I have to say that I have been struggling a bit today. I know what I want to write about tomorrow, but today is a challenge. My mind is elsewhere, I don’t really want to be in front of the computer and I suspect that it has to do with some recent job rejections.
About a month ago now, my wife asked me to prioritize some build projects. One was a mantel over the fireplace and the other was a farm table. At that time, I had several concurrent jobs as well as a drywall repair job upstairs where the table is part of the whole scheme. That means now is the soonest I could get started.
I think that the mantel is going to be relatively simple. So that is the project that I should start on first. I am posting a picture of the table inspiration below.
Going out on a limb here, but with constant effort, I should be able to do this in less than a month, including two benches with the table and the mantel. Part of my previous issues included not spending dedicated time on the project. Well, that shouldn’t happen if I am spending my time building a business and partially working (plus my wife wants them).
Now you know the push of the next month’s worth of posts. Unless I score a big job, you can expect more problems and commentary about wood, maybe some tool reviews if I have to buy anything new for this project.
Alright. Now I have shaken the cobwebs out, it is time to wrap this up and get to work. I think that Friday will be how to build a successful project plan.
If you are like most people, including myself then you have municipal supplied water at your house. And when that is the case, the quality and frankly safety of the water is completely dependent on another entity the water provider. Now, that is normally not a problem but consider when there is one, you are potentially days away from the beginning of the problem.
It potentially seems wrong but I have seen more problems with water than any other utility outage. Last year, there was about a four month boil order in place for the state capital residents. That is over several hundred thousand residents affected by water quality.
When that incident first occurred, there was a reverse 911 call put into effect. This was in the mid-afternoon and by the next day, water was sold out throughout the entire area. We were not effected because our town has a different source of water, nevertheless the water was gone in all the towns in our area.
This was the beginning of a chronic culture of panic behavior. It was the same with toilet paper or hand sanitizer. People are not prepared to deal with any sort of outage or service disruption. Inventory in stores are not deep enough to service the needs of the entire population.
This is why I store water. Just plain tap water put into seven gallon jugs. I dump the water about once a year to inspect the containers and just refresh the supply. This usually happens in conjunction with our annual hunting trip, because we use the jugs to bring water to camp for the trip.
A minimum recommendation is to store one gallon per person, per day. That is for drinking, cooking and sanitation. I’ve got enough water to last about a week at that rate.
When I was in college, we had a localized flood turned landslide that wiped out a bunch of infrastructure including water delivery. In that case, the water was out for around a week. National guard had setup portable toilets and water distribution within two days of the event and showers came about three days later. While I am not saying any event will follow the others, there are two examples of what can happen.
Water can be saved in any clean container. Opaque is better than clear because it restricts light causing growth of biological life. You can put up some amount of water almost free. Even if you are paying for it at a store, it should be less than $2/gallon. The mark of someone that is prepared is that they are taking advantage of this time of plenty to accommodate if there is scarcity.
This is pretty esoteric, right? I mean it probably ranks right up there with plywood vs OSB or MDF vs solid wood trim in terms of excitement factor. Since I had some issues using both, I actually did some research about the subject myself.
This is the advantage of a scattered and lack of focus blog is that I can just write about whatever I am doing at the time and try to make it seem interesting and that I am an expert. Well folks, if you are reading this either I am an expert (to you) or you are desperate for this very important decision, so let’s get into it.
Drywall became a product in the 1950’s to replace plaster. It came into common use in the 1960’s and there is no looking back. It seems like some specific areas of the country still use plaster (over a backer board like drywall) but it is drywall for most of us.
The primary advantages of drywall are that it is inexpensive, quick to hang and is fireproof. The paper backing will burn but not gypsum (the white stuff). The disadvantages are that it is not waterproof at all and will support hazardous mold and mildew growth with continuous wetness. Also, doing a nice job of finishing requires some skill.
In my area of the country, drywall is finished with a texture to hide the lack plastering skills (or making smooth walls). Other areas of the country, it is more prevalent to see smooth finishing. What we are most concerned about in this post is the seems where two pieces of drywall meet. Tape is put over the seems to cover any gap if the drywall panels expand and contract with temperature and relative humidity.
Conventional wisdom says paper tape is the first, best solution. It is cheaper than the fiberglass tape and seams to be easier to work with. You start by putting a mud bed, the width of one putty knife, I like the four inch knife. It is said that as that panels move behind the tape and you get a more consistent smooth finish.
In the picture above, the paper tape was incorrectly applied without the mud bed behind the paper tape. This has led to the tape pealing off over the years without adhering to the drywall. I have made the repair by adding new tape and top coat. I will use a wider knife (6″) for the next layer on top. The third pass if there is one will be an 8″ knife. You keep building successively wider knives and passes until the the tape disappears.
In this picture you see another manifestation to the same fault. A crack has developed where the paper tape edge transitions. Again, the mud bed was not set behind the tape creating a gap.
Fiberglass tape’s best use is covering gaps. This material is much more rigid and all the grooves allow you to press mud into the tape. I have found that it takes thicker passes to cover the fiberglass adequately, but it does do the job of covering smallish gaps, like less than 3/4 of an inch.
In my bathroom that I just completed, the contractor used fiberglass tape exclusively and it came out great. So, it is not that it can’t be done but I think it takes more experience to do a nice job.
The secrets that I have learned are as follows.
Do not overwork knife when applying joint compound. Less is more because you can always add more later.
When using wide knives, work the joint compound out of a tray rather than the container you purchased. You need to be able to continuously scrape your knife edge clean and get an even layer of compound on the knife. That can only be done when you container is big enough to hold the knife.
Big, blobby mistakes can be sanded down but it is a dusty mess and surprisingly a lot of work. Use a sanding screen rather than sand paper to do this job. Screen is found around the sandpaper in stores and doesn’t clog nearly as quickly.
For texturing, I layer a bed of joint compound and then dab at it with wadded up plastic bag. I then knock down all of the dimples with a clean trowel or knife to get the effect.
Don’t feel bad if you are intimidated or don’t get it right. This takes practice to do a nice job. I have only recently gotten the confidence to do whatever, whenever. I used to do everything possible not to disturb the drywall for fear of finishing failure. Now, I find it easier to cut out a whole wall if it will make it quicker to do a job.
So, you see the answer depends on the situation. Both can work and both have advantages with different variables.
I have been working on a video on the repair of an old leaf blower since the fifth of July. The reason I know that date is that I wanted to use the blower to help clean-up the mess that our fireworks made and I couldn’t get it started.
Now, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. My dad gave me the leaf blower in 2007 or so, someone had given it to him. When he did, the tank was half full of two stroke mix. I ran it a couple times but then it sat in the shed until about two or three years ago when I tried to sell it at a garage sale.
At that time, I again started it to verify that it would run but it didn’t sell. I thought that it was too valuable to just throw away, so I put it back into the shed. Finally, when I wanted to use it this summer I couldn’t get it started. I thought that this would make a good project to film in short, helpful video.
As many things, it turned out to be more challenging to fix then I anticipated. While, I solved the initial problem on the sixth of July, my lack of knowledge and my time restrictions put it aside until late August. When I tried again, I did actually get the leaf blower running, but still not reliably or well. So, I tried again in October now wanting to actually use it in the yard and I think that I got it working.
Why is the post about roulette? After editing my video clips together, I have been waiting several hours for it to convert (or export as it is termed). I was waiting to write until I could actually embed the video into the post, but I am running out of time.
In fact, I am not sure why this isn’t working. I have used this software for most of my video editing. I know that I have not done much of it, but each time I use it seems to get clunkier and less reliable. I don’t know what is going on. It is part of the Pictures app on the Microsoft 10 operating system. I probably need to investigate another editing software if I am going to do much more of this type of work because this one is really painful.
It’s funny because the first video I ever created has become wildly more popular than I ever expected. In fact, I never expected anyone to care I even misspoke about the tool’s model number. It was right in the tagging, but I never thought anyone would ever watch it so I really didn’t put much effort into it.
Looks like my number finally came up… It only required some .NET updates and an application reset and multiple restarts.
Tomorrow I say goodbye to the Mustang. It was tentatively sold within one hour of being put on Craigslist. I had heard that this was a buyer’s market but man, I was not prepared for this.
We stand to make significantly more than we currently owe, and with it we will pay off our other car loan as well as pocket some money. You could say that God provides because we are in a position where we need to get some financial momentum. This will make our obligations $1200/mo less than last month. We will also be able to reduce our insurance bill as well, not sure what the total benefit will be.
Despite the very positive, I am sad. I wanted to drive that car more. I wanted to be involved in a car club, go on rally runs and drive it on the track. I wanted to make cool modifications and show the car off. Lots of places I went, I got compliments on the car. You could often start up conversations with people about the cars they used to own.
Did you know that Mustang drivers have a secret club? They often wave at drivers of other Mustangs. There have been countless times I have gotten a friendly wave from people just to say that “I see your car”. There have also been times when people want to race you off the line or down the freeway. I never did, but its the little things that I will miss.
Here are some final pictures to remember the car.
It is after all just a car. I enjoyed it as much as I could. When I worked, Friday would be the day I would put it into sport mode and use the paddle shifters. I loved getting it up to 6000 RPM before shifting into the next gear and hearing the engine roar.
It was a bit indulgent to purchase this car in the first place. I got kind of caught up in the want over the need. I was looking at used Porsches and this was a more affordable entry into sports cars and performance driving then the latter. We kind of purchased it on a whim, without too much thought. Now, it has turned into more of a financial liability as I work to repair the income side of our lives.
What I learned from this was that there is something as too much car. When you cannot actually use the power that the machine possesses, you have exceeded the necessity to have any more. My biggest regret was that I could never drive the car to it’s full potential. I never got to try launch control or put it into racing mode to really put the power to the test.
Some of the biggest things that I won’t miss are having a back seat too small for anyone but children. I won’t miss people making assumptions about your personality by the kind of car that you drive and leaving nasty notes on the windshield. I like to be able to see the parking lines when I am trying to park; this was a very difficult car to park, often I had to get out to see if I was in a good position.
I am now relegated back to my old F-150. It will continue to do journeyman’s work even though it has probably felt pretty lonely in the last four years. I did drive it a bit as I was working on the house all spring and summer, but it is in the need of some TLC. After seventeen years, things are finally starting to give up. I need a new battery, an emission line hose is leaking, the A/C is not working. So, those will need to get addressed shortly.
After the months of slogging through my remodeling project, I finally freed up enough time to finish this project and get it installed. The antenna has been built since May, but there was always too much to do to get it installed.
Some of my excuses were that I was too busy (which was true). I didn’t want to get on the roof when it was too hot, it seems like this summer has been warm late into the evening. The roof is very steep, so I needed to install roof jacks in order to safely get up to the top. In short, a five minute job took a couple hours to do safely and properly.
I can’t really say how well it works. There is quite a bit better reception just plugging the cable into the receiver. It is my perception that adding the antenna made the reception stronger, of the existing stations I got before the antenna. It seems to mitigate the night/day difference in reception (better at night than during the day).
Given how steep the roof is and that I already removed all of the safety staging, I am going to leave things as is without moving the antenna directionally to test reception. I know that this is kind of a ‘meh’ ending, but I really do think that this made a difference for me because the stations that I like seem to be stable. I guess we will see if seasonal differences mitigated as well.
I thought that I kept all of the receipts, but it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. I can give a rough breakdown or guess
1/2″ copper pipe, approximately 5′ – already had
2, 1/2″ pipe caps – $1 ea
1/2″ tee junction box – $3
1/2″ conduit – $4
Antenna adapter -$5
Simpson 90 – $6
2, 1/2″ conduit clamps – $2
2, 1″ conduit clamps, $2 ea
PVC conduit glue – $5
terminals, screws, clamps, cable, unions – already had
So, I have about $30 into the whole thing. Looking online, the cheapest antenna mounts I could find were $50. That didn’t include the antenna either.
I am interested in building an AM antenna in the future. In this case, I do have specific stations that I want to pick up. But, now that our local football season has been postponed, it is something I will do later as the urgency seems lessoned. I hope that you enjoyed this foray into the science and the mechanics of antennas as much as I did.
First off, I had a great retreat with my wife. We don’t get a lot of quality alone time these days. And it was nice to spend quiet time, just us. It has been a long haul through this project. When I present my final numbers, I think that you will see why.
Since I didn’t keep an exact time sheet, my time contribution is an estimate. What I do know are the days that I did not work at all. Off the top of my head they were Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July and a couple days of camping in July and August. I also didn’t work a lot of extra hours or weekends in April. The switch turned on in May.
March
16
April
172
May
260
June
310
July
240
August
100
Total Hours est.
1098
I gave my labor rate at $25/hour so I would say that was worth $27,450. The hours estimate does not include any help that I got. From April to June, my nephew periodically helped with demo and paint for 2-4 hours at a time up to three times a week. My kids did some painting in July and helped on the roof as well. At the very end in August, my wife helped with cleanup, trim paint, and fixture hanging.
There was some rework here and there but overall, very little. The bedroom doors were replaced after completion. I had to work on the pantry door twice, once to straighten it and once for the new floors. The living room trim was completed and then replaced. There was some re-roofing to accommodate for the new skylight in the bathroom. Those were very small in comparison to the overall project.
As to the material costs, I have receipts for $7030. I suspect that I am missing a few because I was keeping an eye out for some particular purchases that I did not see. Maybe I just missed it in haste to total the receipts, but I don’t think so since I summarized each purchase as well.
I want to be up front here as well. I don’t have the final bill for the bathroom. The original quote was $7000 for the total bathroom and flooring. Since I did the roof, siding and bought most of the fixtures, I hope that we are still in that ballpark because it certainly took more than the two week estimate.
Finally, I didn’t get the ‘complete’ photos, because the tenants were very anxious to move in being that the project was seven weeks late. However, I got enough to show the comparison. Move the slider to see either picture better.
There you have it, at least $40,000 complete remodel of the apartment. What happened to the slumlord?
I will be signing off for another round of family time. I think that I will be back Friday, I would guess early afternoon. But with all of the stuff that will need to be done I suspect this is the last post of the week.
It pains me to put this aside when progress is rapidly happening. In addition, there is still a lot of punchlist items to do. There is nothing I can really do about it but be in the moment.
To summarize this weeks progress, floors are going in, the shower enclosure is up, the bathroom door is installed, new counter tops with a refurbished sink, all electrical is done, rough in plumbing is complete and waiting for fixtures and half of the remaining siding is up.
So what is left? Paint and install remaining siding, final exterior touch up, hang gutters, landscape grading, data wiring, finish the floors, paint and install all trim, install cabinets and fixtures in the bathroom and kitchen, add hot water heater, back splash in bathroom and kitchen. That is it you say? I know that it might seem like a daunting list, but each one of them is closing a phase with visible progress.
As much as I have enjoyed the process and the time, I am ready for completion. I have felt the pressure to finish since I started and now that we are six weeks past the planned finish date, this is the largest stressor for leaving for another three days. For the most part, my scope of work is complete – that is the exterior work. None of that prevents move in. But, I have taken up the torch to help wherever I can on the inside, because that will ultimately save money and time in the end.
Remember that poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost? If not, you can read it for yourself. I remember reading it several times throughout my youth. One time, I was a senior in high school in AP English and we were doing a third of a year on poetry. It was an early sign of my miswiring.
How can everything in literature have so much symbolism? We read work after work of supposed super deep and intertwined subtext. Be it ‘The Odyssey’ or ‘Oliver Twist’ or ‘Moby Dick’, we spent weeks on weeks of analysis chapter by chapter. Granted, I think that some did such as Dante’s ‘Inferno’ or some Shakespeare.
I feel like there is no way all those stories can be as deep as we try to make it out in a classroom setting. It could be that the only literature deemed classic from the 1600s was Shakepeare and that only survived because his writing was brilliant from a 3D political commentary standpoint. Or it could be because very little was written and this was the best of the period. Either way, it always felt to me that much of the justification for teaching in such a manner was validation of a chosen career field rather than the confirmation of extensive symbolism.
One of my classmates wrote a response to Oliver Twist and in it had a rather insightful line. I will paraphrase by saying taking a live rabbit and cutting it up into pieces does not make a whole rabbit in the end; Something is lost in the process. I started thinking about this topic last night when I was pondering what I was going to write quickly so I could get to work before the heat set in. That is when I thought I would post project progress to keep it easy. Then I thought about “The Road Not Taken”, then I went on to bash the English profession.
This started with plugging the hole for the downdraft vent and removing the drain plumbing from the old bathroom I found several problems, the waste plumbing from the kitchen sink was broken, siding behind the kitchen was rotten. That got me going deeper into the sheathing which had termite damage. Fortunately, the framing was still solid, so all that had to be replaced.
From the bathroom standpoint, the sheetrock and finishing has been completed, it will be paint next. By the way, if anyone has any real research to prove that Moby Dick was more than a story, I would be interested in it. I have never vested the time myself to look, but I am willing to be wrong on this.
I am feeling pretty down today. I found out yesterday that I was rejected from a job that I applied for. What, no big deal you say? True, in a sense. However, this is the fourth different job that I have made it through a series of interviews to be denied. It makes you feel like you have lost your touch and question yourself. I was sure that this was the one, the best fit in terms of company and job.
I have to say that before this year of journey and exploration, I never was rejected once I got passed the first interview. Even when I did not make the cut, I knew that I stumbled during the interview. I suppose that I am reaching far deeper and higher in the ranks of businesses than ever before and the consequences are far greater than some entry level position, but it is still hard on the ego.
Deep down, I know there is a plan for me. The plan may be to start over in life… I hope not but who knows. I know that this experience has lead me to question my decision making. Was the job that bad? Will I ever recover from this? Was it all an alternative reality where I was really the one in the wrong? I guess that I won’t really know the answer to those questions. The one thing that I can say is that this extended time has been good for my soul. I think that the Lord is teaching me something, I just don’t understand it yet.
Given how I am feeling at the moment, it is hard to celebrate that things are going well for me on my siding project. I am going to try and not be ‘glass half full’ as my wife says. It is slow and steady progress and that is looking really good. All the Weather Resistant Barrier (WRB) is up. Most of the trim is the up and I am filling in the siding.
I am painting before I hang the siding so as to minimize the ladder time for final painting. The idea is to touch up after it is installed. Plus it is a lot easier to to get many of the cracks and joints when they are all pieces before assembly.
I am still energized to get this thing done. It is not project at all costs, but close. The culture of hurry message is banging around in my head with the weight of the world in front of me.
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