Ducklips!

Posted on by

ducklips_front.jpg

My upstairs speakers are based on a mid-70s pair of JBL L200 speakers. I loved the look of the cabinets, but the sound was a bit limited. So I added 2405 slot super-tweeters and built new crossovers to make them 3 ways. A few months back I bought a pair of JBL 2397 Smith horns – they are mid-range horns, made of grey painted MDF, and designed for a 2 inch compression driver, tho I’m using them with a pair of adapters and my (cheaper) 1 inch drivers. They replace the “round” horns that are in the cabinets, hidden behind the textured foam grill. They sounded very nice but the grey industrial paint was UGLY. So, I found an audio friend who offered to make me a pair in nice wood, and I chose walnut, to match the JBL L200 Cabinets they sit on. They look great and sound WONDERFUL!

Walnut-DuckLips_3094.jpg

Meadows Celtic Festival and Highland Games – Richmond, VA

Posted on by

Had a great time over the weekend at our 3rd trip to the Meadows Festival and Highland Games. Last 2 times it was at the grounds of the Richmond racetrack, but this year it was at the Meadows site near Kings Dominion. Very cool time, even if it did rain most of the day Saturday! We got to see BarleyJuice and Rathkeltair, 2 really excellent groups with pipers, drank some beer, ate some great foot (Meat pies with HP sauce!!) and generally had a fun time with Emma’s sister Dawn!
Rathkeltair below, with Neil Anderson
rathkeltair_3034.jpg

Solar Decathalon is coming!

Posted on by

http://www.solardecathlon.org/

For three weeks in October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.

Exact dates of the 2009 event are:

  • Oct. 08-16 — Teams compete in 10 contests
  • Oct. 09-13 — Houses are open to the public
  • Oct. 15-18 — Houses are open to the public
  • Oct. 19-21 — Teams disassemble their houses.

Office nearly done!

Posted on by

Got the wall painted, emptied the old shelves, put the new system in place, and put everything back on the shelves. I still have a lot of stuff at my end (by the window) to sort through and thin out, but Emma has just done wonders sorting out here stuff!
I even bought some 12inch oak board for additional shelves at my end! I did a quick Walnut stain and its darker that I wanted, but it’ll do (once they fully dry). Wow – busy week and weekend!

Office-2968-68.jpg

‘nother darned Modern wall system

Posted on by

CRVfull_2947.jpg
Just got home after buying Greg’s wall system – thank goodness again for the CRV – got everything loaded in! Its a tight fit, but after a slow drive around the beltway in rush hour, its here. With much help from Emma, its all unpacked and in the basement!
Now all I have to do is empty our office, sand and paint the wall, reassemble the wall unit, and load all our books and software onto it. But, this is a good start!

HG Furniture Wall System from SCAN

Posted on by

Earlier this year I got an older Danish Modern Wall System. Its a very neat series of cabinets, desk and shelves, with aluminum tracks meant to be bolted to the wall and brackets to you can hang everything with. The seller said she got it at SCAN years ago, had moved around with it for ages, and wanted something new. On the back of the cabinets it’s stamped HG – Furniture, Made in Denmark.
I brought it home, wiped it all down with orange oil, and stacked the 3 dressers in my bedroom for all my things. I put the glass-front display cabinets and extra pieces in the basement until summer was over. Now its time to have a deeper look at it.

Teak-WallSys03.jpg

Continue reading →

Shopping for shelves for our office wall

Posted on by

Emma wants to redo our home office shelves, on the wall behind us when we are at our desks. Currently its a collection of folding shelf units and such we accumulated over the years, generally nice wood, but mismatched. We had gone to IKEA but it looked like we would spend $950-1200 for a system the way we wanted it. And flat pack furniture from around the world isn’t very green.
But then I saw this Modern wall system on Craigslist … Its a little rough and the seller wants way too much money, but its flexible and doesn’t rely on proprietary hardware like that old SCAN system I got in FEB …

Pond changes for Summer 09

Posted on by


A friend gave us a small plastic pond, and this year I dug a hole for it, wrapped it with a rubber pond liner and formed an overflow into the creekbed, then stacked around it with rocks I found in our yard … I put a few plants around it and laid some square slate pieces around it for a surround. Don’t like the look of the slate, but it will do for now.