Finishing up the project ; First guests since the upgrade
(posted from home)
(This post covers 24 – 31 May, 2012)
--------------------------
Thursday, 31 May -
This morning I tried the door stops we bought the other day for our new doors in the basement. That worked okay for one door but the other (the bathroom door) swings almost 180 degrees. Neither type of hinge-mounted stop worked there. We'll have to switch to a wall-mounted stop.
I ran the rent check over to the storage unit and then began mowing the somewhat-wet grass of our front lawn. Everything went well in the area exposed to the sun but then deteriorated rapidly in the shade. The wet grass jammed up the mower. I must have un-jammed it a dozen times before I finally decided enough was enough. We've had a problem with this mower ever since buying it in 2005. It would operate okay in dry grass but very poorly in wet grass. That's because the detachable clippings-director wasn't designed properly. I took it off and modified it with the circular saw. That did it.
I needed a break and the Miata needs to be run a bit so I drove down to Starbucks for a quick macchiato, then came home and finished the lawn.
Labashi spent the day in town shopping for accessories for the new bath. She told me later she must have gone to 20 stores looking for the 'right' towel rack, toilet-paper holder, trash can, etc.
That evening we watched the first two episodes of 'Saving Grace', season 1, disk 2.
------------------------
Wednesday, 30 May -
Today was another hot day- above 90 and quite humid. I rode the GS to the local hardware store for paint. As I emerged from the store I saw an older guy having problems as he tried to oil the chain on his Honda 250 motorcycle. I offered to help and after the job was done we chatted quite a bit about riding. Like me, he had ridden a lot in his teens and Twenties but hadn't ridden for many years until recently (well, for me, 'recently' was 2003). He claimed he had owned the fastest Sportster in the Harrisburg area at one time but I'm a bit skeptical on that one.
I then buzzed down to Starbucks for a quick break before returning home to paint the furniture dollies.
That evening we watched 'Fitzcarraldo', the Werner Hertzog classic about an Irishman who hauls a steamboat up over a mountain to claim a rubber plantation in Peru.
---------------------
Tuesday, 29 May -
This morning we first ran Labashi's car up to the garage for inspection. I went back to my morning patrol of the web but soon received a Skype video call from Orat. We spoke for a half-hour or so, catching up since our last talk about a month ago. Orat has a crew in today to start work on a roofed patio on his daughter's house.
Labashi went out to work in the yard as I finished up the call and I went to the mud-room to continue work on the furniture movers for our storage cabinets. I cut 3/4” plywood pieces to fit the center so the cabinet bottoms don't sag with their contents. I also cut wood trim we had left over from another project to fit the front and cover the somewhat-unsightly frame. I painted the trim and the visible parts of the frames with a primer.
By then it was mid-afternoon and blazing-hot. I rode the GS over to the hardware store for a small can of gray paint but didn't find anything I liked. I buzzed on down to Starbucks for a coffee, then came back and cleaned up the outside work area before today's thunderstorms started.
That evening we watched the last episode of 'State of Play' (the TV series). This production was well worthwhile though it did keep us busy. The plot had many turns and we had to pay very close attention and occasionally stop the DVD and discuss what we thought was happening. Good stuff, though.
----------------------
Monday, 28 May -
Today was the official Memorial Day holiday. We worked through it, though. We had temperatures in the mid-Nineties with a feels-like temperature of 102 this afternoon. Thank goodness for the AC!
I took an hour or so to install two lengths of pipe-mounting strap to stiffen up the utility sink. It has lightweight steel legs and I had tried adjusting them but still couldn't get it solid just using the adjustments on the little feet on the bottom. I used the utility strap to tie the back of the sink legs to Tapcon screws used on the drain-pipe mounts. That stiffened it right up.
Labashi helped me cut up the old copper pipe the plumber had removed and I then turned the Sawzall to a 10-foot length of copper pipe leftover in the mud-room ceiling after the new plumbing was completed.
Around lunch time I took Labashi's car into town to buy five furniture dollies at Harbor Freight. I brought them home and modified them to fit the underside of five storage cabinets, cutting them down to 25x18 and relocating the casters.
That evening we watched two episodes of 'State of Play', the BBC series.
--------------------------
Sunday, 27 May -
This morning Labashi took our visitors for a tour of the work she has been doing in the back yard. They too like to work in the yard and they had lots of questions. Weather was perfect for this today.
We then drove down to the Accomac Inn for brunch. We had a bit of a late start so didn't get down there until almost 1300 and ran a bit past their 1400 closing time. Our visitors then left from there to head on home.
That evening we watched the first two episodes of 'State of Play', a BBC television production. That one keeps you going with all the twists and turns in the plot and the fast pacing.
---------------------------
Saturday, 26 May -
We spent the morning preparing for guests this weekend, then went over to Mom and Dad's apartment around noon. Labashi's brother and his wife came up to visit from the Washington, DC area.
We spent a few hours visiting, then we all drove over to Theo's Restaurant for an early supper.
Afterwards we had fun looking at old photo albums, some going back to the Thirties. I was very happy to see photos of Labashi when she was one, three, five, nine, and thirteen years old. She was such a cutie (and still is, 41 years after we married!)
Later on, we hosted Labashi's brother and his wife at home--- our first guests to use the newly-re-done guest room.
----------------------------
Friday, 25 May -
I spent all morning cleaning and Nu-finishing the Miata to prepare it for sale. That could have gone better. The Nu-finish seemed to be finicky. If I cleaned it off too soon it would streak and if I waited too long it would streak in a different way. I was working on a very humid day so that might have something to do with it. In the end, though, I was pretty happy with results.
That afternoon I modified the furniture dolly to fit one of the storage cabinets. The dolly was 30 x 18 inches as purchased and I needed 25 x 18. I removed the casters from one end, pried out the staples holding on the carpet partially covering the wood, cut off five inches from two of the long cross-pieces and used the pieces as patterns for getting the bolt-holes spaced properly, then reversed the process. I had feared the cross-pieces would have been glued together but they simply had a few nailing-gun nails. That little project settled it, then-- all I need is five more dollies.
----------------------------
Thursday, 24 May -
Today Steve from Red Oak Remodeling was here for the final inspection. The inspector arrived around noon and quickly determined that everything was in order with the project. This was the same inspector who had been here for the plumbing rough-in and pressure testing. He did the final plumbing and electrical inspections today and did the final sign-off. We thanked Steve and discussed the final meeting with his boss, the general contractor, Paul.
After lunch I did some cleanup work in the basement and noticed the washer hose was almost out of its standpipe. Brian had put a zip-tie around the hose and standpipe but it had slid that upward along with the hose on the smooth plastic pipe. It took me a few minutes to realize what had happened. The washer hose was too long. The washer hose could easily be pushed back down into the standpipe and seemed to be secure there but I realized that the washer hose would attempt to stand up from the water pressure inside it as the washer emptied. And that would cause the hose to rise up in the standpipe. Enough cycles of that and the hose would have jumped out of the standpipe entirely.
In the washer's new position I had easy access to the hose's connection to the washer. I cut off about and inch and a half, which fits the hose down into the standpipe and short enough that it can't rise up out of the standpipe as the water flows.
That afternoon Labashi and I went into town. We shopped for door stops and furniture dollies, then had supper at Chili's.
We were looking for furniture dollies to put under the six floor-standing storage cabinets displaced by the construction. If we can find dollies to fit the cabinets, we can solve multiple problems at the same time. First, we need to get the cabinets off the floor. After Tropical Storm Lee last Fall, we came home to an inch to an inch-and-a-half of water throughout the family room and mud-room. The water had gotten just high enough to get into the lowest shelf of the cabinet. We typically had containers of some type (paint, antifreeze, cleaning solutions, etc) at that level so we didn't lose anything to the flood, but we did have to empty the cabinets, clean and dry the floor, and then re-stow.
Putting the cabinets on wheels also will also give us flexiblity on placement. During construction we had emptied the cabinets and stored them in the ATV trailer. But now we need to get their contents out of storage and back where we can more easily access them. But we also need to do some more work in the family/storage room. Putting the cabinets on wheels allows us to simply roll them out of the way for the work and then put them back in place without having to unload, store, and restow the contents.
Also, in the unlikely event we have another storm like Lee and we're not traveling, we can (hopefully) simply roll the cabinets out of the way as we deal with the water. Also, the furniture dollies raise the cabinets five and a half inches so even if we're not home, the cabinets won't flood.
After looking at the options I decided to hold off buying anything yet. I have a furniture dolly at home I want to try to mod and if that works, then I'll buy more like that one.
***** END OF POST ********
(posted from home)
(This post covers 24 – 31 May, 2012)
--------------------------
Thursday, 31 May -
This morning I tried the door stops we bought the other day for our new doors in the basement. That worked okay for one door but the other (the bathroom door) swings almost 180 degrees. Neither type of hinge-mounted stop worked there. We'll have to switch to a wall-mounted stop.
I ran the rent check over to the storage unit and then began mowing the somewhat-wet grass of our front lawn. Everything went well in the area exposed to the sun but then deteriorated rapidly in the shade. The wet grass jammed up the mower. I must have un-jammed it a dozen times before I finally decided enough was enough. We've had a problem with this mower ever since buying it in 2005. It would operate okay in dry grass but very poorly in wet grass. That's because the detachable clippings-director wasn't designed properly. I took it off and modified it with the circular saw. That did it.
I needed a break and the Miata needs to be run a bit so I drove down to Starbucks for a quick macchiato, then came home and finished the lawn.
Labashi spent the day in town shopping for accessories for the new bath. She told me later she must have gone to 20 stores looking for the 'right' towel rack, toilet-paper holder, trash can, etc.
That evening we watched the first two episodes of 'Saving Grace', season 1, disk 2.
------------------------
Wednesday, 30 May -
Today was another hot day- above 90 and quite humid. I rode the GS to the local hardware store for paint. As I emerged from the store I saw an older guy having problems as he tried to oil the chain on his Honda 250 motorcycle. I offered to help and after the job was done we chatted quite a bit about riding. Like me, he had ridden a lot in his teens and Twenties but hadn't ridden for many years until recently (well, for me, 'recently' was 2003). He claimed he had owned the fastest Sportster in the Harrisburg area at one time but I'm a bit skeptical on that one.
I then buzzed down to Starbucks for a quick break before returning home to paint the furniture dollies.
That evening we watched 'Fitzcarraldo', the Werner Hertzog classic about an Irishman who hauls a steamboat up over a mountain to claim a rubber plantation in Peru.
---------------------
Tuesday, 29 May -
This morning we first ran Labashi's car up to the garage for inspection. I went back to my morning patrol of the web but soon received a Skype video call from Orat. We spoke for a half-hour or so, catching up since our last talk about a month ago. Orat has a crew in today to start work on a roofed patio on his daughter's house.
Labashi went out to work in the yard as I finished up the call and I went to the mud-room to continue work on the furniture movers for our storage cabinets. I cut 3/4” plywood pieces to fit the center so the cabinet bottoms don't sag with their contents. I also cut wood trim we had left over from another project to fit the front and cover the somewhat-unsightly frame. I painted the trim and the visible parts of the frames with a primer.
By then it was mid-afternoon and blazing-hot. I rode the GS over to the hardware store for a small can of gray paint but didn't find anything I liked. I buzzed on down to Starbucks for a coffee, then came back and cleaned up the outside work area before today's thunderstorms started.
That evening we watched the last episode of 'State of Play' (the TV series). This production was well worthwhile though it did keep us busy. The plot had many turns and we had to pay very close attention and occasionally stop the DVD and discuss what we thought was happening. Good stuff, though.
----------------------
Monday, 28 May -
Today was the official Memorial Day holiday. We worked through it, though. We had temperatures in the mid-Nineties with a feels-like temperature of 102 this afternoon. Thank goodness for the AC!
I took an hour or so to install two lengths of pipe-mounting strap to stiffen up the utility sink. It has lightweight steel legs and I had tried adjusting them but still couldn't get it solid just using the adjustments on the little feet on the bottom. I used the utility strap to tie the back of the sink legs to Tapcon screws used on the drain-pipe mounts. That stiffened it right up.
Labashi helped me cut up the old copper pipe the plumber had removed and I then turned the Sawzall to a 10-foot length of copper pipe leftover in the mud-room ceiling after the new plumbing was completed.
Around lunch time I took Labashi's car into town to buy five furniture dollies at Harbor Freight. I brought them home and modified them to fit the underside of five storage cabinets, cutting them down to 25x18 and relocating the casters.
That evening we watched two episodes of 'State of Play', the BBC series.
--------------------------
Sunday, 27 May -
This morning Labashi took our visitors for a tour of the work she has been doing in the back yard. They too like to work in the yard and they had lots of questions. Weather was perfect for this today.
We then drove down to the Accomac Inn for brunch. We had a bit of a late start so didn't get down there until almost 1300 and ran a bit past their 1400 closing time. Our visitors then left from there to head on home.
That evening we watched the first two episodes of 'State of Play', a BBC television production. That one keeps you going with all the twists and turns in the plot and the fast pacing.
---------------------------
Saturday, 26 May -
We spent the morning preparing for guests this weekend, then went over to Mom and Dad's apartment around noon. Labashi's brother and his wife came up to visit from the Washington, DC area.
We spent a few hours visiting, then we all drove over to Theo's Restaurant for an early supper.
Afterwards we had fun looking at old photo albums, some going back to the Thirties. I was very happy to see photos of Labashi when she was one, three, five, nine, and thirteen years old. She was such a cutie (and still is, 41 years after we married!)
Later on, we hosted Labashi's brother and his wife at home--- our first guests to use the newly-re-done guest room.
----------------------------
Friday, 25 May -
I spent all morning cleaning and Nu-finishing the Miata to prepare it for sale. That could have gone better. The Nu-finish seemed to be finicky. If I cleaned it off too soon it would streak and if I waited too long it would streak in a different way. I was working on a very humid day so that might have something to do with it. In the end, though, I was pretty happy with results.
That afternoon I modified the furniture dolly to fit one of the storage cabinets. The dolly was 30 x 18 inches as purchased and I needed 25 x 18. I removed the casters from one end, pried out the staples holding on the carpet partially covering the wood, cut off five inches from two of the long cross-pieces and used the pieces as patterns for getting the bolt-holes spaced properly, then reversed the process. I had feared the cross-pieces would have been glued together but they simply had a few nailing-gun nails. That little project settled it, then-- all I need is five more dollies.
----------------------------
Thursday, 24 May -
Today Steve from Red Oak Remodeling was here for the final inspection. The inspector arrived around noon and quickly determined that everything was in order with the project. This was the same inspector who had been here for the plumbing rough-in and pressure testing. He did the final plumbing and electrical inspections today and did the final sign-off. We thanked Steve and discussed the final meeting with his boss, the general contractor, Paul.
After lunch I did some cleanup work in the basement and noticed the washer hose was almost out of its standpipe. Brian had put a zip-tie around the hose and standpipe but it had slid that upward along with the hose on the smooth plastic pipe. It took me a few minutes to realize what had happened. The washer hose was too long. The washer hose could easily be pushed back down into the standpipe and seemed to be secure there but I realized that the washer hose would attempt to stand up from the water pressure inside it as the washer emptied. And that would cause the hose to rise up in the standpipe. Enough cycles of that and the hose would have jumped out of the standpipe entirely.
In the washer's new position I had easy access to the hose's connection to the washer. I cut off about and inch and a half, which fits the hose down into the standpipe and short enough that it can't rise up out of the standpipe as the water flows.
That afternoon Labashi and I went into town. We shopped for door stops and furniture dollies, then had supper at Chili's.
We were looking for furniture dollies to put under the six floor-standing storage cabinets displaced by the construction. If we can find dollies to fit the cabinets, we can solve multiple problems at the same time. First, we need to get the cabinets off the floor. After Tropical Storm Lee last Fall, we came home to an inch to an inch-and-a-half of water throughout the family room and mud-room. The water had gotten just high enough to get into the lowest shelf of the cabinet. We typically had containers of some type (paint, antifreeze, cleaning solutions, etc) at that level so we didn't lose anything to the flood, but we did have to empty the cabinets, clean and dry the floor, and then re-stow.
Putting the cabinets on wheels also will also give us flexiblity on placement. During construction we had emptied the cabinets and stored them in the ATV trailer. But now we need to get their contents out of storage and back where we can more easily access them. But we also need to do some more work in the family/storage room. Putting the cabinets on wheels allows us to simply roll them out of the way for the work and then put them back in place without having to unload, store, and restow the contents.
Also, in the unlikely event we have another storm like Lee and we're not traveling, we can (hopefully) simply roll the cabinets out of the way as we deal with the water. Also, the furniture dollies raise the cabinets five and a half inches so even if we're not home, the cabinets won't flood.
After looking at the options I decided to hold off buying anything yet. I have a furniture dolly at home I want to try to mod and if that works, then I'll buy more like that one.
***** END OF POST ********
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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