Mountain Dew has brought back Pitch Black and I’m not sure I ever had it. I couldn’t find a MtDewVirus review for it, so here we are. I was trying to figure out what this tasted like when B said “It tastes like a flat grape Crush.” She had it. It’s a shitty version of a grape pop, so it only gets a 4/10. I would not buy this.
I’ve done a lot of home remodeling over the last three years and the guest bathroom was the final area needing an overhaul. Here are the standard before pictures.
This is Brandi’s main bathroom, so I had wanted to improve the shelving situation in the closet for over a year. A smaller vanity was going in, so storage space would be lost. With three feet of depth in the closet there was a lot of wasted area and room for improvement. I bought three pull out drawers (Amazon). The closet shelves are made from particle board, so instead of using the included screws for attachment I picked up bolts, washers, and nuts.
After an hour install and some organizing it was a huge improvement. We even have room on the top shelf for spare towels now.
Just like the other bathroom, there weren’t shut-off valves on the sink’s water lines, so I installed some. Next up was taking down trim and everything on the walls so the fun job of removing wallpaper could be done; it was more trouble than it had been anywhere else in the house. Had to pull out the vanity, lights, mirror, and toilet to complete the job. Of course the toilet valve wasn’t completing turning off, so I put a new valve in there as well. Scrubbing and washing the walls was an exhausting step of this project and we were glad when it was done!
The walls under the wallpaper were in rough shape and needed a lot of patch work. I brushed some primer on the areas where the drywall paper was torn off. It was a good time to freshen up the ceiling before installing anything new in the room, so I gave it a quick coat of paint. We did primer and paint on the register and trim around the window and two doors. Since the closet door was slatted I needed to use my paint sprayer. I used plastic sheeting to make a temporary spray booth in the basement.
Dad came down to help for a couple of days. We removed some drywall and chopped up the shower for removal with a reciprocating saw. It went very smooth, thanks to having watched Removing A Fiberglass Bath And Surround and following exactly what he did.
With the water to the house turned off, we cut the lines, made an access hole through the closet, and installed shut-off valves. It felt good to turn water to the house back on with the valves working as they should.
We brought in the shower pan for a test and it fit like a glove! We quickly decided we should pull flooring so the subfloor under the shower was closer to the level under the old vanity. It was a pain in the ass because there was linoleum with a layer of luan (attached with far too many staples) over an even older layer of linoleum. After digging through my rack of plywood I found some that was the correct thickness to bring the shower subfloor up with the rest of the room.
We started working on the drain, which needed to move over a bit from the old one. We bought parts to construct our own P-trap. There was still a lot of trimming PVC pieces, but we ended up with something that worked. Here’s what we had to work with and the cut-out piece of circle is where we had to get to.
Then it was on to all of the plumbing for the water lines. This was a bit of a challenge, because the shower fixture instructions were weak on details. I picked up a lot of tips for working with PEX from How To Convert Old Copper To New Pex | Tub And Shower Plumbing. After temporarily installing a couple of caps, a pressure test showed a leak-free system.
After that it was finalizing the shower pan and getting the walls up. Cutting holes through the shower wall was nerve-racking!
I had to shim out the left wall which wasn’t plumb. Then it was time to dry fit the shower walls and get them attached. I got a nice tight fit on the back. I figured there was no way I would use all eight recommended tubes of the adhesive, but I did. Not sure how I would have completed that step without the Ryobi Caulk & Adhesive Gun, which worked awesome.
I cut pieces of 1/2″ greenboard and screwed them to the walls. We taped plastic over the window, closet, and door.
Then it was time for a lot of drywall work. This was after the first coat of mud.
Over 24 hours later the thickest parts of the mud still weren’t dry. Up to this point, the project had been full of mistakes and having to do a few things multiple times before getting them right. I really thought things might move along after getting that first coat of mudding done. Boy was I wrong!
Since I couldn’t do anything with the drywall yet, I made runs to the home stores for all of the trim and a new subfloor. The lowest layer of linoleum had that paper backing on it, which you can see in pictures above. I wanted it gone in order to have a more level surface for the new plank flooring. I actually spent about 30 minutes trying to remove some of the paper before I decided to do a new layer of subfloor over the top. That plan changed before I even picked up the new plywood though because a third layer would have given me different problems to deal with around the doors, toilet, and register. It took me forever to remove that layer of subfloor, and probably would have been a lot less work to get the paper off. Here are pictures when I got down to the single subfloor layer, my measurements, and with the new plywood (before being screwed down).
Taping the seams and the second and third applications of drywall mud were much harder than it looked on YouTube. I picked up a steel mud pan, which made things much easier and I was finally getting the hang of it with my fourth (because I’m a newb) and final coat. Then it was primer and two coats of paint, which went smooth. I brought the new subfloor back in and screwed it down.
At some point I took a piece of scrap plywood and made a door for the shut-off valve access. I used white gaffer’s tape over the edges of the wall so the cut drywall wouldn’t keep crumbling and making a mess. It got primer and paint when the brush was out for other things.
After painting the room it was time to install the shower doors and fixtures. I caulked everything as well.
Unfortunately the doors have a major flaw and the top rail sags a lot from the weight of the glass. This means it’s impossible to properly align the doors. I got it the best I could so they roll smooth and hopefully don’t leak. I called American Standard and found out they’ve redesigned the mounting brackets because of this problem. They’re sending me a set as soon as they get them in stock. 🤞
Lighting was a quick job. I also replaced an old outlet with a GFCI.
I went with a waterproof vinyl plank flooring that looks like tiles. I’ve done quite a few floors now, so this was easy.
Vanity and toilet went in. Mirror was hung. Doors went up.
I put up accessories and did all of the trim work, which needed three coats of paint, even after primer.
Here’s the final result.
Quite a transformation in just over three weeks! Check out the before and after comparisons.
This bathroom is so nice now! I was hoping Brandi got used to my bathroom after using it for a few weeks and would want to stay there. No such luck.
There have been a lot of home remodeling projects over the last few years and I’m finally done. They were all needed, but I’m glad they’re over. Time for some fun little projects I’ve had on the back-burner for too long.
When playing music I usually change my office MacBook’s sound output to a Sonos speaker, which is an AirPlay device. Sometimes the connection freezes and I have to reset output my default device and back to the office speaker. I wanted to automate both of these processes, so I found an AppleScript as a starting point. I modified it and created an Alfred Workflow with a keyword trigger. Here’s my version of the AppleScript. Feel free to modify it for your own use.
-- This script can be used to set/reset the sound output
-- Two devices because sometimes the AirPlay device loses connection
set myDevices to {"LG UltraFine Display Audio", "Office"}
tell application "System Settings"
-- sometimes it is already open to Sound, which causes an error
quit
delay 0.2
activate
delay 0.2
tell application "System Events"
tell process "System Settings"
delay 0.4
set theWindow to first window
delay 0.4
end tell
keystroke "Sound"
delay 0.5
tell application process "System Settings"
tell its group 2 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of group 3 of splitter group 1 of group 1 of window "Sound"
tell its radio button 1 of tab group 1
click
end tell
delay 0.3
tell its scroll area 1
try
set theRows to (every row of outline 1)
on error error_message number error_number
--display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ": " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
repeat with myDevice in myDevices
set device to myDevice as string
set found to false
-- Sometimes the device isn't listed yet, so delay and retry
repeat 10 times
repeat with aRow in theRows
try
if name of static text 1 of group 1 of UI element 1 of aRow is equal to device then
set selected of aRow to true
set found to true
set volume without output muted
set volume output volume 10 --100%
exit repeat
end if
on error
--display dialog "Error setting output sound to " & device
end try
end repeat
if found = true then
exit repeat
end if
delay 0.5
end repeat
end repeat
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
quit
end tell
Updated on November 28, 2023 to work with macOS Sonoma 14.1.1.
Updated on March 13, 2024 to retry multiple times if device isn’t listed yet.
Updated on March 21, 2024 to reset volume per device, since the OS remembers the last volume of each device.
Updated on October 8, 2025 to work with MacOS Tahoe 26.0.1.
I don’t often review drinks that aren’t a flavor of Mtn Dew, but Brandi brought home this new brand from Pepsi called Starry. It’s really good and a nice option for when you want something refreshing without caffeine. I’ll buy a bottle sometimes. I give it a very solid 8.5/10.
It was a continuation of 2021 in terms of making, with a lot of home projects. After the kitchen I was pretty burnt out and took a break during the summer.
I’m currently working on a full bathroom remodel and then that’s the end of large home renovation projects because just about every room in the house has been done in the last few years. Hopefully in 2023 I can get to some neat projects I have planned and catch up on some electroncis stuff.
We recently watched Pepsi, Where’s My Jet? and they had everyone do a blind taste test with Pepsi and Coke. I had to try it.
What would you choose?
Our second Christmas means our second ornament (see 2021). It was a year full of Star Wars, from watching everything in order to building a lot of LEGO sets (The Child). So for this year’s ornament we made a model of a panel that you might find next to a spaceship door.
The main building materials were polystyrene and plastic cement from Hobby Lobby and I already had an assortment of paints (spray cans and acrylics). As we were getting started, I pulled out a bin of random plastic parts we might be able to incorporate, but they were all too big. Brandi asked if we had any extra LEGO pieces. We sure did, so we used some of those.
I forgot to get a picture during the initial assembly, but here’s the piece after a coat of gray primer.
Then it was all about adding colors. The delicate type of painter’s tape was used when masking off areas was needed. Little bits of color here and there made each area stand out.
A few coats of spray lacquer locked in the painting done so far. It looked too crisp and new at that point though. Weathering with acrylic paints was the final step and made it look like a real thing that had been used and abused.
After final coats of spray lacquer we hung it up.
If you’re like to learn how to do panel modeling like this, I highly recommend checking out Adam Savage Demonstrates Miniature Spaceship Paneling or Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Kit-Bashing and Scratch-Building on YouTube.
When we were in Cancun about a month ago, we took a tour bus on a day trip to Chichen Itza, one of the new seven wonders of the world. On the way we stopped to swim in a cenote.
Last year I had a beautiful table top made for the kitchen.
In late February, while we were making dinner, a glass of chocolate milk slid right off the table. What. The. Fuck! The grain of the wood caused the table to become extremely cupped with seasonal changes in humidity. When checking it against a flat edge it’s easy to see how much the wood moved.
I looked back at the original pictures and you can see the wood was already cupping.
The maker agreed to do a new table top and I’m grateful. It took forever, but it was finally delivered and attached to the base. It’s much flatter than the previous top and still far from perfect. As a maker myself I wouldn’t feel right delivering something with some of the mistakes made here and it was a year between deliveries! I won’t be recommend him to anyone.
Here’s the yearly share of my iPhone home screen.
Not shown here, but during the golf season, the Golfshot app does move over to the bottom row on screen 1. The noticeable changes this year are:
Check out previous screenshots from 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2010.
Nick Momrik 