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

[tango]

Oh yeah, wait until it's warmer. We might get up to the 50s on Wednesday where I live!

Into the 50s would be nice. I don't think we're supposed to go much over 40 for several days but 40 beats the teens, especially in a confined uninsulated space!

 

[Naiwen]

Howdy sup there guys man! How are you today? Today, I’ve just had my usual weekly 3 hours therapy session both by phone and online. Tonight, just resting in bed before heading to sleep.

 

[Lamb]

Finished shoveling the heart attack snow. Now to rest.

 

[tango]

I tried chipping away some of my chimney that's in the main part of the house to make sure it will yield to my chisel. Sadly it won't - hammering away with a club hammer and a masonry chisel demonstrated this thing is built to last.

I fear I may need a new tool to deal with this. I've been looking at an SDS drill and a big ugly chisel bit for it. If that doesn't do the job nothing will. I just hope I can contain the falling fragments.

 

[Naiwen]

Howdy sup there! How’s it going so far with your day? Today, just enjoying my usual TV show before heading the sack tonight.

 

[tango]

Running my hammer drill to get the remains of the nails out of the chimney stack I need to get rid of. The last thing I want is for an angle grinder wheel to grab something sharp and spikey and throw it hard at me.

I may be able to get the work done with an angle grinder and hammer drill. I also found out today that a friend of mine who works for a firm of electricians may be able to get me an SDS hammer drill to borrow.

 

[Lamb]

It's SO warm outside today that I finally got to go outside for a walk

 

[tango]

It's SO warm outside today that I finally got to go outside for a walk

It's quite warm here but there's still a lot of snow everywhere.

I tried taking my angle grinder to the chimney stack. I have a 6" cutting disk that will cut concrete but it creates a horrendous amount of dust, which is then difficult to manage. It hangs in the air and gets everywhere. I opened the window and tried to pump the air out with a fan, only to find the wind blew it right back in again. So I shifted tack, opened the window and put the fan in the opposite window. Then the wind changed direction, and blew the dust back in again.

It looks like I'm going to need the SDS drill. I'm hoping a friend of mine can lend/rent me one from his company but as a fallback I've got my local hardware store to get one in. They had it in stock in their other branch so could transfer it without me committing to buy it.

 

[Lamb]

Another warm and beautifully sunny day so I'm going walking later on! Can't wait to get out there

 

[Naiwen]

Hello morning all! How are you doing so far with your day? This morning, I’ve just enjoyed outside a most pleasant and full of sunshine walk, meditation, yoga and breathing exercises session. It’s smelling like spring today and currently feeling like 4C. The roads are easier to walk on without all that snow and ice on it too. It’s milder and sunny today too. The afternoon, just relaxing online before dozing off tonight.

 

[tango]

It was supposed to reach a high of about 46 today. It felt warmer than that so I went for my walk without my sweatshirt. I'm glad I left it behind, the thermometer on one of the local offices said 62 degrees. It was cooler than that in the shade but a glorious day. If I'd known how warm it was going to be I'd have planned a walk in the woods.

 

[tango]

Another generous helping of Fun With Brickwork. My friend was able to lend me an SDS. It's still slow work but it's incomparably faster than doing it by hand and vastly cleaner than using an angle grinder.

In the first half hour or so of getting to grips with what it can do I managed to chisel out the mortar around one entire brick and nearly dropped a 10lb lump on my foot, as it fell out of the chimney stack unexpectedly. Tomorrow when it's daylight I can hammer around at least the top bricks. I'm hoping I can get this entire stack out within a day or two, before my friend needs his tool back. If needs be I'll go ahead and buy the one I had transferred to my local hardware store, but I'm really hoping I can finish before then. On another positive note, the one I borrowed is the smallest of the three models I was looking at, which means I can potentially get away with $300 rather than $500, if I do end up buying one. I may yet go for a bigger one for the extra speed, but with any luck I won't need it at all.

 

[Lamb]

We had a high of 48F yesterday and it's going to be just slightly cooler today and I hope to get another long walk in. But first, groceries!

 

[Naiwen]

Howdy sup there! How are ye all doing today? Today, just playing some games on my phone before falling asleep tonight.

 

[tango]

A couple of hours of Fun With Bricks.

The SDS drill works a lot better starting from the very top of the stack. That was tricky, because it involved working in a very confined space in the attic crawl space, lying on my belly on a couple of boards and reaching over my head. Then lifting out big lumps of concrete was also tricky. Thankfully there were only maybe five blocks to remove that way, then I could get back to the regular room.

The first several bricks needed the ladder and once the ladder was out of the way I could really move. What helped a lot was when I figured to use the SDS and wrecking bar in a kind of tag-team, where the chisel bit would make a hole between blocks, then the wrecking bar would force them apart and break the rest of the mortar, and I could just lift huge great lumps out.

Based on how fast I could work yesterday I was expecting the job to take all day and probably spill into tomorrow as well, if not into the weekend. As it happened I was done within two hours. Now I just need to figure out what to do with a pile of concrete blocks.

 

[Lamb]

Finishing up with correcting a crochet pattern so I can get put it up on my craft forum.

 

[tango]

Following the demolition of my chimney stack I had to deal with a couple of related issues. Firstly I had a ceiling joist that wasn't adequately supported, so I cut a piece of treated wood to extend it and bolted it on to the existing piece. Now it's supported at both ends. The other issue was that a piece of rafter wasn't fully supported at the end - it was cut short where the chimney stopped. Extending that would have meant working in a space too small to reach so I cut an angled support and screwed it into place between the rafter and the floor joist. It's probably not necessary but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Tonight we met up with our Bible study group just to catch up on news. My friend who lent me the SDS was there, so I was able to return it.

 

[Lamb]

I have to drive over to the next state to pick up some things that I had hoped would be mailed out to me so I wouldn't have to venture out.

 

[mailmandan]

I’m at the car dealership waiting on a 4 wheel alignment and a tire rotation.

 

[Lamb]

I’m at the car dealership waiting on a 4 wheel alignment and a tire rotation.

How often do you get your tires rotated?