Bike Overhaul (Step 2)

The plan is to remove some high-quality components from an old mountain bike that someone donated to Steph (but is too small for her) and replace the cheap components on my mountain bike with them.

Time: 2 hours

Cost: $40 (for new cables and housings and new grips)

Witch-gear: Repair stand, torque wrench, headset wrenches, pedal wrench, bike chain tool, allen wrenches, socket set, needlenose pliers, dry degreaser, dry lubricant, synthetic grease

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

What I Learned: 1) Bike cable and housing are very hard to cut. I tried older pairs of metal shears and diagonal nose cutters, but the only tool that worked was the cutters on my newer pair of needlenose pliers. (Even then, they really had to be squeezed.) and 2) Before you grab your chain tool and pop any old pin out of the chain to remove it, research how your particular chain is supposed to be removed. I popped a pin all the way out of my bike's chain, only to discover when I tried to reconnect the chain that it wouldn't go back in. Turns out the pin was only supposed to be pushed through the outer plate enough to allow to inner plate to slide out. With the help of an assistant I was able to get the pin back in the outer plate, but it was really difficult.

Bike Overhaul (Step 1)

The plan is to remove some high-quality components from an old mountain bike that someone donated to Steph (but is too small for her) and replace the cheap components on my mountain bike with them.

Time: 1 hour

Cost: $50 (for a set of specialty bike tools)

Witch-gear: Repair stand, crank puller, headset wrenches, bike chain tool, allen wrenches, socket set, diagonal nose cutters, large adjustable wrench, WD-40

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

What I Learned: Taking the components off of a bike requires several specialty tools. Performance Bike's Essential Tool Kit includes most of the things you'll need for a bike made in the past 10 years. The tools aren't of superior quality, but they get the job done, the price is better than even buying two or three of these tools separately, and I'm not going to use them that often anyway, so I consider it a good value.

Living Room Shades

Living Room Shades

New shades for the living room. Oak flooring was cut, glued and clamped into blocks to mounts these on.

Time: 2 hours

Witch-gear: Table saw, drill, countersink

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

What We Learned: Cheap oak flooring is awesome. It has lots of uses and doesn't look bad.

Ukulele

Uke

A Ukulele kit for Kate's arrival home. Now we can all play. A kit from grizzly.com.

Time: 10 hours

Cost: $25

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

What I Learned: Rubber bands can make good clamps.

Room Bebuild #2

Room Rebuild 2

Here is another room that we "rebuilt." It's my brother's old room and has now been converted into a guest room. While we didn't take the room down to the studs like the first Room Rebuild, replacing the ceiling, the lights, the floor and painting made this room look a lot better.

Time: 3 weekends

Cost: $500

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

What I Learned: 4 - T-8 bulb light fixtures are bright!, drop ceilings make a room feel like an office.