How many licks does it take to get to the center of a weekly blog summary?  Uh-whunnn, tuh-HOOOOoo, forty-threeeeee!

Furniture repair?

My main question here is - is it worth trying to repair furniture myself?

I’m a pretty handy guy - I’ve done my own water heater installation and replacement, flooring, wiring and electrical (replacing light switches, fixtures), minor plumbing, wall repair and even have framed up a wall from scratch (with lots of help from experts).

We have a big L-shaped suede-like couch that we’ve loved for a long time.  It’s pretty old (10 yrs) and I’ve done minor maintenance on it when I could, like when a bolt breaks off or something.

The long side of the couch has a pull-out bed, and the other side has two recliners built-in to the couch, which is extra-special nice.  We also have two matching lazy-boy style recliners in the living room, and the armoir and end tables in the living room also match style-wise (antique-ish rustic wood).

Over the years, we’ve really used up this couch.  But it’s not like I have a ton of money waiting to be spent on furniture, so there are a few things I want to fix, and I don’t know if I should just call someone out and get an estimate, or try to tackle it myself to save money.

Here are the things I want fixed:

• Springs
  The pull out bed cranks and creaks and isn’t connected all the way with all the little 3″ springy whatevers.  Also, the sofa part over the pull-out bed collapses in when you sit on it, and I’m guessing the springs are disconnected or shot in some way.  I worry about working on this myself, because maybe there are special tools that help to safely connect them.  They look like they have some industrial-strength holders that probably require some tool to fold over properly.
• Fluffiness
  A good example is the 2nd pillow from the right — see how it sags?  The filler or fluff inside the arms, backs and puffy parts of the couch is just flatter than it should.  I assume that the filling inside the fabrig settles as time goes on, so is it easy to just get some of my own and find a way to give it a fluff lift?  Or should I match the same filler?
• Fabric
  There are sections of the fabric where stains or spills have really changed how soft the fabric/suede-like material feels.  So far we just clean it when we can, but I’m interested in finding out if re-upholstering is something that can be affordable given that the couch itself is mostly sturdy and strong.  And is that something I can try to do myself, if I go out and get the material?

I’m thinking if I fix the springs and fluffiness for a decent price, we can wait on the fabric. 

So - you got any suggestions?  Or maybe the name of a local Austin mobile furniture repair shop you can recommend (I have access to yellow pages, thankyouverymuch but I really like recommendations).

Mr Excel Podcast

I mentioned my new Zunetastic fortune earlier in the week, and I’ve been gettin’ into the podcasts.  Podcasts let me manage my audio and video input for my life much like netflix / blockbuster online let me structure and control my movie watching.  It’s TiVo for talk radio.  I’m cuckoo for cocoa-casts.

One of the podcasts I’ve come to love in a very short time is the Mr Excel podcast (or “netcast” as he says).  He typically does 2-4 minutes of a neat Excel trick or feature, which is great for quick catchups. 

There are a few things I really like about the podcast and the way Bill Jelen does his:

1. They’re short and to the point
2. He talks fast, which is a personal preference of mine.  See #1.
3. He does a screenshot for the bulk of the video *and* has him on camera/headset in the lower right corner.  I think this lends the added personal touch and also helps his meaning get conveyed with 28% more accuracy.
4. They’re edited for time.  See #1.
5. He knows what he’s talking about.  So while he is short and to the point (see #1), he adds small contextual references while he speaks so there’s a strong likelihood that you’ll pick up something you didn’t know, even if you already know the main subject of the podcast.

I’ve been seriously thinking about starting a podcast on the subject matter(s) that I can contribute to, and until I saw Mr. Excel’s format, I wasn’t sure what would  be easily consumable, not a tremendous drain on my time, and desirable to the end user.  I think I’ll ask Bill if he has any tips on using that format.   I’m leaning towards something like “Wayne’s Tech Tips” or “What Wayne Knows” or “5 Minutes With Wayne”.   Or I would call it “WHALL over the place”  It would be a < 5 minute podcast on something technological, ranging ALL over the place including networking, unix, windows, hardware, text manipulation, databases, firewalls, and anything technical that anyone can learn in less than five minutes but would help them in their job or hobby.