Cburg house 2 -- painting and basement prep

(posted from Apple Collision Center, York (while waiting on Labashi's car))

(This post covers 14 – 22 December, 2010)

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Wednesday, 22 December -

Home. This morning I rode the Concours in to Starbucks. My jacket liner still isn't working but today was a bit warmer (around 40) so the ride wasn't bad. I sprayed the jacket's connectors with electrical contact spray, changed the in-line fuse, and double-checked the battery connections but it didn't help. I think this is a corrosion issue on the connectors.

I spent the afternoon researching radios. Labashi likes to listen to radio as we work and the old GE Superradio we have on site isn't cutting it anymore. The antenna's broken and the FM stations drift off so quickly that the AFC circuit must not be working. The search soon led me to consider internet radios as an alternative. The win-win would be a portable internet radio with a standard am/fm tuner included. An internet radio alone would just be a brick if you're not within wi-fi range, after all.

That evening we worked on the web while some old John Wayne movies were playing and then 'Blood Simple' came on the Independent Film Channel.

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Tuesday, 21 December -

Cburg today. Labashi is still painting in the bedrooms and closets and I'm working in the basement. I began working on scraping the floor and poking at the bad spots on the walls. It appears we have some efflorescence (white salts leaching out of the concrete block) which I'll have to treat with muriatic acid before I put on the Drylok. The floor paint is also lifted in some areas so I'll have to scrape that thoroughly. I also used Tilex and a brush to wash down several areas of mold on some of the block joints and the floor-wall juncture.

We left for home at 1600, very tired from the day's work.

At home we watched a Netflix DVD on travels in Mexico called 'Mexico to the Max'. That was a disappointment.

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Monday, 20 December-

Cburg. Today I finished de-nailing all the 2 x 4s used in the walls of the basement room I demolished last week. I used Maypo's utility trailer to haul them to a storage outbuilding we have for storing such extras. The Excedrin I took this morning quieted the elbow pain so it went much better today.

I also spent an hour or so breaking up the glass from the storm windows and doors. It seems a shame to have to do that but there's no other viable option.

I also worked on cleaning the basement. This is going to be a very tedious process. After sweeping all the debris from the demolished room, I began the process of sweeping down the concrete block walls, battling an accumulation of cobwebs of fifty years. We have a big job ahead of us--- waterproofing the basement.

We had supper at Tito's tonight after picking up a bottle of Kijafa from the state store. We then shopped at Lowe's for an hour or so, mostly looking for solutions to some problems we have encountered. We need down-facing ceiling lights to de-emphasize the uneven plaster ceiling and I need to figure out how best to replace / supplement a joist which has about two feet of termite damage. Fortunately, that appears to be the only damage they did.

I spent the evening on the web and blogging. Labashi didn't want to sit around in the van so put in a few hours painting.

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Sunday, 19 December-

Cburg. We finished up the aluminum salvage project this morning. I borrowed Maypo's truck to move the utility trailer so we could take a good picture of house 1. Maypo volunteered to take the salvage to the recycler so we transferred it all to his pickup so I can use the trailer tomorrow for something else.

I spent the afternoon de-nailing about half of the 2 x 4's in the basement. That didn't go well since my elbow gives me a sharp jab for each hammer-stroke. I've tried ibuprofen but that doesn't seem to make much difference. Apparently I overworked the elbow in demolishing the walls of the basement room. The pain had subsided during our off-days but came right back when I started using the hammer again.

We had supper at Quiznos then came back and watched two episodes of 'Entourage' and two extra features.

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Saturday, 18 December-

Cburg. We spent a cold day working outside. I spent the entire day breaking down aluminum storm windows and storm doors for salvage. We felt we needed to get a good picture of the house before snow falls and we had a large pile of discarded storms from both houses (because of the replacement windows we installed). If you just take the storms as is to the re-cycler, he defines them as 'mixed metals' and gives a lower price. We took the time to separate the good stuff so we'll see if that does indeed pay. Given that it took all day for me to do it, I'm not sure we'll get an adequate payback for the extra work.

Labashi and I also readied the carport for its picture but installing the dangling electric feed wire and the cable feed.

We had supper at Ryan's (WAY too much food!), then came back to Maypo's house where we watched (of all things) 'Miracle on 34th Street'.

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Friday, 17 December -

Home. I worked most of the day figuring out how to post videos on YouTube and how to use the YouTube video editor. I posted seven videos and Labashi wrote up a Christmas email with links to this seven videos for our friends to see. That was a lot of fun!

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Thursday, 16 December-

Home. I took Mocha Joe in for an oil change this morning at Walmart, then did some research on tires for Labashi's car. Her tires could last a few thousand more miles but I had better replace them before I go to Florida this winter. Her car is a front-wheel drive model but I've not been impressed by it in snow and I think new tires would make a great difference.

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Wednesday, 15 December-

Home. Today I rode the Concours in to the east York Starbucks just to go for a ride on this 30-degree day. Unfortunately, my electric jacket liner and gloves weren't working so it was a cold ride. I did a bit of troubleshooting but didn't find a definite problem. The Gerbing site says this type of problem is often a result of a poor battery connection (which shouldn't be the case since I just replaced the battery two weeks ago) or bad connections in the wiring plugs. I swapped out the temp controller but didn't have time to give it a good test so I'm not sure if that helped.

I also finally put away the F650GS for the season. I was glad to run it a bit and put an ounce or two of gasoline preservative in it. See you in the Spring, buddy!

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Tuesday, 14 December-

I spent most of the day carrying sheetrock and old carpet out to the utility trailer. I'm not sure I didn't overload the trailer but by day's end things were looking much better in the basement.

That evening we had supper at Tito's with Labashi's girlhood buddy then we headed home.

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