The speakers received their first couple of coatings of paint;
It’s a satin gloss onyx color, which I chose to keep it in line with the pellet stove and TV colors. They will need a couple of more coatings to become evenly colored.
All posts by bkrijger
Grilling, Routing, Sanding & Priming
The speaker kit came with grill frames have rounded corners. There’s a groove routed into them and the speaker cloth is held in place with a string that is pushed into the groove. Six magnets in both the grill and cabinet (invisible as inserted from the inside of the cabinet) hold the grill in place
As I like the rounded corners, and don’t think a log home needs more “wood look” I will not veneer the cabinets, but chose to do some routing;
It gives the speakers a little “softer” look, and solves an issue I had with the corner of 2 panels being slightly damaged during transport of the kit to Ozuye.
After routing and sanding, it is now time for priming;|
Although the white makes a nice contrast with the black speakers and grill, the speakers stand out a lot like this and the white makes them look even bigger than they already are 
So the final color will be Onyx black. The first coating will go on later today, after sanding.
DIY Speaker Project Part 2
After assembly without glue to make sure everything fits snugly, the cabinets could be glued together. The front panel is in, but not glued in, as I still need to be able to work on the inside for the cross over filter and insulation.
The four band clamps work better on this size (They are 44″/ 112cm tall) than wood clamps. I will let these dry overnight.
DIY Speaker Project
If you know me a little, it won’t be a surprise that eventually I want to be able to enjoy music at a higher quality level than my HomePod. So I ordered a DIY speaker kit from CSS Audio in Michigan. They offer complete kits with the goal to achieve higher quality by not paying for labor. The boxes arrived today:
Unboxed it looks like this.
This will end up in two two-way tower speakers.
I went for the better cross-over filter option, with serious size capacitors, coils and resistors. I could have just ordered the drawings, speakers and filters, but opted for the ready for assembly MDF kit, as in the end, this will make a more exact cabinet than I could make without a big sawing table.
Red-Tailed Hawk
Whilst I was outside on the deck, I heard a swarm of birds take off. The reason they did was this guy (or girl, can’t tell)
It’s a Red-Tailed Hawk (according to copilot, because I just noticed it wasn’t a vulture).
They like high vantage points like my power line pole. The picture above is zoomed in as far as I could. below shows the original picture.
Small repairs
It’s normal that due to wear and tear, some work has to be done every time I’m over at Ozuye myself. This time it was limited to relatively easy jobs;
The blinds in the bathroom were damaged. Instead of replacing the entire thing, I took one of the lower blinds strips (that are never used) and put that in the spot of the missing one.
The waste bin in the kitchen had a small issue that one of the blocking screws that prevents the bin from falling out when opened was misaligned.
Some people are heavy. Too heavy. The floating toilet agreed and the steel frame it is on got slightly bend out of shape. I will place a pier underneath it, so that the force is absorbed by the floor. I wanted to replace the silicone kit on it anyway, as I accidentally used kit that dries up transparent instead of white (Takes a week before it gets transparent)
The Hot Tub sensor ran out of batteries and lost connection to the display inside, so I replaced the batteries and now the hot tub (and inside temperature) can be read again.
(I will put it back to Fahrenheit before I leave)
The hot tub cover had been torn, and I was never completely happy with the design of the air cushion cover anyway, so I replaced it with a new universal inflatable cover, which in turn is kept in place and protected by a cover.
As I was taking this picture, I noticed a deer in the backdrop;
Having deer in my backyard reminds me I’m in the country side, not the city.
Typical Texas weather
Today starts of with a nippy -1 C (30F) and warms up to an almost nice 16 C (60F).
This is a cold from; as you can see things will be warming up in a few days.
It’s good to see my smart mirror is still running perfectly. Sadly we still have a burn ban (lower right) so fires are not allowed. There’s no rain in the forecast for the rest of the year.
The wind was gusty yesterday but that’s gone, so with the clear skies and sun, it will be comfy outside.
Windows can be too clean
As part of deep cleaning, I was cleaning all windows inside and outside. I had finished downstairs and as I was cleaning the upstairs bedroom window, I heard a strange noise coming from downstairs. As I walked down, I saw what was making the noise; a hummingbird had flown through my open door, and was now desperately trying to fly out through the picture window. I reached for it with an index finger for him/her (it’s hard to tell with a hummingbird) and within seconds it was sitting on my index finger. As I walked to the door, the little bird flew away, so luckily it wasn’t hurt.
It just goes to show that there is also a thing as too clean windows. Hopefully no other birds will mistake my picture windows for an opening. All but three windows have screens, so those are never mistaken for openings.
Federal Blue
The deck was stained in the color Federal Blue. As that did not show anymore, it was time for a re-staining;
I ran out of stain, so got two new gallons to do the rest.
Truck update
After replacing the brake pads and the battery, I thought it was time for a less vital, but fun update in light of my upcoming road trip to Big Bend; a new car stereo.
It’s not super fancy, but does have a USB link to my phone, and can play music from it. It is a big upgrade from the original 2001 Ford car stereo with only FM/AM and CD.
No Apple Car Play, but that’s ok, as my iPhone mounts just below the radio, so I can easily see that and use it hands free.