Blowin' the Doors Off

Our latest project around the house has replacing some interior doors. We picked them up at Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store. I highly recommend checking out this resource in your area if you are looking to do some home improvement. Doing these four doors as well as a new screen door on the back has given me the opportunity to familiarize myself with some new tools. Including a plane and a kit for cutting spaces for the door hardware. During the project our spare bedroom was turned into a workshop and we had two bathrooms without doors for awhile.

All's well now and we turn to another tool that we have recently been using quite a bit to unload things onto the only market that hasn't crashed yet. The tool is Craigslist and the market is the junk market. We've unloaded a roof rack, golf clubs, a table and chairs, 4 stools, four doors, ad a used car with this site that somehow is free and has no advertising. (Here's how they make their money) I put the four doors on there for free last night and this morning I had 29 new emails. I had to delete the posting before noon.

So with that all behind us, we continue to poke away at our next huge project, a front porch, and once again I turn to a new tool and skill to help get the job done. This time it's Google Sketchup, the free 3D modeling software released by the world's most famous preteen (they just turned ten and right on schedule they'll soon have a cell phone of their very own). This tool is immensely powerful, unbelievably free, and a lot of fun. Here's a preliminary draft of one design. I'll continue to improve my skills and hope to post about four versions of it on the blog and get your feedback and opinions.

Learn to use Skethup