DIY Outdoor Movie Screen

One of our recent purchases was a digital projector, so we could play movies outside. There are all sorts of options for exterior screens but I wanted one that I could put up and take down easily and that would fit within the pergola, along the back of the garage. I decided to make one to fit the bill. 

The process was pretty easy. For the screen, I used black-out cloth. We got ours online, through Amazon. They sell stuff for "Carl's Place". The other items I used were two ten-foot lengths of PVC, two 10' packages of heavy-duty velcro, two eye-bolts and two screws.

I mounted end of the screen directly to a piece of PVC with the velcro, making sure that I was mounting the back of the screen so that the front would roll over, concealing the joint.      

For the bottom, I put velcro at the other end of the screen and used the opposing side of velcro a few inches away to create a loop in the fabric for the second piece of PVC.

 I then drilled holes into the top PVC and bolted eye hooks to it. I then mounted the hooks and hung the screen. It was pretty easy.

A benefit of the velcro is that it allows me to adjust the tension on the screen to remove wrinkles. I did a pretty good job at this - until a group of nine-year olds that came over to watch the movie decided to play hide and seek around the screen. The screen looks like it was meant for the space and it worked out really well.

The kids that came over for a birthday party screening of Despicable Me enjoyed it quite a bit also. We are also happy with the projector. Right at sundown, the picture is very good but once there is no light in the sky, it looks fantastic. 

It is even good enough to do my blogging on. Ha. I didn't actually blog on it but it gave me the idea that it would be funny to work out there some night.



Warning: animals were harmed in the making of this blog

I had a very busy day in the yard today. I've been meaning to get rid of the final two vibernum bushes for some time now but keep finding excuses not to. That was until today. I took them down and dug them up and packed them into six garden bags and they are now gone.

I hope to have the rest of the border on this side of the yard filled with flowers next year. Already, it makes the yard look huge. It is a little disconcerting to see the neighbor's shit-bucket and grill but it will all grow in quick enough.

 On a more exciting, in a Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom sort of way, I saw our first praying mantis in the yard. My wife found it as it was making a lot of noise trying to eat a cicada. Actually, it was the cicada making all the noise. The cicada got away but the preying mantis stayed behind. He

It was very photogenic and even caught one of our bumble bees to munch on. It was wild to watch as it ripped off the back part of its body, discarding the stinger and then started munching on the rest. 



Almost finished with the kitchen

As is usual with my projects, I went a little further with this one than I originally intended. The thought was to paint the kitchen and do some plaster patching in the process. As I started looking at thigns, I realized that I had to change out the crown molding. Originally, I thought that I would just put new molding over the original. Well, that didn't work out.

After ripping down the old molding, I attacked the crown. I learned something: I suck at installing crown molding. I found nothing easy about this job. I've installed trim before but never anything with a cove to it. Cutting it was difficult and I mad so many wrong cuts, I can't believe I didn't go through more stock.

If it weren't for Tom Silva's instructional videos, I would have been screwed. I won't even go through the process with you because I am sure it will confuse you more than I was. I suggest if you want to take something like this on that you watch the videos carefully.

The installation was not pretty but it wasn't a complete disaster either. I had the most trouble with the scarf joints. Because of the uneven ceiling (and walls and floor...), it was hard to align the joints and I think that the scarfs just added to the problem. I ended up using quite a bit of sealant to hide the gaps between the ceiling and the molding also. 

I painted the ceiling a pale blue called "dawn's early light" and the walls were two shades of green. The trim was all a pale cream color. I am happy with how it all looks.

It is sometimes hard to enjoy a project like this because it seems like there wasn't much too it. When I look back at the "before" pics, it is easier to appreciate the lack of gaping holes, falling plaster and unaligned trim. I didn't go creazy and remove all of the cracks and unevenness. I figure that this is a temporary fix as we hope to re-do the entire kitchen at some point in the future.

My wife picked out a new window treatment, which looks very good.

Now it is just time to move everything back in. I also have some minor touch-ups to do. I'll tackle them next weekend. The final piece of the project is to re-think and paint in the blackboard wall again. My daughter is very pissed that I painted over it and insists that it goes back. I liked it also but just didn't want it taking up the entire wall.

We should have done this a long time ago

Since moving in to to Tiny Bungalow, I've always thought our kitchen was a little mischievous. As if a hundred little children were mooning us. Coming to terms with the fact that we won't be doing any serious renovations for a few years, and finally getting so sick of the peaches that we just can't take it anymore, we are finally doing a sprucing up of the kitchen.

Oh, and take note of those counters. As if we didn't have enough aesthetic challenges to deal with in our kitchen, we have those terrible counters. I can't imagine any color on the wall will make those things look good.

In addition to the general design that bothers us, there are a few other cosmetic issues that we'd like to address. We wish we could pull out the cabinets and completely redesign and enlarge the space but for now, we'll have to be happy with fixing the pealing plaster an d cleaning it up.

The first order of business was to remove the "baby moons" border. Luckily, it wasn't put on very well and pealed off easily. With a little soap and water, we were able to get rid of any evidence of the border. I also spent some time removing any loose plaster in preparation for patching.

One thing that I didn't think bothered me too much before was the shitty moulding job in the kitchen. I swear it looks like a blind person found sticks on the side of the road and jammed them into the upper corner of the room. I think if there were a guide of how not to install moulding, our house would be in it. At first I thought I wouldn't change it but now it has gotten the better of me. I don't feel like doing any plaster repair so I think I am just going to find some larger crown moulding to put over this crap. 

I think I may hire someone to install the moulding. Even thought anything I could do would look much better than this nightmare, I think I'd like it to look nice. Anything to detract from the crappy appliances and cabinets would also be a good thing.

I am still not sure what I'd like to do with the color though. We will be doing a two-tone scheme with a lighter color for the trim and then another color for the ceiling. I think the main color is going to be a pale green of some sort but we haven't decided whether we want to go into the blue or darker green range with the accent color. The sick-making faux marble looking laminate counter tops are not making this decision any easier. I'm sure I'll figure it out in another week, right?