{"id":346,"date":"2011-09-10T00:36:54","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T04:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.diyode.com\/?p=346"},"modified":"2025-01-18T13:51:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T18:51:43","slug":"the-pathology-of-diy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyode.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-pathology-of-diy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pathology of DIY"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think it was Carl Sagan who first said “If you are going to make a patio from scratch, first you must invent the universe”. I’m not sure if Carl was pro or anti DIY (I’d like to think ‘pro’) but it strikes a nerve, nonetheless.<\/p>\n

You see, it would seem that I am incapable of doing things the easy way. When I wanted a specific t-shirt design, I couldn’t just get it printed online for $15. It wasn’t enough, even, to drop $100 on a photo emulsion screen printing kit. Nope. I had to make the frames, stretch the screens, mix my own potassium bichromate photoresist, and build a custom drying cabinet for screen preparation. I’m kinda stupid that way.<\/p>\n

So when our deck started getting too old to use, and my wife saw that familiar gleam in my eye, she knew it meant trouble.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The first 10 stones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, I will admit that I put my wife through a lot, and she is nothing if not supportive of my own particular mental illness. But this time, I think she shares at least some of the blame.<\/p>\n

You see, she was the one who first found the hexagonal pattern in a photo of a marketplace in Tenerife. It was a simple repeating hexagon with three partial arcs inlaid into it. When laid down in an inconsistent pattern, the arcs make a spaghetti plate of meandering paths. \u00a0She was the one that used it in an art quilt that now hangs\u00a0in our front hall.<\/p>\n

So when we first discussed ripping out the deck and putting in a patio, I pointed at the quilt, and said “I want that”.<\/p>\n

Of course, no-one makes such a patio stone. You can’t go down to Home Depot and come home with a carload. You can, however, come home with a 5 pounds of plaster of paris, a custom built carving jig, 2 gallons of brush-on molding rubber, a cement mixer, 120 bags of sand-mix cement, and a bucket of iron oxide colouring. You can do all this, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it.<\/p>\n

People might just call you pathological.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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