The Pit of Despair
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
drsulak's LiveJournal:
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| Monday, November 9th, 2009 | | 11:03 pm |
Auction++
So a while ago, I attended a building supply auction. Often, I would be over-bid, especially on really large lots. If I was really interested, I would exchange contact info. Can't hurt. For this particular lot, I dropped out right away, as I could tell they really wanted it - no matter the cost. And I wasn't about to be a bastard about it and run up the price. Oh well, last I'll see of that, or so I thought. I got a call today out of the blue. Seems plans had changed, and they were wondering if I was interested in some or all of the lot. A lot of glass sandwiches (glass, gasket, argon, glass), for a special price. Yup, I can use about 36 of them right away in my basement. Of course, there's about 10 times the number I need, but the price is right. In an odd way, I'm still winning bids. Hmmm. Need to figure out what to do with the rest... | | Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 | | 1:18 pm |
Charity Boiler Rooms
Even now, after dozens of calls confirming what I know, I'm still scandalized. If you are called to donate to a charity - the current favorites are police (think of the widows!) and cancer (think of the children!) - ask what percentage of what is raised actually makes it to the charity. 15% to 20% ( Read more... ) | | Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 | | 11:52 pm |
Sissiphissian Flooring
Most recently, a priority one home improvement interrupt was received. The bare (as in plywood) dining room floor needs to be covered. Oh, it's been sitting in it's current state of nakedness, since the carpetectomy, waiting the the primary project - the kitchen remodel. We can't put in a new floor, when everything will be moved - including walls. Uh, but the meantime, two years have passed. Time for something...temporary. AE votes for carpet tile. Not that is it good, but good enough and quick. I'm a bit scandalized. We tore up the old carpet, and we are not going to buy new carpet that will ultimately be torn up again in the (hopefully) near future. But wait, I have some spare laminate! I need 220 sqft and I have 230 sqft. I have 240 sqft of underlayment pad. This is meant to be, but I have an odd reluctant feeling... About half way through: AE: With all the work you've put in, I hate to ask this question. DS: (Recognizing the ominous tone) Uh, then maybe you shouldn't? AE: What about if bought some nice hardwood instead and did both the living room and kitchen. DS: (Assumes fetal position) Yes, together we do have a very perverse sense of humor around home improvement. No, it will be the laminate, and I will complete it as planned. Ah, but that's not the end of the story. Remember that auction I went to? I found and successfully bid on 700 sqft of 3/4" solid American Cherry flooring. Yep, that's right. No progress had occurred on the floor due to a pending kitchen remodel. I begin installing a laminate floor. 80% of the way to completion, I acquire a most awesome floor. This will kickstart the kitchen remodel into high gear, thus the floor I'm installing is going to be ripped up in the next couple of months. Even so, today I finished the last little bit. No short cuts, no hacks. Hmmmm. Why does this feel so...anticlimactic? | | Monday, August 10th, 2009 | | 11:33 am |
| | Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | | 5:59 am |
TOCH - He's On The Roof, And We Can't Get Him Down
During his extended stay, post Brian, Bill did some much needed roofing, plus a bonus job. When the rear suite addition was built, it would have made sense to do a full rectangular roof, but for some reason, they left a small cutout above the side entrance. 1.) It makes roof access via the bedroom window quite bit more exciting. 2.) Snow quickly piles up in the winter, as it swirls into this three sided space. I've also had ice break the storm window - all in all, a sub-optimal design. So Bill framed in the section, and this and the old roof received a new layer of shingles. Next trick will be to add lights and then add in the soffit. | | Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | | 11:31 pm |
TOCH - A CFoN
Catching up... Saturday, with the chimney out of the way, Bill and I could: - expand the stairs to full width - back out (add nailing/screwing surfaces) in preparation hanging drywall in the attic - hang drywall in stairs - finish electrical prep (add ground strap, front plates, fold wires inside of boxes) - add closet switch, light, and outlet in small bedroom. ( Read more... ) | | Monday, July 27th, 2009 | | 11:10 pm |
| | Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | | 12:52 am |
| | Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | | 1:14 pm |
Time For New Tires
Just submit to a walletectomy and they install your tires. Simple, eh? Nope, they didn't have them in stock, but I foresaw this and planned ahead. How long for them to arrive? Added an extra day and made the appointment for today. I picked their least busy time - 7am. In, out, and off to work. Usually I take the train, but today I'll drive in to our secondary site for my monthly site review. With combining tasks, this is huge win. All in all, an excellent plan. What could go wrong? ( Read more... ) | | Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 | | 2:36 pm |
An Update From Monday
Yes, summer is here. Heat and humidity in the foreseeable future, but before it gets too bad, I'm trying to finish the outside work: One self-powered Dalek is operational. Mosquito extermination has begun. Three more waiting to join the fun. Klingon battle lawn furniture has been moved and installed near the firepit. Burnt up a bunch of deadfall from last Friday's storm. | | Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | | 10:34 am |
Building In Between The Raindrops
Friday was spent watching a goodly amount of storminess and rain. It's not that 4 inches of rain is unusually notable, but coupled with our current record rainfall rates, I'm wondering exactly how much more we will we get... Saturday was spent running around the greater Chicagoland area. All good, but tiring. Sunday was home improvement day! Mow lawn. Usually, the lawn growth rate has slowed down, but with all the rain, *everything* is growing at a phenomenal rate. Lots of deadwood was knocked down from the winds. Hmmm - looks like my neighbor is missing half his willow tree. I guess the storm was stronger than I thought. Over the fence, a stand of pampas grass has become over-exuberant. Think 8 foot tall crab grass. It sends inch thick subterranean rhizomes to invade our lawn. I don't really care about weeds - if it's green, not spiky, and I can mow it, I'm happy. But, it's like mowing corn. You can't walk on the stubble. I'm going to have to come up with a non-toxic way to keep it at bay. Deck reuse. When we demolished the old deck, I chopped it into four foot wide and 6 - 12 foot sections, and stacked them away from the house. A good temporary plan, but they need to go somewhere else. I won't burn them (treated lumber) and throwing them away isn't a much better plan. So, our shed gets a deck and a boardwalk uh, long, off-ground firewood stand, out to the bonfire circle. It's an area that gets soggy (it's a natural drainage swale), plus a large linden tree grows behind the shed, keeping the area perpetually shaded. I'd like make additional improvements, but I need to maintain some plausible deniability. If it's too fancy, it's a deck, and that way leads to building permit madness. | | Friday, June 5th, 2009 | | 2:50 pm |
Grindy Grind Grind GRIND!
Yes, I still do my own auto maintenance, where possible. Oil, filters, tires, brakes, and plugs at a minimum. Uh, except for the time we were running short on time before a trip. We took the car into the the dealership for new brakes. Not too long ago, I started hearing a grindy sound. It had been humid and raining, and the car had been sitting for a while. After driving it, the noise went away. I chalked it up to light rust on the brake rotors. It came back again. Ok, time to check things out. Removed the rear wheels and checked the drum brakes. About 60% worn, very evenly, so good for another 30K miles (this is a Prius, after all). I shook a bunch of particles out. The front disk brakes looked ok - I could see the outer pad. About 80% left, both wheels has the same amount of brake wear. The grindy noise was gone. The grindy noise comes back again. *Sigh* Ok, this time I pull the front wheels off and feel for the pad on the other side. Bad news. It's heavily worn. When I pull the calipers off, I see 1/32" of the pad left. The other wheel is worse. No pad left, and I was starting into the metal of the pad. The idiots changed the brakes, but never adjusted them. All the wear was occurring on the inner pads. Oh, and wear indicator was broken off. So, I put the old, mostly unworn pad on the inside and the new pad on the outside, and set the other two new pads aside. In about a 1000 miles, I'll check again and make sure the wear is even. Then, I'll replace the inner pads and all should be good. This is why I do my own maint...a little longer and I would have had a $600 surprise repair. | | Monday, June 1st, 2009 | | 3:57 pm |
TOCH - Keeping It Simple
Only minor fiddly bits on Sunday. I want to get back downstate before dark. The double laundry sink clog. 100gal of liquid fun. Suffice it to say this was a disassemble and clean out. A pen cap plus sediment had rendered this one blocked but good. Oof. Thank goodness Drano wasn't tried, otherwise my fun would have been complete. I added horizontal flue and intake caps for the boiler and water heater. This becomes real important as summer approaches. In the winter, I don't need to worry about critters moving into these nice dens/nesting sites. But spring and summer is a different story. Time to pack up and head out. As a minor annoyance, my nail magnet, aka rear passenger tire, was leaking again. I've already plugged two holes, and I'm guessing there is now a third. But I want to get on the road, and the leak is slow (a couple pounds per hour). No problem - I need to take my compressor downstate for other duties, so I'll use it as the ultimate portable air supply. I also toss a couple of empty propane tanks in (for my downstate mosquito daleks). Sssssss. If the tire fill valve on the compressor gets rotated a certain way, it can leak. I ignore it. Ssssssss. I hope the bumpy road will jostle it and make it stop. Sssssss. Okokok. I'm stopping. There's something really bothersome about escaping gas. Ssssssss. It not the air tank or valve. It's my dead Porter Cable drill, or more precisely, the one with broken drive shaft (a casualty of drilling holes for the wire). It had settled such that trigger was slightly engaged. Back on the road again. Ssssssss. Arrrgh! I should have disconnected the battery. Ssssssss. No, I'm not stopping. Odd. Brake lights ahead. I don't believe it. A train crossing the freeway. I've never seen anything using these tracks (and no, there is no gate). While I'm stopped, I check and discover it is not the drill, but tire fill valve on the compressor. I disconnect both it, as well as the battery from the drill. I also consider dumping my two propane tanks out the back of the car... Fortunately, the rest of the trip was uneventful. | | 3:36 pm |
TOCH - Need More Power
So I have an attic room that is 14ft wide by 28ft long. Currently one outlet and one 1925 Edison bulb. I have added a couple of outlets as a side effect from fixing other problems (adding a ground to all 2nd floor outlets, for one), but still woefully inadequate. Given that I'll be adding insulation and drywall, now is the time to make it right. At 10am Saturday I start. This is the part where I mark out and tack all the boxes into place. Now I can compare my drawings to how it will actually look, and make adjustments - both functional (do I really want that switch there), and artistic (do the outlets and lights look balanced). Hmmm. Electrical Feng Shui :-) I carefully lock the boxes into place. A little extra time now makes aligning the outlet or light fixture with the finished wall surface a breeze. Now the first trick. Running a new circuit from the basement all the way to the attic. This comes complete with all the usual challenges. Done. Off to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) abpeed and mbcrui's for dinner. You will note I've spent 7 hours placing boxes and planning how I will run the wire. I've not actually run any wire, save for the line from the basement. Back to work. This part is really boring. I put on some suitably peppy music and run the wires from box to box. The house has three (power) service entrances. The original - a single pair of 12 gauge wires in, with both the hot and neutral fused, circa 1920. The first upgrade, a pair of 4 gauge, terminating at a 60A service disconnect box, and then a thick cable routed down the wall and across the far edge of the attic, hidden under the insulation. Abandoned equipment bothers me. Yes, I've tested it and it's dead, but since I can't find the other end, I don't know for sure that it will remain dead. I undo the clamps at the head, and yank. Yep, they snipped it off at the exterior wall and sided over it. The other end is clamped every two joists. Another big yank, and I now have both ends. Yep, most assuredly dead. Hmmm. I may actually have a use for this equipment downstate... It's now 1am. Done with the electrical rough-in. 18 boxes, 250ft 12-3, and 100ft 12-2. I'm one box short, but that's trivial. Next step will be the chimney tear out, and some simple boxing and nailing surfaces for the drywall. But that's for another trip! For now, off to bed. | | Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 | | 9:47 am |
Warm Weather Work
Back to working on the deck. Installing the cedar fascia and other finishing touches. I won't have the railing up, but hopefully everything else will be done by this weekend. I still need to deal with the old deck sections - currently cut down to roughly 5x8 foot sections and stacked by the water. As they are treated lumber, my disposal options are limited. With the impending hot weather, I've installed the monster AC unit in the addition. Next is to get the mosquito Daleks up and running. With the super soggy Spring, I'm expecting a bumper crop. | | Monday, May 18th, 2009 | | 12:33 pm |
A Distracting Weekend
I always smirk when I hear the phrase "sunken living room" referring to a house. Visions of fish swimming between the couch and TV set... Hey - not so funny a thought on Saturday. My basement belonged to Davy Jones. Crap. The good news is I assume the basement will flood. Everything is either up on blocks, if water resistant, or in clear plastic vats if not. Nothing damaged, but I do need to evict the water. Splashing on over the UPS, it looks fine. The power cord is connected. I kick the sump pump - maybe the float got stuck. Nothing. Dead sump pump. Oh how I love to replace those things underwater. All better now. I think it's time for a secondary pump, plus a screamer alarm if water gets detected. | | Monday, May 4th, 2009 | | 12:46 pm |
TOCH - Changing of the Guard
I put on my evil slumlord hat today and told my current tenant he will need to move out at the end of the current agreement. Well, I'm not that evil. He was not willing to sign a year lease (same terms as the current lease), because he's not sure what his plans will be. Plus he wasn't able to find anyone else to rent the house with. He sounded so disappointed, but I was well past my usual cutoff point of Feb/Mar. Ultimately, I need to have house fully filled with tenants who are planning to stay the entire school year. I could have let him stay on month to month, but as luck would have it (at least for me), a new batch of students expressed an interest and have signed a lease. As a bonus, I know one of them. Thus I have a full house for the coming year, which means, "Crap, I have to finish my projects!". I foresee more trips, and soon. | | Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | | 2:43 pm |
Yet Another Project - Gutters
Time to get the gutter up. It's been three years since the addition roof was built and shingled, and now that we have a deck, a bit more water control would be nice. I'm starting in the side yard. A few reasons - one, if I make a minor error, it won't be as noticeable. Two, during downpours, various valleys create a waterfall directly onto our air conditioner. This is, at best, sub-optimal. Three, all the water then immediately pools next to the foundation. As always, this will be extra fun. It's not the straight runs of gutter, it's the angles. First a 5 degree angle, and then 135 degree angles all the way around. Yep, custom bending and metalwork. I really wanted to use copper for the gutters, but upon pricing, discovered it is an order of magnitude more expensive. Really. It's not the gutters themselves, but the brackets, end caps, joints, and other formed pieces that jack up the project price. So, aluminum it is. | | Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | | 12:23 pm |
Maritime Maintenance
Saturday, I did my marine inspection and salvage tour. This past winter was brutal. With the extra thick ice, also came enormous hydrostatic pressure on the break-wall. It pushed it in 8-12 inches along its entire length, and crushed many of the middle blocks. The foundation blocks are fine, as are the top blocks. Once the water warms up, or at least recedes a bit, I have to restack the wall. The good news is I have a pallet of spare blocks. The bad news - I foresee a lot of exercise... During my tour of the bird sanctuary, I noticed a capsized paddle boat in the inlet. Given that our paddle boat had disappeared during the earlier blizzard, I set out to tow it home. Towing a sunken paddle boat with a canoe is a fairly strenuous task - essentially it is a one ton lump of water. After beaching and draining it, I was able to flip it over and reveal it was *not* ours. The good news is the owner told us someone else found ours. At least I don't have to do another watery grave recovery effort... Next on the agenda is the installation of gutters. Yes, after three years, I think it's time :-) Sunday and Monday were wiped out by some virus-based crud that was going around. Probably my water-based activities did not help in that respect. | | Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 | | 4:20 pm |
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