Platform design and the IPA’s Roadmap to 2030, Built Environment Matters podcast with Trudi Sully from The Construction Innovation Hub

Speaking of perfect… every once in awhile the creek freezes completely smoothly.

OK, that really is what happened, but there’s a little more to it than that.. With a little bit of basic know-how and a decent saw, you can create all kinds of great looks with really basic materials from your local big box store.For example, the built-in book cases, which are made mostly from MDF, are trimmed out with basic 1/2″ strips of pine all around the front of the shelves for a more solid and up-to-date look.

Very inexpensive, but without that extra bit of trim, they would look cheap and flimsy, no matter how sturdy they are..Adding an extra little bit of really thin (and super cheap) crown molding at the tops really finishes them off and makes all the difference.. On a side note, if you’re wondering what’s up with the lighting in the room, we were having yet another overcast day when I found the time to snap these photos so I had the overhead lights on.Aren’t they fun though?.

Back to the trim..Although it’s really tempting when you get deep into a project to rip everything out and start fresh, it can really help your budget if you leave some of the trim that’s already there in place if it’s in decent shape.

The door and all the moldings around the door are original.

Although, the people here before us did some funky things with the door casing when they put the paneling in back in the day, it’s overall still in pretty good shape, so we kept it all..I’ve tried the can opener trick and sadly, it didn’t work for me.

I bet it does work, but you probably need a really specific type of can opener and it probably only works on certain shapes of packaging.And I just don’t know what those are!.

The other day I picked up two new knives on sale and they were both in clamshell packaging.I opened the first one up, the whole time thinking how ridiculous it was that I was using one sharp object (scissors) to try to get at another sharp object (the knife), all while creating a third sharp object (the sharp edges of the plastic).