I’m putting a golf simulator in our basement, so this will be part of a series of posts about different aspects of the build and process.
When planning out the project, my first thought was to buy a gaming laptop for ease and portability. I have no need to move the computer around the house though and they’re very expensive. So I briefly looked at buying a pre-built gaming desktop, which can still be expensive. Building my own would save a ton of money. I hadn’t built a computer or even owned a Windows machine in close to 20 years and I was eager to dive in.
I found a starting parts list Reddit and swapped out a few things. Here’s what I ended up getting:
Total cost, with Black Friday sales, was just shy of $1,850.
I actually managed to put together a working computer! The only mistake I made was not connecting an extra cable from the power supply to the motherboard, which provides more juice for the CPU and memory. It may have been easier to connect all of the cables before installing the graphics card, but it may have caused other issues.
Then it was time to install the operating system. I downloaded an ISO of Windows 11 Home from Microsoft and created a boot drive on a USB stick with balenaEtcher on a Mac. I’ve used balena many times to create boot drives for installing Raspberry Pi operating systems, but Windows was not happy. During installation it was giving the error “A media driver your computer needs is missing.” I turned to Google and found out a Windows boot device is special and balena doesn’t do whatever is required. I used WinDiskWriter to create a new boot drive, which then launched a working Windows install.
At one point an Internet connection was required and the drivers for the WiFi adapter weren’t installed yet. I still don’t have the Ethernet in our house connected, so I had to share my MacBook’s Internet connection from WiFi through a USB Ethernet device.
After several reboots and various Windows updates, it’s a working PC. I’m pretty happy with how it went. The stand came in a few days later and was easy to assemble.
Time to get everything else setup and get some golf balls!
The second post in this series covers my sim environment and the third post covers the other electronics and everything else.
In 2017 and 2018 I posted about my favorite purchases for the year. It was a fun way to look back, so I’m not sure why I stopped. Time to bring it back.
Obviously my favorite thing this year was planning, designing, and having our own house built. We moved in on August 15th (and the 16th, 17th, and 18th LOL!) and we absolutely love it. I even made a cardboard model of the floor plan during a winter power outage.
During the move, I decided not to move my old table saw and finally pulled the trigger on a SawStop. I bought their Contractor Saw with the 36″ T-glide fence assembly, mobile base, and cast iron wings. This tool is amazing. It’s a huge step up in safety, power, functionality, and effectiveness. I built the cabinet under the wing and will be making a large outfeed table.
I have to mention the Facebook Marketplace find I made during the week of our move (great timing). An industrial surplus company was selling medication carts for $100. I had to borrow a truck and drive almost an hour roundtrip to pick it up, but this thing has become an integral part of my shop’s hardware store. It’s double-sided and has 200 bins in three different sizes, plus dividers. The casters are large and roll effortlessly for a cart that weighs a ton with everything I’ve loaded in it. I have plenty of room to store more stuff now.
A cheap tool that makes a big improvement is this Makita magnet for an impact driver (Amazon). No more dropping screws from the top of a ladder!
I’ve been wearing Allbirds since 2019. This summer I bought a pair of the Tree Flyer 2 (Amazon) and wore them walking around Chicago for several days. They might be the most comfortable pair of shoes I’ve ever owned. I bought a second pair for the gym when the tongue completely tore out of my Nike trainers. The best thing is, each pair was only $64! I love the unique boxy angled soles.
If you’re a golfer, or need a gift for the golfer in your life, check out a subscription to The Golfer’s Journal. I actually started mine in 2023. The Golfer’s Journal has amazing photography and the stories are always unique. Issues only come out quarterly, but I enjoy reading them more than Golf Digest who regurgitate the same golf tips or club reviews every month. I subscribe to their premium membership and my first yearly gift was the best backpack I’ve even owned. My second gift arrived yesterday and it’s an awesome duffle bag, which will be great for weekend trips.
My goto snack on the golf course is an Uncrustable. When packed in my cooler, it’s thawed by the time I eat it and still a little cold. This summer I bought a sandwich press to make my own (Amazon).
I gave my golf bag an upgrade with this valuables pouch (Amazon). It’s doesn’t take up much space and is great for storing everything when I’m off and on the course.
You need a soap dispenser tube kit (Amazon) for your kitchen sink. Seriously, go order one before you forget. I used to refill our dispenser bottle about every month and just went almost four months on a partial jug of dishsoap from Sam’s Club. This kit also eliminates the problem of overfilling the bottle that comes with the dispenser, which I seemed to do several times a year.
What are some of your favorite buys this year?
The basement toilet developed a water drip at the old house last week, with a bunch of water on the floor and in to the laundry room. The water line was one of the older ones, made from bent pipe and the drip was coming from the connector to the toilet tank. Fun!
After cleaning up the water with towels, I pulled off the cheap peel and stick floor tiles I had installed in 2017. Then I scraped up the original linoleum, which may have been there for around 40 years.
I guess I didn’t take a picture after I got the linoleum removed. I took the toilet off and left a bunch of fans running overnight in both rooms. I started just after 7am, with several trips back home, and finally got out of there around 8pm. I had picked up a couple boxes of peel and stick tiles at Home Depot as well as all new toilet parts. It cost about $120.
Was back to the house around 7am for day two. Except for a couple quick errands and lunch, I worked nonstop putting in the new floor, reinstalling trim (plus a new toe kick), and putting the toilet back in. I finally left just after 4pm. Thankfully Brandi made several runs to get some tools I needed at our new house and pick up lunch.
The extra cost of the tiles at Home Depot was worth it because they’re much better quality than the ones from Family Dollar. For a rough basement bathroom, the floor is a nice upgrade and looks good.
My entire body was wrecked from crawling around on the cement floor for two days. We need the house to sell before there are any other surprise projects.
We have this old mirror you’d mount to the back of a bedroom door and it’s been propped up against the wall in our new gym. In order to mount it to the paneled wall, I needed to make brackets to span the studs. I grabbed some oak from my scrap cart.
I only ended up needing one of the pieces. Ripped a couple of 1″ wide strips and trimmed to 18″ long. I marked areas on the back side, and cut out with a router.
It was quick work to clean up the ends with a chisel.
I gave the brackets two coats of black paint.
Really quick project and it cleans up the gym a little more.
Here’s the yearly share of my iPhone home screen.
Not much different than last year and I think I’ve deleted more apps than acquired new ones. The Lions app has gotten a spot on the home screen. Is anyone triggered by the battery status?
Check out previous screenshots from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2010.
Several weeks ago Brandi mentioned seeing tree collars advertised a lot. I’d never even heard of them and then I saw a YouTube video showing how to make a hexagon one with fence pickets. Brandi thought it was cool and was game to help. I won’t go in to detail on the process because the detailed video is embedded below. Here are photos from our build.
Getting the sizing right took some time and attaching the hinges was tricky because of the angles. I was surprised how well the lift off hinges separated and went back together.
This was a fun build and it’s much better than the store bought collars. Making a tree collar, however, will not be a yearly tradition for us like making an ornament. haha
Here are Amazon links to the hinges I used:
I’ve been wanting wings for my miter station since I got the Ryobi saw and built the cart. If I’m cutting anything with 20″ or so on the right side of the saw, the cutoff crashes to the ground after making my cut.
This weekend we’re building something that’ll require a lot of cuts on the miter saw, so it was a good time to tackle this project. I’ve actually had the brackets since this summer, so I could work on it when I got motivated.
Unfortunately I wasn’t thinking about such an upgrade when I built the cart, because neither side was flat.
I created some flat areas by attaching scraps.
The main objective of this project was to extend the horizontal space on both sides, which this does well.
When I don’t need the surfaces, the wings easily fold out of the way.
The brackets I bought are pretty poor, with a lot of play in them. Maybe it would be better if I used two on each wing. The wings are level with the saw top, which is key, but they move front to back quite a bit. If I want to attach a stop block of some kind I’ll have to stiffen up the wing in some way.
They work for now though. Maybe I’ll improve them down the road. On to the next project!
It was a 23-20 win over the Chicago Bears!
Nick Momrik 