Our home theater is functional but it’s missing a lot of finishing details. This post covers building columns for the theater, which will eventually house the surround speakers as well as provide a place for storage and provide an important aesthetic element. This is the first granworks post on our theater!
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Cutting plate glass (not tempered!) is easy to do with only simple tools and the right technique. This video goes over all of the basics.
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Our son is dressing up as Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series for Halloween this year. He has the robes but needed a wand. I made a simple wand from a dowel using a belt sander, glue gun, and some paint
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The Saltillo tile used in our house is absolutely appropriate for the Southwest but its wide grout lines proved impossible to clean. I tried painting the grout and the results were well worth the time. It’s easy to do and almost fool-proof. The end result looks like freshly installed grout.
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I got a bit of criticism on my last post/video where I extended an electrical outlet. The three main criticisms were that the conduit wasn’t supported; that I cut my wires too short in the new junction box; and that I created a serious hazard by not using a GFCI outlet. I address all three in this post.
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I had an exterior outlet that was too small; in overall bad shape; and not very accessible. In this post, I describe how I extended the old single gang outlet a couple of feet with liquid-tight conduit to be more accessible while also upgrading it to double gang outlets.
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If you’ve ever painted on textured walls, you know how hard it is to create a crisp straight edge. Products like “Frog Tape” are supposed to help, but they don’t. Paint is very good at sneaking underneath your tape, resulting in a jagged line when the tape is removed. This quick tip shows a very easy way to create a guaranteed straight line!
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I was inspired to try woodworking by watching The New Yankee Workshop with the incomparable Norm Abram. I scrounged together a used Craftsman “contractor style” table saw and a router; commandeered one stall of our garage; and dove right in. My first project (back in 2006) was a doll bed fit for an American Girl doll. Yeah, I made a lot of mistakes, but you have to start somewhere!
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