Some things you have to see in person to fully appreciate their suitability. The Baldwin Hardware Flush Door Pull in Venetian Bronze wasn’t one of them. The picture and description online was all I needed to know the style, color and quality is what I needed for my sliding closet doors and my new pocket door. The price seemed very reasonable for all of that.

When they arrived, in just a few short days, I realized what I saw online was just as I expected, with only a couple minor flaws. The plating on the screws was not as substantial as the plating on the pulls. I also noticed 2 of the 6 pulls I ordered had very small scratches or nicks inside the pull. But none of this warranted return and I was still very pleased with the quality.

I was disappointed that there was no instructions or template included for the groove that must be routed into the door to mount this product. I thought the best way to make that groove was to build a jig that could be clamped onto the door. The router was positioned in the jig and, with the help of an expensive 1″ round router bit and several passes at increasing depth, I had the groove needed to mount the pull solidly into the doors.

Although the screws were made of an inferior quality metal compared to the pull (be careful your phillips bit doesn’t round over the cross slots), they are strong enough to provide firm support for the pull. I suspect though, had I not used a round router bit, the length of the screw would not have been enough to get a good bite into the wood.

I love the look and feel of these pulls and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. Knobs and Hardware dot com (ATG Stores) is also an excellent company to do business with. They have nearly everything one would need for the home, from hardware to home decorating. If you are looking for a door pull like this, or any other door hardware item, click the link above and spend some time browsing their great website. You won’t be sorry.

Yes, I still do have COPD (Emphysema). Some doctors call it late stage, some end stage, others call it severe COPD. Whatever stage it is, it means that they have prescribed for me the last, best drugs and treatment to extend my life – and my breathing – as much as possible. There is no cure, only treatment.

My medications include Spiriva (Tiotropium 18MCG) once a day, Forodil Aerolizer (Formoterol Fumarate 12MCG) twice a day, Asmanex (Mometasone Furoate 220MCG) twice a day and Albuterol Sulfate via nebulizer 4 times a day, or as needed. I also have a rescue inhaler (Albuterol) for those times that my activity has given me shortness of breath. I also take a couple squirts of that before a shower, or any activity I know will cause breathing difficulty.

Oxygen therapy is another treatment I have been stuck with since my COPD diagnosis. I carry a small B (M-6) tank in a converted hydration backpack – I have an assortment of backpacks so I can coordinate with what clothing I’m wearing. When I am sitting, doing nothing, I take the tank off. But I do have to be on o2 at all other times, including when I am sleeping. At that time, I hook up to a 25′ hose connected to a noisy concentrator.

Other meds include half a cholesterol pill, a pill twice a day to manage the mucous and the occasional ibuprofen. Catching a cold, which has happened a few times in the last couple years, can be life threatening and has twice now turned into emergency room visits. I usually take a very strong antibiotic to fix the bronchial infection.

Two of those colds happened just recently – last month. I was gettin’ all cocky about surpassing the doctor’s estimate and what started as a scratchy throat ended up with me not being able to inhale or exhale. That was the scariest thing that ever happened to me and I couldn’t sleep for several days thinking I was going to die from suffocation. I got over that cold and less than a month later, caught another one.

But wait! I’m still alive and here it is past the doctor’s estimate and I am having a good day. I hope to be around a bit longer. I started a diet a few months ago and have lost over 20 pounds, I have home improvement projects I’m working on, enjoying the friendship of my neighbors’ occasional visits and staying busy managing my popular flooring site, The Floor Pro Community, and other personal websites. Although the end is inevitable and likely much sooner than I will want it to be, I am trying to make the most of my time left.

I am going to have a good 2011 and I hope you will too. One day at a time.

You could say the problem with my bedroom is that it’s too small. Trying to move around in my bedroom is difficult – I keep bumping into things. The bed, the dresser, the other dresser, the end table and them damn posts that stick up on all four corners of the bed. I tried to solve the problem a while back by cutting the 2 posts off the footboard part of the bed. I turned a $1200.00 bed frame into a mistake that’s worth 50 bucks now, if I’m lucky.

But wait… maybe it’s not the room’s fault. True, it is only 11′ x 12’6″ (not counting the 2×8′ closet), but that’s not nearly as small as some bedrooms I installed flooring in over a 35 year span. Maybe the real problem is my continued insistence to stuff all the big furniture from my old house into this much smaller space. And I’ve been living like this for nearly 4 years now. Well, not like the mess you see in the pictures below. I had been doing some construction before this project and I wanted to snap some shots before I forgot.

So the real problem is not the smallish room, it’s the huge-ish furniture. I came up with a plan. There’s too much junk… uh, I mean prized possessions and I needed both dressers to hold it all. If I were going to get rid of one of the dressers, I would need some additional storage. I could do that if I had a bed with storage underneath. No, not like just stuffing crap under the bed, I mean like drawers or, hey, maybe some a them stylish baskets I see the decorators use on HGTV.

Getting rid of a big dresser won’t solve all the problem though. My queen-size bed takes up way too much room. Being realistic, I gotta admit to myself that being old and sucking air through a hose in my nose ain’t too sexy, so it’s pretty unlikely that the girls will be jumpin’ into my bed. If it’s gonna be just me, I don’t really need a queen size bed. A full size will give me an extra half foot all around. So that’s the plan: a full-size bed with storage under it. I think a platform bed would be just the thing and very economical, as well as stylish.

The base is just a series of 3-sided boxes to hold the baskets. There has to be a little wiggle room and the baskets have to be big to hold things like blankets, Levi’s, maybe seasonal shoes or even all the receipts from all the crap I buy to remodel my apartment. I used ¾” plywood for everything except the trim. The trim is clear Doug Fir. Since the plywood is going to be partly visible, I use ACX quality – Attractive on one side, Crappy on the other and all layers glued together with eXterior adhesive. The bars across the top, near the front edge of the cubbies is to give the box sides dimensional stability and to use for support and mounting of the platform.

A platform bed with storage cubbies doesn’t necessarily need legs. The plywood sides are plenty sturdy enough. But I want this bed to have great looks too, so something that looks like legs capable of holding up a platform with people on it (okay, just me) will be nice. I make them out of doug fir, just like the trim. I wanted them to look solid and not like the boxes they actually were, so I mitered the corners. I made them sturdy by using some scrap 2×6″ lumber for the top and bottom of the inside of the legs. I recessed them slightly so I could put furniture glides on them without having the whole leg appear not to touch the floor. I will also be using the tops as an attachment point for the platform.

My vision for the whole room is to keep it bright with a generous amount of warm white wainscoting and trim and some cool shades of green on the top portion of the walls and the ceiling. I want to add richness with a dark wood-look floor and I want the bed to blend with that to help reduce it’s over-powering heft. After all, it will still be the largest piece of furniture in the room. Plywood doesn’t take stain very well. My tests showed that the plywood, even after stain prep and 2 heavy coats, was very blotchy and inconsistent. I opted to paint the plywood a deep chocolate brown and stain only the trim and legs a dark walnut color.

A platform bed can be quite heavy and hard to move, when the time comes. This bed is modular though. The basket cubbies are large, 3-section boxes. The height of the boxes are just under 14″ and with the support braces, are fairly easy to carry. Once positioned, the base is aligned back-to-back and held together with blocks and long machine bolts, washers and wing nuts. I drilled the holes with a little slop so the bolts would go through smoothly. The blocks also act as fastening strips to attach the platform.

The platform is in 2 pieces. One has the trim glued and nailed on three sides. The other platform has trim only on one long side. I first attached the trimless platform (the one with only one side trimmed), aligning the pre-drilled holes to attach it to the blocks I mentioned. Using quality screws (drywall screws are not strong enough), I attached the platform at 3 points along the back of the cubbies, 3 points along the front support and 2 screws in each leg block. I also added a single screw to the top of the trim that overlaps the trimless platform. Touching up the screw with a drop of brown paint helps it blend in and become unnoticeable.

I moved the whole bed around by pushing and pulling it over my bare concrete floor (I removed the carpet and pad when the room was empty to save time). It moved fine and there were no problems with it coming loose or anything breaking. Always a good sign. The bed took me several weeks to build. Hey, whataya ‘spect from a guy who packs a tank of oxygen everywhere he goes. I can’t tell you how much fun I had building this and I hope you have fun doing things like this too.

One of the unfortunate side effects from late stage COPD is that my lungs make this awful gurgling and rumbling sound when I sleep on a flat surface. I constructed a “wedge” so my upper torso was elevated. It’s a duplicate platform that gently raises up to about 6 inches and trimmed to match my new bed. I am anxious to sleep on the bed for the first time tonight. I still don’t have all the bedding I need, so I am making do with my old comforter and some new sheets. This new bed begs for new linens, including a good mattress pad, new firm pillows and a decent blanket. One of these days I will learn what the difference is in coverlets, duvets and other fancy bed clothes. Maybe I’ll even get some a them things when my room is completely remodeled. Look for more of these exploits here on my website.

Oh yeah, before I hit the sack… don’t just read this and surf away. Leave me a comment. I like teh comments. Good, bad or indifferent, let me know what you think.

As I mentioned in my last entry about this storage unit, the lumber was giving me fits. It’s nice to have friends though. A contractor friend, Ken Heiman, dropped off a few rows of 16 penny nails for the nail gun he lent me last year. The nails drive so fast, the 2×3 studs don’t have a chance to even think about splitting. The framing went pretty smooth.

The floor is attached to the treated 2×4 lumber sitting directly on the concrete. Because the concrete slab is not level, I had to cut each framing stud at a different length. And the angle of the eves presented another challenge. I want siding to cover all the vertical surfaces and it’s important to seal it all up tight to keep the critters out. Critters like mice, squirrels, and a large assortment of bugs and spiders.

I went through several tubes of caulking and spray foam sealant. I think I got every little crack and crevice from top to bottom, including the gaps around the pipes, the openings under the eves and the small mistakes I made in my measurements.

The dryer venting was an important step. It originally exhausted directly to the outside of my utility area. With the storage unit erected in that spot, I had to extend the vent pipe another 4-plus feet. I used an adjustable kit that is primarily designed to help you get your dryer closer to the wall. They come in varying lengths, so I got one that was for up to 6′ of extension. Care must be taken to avoid trapping lint and debris, so the inner sleeve has to be on the side closest to the dryer. Otherwise the lint will snag on the inside edge and build-up will occur, causing eventual clogging of the vent pipe. It may not happen until long after I’m gone, but I can’t let my other foot get in the grave knowing I’m creating problems for other people.

To reduce the chance of air leakage and loss of pressure in the dryer vent, I taped all the fittings with aluminum tape. That stuff is great. It’s ultra sticky, very thin and molds itself around all the bumps and creases in the metal to make a very secure seal. I taped both ends and the slip joint.

The doors were another challenge with this project. The door frame and the skin was square, but it had a flatness problem. One door fit against the opening at the bottom, but stuck out at the top corner. The other door did just the opposite. I added a cross member for support, which took most of the bend out, but not all of it. Maybe if I had a flatter work surface, or larger scale lumber… You may not want to do it like I did, but it works okay for me and it’s still better than what was here before. Perhaps I will change or fix it in the future. Perhaps not.

After sealing everything up tight, it was time to coat everything with primer. Primer helps the paint go on easier and in fewer coats. I don’t believe in those paints that claim to have the primer in them too. First primer, then paint. I painted inside and out, including the vent pipe, just to make everything look the same. Besides, it was easier than trying to mask off and protect the pipe from drips – I’m a sloppy painter.

While I was at it, I changed the trim piece above my back door. The original was the wrong size. I decided to paint all the wall surfaces because I couldn’t find the exact same color of the original paint. The color I got was very close, but not perfect. The building needs a fresh coat of paint anyway, so I got my part done. Well, not quite done – done.

I got touch-up to do, as you can see by the pictures. The doors don’t have latches or handles yet and I also want to change the rain gutter. But I have finished the inside of the storage unit and have begun to fill it with junk from my bedroom so I can get going on that project. Look for articles on that in good time.

I am real anxious to get started on remodeling my bedroom, but I can’t start that until I have some storage for some of the junk littering my room now. Hence, this article. Or, part 1 of who knows how many to get this thing built. My landlord is letting me do just about anything I want, so my plan here is to add a storage unit to the inside corner of the building on my back patio.

The storage unit will be 4′ wide by 2′ deep. It tucks up under the existing eves of the roof. Because the dimensions are limited, I have to be very frugal with the space. Instead of using regular 2×4 lumber, I am using 2×3″ studs I bought at Home Depot. I’ve used them before, when I made a 2-sided surround for my refrigerator. As long as the demands for structural integrity are minimal, this lumber should work just fine. Should.

The base of the storage unit is going on a concrete slab. Because moisture tends to wick up through concrete, it could rot wood framing placed on top of it. For this reason, it’s wise to use treated lumber. Redwood or Cedar are 2 wood species that can withstand the elements, but they aren’t suitable for the base of a storage unit.

Constructing the base was simple and straight forward – with the exception of having to work around the existing pipes for waste water and water heater blow-off. Don’t ask me why the builder did it that way. All I know is I have to work around it. There’s also a clothes dryer vent that I will have to deal with. I used 3″ deck screws to assemble the base. It went smoothly, but it takes me an extraordinarily long time to do these kinds of things because the exertion taxes my lungs pretty heavily.

The project has taken several days so far – actually, about 4 hours to do the framing for the base and about 2½ hours today on the plywood floor, with the access for the waste clean-out, and the framing for the front of the storage unit. Your mileage will no doubt be much better, especially if you ain’t sucking oxygen through a hose in your nose.

But there was a little snag. I shoulda known the lumber would not be the best, but my previous experience was a whole lot better – and more fun. This batch of 2×3′s is really dry and brittle. I’ve tried to pre-drill for the screws (hey, if screwing insteada nailing framing is good enough for Holmes on Homes, it’s good enough for me), but this lumber was still splitting. I broke my drill bit on it, so I resorted to nailing. I had 2 different kinds of 16 penny nails, as you see in the picture, but neither prevented the terrible splitting.

That was enough for me today. I decided to ease my tension by writing this. I am either going to try the screws again (with a slightly bigger drill bit starter hole this time), or I will hook up the compressor and nail gun. That might have been easier to begin with, but I don’t have any 16′s for the framing nailer and you have to buy enough for practically a whole house around here. Maybe in Reno, I can find a smaller quantity. For now, this is all I have done. It’s a start and I really do enjoy doing it.

Read the continuing saga of building a storage unit in Building a Storage Unit Part 2. Your comments are welcome.

But that day last May was the beginning of something that changed the way I felt about my life and what I wanted to do with at least part of what I had left of it. The credit goes to David Bromstad, interior designer and host of Color Splash – his infectious zest for taking on each new challenge and the joy he brought and shared with everyone around him – and this new viewer. I was just flipping through channels looking for something to watch on TV. I found Color Splash on HGTV.

It didn’t hit me for a couple of days, but soon I was looking for David on the Internet. I found his website and the HGTV site and discovered there were lots of full-length episodes available for me to watch. And it wasn’t just David, but Danielle Hirsch, Ian McCartt and all the assistants and production staff and how they all seemed to be like a family having a great time designing and decorating all these wonderful spaces.

David has immense talent and humility. Sometimes it looks like even he is surprised at what he has been able to create. I remember that feeling from the days I used to do floors – and customize computer cases, remodel my home, build model cars as a kid and even when I was a wannabe decorator in high school (but you didn’t talk about that in the hick school I grew up in). David, Ian and Danielle helped me remember that I have talent too. Maybe not as much as they have, but heck, I could do some of that stuff.

I live in a converted garage. I am very grateful to my closest friend for giving me a place to live when I lost my home. But at the time, it was just a cave for me to crawl into and die. Today, nearly six months after discovering Color Splash and David Bromstad, my cave is beginning to morph into a beautiful and comfortable home. It’s still strewn with lumber, paint cans and you have to contort yourself over the obstacles to get to the only chair left after other furnishings have been put into storage. But it is actually transforming a little bit every day. This normally 2-week project (2 days, for the Color Splash team) is into its 5th month and there’s still a ways to go. My lungs keep me working at a snail’s pace and my finances force me to scrounge, beg and be very patient, but it’s really happening.

Thanks to David, his giddy laugh and contagious joy in the process of creating something beautiful, my place is going to be quite nice. I have been chronicling it somewhat on my flooring forum here: Redesigning My Apartment and I will try to post some of the more memorable transformations here in my blog. But I wanted to start with this homage to David Bromstad and crew. I am so grateful for him bringing me back to life. And I promise to recreate my space into something to be proud of and will produce that same kind of amazement you see on the faces of all his make-over subjects.

Can we finish up with the complaints about our local California Highway Patrol real soon, please? It’s getting tiresome and some of you are sounding like whiners. Really. Because there have been so few cheering for the CHP, allow me.

I’ve been driving the roads of Plumas County most of my adult life. That totals around 12 thousand days I’ve spent behind the wheel of a car, truck or motorcycle just here in Plumas County. For much of that time, I did floors all over Plumas 5, 6 and sometimes 7 days a week, which adds up to a heck of a lot of driving miles. I’m not the best driver and I don’t always follow every law, so consequently, I’ve been stopped by officers on a number of occasions through all these years.

Not once in my 44 year driving history, here and elsewhere, was I ever stopped because I didn’t do something wrong. Every single time I was doing something I shouldn’t have, something that endangered myself or others. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I forget that I don’t really have as much control behind the wheel of a three or four thousand pound vehicle as I think I do. I do like to think I don’t need many reminders, but when I do, the CHP is there to do just that.

My last ticket was about 3 years ago. Speeding – driving too fast while towing a trailer. It broke a personal best of 16 years without a ticket. I was upset because I felt I was driving safe. But the cop did his job because I wasn’t doing mine.

Even though there was a very long span between tickets, I had been stopped for infractions on a number of occasions. I firmly believe it was my attitude and demeanor that saved me from tickets I so deserved. I was not always aware of what law I broke, but I always knew when I was wrong. Infractions were always explained to me and I never denied committing any of them. As a professional in a different field of work, I knew that this professional prob’ly knew better than me. The customer is NOT always right. My feeling is that being humble and willing to learn from someone who knows better, saved me money, time and very well could have saved me or someone else from harm. I have always been grateful for warnings. After a little wound-licking, I have even found gratitude in a couple of real scoldings (I remember thinking once, please, just write me a ticket instead).

Things are a little different for me now. I spend more hours on my “handicap device” than I do behind the wheel of my car. I know I stick out like a sore thumb (it’s actually sore lungs) gliding around wherever I can on my Segway – standing straight up, seemingly balanced precariously between 2 wheels. But as visible as a 260 pound, 6′ 8″ man on two fat tires is, I can’t tell you how many auto drivers just don’t see me. California Vehicle Code considers me a pedestrian, which means I have to follow the rules any other pedestrian follows – and cars are s’posed to regard me as a pedestrian too, but they don’t always.

I rely on law enforcement, particularly the California Highway Patrol, to protect me because drivers don’t always know to let me glide across the street in the cross-walk or otherwise give me the right-of-way as they would any other pedestrian. My complaints are with drivers who don’t look carefully before entering an intersection. I don’t like it when people park right on the sidewalk. I don’t like it when drivers flip me off for gliding on the left side of the roadway, toward oncoming traffic.

I am where I should be, most of the time, and I try hard to follow the rules because my chosen mode of transportation is unconventional. That isn’t to say I want everyone to get a ticket for not letting me use the cross-walk, but I do appreciate that the CHP is there to let you know my rights and keep me and other mobility impaired people safe.

We should support our law enforcement and stop with the public ridicule. They aren’t politicians, they are men and women doing a very difficult job – not even to mention the enormous risk to health and life they face. No doubt they make mistakes, as do we all. I don’t know what I would have done if anyone had written to the editor about a bad carpet seam or a gap I left in the hardwood. A phone call is what it took to make those things right and I suspect that’s what might work when you feel an officer has done their job poorly.

If you feel changes to the laws and policies are in order, then take it up in the appropriate manner. Save those stories about your woes at the hands of lawless law men and women for your friends and associates that enjoy hearing them. Everyone likes a good cop joke, but this recent CHP bash-fest isn’t entertaining at all.

Let’s try to make the patrol officer’s job easier by practicing better driving habits. Report drunk drivers, call about road hazards and take a little responsibility to help make our roads and highways safer, cleaner and more fun to travel. And let those patrol men and women know you appreciate their helping your time on the road to be safer – give them a wave.

My health has deteriorated, as is expected with a disease that is chronic and has no cure. But they adjust my medication levels and even changed some of the inhalers. To be able to go and do the things I like to do, I get around on a Segway and even take it into stores and restaurants when I need to. I’ll talk more about the Seg in another post, but I am mobile.

When I look at my Other Foot List, I realize much of that has changed now. Again, more about that later, in a revised list. It’s true that some things change and some stay the same. I am trying to go with the flow. I was depressed and closed myself off from the world for a very long time, except when I absolutely had to do something. But I feel like something happened a few weeks ago and now I am more excited about this life than ever before.

I’ll expound on that more, as I keep saying, later and in other posts. I wanted to get this message out to you though – I’m not dead yet. I don’t fear the inevitable as much as I did and I am willing to try to make the transition as much fun and interesting as possible. Thanks for hangin’ with me.

Tonight was QUITE different. Maroon5 and It Won’t Be Soon Before Long made the difference. I’ll admit that what initially prompted me to give a listen – or at least wait to see them walk on stage – was the very stylish album cover (us old folks still call ‘em albums – they’re CDs and even smaller an’ shinier than my old 45′s) – go ‘head, give it a click to see the larger version. I know, that’s a pretty weird reason to decide to listen to a group, but I’ve made flimsier decisions than that, ya know. So, the end of the show comes around (by the way, pretty stiff and boring Katie Holmes was and that was a lousy impersonation of Letterman that Frank Caliendo did) and the Maroon 5 were introduced. Right away I noticed it: no screaming. Really, you know what I’m talkin’ about. These guys were smooth. I was tappin’ away on my computer, ferget doin’ what, and I just had to stop. It was a very fresh and clean sound.

This music coming from Maroon 5 is amazing. I know that my taste in music has always run toward pop and dance music, but lately, maybe because I’ve done more reminiscing, I’ve been listening to some of the stuff I enjoyed in my youth. That’s what old folks do, right? But ol’ Dave brought me right back to the here an’ now. Even with the poor sound equipment his producers saddle the musical talent with, these guys sounded very good. So, geek that I am (‘course I waited ’til their set was over), I googled them. Yeah, that’s a verb now.

The Maroon 5 website isn’t as nice as their music. It’s Adobe Flash based and doesn’t function well – no “tool-tips” to tell you what’s what and the worst, no volume control. But the best part is their top tune, “Won’t Go Home Without You” started playin’ right away. I love DSL. It’s the same piece they played on the Letterman show and it really has a much better sound quality. This song has a crisp, but gentle beat and melodic lyrics. The chorus is smooth, so much unlike all that harsh screaming I’ve heard and stumbled over shit trying to get to the volume knob. I found myself bouncing my feet and tapping on my thigh just like I did so long, long ago.

As “…Without You” faded off, I nervously anticipated the next song. You know, you’ve been through it before… a great song turns into the only good thing that group ever did and the rest is kee-rap. Not Maroon 5. These guys got lots more music in them. Up was “Wake Up Call“, a lively tune that really had me wishin’ I could still dance. Well, I can, but only for about 20 seconds an’ then I’m grabbin’ for the rescue inhaler. This tune was one a them you just gotta move to though and I did my best. I pulled the oxygen on and kept playin’ my legs like an old drum kit.

They don’t have every song of the CD on their online player, but the five tracks they do have are enough to sell me. You can get their album through iTunes, or at Amazon.com and either place will let you listen before you buy. Of course, the best listenting is at the Maroon5 website. They have links to iTunes, Amazon.com and several other places you might find interesting (‘course, I am an Amazon affiliate partner and it helps me if you buy the music – or anything – by clicking the links to Amazon I provide here). I tried to join their forum, but they don’t like me, I guess. Couldn’t get much to work there. So, I stole some graphics and high-tailed it outa there. Hope you like what I did with them.

Jim with 1 Foot OUT of the Grave tonight.

But that isn’t what this entry is about. I only mention my case modding because it has been the kind of thing I have enjoyed doing for many years. Oh, not just computer case modding, but modding just about everything. I used to build model cars when I was a kid – customized them and even got published in a model car mag back then. I’ve tried to modify cars, my homes, hell, I even modified the way I pack this damn oxygen tank around – but more on that later. What I am taking the long way around getting to is that I spent the biggest part of this day modifying this website. I just couldn’t leave well enough alone.

The theme I chose for this site was a simple one. Casual, like me, understated colors because I like to pepper my posts with images and graphics, but with an interesting graphic that I immediately knew I was going to be able to replace. The original design looks like this: Coffee Stained Sample Site Well, it wasn’t as quick and simple as I had first thought, but I am really happy with the results. I completely re-did the page graphics, changed the color slightly and moved the column overlays a little lower on the page. I originally search the Net for graphics that I could use with a little editing here and there. But, as usual, I wasn’t satisfied.

Photography has been a hobby of mine for a long time. I have a portfolio I show prospective models – yeah, I like taking pictures of women more than anything else – and I like to think I’ve done some interesting landscapes and abstract work. But today was about the website graphics and I am real pleased (just in case by the time you have gotten around to reading this, I have changed the website again, here is a screen shot of the style I am referring to). It took hours to get the pictures just right. I use Adobe Fireworks for most of my work, but I also use Corel Paint Shop Pro – Fireworks can’t be beat for graphics, but for photo manipulation, it’s lacking and I can’t get the hang of Adobe PhotoShop.

I shot a couple dozen pictures of the oxygen tank on a couple different backgrounds. At first, I thought the tank should have no background at all (except for the graphics of the page), so I spent an hour trying to erase it from the picture. But then I thought, the picture I liked the best was on a background that was similar to the color of the page design already, so I just used the Fireworks Fade Image command and played around with the controls until it looked the way I wanted. I had to use the eraser to soften and blend the hard edges left over. The image was too bold and colorful for a page graphic, so I tried a few different things before I finally settled on the sepia-tone look.

The small drug store I have on my bedroom dresser was a bit tougher. I shot a lot of pictures of those in many different configurations. When I looked through all my shots with my favorite image management program (Thumbs Plus), I finally decided on the very first picture I took. This picture is one I had to remove all traces of the background material I used for the setup – an old flannel sheet. It took a couple of hours, but it turned out very nice, I think. Fireworks has a couple tools for removing backgrounds and I usually like the Magic Wand tool the best, but the flannel wasn’t going to go away so easy. I ended up using the Eraser tool and manually traced around every pill bottle and inhaler. My neck was sore, my back ached, my hand cramped up a couple times, but all that pain put a really big smile on my face when I saw the results.

Okay, I’m bragging. I hope you like my efforts though.