Thursday, November 03, 2005

Back on the Chain Gang

Looked at a calender yesterday and I realized that I have just over a month to finish the downstairs and the upstairs. We (I) am doing the downstairs (new sheetrock and new flooring) and we are paying someone to put in new flooring upstairs after we have repainted everything. I took a couple of weeks off because of the surgery and now I have to get back to work. No more watching the World Series in my sweatpants.

Naturally, once I got the old walls off downstairs, I started to notice things that bugged and needed to be fixed. Like the wiring. I’ve put in recessed lights and while doing that I saw that a few of the junction boxes were quite crowded. Now, I’m not an electrician by any wild stretch and electricity kind of scares me (I can never remember what the difference between amps and watts and volts are), but even I know that you can’t just slap four wires together with electrical tape and hope for the best. In fact, my handy-dandy “Wiring 1-2-3” book from The Home Depot specifically tells you NOT to do that sort of thing. Now, I know the authors of “Wiring 1-2-3” are hyper safety conscious given that they suggest wearing safety glasses and Kevlar body armor when nailing boards together, but I’m sure they are correct on the over crowded with sixteen wires junction box, 25 year old electrical tape business. Which is what whoever put in the wiring downstairs last time did. That tape was cracked to the point of being brittle and autumn leaf like. I think we’re lucky the place hasn’t burned down. The ancient stuff that passed for romex™ they used way back then was quite discoloured and looked a little burned, quite frankly.

Now I’m paranoid about the rest of the house.

And as an aside, I think doing a remodel project is a series of “what the Hell were they thinking?!” moments directed toward the former owners. For example, we questioned why the former owners of our place used OUTDOOR shed panelling in the basement. And let’s not go to their wallpaper choices. It’s just not worth the space. They were WRONG WRONG WRONG in a way that offends humanity. So to the person who eventually buys my house and tears out the basement, I’d like to apologize right here and now for anything that doesn’t make sense to you. And I’ll get it right out here in the open that I KNOW that I should have re-done that one duct, but I didn’t have the energy or wherewithal, OK? Thanks. But know that any really bad wiring wasn’t me, OK?

And, as all re-modeling projects go, this one has ballooned into a bit of a beast. When it started we were just re-doing the floors upstairs. And maybe some paint. Then we looked at the downstairs carpet and threw up a bit in our collective mouths and said it HAD to go. So Pergo™ downstairs and hardwood floors up. Plus paint up. And, since we are re-painting, we should toss a new coat downstairs and if we are re-painting down, shouldn’t we just get rid of the nasty paneling and sheetrock the place? Plus the pergo and the paint? And we really have to put new, cooler lighting down there, right? Now I feel like I’m going to be re-pouring the foundation next week. But the demolition was deeply satisfying, I must admit. There’s just something delightful about wielding a crowbar around and beating the crap out an innocent wall.

OK, that’s not true at all about re-pouring the foundation, but I will say that gigabit ethernet wasn’t on the agenda at first and now it is. What kind of geek would I be if I had all the walls off my basement and didn’t put in Cat-5e? Wireless rocks, of course, but I’ve got a media server that will LOVE being wired.

So, anyway, I have a lot of work to do before the Annual Deal Holiday Party. You’re all invited. All six of you that read regularly.

And you should buy Home Depot stock now, because I think I go there and drop $50 EVERY SINGLE DAY on my way home from work.

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Holy Crap! Look at all this STUFF down here. It's awesome!

 

Really, I'm glad you made it down here. Almost no one ever comes down here. I'm like in a freaking dungeon down here. I get lonely. But not you. YOU made it all the way to the end of the page. For this I think I've a little crush on you. I don't know, is "love" to strong a word to use in this situation? Well, if it's not "love," then it's very strong "like." I'm totally in like with you for coming down here. You are awesome. Please love me back! I know, I know, I shouldn't be all needy, it's not attractive at all, but you don't know how it is to be stuck down here. Who scrolls all the way to the end of a page anymore these days? Anyway, thanks for shedding some light down here in the depths. I appreciate it. Shoot me an email and I'll send you a dollar, OK?

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