Our Leopard Gecko’s Reptile Den

Gizmo has a funny feeling about his new reptile den!Gizmo had a funny feeling about his new reptile den!

Recently we purchased an Exo Terra Reptile Den (Size Large) for our Leopard Gecko, Gizmo.  It was half price at a local pet store, so we couldn’t resist.  The premise of this product is that it has one piece that provides a secluded den for your animal and it goes inside the cage; it has another piece that covers the den and it goes outside the cage.  The pieces stay attached by extremely strong magnets.  Upon opening the two pieces for the first time, Adam quickly smashed his fingers between the rocks (hehe, at least it wasn’t me!).  Like I said, the magnets are strong!  Here is our review of the product and how we modified it for our leopard gecko’s cage.

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Large Floor Bookshelf Part 1

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This is the first part in a two part series about how to design, build, and finish a simple woodworking project.  This part focuses on the design and build of the project.

Jessica and I tend to collect a lot of books.   I mean a LOT of books.  When one of those cheap 7ft tall particle board bookcases we had finally bit the dust, and fell on me, I decided we would only get solid wood bookcases from now on.  I also decided that it was probably best that the bookcase we get to replace the broken one be rather short, something that would fit just under the window in our living room. With the cost of solid wood bookcases being pretty high and nothing available suiting our needs exactly, I decided we should design and build one ourselves. Rather than trying to fit a new bookcase into our living room, why not design one that already fits?

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My First Ikea Purchase…Needed a Facelift

Ikea DrawersAdam and I had been in search for a drawer system for use in our office, and then there it was, the Ikea Alex.  Everything was right.  It was the perfect height.  It had plenty of long thin drawers, perfect for tool organization.  It even had wheels.  We excitedly perused our color options;  white, white, or white.  Hmm….

Our office is mostly wood tones and black, so white was just not working for our color palette.  At first we tried to find another option, but we just kept coming back to the Alex.  It had the barebones of exactly what we needed.  That’s when we decided to buy the Alex and give it a facelift.  Our plan was to paint it black and customize the drawer fronts.  This is how we did it.

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