Our new flower bed

Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam'
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Finally I found the time to build a new flower bed to grace our otherwise barren front yard.

Also we took Pat's recommendation and bought a bunch of nice perennials from Humber Nurseries.

Photos are on Flickr

Harlequin Maple

We started to look at what to do for the yards (front and back) but personally I wanted a harlequin maple just like the one in my parents front yard.

Other trees?
Japanese maple (but there are thousands of species.. must find a nice looking one)
Korean lilac (supposed to smell good.. here's a picture)

Periwinkle Flower

Periwinkle Flower
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

The first flower of our house appeared! This is from the periwinkle that Pat, my friend at work, gave me last year. It had established itself, survived the winter, and grew bigger throughout this spring. :-D

Ground cover for the garden

Forget-me-not


Light purple Phlox
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Tyatt's mom gave us some of her ground cover plants like Forget-me-not and Phlox. We also bought some herbs and flowering plants as well!

That just means we'll have to opening up some flower beds soon.

DIY drapes for the house

Sewing machine action shot!
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We needed drapes badly -- the Redi-shade is beginning to look old. Ready-made drapes are either too ugly or too expensive, or .. both. Custom-made ones from drapery stores are too expensive. So, we did it ourselves!

See it on Flickr

Closet Remodeling

I am being crushed by the PAX
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Our so called walk-in closet is very small, and the original shelves did not make full use of the space. We bit the bullet and bought the PAX closet shelves from IKEA.

Installing them was a challenge -- we pretty much had to assemble the shelves inside the closet because the door opening is much shorter than the full height of the closet. Also, the inside width of the closet is exactly the width of the shelves.. we had to plan the order of the assembly to assure we can actually move everything into place!

The assembly is documented on Flickr

Tiling the kitchen back splash

Cleaning the second row of tiles
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Our first project of 2007 is to tile the back splash in the kitchen. We used glass mosaic tiles and toiled for 4 nights to get it done. We are both excited about the result!

Opinions have varied.. many say the kitchen and tiles are stunning and the kitchen now has a certain funk. Other says the tiles made the kitchen darker.

You decide: The photos of the job are on Flickr

Installed my new dishwasher

The fancy dishwasher LIVES
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We bought a new fancy dishwasher and I needed to save money. What better way to save money than to install this machine myself?

This project was complicated by a few things:
1) my dishwasher slot is not beside or near the sink / drains at all. I need to be able to route the supply and drain hoses and the electrical cable under the cabinets.

2) the builder did not provide adequate electrical rough-in for my plug-in dishwasher

So, I spent 1.5 days planning and deciding on the course of action, and 1 day actually doing the installation.

I partially documented the job on Flickr.

Painted Garage Floor

Painted Garage Floor
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

The real project of the Thanksgiving weekend is to paint the garage floor. I didn't take any pictures during the paint job because it was quite messy - the primer is actually a very tacky glue-like substance. This is the result though.. ain't it nice looking?

Tires Organized, Me Tired

Tires Organized, Me Tired
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We wanted to (i.e. the wife insisted) that we (i.e. I) paint the garage floor.

To keep stuff off the floor for good I built another shelf, this time for holding the winter tires and other stuff.

New switches

Timer Switch
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

I've installed a new timer switch for the ventilation fan in the guest washroom upstairs and a motion detector switch for the light in the laundry / mud room.. Now when I go into the laundry room with a load of dirty clothes I don't have to reach for the light again!

The pictures for both switches are on Flickr

Photos for Logic board replacement

The business end of the logic board replacement.
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Sorry for the delay in posting pictures for the logic board for the garage door opener! They are mildly interesting, but I am overjoyed that the opener works properly again.

Logic board for garage opener arrived.

Last Friday I finally received the replacement logic board from Chamberlain. I installed it on Saturday and it works like a charm. I took some pictures and will put them up later..

"Stone" style glass tile

Stone style glass tile
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Applied another sample called "Stone". This time with white grout. Looks good.. I think we want to use this one for the kitchen.

Recursive Houses

Recursive Houses
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

I've decided to start a series of pictures documenting the suburbia life through the eyes of a caffeine drunkard.. me.

The first image is this one. It is scary how I cannot see the end of houses through the gap between my neighbours' houses. It is even more scary how there is such uniformity of positioning the houses and lot so that there is an unbroken row of gaps between houses. I live in a cookie-cut subdivision in a suburb. I'm a suburbanite, through and through.

This series will be sporadically updated.. when I feel depressed. You'd hope there isn't many pictures here in a Flickr set!

Surge protector for Garage Openers

Surge protector in use
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Home Depot indeed has the surge protectors in stock. I splurged and bought two of them.

My garage opener is busted

I have two Chamberlain Whisper Drive garage door openers. They were installed one week after I moved in. They seem to work fine until recently. One day we came home to find the door opened. That was scary. Everything in the garage seems to be in order at least. We also found that my garage opener opens both doors, and the wife's ? not working at all. That's weird. After we closed it, the wonky side also opened by its own.

So today I called Chamberlain and asked for help, after discovering that the unit refuses to reset after I hold the "learn button" down as instructed by the manual's troubleshooting guide. After a few tests the customer rep says that the logic board is fried and they will send me a new one in 7-10 business days. So nice. I will see what happens after I replace the logic board. Meanwhile I guess we'll just unplug the unit when the wife is home.

Update: Simon has found that Chamberlain makes a surge protector for its Liftmaster line of garage openers. I'll see whether I can find them at Home Depot.

Glass mosaic tile install practise session

All the mosaic are installed!
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We finally decided on using glass tile mosaic to tile our kitchen back splash. I've never tiled before, let alone these specialized glass tiles. So I decided to do a simulated install on a spare piece of dry wall.

I took left over dry wall pieces from the washroom vanity light project and attached it onto the garage wall. I then proceeded to install three sample sheets of glass mosaic on it.

I think it turned out reasonably well. The tiles are resonably lined up and nothing fell out. :-) Now I wait for 24 hours before i can practise grouting.

As usual, I was my own photo-journalist and the pictures are up on Flickr.

Update: I've done the grouting practise and the photos are now part of the same set on Flickr. Use link above to see the complete set of pictures for the entire practise!

Hanging curtain

Bracket with rod.
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We are SICK of RediShade. We also need to access the backyard through the patio doors now that we have a lawn. So we went and bought the necessary curtain things and went at it. The challenge in this project was provided by our boneheaded builder who decided to put in a bulkhead so close to the trim of the patio door.

As usual, I was my own photo-journalist and the pictures are up on Flickr.

Update on my shelves in the garage

Epilogue...
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Finally able to take a picture of the "new" 3 layer shelving I installed in the garage after I last blogged about this project. Three levels of storage space for more crap! I don't need a proper toolbox.. my bottom shelf is now the tool storage.. Easy access to my growing tool collection!