Thursday, January 22, 2009

Ok, so Michelle and Addison left on Saturday for California to go meet their new nephew/cousin Miles. While they are gone my highest priority is to work nights and weekends on painting our living room. Saturday after I got home from dropping the girls off at the airport I started doing to patching and sanding. Sunday after church (and before foot ball) I got the ceiling painted and continued with sanding and patching the walls and trim. Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on painting the trim and the plan is to cut in all the corners over the next few days so I can roll paint on all the walls on Saturday and do clean up tasks on Sunday. Ruby has been a good little helper through all of this, she just hangs out and watches. Apparently the smell of the paint does not bother her too much but at the same time she knows enough to stay and safe distance.



My project prior to this was to build Addison’s tricycle. (I actually built two, one for Addsion and another for a friends son) The question that may arise is did I actually build a tricycle or assemble it, and the answer is that I did indeed build it (which may not have been possible without the help of my dad and brother). I came up with the concept which was inspired by a photo I once saw of a Litespeed trike. But litespeed discontinued manufacturing this model back around 2002 plus it had a pretty hefty price tag of $850 which is way out of our budget. The next closest thing is made by Lynskey Performance, but it's price is even harder to swallow. So about 6 months ago I started gathering parts and made a few purchases on e-bay for basics like pedals, seats, seat posts, wheels, tires, handle bars and such. And then my dad acquired some aluminum tubing from a local supply center and during my time off over Christmas we fabricated the tubes and my brother welded the frames. Since then I’ve been working on painting and polishing the frames for final assembly. They are pretty much complete other than a few finishing touches. Addison’s trike has the polished (shiny silver) finish and the one for our friends little boy is candy apple red over a orange metallic. I was hoping the orange would come through the red a little more than it does but it’s still a great color.




4 comments:

Dan, Michelle, Addison and our loving pet Ruby said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dan, Michelle, Addison and our loving pet Ruby said...

I can't wait to see the living room! Addison got so excited when she saw Ruby on the screen just now...she misses you guys :)

Lisa said...

Way to go on the projects. Love that trike. Your dad must be proud, too. :-)

L.

Anonymous said...

WOW! Bill and I are quite impressed. We love your blog and enjoy hearing all your news. We'll be in GR this weekend. George is getting remarried Saturday. Take care! Heather & Bill Nelson