 the same time.
The pharmacist who filled my prescription is a friend of mine so when I gave him my prescription for pink eye I told him how tough it was to be so contagious because I couldn’t hug. His response? “Sure you can, just means more customers for me.” Smart aleck. Well, humor is the best medicine.
Please accept this blog as my virtual hug to you.I rented for a really long time (probably longer than I should’ve), and one thing I absolutely hated about renting was that my car was always out in the elements, which meant in the unforgiving Texas summers, the inside of my car was always insanely hot. I lived in places that had covered parking, which was nice, but one of the things I always longed for was a garage. When we were house hunting, the garage wasn’t at the top of my priority list, but I did scratch a few houses off the lists our real estate agent provided us because the garage had been converted into living space. And when actually visiting houses, the garage always got a close inspection.
When we visited this house for the first time, the garage was one of the selling points. It was in good shape; the previous owner had a great-looking garage with lots of organization and toolboxes. In hindsight, maybe I should have asked about getting that included in the negotiation.
When we moved in, the garage was completely empty save for a single bookshelf full of some paint cans and such, which I’ve come to appreciate. We had an old dilapidated bookshelf that we brought over from the old apartment, and we put it out in the garage for some additional storage.
Presently, the garage is in pretty good shape, but I have run out of organized places to put things. We’ve had to buy lots of garage-type equipment, like a lawn mower, leaf blower, weed whacker, brooms, shovels, ladders, etc. The garage has also been accumulating stored items like Christmas decorations, car stuff, and random things I don’t want to carry up into the attic.
My inner OCD voice is telling me that the garage is messy and in need of some attention even though the pictures seem to suggest that it’s relatively orderly. Because the last home improvement project we tackled turned out pretty well, I’m excited to tackle the garage.
Additional storage: This will probably come in several forms, shelving, cabinets, etc. Pat had a good suggestion on something he had helped a friend with-building closets in the garage, using the scissor-type closet doors to hide the mess behind them. I’d also like to build something to hang my ladders, saw horses, and various garden tools.
Ceiling and Walls: The ceiling of the garage has the popcorn-ceiling texture on it and since the house was built, it’s been blistering and peeling away. I’d like to go ahead and remove it and re-surface the ceiling with something else. While I’m at it, I’d like to also re-paint the walls of the garage to make it look all brand-new.
Workbench: I’d definitely like some sort of workbench outside, somewhere I can organize and store some of my bigger tools and a place to do some work outside so I can keep messy stuff out in the garage. I’ve seen a ton of do-it-yourself shows and articles about making your own concrete countertops or tables. I think I might try and make a concrete surface for my workbench.
This is a much more ambitious home improvement project than my last one but hopefully it is about the same degree of difficulty. It is definitely a bigger project than the last one; I don’t expect to knock this one out in a couple of days, and know that we’ll be hard at work for quite some time.
I’ve already taken a stab at scraping off the ceiling texture. Some of that is very cathartic work – bad day at the office? Come on over and skin the ceiling of my garage for a bit. Those chunks of falling popcorn ceiling will have you feeling better in no time flat, I guarantee it. I took a couple photos of my progress. Off of bare drywall, the stuff falls right off. But off of the joint compound, it doesn’t scrape off easily at all. I suspect that I’ll spend quite a bit of time scraping that with something like a putty knife and then sanding it down.
I will probably talk about the plans for the storage and workbench in my next blog on this topic. We’ve been through a couple brainstorming sessions and I think I need to start putting some of those ideas down on paper to use as our pseudo-blueprints.
A Realestate transaction involves several moving parts. Our experience with buying and selling realestate can help streamline the process.
We can help you find the home you want or sell the home you are in right now. We are happy to answer any question you may have about buying or selling.2018 has been a big year for our business, exceeding our expectations with record project numbers. We’ve also welcomed a number of new team members as we expand our business and bring additional areas of focus in software, robotics and machine vision alongside our world-class custom equipment business.
It’s clear that with everything produced by Facteon, whether it’s a machined component or a fully automated, custom designed and built production line, the team is committed to completing this work to the highest standard.
This year we were proud to deliver a record number of lines and an increased variety of lines to our customers. A highlight is the delivery of six major production lines over this year for the laser welding of appliance drums as well as two robotic assembly and toxing lines. This has been a massive effort by our team, contractors, suppliers and the staff inside our customers’ organisations who played a role in making this happen.
In September of 2018, we unveiled a new brand for the business, Facteon. The rebrand has signalled a new direction for the business. Our previous focus has largely been appliance-centric with our historic connection to leading, global appliance manufacturers, Haier, Fisher & Paykel and GE Appliances. We are now working to apply our knowledge of intelligent manufacturing, flexible automation and Industry 4.0 to a wider range of industries and markets. This will have significant advantages for our existing and future customers as we’re able to leverage our knowledge of a wide range of industries and processes to cater to their specific manufacturing challenges.
In 2018, we implemented our first commercial installations of COSMOline, our intelligent manufacturing software product. COSMOline is a software solution built from the ground up to operate across all types of manufacturing operations, PLC technologies and equipment types. It gives operators an unparalleled view of their operations, turning their raw production and quality data into valuable information they can use to manage and improve their operations. In addition to this, it contains all the maintenance information, manuals and workorders staff need to manage their plant.
In 2019, our software team will be releasing a range of new features focusing on machine learning driven predictive functionalities and additional plug-and-play integrations with third-party systems as well as Industrial IoT hardware and smart sensors. We look forward to updating you further on this.
COSMOline also provides significant opportunities for the expansion of our equipment business. As our software team is working with external customers, we hope that our world-class, customised machinery offering can also be of benefit.
As part of our expansion we continue to add skills both inside our business and within our wider network. Of particular satisfaction for the team has been the growth of Facteon China where we not only support our customers in this market, but we are adding additional manufacturing, procurement and design capability.
We’ve recently announced our partnership with COSMA, a leading Italian manufacturer of flexible folding machines and customised automation solutions. Facteon will be the exclusive distributor of COSMA product in China.
Facteon China’s role is to provide integration services, installation and after-sales support to COSMA customers. This partnership has signaled a shift in the Facteon approach. We’re now actively seeking out and pursuing partnership opportunities. We see partnerships as an excellent way to quickly bring technology to our customers and to help other companies access markets they otherwise wouldn’t be able to on their own.
Another major step in expanding our China operation is the establishment of our WOFE in Huangdao. Over the coming months, we are seeking to engage a full complement of staff in the WOFE. Its establishment allows us to further cement our operations and position in the China market. We’re now able to contract direct under our own company name. This has been an important step in solidifying our ability to do business as Facteon. We also look to take on local, mid-range equipment projects in China while providing extensive staff training. Parallel to this, we also aim to lease our Huangdao, China Workshop. We’re excited to continue expanding our China operations in 2019 with the backing of our WOFE.
Whilst there are some clouds on the horizon for the global economy, we expect the market for automation to be as strong as ever, with an increased focus on the performance of industrial assets, flexibility and a practical approach to Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing implementation.
Our focus for 2019 will be on continuing to provide the high-quality automation solutions which we’re known for but with an increasing focus on blending these with new technologies and capabilities in software, robotics and machine vision. We seek to transfer our knowledge of intelligent manufacturing, flexible automation and Industry 4.0 to