Evan Yamoto

Blog

  • Contact Paper Upgrade

    Our place came with a new stainless stove and we bought a new stainless fridge. But the dishwasher was old and black with lots of marks on it. We don’t use it and we’re not ready for a full kitchen remodel, so I tried something I saw online.

    It’s contact paper made to look like brushed stainless steel. It was really easy to apply and it looks great. In person, I think it actually looks better than our stove. It was a cheap mod that went a long way and everything matches now.  I’m really amazed by how good this worked, thanks internet!

    img_1966

    img_1964

  • Upcycled Willys

    One of our neighbors recently threw out an old Power Wheels Jeep. It was really dirty and it didn’t work, but I took a chance on a new battery and it worked.

    Power Wheels

    It needed lots of cleaning and I wanted to give it a new look so I took it all apart.

    Power Wheels Disassembled

    My wife and I had the same idea to make it into an old military Jeep known as the Willys Jeep.  I painted it in Olive Drab an bought the Army star stickers.  I kept some of the original stickers but I also made some Willys Jeep gauges and a data plate for the dash.

    Power Wheels Willys Power Wheels Willys

    I haven’t given it to my son yet, but I think he’s going to have as much fun as I did!

  • Vintage Speaker Dock

    In between painting, installing baseboards and replacing all of our 30 year old electrical outlets and switches, I worked on something more fun. My wife seems to listen to music on her iPhone so I thought I’d make something better for her.

    We also like mid-century design so I found some old speakers at Goodwill and made them into an iPhone speaker dock.

    Speaker Dock

    Speaker Dock

    I used a $20 Lepai amp and got some vintage Realistic Minimus speakers.

    I later picked up some Bose tulip speaker stands, but they are a little too big. I might have to take the stands back if I ever get around to refinishing my KLH 17s.

    It came out pretty well and sounds great, but I took some more terrible pictures and didn’t fix the cords…

    Speaker Dock

  • Teak Bench

    I found this teak bench at TJ Maxx.  It wasn’t the greatest but the price was right and I thought I could make it a little better.  This is probably grade-C teak so I didn’t feel bad if I completely messed it up.

    Teak Bench unfinished

    From my previous TJ Maxx purchase, I thought I could even out the sapwood with  a combination of dye and stain.  The hardest part about refinishing a piece is that I don’t have scrap wood to test with.  I ended up dying the underneath pieces a few times and sanding it off until I was reasonably happy with the results.

    Teak Bench

    It’s definitely not the greatest thing I’ve done, but it’s not the worst either.

  • Garage Space

    When we first moved into our house, I had a huge list of projects to work on but nowhere to do it.  So I claimed this corner of the garage and made it my own.

    This is when I gave in an bought a Makita 10″ mitre saw and started my cordless Makita collection.  I always have a hard time buying tools because I’m worried I won’t use them, but I’ve ended up making really good use of all of these tools and they’re a joy to use.

    My first project was to make this workbench so I had a place to work on the next project.  I tried using the plans found in the Family Handyman Magazine, which is great by the way.  It was the only magazine I subscribed to, but I let it expire because of how many renewal notifications they send.  But anyhow, I had to cut it down half a foot because it was designed for giants, or at least people a lot taller than me.

    Garage Space

     

    This is what the wall looked like before I painted.  It was actually a lot worse before this because there were holes all over the place that I patched up.

    Garage Wall

    Being a dedicated USC alumnus, I had to use the official color for the wall.  Any Trojan knows this is cardinal (not just red) and gold.  Glidden made some officially licensed paints for a lot of schools and professional teams.  However, I know USC retains its own licensing and isn’t part of a lot of these deals, so I had to give in and go with the same but otherwise official colors of Stanford and LSU…

    Garage Wall USC

    I’m also not a very good painter so I used a Fathead for the Trojan logo.  But, I did learn a good technique for painting clean lines with tape from watching the Property Brothers on HGTV.  The tip was to paint the background color again around the tape line first.  This way, there will be some bleeding that you usually get, but it’s the same color as the background.  When it dries, you paint inside the lines like normal and you get a really sharp line.

  • Restored 4Runner

    My father-in-law got another new car so my wife wanted his old ’98 Toyota 4Runner.  Her siblings weren’t sure why she wanted it because it was so beat up and dirty.

    I was pretty surprised with how bad it was but I thought I could fix it up a bit.  The paint was so dull and lifeless and interior was really dirty.  It was also used a farm everyday so it was full of this fine dust in every crevice.

    I don’t remember where I started but I threw out the old mats and vacuumed it a few times.  I sprayed it down and left bowls of vinegar, which is supposed to absorb smells.  I then took out the seats and cleaned the carpet with some spray cleaner and a power drill with a brush attachment.

    And I used my Porter Cable and supplies that I bought for my BMW and it cleaned up great.

    And of course, all of my cars have a USC license plate frame!  I’ve never really liked gold much, but it definitely fit on this car.

    The best compliment I got was when we parked it at my father-in-laws and he didn’t even recognize the car!

    I drove the 4Runnner for a couple of years until this happened:

    This was shortly after my second son was born.  My older son and I went to pick up food and then it felt like the car just dropped.  I was pretty surprised to see the front tire like this.  It wan’t as bad as it looks, but it was a little scary.  I got it fixed and it drove better than ever, but my mom didn’t want me to drive it anymore.

    It was originally my brother-in-laws car, so I gave it back to him.  He’s fixed it up even more and it looks great.  Despite this accident, I really think this 4Runner can last for ever.  I had to almost 200,000 miles and I felt like it would hit 300,000 easily.

    This 4Runner and my wife’s Tacoma from this era are some of the best cars they’ve ever made.  The only knock is that they seem to have a bad clear coat that you’ll see on just about every one of these cars.

  • Mini Picnic Bench

    When we first bought our house, I wanted to make a small picnic bench for my son.  I bought a Makita 10″ dual slide compound mitre saw that’s been amazing.  Unfortunately, in my haste, I bought birch wood from Home Depot and it was a nightmare to finish (more on this later).

    I followed plans from Ana White and tried out a Kreg Jig for pocket holes for the first time.  The plans were easy to follow and the jig was really easy to use.  I put it together without any issues and it looked pretty good unfinished.

    Picnic Bench Unfinished

    As for the finishing, I tried brushing amber shellac at first, but it was a disaster. I applied too much and it dripped and dried with marks all over it, and it also came out really yellow on birch. It took me months to sand it down and research staining online.  I couldn’t tell you why I didn’t buy a sander at this point, but I’m guessing it was a form of self punishment!

    For my next attempt, I started with a red mahogany Transtint dye. Birch gets really blotchy and this seemed to help hide that and it also gave it a reddish tint. I then applied Old Masters cedar gel stain. The combination of the two seemed to provide more depth than the gel stain alone. I then added a topcoat of clear shellac in light coats with a rag and it turned out much better.

    Picnic Bench

    It would’ve came out better if I used this schedule from the start, but it was an all around learning project. Mostly I learned, never to buy birch for staining.  But my kids approve and have gotten good use of it, so that’s all that matters.

  • Kauai 2013

    We returned to Kauai in 2013, this time with my mom and brother.  We rented this little house in Kapaa and it was great.  It’s called the Ohana house and there are other nearby cottages that make up the Fern Grotto Inn.  It has some of the best reviews I’ve ever seen on a rental and it’s deserving.

    What made this trip special was that it was the last trip we made with my mom.  We might’ve driven each other crazy at times, but there was alway love.  And she loved her grandson more than anything.

    He doesn’t remember anything, but they had a great time together.

  • Quest in Show

    When I was working at Quest Software, there was a video contest to show the use of their products.  I made this video and won first place!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqvI-EooSzg

    I filmed it on my iPhone and made it pretty quickly.  It was a lot of fun and I won some money to put into Ian’s college fund.

  • Our First Family Car

    After our first son was born, it was time to make some sacrifices.  I sold my beloved BMW to buy my wife this Volkswagen Tiguan.  She had an older Toyota Tacoma pickup that we still have, but this was much more practical for her and my son.

    I never thought I’d drive a truck, but I did for a few years.  It’s still not my favorite thing to drive, but it’s cool in a different way.

    She picked out this car and it was a perfect fit for her.  Most people would say it just seemed like her.  It was a fun little car to drive, but it started having some problems as it got older and we recently had to sell it.