The next step in the home theater project was getting some sort of projector screen in place. I’ve been using a blank wall since we moved in, but this really isn’t a wonderful solution. There are a couple nail holes that screw up the picture, there is texture on the walls, and the paint isn’t pure white.
There are a number of articles online that describe various ways to create you own screen. After doing a lot of research, I decided to opt for a cheap pre-made screen instead. I purchased a 120” Elite Screens Sable Fixed Frame screen. One of the reasons this screen is less than one third of the cost of most screens is that it packs down into a reasonable size box for shipping. That translates to “some assembly required.”
It took me about 1.5 hours to get the screen put together, but I could probably cut that in half now that I know what I’m doing. You basically assemble the frame with a few screws and then methodically stretch the material with clips to provide a smooth flat surface. Tim and Chelsea came over to help mount it on to the wall and it took all four of us to get it on there.
I’m fairly pleased with the end result The black velvet border really sucks up any light from the projector that flows over the edge of the screen. That is important because it allows you to easily fill the whole screen with the picture. The screen does have some imperfections and a noticeable hot spot when the picture is a solid color. I’m playing around with a few ideas to minimize the appearance of the flaws, but for the price, this is still good deal.
Next up: mounting speakers on the wall and running speaker wire inside the walls.
We have a row of arbor vitae trees in the backyard. They provide a nice visual block between us and the neighbors, but during the recent snow storm, they took quite a beating. The tops of the trees were bent down so far that I could hit them with a broom!
Very shortly after buying the projector, I built a simple shelf mount for it. It was easier and cheaper than hanging it from the ceiling and the Epson 8350 has awesome lens shift so I was still able to get the picture in the right spot. However, the cables were left dangling down the wall. I finally got around to fixing that this past weekend.
As our snowstorm dragged on last week, the pantry started getting thin. Thankfully we’re only a half mile walk from the grocery store, but what fun is that? I decided to invent some dinner. Since they were calling the storm “snowmaggedon”, I decided to call this “snowmaghetti.” The picture is atrocious, but that’s kind of the point. It doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it tastes good and you can use what you already have in the pantry. So here’s how I made it, but when you make this, you’re required to experiment!
I’ve been pestering TimS with a lot of questions now that I actually have a yard. His landscaping expertise has already come in very handy. We were discussing various ways to improve water runoff from my roof. It tends to drain back down into the crawlspace making extra work for the sump pump and the previous owners already had a little bit of an issue down there. I think I’ll probably end up installing one of these 
I tried making baked mac and cheese a few weeks ago and it turned out gross. I found a new recipe that was supposed to be healthier. We changed it a bit by using broccoli and tomatoes instead of spinach and it was fantastic! I’ve included that change in the recipe. You’re supposed to do a bread crumb topping, but I read that can get mushy if you refrigerate leftovers so I topped with some extra cheese instead.
I’ve spent way too much time working on my most popular Windows Phone app this winter. Version 3.0 hit the marketplace in November and I just released version 3.5. There have been numerous updates for various things but biggest changes were support for multiple live tiles and live tiles that flip over to reveal a one day weather forecast. The updates have been very well received and it’s very rewarding to see the positive reviews fly in. Right now this is the #10 paid app in the sports category. I realize that’s not saying a LOT, but I’m still proud of it.
Remodeling
For the last couple years, I’ve been the property guy at church. Normally it’s just small tasks and general upkeep, but late last summer, I started a huge project. The church received a very large anonymous donation designated for remodeling the house that’s on the church property.
In the past, the house has been used as a place for our Pastor’s to live, a place for our teachers to live, and extra space for classes and events. It has been falling in to disrepair and that seems to have accelerated the last couple years since no one was living there.
I gathered a bunch of input from people who had lived there before and other congregation members, got bids from two contractors, and finally signed a contract. There’s way too much to cover here, but this is a small subset of the improvements we made:
I was responsible for drawing up the basic plans and work item list, but from that point I handed over the reigns. Our general contractor was Jim Lawrence of Lawrence Construction Company and I highly recommend him. We’ll hopefully be giving him a call in the future for some work on our house. He finished the project quickly and did a lot of the interior design himself which removed a lot of decisions from my plate.
It would be much better if we had more “before” pictures, but here’s comparison of the old kitchen and the old kitchen to give you a little taste of the scope of this project.