I have no problem telling people that we are frugly (pronounced FRUG-LEE). That stands for frugal-ugly. We would rather look plain and have a few extra dollars and more free time than visit fancy salons and spas and wear clothes that cost more than we make in a week.
We didn’t even own an iron until a couple of years ago when I needed to make t-shirts (and honestly compels me to disclaim that we haven’t used it since).
A hair dryer? We don’t own one. My wife doesn’t have a hairdresser. She doesn’t even know any. The only time she gets haircuts are when they are free because she gets enough cut off for locks-of-love.
To us, appearance just isn’t the most important thing. Yet, apparently during a moment of weakness, we decided to enter Mackenzie into Macon’s Little Miss Cherry Blossom Pageant.
The pageant isn’t your average Toddlers-and-Tiaras-type pageant. Only “Sunday” dresses are allowed. The kids are suppose to look like kids, not miniature adults. No excessive make-up, hair-dos, etc. Sounds like the perfect pageant for a frugly family like mine!
So first, we had to find a pink dress — in November. If you walk into any store, you quickly realize that red and magenta are the colors of the season. Finding anything pink was a huge challenge. By the way, I got the $60 dress for less than $20. Score 1 for the fruglies!
Next, it was time for shoes. We wanted white dress shoes, but again, those are impossible to find outside of the Easter season. After visiting at least 25 stores, we finally found a pair (and at a reasonable price). Score 2 for the fruglies!
Now, what to do about the hair? Mackenzie is cute in braids, pigtails, or pretty much any other quick hair style, but this warranted something special. We found a curling iron for $5.00 (Score 3 for the fruglies!). After pleading for help on Facebook, and nearly choking from laughing so hard when a Facebook friend suggested that we call my wife’s (non-existent) hairdresser, Kimberlie’s co-worker and friend volunteered to help with the task. This same person also trades Saturday shifts with Kimberlie and made a few wonderful pink bows for us.
Finally, there were logistical matters. We had a 5K scheduled in Milledgeville (and hour away) just 4 hours before we had to be at the theater. (It’s the end of the year and we are chasing points.) That gave us (all four of us) less than an hour at the house to shower, change, eat lunch, and prep my little princess. But, somehow, we pulled it off.
Mackenzie didn’t win the title, but we weren’t “in it to win it”. She did a wonderful job, however.
I think it all turned out pretty well. What do you think?
A little over a year ago, when I still worked for Mercer Law School, a student worker was cleaning out a faculty member’s storage closet. They stumbled across a vintage Macintosh Performa 200 (by vintage, I mean 1992). Thinking it belonged to the technology department, they brought it to us for disposal. I decided to keep it to see if it would work. It didn’t, but it was too cute to trash. I remembered seeing photos and stories on Instructables.com about people turning old computers into working aquariums and I knew that this would be my next project. I promptly took it home.
After some online research, I stumbled upon a great set of instructions by Andy Ihnatko. Like cleaning the insides out of a pumpkin, dismantling the computer required special tools and certain protruding portions of the case had to be removed as well. Between a Dremel and a hacksaw, I finally removed the portions of the computer necessary to build the aquarium. (My apologies for using “Mercer Law” and “hacksaw” in the same blog post.)
The mac, still covered in Splenda
Gutting the mac
Out with the unneeded
Pretty chinese art from 1992
The garbage pile growing
Sawing off the protrusions
After getting the case like I wanted it, I cleaned the outside thoroughly. When the computer was found in the closet, it was covered in spilled Splenda. I also used black spray paint to give the insides a nice, new look. Some vintage macs have Steve Job’s signature engraved in the inside. This one, however, did not.
Next, I needed glass to build the actual tank. I went to Lowe’s and learned they only carry 1/8 inch glass, which wouldn’t support water. Home Depot had the same. Specialty glass shops online wanted big bucks to cut the glass. At this point, I lost motivation and put the case in the attic for over a year.
At my new job, I desperately needed some sort of decoration, etc. to personalize my office. Perhaps a conversation piece? One day while riding down Riverside, I discovered a glass shop about 3 blocks from the office. I printed out the dimensions I needed and took it in to see if they could do it. Not only could they do it, but it was only about $9.00. Score!
I came home and assembled the pieces using regular silicone and leak-proofed it with aquarium-safe silicone (which was difficult to find). I also constructed a wooden base to position the glass box on (and keep the electrical, etc. underneath).
Constructing the glass from instructions on the macbook
The glass assembly - waiting on silicone to set
Next, it was time to design the look of the aquarium. My friend/former boss Chris had an aquarium in his office at Mercer for several years and over that time I did a few different shots of the law school as the background for it. That background got rave reviews. Since I work in a beautiful building now, I thought that might be a good plan. I also love bubble bars and Mackenzie picked out some neon-colored gravel, which I bought against my better judgement.
I also needed a light to illuminate the tank, for visibility and to make the fish think its daylight inside. I wanted to go LED even though the price was a little steeper. I found a great LED light that can even be submerged if I ever decide to put it under the water line for about $20.00 on eBay.
Because changing the water would be difficult, I also needed a filter. I found an under-gravel filter online (powered by the same air pump that will generate the bubbles) that is supposedly perfect for small tanks. Since I plan to start with cheap goldfish, a heater/thermometer isn’t necessary. Of course, I can always add one later and go with a better filter.
Upside down case, mounting light into position
Aquarium safe silicone, found at Ace for 3x the price
Under-gravel filter, perfect for small tanks
Here’s the complete list of supplies:
Glass: 10.26 (also bought a second set, just in case — if you want it, let me know)
Silicone: 3.77
Aquarium-safe silicone: 7.41
Wood for the base (select pine): 6.84
LED light from eBay: 20.73
Under-gravel filter: 10.72 (shipping was more than the actual item)
Air pump, tubing, valve, gravel: 17.42
Fish catcher, food, and vacation feeders: 6.89
Distilled water: 1.21
Fish: 54 cents
Total cost: $85.79 (yikes!)
I went a bit over my $50.00 budget, but shipping killed me on a few items (filter, light) and I spent more to get better stuff on others (light, wood). You can purchase a similar sized aquarium kit at a local pet store for $25 or so, but it wouldn’t be nearly as cool.
I also bought a small table to sit it on for $8.00 at IKEA so that any leaks wouldn’t damage my office furniture, but I ended up not using it because it was too small.
I initially set the tank up on Friday to give the water a few days to circulate, I ran into a few problems. The air pump caused a loud vibration noise that was not conducive to a work environment. I also had issues with the gang valve leaking and ruining my background print. Currently, I have removed the bubble stone and I moved the pump to outside of the computer case. I set the filter up to run continuously, but put the LED light on a timer so that it simulates daylight for the fishies.
Today (Sunday), we added two goldfish from PetSmart: a regular orange one and a white one with an orange spot. Let’s hope they are still alive tomorrow when I get to work!
Finished product
Close up
Macquarium
The photos above as well as the video below were taken with my iPhone. I forgot to take a camera! I’ll try to post more shots soon.
Hopefully I don’t get fired for having this at work. Nobody knows about it so far. Remember my motto: It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission!
Loyal readers might remember that about 2 years ago I renovated our master bathroom. The original plan at the time was to do both bathrooms, but since Mackenzie was still getting through potty training and Tristan was still perfecting his aim, I decided to put it off for a while. That “while” finally came . . .
When we bought the house, Kimberlie wanted a “duck” bathroom and a “frog” bathroom. The kids bathroom received the duck theme. It is actually the first room that we painted when we moved in. So imagine, if you can, a new house with all white walls inside and then you have to tinkle. So you go into the hallway bathroom, turned on the light, and HOLY SUNSHINE! That’s pretty much what the yellow paint did to people.
Let’s start with a few “before” pictures:
First, I painted and we chose a new shower curtain and linens. Then I ripped up the floor and the toilet. In the process, the toilet broke:
RIP Old Toilet!
No big deal, right? Lowe’s has toilets on sale weekly for less than $100. Except I discovered that Home Depot and Lowes only have toilets that fit a 12-inch-rough-in (distance between the wall and the flange, which is the hole in the floor). My rough-in is actually 8-inches with an extended flange to make it 10-inches. Not only are 10-inch-rough-in toliets hard to find, but they are also twice the price! Oops!
After attempting to special order a toilet throught the big box stores and being hit with sticker shock, we ended up visiting a local wholesale plumbing supply store and getting a new toilet for a decent price. Of course, in that store, I threw around the big plumbing words like “rough-in” and “flange” and “elongated” like I knew what I was talking about, just like in the paragraph above!
Anyhow, the project is now done. I added crown molding around the ceiling to make it a little more upscale and I used a nicer tile than we used in the master bathroom. Of course, since this was my third tiling endeavor, the whole thing came out nicer.
I thought the vegetable garden was done after summer was over, but we still had some green growth. The growth didn’t have anything that appeared edible on it so I thought maybe it was just weeds.
Last week, I was outside so I decided to pull those weeds. They were actually carrots! I forgot that I even planted carrots!
Because, like most vegetables, we aren’t big carrot fans, I left them in the yard for the rabbits that live under the kid’s playhouse. Look at the size of the carrots compared to my hand and feet. They were huge!
Will Farmer Jonathan return next year? Probably not. We don’t even like vegetables and besides, Kroger is only a five minute drive from our house. Maybe I’ll put flowers in the garden. If you missed any of my Farmer Jonathan posts from the year, catch them below.
When we returned from our vacations, I found that our vegetable garden had become the world’s largest ant mound and weed factory. Aside from all of that, the garden continues to do well. We have picked lots of peppers of various varieties, quite a few tomatoes, and our pumpkin continues to mature. Here are a few pictures.
Back in January, we were going through some things in Mackenzie’s closet. In the process, we discovered the carpet was soaked. A few things were ruined, including the baby bed that I, my sister, Tristan, Mackenzie, and a few other kids in-between used. Nothing, however, was as bad as the carpet and baseboards.
Finally after a few months, four plumbers from two different companies on three separate visits failed at determining the source of the water, I finally found the leak. Next, I had to repair the shower and the wall. I also added an access panel so that the source of the leak would be accessible in the future without more demolition.
Because the water had ruined carpet outside of the closet and the carpet was well worn, we decided to replace it with something else. Here are a few shots of Mackenzie’s room before:
I set aside a weekend where I had no other obligations, and carpet removal began.
Every spring, Lowe’s reduces the price of their laminate flooring. Three years ago, I pulled up the carpet in our living room, dining room (who carpets a dining room anyway?), and 2 closets. While at Lowe’s, we also discovered these nice purple curtains on the clearance rack. Below are the “after” pictures:
And finally, the closet where it all began:
(I actually finished all of this about two weeks ago, but I’m just now getting around to posting it.)
It’s been almost 2 months since we’ve visited Farmer Jonathan. The vegetable garden is doing well. We added tomatoes, strawberries, eggplant, and something that I can’t remember right now to the peppers and pumpkins. Again, we don’t eat any of that stuff (except the strawberries) so I don’t know what I’m going to do with it.
From the looks of things, we are going to have a LOT of peppers. As you can see, I’m also a master at growing weeds!
Yesterday, the garden produced it’s first edible item: a strawberry. I was excited. I think it is the first thing that I’ve ever grown that is consumable.
I decided to plant a vegetable garden this year. I’m not quite sure why. I don’t really need something else to do and I don’t eat anything that I’m planting. I guess I was just up for the challenge.
I’m attempting to grow peppers and pumpkins from seeds and tomatoes from store-bought plants.
I built this raised bed last fall to accomodate the vegetable garden. Here’s a PROTIP for you from Farmer Jonathan: When you build a food garden out of landscaping timbers, you should always let it sit for at least six months before adding your soil. This keeps the chemicals used to treat the wood from compromising your soil.
Even Farmer Kimberlie decided to get in on the action with sunflowers. We’ve planted sunflowers several times in the past and they always rock.
And we scored a nifty little rain gauge freebie this weekend at the Forsythia Festival . . . right before it rained on us!
Hopefully we will have a bounty of fresh veggies — even though we don’t eat them!
This past weekend, which was a 3-day weekend for me, I renovated the flooring in our master bathroom.
The original goal is to rip up all of the vinyl flooring in our house (kitchen, mudroom, and 2 bathrooms) and replace it with ceramic tile. It’s about 400 square feet in all. The vinyl flooring was put in by the builder and like pretty much every other piece that makes up our house, I’m sure it was whatever he could find at some discount building supply shop. Over the six years that we’ve been in the house, the vinyl flooring has started to discolor and bubble in certain places and the seams are starting to rip up, especially in the kitchen.
I wanted to give it a shot before calling the pros. Why shouldn’t I? I have two arms, two legs, and a brain just like the immigrants that I could have hired for the job. Sure, I’m pressed for free time lately, but I would have to be at home anyway to babysit the construction workers. I wanted to start with a smaller area first. After all, I couldn’t completely dismantle the kitchen and both bathrooms at the same time. Since our toilet was leaking and the moldings in our bathroom needed to be replaced anyway, I decided to start there. When I say bathroom, I mean the room that contains the toilet and shower, the sink area outside (technically part of our bedroom), and my closet.
Here are a few pictures of the old flooring:
Thursday 4/9: Rip up old flooring, patch cracks, prepare for tiling.
Friday 4/10: Install tile.
Saturday 4/11: Grout flooring.
Sunday 4/12: Remove haze and seal grout.
Monday 4/13: Install moldings and transitions, paint.
Tuesday 4/14: Reinstall toilet, finish up.
The new flooring:
Total cost: about $300. That includes purchasing a $90 tile saw and other tools that were required for the job. The cost of actual materials was only about $150.
I’m tired of flooring right now, but at some point over the next few months, I will tackle that kitchen!
