Welcome to Dover Projects!


You may have stumbled to my blog "Dover Projects" though a web search and now are wondering, who is this guy? Is he a professional? What is "Dover Projects"? So here's the deal.

I'm a homeowner of about 6 years now. Prior, I had only lived in apartments where no home maintenance or projects where needed. When we first bought the place, I had quite a bit of trepidation about home projects and maintenance, although I was always a fan of power tools, and making stuff, like tree houses and wooden go karts as a kid.

My wife, has the natural tendency to want to improve/upgrade things around the nest/house, whereas my main goal has always been to make sure I don't let the value of the house slide because of poor maintenance and repair. Our place is a 100 year old farmhouse, and as you might imagine there are quite a few projects that fit in to either the upgrades category or the maintenance category.

Mowing... 2 little guys make some projects a little harder...


My wife's family members are all very well versed in all types of DIY projects and thus she kinda expects that I know this stuff too. They don't live nearby so I can't tap them for information. I had to step up to the plate and learn about lots of stuff that I didn't know about. I remember when we first moved in, I'd tell people that I had know idea how the systems of a house worked, no idea how the heat worked, no idea how the pluming worked, and no idea exactly what is behind our walls (I'm still not entirely sure). ha!

Well being on a budget, having a true love for accumulating tools, and enjoying the feeling of accomplishing a a job done well done, and done by myself, has taken on what I now call "Dover Projects", a place where I share my projects. Before starting this blog, and the articles here, I would take pictures of my projects just for the fun of it. I now take pictures for the fun of it, and to be able to add them to a how to article for this blog.

My messy workbench!

Here's how my projects and articles get done. With all of my projects I know very, very little about the job before I get started. Because of this, and the love of learning about projects, I tend to go overboard with my research. I'll read multiple books on the subject. I'll research the internet heavily, I'll tap neighbor's experiences and so on. Much to my wife's shagrin, this part of all of my projects takes a huge chunk of time, but I'm a detail person and I like doing things as correctly as possible.

Here's what I read. No fiction for me! ha


By the time I'm done with this extensive research and also having now actually done the project, I feel I can write about it. Here's why I write about my projects: 1. To help others with their similar projects, 2. To show off my work! and 3. To document what I did should I need to look back.

I try to make the point that I'm not an expert. Each article has red text warning that "I'm not a professional at all..." I'm often torn between sharing a project or not. If I feel the project went well and I can add my input and share my experience for others in a thorough way I'll write it up for here. Many projects I've done have not made the it to the pages of Dover Projects because I didn't feel that I learned enough to write about something, or the project was less than successful.

I've found that no matter how many times I say, "I'm not an expert", people tend to think because they see this information in writing, that I must be an expert... I can tell this based on the questions I receive, many of which I'm not qualified to answer, so I don't, and instead I try to guide people to other resources for the correct answers.

This is my wife. We work as a team when we can, but 2 little guys makes that increasingly difficult for us to work on projects together. She has threatened to write an article here about how I never really finish any of my projects all the way, and I never clean up my tools and mess! These points are both very valid and I've offered to give her an article here, to tell the world about my flaws, but thus far she hasn't taken me up on it! She would also say I'm too bossy... perhaps this is true as well.... :)


Okay, so there you have it. That's how my projects get done, and how they end up here on my blog.

In addition to this blog, I'm also (recently) very interested in social media. This in itself is a project, but not one I write about here, as Dover Projects is about home improvement projects, and not social media.

For my real job though (I work at a software company), I'm starting to be tasked with looking in to the ways we should be involved in social media. I'm a graphic designer in the marketing department and I've had some experience with blogging, so I'm diving deeper into the social media subject and using my Dover Projects blog as the first stepping stone to rounding out what is also a testing platform for using all of the social media networks. Eventually I'll transfer things that I've learned here to my role at work, for us to be involved in social media.

So I've started a Dover Projects space on Facebook, and also have a Dover Projects Twitter account and now also a Dover Projects YouTube account where I've been posting a few videos so that I can share them via Facebook.

Though all of this, I have one over arching goal... to bring value to you, the visitor. I hope that I never misdirect you. I hope you do find the information useful, entertaining, and inspiring. I tend to write very long articles, as I want to go more in depth than the typical magazine article that might leave out half of the real world details for example. My articles are not quick reads. They are, in most cases, the entire story from beginning to end, complete with real world bumps in the road...

Oh, one last thing. People sometimes wonder how I have the time to do these projects and THEN have the time to actually write up the articles... Well, we do our projects on the weekends and during our vacations. Many of the projects you see here were done before we had kids... Major slow down with the little guys needing us now... I wrote most of these articles at 4:00 am, before the family gets up, or late at night when all are asleep. That's how much I love writing these up. I'm excited to write about my projects and sometimes my eyes pop up early with eager anticipation of a new article and I'll jump outta bed to grab those few hours of quiet time to write.

Exhausted from weekend warrior DIY projects...

And one final word. Thanks to my wife for putting up with the extra time I put into the researching and documenting of our projects. It's been many hours in the works. Many people would simply hire someone, and also not feel the need to share their projects with the world.... Thanks Sweetie for indulging me!

I should note, I do not have any affiliations with any building services, material dealers, or products. I'm not selling anything. I share my articles for the reasons mentioned above only.

Okay, let's get on to the projects! I wish you all the best success with your projects and I love when people comment on my articles to either point out when I have something wrong, or to say what they are doing with their projects, or just to say "hi"...

For more frequent updates (multiple times a day sometimes) join me on Dover Projects on Facebook! See you there!


Happy DIYing!

--Peter

Happy Holidays!

Pretty Patterned Ornaments Holiday
For hundreds of holiday card designs, click here.
View the entire collection of cards.

36 comments:

  1. I would like to hear from your AV expert Brian Gold, I think he is fantastic !

    ReplyDelete
  2. More to come from Brian via Facebook, just as soon as I work out what went wrong with the Skype recording we did already, but didn't post! ha

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi. I just read your project on the sandbox, you did good! thank you for the detail and posting it on your site. I'm going to try the project this week, will let you know how I do.

    thank!
    jason

    ReplyDelete
  4. Welcome Jason. I hope the sandbox article worked out for you! Post some photos on http://www.facebook.com/doverprojects.--Peter

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi peter,I like that your just like me,i have a wife,2 kids 6+9 one of each and am learning by doing or surfing the web for answers like you.I found your site by chance and love it!.i work at a high tech site and try to keep informed on projects and ideas and found your's most helpful with the details as some experts leave out the little details which are not over looked by you so thanks for being there, mike

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Mike! Just like you, from researching all my projects on the web and in books, it seems a lot is left out. Of course they want a quick read, but that's not really helpful when you are really doing the project. Great to have you on board!--Peter

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Peter. Shane here, from over at Facebook. It has been great connecting with you. I have always blogged at LiveJournal, but recently made the jump to Blogger. I have one on here about benches, the sort you sit on. Yep, a bench blog. One of my interests.

    http://sitandrest.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Shane (sorry for calling you Dave there for a while on Facebook!), Love the bench blog!!! Thanks for sharing the link!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Whoops, I was gonna put it in my post too! http://sitandrest.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am so impressed with your work
    My husband and I have redone fixer uppers for over 30 years 6 in all. Now that my husband isn't able to do the work due to health issues I am basicly on my own. Some of my recent redos and repairs I use our camera and take pictures of the task to be done and show them to Skip, my husband, and he tells what to do and how to do it. And in this case it works good. I'v done some wiring in and some pumbing plus I changed out a fan clutch on our old jeep, very greasy job! But we use that old jeep to haul his companion dog around, Bosco our black lab. The last project I did was install larson insider windows extra storm window.
    thanks again for this great place you have created...I'll defiitly check in again

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lexie, 6 fixer uppers! That's a lot of experience. I'm sure you guys could teach me a lot. Sorry to hear your husband is not able to do the projects with you now. If you like join in on the Facebook page if you are into that kinda thing, for daily conversation and sharing of projects. Glad to have you here.--Peter

    ReplyDelete
  12. I thought you grew up in DIY family? Didn't WM some seriously great projects? Great blog but best part is seeing how wonderful you are doing after all these years! Seriously made my day. Gotta love Facebook for all its magical connecting powers,

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nice stuff here! I appreciate hearing your thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous, that is very true that WM (my Dad) did and still does some seriously great projects. I did grow up and a DIY house, but I was never that interested or too young to learn about what was going on right in front of me. My dad taught me a how to use basic tools (ones that didn't get a youngster hurt). With that knowledge I built any wood go-karts and tree forts. Then there was a gap of more learning as I went to college and then off to live on my own. I know wish I lived right next to my Dad for many reasons, but also for sharing our project experiences.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Gracie, thanks! I really need to write more articles here. It has been a while. I've moved over to the dark side and I'm on Facebook with Dover Projects over there every day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I have been building a site myself and am about 1 month away from publishing to the web. I just stumbled on one of your how-to's. I am actually a professional in my industry and I was so impressed with the way you had written it. diagrams were great. I know from reading it that you spent countless hours researching that subject. Cheers to you for doing such a good job. it looked great as well. My how-to's will be very thourough. basically full of tips that the books and web how-to's leave out. These are the things that will save time and money. I will be back when it is on the web. I will send you the address in hopes we can help each other networking. Thanks Peter. and have a great day. Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  17. Awesome Kevin. Absolutely put he link right in here when you are ready! Also, Not sure if you do Facebook or Twitter, but we have a daily active conversation on Facebook right here: http://www.facebook.com/doverprojects. Just a fun place where DIYers share their projects and are generally social. :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. It's too bad that you don't post on here anymore. It's a great site.

    Lauren from www.charlesandhudson.com

    ReplyDelete
  19. Lauren, Yes, I must get back to writing articles! Thanks for the thumbs—Peter

    ReplyDelete
  20. thanks for a return comment Peter. I surely will get back to you. I'm glad you had so much fun building your puzzle patio. lol. You are right though. It does take more time than people think for that section. I build all my patio's without cutting a single stone. I find that it takes away from the character of it. I tell people to walk away when they hit roadblocks so they don't get frustrated and come back with a fresh mind later. I actually do my edges first. I always want larger pieces on the perimeter. You were lucky that the stones that you used were fairly square. ( relatively speaking ) and as far as gaps go. up to 2 inches should be acceptable. the less gap the better though. Also, polymeric sand should be about an inch to an inch and a half deep or it looses it's effectiveness. The suppliers recommend 2 inches. ( of course they sell more ) but what I do is pack in all my stones then I go over the patio area and brush out the sand to a depth of about 1.5 inches. This is enough. ( never had a problem yet ) Takes a couple of hours to do this but prep work is always worth the time. once again though. I was very impressed with your write-up. might be worht mentioning about your snafu's earlier in your write-up? I have a section in the begining of my how-to about planning for transition zones ( any spot where your project meets something else ) My focus as is your's, is to have people thinking in advanced. Hope you had a great weekend? Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  21. sorry about the typo's..god..I just read that. My english teechers wud be vary upset wiht me...ha ah. Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  22. Kevin! I hope you comments have typos, so that they match my write ups! Yeah, I think in the write up for the patio: http://doverprojects.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-build-stone-patio.html I talk about polymetric sand being 1/2 inch? Good to know that is not enough... The gaps between our stones have moss on about 3/4 of at the right time of year, but most of the time that stuff just looks brown and not so good.... yeah, these articles are some long ramblings for sure... Sanfus and comments like your really need to be integrated back into to the articles as people have good suggestions/knowledge. Have a great one Kevin!—Peter

    ReplyDelete
  23. Howabout that for some typos Kevin?! I just wanted to make you feel better. ha!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi Peter. I'm citing your blog topic about "Knob and tube" wiring in a report about improving the energy efficiency of an historic house in Oregon. The report is for a sustainable building overview course. Your illustrations and sources were helpful.

    I think it's, um, sweet that you're figuring this stuff out in part to make your wife happy!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Outstanding. Glad it was helpful! Happy wife, happy life... or something like that! :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hi Peter!
    I read your DIY about insulating the rim joists and I am about to do the same thing. However, I was going to use single foil faced Tuf-R and sandwich that between 2" Foamular 250. Do you think that's overkill?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hey Peter. Kevin again. We are finally getting our site up and running. After months and months of research, typing, editing, editing, and more editing..lol..Take a peek. I would like to have your email. Maybe you could send me a note on the contact page we have? We have not submitted to search engines yet, as we have TONS of work yet to do. We have about 15 projects ready to go now. Should have them mostly tweaked over the next month or so. It is www.dream-yard.com Hope you had a good winter? Let us know what you think? thanks. Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  28. Great to see the new site Kev. And thanks for exchanging e-mails.—Peter

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hey Pete. Still going strong. Adding new stuff to the site daily. I would like a couple of pictures of your patio. We are going to post them in our ideas section for everyone to see with a link to your site. Have a peek if you get a chance. Hope you have a good weekend. Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  30. I just read your article from a while back on putting reflective material behind radiators. It was extremely informative and helpful. I wonder what you would say today about how effective it proved to be? Would still recommend it and would you do anything differently?
    Thanks, Peter! >

    ReplyDelete
  31. Great site. I am a woodworking and construction teacher and there are a lot of good tips on here for the layman that is just starting out. I found your site while looking for sandbox plans. I am not using your plan, but I still enjoyed reading through your plans. They were very thorough and I really liked the follow up.

    ReplyDelete
  32. My husband was a home builder. He did it all electrical, plumbing, concrete finishing, roofing and a wonderful carpenter. He could build antique replicas that would take your breath away. There wasn't anything he couldn't do. He became ill and passed away a few years ago. I had no idea there was so much to the maintenance of a home. Even the things like putting a pull chain back in a ceiling fan, fixing a drippy faucet, then there is re-grouting tile and on and on and on. I never had to think about such things before. I have read so much but they leave out to much information and details. It is overwhelming. Your articles are the first ones I have been able to completely understand. I am so grateful for your articles. Thank you so very much.
    Salina
    Knoxville, Tennessee

    ReplyDelete
  33. Hello! Your blog is terrific. Hava question re: reinstalling the slider-screen door...mine mirrors the door in your pics. my wheels are spring-loaded, so have to be held back somehow??? to allow centering them on the respective track(s) how'd you do that? thanks! ~geo

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hi--I just found your blog and am glad I did. I am following your stone patio plan--pretty much, anyway. Thanks for providing all the details. It is helping me so very much since I am tackling this on my own.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Great website / blog. I am definitely adding it to my favorites.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave your questions or comments here. I love to get feedback. You can do so without an account or user names and passwords, etc. Just select "Anonymous" next to "comment as". Thanks!--Peter