So... What are YOU doing? - Part 6

[tango]

Lazy day today. Got home from church, had lunch and a nap in my recliner, then spent most of the afternoon sitting on the porch watching the world go by. It's a tough life.

 

[NewCreation435]

We have been getting the worst of Tropical Depression Florence for the last couple of hours. Fairly hard rain coming down now which is suppose to last until about 1 or 2 am or possibly later. The school district where I see kids is on a two hour delay tomorrow morning.

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

I woke at 6:00 am, took another forty winks and then woke up for real at 7:50 am. Divine Service starts at 8:00 am, but I did manage to make it right at the Absolution. I was off today, which was an extra blessing. In fact, I found that so hard to believe that I stopped by the shop to reaffirm my schedule ( office drama/ lack of communication managed to foul up the schedule for a lot of us, but one supervisor made it right). So, I bought some Port and Sprite and enjoyed my day off.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Having a coffee after experiencing total shock at the price tag of a new suit. My nephew's wedding is next month and it's required. Now I know why I don't wear suits. It does look pretty snazzy, though

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

I woke at 6:00 am, took another forty winks and then woke up for real at 7:50 am. Divine Service starts at 8:00 am, but I did manage to make it right at the Absolution. I was off today, which was an extra blessing. In fact, I found that so hard to believe that I stopped by the shop to reaffirm my schedule ( office drama/ lack of communication managed to foul up the schedule for a lot of us, but one supervisor made it right). So, I bought some Port and Sprite and enjoyed my day off.

Glad you made it for part of service, but... Port and Sprite?? :dead1:

 

[Lamb]

Having a coffee after experiencing total shock at the price tag of a new suit. My nephew's wedding is next month and it's required. Now I know why I don't wear suits. It does look pretty snazzy, though

JC Penney has reasonably priced suits (and tuxes too!).

 

[tango]

Trying to figure out how to get 12-foot 2x4s down from above head height when they are nailed into place at both ends. I can easily carry the weight of one beam but not from one end. And because everything is over head height I need ladders to get at them safely. Some of the nails won't come out so those beams may need to be cut. The challenge is releasing them in a way that doesn't let them fall to the ground, but I'm not sure how best to contain everything.

I've been trying to take down the lath-and-plaster ceiling above the beams but it's proving fiddly, not least because I don't have clear access to everything. In the part I have pulled down so far I found another wiring surprise. I do enjoy wiring surprises. It's another bunch of nasty-looking knob and tube wiring. And I found another abandoned mouse nest. I suspect the mouse has long since died and decomposed, leaving the nest behind.

I'm still cautiously optimistic that the nasty web of cables is such that I can just cut individual sections and the rest will work. There certainly seems to be little to no rhyme nor reason to how it's all strung together. I'm also cautiously optimistic that my outdoor porch light can be rewired fairly easily - I'm hoping to be able to join a new piece of cable to the old cable at the light fitting, then use the old cable to pull the new cable through into the house, then seal up the space around the new cable to make a nice seal so I don't get any more mice nesting in my ceiling cavities.

 

[Lamb]

Tango, can you nail or screw a small piece of wood on each side of those beams to hold it to the ceiling so that when you remove the real holding nails the beam won't drop? The small pieces of wood might? hold it up until you're ready to remove them?

 

[Lamb]

Tango, can you nail or screw a small piece of wood on each side of those beams to hold it to the ceiling so that when you remove the real holding nails the beam won't drop? The small pieces of wood might? hold it up until you're ready to remove them?

Adding onto this...what about a brace or holding ledge underneath?

 

[tango]

Tango, can you nail or screw a small piece of wood on each side of those beams to hold it to the ceiling so that when you remove the real holding nails the beam won't drop? The small pieces of wood might? hold it up until you're ready to remove them?

Adding onto this...what about a brace or holding ledge underneath?

Holding it to the ceiling would have to be done centrally and is tricky because the beams on the ceiling that would be strong enough to hold the weight aren't necessarily aligned with the beams I want to take down. At the moment I'm thinking about using ropes to take the weight, having someone stand on the floor with ropes looping over an adjacent beam and around the one I'm preparing to remove, so that when I unfasten one end it can only drop so far. Then when I unfasten the other end the person with the ropes can lower it to a point I can hold it, so I can carry it away.

I thought about trying to brace it but it seems like a remarkable amount of work building something that would work as a brace, that's strong enough to support it and wide enough to not tip over as I descend a ladder 12 feet away holding the other end of the beam.

I may yet revert to the original plan of roping someone in to help and using one ladder at each and and one battery-powered saw at each end. I have a battery powered reciprocating saw and a battery powered jigsaw, so as long as I can find a second ladder that won't wreck my flooring I can probably do it that way. I just need a volunteer. Any takers?

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

Glad you made it for part of service, but... Port and Sprite?? :dead1:

Taylor's Port and Sprite, yeah. It makes for a thirst- quencher that Port by itself ( kind of a syrupy wine) can't really supply. It tastes far better than it sounds, at least to me.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Just got back from grocery shopping.

 

[tango]

I pulled some more ceiling down. It's a pain trying to get at it all with the 2x4s in the way but I'm slowly chugging through it. So far I've got 8 bags of rubble filled and a couple more partly filled. By the time this room is done I'm probably going to have enough to make it worth borrowing my friend's truck again. I've also got a growing pile of laths and wallpaper to burn.

And I found some more wiring ugliness I wasn't expecting. One cable I tagged as probably not connected to anything does appear to be connected to something at the other end, I just haven't got to it yet. Next up I think I'm going to focus on ripping down sections of ceiling to expose as much of the wiring as I can. It looks like whoever put it in formed a whole bunch of joins in the most inaccessible parts of the wall and ceiling cavity. As I go I'm physically removing all of the knobs and tubes too.... it's not strictly necessary but since I'm doing all the work it seems I might as well get rid of everything.

I'm still at something of a loss to figure out just how the porch light is wired. Knob and tube doesn't seem to even remotely abide by electrical norms of today. It's a shame that most of the lighting in the areas we are using is on the same circuit as the hideous clusters of wiring I'm dealing with now, or I'd just cut it and rework it. WIth the number of joins and junctions it's entirely possible I could just cut stuff and it still work. Maybe once I can see it all I'll do something like that, and find out once and for all. If it doesn't work I can splice an offcut into place pending doing it properly.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Contemplating what else to have for dinner. I bought some frozen pork thingies that are quite disgusting.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Just came back from hanging outside with some friends.

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

Just got back from work. Getting ready to go to bed.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Just got up, can't sleep. :banghead:

 

[Lamb]

Getting groceries in a bit.

 

[Lamb]

I'm very sleepy. Our carbon monoxide detector went off late last night and I changed the batteries and then stayed up to make sure that was what made it go off. We're good.

 

[Ruth]

Glad it was just the battery Lamm.

I need to go grocery shopping. I need food like veggies and cottage cheese.