JoshPrime Makes Stuff

Hey Reader The time has finally come to move the piano into it's home in my living room. It isn't quite done, there is still some fabricating to do, but that can all be done and applied to the piano later, and I am interested in parking my car in my garage again. Let's get in to what I did! This is where we last left the piano. The casters are in place, the piano is painted and it was time to move on to the next steps. Then a truck arrived with my childhood bedroom on it. My folks decided that I could store my own crap, and so I got 44 boxes of toys, clothes, textbooks, and other fun memories that distracted me from piano construction for a while. The next step was antiquing. I never really thought of antiquing as being challenging, but I was having a bit of a hard time. Essentially, you water down brown (or any color you want, I suppose) paint. Then you rub it into the furniture, and immediately wipe it off. In theory, it will stick to the deepest crevices and give...

Hey Reader! I am not quite sure how to break up this piano project because I am feeling a little scattered. Anything is going to be more interesting than 11 months of wall smoothing so I guess I can do whatever I want. I want to paint the piano to match the bench, so the first step is to sand it. Honestly, the electric sander made this an incredibly easy job. I am using a paint primer combo and doing 2 coats of the dark color and 2 coats of the light color. With all that new paint, sanding feels like an extra step - but it will make the paint adhere much better. Getting into some of the carvings is a challenge and I sanded by hand in those areas. The electric sander definitely did a better job, but the smooth areas are also the areas that are going to be treated roughest so I guess it is better to have them done right. It took me a few days to get the dark color on right. The picture below isn't quite the best way to protray how this went down. The top, the decorative bit...

Hey reader! It is time for me to get a new couch. Way back when I moved to California five years ago - wow that feels like not a long time ago -  I bought this off-white leather couch from a furniture store that shall remain nameless. I asked if it was bonded leather - because honestly, bonded leather is the worst. I was assured by their slick salesperson that it was absolutely NOT bonded leather. Well, that salesperson should look into selling sand at the beach because even knowing what I didn't want didn't keep me from getting fooled. If you look at the picture, you can see the leather is flaking off - a sure sign that you are dealing with bonded leather. Bonded leather couches are only really made to last about 2-3 years and I stretched it to 5. I had to put a blanket over the back for a while or everything would be covered in off-white flakes. To be fair, the couch was cheap and I put it through the ringer. It was time to get rid of it. I wasn't really comfortable...

Hey Reader, We last talked about the piano bar back in May ! If you don't recall, I found myself a piano on Craig's list and the very nice person listing it took the harp out for me. It is now a piano skin. Calling it a piano skin is kind of horrifying, so I have vowed to keep doing it. I have been so busy with wall stuff that I really haven't touched the piano skin and have had to park around it in my garage for some time now. The walls are now done and there are even blinds in a select number of rooms. This has freed me up to get my garage a little less full of piano carcass. It is really beautiful, but it is also pretty beat up. Last week, I talked about the feeling of anxiety about starting a project, and this piano has become another one of those projects. In an attempt to ease into it, I decided to tackle the bench first. I wasn't sure I even wanted the bench when I found the piano, but now I have the chance to test out some techniques on a less intimidating...

Hey reader! There are many projects I feel empowered to just try whenever I get inspired to try them. I decided to learn how to make puppets and a few YouTube videos later I was sewing my first one. There are a few things that I find a little more intimidating, for whatever reason. One of the biggest is electrical. I have been electrocuted on two different occasions and it is not an experience I would like to repeat. I have a healthy aversion to doing that myself. You are probably asking: "How did you get electrocuted twice!?" That is actually two kind of long stories. When I used to work at a big box store that will remain nameless, we would occasionally find opened merchandise on the store floor. People would crack it open to see what was inside. Sometimes they would decide they didn't want it after seeing the inside. The worse people were the ones who opened it and decided they wanted to buy it - and then grabbed a sealed one. What kind of monster does something li...

Hey Reader, I thought this day would never come. It is the day when I can call this particular project finished. I will not have to smooth another wall for quite some time. This past weekend was the final paint job for downstairs. pictured: subtle ripples I have learned so much with this project. There are four main takeaways to look at. Lesson one: stick to something until you get it right and don't give up! That seems like a ridiculous platitude - cuz it is. Here is the thing though, it is a platitude for a reason. There were periods where literally everything I owned was covered in an inch of white dust. There were nights where I screamed at the walls because there were subtle ripples that I could only see from certain angles and at certain times of day. I was committed to making it work! Sure, I didn't really have much of a choice once I had done a room or two. I wasn't going to have mismatched wall smoothness throughout my house. That would be sillier than sa...

Reader, This has been a milestone that I have been itching to reach for months now. I finally was able to get some color on the stairwell! When we last left the hallway, I was ready to start painting the hallway. I hit a snag though. I couldn't figure out a good place to stop painting. I know we talked about the bullnose corners, but they really made it frustrating. I felt like I wasn't making progress. I wanted to get to painting, but there was pressure to finish all of downstairs first so I could paint everything at once. Finally, I just decided that was silly and I needed a motivation boost in the form of finishing something! I set out to paint as much of the stairwell as I could! Unpainted and looking dirty The Crisp Linen looks so great! It is really amazing to see the color go on. The wall smoothing process is not clean (shocking I know). The color under the wall shows through, there is rust on the tools, and there's my filthy hand prints from moving the ladd...

Hey Reader! As I continue to work on smoothing walls downstairs, my mind wanders to other ways I can spend my time making and doing cool stuff. This idea actually started from not finding exactly what I wanted at a store. You know what they say: "Why pay $2 for something when you can spent $97 and make it yourself." Essentially, I want to get a bar cart for my house. I wouldn't characterize myself as a bar-hopper, but the idea of having one for guests is cool. All the bar carts I found were nice, but seemed awkwardly sized. Most were essentially short tables you are supposed to stack alcohol on. I don't have time to bend over and pick up bottles when I want to entertain guests. What do you take me for, furniture store? Really though, next time you are at a furniture store check out how low bar carts are. I feel like they want children to drink more than adults. Irresponsible. I did find one that was more of a cabinet, but then I wished it was just a little bigge...