May
30
How many sheets?

From my basement expenses spreadsheet I summed up the number of sheets of drywall it took. Any guesses?

77! Three of those were 10′, the rest 8′. Four were green board, the rest standard 1/2″ stuff.

Meanwhile, taping and mudding continues.

Posted Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 12:01 PMNo Comments

Filed under Basement

May
23
Basement Update

Ok, so the project is in its 20th month. Damn, that’s a long time.

At this point ALL of the drywall is hung and we’re closing in on having it all taped (maybe one more week). I need to tally how many sheets it took, but it was plenty more than I expected. We just ordered the cabinents and countertop for the wet bar. That stuff really adds up – nearly $700 for just a couple cabinents and about 7 foot of Formica countertop. That order will be ready in about two weeks so we really need to step it up. None the less I’m betting the cabinents sit in the garage for a couple weeks.

Things are looking good though, maybe better than I expected. I’ll post some pics soon.

Coming up…more taping, more mudding, more sanding, then primer!

Posted Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 9:56 AMNo Comments

Filed under Basement

May
07
A view to a kill

Another case tweak. After seeing my lit case, Mark B had a great suggestion of putting a photo of the case internals on the small LCD. After a few shots with different focal lengths and lighting I had one I liked. Yes, I actually set my camera inside the case, set the auto-timer, and quickly placed the lid on to get the shots. Nvidia’s desktop management feature lets you assign different wallpapers per display, so that was key in keeping my main monitor set to something different. At the right angle and from a couple feet away you can believe you’re actually looking through a case window.


Posted Sunday, May 7th, 2006 11:11 PMNo Comments

Filed under Comp hardware / mods

May
04
Time to pimp that ride

Just made some tweaks to my case. I replaced the stock case fans with a couple quieter chrome ones and cleaned up the wiring a bit. The new fans have 3pin connectors that can be plugged into the mobo for rpm monitoring/control.

I also added two 4″ red cold cathodes to light things up. That makes for a really nice effect.


Even with the lid on, redish-orange light pours from the side grills and leaks from the front slots.


No worries, I mounted a switch for the lights in a PCI blank so it doesn’t need to look like a 16 year-old’s box all the time (I can just hear Lesko commenting on that now).

Posted Thursday, May 4th, 2006 5:16 PMNo Comments

Filed under Comp hardware / mods