This past weekend, my wife and I decided to organize the basement.  We've been in in our home for about a year now, and our basement is still a disaster.  To top it all off, the water table around our house is actually above the out basement floor.  It's not a matter of IF the basement will flood, it's a matter of WHEN.  We have two, count-em TWO, 1-HP RIDGID Sump Pumps which run constantly (even when the ground is frozen).  During the spring thaw last year, we were pumping about  200 Gallons / Minute, that's GPM, out of the basement.  For a few days, we needed the help of a 5-HP Trash Pump.  Needless to say, Kara and I wanted to get everything off of the floor before the big thaw this year.

A few month's prior, I constructed a rock-solid work bench and figured that I could apply the same idea for some great storage shelves.  Below is a bill of materials to construct two 2' deep x 8' long x 6' tall storage shelves.

• 21 - 2"x4"x96" Boards
• 3 - 4'x8' 1/2" Plywood
• 1 - Box of 2 1/2" - 3" Wood Screws

Total cost...under $100.00 from Home Depot!

1. Recharge your cordless drill batteries.
   
2. Cut 8 2"x4"s to 72" in length (Save the remaining 24" sections).  These will be used for the vertical legs
3. Cut 12 2"4"s to 93" in length (Toss the remaining 3" sections).  These will be used for the long horizontal members.
4. Cut 8 2"x4"s to 24" in length so you have a total of 12 24" 2"x4".  These will be used for the short horizontal members.
5. Rip 3 4x8 sheets of plywood down the middle to make 6 - 2x8 sections.
6. Notch out 4 - 3 1/4" x 5 1/4" holes from 4 of the pieces of plywood. These holes will wrap around the vertical legs.    
7. Screw it all togeter.
   

I left about a 20" space between the first and second shelf.

 

 If you want to read more about the basement organization project, check out my wife's blog.

Valentines Day 2009 was a success.  Kara and I spent pretty much the whole day together.  We hit the gym early so we could prepare for our afternoon errands.  After hitting up the tailor and Sam's Club, we enjoyed a tasty lunch at Bravo in Rochester Hills.  After lunch Kara and I went ot see "He's Just Not That Into You."  The movie was actually not terrible.  After the movie, we returned home to enjoy some takeout pizza.  While Kara and I were upstairs, Graham and Thatcher proceeded to get their grubby paws on our breadsticks down in the kitchen.  Damn dogs. 

Check me out on Twitter.  I've been busy twitting away.   Be sure to check out Smrtware on Twitter too.

I've made a last minute decision to attend the Business of Software (BOS) conference in Boston, MA.  The conference runs from Sept. 3-4 at the Seaport Hotel.  I am very excited for this conference.  I attended the BOS conference last year in San Jose, CA.  I was able to meet some really great people, like Guy Kawasaki, Rick Chapman, Joel Spolsky, Neil Davidson, Eric Sink, Hugh MacLeod, and Matt Mason just to name a few.

This year, the line-up of speakers looks equally if not more appealing with notable additions like Seth Godin and Steve Krug.  I've also heard rumor that Jeff Atwood will be attendance, but that's not confirmed.

I strongly recommend checking out the BOS site for more details.  Neil Davidson did a fantastic job last year which leads me to expect great things again this year.

I've got a new gig as President and Founder of Smrtware Solutions, LLC.  Let me tell you a little bit about Smrtware and what we (I) do.

Smrtware is a joint venture between myslef and Campus Village Communites, located in Rochester, MI.  Campus Village is a realestate develoment company which services the student housing niche.  Campus Village has many locations across Michigan and Ohio located very near college campuses.  My role is provide Campus Village with property management software they need to run their portfolio of properties.  We call this software CampusLink.

I began working on CampusLink in June of 2007 while I was working for the Creative Logic Group, also located in Rochester, MI.  In the spring of 2008, I decided to leave Creative Logic, and join up with Campus Village directly with the primary goal of continuing development and support of CampusLink.

I've been at it for a month and half and I love it.  I've probably written more code in that time than I have in the past 6 months combined.  CampusLink used a custom framework developed by Creative Logic, which was based on Rocky Lhotka's Compact, Scalable, Logical Architecture (CSLA) 2.0 Framework.  Since starting Smrtware, I've completely upgraded the application framework to the latest CSLA 3.5 Framework and have completely rewritten the business logic and user interface of CampusLink.  To say that I've learned a thing or two along the way is an understatement.

Besides upgrading CampusLink, I've been busy working on creating the foundation for becoming a micro independant software vendor (Micro-ISV).  These are very exciting times.  The world is my oyster, as my wife would say.