So... What are YOU doing? - Part 5

Stopped by the church to do some stuff with the computer there. The guy who originally set it up (and who knows the software that is so insanely complex nobody else understands it like he does) is too busy to set up the new one for a while so I decided to read through his operating instructions and see if I could work it out for myself. And it looks like I can do just that. I'm going to spend some more time tomorrow fiddling with it, and hopefully I'll be able to tell him he needn't deal with it any more.

He's hugely busy right now, so I'm hoping he appreciates having one less thing to deal with.

Need to clean up everything today and make it a bit christmassy. Already did something. Kids are w dad and their uncle after school, so I can neatly clean it all up. Bought some cheap branches and stuff so they can make christmas things. I'd pluck that out of our garden as a kid,
but in the park is no nice red stuff to pluck.

taking my son to school and then going to the gym. only have one client visit today later this afternoon

Found an unexpected cold spot in the house yesterday and later had a the sudden realisation what was causing it. When I rewired a switch I found that some apocalyptic moron had run the original wire by chiselling out a section of the concrete block and running the cable inside the wall rather than between the wall and the wall covering (which would have worked just fine).

Of course what it means is that the freezing cold air from the crawl space over the garage (which is insulated with 9" of fiberglass) can get into the concrete block wall and that essentially what's between indoors and outdoors is, once more, a single layer of concrete less than an inch thick. I suspect it's also responsible for heat loss elsewhere.

So, in the freezing cold, I get to crawl around in a confined unlit space pulling a new cable through where it should really go and trying to figure the best way to block the hole that some idiot made in the wall. This could be fun... Thankfully I've got a fish tape so I can run something through to pull a cable, and I've already done the awkward work of figuring out how to reattach the back box to the stud in the wall (originally it was attached with 4" nails, which were interesting to remove. Now it's attached with screws, and I have a 90-degree attachment so I can get them in and out more easily.

I decided not to do the work in the cold confined space, largely because it would mean removing the hatch into the crawl space, which would allow the heat from the area below to escape. I think what I'll do is just get some fiberglass ready and stuff it into the offending area, which should help until it gets warmer and I can do the job properly.

It is really tedious how many low quality jobs have been done on the house over the years. I know at least one person who has worked on it who does such shoddy workmanship he should be ashamed of himself (and even more ashamed that he charged the previous owner - a family member - full price for his shoddy work) but some of this stuff dates back decades when I thought people actually took pride in what they did.

Listening to Dan Mohler. How to put off the old man.

In the train to grandma. Irritating silent zones. This whole world is for old ppl.

Teaching my son how to make movies.

Finished running the sound desk for a memorial service. Not someone I knew, but the family booked my church to host the service because he lived in my town.

They were a really nice family, ever so easy to work with. I didn't know the young man who died but after listening to the memorial service I really feel like I missed out - he sounds like he was a really nice guy.

Reading one of Charles Swindoll's books "A Man of Grit and Grace: Paul"

jsimms435 said:

Reading one of Charles Swindoll's books "A Man of Grit and Grace: Paul"

Click to expand...

Still listen to him nearly every day.
Picked up 'Laugh Again' when I first started hearing about him.
Gave it a quick read, and then gave it to the folks as a gift. (Is that allowed? Lol)

Good writer and speaker, good brother.
Wife Nancy has a ministry too, but I dont know too much about it or her.

Speaking of good christian men...
Condolences and blessings to RC Sproul and family ... We lost an outstanding bible teacher, but heaven gained a faithful son.
I hope someone can take up his position, though there will never be another like him.
One of a kind, RC Sproul, he will be missed, but he has a ton of material to bless us with.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for RCSproul ... Bless his family with comfort and grace, in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.

It was milder than I expected today so I figured I'd get into the crawl space over my garage and stuff some fiberglass into the area where some idiot cut a hole in the stone wall. Looking at everything more closely up there I found a surprisingly large gap between the bricks in the exterior wall, where the house was extended. Not sure what genius figured that was acceptable construction but there you go.

Anyway, I stuffed a load of fiberglass into all the spaces I could get at. I'll want to get back in there at some point when it's a bit warmer with some wood I can lie across, because it's really tricky moving about among all the assorted struts supporting the roof. What I really want to do is demolish the whole lot and put a bigger garage in its place, one that's large enough to park two cars in as well as offering a bit of storage space. Maybe when it's a bit warmer I'll look for some quotes to do the work, I just don't expect I'm going to like the numbers.

Hopefully the next time it gets cold (expected to be in the next couple of days) I'll have chance to see whether my efforts in this confined space have paid off.

I need to go back to the hardware store. They had an awesome sale on last week, which meant that instead of getting the 20v angle grinder I was planning on getting I managed to get the 60v version (with much more power) and a battery, for only about 10% more than the 20v bare tool with no battery I had planned on getting. It turns out I need an extra accessory for it so I can cut up concrete blocks, so it's off to the hardware store (again) for me. Thankfully it's just a couple of miles away, which is handy.

Then it's back to hunting drafts and sealing them up. Yesterday I found a few small holes in my brickwork and plugged them with mortar. As soon as it gets cold again I'm going to be back outside with the thermal camera to see if I've managed to block whatever routes the warm air was taking to get inside my concrete blocks. My thermal images are improving but there's still more work to be done.

The work I did on Saturday in the crawl space above my garage is already producing results. One area that was cold in my kitchen is now the same temperature as the surrounding area, and a couple of drafts coming out of electrical outlets are fixed. The outlets still show slightly cool on a thermal image but previously they were dark blue spots.

It's remarkable just how fast some of these really rather small jobs start to bear fruit. I think it was last year I used about $5 worth of expanded polystyrene insulation to block a horrendous draft, and within six weeks the best like-for-like comparison I could do with previous years suggested it had saved nearly $100 in heating costs. Thanks to a few scraps of fiberglass stuffed into place a couple of days ago my kitchen already feels warmer, so hopefully a few offcuts I'd just left dumped in the corner will save me more money.

My son is at home sick today so I stayed home to watch him. He is type 1 diabetic, so everytime he gets sick (which isn't often) we mildly freak out

Fun with mortar, building foam and fiberglass today.

I found a really nasty draft. I'd previously tried to seal it with building foam but today I realised there's an air gap that goes right through to outside, so took an old kitchen knife to cut away the foam, pulled out a couple of bits of fiberglass I'd stuffed in there, and started to fill it with mortar. It's a large enough hole (at least on the inside) that I'm going to fill it a bit at a time and let one section set before adding any more. Otherwise I fear I'd be scraping up mortar from the floor, if it started to ooze and fall out.

While the first set was drying I took the side off one of my window frames so I could fill the space behind it with fiberglass. We put a nice triple glazed window in there, but because of the air gaps all around it (where the original window weights went), cold air and road noise can pretty much bypass the window. Once I'm done (and it takes a while, because getting the nails out is an exercise in frustration) it should be warmer and quieter in there.

Oh yes, and my table saw died so I had to haul a 100+ pound lump up the narrow basement stairs, manhandle it into the car, and take it back to the hardware store so they can mend it. I would look at it myself but it's still under warranty so I figure I'll let someone else do it for free, rather than pay to void my warranty...