Home Improvement: Sliding Door

Jia Nin's home office also houses her bunnies. On one end, it opens to the kitchen though a narrow doorway (left). The house layout suggests that it was meant to be a formal dining room, so a door would have blocked food service.

The absence of a door allowed bunny fur to migrate into the kitchen. Not too badly since the air return vent for the east side of the house is in the office. Still, the beeps, dings and clatter from the kitchen would be audible to over conference calls and such.

The plan was therefore to install a door. We wanted to match the french doors in the other entry to the room. A regular door that opens in an arc would block the AC control panel and thermostat, as well as reduce the doorway by 4 cm unless we use complex hinges. Also, swinging the door open/close will stir up dust and fur on the ground.

So we decided on sliding doors, in the barn door style. These have metal railings from which the doors hang and open or shut on rollers. The more expensive options were drool-inducing, but wallet sense prevailed, thankfully.

From the sunroom

From the kitchen

A few mistakes were made: My measurements to the vendor were off since the instruction graphics were not specific enough. The steel bars mounting the rollers to the door was too short and therefore the door was hung about 4 cm too high, leaving a larger than desirable gap from the floor. I may have to add a section to the bottom of the door, but it works ok so far. There is supposed to be little guide screwed to the floor that prevents it from swing back and forth, but the extra height means I need to modify it somehow.

I also need to add a rubber-pad to the metal door stop so that the roller doesn't slam too hard against the stop.

Status: 90% done.

Update to Garage Painting Project

Previously, painting the garage.

A long spilt in the paint and joint-compound developed in the ceiling. This is the seam between dry wall panels near the middle of the garage. I should have re-taped the seam entirely instead of patching loose sections.

I will need to look for methods to apply tape and paint in an extreme-temperature, almost-outdoors room like the garage. The wall joints seem to be holding up. So it might just be gravity on top of the bad taping job.

Movies watched 2014

Awesome:
47 Ronin - very well done. Avoids that Hollywood tendency of rewriting the essence of a tale.

Captain America: Winter Soldier
Gravity - great effects, acting, story, pacing; everything!
Guardians of the Galaxy
Gone Girl
St. Vincent - Bill Murray rocks in this one!

Good movie:
Edge of Tomorrow - last act was predictable, otherwise, this would have been awesome
Enders Game - glad I stopped reading the book before watching the movie. That twist in the final battle elevated the movie from OK to pretty-good.

Godzilla - more Godzilla needed!

How to Train your Dragon 2

Lego Movie - everything is awesome....

Need for Speed

Saving Mr. Banks - very endearing tale.

The Equalizer - Denzel is superb

The Wolf of Wall Street - yeah, I'll believe that's what wall street traders do...

The World's End

Thor: Dark World - definitely shows an improving trend in the series

Transcendence

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Just OK:

22 Jump Street - last 5 minutes were the funniest...
Anchorman 2 - quite good in an over-the-top way
Don Jon - not bad

In the World - a bit slow going most of the movie, but the last 30 min was choice.

Jack Ryan - this latest installment in the Jack Ryan franchise is the most boring...
John Wick
Journey to the West -
Lucy - harping on the 10% brain-use thing killed any suspension of disbelief for me. Calling it mutant powers would have been better.
Monuments Men - definitely could have been better
Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Robocop - lacks the rise and fall of the original

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - this series just doesn't hold my attention; hope the last movie is better

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Maze Runner - another teen death-game

Not worth the seconds spent watching:

A Million Ways to Die in the West

As Above So Below

Divergent
Hercules

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The November Man
Transformers: Age of Extinction - Michael Bay. 'nuff said.

Watching/To watch:
About Time
Snowpiercer
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Nightcrawler - is Jake Gyllenhaal trying to pull off a Pacino? that stare is not cutting it
Interstellar
Big Hero 6
Imitation Game
The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies
Night at the Museum 3 (for Robin Williams)
Interview
Exodus: Gods and Kings