House 1- nearly finished ; house 2 – working in the basement and painting bedrooms and closets
(posted from home)
(This post covers 23 – 31 December, 2010)
-------------------------------------
Friday, 31 December-
Home today. I worked on a blog update, reviewed insurance continuation quotes for our car and my motorcycles (and began looking for an alternative motorcycle insurance provider), and vacuumed the house and van (while Labashi went grocery shopping).
I spent much of the rest of the day researching building codes for our projects and starting to total up the work hours and trip expenses for our work on the houses.
That evening we watched 'The Hurt Locker' on DVD.
-------------------------------------
Thursday, 30 December-
Home today.
I surfed the web this morning and then wanted a motorcycle ride since we were having a warmer day. Forty degrees feels GREAT when each day of the last two weeks topped out around thirty and was windy. But I would need heat and the new battery harness for my electric jacket liner still hadn't arrived. Where was it anyway?
I looked up the UPS tracking number for my package coming from the west coast and saw it wasn't due for delivery until Monday. But at that moment I saw (out the living room window) a UPS truck slow down and turn in on our side street. I thought I heard it stop but couldn't tell for sure. Normally the UPS truck stops out front, the driver brings the package to the door and rings the doorbell so it didn't seem likely.
I didn't hear a thing but when I checked the front door, a package was there and I could hear the UPS truck driving off. That must be a sign!
I immediately went out and installed the new battery harness, donned my riding gear, and took off. Fortunately, I was comfortable enough to continue riding.
As I rode down to Starbucks I considered my options. I had replaced the temp controller, I had cleaned the connections with electrical contact cleaner, I had changed the fuse. I had tested without the temp controller. I thought I must have a bad connection in the jacket itself and began ruminating on how to find it.
But as I mounted the bike after my Starbucks break, I noticed a tiny strand of copper wire sticking out of the jacket's cord very near the main connector. And when I looked closer, I knew I had found the problem. The wire was broken internally and for whatever reason the break had been covered over. Perhaps the cord had been stretched and pulled back. In any case, it was clear I hadn't examined the cord closely enough.
Back home I dug out the soldering gear, cut off the connector, stripped and tinned the wires, soldered the wires together, then wrapped them neatly with electrical tape. A short test on the bike confirmed success. Finally! Lesson learned: look closer at the component parts and look at ALL of ALL of them. I should have found that problem the first time around.
That evening we watched the end of 'Damages', Season One. Loved it!
--------------------------------------
Wednesday, 29 December-
Chambersburg. Today Maypo finished up the hardwood floor repairs in house 1. He then worked on the basement stairway in house 2, leveling it and scabbing in two new 4 x 4 posts. I pulled out the old dryer vent which had been mounted in a piece of masonite in the basement window and replaced the masonite with a piece of 1/4-inch plastic material left over from the tub surround project in house 1. Maypo then got me started on cutting glass from some of the leftover storm windows and I replaced a 10 x 12 inch pane in a basement window, a project which had me cussing the old, dried-up caulking on the broken window until I figured out how to beat it.
We left for home at 1700, stopped for supper at Wendy's and arrived home after 1900. We have our arrival routine worked out well and were watching tv by 2000.
--------------------------------------
Tuesday, 28 December-
Chambersburg. Today Maypo worked on repairing a section of termite-damaged hardwood flooring in house 1. I did some electrical work in the basement of house 2, cleaned up the debris from our joist repairs of yesterday and took down the drywall along the basement stairs we need to level and upgrade. I also installed new ceiling lights in two of the bedrooms.
-------------------------------------
Monday, 27 December-
Maypo joined us today. We put in a long day removing the termite damage and then replacing the removed materials. We sistered in two 2 x 8 x 14' joists and replaced a foot-square section of subfloor. The work actually went better than we had anticipated as we stared at the damage last night.
That evening Labashi and I watched more 'Damages'. We are indeed hooked.
-------------------------------------
Sunday, 26 December-
Back to work!
It didn't make sense to go home now that we're in Chambersburg for Christmas so we went back to work on the houses today. Labashi has a few small finishing-up projects left in house 1 and is switching those off with painting the bedrooms and closets in house 2. I'm trying to keep going on the basement of house 2. I spent most of the day sweeping cobwebs from the joists and subfloor forming the basement ceiling. Dirty work, indeed.
That afternoon Maypo came over and we began looking at the termite damage I found in two of the joists and a very small area of the subfloor just above them.
That evening we began watching the TV series 'Damages' with Glenn Close. I think we're hooked.
--------------------------------------
Saturday, 25 December-
Christmas Day.
I spent the morning on the web and then we went to Chambersburg late in the day. We had a very nice family Christmas dinner at Maypo's and relaxed.
--------------------------------------
Friday, 24 December-
Home today.
I still like to browse through dealnews.com to look for bargains but I've not found anything noteworthy for quite a while now. I did get my $5 subscriptions to Outside and Backpacker from specials on there so I shouldn't complain.
I spent much of the morning converting my iTunes library from my old Windows laptop to the Mac. After reading of problems others had doing this, I had been afraid this would be a problem. But I found an article on CNET which gave a step-by-step process and that worked quite well.
I spent the rest of the day looking for new music for the iPod and came up with some very nice stuff.
-------------------------------------
Thursday, 23 December-
Home today.
I took my now-weekly motorcycle ride down to Starbucks to re-supply my Double-Shot Lights stock. I'm still having problems with the jacket liner not working and today was around thirty so I was glad to get there and get my hands wrapped around a mocha.
Back home I worked most of the afternoon transferring raw video footage up to YouTube so Labashi can use the online editor for one of her projects.
I also tested the replacement BearExtender and wrote up a report for the tech support guys who sent it to me.
**** END OF POST *********
(posted from home)
(This post covers 23 – 31 December, 2010)
-------------------------------------
Friday, 31 December-
Home today. I worked on a blog update, reviewed insurance continuation quotes for our car and my motorcycles (and began looking for an alternative motorcycle insurance provider), and vacuumed the house and van (while Labashi went grocery shopping).
I spent much of the rest of the day researching building codes for our projects and starting to total up the work hours and trip expenses for our work on the houses.
That evening we watched 'The Hurt Locker' on DVD.
-------------------------------------
Thursday, 30 December-
Home today.
I surfed the web this morning and then wanted a motorcycle ride since we were having a warmer day. Forty degrees feels GREAT when each day of the last two weeks topped out around thirty and was windy. But I would need heat and the new battery harness for my electric jacket liner still hadn't arrived. Where was it anyway?
I looked up the UPS tracking number for my package coming from the west coast and saw it wasn't due for delivery until Monday. But at that moment I saw (out the living room window) a UPS truck slow down and turn in on our side street. I thought I heard it stop but couldn't tell for sure. Normally the UPS truck stops out front, the driver brings the package to the door and rings the doorbell so it didn't seem likely.
I didn't hear a thing but when I checked the front door, a package was there and I could hear the UPS truck driving off. That must be a sign!
I immediately went out and installed the new battery harness, donned my riding gear, and took off. Fortunately, I was comfortable enough to continue riding.
As I rode down to Starbucks I considered my options. I had replaced the temp controller, I had cleaned the connections with electrical contact cleaner, I had changed the fuse. I had tested without the temp controller. I thought I must have a bad connection in the jacket itself and began ruminating on how to find it.
But as I mounted the bike after my Starbucks break, I noticed a tiny strand of copper wire sticking out of the jacket's cord very near the main connector. And when I looked closer, I knew I had found the problem. The wire was broken internally and for whatever reason the break had been covered over. Perhaps the cord had been stretched and pulled back. In any case, it was clear I hadn't examined the cord closely enough.
Back home I dug out the soldering gear, cut off the connector, stripped and tinned the wires, soldered the wires together, then wrapped them neatly with electrical tape. A short test on the bike confirmed success. Finally! Lesson learned: look closer at the component parts and look at ALL of ALL of them. I should have found that problem the first time around.
That evening we watched the end of 'Damages', Season One. Loved it!
--------------------------------------
Wednesday, 29 December-
Chambersburg. Today Maypo finished up the hardwood floor repairs in house 1. He then worked on the basement stairway in house 2, leveling it and scabbing in two new 4 x 4 posts. I pulled out the old dryer vent which had been mounted in a piece of masonite in the basement window and replaced the masonite with a piece of 1/4-inch plastic material left over from the tub surround project in house 1. Maypo then got me started on cutting glass from some of the leftover storm windows and I replaced a 10 x 12 inch pane in a basement window, a project which had me cussing the old, dried-up caulking on the broken window until I figured out how to beat it.
We left for home at 1700, stopped for supper at Wendy's and arrived home after 1900. We have our arrival routine worked out well and were watching tv by 2000.
--------------------------------------
Tuesday, 28 December-
Chambersburg. Today Maypo worked on repairing a section of termite-damaged hardwood flooring in house 1. I did some electrical work in the basement of house 2, cleaned up the debris from our joist repairs of yesterday and took down the drywall along the basement stairs we need to level and upgrade. I also installed new ceiling lights in two of the bedrooms.
-------------------------------------
Monday, 27 December-
Maypo joined us today. We put in a long day removing the termite damage and then replacing the removed materials. We sistered in two 2 x 8 x 14' joists and replaced a foot-square section of subfloor. The work actually went better than we had anticipated as we stared at the damage last night.
That evening Labashi and I watched more 'Damages'. We are indeed hooked.
-------------------------------------
Sunday, 26 December-
Back to work!
It didn't make sense to go home now that we're in Chambersburg for Christmas so we went back to work on the houses today. Labashi has a few small finishing-up projects left in house 1 and is switching those off with painting the bedrooms and closets in house 2. I'm trying to keep going on the basement of house 2. I spent most of the day sweeping cobwebs from the joists and subfloor forming the basement ceiling. Dirty work, indeed.
That afternoon Maypo came over and we began looking at the termite damage I found in two of the joists and a very small area of the subfloor just above them.
That evening we began watching the TV series 'Damages' with Glenn Close. I think we're hooked.
--------------------------------------
Saturday, 25 December-
Christmas Day.
I spent the morning on the web and then we went to Chambersburg late in the day. We had a very nice family Christmas dinner at Maypo's and relaxed.
--------------------------------------
Friday, 24 December-
Home today.
I still like to browse through dealnews.com to look for bargains but I've not found anything noteworthy for quite a while now. I did get my $5 subscriptions to Outside and Backpacker from specials on there so I shouldn't complain.
I spent much of the morning converting my iTunes library from my old Windows laptop to the Mac. After reading of problems others had doing this, I had been afraid this would be a problem. But I found an article on CNET which gave a step-by-step process and that worked quite well.
I spent the rest of the day looking for new music for the iPod and came up with some very nice stuff.
-------------------------------------
Thursday, 23 December-
Home today.
I took my now-weekly motorcycle ride down to Starbucks to re-supply my Double-Shot Lights stock. I'm still having problems with the jacket liner not working and today was around thirty so I was glad to get there and get my hands wrapped around a mocha.
Back home I worked most of the afternoon transferring raw video footage up to YouTube so Labashi can use the online editor for one of her projects.
I also tested the replacement BearExtender and wrote up a report for the tech support guys who sent it to me.
**** END OF POST *********
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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