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

[tango]

Maybe that junky stuff is what people at that particular market like to buy?

I guess, it's just disappointing when so many local markets feature little more than junk.

It's one thing to go around a market thinking there's nothing there that really appeals to me. At least this one didn't leave me thinking I've thrown away nicer stuff than the people are trying to sell. One local market is so junky I don't know why people bother with it, I've literally seen people trying to sell tools that were more rust than metal.

 

[Lamb]

I guess, it's just disappointing when so many local markets feature little more than junk.

It's one thing to go around a market thinking there's nothing there that really appeals to me. At least this one didn't leave me thinking I've thrown away nicer stuff than the people are trying to sell. One local market is so junky I don't know why people bother with it, I've literally seen people trying to sell tools that were more rust than metal.

Old tools are good for decorating and since they're old, people like to display them as antiques. It's a thing now.

 

[tango]

Old tools are good for decorating and since they're old, people like to display them as antiques. It's a thing now.

I'm not talking about old tools like big band saws, I'm talking things like taps and dies that are so rusted as to be useless and don't even make good decorations.

I've seen people using vintage hand tools as wall ornaments - I had someone offer to buy an old hand saw I have hanging in my basement because he wanted to hang it in his basement - but there comes a point when something is just junk. Some old things are antiques, some old things are just junk.

 

[tango]

More progress on the house. I finally managed to figure out how to get the insulation blower home. It took my wife and I taking both cars to collect the thing, which was just as well because it didn't all fit in one car. I took the blower in the back of my car and she took the barrel of hoses and cables, and the bags of insulation.

This afternoon we got insulation blown from the upstairs room into the wall cavity behind the downstairs room and then got the surplus cleared up, fiberglass stuffed into the cavities underneath the windows, and the baseboards put back into place and screwed into position. Now the hoses are coiled up in the closet so the cat can't get into the part of the house that's demolished, and tomorrow I can feed the hose into the attic and blow insulation into the wall cavity behind the upstairs room.

With the benefit of hindsight I think the insulation blower was overkill for what I needed, but it's good to know the downstairs room is as well insulated as it can be without pulling the walls down.. On Sunday evening we get to dismantle it and load it back into the cars to return it on Monday. Carrying the base up the stairs was an interesting experience - I had hoped to not have to do that but the hose wasn't long enough to reach from downstairs right up into the attic, so I didn't have a lot of choice.

Once this is done we can move some furniture back into the upstairs room and get things back more or less how they were - we needed to move a load of stuff out so I could get at the baseboards all the way round the room. Then I can press on with the next room and get some insulation panels cut for it.

 

[Lamb]

We're dog sitting all weekend! I didn't sleep at all last night

 

[tango]

More house-related excitement. Shortly after the hardware store closed yesterday the flush mechanism on the toilet broke. So I guess I've got another job for today....

 

[tango]

The rest of the insulation is blown into place. I had hoped to get away with a single bag of insulation but ended up using half of the second bag I bought. I could probably have managed to press the cellulose I've recovered from elsewhere into place by hand but decided to go with the blower for the extra force I can get behind it.

The sound insulation is somewhat better. Not as much better as I had hoped but an improvement. I expect this winter we will notice a major reduction in heating costs, which can only be a good thing.

The insulation blower is dismantled and in our cars ready to be returned in the morning.

The toilet is fixed and now flushes as it should.

Next up I can press on with clearing some space in the room I'm currently working on (easier, now the insulation blower and hoses are gone), cut some insulation panels and run some cables to get the electrics ready. Then I just need to get the new windows ordered, order and fit the sound proofing vinyl sheets, and talk to a friend about drywalling it all. Hopefully we can get this room finished before too long and move on to the next one. I think I want to make a big push to get downstairs on the other side finished - we've got a lot of the work done but just get constrained because it's the place where a lot of surplus material has tended to land, and it gets difficult to work around it all.

And this afternoon I had the most delicious burger I've had in a long time from my favorite brewpub. I also had a couple of pretty good beers while I was there.

 

[Lamb]

I'm still dog sitting and my husband got up to go to work and the dog woke up...at 5:30AM. Now I'm exhausted and have to do laundry and clean toilets before my daughter comes here this afternoon.

 

[tango]

More cleaning up, I got the HEPA-fitted shop vac into the attic to clean up the last of the dust. I took the chance to check the blown insulation and found it had started to settle a little and there were a few spaces the downward force of pressure didn't catch, so stuffed cellulose into those by hand.

Then a load of rearranging stuff in the attic since I don't need the walls to be accessible any more and can put everything back more or less where it was. Then another round of cleaning up, to catch the dust from the floor around where things used to be.

Now the guest bedroom walls are reassembled we can set the furniture in there back to something more useful. So now that's mostly done, and we can shift some more furniture around. But first, I wanted to get out for a bit so went hiking in the woods for a couple of hours. Once the furniture shifting is done I'll have my workbench back, which means I can tinker with more stuff. Then I can get stuff out of the bathroom closet where it's been tucked for safekeeping.

Sooner or later I'll get to actually cut insulation panels for the next room on the list to be fixed up and press on with the electrics in there. That will be good to get done.

 

[Lamb]

Looking online for hiking shoes.

 

[tango]

I got mine from Appalachian Outdoors. The staff there were really helpful. Not sure if there's one anywhere near you - boots are the kind of thing I want to try on before buying.

 

[Lamb]

I got mine from Appalachian Outdoors. The staff there were really helpful. Not sure if there's one anywhere near you - boots are the kind of thing I want to try on before buying.

I don't want boots....I'm looking to stick with a shoe. I had boots and prefer the shoe instead since they're lighter to walk in. I need the heavy sole though of a hiking shoe since I go over rocky areas.

 

[tango]

I don't want boots....I'm looking to stick with a shoe. I had boots and prefer the shoe instead since they're lighter to walk in. I need the heavy sole though of a hiking shoe since I go over rocky areas.

Sure, I'd still want to try them on before buying them unless I was buying the exact same brand and model that I was replacing. You definitely want a heavy sole if you're walking on rocky trails. I haven't tried hiking in my area in regular shoes but have hiked in boots old enough they really needed to be retired, and they reminded me of their age many times.

 

[Lamb]

Sure, I'd still want to try them on before buying them unless I was buying the exact same brand and model that I was replacing. You definitely want a heavy sole if you're walking on rocky trails. I haven't tried hiking in my area in regular shoes but have hiked in boots old enough they really needed to be retired, and they reminded me of their age many times.

Most of the online shoes I'm looking at are Chinese brands that get partially good reviews. I'm really not interested in those at all.

I have a pair of hiking boots I bought a couple years ago that I can't walk in for more than a mile without getting blisters. I'm not sure what it is about these that are doing it since I've had similar ones in the past that never gave me blisters in those spots. I'm wondering if I should sew something to give more cushy support in that spot that can slip onto my foot and hold it in place? Kind of like the supports I see for soccer players but I don't want a hard piece of plastic inside, I want cushion. I might work on that this week and then see how that goes. These are practically brand new and they're waterproof. They're just a little bulkier than other shoes but not as hefty as some of the bigger hiking boots I see. So maybe this is the next route I should go. I don't want to waste gas driving around to stores since I live in the country and gas is too expensive atm.

 

[tango]

Most of the online shoes I'm looking at are Chinese brands that get partially good reviews. I'm really not interested in those at all.

I have a pair of hiking boots I bought a couple years ago that I can't walk in for more than a mile without getting blisters. I'm not sure what it is about these that are doing it since I've had similar ones in the past that never gave me blisters in those spots. I'm wondering if I should sew something to give more cushy support in that spot that can slip onto my foot and hold it in place? Kind of like the supports I see for soccer players but I don't want a hard piece of plastic inside, I want cushion. I might work on that this week and then see how that goes. These are practically brand new and they're waterproof. They're just a little bulkier than other shoes but not as hefty as some of the bigger hiking boots I see. So maybe this is the next route I should go. I don't want to waste gas driving around to stores since I live in the country and gas is too expensive atm.

Yick, Chinese brand with partially good reviews.... sounds like something worth avoiding. Are they the brands that looked like somebody rubbed a balloon and tried to spell the sound it made? At least with a shoe they can't get the manual too badly wrong. I've got a few Chinese made things where the manual refers to a remote control that doesn't exist and shows a picture of the unit that doesn't match the unit. Another one said things like "turn the knob to the minimum temperature" when there is no knob.

I try to combine trips to the extent I can. The other day I chalked up about 85 miles, which is further than I've driven in a day for months, but managed to combine multiple things into that one trip. I've been loosely considering an electric bicycle for the most local trips - the kind of thing where you get home and notice you don't have milk or something. It's only a mile to the local grocery store but it's really not good for a car to be driven a mile and stopped, than driven a mile home and stopped.

 

[tango]

Shuffling furniture around today. Beds moved from one bedroom to another, beds moved from the target bedroom to the attic, work bench moved from the attic to the office, and everything cleaned while furniture was out of the way.

Lots of sweat dripped onto the attic floor in the process, it's warm up there. But it's good to have stuff tucked out of the way more neatly again, and most of the floor cleared off and cleaned up.

 

[tango]

Pressing on with fixing up the next room on the list. I've got power cables run around about half the room, most of the ceiing pulled down and insulation put into place, and most of the insulation panels cut and fitted to the wall spaces now. I've got one full strip I need to finish and a single space under a window to see to.

I'm going to need to figure out what best to do with some of the walls. The walls are studded with 2x4s but set perpendicular to how I'd want them to be. Rather than trying to drill through them to run cables and then have to put metal plates on to protect the cables from future nails and screws I'm considering either taking them out and turning them, or maybe just fitting "buddy studs" to turn them into 4x4s. The buddy option will cost more but be quicker and make a lot less mess.

 

[Lamb]

Working on Christmas crafts.

 

[Lamb]

I'm so tired! Yesterday I put the grout paint/sealer on the kitchen floor and that activity really got to me. I guess my body is still in recovery (4 months later after surgery) so today I'll just relax. I'm watching Catfish right now.

 

[tango]

Got new internet installed last night. Now it's super fast, which is nice. Also got all the exterior wall studs shimmed to more or less an even surface in the room I'm fixing up.

This morning I went for a run before it got hot. The latter part (before it got hot) failed miserably and I ended up sweating like a pig. I had thought to do speed repeats but it's so hot and humid I thought that would be a bad idea, so did a gentle run. It started out feeling very good but I was struggling with the heat earlier than I had hoped. Oh well, the heat won't last forever...