Side project, waxing an M65 winter coat.

I wanted to wax a winter coat but didn't want to try this on an expensive coat.  Picked this M65 style up at the Gap for 55 bucks.  Bought some bees wax at a craft store with some cheap brushes and went to work on it.  

As you can see from my other posts,  I don't have a kitchen,  improvising... 

Wax has a low flash point,  don't do this at home.  All over the Internets I saw combination recipes for wax everything from 50/50 parafin/bees wax,  adding oils or turpentine but I didn't want to go that route.  Just one pound of raw bees wax is all I used.   

Coat in its raw cotton form.  It is a large which is surprising as I usually wear an XM.  

This was a really fun project,  melt and butter,  melt and butter.  

Full coverage,  I laid the wax on thick,  planning on this being a Jeeping coat so pretty wasn't my goal.  

After bruising the wax to the entire surface I used a heat gun to even everything out and get the wax to penitrate the filers.  

You can see three shades here,  the dark is where the wax is soaked in,  light green I didn't coat enough and  white is the dried first coat.  To get better coverage I would heat the wax and re-spread it to get full coverage.  

Whole coat heat gunned.  

After a week of wearing it it still stands up on its own,  after the gun treatment it was damn near bullet proof.  

I put it in a gym bag and gave it three runs through the dryer on high,  really helped give it an even look and softened it a bit.  

My summer waxed cotton coat.  In contrast I paid $350 for this Sitka coat.  My DIY cost me $75 and took an hour to make.  

A heat gun WILL exhaust enough heat to burn OSB. 

First major update, progress and headaches

I still find it crazy that I bought land. 

When I took possession I went over to Barb's office late in the afternoon and headed over to Mantequilla,  I wasn't sure if the plumbing would be destroyed after sitting vacant for so long.  It was.  So I had to get the furnace hopping before I tackled the busted plumbing.  While looking for splits in the copper I made a few holes.  Since I was already making holes I just kept making them.  This was pretty well an impulse destruction spree so I didn't get too many action shots.  

By the end of day 2 I had filled two constriction bins work rubbish.  

Down to the tuberfores,  pictured is a span that wrecked my mind for weeks.  I didn't want that wall,  engineering says I need it.  

Few action shots here as well.  I help manage a trucking company,  we have drivers from all ranges of experience and,  this is the opposite side of the wall I wanted to remove pictured earlier.  I have a structural engineer driving for me...  Who friggin knew.  Word got out that I was going to hire one to make sure a header wouldn't make my house fall down.  Nope,  get your over qualified driver to take a look.  

Shitty services planning after the last reno in 96', this is why the kitchen had a drop ceiling. 

Behind that ABS run I have framed in a tray for waste,  water and electrical going to the 3rd floor.  I also scratched in plumbing /electrical for moving the washer and dryer upstairs.   

Services tray sound proofed and ready for drywall.  

I'm not very good at drywall,  this knockout for switches was damn near perfect.  Cracked a beer to celebrate the perfection.  

First one I did on Mantequilla... Shame 

This is the second time I've stayed in to reno on new years eve.  Over Christmas it's nice to get the bonus days on a project. 

So I have about 3000sqft of textured walls to deal with.  I have a plan and it involves a paint scraper,  belt sander (60 grit),  Palm sander (60 grit) and skim coating the surface with Drywall mud.  Kill me.  

Right now I have a ton of stuff all being worked on at once.  Following pictures is where everything is at as of Jan 2nd. Major job right now is doing the tape and mud work.  I finished the sub floor on the 31st.