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We're Done

It took just about every minute of the week that we allotted, but we got it done. I haven't even taken a 'done' picture yet, so you're going to have to take a look at about the worst it got. This is Friday at about 11AM. Down to wood and before primer.

Framing myself into a corner

Just trying to figure out how to frame the ductwork monstrosity into a simple but not prone-to-causing-head-injuries soffit. Steel framing really hurts my brain. I'm gonna sit here and eat a hot pocket and draw this.

Summertime

It's summertime and free time is at a premium. Jane still isn't unemployed as scheduled, but CPA cramming has begun. The pool is open and we've been fighting over the AC. The power has been out six times in the last 24 hours (accompanied by transformer booms and other wild electrical sounds) and I haven't made much progress on the basement.

I was able to get the front gutters cleaned, the back gutters fixed, the upstairs faucet fixed and the bathroom door now can close (an increasingly important thing around here). We went to Scott's birthday cookout, dropped in on Chris' birthday at El Vaquero, had a Father's day brunch and finished the day with a picnic at the pool.

Bobby's glad that he doesn't know what day it is, Joey is memorizing jokes, Ellie has to be throttled back on her summer workbook, and Fin walked halfway down the street all by herself without telling anyone she'd left ("I didn't cross the street." she said through tears).

Ahh, summertime.

Good news is that Comfest is coming, and the music schedule is posted.

Weekend

More money is spent. Framing has begun. I've got one and 3/4 walls done at the moment, as I've hit the complex framing around the gas and water meters. It is entirely within reason that the stud walls will be finished next weekend, and then roughing in electric, insulation and finally drywall. 105" diagonal screen here we come.

Head filled with random crap

Four straight hours of play and I'm getting better at FIFA 08. My thumbs are paying the price though.

I'm still not entirely sure how to frame box soffits with steel studs.

Screens are up. Storm windows are put away.

Jane's bike needs one of these, and a more round back wheel.

3 c-forms in a year leads to one very in trouble boy.

The blonde tornado is now down to a 1/2" buzz cut.

The bus has trouble running cold. My first project. Gotta remember how carburetors work.

Crew on top of league. Celtic won and Huns drew, so hope is still alive.

Head exploding with ADD. Gotta do twelve things.

Progress

Here's what we accomplished last evening. Yesterday morning was spent removing the shelves which were on the left.

The saws and WorkMate are in the driveway and Ellie's bugging me to start hammering pieces together.

Basement

Subfloor. It's the beginning.

I sense a great disturbance in the Force

One of the great, immutable Laws of the Universe, upon which I've based much of my sanity, was shattered on Sunday evening. At Colleen and Big Adam's (and Jonas') Superbowl party, my cousin Colleen presented Jane with not one, but two staple guns.

You see, there is a Law of the Universe that I am not allowed to posess a staple gun. (Brian just hit the comment button that his mouse broke). I've owned somewhere in the vacinity of 500 staple guns in my life, but don't have a single one in my house (except the one I borrowed from Brian). They just seem to wander out into the world of their own accord. Over the years, I've come to peace with this, and have neither mourned the loss of staple guns, nor sought for their return.

The return of one of my staple guns, along with the contribution of an additional staple gun has turned the world upside-down. I am now a man rich with staple guns (including those borrowed from others) and deeply tempted to brazenly display my riches.

Good thing that Lent is coming early. Perhaps I'll give up staple guns and return to my state of peace with the world. That, and that Brian should get over here and get his staple gun before the world collapses on itself.

Paintshaver update

Jane and I took out most of the lower half of the weathered side of the house yesterday. The contrast between the failing paint and the relatively thin coat of primer is pretty amazing. We haven't gotten the pump jacks yet, but I did buy an 8' expandable scaffolding stage, which we propped between two sawhorses and two ladders to work on some areas more easily than on a ladder alone. Just to give you an idea of how well this thing is doing, I emptied my 12-gal shopvac three times yesterday (when it was ~3/4 full). There was still a mess to clean up, but I'm guessing that ~90% of what I cut went into the vacuum.

We also tested an area of the shingles on the top of the house. There's much less paint up there, so it cut the paint right away. The shingles are much easier to gouge though.

Much more work in three weeks, when we'll have the ladder jacks and the sprayer.

Four important points about the PaintShaver:

• Don't mess with the Phillips-head screws inside the body. These are to set the depth of the blades at the lead edge of the tool body, and adjust the top-bottom bias of the cut. The blades should be below the body of the tool at the lead edge and cut a backwards-C shape in a piece of scrap wood when properly adjusted. The hex-head adjusting screw adjusts the depth of cut in the C. The vacuum fitting is designed so that the cutter should throw the majority of the waste into the vacuum. Once I got this re-adjusted the tool is noticeably easier to use. (reference photo coming)
• This thing eats blades. If you are buying one for any substantial use, get the extra blades.
• Forget the vacuum hose that comes with the Pro kit, it is too short to be useful. Buy a 1 1/4" ID hose for a pool vacuum. I got a 30' one for ~$35 shipped.
• BE CAREFUL!! I stupidly didn't wait for the blades to spin down all the way before placing my hand over the business-end of the tool to check to see that the vacuum was still sucking and tore the hell out of the meaty part of my thumb. I'm extremely lucky that I didn't have to get stitches or cut through anything important.

ecto says I'm listening to All Neon Like from the album "Bjork & Brodsky Quartet" by Björk

Paintshaver, the test run

If you enlarge the picture you an can see the first section of the house that I stripped with the Paintshaver. This section took ~30min, give or take for adjustment and learning time. I later spent another 30min finishing the courses up to the eaves. It now has oil-based primer on it.
Once I got the Paintshaver dialed in to cut the correct depth, and got a feel for it, this section went pretty quick. I did the higher courses from a utility ladder with a pretty wide stage. The Paintshaver is ideally setup for flat boards, though, and I've got a bit of bowing in the siding here. Some passes just cut a bit, while others cut as intended.