Boiler Room -
July/August 2010
Picture the scene from
from Nightmare on Elm Street where a dream sequence depicts a little
girl, in her Sunday best, riding a tricycle. Her tricycle journey ends
in a boiler room, after which she looks up over her shoulder and says
"This is where he takes us". I thought of that scene after witnessing
the countless carcases of birds of lizards that the cats bring
downstairs and wonder: "What would those creatures say in a dream
sequence"?
Hence, the "Boiler Room". Besides being the place where cats evicerate
their prey, this is the place where the men congregate. Other cultures
may classify it as a "man cave", but we aren't into all of that
traditional crap.
All of the ideas came from scribbles that I produced during boring
meetings to keep myself awake. Here are some of them:
All the bookshelves are made of cheap particleboard that bow under the
weight of a single book, and the desks are collapsible lunch tables
that have seen better days.
The first step is to clear a spot to put
the "threater corner".
Timmy inspects the work and gives his blessing.
The threater cabinet should support the weight of a big TV.
The "mini shelves" are intended to support game consoles.
I had to buy 15 sheets of 4x8 MDF, which I was surprised to have
completely consumed for this project.
Finally the new shelves start to take shape.
I chose black for all the shelves to contrast the yellow and whites of
the walls and desks. Also, black hides dirt and stains so I can
maintain the illusion that I'm good at keeping everything clean.
East-facing shelves are done.
Construction starts for the south-facing
shelves.
Eventually, Erik and I will complete the
audio system for the theater. I got a head start on some of the speaker
mounts by welding wall and ceiling-mount speaker cradles.
After the sheves are complete, I start the
boys' desks. The design is the same as I used in the prototype, but
with a couple of changes. Connor's desk has a "cut in" that has a
slightly larger diameter than the turn-radius of a chair. Also, I built
a secondary desktop with a welded, steel riser system with which to
attach monitors and other desk stuff.
The desk system starts to take shape. I built it to be completely
broken down into individual pieces so that one person can move it all.
Erik's ass. Not part of the construction but he found my camera during
construction and made it his bitch.
[ Erik's ass photo removed at
the request of just about everyone ]
Finally the desk is installed. Paint for
the desktops is 1 coat of while latex, 3 coats of flourescent
theatrical paint, and 3 coats of clear acrylic enamel. The desktops
glow under blacklight. All of the other paint is matte black.