Home for a break ; House 1 sells ; visit from our Boulder friends

(posted from home)

(This post covers 25 – 30 April, 2011)
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Saturday, 30 April-

We're finally supposed to have a clear day today but this morning didn't look like it. I caught up the blog this morning and Labashi began planning out an alternative layout of cabinets for House 2. We need to replace the kitchen cabinets and counter and one of the shortcomings of this house is the kitchen layout. The current one allows little room for a table if the stove and fridge have to take up valuable floor space. We think we can build in a space for the fridge in the line of cabinets and then hang a few more cabinets toward the stove to make a much more cook-friendly and table-friendly kitchen. (And, yes, this is how we start down the path of spending too much money, time, and effort on these houses!!!)
That afternoon the sky cleared to a beautiful blue and Labashi went out to play in her landscaping projects. I thought I'd get the Miata going but found the battery almost dead. This is the new one I put in in January. I put the charger on and jumped on the motorcycle to go for a coffee. I wanted to try the new coffee bar they recently put in at what had been Shiloh Nursery in Emigsville. The landscaping business is much the same but now there's a produce shop and coffee-and-sandwiches bar inside and a cafe seating in the greenhouse.
I had a mocha and was happy to find it didn't have the bitter taste I often find in independent coffee shops. This is great! Now I don't have to run all the way into York to Starbucks to get a decent mocha.
As I sat there I felt guilty about wasting the beautiful day. I buzzed home and got out the extension ladder and cleaned out the rain gutters. There. That took care of the guilt!

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Friday, 29 April-

This morning we had breakfast with our friends and watched a few video clips from our travels. Then they had to go. They are visiting family in the area this weekend, then will be back Sunday night to stay with us before going to the airport bright and early Monday.
It was approaching lunch time by the time they left and afterwards we began watching television shows. We finished up Season One of 'Nurse Jackie' and then watched four episodes of 'Sexual Healing' (the Dr. Laura Berman series).

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Thursday, 28 April-

This morning I dug out my old Trek road bike and prepared it for one of our visiting friends to ride. He has been doing quite a lot of riding lately and was regretting missing a week of riding during their mini-vacation. While he mapped out a local route using mapmyride.com, I prepped the bike. Later, I took a motorcycle ride and followed that route to catch up with him and check that everything was going ok with the bike and the route. His ten-mile ride over very hilly terrain gave him just the workout he hoped for.
Late that afternoon we looked at photos and video clips from a trip to Japan. Then we took off on a two-and-a-half-mile walk to a local restaurant. But after two miles we had a problem: last nights rains had flooded the road. Our friends picked their way around the flooded road while Labashi and walked back for the car. We had decided the creek was rising fast enough that even if we got through to the restaurant, we probably wouldn't be able to get back home the same way.
Shortly after we turned back we saw emergency vehicles coming and briefly wondered whether our friends had somehow encountered trouble. But we later learned a woman had tried driving her jeep through the flooded area and had stalled out and someone had called 911. Our friends saw the woman blithely drive into the water and she disappeared around the turn (before stalling). Minutes later, emergency equipment began arriving from both directions. As we drove back looking for our friends (in case they had turned back) we saw quite a crowd had gathered. We could see the car, now with water up over the wheels and the creek still slowly rising. It was in still water and there hadn't been any danger of the car (and woman) being pulled out into deep water ; it was just a shame she ruined her car.
We had a very nice long dinner and were very glad to have the car to get home. We then finished up the slide show about Japan and turned in.

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Wednesday, 27 April-

This morning we took care of a few final errands to prepare for guests and they arrived mid-afternoon. These are old friends from Boulder and we love to see them. We spent the afternoon and evening chatting away.....

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Tuesday, 26 April-

The weather has been hot and very humid the last few days. With all the rain we've been having the grass (and dandelions) have been growing crazy-fast. So even though I just mowed a few days ago I had to mow again today.
I've had a cold for the last few days and felt hard-pressed to get the mowing done. Normally I do it in two one-hour-long sessions with a short break between. But today I had to stop every twenty minutes or so, getting very over-heated as I worked in the sun. I also ended up with a sunburn. The nice tan I had gained in Florida has been lost completely in the weeks since.
I also ran over to the state-store on the GS to pick up a few bottles of wine.
Late in the day I watched the pilot episode of a new TV series for us-- 'Sexual Healing' on Netflix Instant. I've seen Dr. Laura Berman on tv occasionally and she seemed to have her act together. I was impressed with this episode. The people seemed real, i.e., not just looking for their 15 minutes of fame. And as the underlying psychological problems are uncovered I felt I gained some insight into why the people were behaving as they did. I'm scouting out new series for Labashi and I to watch and I think she's going to like this one.
Oh, yeah. House 1 sold today!!!!!!!!! We feel like we spent WAY too much time and money on the house but then again it 'sold' in thirty-some days in a market averaging 154 days per sale-- primarily, (we believe), because it was so clean and nicely-refurbished. We did only have one offer but, as they say, one is all you need! The thirty-some days figure is misleading in that the offer was first made by that time but we had a long, long closing as we worked through the inspections, fixes for problems found, and two different financing paths. We had put the house up for sale in the last week of January and closed today, the end of April. So the real selling time was more like 90 days from listing to closing.

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Monday, 25 April-

We're still at home, taking a break. Labashi continues working on painting the vanity top in the bathroom with an epoxy paint. The cultured marble top has been around for many years and our recent bathroom upgrade re-used it because Labashi couldn't find a top she liked better. We had cut out the molded-in sink portion of that top some 15 years ago on a previous update and used it the remaining surface to mount a sink. In the latest iteration Labashi had painted the underlying cabinet an espresso color to match the new color scheme and we replaced the sink with a more modern design. So the trick now is to get a flawless paint job on the two-inch-wide cultured-marble edge around the sink. She has sanded and re-painted it four times so far and doesn't like the results. Now she's going to try using a low-nap roller to see how that works out. After today, though, she has to stop and put things back as we prepare for visitors coming later this week.
I spent much of the morning running the vacuum cleaner and dusting. I did manage to get a motorcycle ride in that afternoon to take some old batteries in for recycling. I hit the nearby Harbor Freight for a few more hand-tools on the way home.

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Back to work on House 2, some final work on House 1 before finalizing the sale, then a break for medical appointments and Easter weekend

(posted from home)
(This post covers 14 – 24 April, 2010)

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Sunday, 24 April-

This morning we had wonderful sun but it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. Labashi spent the day outside working on her landscaping. After a bit of reading on the Web, I rode the GS down to the Tollgate Starbucks, this time toting along the laptop to read there rather than buy the Times.
Afterwards I rode back into East York to shop for a few small tools at the Harbor Freight. I just needed a few little things as try to round out our tool tote with essentials and also have sets of commonly-needed tools in the van and in our house.
Later in the afternoon I updated the online blog and began the long task of organizing things in my office, both for my sanity and to prepare for upcoming visitors.
Cross your fingers. If all goes well the sale of House 1 will settle tomorrow.

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Saturday, 23 April -

This morning I worked on catching up on the blog. Shortly after lunch the clouds thinned and the sun came out, giving me an excuse (and a strong desire!) to go for a motorcycle ride. The old Concours needed the brake discs scrubbed off and internal engine, trans, and running gear parts liberally bathed in warm oil.
I've not been on the tangle of roads to the west of I-83 around Strinestown for a long time so started there today. These roads continue to deny my attempts to figure them out. They curve back around on themselves as they avoid Conewago Creek and I-83. The roads are narrow and still have a lot of junk scraped up and left behind by the snowplows this winter as well as dead branches from spring storms. Speed limits are generally 30-45 with turns as slow as 15 mph. In one place I had to crowd over as far as possible to allow a small car coming the other way to pass.
But I had a lot of fun. I spent an hour and a half or shuttling between Lewisberry and North York while trying to find a good back way across to Pinchot State Park. I finally ended up at a familiar intersection close to Dover and worked my way home.
That evening we watched two episodes of 'Shark Men' before turning in a bit early to read.
I'm nearly finished with Michener's autobiography and just have to say it's incredible reading and it makes me want to read all of his books.

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Friday, 22 April -

Labashi was a bit 'over-scheduled' today so I volunteered to do the grocery shopping this morning. I left right after breakfast to get a bit of a jump on the crowd and that seemed to work out. As I was checking out the store was getting very crowded because of the Easter holiday weekend.
The day was yet another rainy one so I spent much of it on the web, enjoying several articles on Longreads.com. I can spend hours just trolling and reading. Today I read about the swine flu ripoff perpetrated by drug companies, a very interesting history of President Obama's mother living abroad, an article detailing the surprise finding of a Chinese vase which sold at auction for $43 million pounds, and an introduction to the life of 'Kiki Kannibal', a Florida teen who built up an internet 'scene' personality and made many enemies in the process.
I also spent quite a while trolling the video sites for videos of motorcycle accidents, trying to understand what mistakes the riders made. I found a good series on YouTube covering crashes and near-crashes on a section of Mulholland Drive (near LA) called 'The Snake'. Apparently the poster (YouTube ID 'rnickeymouse') sets up cameras on a particularly accident-prone turn on the Drive and waits for the action. These are particularly instructive since they have both real-time and slow-motion footage of the crashes. 'The Snake' section where many of the crashes occur is a decreasing-radius and continuing turn which riders tend to enter too fast and, as the radius tightens, lose traction and control. We see 'high-sides', 'low-sides', spins and crashes into, under, and over the guard-rail. These are NOT, by the way, fatal crashes. The interest for me is to see the physics in action. I noticed, for instance, that just as the back end breaks loose, engine rpms climb. Sometimes the front tire lifts off entirely (talk about a 'light touch' in the steering!). And I also was very interested in how well the safety gear protected the rider. Most riders were sensible enough to be wearing full leathers and a full-coverage helmet (though one young fool crashed his motorscooter while wearing a tee shirt, shorts, and sandals!)
One conclusion I took from it, though, is I need to go back to wearing my full-coverage helmet. My old one got too ratty so I switched to my open-face helmet and I could see that's not a great idea. Most of the time the riders helmets would smack the pavement high enough on the helmet that it didn't matter but a few times the chin bar just sort of slid along on the pavement. That would be a bummer with an open-face helmet.
That evening we watched the German movie 'North Face'. It's the story of the 1936 attempts to climb the north face of the Eiger for glory for the Fatherland as the Olympics approached. The climbing footage is incredible and the story compelling.

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Thursday, 21 April -


Today I had a bit of a fiasco with my blood-pressure machine. I've been getting higher readings than I like but this morning the machine blew my mind with a 172 / 106 reading. My BP had been okay at the doctor's last week and we had discussed that fact that my machine needed to be checked since my records of mostly-daily readings seemed to be a bit high. So today I rode up to the doctor's office for a BP check with my tester along for comparison. The nurse found my BP to be 138 / 92 while my tester said, moments later, that it was 160 / 100. But it also had a new symbol--- a low-battery indication. Later that day I took another high reading with it, then changed the batteries and it suddenly read a more reasonable 137 / 84. The high readings I've been getting for the last few weeks came from low batteries though there was no indication of that until today.
It was finally a nice day so just riding up to the doctor's was not enough. I took off from there and rode over to Pinchot State Park, dropping in at each of the boat ramps and the Quaker Race swimming area to look around for a bit. At the far end of the Quaker Race parking area I saw a trailer-load of racing sculls and a young guy nearby. I learned he's an assistant rowing coach and Franklin and Marshall University and he brought the boats over for an practice that evening. It was only mid-afternoon and he was taking a break from his own workout in a single scull.
After checking out the main boat launch (near the office), I came upon a walker just a big younger than me just emerging from the trails to cross the road. I stopped and asked if the trails were wet, knowing full well they would be quite wet. I've walked these trails in Pinchot many times and this is perhaps the worst time of year for walking them. Come to think of it there may be a worse time. In late May and well into June there are many, many ticks in the grasses here. I've found as many as five ticks at a time during my walks and jogs on the trails in this area.
I had a nice, long chat with the walker. He's winding down his career as a lobbyist in Harrisburg and is looking forward to traveling out west. When I began telling him of our experience traveling in Mocha Joe, his eyes lit up. He had looked into buying an RV but of course those are far too expensive. As I described how we have Mocha Joe outfitted and how (relatively) cheap it was to do, he pulled out a map and started jotting notes. As I left we both said 'great conversation!'
That evening we watched 'The King's Speech' with Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. Excellent movie!

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Wednesday, 20 April -

I still have my cold and was feeling miserable in the morning but started to feel better around lunch time. I had a bit of cabin fever so rode the GS into the East York Starbucks for a ride and to get a case of Doubleshot Lights.
That got me home around 1430 so I started mowing the lawn-- my assigned task for the last four days but the first day dry enough. I mowed for an hour and took a break, then finished up for another hour.
That evening we watched '127 Hours', the story of Aron Ralston, a hiker who became trapped in a slot canyon in Utah by a boulder he dislodged while down-climbing. James Franco played Ralston and did a very nice job.

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Tuesday, 19 April -

Today I had a cold big-time. The weather today was crappy and I felt the same. Labashi was gone most of the day, taking her Dad to a medical appointment. I spent the day on the web, much of it on video-clip sites.
I also tried once again to figure out why my Netflix Instant movies are choppy. Something appears to be throttling my link. The theory from Netflix today is that the speed of my line is varying back and forth across the 5 MBPS line and supposedly that's confusing things as the movie player tries to adjust to a non-HD format and an HD format. That sounds a bit fishy to me given that I've run Netflix movies without problem using a link barely getting 1 MBPS without this kind of jerkiness.
I also had some things to take care of on the house we have for sale in Chambersburg. We're close to a sale but have to be sure all our i's are dotted and t's crossed.

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Monday, 18 April -

This morning I rode the GS into York for my first appointment with a new dermotologist. I had gone to this doctor because her practice appeared to be better equipped to treat the skin problem I had been diganosed with than my old dermo. Imagine my surprise, then, when she said the diganosis by my previous dermotologist was wrong and I didn't need the treatment with the expensive equipment-- all I have to do is use a different lotion (though it's an expensive lotion!).
After the appointment I dropped in to Starbucks for a warm-me-up (the high today was only around 50), then I started chasing down the lotions at my local Rite-Aid.
Labashi has been painting our bathroom vanity for the last few days and continues with cycles of sand-it-all-off and paint-it-again.
That evening we watched 'One Week' on Netflix Instant. We really liked this little independent Canadian movie. In the first scene the young protagonist learns he's dying of a cancer and only has a short time to live. He elects to buy a motorcycle and tour Canada via the Trans-Canada Highway from his home in Toronto. We loved seeing the iconic shots of that trip. We've only missed one or two of the places he visited. We've been on the TCH from coast to coast with only two exceptions. We missed a small section in southwestern Saskatchewan and a small section from the BC-Alberta border to the Fraser River.

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Sunday, 17 April -

Today Maypo and I completed installation of the UV light and whole-house filter for the water system in House 1. The house had flunked the water test, we think because the water lay dormant in the pipes for long periods of time. We had tried a 'shock' treatment of the well but that didn't do it. Fortuntely, Maypo had a UV light left over from his home's switch-over to city water so we just had to buy a new bulb and quartz tube-- about $125 --- versus a new system for $500.
After the installation we sterilized the pipes and drained and refilled the water heater.
That afternoon we finished up at 1500. Labashi and I headed for home, arriving about 1630.

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Saturday, 16 April -

Maypo and I spent the day installing and testing the ultraviolet light and water filter in the house we have up for sale. I ran a new electric line and mounted the main parts while Maypo did the plumbing work. We were glad to be inside given that the rain just poured down by the bucket-load today.
The project went well right up to the point where it didn't! We thought we were done around supper time but then found a small, tiny-weep leak in a place which meant we had to cut the pipe and rebuild. After supper we had to go out to Lowe's for parts for the repair tomorrow.

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Friday, 15 April -

In Cburg today. Labashi finished up painting the back door of House 2 and I took care of some small electrical problems. I contacted the water-treatment-systems guy and made arrangements to meet him to buy some parts we'd need for tomorrow's work. Labashi and I picked those up, then drove on to Sam's Flooring in St. Thomas to look for sheet-vinyl flooring remnants for the bath and kitchen. We think we've found the 'right' flooring for both places but brought home a few samples to be sure and for Maypo to see what we're thinking.
Maypo had the day off work today so he came down and we reviewed the work of the contractors we have on site doing work on the front of House 1. Looking good!

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Thursday, 14 April-

This morning we drove back to Chambersburg to get back to work on House 2. I'm now keeping a daily log of work on the house and keep the details of projects and hours there rather than try to summarize here and try to re-construct later. I tried that with the work we did on House 1 and saw only that we had put a thousand hours of work into it but can't really say what the heck took us so long. When I think of the individual projects, each doesn't seem that long.
That evening we had supper with Maypo and family.


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Back to house-rehab work in Chambersburg

(posted from home)
(This post covers 1 – 13 April, 2011)

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Wednesday, 13 April -

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and took care of that then chased down a tennis-elbow armband. I had over-stressed it working on House 2 this Fall and have had some minor pain ever since. I'll use the armband when I hammer or otherwise stress that arm.
That afternoon I caught up the blog and had a long Skype video call with Orat. Labashi and I then watched a Nurse Jackie season-one episode.

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Tuesday, 12 April -

We had rain overnight and today so decided not to keep Drylok-ing the basement walls for fear of water intrusion. By mid-morning we were seeing evidence of water on the coving-- small beads of water totaling about six feet in length. I had painted one area and that was a mistake... the intruding water diluted the paint to the point you could see through it. Though the paint was more than twelve hours old it was still wet to the touch.
I borrowed Maypo's dehumidifier to fix this problem but it kept freezing up. I put a 500-watt flood lamp in front of it and measured the temperature of the grill at varying between 70 and 100 degrees yet the coils would frost over and quit dehumidifying with about 20 minutes. I later looked up the specs for the expensive Frigidaire dehumidifier and it's spec sheet said it would operate at a minimum temperature of 41 degrees. It might 'operate' but it doesn't dehumidify for more than 20 minutes and, worse, doesn't detect the ice. The room was 55.
We turned our attention to other projects. Labashi painted baseboard in the bedrooms and I tested all the outlets, fixed an outlet and a switch, and traced all the circuit breakers using my new 'Circuit Detective' toy.
We had supper with Maypo and family and then headed home, arriving at 2030. As we pulled in the driveway our headlights illuminated a dead deer under a pine tree in our front yard. I checked it out and called it in to County Control. We called our neighbor who said he had seen it on the way to work this morning. It had apparently been hit overnight.

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Monday, 11 April -

We drove to Chambersburg then spent the day painting but didn't seem to get very far. I only finished an end wall and maybe ten feet down the back wall while Labashi did about 15 feet of the opposite corner. I spent the rest of the time monitoring the contractors and taking pictures of their work.

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Sunday, 10 April -

We were at home today resting up but will be going back in the morning because we have contractors coming and want to be there while they work.

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Saturday, 9 April -

Cburg today. Labashi and I wanted to go home by noon but didn't make it. Maypo and I worked to find a roof leak (successfully), cleaned out the gutters, and fixed a problem with the first house's well cap.

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Friday, 8 April -

Cburg today. Still prepping the basement walls and doing the coving. We worked late tonight--- till 2200 to get the coving done.


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Thursday, 7 April -

We drove to Chambersburg this morning and started work on the basement. We're prepping to Drylok the basement walls. We spent the day cleaning and patching the walls with Fast-Plug hydraulic cement. We also did a moisture-survey of the walls and made a map for future comparisons of readings. We worked late-- almost 2200-- 'coving' the wall-to-floor joint the whole way around.

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Wednesday, 6 April -

Today we prepared for returning to our house-rehab project in Chambersburg. I organized tools and loaded the van practically to its limit with tools and supplies.
That evening we took Labashi's parents out to dinner at Cafe Bruges in Carlisle.

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Tuesday, 5 April -

Today I took it easy and celebrated my 'win' with the pole-light repair. I spent much of the day on iTunes and YouTube looking for new music. In the end I didn't find anything I was willing to buy. But I did enjoy seeing some of my favorites including Alizee (“J'ai Pas Vingt Ans”) and Mylene Farmer's concert intros.
That evening we finished 'Big Love' Season Four. This season has been a little TOO frenetic so we're ready for a break until next season.

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Monday, 4 April -

Today Labashi asked me to get rid of the old computer stored in our guest room. I dug out a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and fired up the old beast to format the hard drive, found a computer shop what would take the equipment and drove down there with the computer, monitor, and five boxes stuffed full of periperhals, cables, etc.
On the way home I got to thinking about my next steps on our front-yard pole light. I decided it was time to get out the shovel. I had decided I'd try to find the break by cutting the cable at the mid-point and testing both directions. If the break was on the light-pole side of the cable, that end is in the yard and therefore 'diggable', albeit a bit messy. But if was on the switch side, that goes under the front porch and is impossible ; I'd have to move the light to the other side of the sidewalk and dig a 75-foot-long two-foot-deep ditch around the opposite side of the porch and sidewalk for a new cable run.
Labashi thought she had told the porch contractor to run the cable along the house before pouring so I first dug where it would have exited and found nothing. I then tried the metal detector again and found a large target just off the front corner of the porch. I dug there and hit right on the problem. It was an improperly-protected butt joint the contractor made after cutting the cable to get it out of the way. He then built the forms and joined the cable back together just before starting the pour. As I uncovered the cable joint I saw two bright-green corrosion dots where the black and white conductors had been spliced. I cut the still-intact ground conductor, cut back to fresh copper conductors, stripped the wires, and tested continuity in both directions. Yep ; that was the problem.
I rode the GS up to the hardware store, bought an underground-cable butt-splice kit and an hour later had everything back together, tested, and buried. I was very happy to have Labashi flip the switch and see the pole light back in operation.
That evening we watched two episodes of 'Big Love' Season Four.

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Sunday, 3 April -

This afternoon I rode the GS down to the Tollgate Starbucks to read the Times. It was such a nice afternoon that I decided to ride down to Holtwood Dam area. At the launch area I met two backpackers just leaving their car for a training hike on the Mason-Dixon Trail. They are planning a 40-plus mile hike on the Appalachian Trail this summer and are getting used to their packs and working up their endurance for that trip.
I then rode across the Susquehanna and then south to Susquehannock State Park. There I met a younger couple at the main overlook and we struck up a long conversation about traveling. As we spoke, another motorcyclist came along to check out the view and overheard us talking. He turned out to be Carl Millhouse, a very interesting guy who lives near the Shenk's Ferry wildflower area and has a very long history riding BMW motorcycles. I later learned that he has a very low member-number in the BMW owner's group. Member numbers today are well above the 100,000 mark and his number is in the mid-two-thousands. He has four or five BMW bikes, one he bought in Germany, and was riding a mid-Seventies model today. I loved talking to him about riding in Maine and his adventures in Europe. What an interesting guy...
That evening we watched the pilot and two episodes of 'Nurse Jackie' S1.

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Saturday, 2 April -

(No record for today.)

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Friday, 1 April -

Today I installed the toilet tank-to-bowl kit I bought earlier in the week. For some reason the tank was a bit crooked on the bowl and we didn't really notice it until the floor guys re-installed the toilet somewhat off-level. I corrected that as best I could and then mounted the tank and tightened down one side a half-turn more than the other to level the tank's upper edge with the line of the chair-rail on the wall behind it.
We also had to call the plumber back to fix a leak. As Labashi went to replace items under the sink we found a leak emanating from the faucet-mount plate. The shop sent 'Tom' over right away and he silicone-sealed the base of the plate. The manufacturer's design or installation instructions may have been a fault here. There's a rubber seal recessed under the plate but it appears to be recessed to far and the instructions pamphlet said nothing of having to seal it.
That afternoon we drove into town for something at Lowe's and stopped at Texas Roadhouse for their yummy baby-back ribs on the way home.

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