locker, two cabinets, and a tool drawer). The garage could be back together as soon as next weekend!
Found some time last week to install the Gladiator GearTrack on the walls. I’m really happy with how it turned out. In addition to a wide assortment of hooks, I ordered a ball caddy, clean up caddy, and a storage tub holder (used for recyclables).
This past weekend I mustered up the courage to attack the floor. I rented a walk behind cutter for making grooves and a hammer drill with 3/4″ drill bit for the holes. The channels guide the water to the holes, where the water drains down into the ground. This should make this coming winter much more bearable. Thanks Derek for your help!
Next weekend I hope to apply the epoxy floor coating, order the remaining Gladiator items, and finally check the garage project off as done.
I started playing my Simon & Patrick acoustic guitar a little more frequently lately and I got to wondering why I ever stopped playing in the first place. There’s something about playing beautiful music that seems to drown out everything else…. all the stress and problems of life melt away when I get into a groove playing a favorite song.
Since I haven’t changed out the strings or done any maintenance work on the guitar in six years, I decided to do just that by bringing it to Guitar Center and having a setup and restring done. The setup is necessary because over time the stress created by the string tension can cause the neck to bow and thus the section of the strings closer to the guitar body elevate further from the neck.. making those notes much more difficult to play. A setup puts the guitar back into alignment.
I made the mistake of having this work done at a really nice guitar (and band) shop (as opposed to a someone who does this on the side). Walking into the store has a way of sucking me in as I look at all the guitars, drums, keyboards, and other instruments sitting out ready to play. They beckon, and I submit.. and wind up spending a few hours playing around. This isn’t always a bad thing, but when I found out I’d need to drop the guitar off and would be without it (gasp!) for a week, that didn’t set well.
You see, even if I didn’t play the guitar every night (or even every month), knowing that I could play it if I wanted to kept me happy. Now I was without any guitar to play… and that first night was very hard. Of course it didn’t help that I was reading through guitar tutorials and beginner riffs (such as Layla by Derek and the Diminos). Without thinking about it, I went back to Guitar Center the next day and while I was playing around, I noticed several value packs. The value packs include everything you need to get going with an electric guitar – something I’ve always wanted to do someday. I thought about it for a while and asked one of the employees how they rate… they said you could do much better quality-wise by spending just a little more and skipping all the extras like a tuner that are included in the pack. I headed back to work.
After work I went… where else but Guitar Center. I spent another few hours playing and fell in love with an amplifier by Fender in the G-DEC line (G-DEC stands for Guitar Digital Entertainment Center). It’s basically an amplifier with lots of special effects processing and sound loops for both drums and bass so that the guitarist using the amp will never be “alone.” Turn on one of the many drum beats and add a bass progression and you have an instant support group to play with. That sold me since I don’t have anyone else to jam with most of the time. Now I just needed a guitar.
Since I was looking at Fender amplifiers, I gravitated toward the Fender guitars. I’m a brand guy – I’ll admit it. I like getting caught up in the whole brand loyalty thing even if thorough research points out that it’s a marketing trap. Looking at the Fenders, I knew I didn’t want to get the Squire line but rather the full-fledged Fender line. To me, that’s like getting the Volkswagen instead of the Audi (sorry Kellie!). The skill level I’m at doesn’t afford me the knowledge to know the difference between one guitar and another so I got some advice from the employees again and then chose a color and pattern I liked.
Now I’ve picked out the two main components… wait, how did I get from just playing to picking out components? I’m still not totally sure… but I ended up getting the Fender G-DEC 30 and a Fender Standard Stratocaster HSS in Brown Sunburst. It is as beautiful as it sounds.
So anyway, now I have something to play while I wait for the acoustic. And for reading all that, I present to you a video of Henrik Berger playing an older Stratocaster on the smaller G-DEC amplifier model. I hope that I can play even 10% as well as him someday…
Just in the off chance that you haven’t yet heard, the Millennium Triathlon set to take place this past Saturday was canceled due to severe weather. It was the right call to make – especially given the strong line of thunderstorms that rolled through shortly after the event would have started – but it’s still frustrating none-the-less. Kellie and I were both really looking forward to this event and since we hadn’t signed up for any other triathlons this year, this was going to be our only one of 2009.
We briefly entertained the idea of entering the the Three Rivers Triathlon south of Kalamazoo in two weeks, but given the short time allotted for planning and Kellie’s hesitation of the course difficulty, we’ve decided to pass on that one too. The rest of the weekends this year are already booked so it looks that 2009 will go down as a tri-less year. Bummer.
I took the afternoon off and finished putting up the last two Hyloft 3ft x 3ft hanging storage units. This brings the total up to 4 in the garage: 3 on the north side and 1 on the south side. I’m quite pleased with how they turned out and I still have plenty of space left for future use. In these pictures, I have everything up there that I had planned to store on them.
I also snapped a picture of the two bike lifts I installed a little while back. They are the pulley-type that allow you to raise and lower heavier bikes (which the cruisers definitely are..).
The garage is really starting to come together now. I’ve given in to Kellie’s wish that we not take on priming and painting the garage this year. I fear that we won’t ever get back to doing it but alas, it is only a garage and while paint would add that extra splash of style and finish, it is definitely not necessary.
I spec’ed out the two remaining tools I need to rent to groove and drain the garage floor and now that I have a hitch on the TT, I just need a free day to head over to Home Depot and pick them up. Then I’ll epoxy the garage floor and it’ll pretty much be done!
I wrote three days ago about purchasing a hitch by Curt Mfg for the TT and a Thule hitch mount bicycle rack. Both parts arrived yesterday – amazingly – and I was able to get the hitch installed this morning at Community Auto Center – which, I might add, was an extremely satisfying experience. Not only are the employees passionate about nice cars AND their customers, they actually let me in the back to take a look at the underside of my ride. I have a LOT of respect for shops that will do that – I know it’s a huge legal risk and that makes me appreciate it all the more. The tech who worked on my vehicle (Jim) also owns a 2001 TT just like mine (except it’s the roadster) and that instantly gave me a lot of faith in his work (attention to detail, cares about the car, etc.). The hitch went on without a problem and I’m a very happy customer – can you tell??
Back in the garage at the condo.
The hitch is hardly noticeable with nothing attached!
Add on Thule 912. Plenty of clearance from the back bumper.
Extend the rack arms.
Add the bicycles!
Check width and height.. centered behind car very well.
Check the quick release (and other) clearances… no rubbing.. not even close when putting pressure on it. The two anti-sway attachments keep the bikes VERY sturdy.
Final product. A hitch on the TT with bike rack (and soon to be snowboard rack and the occasional trailer to and from Lowes).
Overall I’m extremely pleased with how this turned out. It seems like inevitably there’s always a flaw in my ideas or something doesn’t turn out just how I’d hoped it would. I can’t see anything with this upgrade yet that fits that bill.
As an added bonus, Jim gave me a ride in his TT which has the APR stage I chip upgrade… what an amazing difference! About 50-60 extra horses and better fuel economy all around. I’m just waiting for the next APR sale (perhaps Christmas?) and I’ll probably jump at that. His TT pulled hard! It reminds me of the Altima…
My wife has mentioned getting rechargeable batteries for our wii remotes at an increasing frequency lately so I, being into technology and getting things done, decided to look into it further today over lunch. I already knew that I didn’t want the wii charging station that I’ve seen and heard good things about. While I’m sure it works well, I don’t want another device sitting in the home theater stand that requires us to dock the wii remotes when not in use. Ours spend a fair amount of time in the guitar hero controllers and it would be a pain to remove them every couple of days to top off the batteries.
After some extensive research into batteries and the various types out there, I realized that NiHM is the best way to go as LiIon are not available in AA sizes generally and all other battery types are older. The biggest downside to NiHM batteries is that they have a high self discharge rate – meaning that left alone, they lose their charge quickly. Some sources said loses of 10% a day weren’t uncommon. Hmm.. that won’t work well for devices like wii remotes where they are used seldomly and a battery (at least the alkalines we currently use) can last months. Then I happened upon a newer version of NiHM that some manufacturers are producing that have a very low self discharge rate, on the order of 10% a year. The downside is a slightly limited capacity. Existing NiHM batteries typically have a 2500 mAh versus these newer ones that have 2000 mAh. That seems a fair trade-off though given the purpose of these batteries.
I should mention too that I also didn’t want to go with the wii charging station because it’s proprietary.. meaning that we’re only going rechargeable for the wii remotes and don’t have the ability to do so with ANY AA or AAA device we use. I’m also betting that the batteries in the wii charging station are the older type of NiHM, which is why (like portable phones and other household rechargeables) they should be docked when not in use – to keep the charge levels up due to self discharge otherwise.
So to wrap this up, I went with the Vanson V-6988, a 10 cell charger for AA or AAA batteries. It’s a slow charger which seems to do less recharge damage to the batteries than a fast charger but given the 10 cell capacity, charging overnight is not an issue. You can check it out here: http://www.greenbatteries.com/10celanimbat.html. I also picked up 16 Duracell ULSD (ultra low self discharge) AA batteries. Looking forward to having this setup last for quite a long while.
About a month ago, I ordered new EBC rotors and Hawk brake pads for the TT. I haven’t installed them yet because the rear rotors are on back order and I’m still waiting on them. The vendor said it could be another month so I’m just being patient (and easy on the brakes to avoid any emergency replacement need).
For the past year or so, I’ve been trying to locate an OEM roof rack for the vehicle. I’d like to transport my bikes and my snowboard and the OEM rack is such a nice fit. The aftermarket roof racks just don’t interest me. I haven’t had any luck searching ebay or classified ads in all this time so I’m moving on to plan B.
I found out today that a company called Curt Mfg makes an aftermarket hitch add-on for the TT. I’ve never thought about having a hitch before because I always naively assumed they were just for trucks and towing things. There are many bike carriers and snowboard/ski carriers that fit on hitches and as an added benefit, I could hook up a small trailer for transporting things (such as building supplies from Lowes!).
All of a sudden, the TT seems much more practical in my mind. I can still have the sleek, fun, sporty car but it can be versatile too. I ordered up the hitch and the bike rack and am excited to get all that setup. I’ll pick up the snowboard carrier closer to winter. Does anyone think it’s weird having a sports car with a hitch?!
