naladahc | tripping along the golden path

So I got the light base painted with another coat of paint and managed to get everything rewired and up. Yes. I shattered the bulb when I dropped the top fixture but it is done and the porch is illuminated again.

I continued on the west side and removed the rubbery seal along the foundation back to the side door.

I mixed up some concrete and tried to use it to fill in the gap. Unfortunately, it is the wrong kind of concrete. I need to pick up some of the sand topping mix, a much smoother and easier to work with mix, to do another layer and finish the front steps and from the door to the rear of the house.

So with the arrival of the first week of June comes the Victorian Village Yard Sale and as always, I found myself down at P & K's house but without anything for me to sell.

That was actually a nice change of pace.

The Fabulous Jen and the Baby T. showed up and he liked my hat.

He's getting so big and he's only 8 months old!

Mary Beth stopped by and found some plastic crack for me. She found a RID Optimus Primal and an Armada Demolisher for 10 cents! Of course, I already have them.

The one thing that wasn't as fun was the lack of The Vee. I realized the past few years of the Vee doing the yard sale added a lot of fun.

While this morning was wasted at the Victorian Village Yard Sale I did manage to come home around 1 (after a quick Lowes trip) and get some work done before it started to rain.

And there was an unexpected surprise that I now need to deal with.

So today was all about removing the rest of the "rubber" seal that has pulled away from the foundaion and the sidewalk, as well as pulling out some of the cracked concrete sidewalk to repair. The repairs that really were needed are to the area under the one gutter drain by the front porch and the gutter drain near the kitchen. That's the drain the to gutter I painted a week or so ago.

Well, the rubber seal was easy to remove and I dug out the dirt a bit and shopvac'd the thing clean.

Alas, prepping the rear cracks unveiled something I didn't need to see.

The entire drain has popped off of the rest of the drainage pipes due to the concrete sidewalk expanding and contracting.

So... basically... the water was just pouring down the side of the basement foundation and the ancient terra cotta drainage system.

Now I put the hose down these pipes and tried to see if they were still usable but no water was ever came out of the "outlet" on the other side of the magnolia.

I did the same to the front gutter and once again, no water ever appearing to drain.

Since that pretty much means that the pipes are probably cracked and/or destroyed by roots and such (or are totally clogged by major debris) there's no point in attempted to connect the gutters back up to these drains. The only way to repair them would be to pull up the side walk and rerun new drainage pipes and that I'm not going to do.

So...

Holy crap!

My Real Gear figures arrived!!!

These are the kind of figures that really are the kinds of Transformers I like. These are the kinds of figures kids will like... much more than the movie stuff.

Toys should be fun! These guys are.

My Real Gear Flickr gallery.

So Giga went up to the attic to look for something and felt water underfoot.

Grrrr...

Number Six's water filter apparently seems to have been spewing water over the back of the tank and down the wall. I did a water change the other day but I didn't change the filter media. It wasn't letting the water through fast enough and it was going over the back.

Just lovely.

This is the 2nd time I've spilled water up there.

It looks like it was about a gallon or so.

I think there may be some ceiling damage up on the landing too.

Grrr...

More repairs and painting.

I've got a fan up there trying to dry it all out now.

So this year all I did on the landscaping was to let the hostas all come in. Oh. And I cut all the daffodil leaves and tulip remains out.

I've been so focused on the real work that I hadn't bothered to do anything.

My realtor said to not bother since the hostas were enough but if the house doesn't sell I'd rather have some annuals in this year.

Before Pics:

So today I managed to get a ton of weeding done and then I undertook the task of installing new gutter drains on the rear of the house.

I tore down the old one that went into the broken ground drain and installed a new vertical drain pipe and several accordion curves and horizontal pipes to get the water as far away from the house as possible.

I also weeded the entire side of the desk and remulched.

I also crawled under the deck and using leftover drains and tubes, managed to construct something to get the water as far away from the house as possible there.

I moved a hosta in the one flower bed and put in 2 types of marigolds and and remulched that area too.

The new front address sign's staining is done. I'll get the numbers on tomorrow. I need to get two brass screws to attach it to the siding.

I need to start on the bathroom soon. I'm going to clean up the vanity and paint it white so it won't look so fake-wood cheap.

You'd think after 19 years it wouldn't bother me but for some reason I still really really really hate this place!

I suppose some wounds never heal.

I came home today to my knees and back really hurting. No doubt the crawling around under the deck yesterday did me in.

I ended up just wasting the afternoon doing some minor sorting in the attic.

Nothing much accomplished so the day was pretty much wasted.

In trying to get an early start on some work today and to make up for yesterday's total slackerness I managed to get the new street sign numbers drilled into the wood and the whole thing installed out front.

Looks a helluva lot better than the old numbers that were nailed directly onto the siding.

So I came home and I actually got 5 solid hours of work done in the backyard.

It was so cool and nice out today I figured it was time to devote attention to the car area in the back which has not been touched for 18 or so months. It was a weed infested and filthy, with dirt having fallen into the mess of bricks and stone, as well as so much oak leafage from last year.

I usually apply roundup to the stone to maintain it but I haven't done that in over 18 or so months. There was no way I could not do this cleanup and try to put the house on the market.

So I spent hours crawling on my hands and knees weeding the stone and then finally, I started sorting the stones and bricks and have moved the granite/marble stones so that they are off next to the fence and essentially hidden behind the lilacs.

I got all of the leaves raked up and did my best to get the dirt that had spilled up. I wish I had some more stone and I may just work the pea gravel that is in bags back there onto the stone. The sun has backed the plastic and it is barely holding up anyway.

See?

Looks a lot better no?

And the marble is nicely stacked away and hidden.

I kinda wish I had disposed of all of the firewood. I seriously doubt the fireplace could handle the heat of a fire from wood like that. We use the simpler fake store logs that burn more steady and a bit cooler anyway.

It would sure clean up the whole shed area to have it empty.

Wow. I only have 14 days left to get everything ready.

Yesterday's work really killed my back and knees but I managed to still get about 3 hours in today and got the rest of the concrete patch work done on the side and in the front.

I did a bit more weeding and tomorrow I'll try to start on the bathroom and start taping off the ceiling for painting in the various areas.

Right now I'm waiting patiently for the party to start next door.

As I was patching the front I watched 2 kegs go in the door.

Lovely.

I so love it here.

I started on binning up the attic today.

This has many hours ahead of it and I hope to get some in all weekend.

I had hoped to snag a photo of each figure but that will just take too long.

So very very true.

Food Network's attempts to change their demographics does suck.

Gotta try to appeal to that 18-34 male group don't ya?

So today I started on the Attic of Disaster™.

Today is pretty cool outside and I cranked the AC up here and I can work without breaking a sweat.

So Day 14 involved work in the Attic. I got a good chunk of stuff sorted but there is just so much crap up there I can barely walk around. I let it totally go to hell these past 12 months.

I also continued duct insulation in the basement, as well as hot water pipe insulation. I basically had to put some of the tools away since I haven't sorted in weeks since I started the mad rush on the exterior.

I have this massive oak tree out back and unfortunately, it has destroyed the fence back there. The trunk grew too big and broke the fence.

It also didn't help that the fence itself is so old and weathered.

Giga tore the whole area fence area down by the oak and utilizing what he could, as well as some new stuff, repaired it enough so that it keeps the Hoont in and should have some flexibility with continued growth of the tree.

The fence directly attaches to the fence instead of to the shed around the trunk. This shouldn't hurt the tree much.

I brought the ladder out and Giga removed a useless light fixture up on the back pole. We took care of some now useless posts as well.

I need to get a new light for out there. One that is preferably an automatic on/off one.

The supervisor approves.

Giga also got the wood to fix a gap in the counter next to the dishwasher.

Of course, we should have done that 4 years ago when I bought the house.

It is amazing what one will live with that isn't finished and then rushes to fix it in trying to sell the house.

We still need to get Max Power's tiller to dig up the garden area and level it all out.

Other then some mulching on the east side, some exterior painting touch-up and the front steps, the outside is more or less done.

I've got some other stuff to do in the basement, the tub caulk repairs in the bathroom, and a shitload of minor painting touch up inside.

Every day I find something else that needs paint touch up or a crack repaired. Old houses suck that way.

So word came down last night that I've got a new cousinling.

Congrats to The Cousin and the Cousin-in-Law.

Here's hoping Cousinling #1 handles it well.

Ok. It is only 4:30 and I have already managed to get a first coat of paint on all of the ceiling cracks on the first and second floors.

There's a few in the living room and one in the bed room that may require some Killz too. We'll have to see.

I ended up not doing the bathroom caulking this weekend. That'll have to be this coming weekend but then again, it might be something worth doing the day before I leave for Rhode Island. That way, it'll have time to properly set and cure while I'm gone.

Hopefully I can get a 2nd coat of paint on the ceilings in an hour or so. This stuff drys really fast.

I need to swap paints and do the walls now. I don't know how much I have of the "heavy cream" used in the bedroom but Giga noticed an area that could really use some touch up.

Man oh man a helluva lot of cracks have appeared in the living room over the past 2 years since I really tried to fix the plaster.

I really can't fill them with plaster and sand right now. I just don't have time for that level of mess and the accompanying priming and painting.

So? I'm just using the Zinser 1-2-3 to fill in the cracks. It is pretty thick and should last 5-6 weeks which is all I really need.

I'll do another coat of paint again in a few hours.

So I managed to get a 3rd coat of paint on the ceilings but you can still see the stain blocker in some areas. Grrrr.

So I'm going to run home at lunch, change clothes, and try to get another coat of paint on the ceiling and a 2nd coat of touch "heavy cream" on the bedroom walls again (that sounds almost dirty).

It really doesn't take a long time since it is basically walking into each room with a roller and touching up the areas where I'm trying to cover relatively new cracks.

Oh. And Giga picked up the Max Power Tiller™ last night so work can commence on cleaning up the remaining small stones and rocks in the garden area so that can all be tilled up and leveled better. I think it'll look better if it has been tilled and I can get the weeds out.

I need to wire brush the front steps today too and try and get a coat of primer on it so I can begin painting the enamel on tomorrow.

If I can get the steps done and the touchup on the front siding that entire front can be checked off my lists.

With that, and the exterior touch up done, it really becomes a matter of cleaning each room and packing up stuff... especially a certain Attic of Disaster™.

You can get quite a lot done in 10 minutes if you try hard enough.

I'll do another coat this evening and hopefully that'll do it.

I got the steps wirebrushed and cleaned up when I got home.

The cleaned up well but the various repair work over the years made them look a bit crappy.

The whole steps really need to be completely replaced but that's not going to happen via my work.

So...

Voila!

I coated the steps in the same lighter grey enamel that I use on the slab.

I think it looks pretty good actually.

I'll put a second coat on tomorrow as well as touch up the darker grey.

I could give a rat's ass about communism but this is so very very wrong.

It just goes to show you how marketing and public relations companies can totally merge with political agendas to cause additional vomit to spew from the mouths of vermin.

The Victims of Communism Memorial, within view of the Capitol, was more than a decade in the making. It aims to honor memories and educate current and future generations about communism's crimes against humanity.

At its center is a woman holding what Bush called a ``lamp of liberty.''

``She reminds us that when an ideology kills tens of millions of people, and still ends up being vanquished, it is contending with a power greater than death,'' Bush told roughly 1,000 invited guests.

Where's the Victimes of Slavery memorial?

It is all so very very very vermanic.

So I got the final coat of paint on the steps. They look a lot better. I need to wirebrush some drips up and it should be finished.

I need to touch up the railings tomorrow where I got a bit of grey on it and then the dark grey on the foundation. That'll wrap up the painting out front.

I also started on the clean-up of the back garden-that-never-was (picture before above) and spent several hours doing my best to till up extremely dry ground. Eventually I had to pull out the house and wet everything down since there was so much dust coming up.

Everything's leveled out which makes a big difference.

I also got as much of the stones and little bits of concrete out but there is a ton I just can't waste my time on.

All in all, I'll probably till it one more time tomorrow before I Roundup the whole thing as well as the stone driveway to try and keep the weeds at bay.

Today was spent trying to reorg all my tools and paint stuff to make finishing up my tasks easier.

I spent several hours in the basement throwing shit away and putting things back in piles I can easily get to.

I also spent time getting more water pipe insulation up as well as the HVAC duct insulation up. I still have a bit more to cut and get installed.

Oh. And I did some touch up on the railings on the porch and some mortar repair.

Tomorrow will be the touch-up on the dark grey and hopefully a retilling of the garden area.

Saturday will be bathroom work and packing up the attic.

I didn't feel all that well yesterday. My back has been hurting again plus we had to meet an old high school friend of Giga's for dinner.

Day 7 will be more productive.

I made up for yesterday by working my ass off today.

So many things started, in progress, or completed. While one thing dried I started or finished something else.

I got the side exterior door down, primed and painted (above). I'm not going to do the glass inset though. I should but it'll take forever to tape off the panes and I so don't want to scrape paint off.

I spent about an hour getting more of the duct insulation wrapped around the output ducts. I've got a little bit left to do by the Hoont's favorite vent.

I made some painting repairs to the back kitchen exterior window. The work done in 2005 didn't take well to the old wood. I scraped off the paint that was coming off and primed and painted everything again. That's done.

I used some masonry caulk to seal some some gaps around the stone foundation by the side door and will be painting the threshold tomorrow. However, I did get the base of the door painted with the same enamel I did the front porch.

I got a bunch more impatiens and petunias planted out back. I also decided to try and patch one area by the shed with the grass patch. The stuff is working well out front.

Unfortunately, the alley light fixture couldn't be replaced. Giga found a live wasp nest in it so we'll have to try again tomorrow. We must get a simpler light installed that doesn't take a special lamp.

There was some other porch painting done.

All in all, a whole lot of shit done today.

Today was a hard day and not as much got done as I had hoped.

The heat was just unbearable and there was a point around 2:30 where it literally wiped me out and I had to come in and briefly lay down for a bit.

Started off the day in the basement doing a final full coat of polyurethane on the floor in the room under the porch. I had only gotten the one thinned out coat on and quickly and to reuse the room which ended up scraping up due to how thin it was. I also had to do some drylock touch up and deal with some other stuff there. That room will hopefully be wrapped up in 2-3 days and I'll be working a bit on it each day.

Giga got the new halogen alley light and light sensor up. This'll allow the damn thing to go on automatically every evening without one of us having to go out to the back yard to flip the switch. I may even start parking back there again. Hell, we needed it for when we park the cars while we are at the Gay Robot Convention in a few weeks.

I got another post out of the garden area and also a ton of concrete chips and stones. I used up a bunch of old topsoil to try and blend it into the recently tilled garden.

I've got more grass patch planted between the houses.

Oh. Mulched the east side of the house too. We need about 8-10 more bags of mulch but that'll be a last item thing. I want to mulch around the bushes that block a good chunk of sound from the street we dead end in.

I got a bunch of R-13 insulation cut to size and some of it installed. Unfortunately, my timing is off and I need the shit back under the porch before I can get this all finished and the last duct insulation wrapped on.

Got some painting done on the side door and threshold. I'll be installing that all back tomorrow.

Will I be able to finish all of this in 5 days?

Hmmm....

I can try. That's all I can say.

Now all I want to do is shower, grill some chicken, and call it a night.

Would you believe I have forklift training all day tomorrow?

I think I'll be one of the most highly paid forklift operators around.

I'll be thinking "Get away from her you bitch!" all morning.

Oh. Predictions are for super mega high 90s tomorrow. That's going to suck worse than today.

My final thing for you? I'll leave you with this picture of the recently reinstalled swinging bunny with the butterfly on its nose that Kelmeister got us last year.

So with only 4 days to go on my personal countdown I'm not thinking it'll all happen quite as planned.

I came home early today and spent several hours finishing up the basement, cleaning, reorging, and such. I got all the remaining duct insulation installed as well as the R-13 stuff. There's some wood I need to bring up too since there's no point keeping it.

I got the side door reinstalled as well as the exterior touch-up painting done on the side.

I scrubbed up the stairwell and got all of the walls touched up as well (above pic).

Just an FYI... when I painted the stairwell in Feb. 2006 I decided to save some money since this wasn't a heavily trafficked area and all. I bought this cheap "commercial" quality Olympus paint that is about $10 cheaper per gallon then the premium stuff I typically use.

Well I don't know if it is because I used this cheap paint or if I went with a flat in it but when I was trying to wash up some of the dirt and stuff off the wall from where the trash can usually stands I ended up washing off a layer of paint and could see the primer below! No more cheap paint for me again for something like this.

Tomorrow I'm going to start on the Attic when I get home and try to get at least 6 bins of toys packed. I've also got some minor touch up still to do in the basement room and I hope to get that done over lunch. I'm also trying to get rid of as much "product" as possible so I'm going to mix up the rest of my Sunny Dry waterproofer and get that applied to the walls in the room under the porch.

There's also some floor enamel touch up I need to do and other then cleaning and maybe shop-vac'n the cobwebs the basement is done.

Now the rest of the house... that's another story. I haven't even started on the bathroom caulking yet!

Off to Boston and then onwards to Providence for Botcon.

See you in a few days.

I'll be posting pictures, videos, and commentary over at plasticcrack.com.