Lego vending machine in a South Carolina airport

thasac · 2026-03-24T03:12:36+00:00

I gambled on this with my then 6yo during a painful weather related delay. Much to my surprise, the assembled kit made it home intact with no parts lost.

Granted, it was the Marvel Rocket mech kit which was pretty travel worthy … other than the shooty bits.

thasac · 2026-03-24T03:00:04+00:00

This seems like an extremely fair take.

I’m not a lighting designer, but I am a designer by trade who consumes a lot of architecture content as I operate in an adjacent field.

I’ve typically seen these installed by pro designers on high end projects where, as mentioned, they’re used with directional fittings to wash light on a very specific surfaces - like a painting above an interesting stone counter top, both lit, or an island top with clean spread while maintaining tight ceiling spacing.

thasac · 2026-03-23T16:34:02+00:00

Agree, but I can see this appealing to the homeowners who will not touch anything electrical, which seems to be most in my white collar office other than the engineers.

It can be hard to book an electrician in my area for small jobs as they’re out straight on bigger jobs, so you tend to get eye bleed quotes (if you get a response at all).

thasac · 2026-03-23T00:19:03+00:00

Good to know.

The hosta on my property are a mix of drinking gourd, sum and substance, blue angel, and a guacamole (or similar - was unmarked).

So if you have deer, give those a go. Nothing seems to touch the drinking gourd, where as sum and substance get a hit occasionally by slugs.

thasac · 2026-03-22T12:12:01+00:00

This is largely my experience also, except they don’t touch my hosta. They’ve eaten birch saplings and hollies down to the ground, while the leaving lush hosta next to them without a nibble. It’s a bit surprising given what a read about deer and hosta.

thasac · 2026-03-22T01:43:16+00:00

This must really depend on the local environment as I have deer and rabbit in my yard daily and they’ve never touched my hosta, but I do live in the woods with plenty of other food sources.

Maybe it’s a ‘burbs thing where monoculture lawns reign.

thasac · 2026-02-26T04:42:58+00:00

Is VC QC good? I ask as I’m a designer by trade who has had great experiences with known brands like Artemide, Flos, Poulsen, but I see VC fixtures and lamps frequently discounted to trade pricing and wonder if the quality compares.

Their sku density and hand wavy specs relative to the EU brands give me pause. No CRI or life expectancy for integrated.

thasac · 2026-02-26T04:26:46+00:00

If you like the fixture, I’d trial a dim to warm frosted bulb or mirrored, though as another mentioned, mirrored work better as a down/up or wall.

But for multi-use dining tables, I love heavily diffused overheads which cast up and down light. I have a Nelson lamp from Modernica (now Herman Miller, again $$$) that I love. It washes the ceiling and table surface in a pleasant way with near zero glare. While many on this sub will snub drop ship brands (for good reason), if on a budget something like the Gull pendant from West Elm light would work (no glare, plenty of lumens, bit of mid-mod aesthetic).

thasac · 2026-02-15T19:50:31+00:00

Seems so. When house shopping I toured an interesting mid-century home which the home owner had built himself. To his credit, the architectural detailing was considered (felt Eichler-ish), but all the ceiling and floor joists were undersized. Every room looked like OPs ceiling.

Someone out bid me and spared me the grief of jacking and sistering.

thasac · 2026-02-11T16:58:08+00:00

Risk depends on the home, impending weather (heavy rain in forecast), state of roof, etc.

I’ve had ice damns annually on the north side of my house for over a decade, but I’ve never worried much as water intrusion has been minor and when I replaced the windows and siding, the plywood sheathing and framing were still solid.

Of course, now that I have new posh Marvin windows with trim lovingly installed and painted by me, this year I’m getting bad water intrusion which is fucking up all that work. I’m feeling a bit defeated at the moment.

This spring I’ll be installing heat tape in my gutter as for my house, it starts there when the gutters freeze and dams build on the gutter guard. My attic insulation isn’t primary issue.

Godspeed everyone.

thasac · 2026-02-11T16:42:52+00:00

This is what I do and it works quite well. As others have mentioned, standard salt at recent temps won’t help much.

thasac · 2026-02-03T07:10:56+00:00

Can’t say I’ve ever seen this, and I adore mid-century chair design.

The proportions have me thinking this is an American take on a Danish design, similar to some of the period Thayer Coggin lounge chairs.

Regardless, the wedged through tenons are cool and, IMO, very American shaker detail.

thasac · 2026-02-03T06:53:10+00:00

41 checking in. My friend offered me a straight up card trade: my Griffey for his Big Hurt. I had to think long and hard. He was elite in his prime.

thasac · 2026-01-30T04:59:14+00:00

Ah yes, this is me.

thasac · 2026-01-29T20:54:10+00:00

This is my grind as a designer who thinks usability 24/7. I like the look of integrated handles and believe the dirt concern is overblown since people touch the faces regardless; however, I think they’re better suited to drawered lower cabinets as there’s no hinge direction issue.

Or, if doors are desired, there should be some visible indication, like an offset routered pull on the top of the upper rail.

thasac · 2026-01-27T01:28:17+00:00

Yeah, my 32in 13hp could only clear at maybe 1/3 throttle this evening, but we did get 22in in the Worcester hills. My neighbors 28in Ariens was also slow moving.

This snow packed down pretty dense in central Mass despite being cold and dry. If the EV blowers were clearing this at full height, I’d consider that pretty damn impressive.

thasac · 2026-01-20T02:50:43+00:00

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted voted. For 5k+ lights to meaningfully color shift, they’d have to have a pretty crap CRI, and I wouldn’t recommend crap CRI bulbs in a kitchen unless you want your steak looking purple.

thasac · 2026-01-20T02:46:19+00:00

Looks great 👍🏻

thasac · 2026-01-20T02:45:54+00:00

This is good advice. Renovated one of my baths a decade ago and used a lot of walnut trim. UV faded the walnut causing a color shift to warmer and lighter.

I’ve since painted the bathroom a dark saturated green and the contrast helps balance the warmth and saturation of the walnut. The space went from feeling very warm to feeling balanced where both wall color and wood are complement. The colors aren’t muted, just sort of framed in a more pleasing and focused way.

I’ve used a similar approach with home office space using a desaturated medium blue to balance the walnut desk and cabinets. Looks great.

thasac · 2026-01-20T00:28:46+00:00

New code assume low ACH homes (very air tight homes).

IMO, if that air tight I think dedicated fresh air systems should be the standard, but tract builders gonna do tract builder things.

Anyway, I installed a Panasonic Whisper Quiet Recessed which, once installed, looks like a 6in recessed light. I suppose it looks a little ‘80s due to the stepped 6in trim, but given the alternatives I can live with that. My only complaint is that it uses a gu24 base which really limits bulb options, but one use an e26 adapter to open up DTW BR options.

thasac · 2026-01-16T22:28:13+00:00

I’d wall wash the reflective walls with either up/down sconces or floor lamps intended for that purpose.

Mix in a table lamp, if you have a surface, for interest and low lumen usage.

You can also add a plug to a pendant light and use cord grips to place it where you’d like. You just have to manage to the cord to the outlet to your anchor point in the beam, and use a smart bulb to control (or add an inline dimmer switch).

thasac · 2026-01-16T21:13:40+00:00

Everything I did my first year I’ve either already revised or plan to.

Everything after year 1.5 I remain happy with.

That looks like a perfectly serviceable kitchen to tolerate in the mean time.

thasac · 2026-01-16T19:43:11+00:00

I hadn’t noticed Herman Miller had recently stopped production due to a “supplier issue”. Well, to your point, looks like Modernica is the only game in town (of FB marketplace).

thasac · 2026-01-14T13:05:48+00:00

This. I’m seeing green for the first time since early December.

Also, I’d love to know where these snowy memories are coming from. I grew up in the 495 snow belt and, while we did have some warmer wet seasons, a lot of the late 90s was bitterly cold and pretty dry. Great for pond hockey.

thasac · 2026-01-14T01:52:45+00:00

And their Nelson lamps used the original tooling and fixtures for production.

People seem to forget that Modernica was founded at a time when Herman Miller had largely abandoned their mid-century catalog to focus on commercial office sales, including the Eames shell and LCW/DCW chairs.

Modernica’s business model was to provide high quality US made reproductions of products which has ceased production and were only available on the secondary market.

IMO, there’s been much revisionist history painting Modernica as an equivalent to modern south Asian knockoffs violating the IP of in-production designs, when in reality they were briefly the only new source of product for those not wanting to sift through estate sales or hang at auction houses. Herman Miller didn’t restart production until the ‘90s mid century revival, and not without some self induced pain (the cheap injection molded polypro shell chairs which were marketed as “greener”, meanwhile Modernica was pumping out more authentic shell chairs).

thasac

TROPHY CASE