So... What are YOU doing? - Part 8

[Lamb]

That reminds me I should get exercise today. I bought a nice recombent exercise bike a couple months ago. It's a good workout and there are some great coaching videos on YouTube that go through different routines.

I'd love to know how it works out for you! My knees hurt whenever I ride my bike so I've given it up. I used to love cycling and would do 50-75 miles a week! I have a trainer on one of my bikes in the basement but I just can't do it. I'm wondering if a recumbent would be gentler on my knees? And back?

 

[tango]

SOunds like the improvement job has really progressed along since I was on last. Have you managed to deal with most of the cold spots you were trying to fill in?

It's a very slow process, held up many times by problems with availability of what I need, figuring out what to do next, and deciding what we want to do with the space. Then we had a total side-track that delayed everything by several months.

Many of the cold spots are addressed. There are still some outstanding but it's getting steadily better. I've got the whole of upstairs on the other side ripped apart and am almost ready to start rebuilding the next room. We're trying to avoid losing too much of our living space because it just gets cramped squeezing stuff from three rooms into two rooms - what we want to do is get another room finished even if it's in the unfinished part of the house, so we can close the door and consider it clean storage. We can push forward with other projects from there.

I'm hoping to make some decent progress this year. It's desperately slow at times, and part of the issue is that whatever I do I can't move the main road, which is getting ever-more tedious. I often wish we'd just sold the house and moved, but in its current state it would be hard to sell to anyone other than a contractor and for a very low price.

 

[tango]

I'd love to know how it works out for you! My knees hurt whenever I ride my bike so I've given it up. I used to love cycling and would do 50-75 miles a week! I have a trainer on one of my bikes in the basement but I just can't do it. I'm wondering if a recumbent would be gentler on my knees? And back?

You can get recumbant trikes as well, which look pretty cool. A couple of guys at my church have them. One guy has balance issues on two wheels, I think the other guy just prefers to sit back and turn the pedals rather than sitting upright on a regular bike.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

You can get recumbant trikes as well, which look pretty cool. A couple of guys at my church have them. One guy has balance issues on two wheels, I think the other guy just prefers to sit back and turn the pedals rather than sitting upright on a regular bike.

I'd love to know how it works out for you! My knees hurt whenever I ride my bike so I've given it up. I used to love cycling and would do 50-75 miles a week! I have a trainer on one of my bikes in the basement but I just can't do it. I'm wondering if a recumbent would be gentler on my knees? And back?

I should clarify - I just have a stationary exercise bike. It would be too much on my knees to have an on-road bike. The recumbent is much gentler, plus I can adjust the resistence. Some days I'm able to go at it a bit harder than others. So it may be worth it to try.
As far as the on-road recumbent trikes, I've wondered about them - the relative ease/difficulty of riding them and effort involved?

 

[Lamb]

I should clarify - I just have a stationary exercise bike. It would be too much on my knees to have an on-road bike. The recumbent is much gentler, plus I can adjust the resistence. Some days I'm able to go at it a bit harder than others. So it may be worth it to try.
As far as the on-road recumbent trikes, I've wondered about them - the relative ease/difficulty of riding them and effort involved?

That's what I'm interested in really is a stationary one. I don't think that I could easily transport one to go ride on the trails. They're pretty heavy.

 

[tango]

That's what I'm interested in really is a stationary one. I don't think that I could easily transport one to go ride on the trails. They're pretty heavy.

You need a giant ramp so you can push it onto roof bars

Seriously, one of the guys at church who has a trike has roof bars. He's an older guy and his trike is heavy so I'm not sure how he manages to get it up there. I think he usually rides with someone else so maybe he never has to do it unaided.

 

[Lamb]

You need a giant ramp so you can push it onto roof bars

Seriously, one of the guys at church who has a trike has roof bars. He's an older guy and his trike is heavy so I'm not sure how he manages to get it up there. I think he usually rides with someone else so maybe he never has to do it unaided.

Yeah, that's not happening (roof) here. We have a pickup truck but there is a cap on it so a height restriction comes into play. We have ramps for it and they're a pain.

 

[tango]

Yeah, that's not happening (roof) here. We have a pickup truck but there is a cap on it so a height restriction comes into play. We have ramps for it and they're a pain.

So get a long extendable ramp? You can push the trike onto the back of the pickup over a nice long distance

 

[Lamb]

So get a long extendable ramp? You can push the trike onto the back of the pickup over a nice long distance

You think I'm strong or something? LOL

 

[tango]

You think I'm strong or something? LOL

A long thing that slides out of the back of the truck and gives you a long gentle ramp so you don't have to push the trike up a steep hill. Or a hydraulic lift. A guy who lives near me is a disabled veteran and had something welded to the back of his truck so he can get his mobility scooter onto it unaided. I'm not sure exactly how it works but it looks impressive.

 

[Lamb]

A long thing that slides out of the back of the truck and gives you a long gentle ramp so you don't have to push the trike up a steep hill. Or a hydraulic lift. A guy who lives near me is a disabled veteran and had something welded to the back of his truck so he can get his mobility scooter onto it unaided. I'm not sure exactly how it works but it looks impressive.

How do you transport ramps though that won't fit into the bed of the truck? Our ramps stick out of the cap opening and my husband won't drive with it opened.

 

[tango]

How do you transport ramps though that won't fit into the bed of the truck? Our ramps stick out of the cap opening and my husband won't drive with it opened.

Why won't he drive with it opened? Use ratchet straps to hold things down. Or put a hydraulic lift in the back so you can raise it up and close the rear.

Or just buy a bigger truck

 

[tango]

A bit more precision dismantling in the guest bedroom.

I managed to get the long baseboard off completely, and remove the lath and plaster from behind it. Then a quick cleanup with the shop vac that sounds like it's ready to give up the ghost at any time.

As I expected there are gaps in the wall where the joists rest. I'm going to fill the gaps with spray foam to help with the insulation. Then I can look into renting the doodad to blow insulation into the cavities. It looks like there used to be insulation in the cavities so I'm not sure what happened to it.

 

[Lamb]

Family has been here so we've been busy. Today we're all going out for ice cream!

 

[tango]

My can of spray foam didn't quite make it the whole way around the room. I got all of the gaps filled except the last one, which is about 1/3 full because I ran out of foam. I didn't really want to use a new can of foam just for that small section. By now it should be ready to trim back to the level of the wall.

Since I've got the baseboard and part of the wall removed I'm thinking I might rewire one of the old sockets that's currently totally disconnected, and drill holes through the wall studs to run cables rather than feeding them all the way up into the attic space. It will be handy to get rid of some cable in that space, not to mention freeing up some spare cable for anything else I need.

I'm also contemplating running a cable back to the breaker panel to set up a dedicated circuit for this room. At present one socket is disconnected, two are only live thanks to a nasty hack and two are on a generic "upstairs sockets" circuit. The two that are a nasty hack will need to stay that way until we gut this room but the other three could be connected to a new circuit, as long as I can get my fish tape under the adjacent room. I think I can do that easily enough.

I also got the backbox for the light in the room I'm primarily focusing on fitted and wired. Now I've got a switch and light in place. It will ultimately hold a ceiling fan so it's a heavy duty back box. For now it's just a cheap light fitting so I can see when I'm working. Now I can remove the nasty fluorescent light strip that was there before.

It's good to see things gradually taking form.

 

[Lamb]

My family just left to return home so my husband and I are going to go out for breakfast.

 

[tango]

Helped with a fundraiser for some of the church kids to go on a mission trip this lunchtime. I had thought it would be pretty neat if it raised $5-600 but we ended up with slightly over double that.

Tonight we've got a movie showing. I'm not interested in the movie but I'll be there to set it all up and make sure everything works.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Getting rady for a busy week - doing double-duty dog sitting and taking care of my cat who has a bum leg for a while. Both are pretty needy animals so wish me luck navigating this! They've never met so they won't be in the same place.

 

[tango]

Some light tinkering in the house this afternoon. I needed to figure how much of a drop there is in my drop ceiling because I want to fit a ceiling fan but didn't know how much space I had to work with. Based on an adjacent room I figured I'd have 2x4s forming some kind of pattern but didn't know which way they would run. I was able to make a hole through from the other side so I could shine a light.

It turns out that, much as expected, I've got 2x4s running with wood strips pinned perpendicular, which in turn hold the ceiling tiles. That makes it a nuisance because my back boxes suitable for fans wouldn't have much grip in the bottom of the 2x4s, meaning a significant chance of the whole lot breaking away and meeting the ground at speed. I could conceivably screw a shim into the bottom of the 2x4 but I'm not sure whether I'd end up with screws that screwed in between the two pieces of wood, and therefore still didn't have any meaningful strength. I don't think cutting a piece out of the bottom of the 2x4 so I could screw a bigger shim into place is a viable option because whatever I do needs to happen through a single 4" circular hole. There is a doodad I can buy that is designed for situations similar to this but I need to check to make sure it can bite into joists that are 3/4" higher than the bottom of the ceiling surface. Then I just need to figure out how to get a piece of cable from the nearest power point to where I need it to be.

I think running the cable will be relatively easy but I'm going to need a bigger back box to hold everything. I'm going to end up with three and maybe four three-way switches, plus a power cable in and a power cable out, plus the cables that feed the remote three-way switches. It's going to be a bit of a jumble in there.

 

[Lamb]

Now that family is gone I'm busy cleaning the house again. I'm hoping today's storms aren't as bad as they're forecasting.