Ten Days Away

Ten days, a long time away from this blog. Hmmm, my coffee cup is empty. Also the cat is sitting right in the way. Typing around a seventeen pound cat ain't easy. Been busy.

A 1979 Vaughan Model 99 Professional Rip Hammer. Sweetest balanced hammer I ever used. It's been through the wars, so to speak. It's on the fourth or fifth handle. Any carpenter or anyone who has spent at least a decade whaling away on nails always has a favorite. It gets the status of at least a beloved family pet.

Usually the Model 99 has a 13" handle. I like the reach of the 999's but not what they do to my right elbow, so a 15" handle on a 99 head. The orange hammer is sold by Sears but made by Vaughan. I use it for bashing things other then nails and de-nailing. The floor underneath is pre-finished yellow pine on my upper landing. Somewhat distressed from two years of dragging furniture, house parts, vanities, and fixtures across it.

Need more coffee..... Cat's gotta go somewhere else.


I'd much rather buy bread. But at three bucks and up for bread without HFCS*, it's not worth it. Cheaper to lay in some flour and eggs and what-not. Some rather ugly banana bread. Good though. Also a convenient way to use old bananas.

On to the Back Bath....

Staring at that claustrophobic hole wasn't working. It stayed as ugly as it ever was. The room wouldn't be so bad in layout except some super genius took nine square feet from it and used it for the hall linen closet. The vanity sits in one niche, and on the other side of the linen closet, the toilet is wedged in another niche by the tub. There is about sixteen square feet of open floor space at most. Storage is paltry at best. Note this gem over the toilet.


The inebriated illegal immigrants who originally built the place had a little trouble getting the vanity top to fit. So they cut a slot in the sheet rock. The plumber who re-plumbed the house from the original polybutene wasn't great at patching. So.......


Since I got quite a bit of yellow-board scrap, away the damaged sheet rock went.

Yes, with forty whacks, anything can fit in a box. One cast marble sink-top.


It's just not worth it to leave shut-off valves on the supply lines. I hate mutilating cabinets to get the valves through. Also, the lines are in the wrong place. No matter what side the vanity drawers will be on, a line is there. So, there will be a few 90' elbows added later.


The tile floor, one foot square tiles and the caulk is a mixture of grout and.... caulk? The tiles were laid down on a very thin layer of thin-set which in turn, was right over the subfloor which still had the glue on it from the sheet vinyl. Adhesive properties of such can be rated as non-existent. It came right up. No scraping needed.


Whack! Blam! Crunch!

A little later, I stopped right about here. One fixture left to remove.

The door had acne.

A little later....what door, what molding?

The wallpaper band...ugh.

It's going away soon.


The shower-tub is staying. It's an ugly beige relic from the eighties but it's a sturdy ugly relic. It probably has at least twice the resin and layers of a modern fiberglass unit.


* High Fructose Corn Syrup

Been Awhile

Da Blog.

It's been awhile, twelve days. A lot has been happening. The business is finally underway, and some work is flowing in. No advertising as of yet. I thought this blog could be a vehicle for advertising the biz but no. It may describe what I do, or something the rest of the world can learn from whilst I drip blood upon the ground from a new and wrong way of getting something done.

So today, the blog gets cleaned up a little. Too many commas or too much whining, that gets snipped. The italicizing isn't doing very well, so the font for that has to get changed. The pictures are staying for the most part but they do hog a bit of bandwidth, so some of the big monsters are going away.

The Eye

.....is doing much better. I'm up to a month between appointments now. The doctor seems happy at the progress, and for my part, it's actually useful most days.

The Biz

....had it's first job and first pay and first receipt. It was a townhouse, a sibling of mine. It's better now. It's a little tighter, the doors work a little better, some paint, quite a bit of caulk. Adding electrical coverage to my insurance but that's so I can screw in light bulbs and clean out vent fans. Please use licensed electricians for messing with electrical systems. Not me.

My Townhouse

The back bath is finally getting back into gear. The waterlines are capped off. It's too much trouble to cut holes for valves in the floor of the cabinet and then have to patch it up after getting it in. I actually preserved the entire hookup for the kitchen sink, and wound up having to redo it all anyway.

Much easier to drill two 3/4" holes. Besides, the old valves were meant for compression fitting on copper lines and I have plastic. The cast marble sink met destiny with a two pound mini sledge. That was a good feeling. Forty Whacks, a la Lizzie Borden. Pictures, I promise.

The walls needed some spackle and paint after two years of general use including banging furniture against, migrating white-boards and nomadic fire extinguishers. Much better now.

The Great Presidential Horse Race

Finally, the polls that do count. It was getting old having herds of politicians wandering the countryside making promises and pestering the populace.

The Democratic race is pretty much defined, Clinton, Obama and Edwards in that order. Biden, Lieberman, and the others add some color to it but my money is on the front three to win, place , or show.

The Republicans have no clear leaders in front like the Democrats, so the primaries will actually help by thinning that herd out a bit. Still my impression is that Guilani and Romney are about even, McCain trailing. But no money on any of these guys yet, the field is just too crowded.

It will be nice as state by state, the people do their thing and weed out the no-hoper's, and we get to see who to make fun of for the next four years.

The I-95 Grand Folly

The I-95 Grand Folly

I make a monthly pilgrimage up to Northern Virginia. Mostly on I-95. This takes me past Roanoke Rapids. I saw this building being built in the middle of nowhere. The Randy Parton Theatre, a modern adaption of antebellum plantation crossed with a touch of Wally World. Roanoke Rapids thought they could emulate Branson, Missouri and build a theme park as far as I can gather, around a relative of a mainline country music entertainer. Randy Parton is the brother of Dolly Parton. Only problem, why travel a hundred or so miles to get entertained when one can hang out in major cities like Raleigh, Virginia Beach, and so on, complete with existing places to go?

Yep, they are losing their shirt. The theater's namesake is gone, it's under new management, and I'll bet they will have the name changed on that building in less then a year. I really hope they spell "theater" right. North Carolinian retail property owners tend to put "e" on the end of nouns, coming up with "pointe", "olde" and "shoppe". Then there's my pet peeve...."centre". This is America, spell like an American! Center! Point!, Shop! Old!

The Attic House

My last day on it since I got to finish up a punch list somewhere else tomorrow. Basically, last minute tweaks in the attic and then, blown in insulation. My life will be not good today. There are nasty jobs out there, and blowing insulation in a cramped attic is right up there. I'll stick B with returning the machine.

Deferred Maintenance

I'm eyeing the 401K. It's not a good thing to nuke it but the car, computer, cat, me, and the house have been on deferred maintenance and the left eye is getting more then a fair share of money, as it's still under care. The business started off well, and it may be a good way to earn money, do some good, and have fun doing it. Deferred maintenance is sometimes necessary but never good in the long run. Just look at what happened to the railroads, trains kept falling off the tracks before they came to their senses and fixed them.

Four Dollar Paint....A Winner!

It had to be done. Much deletion, much editing, not much rewriting. Call it, blog-maintenance. The left eye is much better. Follow-up tomorrow and then hopefully that's it for a long time. I want to cut back on the eye drops too. Nasty aftertaste.

The four dollar paint for the back master bath looks like a winner. I daubed some by the door jamb and on different spots on the walls. I'll boost the lighting a little or add more trim for contrast. First is the wallpaper removal and getting the fixtures out. No rush, got plenty of finished bathrooms.... If money permits, a new toilet. Those new American Standards really do flush better then even my old rebuilt Plebe. I guess the EPA did get something right.

Other things to do, need some wire to prop up the insulation in the crawl space, caulk along the rest of the mud sills, and start insulating above the fireplace since the chimney chase is as dry as a bone inside. The attic could probably stand more insulation as well.

Around the Neighborhood

After the drug test and dropping off the blue copy to my new employer (hopefully), I went on home, dropped some recharged batteries in my camera and wandered around.


The woods next door. We keep hearing officially and unofficially, it's going to be developed. Then the land is up for sale again. This time, surveyors even tied colored ribbons on the trees. Then it was for sale again.


My bridge. Widest of all of them. Plenty of room to lock a bicycle to one side for rides on nice days.

Big front stoop too. Bench for early mornings with coffee and a newspaper if so willing. No storm door yet. Front door needs one more coat of gloss white.

Front "deck" which is for the water meter readers.

R's house. He's been having nothing but troubles with it. His contractor has been working on it since August of last year. Still not done. It's only 1040 square feet. They don't have very cordial relations right now.


Behind the townhouses, a riprapped creek, a bridge, and peace and quiet.


Some just go left.

K added some northern light to his living room. Pretty nice inside.

Things in General

Da Blog

So the counter isn't ....counting. One more shot at it, and it's gone. I'm going to mess with the heading as well. Also the colors aren't what I like. I'm thinking about Google Adsense but not really keen on advertising. If done, it would be a small presence.

Job Hunted?

Explored Apex and environs, was scoping out a drive in job before I drove in. I kept on driving by and then my phone rang. Drug test. Cool. Getting somewhere. Hopefully, employment. Not much coin but at least I'll have withholding. Also waiting on the business license, that should show up soon. Then to get the liability insurance. Part time business, see how it goes, if well, then full time business.

Scam

The Do Not Call list has got to be worthless. Yet another call. Job hunting is also getting kinda horrible. The sleaze balls and con artists have taken to posting jobs on the main search engines. At least on Craigslist, we can flag them, and I do flag them. If it ain't a job, don't bug me. A lot of it is people looking for door to door sales suckers. Ugh. Wouldn't be such an issue, but a lot of crap gets posted and a lot of "employers" are scraping the public resumes. Looking forward to taking mine private.

Poly-Ticks

Hillary still way ahead....Edwards still way behind. Obama in the middle. He's just too, well, perfect. Just doesn't seem to have enough warts. What is he hiding?

Republicans still have no clear front runner unless one counts Guilani, and that only because he raised a ton of money. Mitt Romney still in the news....not good for him, ever since he did the American Vacation thing with a dog in a carrier on top of a station wagon.

My Townhouse

The townhouse is in a state of arrested repair. It's waiting on more income. The back bath is going to need about six hundred dollars total. The chimney chase will probably take a thousand. The lower level floor needs rosin paper, flooring, and two back doors. Insulation as well. The whole thing needs repainting again. The one good thing about the whole mess, is that it can be done piece-meal, a hundred or so bucks at a time. The labor is free. Once done, it goes on the market, and I'm free. At least a year or so. No rush, real estate market still shaking out.

Book Reviews

Sean Williams, The Resurrected Man. Good read, usual sci fi future but written quite well.

Kevin J. Anderson is currently doing the Saga of the Seven Suns. Humans inadvertently start a war when turning gas giants into stars. Goes on from there. Good beach read and well worth borrowing from a library. Latest book in the series is Of Fire and Night.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I've read the book. I've listened to the radio series. I have both the BBC television series and the new movie on DVD. Each different but all well done. I even had his PC game, Starship Titanic. Doesn't work anymore, even my antediluvian W2000Pro is too modern for it, but when it did, it was pretty good. Still, if one gets bored of thumbing a ride among the stars, there is his series about Dirk Gently, a Holistic detective. Not only worthy of borrowing from the library but worthy of purchase from a bookstore, used of course.

Once again, fixing a Leak

Da Blog

I messed with colors a little bit. Also I'm adding a counter that may or may not work. It was free from Google so machts nix.

The Townhouse

The other side of the chimney was done today at the roof. Three pieces of siding and some extra flashing to keep the water from running down the side. I'll take pictures later. Summer is still with us. According to Intellicast, no rain for at least ten days. Drat. I wanted to see if that fixed the chimney water leak once and for all. Spent half the day going up and down the ladder, prying, flashing, and nailing. My bill for anyone else would be about $140.00, US.

I wouldn't charge for the caulk or the nails though. My policy, is if it was already paid for once for something else, then no need to charge the next guy. Labor is I make my money on. The materials are at cost plus ten percent for getting em'.

A Pinch of Salt, or a Handful.

Nice thing about not working, I get to sleep in. If getting up at six thirty could be called that. Usually getting up with the thought that maybe I should bite the bullet and do the business thing, but then I go looking and looking and applying. Two cups of strong coffee and my vitamins, then a quick look at Craigslist, Monster, and Careerbuilder. One guy who might hire, calls me "Brother" and seems glad to see me. Hmmm. Glad I have my pile of salt handy. I don't take statements with a pinch of salt anymore, more like whole handfuls.

I don't need to make much, my cost of living is low, compared to most. No debt, extremely frugal, only thing going in my house (owned outright) right now is the computer, cordless base station, two UPS, one DSL modem, bath light, and 26 watts of lighting downstairs. Don't forget the coffee maker though. It's a Bunn, doesn't make gourmet coffee, it's a version of those monsters seen in convenience stores. In two minutes, a pot of coffee guaranteed to wake half a cemetery.

Some reasons why I should start a handyman service.

1. Get the tools out of the place. Three ladders, table saw, chop saw, and power tools everywhere. Then there are the tool boxes, three of those at last count. Tripped over one this morning since I was caffeine free and not quite conscious.

2. I'm good at fixing stuff. Tis true, since I buy stuff that breaks, like this townhouse. Lately, I have been overhauling and replacing toilets. I have three toilets, two of which are very, uh, original. I also fixed one digital camera and my phone. Why I fixed my phone is beyond me. There's been two telemarketers who have been calling me on a daily basis despite being on the do-not-call list.

3. Getting out of the house would be nice. So far, I load up my old steel quarter-century old Fuji bicycle and find a place to ride. I could ride in traffic but I'd rather burn gasoline then get run over. So, what if I got paid to get out of the house? Would make up for the cost of gas.

4. Customer service. I'm very good at it. I actually enjoy helping people. Right now the only one benefiting from it is my cat. She's already spoiled beyond all belief.

5. Income would be nice. Don't need much, but feeding that cat ain't cheap. Then there's me.

Some guy named Steve Pavlina posted an article called "10 Reasons Why You Should Never Get A Job".

The link is "stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/".

Makes for compelling reading. He's more white collar then blue though. Also his income seems to be through advertising, public speaking, and donation.

For my own druthers.........

I made a ton of money as a network operator, and a very decent living as a library employee, a facilities administrator and other jobs, but money is money. It goes away after a while. The network still keeps breaking, the facilities keep on needing administrating, the library still needs library work, and unlike Ozymandias, King of Kings, there is not even a large statue sitting in sand to mark my work.

I like to leave something concrete behind Something that people can look at. Be it just shelving, or a whole bathroom, or just fixing some exterior trim, I like to make sure it's nice. I can understand the need to be productive, but sometimes just an extra minute can make the difference between just "O. K." and a good job.

Here's my kitchen from the condo I used to own. I'm proud of that kitchen. It took me nine months to rebuild it. Mostly because it was pay as I go, and it cost some money. The work I did for employment, I did well, but this is what I like to remember. This is what I am about.


Ignore the date stamp. This was 2004. Camera died and reset itself.

Later in the day......

I'm a business now. Not earning any income, heck, only three and three quarter hours old. Town of Cary gladly took my money and was happy to see me as a source of future income (for them that is). I still want to work for someone else, with-holding and all, but income is income. So if it means cutting out the middle man (employer), so be it. Yellow Brick Houseworks is now official but not taking customers yet.

Someone pinged me as a potential worker for a NOC. Don't think I'm what they want but sent them a response anyway. I'm not holding my breath for this one. Apparently when recruiters see these, they start thinking.....

I monitored a network by means of Netcool and Big Brother. I telnetted into Cisco and Juniper routers to diagnosis problems and get data to build a trouble ticket. Answered queries via phone, email, and IM, and escalated issues out to field engineers, and lower level support, produced end of shift reports and kept logs and Remedy tickets up to date.

The going rate now is a lot less then what it used to be. Those days of OT, holiday pay, and the big bucks are just history now.

Some light amid the dark

Poly (Many) Ticks (Bloodsuckers)

For the Democrats, Hillary still way out in front, Obama a near second, and Edwards is getting closer but still no cigar, cigarette, or pipe. The Republicans still have no clear front runner yet. Both parties extremely ticked with states moving primaries up early.

The Economy

The economy seems to be doing better because of the weak dollar. According to the Wall Street Journal (Best biz news ever), this summer we reached a new high in exports. Also, the weak dollar means less imports. Well, somewhat less. It's still hard to compete with someone working for a buck an hour or less. Yet another North Carolina furniture maker, Henredon, has thrown in the towel and is moving it's production offshore. The upscale guys are doing better though. Agricultural exports are up as well, as we had a decent growing season and some of the rest of the world did not. Combine that with a weak dollar and our farmers will get some coin too.

The subprime crisis is not as bad as I thought it would be. Houses will still need upkeep, and if people will be living in their domiciles longer, will want to keep replacing and upgrading fixtures and what-not. Also, the funky loans are no longer being made and the foreclosures will gradually work their way out of the pipeline. Some subprime loans may be replaced with regular loans as some buyers refinance, especially those who had good credit but got "taken". Housing prices are starting to go to a more realistic level. Some big builders and developers cut a hefty percentage and managed to move some product. My investments have recovered fully and are slowly increasing in value as we speak.

The war is pushing the economy by being four percent of GDP. It may not be much compared to other wars, but it gives us less margin and resiliency when yet another crisis happens. If the war can be scaled back or eventually ended, it could help make up for the other pressures, such a weak dollar, imported illegal labor, and higher energy costs. Homeland Security is helping a little bit by trying to crack down on illegals. Only problem is, is that they tend to slack off when public attention turns elsewhere. Still, illegal immigration is going to be a hot topic as long as the economy remains sour.

My own personal economy is hanging in there. My investments are up, the townhouse is still worth....something (well after the chimney gets fixed), and no health issues.I cut way back on spending and utilities, and managed to repair some equipment that would have had to be replaced...so happy.

I'm still on the fence about being a business but can get the license for very little and decide to activate later. Liability insurance is affordable as well. Benefits, less so. Health insurance companies only want young-healthy, not old-healthy, and charge accordingly. Yet another reason for single player, single payer like in Canada. Go Hillary! Might be the only reason why I'll vote for her, and that she is as mean as a junkyard dog. The biz doesn't go until it's all legal though....thats a given. No under the table for me. I still want to have a job as it simplifies bookkeeping and cuts out that pesky quarterly estimated income tax. Still, see what happens.

The Townhouse

I painted up three pieces of siding and gave one to my neighbor. The plan is to finish up the flashing on the chimney and just do some caulking and touch up.

Painted with Kilz primer, good for oil or water-base. Backprimed as well, something most builders don't do here.
Plan to stain that deck someday.... Olympic exterior paint, the good stuff. The color is called Sheffield Gray.

Yet another use for a Baja that Subaru never thought of.......

Kick out flashing

Job hunting like crazy. If no response, I keep on sending and sending, pushing hard. Road trip to Fuqay Varina today. Also got to fix up the business application and get that done.

The chimney got some attention yesterday. The flashing is much better on one side and it's got some new cedar siding, back primed and painted. Other side to be repaired today, then cutting out old caulk and scraping and painting. I found out that kick out flashing is needed if a roof stops alongside a wall. The water gets diverted away from the wall instead of running down it. The gutters were also full of acorns, including shells and fragments. Messy eaters those squirrels are.

Much heavy editing on the blog. Just too wordy, so snip! Sometimes a word, sometimes a sentence, or whole paragraphs.

Deconstruction Soon.

Usually if I have worked on, or worked on someone else's house, I won't work on mine. Still, I threw a little mud into some holes and "oops" of the front bath.

Running cost so far....zilch.

I have an interview Thursday in the morning and the rest of the day is mine. Besides cleaning house, I'm going to start deconstructing and re-constructing some of the bathroom.

How To Overhaul a Bathroom

This will be my fourth bath overhaul. It's not a remodel because the fixture placement stays the same, no walls get moved, and the plumbing and electrical hookups don't get changed.

Painting is an unusual first step but I figure since it will have four layers of paint, I can sand that down a little bit and smooth the walls enough to eliminate quite a bit of spackle. Besides, it costs money to throw paint away. Wake County requires mixing in a solidification agent and paint rollers are cheaper.

This is how I redo a room.

1. Planning Phase. Pry, probe and look.
2. 
   
3. Demolition Phase. Gut the room down to drywall and sub-floor. In a few cases I'll keep the trim but when replacing cabinets and built-ins, best to start fresh. After demo, cleaning.
4. Room Envelope Sealing Phase. So called because I do the drywall repair to seal the walls and repair & caulk the the sub-floor. It helps the utility bills in outside rooms by closing off drafts.
   
5. Painting and Finish. Before any fixtures go back in the room, the walls get finished and painted with a good quality paint. I like to use sheet vinyl as a finish floor. Sheet vinyl sealed to the walls is an excellent way to stop water.
   
6. Fixture and Trim Installation. Fixtures and trim are installed. I like to put a thin bead of caulk behind the shoe mold, on top of the baseboard, around toilets and cabinets, and around the door trim as well. This gets rid of unsightly cracks and once again helps prevent moisture migration and drafts.
   
7. Electrical and Plumbing Hookup. I'm a firm believer in not messing with, or changing electrical wiring and plumbing.
   
8. Testing, Touch-up, and Done. Check for leaks, gaps, paint holidays and final adjustments. Takes about a week to get most of the minor, minor stuff especially, but worth it.

The plumbing is decent. The toilet is borderline as to needing a rebuild kit. The main issues is the condition of the walls, the current vinyl floor which was laid on top of the sub-floor with no underlayment, and the shower stall needs a good cleaning and re-caulking. The vanity is a goner after twenty years of moisture.

Looks like an easy job ahead.

A Tale of Two Cheap Bathrooms

This townhouse has two master suites. The back is storage for now and the cat has the back bathroom. Since she is a very traditional cat, she has a cat-box and it's not a burning issue that the toilet has finally given up and died.

My first act was to paint the front bathroom with more toward an eye of getting rid of a partial gallon of mis-matched paint. It was worthy of an experiment to see if flat could hide the nasty condition of the walls. Well, failure. Even stucco couldn't hide some of what was done in there. I didn't know people still mudded with their fingers. I do like a cool tone though, so not complete failure.

A year ago, my estimate after very careful research, was $1981.23 to redo both baths. This included materials, taxes, and even a hundred bucks for drywall work. All labor done by me of course.

Original Estimate
Item	Vender	Price	Qty	Subtotals
Toilet Paper Holder	Lowes	$15.00	2	$30.00
30" White Vanity	Lowes	$200.00	2	$400.00
31" Vanity Top	Lowes	$138.00	2	$276.00
Vanity Top Side Filler	Lowes	$23.00	3	$69.00
Faucet	Lowes	$78.00	2	$156.00
Medicine Cabinet	Lowes	$98.00	2	$196.00
Toilet Cabinet	Lowes	$88.00	2	$176.00
Robe Hook	Lowes	$5.00	1	$5.00
Underlayment	Lowes	$4.00	8	$32.00
Vinyl	Lowes	$35.00	2	$70.00
1 by 4 * 12	Lowes	$4.75	2	$9.50
Molding	Lowes	$7.60	5	$38.00
Quarter Round	Lowes	$4.00	5	$20.00
Door Casing	Lowes	$5.30	5	$26.50
Wall Paint	Lowes	$23.00	2	$46.00
Toilet Tank Rebuild Kit	Lowes	$20.00	1	$20.00
Toilet Wax Ring	Lowes	$4.00	2	$8.00
Towel Rod	Lowes	$15.00	1	$15.00
Cabinet Knobs	Lowes	$2.00	16	$32.00
Ceiling Paint	Lowes	$18.00	1	$18.00
Drywall, Mud, Nails	Lowes	$100.00	1	$100.00
Plumbing Parts	Lowes	$100.00	1	$100.00
			No Tax	$1,843.00
			Tax	$1,981.23

As you can see, the Gov takes a real bite. Also two grand...back to the drawing board.

Second Estimate
Item	Vender	Price	Qty	Subtotals
Toilet Paper Holder	Lowes	$15.00	2	$30.00
30" Vanity	Lowes	$200.00	2	$400.00
31" Vanity Top	Home Depot	$80.00	2	$160.00
Vanity Top Side Filler	Home Depot	$13.00	3	$39.00
Faucet	Amazon	$60.00	2	$120.00
Mirror	Home Depot	$27.00	2	$54.00
Robe Hook	Amazon	$1.70	1	$1.70
Underlayment	Lowes	$4.00	8	$32.00
Vinyl	Lowes	$35.00	2	$70.00
1 by 4 * 12	Lowes	$4.75	2	$9.50
Molding	Lowes	$7.60	2	$15.20
Quarter Round	Lowes	$4.00	5	$20.00
Wall Paint	Lowes	$23.00	2	$46.00
Toilet Tank Rebuild Kit	Amazon	$12.00	1	$12.00
Toilet Wax Ring	Amazon	$2.00	2	$4.00
Towel Rod	Lowes	$15.00	1	$15.00
Cabinet Knobs	Amazon	$1.60	8	$12.80
Ceiling Paint	Lowes	$18.00	1	$18.00
Drywall, Mud, Nails	Lowes	$100.00	1	$100.00
Plumbing Parts	Lowes	$100.00	1	$100.00
			No Tax	$1,259.20
			Tax	$1,353.64

That's still too high a dollar figure. Some things have changed since then. The cost of materials is way up. The focus is to do a good job as cheaply as possible. Speed won't be an issue here. The work will be done when it's too nasty out and when I have time. There are three baths here, one of which is relatively new, done by yours truly. It's not like I don't have a place to, well, go. Second act of today will be to toss the guts of the vanity and one plate glass mirror. Pictures, before, after and during, I promise!

The Fliminati

Florescent plus illumination. My electrical bill showed up one day, twas a bit high....too high. So I spent some money. It took 36 fluorescents with a total of 356 watts to replace a mixture of halogens and incandescents. My old lighting wattage was 1815 watts. The incandescents got trashed. The halogens will go back up when winter rolls around since they are cheaper then gas hot water heating.

The Green house is done. The last act was pegboard behind a potting bench. This was a tough house to work on, but came out well.

My new employers are making sounds like I should spend weekends with them too. Well, maybe one per month. My plan is to be a good employee in the afternoon, and a house fixer in the morning. This house, the brown house.

Next weekend I roll up north, come back in the early afternoon of Monday, then go to work. That's the plan anyway.

Wood unfortunately grows on trees......

I found this two by ten, twelve feet long, at Lowe's in the top of the pile. In fact it was the first piece. I was deeply suspicious, treated Loblolly Pine at any big box store is not what you could call great. I dug around in the top layer for a few minutes, and came to the conclusion that (1), it was a very nice piece of wood (2), the other place would sell me something like it, not near as nice, for at least twice as much (3), and the best of the entire lot. It's pretty unusual to find wood like this anymore, most treated wood is cut from farmed fast growing Loblolly. Really big growth rings in farmed wood, sometimes up to half an inch. The wood industry would like us to believe that is fine, but really, the tighter the grain, the better it is. This was really tight, a sixteenth of an inch or less. It took a very long to grow this plank, at least sixty years. This did not come out of a tree farm. It really is a beautiful piece, only five small knots, worthy of it's fate, a drink shelf on the back porch at the "green" house.

Lousy shot, but it shows the difference between normal treated wood and this blast from the past. It only took six years for the piece on the left.

Another nice find at Lowe's, an one by six cedar trim board for a neighbor. Baja's aren't great on length, so I do this if it's too much trouble to strap it on top. Besides, my roof rack is still under repair. Got the pieces, just not the time.

The same trim board, all painted up and ready for it's big day next weekend. One coat of Kilz primer, one coat of semi-gloss Olympic white exterior, and the bottom painted gray just like in the HOA specs. It's also back painted, since the carpenter bees love this stuff.

More time at the "green" house for me. Monday will be my last day for the builder. I still got to mount the porch swings. I have some really nice close grained Doug Fir, so I'll use that for mounting blocks. Might as well carry on the theme of good wood that one can't get anymore.........

Plumbing, Painting, and who went where when?

Yesterday and Friday evening, I was at my neighbors. I helped tear out an old sink base and then we installed a new sink base looked recycled, then I ran errands while the counter top guys were there. Real cowboys, they were free sawing counter tops with a Skilsaw. Still, they got it all in and it wasn't half bad, until after I hooked all the plumbing back up, we found that the dishwasher wouldn't go back under. No spacer blocks. Had to unscrew it, then I chopped up some 1/2" blocks and we glued em' in place and the dishwasher fitted somewhat snugly in it's hole. We could have gone 3/4" but we didn't want to chop up more old tile. Screwed the whole mess down.

Today I fixed a leak. Next couple of days, I'll patch the back where we had to cutout for the drains. Problem with our places, is that when the plumbers replaced all the polybutene plumbing, they ran the new stuff up through the floor. Pain in the neck having to maneuver a cabinet up, down, in, and out. It is caulked, so at least it will last a little bit longer then the old one.

My own place got a touch up, semi-gloss white for the trim. Not quite the same but close enough. I was going to replace the front walk rail but the rot was small. Yes, the magic of caulk and paint. I did carve the rot all out though.

Interview tomorrow and the porch swing installation is on again at the "Green" house. But earlier when I heard it was canceled, I got an appointment in the same time slot for the Baja. Oh well, it really needs it. Being the first new car I ever owned, it does not get touched by me. Only by certified techs. New battery tomorrow, the old one is four years old. Still works but I'm not taking chances. If I get hired, it's going to get a complete belts and hoses and fluids as well. Then the cat and I get our irregular regular checkups too. Really looking forward to an eight to fiver.

What, they want me to come BACK?

It's 0527 on Friday, the 6th of July. The AC and my ceiling fan are both on. The cat is somewhere, comatose as usual, the original four-legged energy saving device.

I thought for sure that the job interview was blown high wide and handsome. That and I have yet to meet a form that I couldn't screw up. This job application form had tiny boxes to write in. Made a complete dog's breakfast out of it and then had the interview. Told my bro-in-law that I screwed up and then to salve my angst, went and replaced the fascia out back. It was full of holes anyway. 16 bucks for a piece of No. 2 cedar, and I had to pick through the pile. Knots over 3" just won't do. Lowe's does nice service, and for a big box store, is pretty good, but the wood is questionable. Not their fault, our forests are just too "overgrazed".

Imagine my surprise when the recruiter emailed me back for a second interview. Still, not betting money on a successful outcome just yet, still too mindful of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as I have been good at. I am glad that the new pair of shoes weren't a complete waste of money.

The "green" house is in one of those weird stages where it's going from construction site to a home. The owners are in, but we still have a bunch of touch-up to do inside, rail caps on the porch and back-back deck, and the screens on the back porch. Working around owners on an unfinished house is something new. I'm very careful and try to knock out the interior stuff soonest but being a perfectionist at heart doesn't help. Some things like plastering and caulk have to stop at"good enough" and then you come back to it later to make it "better". A perfectionist just keeps on going and turns "good enough" into "worse". So far I haven't done that yet, but only by force of will. My kitchen wall by the stove is an example of a perfectionist run a-muck. It's been sanded and mudded and painted innumerable times and is now flat and smooth as glass. It stands out in a dwelling where the rest of the walls look like a topographical relief map of the moon complete with craters.

Our days are numbered at the "green" house anyway.....so close to done. The boss will move onto something else, I'll go into cube farming (Dilbert reference), and the owners will have their part of the American Dream, a well built house.

The Fourth of July, more "Brown" housework.

The carpenter bees riddled the gable fascia over my utility room so that's now underway on this fine July the Fourth. The old fascia has been pulled off and now I'm updating a blog with a large cat in my way as the Kilz primer dries. The utility room itself is built right on the deck.

Chop saw and coffee nearby. One of the perks of working at home for once. I can make coffee just as badly as Starbucks and do it a lot cheaper. The tool next to the cup is called a Squangle. It can be adjusted to match any angle and takes a lot of unnecessary science out of a project.

No, the new fascia isn't up yet. I like to paint anything that's going to be out in the open, even if it will be sitting behind the gable. Carpenter bees are amazing. They can eat their way into almost anything. I saw one that had burrowed into treated wood at the "Green" house. So, paint it all......

The siding is caulked and primed up near the roof. Another 19 minutes to go. The color of siding is called Sheffield Grey by Olympic. Soon as the primer is dry, that happens next. More pics later.

I'm baaaack. So is the cat. Typing around this furry monster can be interesting. Neighbor went up my ladder to my roof and cleaned out gutters on both mine and his. Good thing too, plenty rain here when it does. Cat now rumbling. Must be happy. When she's really happy she drools.

The new fascia in place. Back primed and the cut surfaces are painted as well. 8d hot dipped galvanized finish nails holding them in place. It's an 1" by 8" by 10', ripped to 6". Note the hammer waiting on the top of the ladder for the next victim. I cut a 45' angle for the joint and and had to add a leftover 1" by 6" to finish, since I misplaced my board-stretcher.

One coat of Kilz primer later. Finish coat this coming weekend, probably a decent exterior white semi-gloss.

The End is Nigh, and so on.

Everyone is chilling out at the "Green" house today. I'm scheduled to start work at 1300 hours (1330, boss called), the boss and young R are doing a dump run (They did two) in the morning, and the owners are in. One guy bit the dust the beginning of this week, went out to lunch and never came back. C had to go do other things but not before using all the really good baseboard in the master bedroom, which did not have a good effect on the boss either. That and someone tried the old switcheroo again with lower grade carpet and padding. No go, no deal, so we don't step on on the tack strip while we work. G will be finishing up the hardware in the master bath.

The owners are in early, and it's nice having some eyes on site instead of having to lock everything up, walk around and discover more **** to lock up and/or hide. That and the boss and I both have had a lot on our minds so we did forget to lock up stuff now and then. We were incredibly lucky. Now it's two guys have to be at the tool trailer for the locking up and verify. Kinda like turning two launch keys when it comes time to end the civilized world as we know it.

Need more caffeine, back soon........
That hit the spot, black and nasty and thick, only way to get a heart beating.

I have to come up with some good references for my interview and really prepare, prepare. New shoes too, the "Green" house did a number on my two New Balance pairs.

Coffee, more coffee, just more coffee. Decaf....just put food colouring in hot water....geez. Big threads about someone recently on a consumer blog about not getting a Raspberry Soy Mocha Venta Decaf whatever. Decaf mixed with sugar and fake cream and flavouring....not coffee. What levels of depravity have we as a coffee drinking society have sunk to? I keep looking for a guy in a toga with matches, gasoline and a violin.

Getting to 0800, so cleanup and house and banking, et al.

Safety in my Townhouse.....

I have the safest townhouse in a row of five. The wiring and plumbing was gone through at great cost after I got the place by licensed electricians and plumbers and corrected as needed. Then I added a few things.

The half bath has this big mirror/cabinet over the sink. This is now my first aid center. The mineral oil is for the cat who has these large dirt trapping ears. The focus of the first aid is stopping unwanted blood flow which occurs a lot in construction.

Two Kidde carbon monoxide detectors. Not really necessary for me but I wanted em' anyway. I will have no gas appliances or utilities in the house, but the next owner might. One upstairs and one downstairs. If my place was bigger, one in each bedroom too. For some strange reason, they only come in battery powered models.

I have four smoke detectors, ten year battery backups, on their own dedicated electrical circuit. If wanted, I can hook up a third wire in them and network em' together. Neat, eh? The previous owner had four too, but three were battery only and of dubious utility and vintage.

GFCI outlets. When I moved in, there was one old one in one bathroom. Now they are anywhere there's water, all baths and kitchen. If I really wanted to be kosher, the one outside outlet should be one as well. I got the ones with a glowing green indicator just for neatness and coolness.


Last but not least, two big honking RED fire extinguishers out where everyone can see them. These are the next step up from household models which are sleek silver jobs. I wanted something that can be seen and grabbed if need be, hang the aesthetics. One in the kitchen, one in the upstairs landing.