How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Open Floor Plan

In a stunning bit of hypocrisy, we’re busy making the floor plan of our house a bit more open in spite of our rants and raves about the practice. Allow me to explain. Many years ago, when I installed our living room floor, I pulled up a baseboard and discovered that the wall between the living room and bedroom was of recent vintage. What we now use as a bedroom was originally a sitting room or dining room. And the two closets that share a wall be...

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Curing Boredom with Solenoids

...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcgFfY4fVqU Sixteen year old Brandon Switzer came up with a way of dealing with boredom: build a player piano. The project uses a humble Arduino and a whole lot of solenoids. It took six months to finish. I’ve come to see the value in taking on a project that’s out of your comfort zone and this is a great example of learning while making....

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Saturday Tweets: Too Many Tweets!

...PG56m0hpdU — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) March 4, 2019 Alias: a smart-speaker "parasite" that blocks your speaker's sensors until you activate it https://t.co/uvSQXWz9kK — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 4, 2019 Goodbye Sidewalk Trees https://t.co/6MmMq42ay7 — Benjamin Vogt (@BRVogt) March 3, 2019 Haha. Our neighbours just accidentally connected the porn film they were watching to one of our Bluetooth speakers. — Jonathan Healey (@SocialHi...

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Fixing a Door Strike Plate With Repair Realism

...y don’t do much else. While we’re at it we need to find a clever solution for doors that swell and contract. One of the signs of spring here is neighbors hiring people to cut down their doors. We should have doors with tops and bottoms that extend and contract. Much of the knowledge of furniture making relates to how to allow for seasonal wood movement so that your table or cabinet doesn’t pull apart between the cold of winter and the heat and hum...

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Saturday Tweets: Parsley Poodle Sandwich

...Y6yEREr — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 13, 2019 Watch Netflix at work by making it look like you’re on a conference call https://t.co/0CmD0kgVLy — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 10, 2019 I’m in a wheelchair or pushing a baby along. How do I get around this? @LADOTofficial @davideryu #shermanoaks pic.twitter.com/cbqaZP2Rxs — CiclaValley (@Ciclavalley) July 12, 2019 Let’s do this in LA starting with the section of the 2 freeway between Glendale an...

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