Home Improvement: Painting the Garage

My home improvement project for 2013 was to paint the interior of our garage. The previous home owner left the walls bare. After ten years, the drywall panels were starting to discolor towards a drab grey; not the most attractive welcome home after a long day at work.

In 2008

I planned a week off from work in July (over the 4th of July holiday) to get it done. This turned out to be wildly optimistic. I spent another 8 weekends to finish! The project took 7 gallons of joint compound, 3 sanding blocks, 4 dust masks, 7 gallons of primer/paint in 2 coats, 2 paint rollers, 3 paint brushes, and 3 paint-splattered t-shirts.

Final weekend - almost done

Before bringing the cars back into their home, I took the opportunity to reorganize the ton of gardening tools and supplies that had been stuffed onto various shelves and bins over the years. By now, we know what tools are needed each season, so the layout is in much better order.

Next project: landscaping a section of the backyard under 3 tall trees that suck out water and nutrients from the soil, leaving the lawn bare and overgrown with weeds.

Movie/TV Roundup 2013

2013 had many movies that I really, really wanted to catch. Time just wasn't on my side this year.

Excellent:
Pacific Rim
Iron Man 3
Now You See Me

Star Trek Into Darkness

Despicable Me 2

Monsters University

Argo (2012)

Not Bad:

Odd Thomas
Kick-Ass 2

Life of Pi (2012)

The Wolverine
White House Down

World War Z 

Indifferent:
2 Guns
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Curse of Chucky
Elysium
Escape from Planet Earth
Fast & Furious 6
Jack Reacher (2012)
Riddick
Rise of the Guardians (2012)
The Last Stand
Turbo
Warm Bodies

Didn't hold my attention; but I plan to finish:
G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Oblivion

Man of Steel

Red 2

Waste my time:

A Good Day to Die Hard

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 

Jack the Giant Slayer 

Pain & Gain
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Oz the Great and Powerful

R.I.P.D.

Red Dawn (2012)
The Host
The Lone Ranger
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Queued to [must] watch:
47 Ronin
About Time
Ender's Game

Frozen
Gravity
Saving Mr. Banks

The Butler
The Wolf of Wall Street
The World's End
Thor: Dark World

Queued to [maybe] watch:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Don Jon
Epic
Captain Phillips
The Great Gatsby
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

TV was a huge time-sink with many promising new shows, and final seasons of really excellent shows. Definitely binge watching in batches whenever I can. 1.5x and 2x speeds without pitch shift is a wonderful feature on VLC player :-)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - new; so far so good
Almost Human - new; so far so good
Alpha House - new; slowed down a bit mid-season, hoping it picks back up
Boardwalk Empire - going strong
Breaking Bad - ended with best wrap-up in recent memory!
Castle - still going strong
Continuum - get that story arc moving, may drop
Dexter - ended; meh
Doctor Who - excellent 50th anniversary features and extras!
Elementary - can't really hold a candle to the BBC's Sherlock, may drop
Game of Thrones - going strong
Homeland - what a twist
House of Cards - Kevin Spacey nailed it!
Misfits - powers of new cast suck; may drop
Orange is the New Black - hope season 2 doesn't drop into a rut
Person of Interest - cast is getting a bit unwieldy
Sons of Anarchy - meh; may drop
Spartacus: War of the Damned - ended; feel a bit guilty watching this one, not much story but plenty of violence and nudity
The Blacklist - new; writing story arc checks that it might not be able to cash
The Crazy Ones - new; Robin Williams is hilarious
The Good Wife - holding on despite the excessive inter-personal drama
The Mentalist - finally, Red John is dead! time to move on
The Newsroom - flashback format; hate that; hope season three avoids this
Sherlock - and he's back!
True Blood - less talk, more action needed

Dropped:
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - not getting the laughs after third episode
House of Lies - bogged down, angsty
Suits - gotten too soapy
The Walking Dead - comics are so much better
Touch - yawn
White Collar - gotten predictable