I’m a big believer in sweat equity and putting PCs to work around the house. Whether it’s building a shed, laying out a laminate floor, or designing a pattern for a ceramic tile entryway, PCs have their place in the D-I-Y handyman’s tool chest. So why am I so darn hesitant to build my own PC?

If you’ve been following my ramblings, you might recall that I’ve been living with a noisy Gateway for some time now. The noise is so unbearable at times that I swear that it’s a prime contributor to my writer’s block. (ha!) A good number of folks have suggested that: a) I should just junk this thing or b) that I should bite the bullet and swap out the power supply and processor fan.

I’ll figure it out before the lease runs out on this noisy beast at the end of the year … if it hasn’t driven me insane first. (Maybe it’s just me, because when I ask my darling bride if the fan noise bothers her, she looks at me and says “what noise?”)

In the meantime, I’m doing the research on the next big project here at rancho indebto: hardwood floors. I figure that if I can handle laying out ceramic and laminate flooring, I can deal with hardwood.

I’ll probably go with an engineered hardwood product if I do this one myself. Engineered hardwood flooring is similar to plywood, in that it’s built up with veneer and layers (as opposed to conventional hardwood flooring, which is a solid chunk ‘o wood). All that high-tech engineering provides dimensional stability and ease of installation, or so they say.

If I had my druthers (and the cash), I’d have a professional floor installer come in and do it the old-fashioned way, with solid 3/4-inch hardwood. Of course, sufficient druthers and cash can be tough to find at times.

Either way, I’m hoping that there will be enough leftover scraps to build a hardwood PC case …

Tags: hardwood flooring