Todays Thought

 A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Understanding a person does not mean condoning; it only means that one does not accuse him as if one were God or a judge placed above him. 

-Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and author (23 Mar 1900-1980)

Moderna CEO brazenly defends 400% COVID shot price hike, downplays NIH’s role

 Moderna CEO brazenly defends 400% COVID shot price hike, downplays NIH’s role

"This vaccine would not exist without NIH's partnership and expertise, and the substantial investment of the taxpayers of this country," Sanders summarized. "And here is the thank you that the taxpayers of this country received from Moderna for that huge investment: They are thanking the taxpayers of the United States by proposing to quadruple the price of the COVID vaccine."

How We Are Going to the Moon - 4K

Todays Thought

 A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot. 

-Derek Bok, lawyer and educator (b. 22 Mar 1930)

Todays Thought

 A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, it is, for that reason, to be of no account? 

-Jean Paul Richter, writer (21 Mar 1763-1825)

Interim Updates Instead of Remodeling

For these past 13 years, our bathroom has worked for the most part. I painted it from top to bottom and Mark put in a new shower door and installed a new shower head. He also installed a new toilet with an oval bowl. We swapped out the old mirror and the light fixture. When we had shutter blinds installed in the house, the tiny bathroom window got that upgrade too. One of my favorite updates was swapping out the ceiling fan on/off switch for a timer switch you can set at 5-minute increments and forget about  it.

Mark wants to replace the old vanity, sink, and faucet for something more up to date. I'm 100% on board with this but right now...budget. So until we have the more important budget items cared for, we have to live with a perfectly usable yet dated vanity. Hey, there are worse things in life we could be dealing with - right?

So as an interim project that doesn't cost a ton of money or require a lot of household chaos - I thought it'd be nice to see what we could do with the existing vanity to jazz it up a bit. Paint was a top consideration and I think it would have been a dramatic (in a good way) update. I fell down so many Google rabbit holes looking for just the right upgrade that I could probably create a Wikipedia page for bathroom design. Lots and lots and lots of really beautiful design ideas. In the end, I decided on something that fits in with the style of our house. And something pretty. And something that may be torn out at some point in the near future without remorse. 

Or not. 

That's the thing about the list of things we want to do with the house - sometimes we don't always get 'round to everything. So even with the knowledge that our end goal is a new vanity for the bathroom, this little interim update needs to be nice enough to live with for as long as we have the house...just in case.

Originally, the vanity had some, and I'm trying to be gracious here, dated knobs. Those had been replaced with something a little nicer maybe 8 or 9 years ago. At the same time I decided to add the same knobs to the drawers which up till then had none. A little clean-up thanks to Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and drilling a few holes was all that was needed for that little update. Then I got a little bored with the plain knobs I installed and swapped them out for the leather pulls you see now.

The idea I finally landed on was having a pattern engraved into the doors. I have a little experience using a vendor to engrave wood from the time I had my toolbox lasered with a personalized design, so I knew it was an option. The key would be keeping the project cost reasonable and finding an experienced vendor who would catch my mistakes and steer me clear of any pitfalls. I'm a dude with an idea, not a laser engraving expert after all.

My job was to scour the internet for the perfect graphic. It had to be fairly simple, and it had to at least remind me of the 70s era. What I landed on was the carpet pattern in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'.

Here we see the results after two passes under the laser to give the design enough depth to create the level of contrast I was looking for.

Here is the other same sized door with the same treatment but slightly different results. Differences in wood grain create different levels of contrast.

Here we are all reassembled and after a little 'Old English' tinted furniture polish to amp up the contrast just a little bit more.

So this is it - a little interim update to make the bathroom look freshened up without having to rip everything out and live with chaos and a 2nd on the mortgage.

The hilarious story of 1908 "fake rescue dog" who pushed children into the Seine and then rescued them for steak rewards

 The hilarious story of 1908 "fake rescue dog" who pushed children into the Seine and then rescued them for steak rewards