The title of this post is inspired by Oak’s favorite demolition music. I’m sure Marilyn Manson would appreciate my re-work of his lyrics very much. After a year of house renovation, I’ve come to accept that dust is  permeating almost every aspect of our lives.  Even when I go to work, I notice a layer of dust  on my laptop that I have to brush off every morning.  Awesome!

So, Oak has been taking out the kitchen floor one section at a time (at my request.. cause I don’t think it’s very good to get the subflooring dirty/wet), but with it and his crazy demolition circular saw comes teeny white pieces of linoleum everywhere along with a new layer of PermaDust(TM). Every possible house project comes with a new layer of dust and/or crazy tools everywhere. I try to keep the kitchen area semi-respectable and non-disgusting, but I’ve pretty much given up everywhere else on the first floor.When I finally clean the front room where we’re currently keeping all the trim pieces, new flooring, etc,  I’m betting on a 3 inch layer of dust.

Another dust tidbit: I finally figured out where the term “dust bunny” comes from. Radar’s hair falls out in little clumps that gather up in corners of the room. Luckily he LOVES to be brushed/groomed (most of the time..sometimes he hops away.. haha) so that reduces the shedding a little bit. He’s lucky he’s so adorable. Makes a little better when your shirt is covered in hair after a cuddle session. haha.

As if this weren’t enough dust to talk about, Oak has become preoccupied with dust collection for his woodworking tools. I was a good wife and listened to about an hour’s discussion (over several sessions) of the special types of dust collectors, the cyclone thingy that prevents most of the big chunks from getting to the vacuum, etc. Then finally, I had to throw in the towel and say, I can’t listen to this any more and even feign interest (sorry darling).   Then I tried to bore him to death with some talk about scrapbooking tools.  That said, I totally support the need for dust collection (yay, not inhaling sawdust particles).   In fact, I support it so much that I am sharing these pictures of Oak’s super sweet dust collection setup.

Here’s the dust collection system hooked up to the thickness planer, which funny enough, reduces the thickness of a piece of wood (OMG are you impressed with my tool knowledge OR WHAT!). The shavings go to the garbage can with the home made something-baffle lid that makes a cyclone a la your fancy dyson at home to catch all the big pieces.  Then it goes to the final dust collector, which is that white bag looking thing in the background.    There’s ALSO an overhead filter to collect any fallout.   Apparently we got a super deal from our neighbor for the overhead filter, a $200 machine for $25.  ha!

If only there were something that did this for everywhere in the house…  Push a button and BOOM!  All the dust (and dust bunnies) is sucked off every surface.  Sort of like a Roomba, but that works a lot better.   Wouldn’t that be suhweet???

Posted by Carrie on Thursday, December 2, 2010
Categories: blog, home improvement, house · 2 Comments »