So, I consulted my friend Google, and found this article. It worked really well with one exception. The people that designed my saw didn't really anticipate this application. The motor and the tab to adjust the depth of the cut were both too low to allow me to use a 1" piece of wood to guide the saw. Luckily, there is about 1 inch to the right of the saw that I was able to place against my guide board. It may not have meant for the most perpendicular of cuts, but for the bottom of a door, nobody is going to notice. I ended up buying the saw horses, clamps, and a level for the job. I didn't really end up needing the level for "leveling" purposes, but it came in handy as a straight edge. I had 16 doors (including closets) to do, and here was my procedure.
1. Measure the cut. To do this, I laid down on the ground, dug thru to carpet until I could feel its base, then stuck a measuring tape in. I ended up measuring each side of the door so it was 7/8" above the base. That meant the door just barely brushed the tallest strands of carpet.
2. Pop the door off of the hinges. This involved a hammer and a screwdriver. Just put the screwdriver on the bottom of the hinge, tap a few times with the hammer, and the pin comes out pretty easily. I learned after the first door to pickup the pins with a paper towel so I didn't grease on the door while I carried it downstairs.
3. Carry the door downstairs. Out of 16 round trips, I only hit the wall twice. We have to paint downstairs soon, so I'll just touch up when we do that. It helped that we have hollow doors.
4. Line the straight edge up with the two measurement marks and clamp it in place.
5. Score a line with the carpet knife (this avoids splintering).
6. Move the straight edge so it is 1" from the score line.
7. Put masking tape over the score line (further avoids splintering).
8. While wearing eye protection, cut with the circular saw. After a few doors, I figured out that about 6 inches into the cut, the saw would catch because of the "protector door" (no clue what it's called) catching on the bottom edge of the door. I fixed that moving forward by holding it up when I started the cut. Oh, a few doors had brad nails in the bottom of them. For all but one nail, the saw handled them with little trouble and a few sparks. One was actually ripped out of the door and I found it on the other side of the room. It was a "why you use eye protection 101" lesson. The face (and nose) full of sawdust is another reason to think safety first.
9. Remove the tape and sand the edges to remove any splinters.
10. Put the shop vac to work to avoid vacuuming upstairs.
11. Carry the door upstairs.
12. Line it up with the hinges and put the pins back in.
13. Enjoy your freely swinging door.
14. Repeat 15 more times (you get in a groove after a while).
Hang the family room light
We used to have a fan and a standing IKEA light in our family room. It was always pretty dark in there so we ordered a new one. It showed up a few weeks ago, and was just a big box in said family room. I have hung lights before so I was confident in the electrical side of the work. I even laughed at the warning in the box that it should be installed by a professional electrician. In hindsight, I wish I had someone else do it, but it didn't require an electrician. It required someone with superhuman strength and a lot of patience. I got buy without either of them, but I was in a lot of pain the next day. A lot of the work involved preparing the thing to be hung. It took me a solid hour to put it all together. Then I hung it from some temporary screws that they provided. They allowed the whole light to hang about 8" below the ceiling while you did the wiring. The directions had suggested that you do this while hooking up the cables, but that would have been insane. Once I got the wiring done, I flipped the circuit back on just to make sure it worked. It did. Jen thought it looked great, but asked if the wires were supposed to look like they did. I told her that I wasn't done yet, but only have one more thing to do. MAN. That one thing was a doozie. I first tried removing the four temporary screws, then while holding the whole light in my left arm, guide it into the 4 bolts with my right, then put a nut on the end of one of the bolts. I quickly realized that would work. So, I struggled to put the 4 temporary screws back on, then had to figure something out. I realized that I needed something to support the light while I worked to secure it to the ceiling. If I wasn't going to be able to secure it, I needed somewhere to put the light without dropping it or unhooking the wiring (oh, I had the circuit back off at this point). So, I ended up building a support out of the kitchen table, the saw horses I used for the doors, and the boxes and styrofoam in which the light arrived. It wasn't the sturdiest of structures, but it only had to hold up for a half hour or so. Now armed with a resting place for the light, I employed the services of my lovely assistant Jen. Each of us on our own ladder, Jen's job was to put the nut on the bolt after I put the light up through them. It took us a few tries before we realized that we couldn't even get the nuts through the 4 holes. So, I put two of the temporary screws back on to guide things. That worked, and Jen was able to put two nuts on two bolts. (Yes I'm giggling now because of how many times I'm using the word "nuts".) I was able to handle the rest, and finally secured our new light to the ceiling. In hindsight, I would have put the nuts on the temporary bolts, gradually raised the whole thing, eventually removing one temporary screw at a time. Maybe next light. Probably not though. We've had to live with a weird smell from the light for a bit, but the directions said that would happen. Our new light looks great though, and we now have plenty of light in our family room.
Hang the TV
You may remember that we don't like the TV cubby in our fireplace. We just don't think it is the best way to showcase a fireplace. It'll just draw attention away from the rest of the room, and we just don't like that. So, we bought a kit to hang our TV on the wall. I worked on it last night. It was pretty fun to do, especially since I was able to live out my childhood dreams of writing on the wall. Because we hadn't painted yet, I was drawing all over the wall to show myself and Jen what it would look like when completed. We agreed on the final outcome, then I started the hanging process. About 5 minutes in, I realized that the bracket wouldn't center too well on the wall studs. So, we moved the whole drawing about 6" to the right. If you come over and mention that the TV isn't centered on the wall, please just notice that it's still on the wall and level, not on the ground or leaning to the left. I ended up putting the bracket on the wall, but wished I could break out the ratchet set we're giving Dave for Christmas. I ended up screwing 4 bolts into the studs with a lock wrench. I put the other brackets on the back of the TV, and only broke one screw in the process. I then hung the TV on the wall. It was pretty easy. Had I not been drawing all over the wall, I would have likely finished in a half-hour. I then hung our speakers on the wall. At this point, everything is hooked up, but the wires are exposed. My next project will be to hide them. The tricky part is going to be the power for the TV. It goes against pretty much every code to run a power cord through a wall. So, I have some research to do. I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to run the wires through the wall and floor without having to cut any drywall except for holes. We'll see though. If I have to, it won't be too bad because my next project will be to cover the hole in the fireplace and hang a new mantle. That'll require drywall for sure, and I bet I'll have some left over.
That's it for now. I'll post a picture of the whole room when we're done. Have a Merry Christmas everyone, and if I don't do anything by then, have a Happy New Year too!
