Month: March 2009

IOU

I’ll be buying a new computer within a couple days. It’s just a matter of finding the proper hardware for the right price.  Right now I’m leaning towards a Dell Optiplex 760, it’s a solid business class machine.  KSoB uses them exclusively, and I know their inner workings inside and out.  I wanted a quad core machine, but to get this machine I will have to sacrifice that feature.

Repairing the Floor

I have everything completed in the walls of my office.  I have one more thing to do before I can move on to the other area downstairs.

This is just a sample of what the perimeter of our basement floor looks like.  The floor originally was covered with carpet.  As a part of carpet installation, tack strips were put down on the perimeter of the floor.  Since the basement does get some water from time to time, we are not going to put a floor covering down that has the potential of being damaged due to water.  We have decided to either stain the concrete or apply an epoxy coating.

I want to repair all of these chips to make the floor visually appealing, and smooth.  I have no experience with masonry or concrete, so this will be an adventure.

With anything I have no experience with, I first search the internet for any available information to try to learn as much as possible before undergoing a project.  While there are many articles and how-to’s on how to repair a crack in a concrete sidewalk, or a missing corner from a concrete sidewalk, there is absolutely nothing on this particular issue.  I’ve searched endlessly as I don’t want to mess this up.  I hope my trial and error can help someone out in cyberspace.

I purchased some masonry crack filler that comes pre-mixed in a 1L bottle.  It seems like the proper patch tool for the job.  The first step was to remove all of the existing nails, and clean the area thoroughly.

I then poured the filler in to the holes, making sure to overfill each hole.

I tested it out to see if I could sand this filler to make the patch perfectly smooth and level with the rest of the floor.  It seems to sand very well.  There is a cancer warning for the dust particles that come from this, so I will be wearing a mask whenever sanding.

The patch is still drying and my Monday is booked.  I am planning on sanding this section down on Tuesday night.  I will update my progress then.

Dying Slowly

My PC is dying a long, drawn out death.  It’s to a point where I cannot do the things I need to do with it.

The first sign was when the motherboard died.  I should have just cut my losses and ran, but not me.  I found what I thought was a suitable replacement and got it going again.

This suitable replacement has been nothing but a pile of headaches.  I can no longer import video on my machine.  I must do that job on my wifes’ laptop and then transfer it to mine.  My disc burning speeds have been halved to 8x.  The last two DVDs I burnt had an audio sync issue, so I believe there are more issues there as well.

My main hard drive crashed as soon as the new motherboard was replaced.  While we did recover all files from it, and actually still use it, the end is near for that as well.  The computer does not want to shut down and performance is like that of a 486.

Last night was the breaking point, as my USB ports are only working intermittently.  I use my USB ports for everything, I have 15 of them!  When I can’t sync my phone or access my flash drive for school, that’s big trouble.

All of this in a time of change.  As of right now, we are about 1/3 of the way done on our basement remodel.  I have finished all the “real” work on one side.  All we have to do is add some more insulation and vapor barrier, then it’s on to the next.

I’m hoping to hold onto this until I get the basement done and a new machine can have a proper place.  Whether that happens is yet to be seen.

So It Begins…

We officially began remodeling our basement on Saturday.  Rachel and I removed the trim to all the paneling.  Sunday I got ancy and removed the paneling and installed a new light fixture.  What was waiting for us was shocking and interesting at the same time.

First surprise:  Ants!

What you are seeing is not dirt, it’s ants.  They must have been living behind the paneling for years.  When I removed the corner pieces they just came flying out.  We hosed them down with some mean stuff that we have.  It was very surprising to me that they could live behind there without coming out.  There isn’t much behind the wall except for wood, insulation and concrete blocks.

Second Surprise:  Pepsi Bottle!

Behind the hollow wall that our utility room shares was this bottle.  We’ve traced it down to being made between 1960 and 1967.  The puzzling thing is that our house was built in 1974.  Not being alive during this time, I’m not sure how long glass bottles stayed in circulation.  My dad told me that it’s possible that this bottle was still in use during the construction of our home.  We cleaned it up and will give it to my father-in-law the next time we see him.  My dad collects these things, but I think it would be more special to Joe.

This is where my progress has ended as of now.  I haven’t removed the insulation on the walls yet, but from what I can tell thus far it is in good shape.  If there is no mold on it I will reuse it and add a vapor barrier.

We have split the downstairs into 2 seperate areas for remodeling purposes.  This makes for 2 smaller jobs versus 1 bigger one, thus making it more manageable.  I have some re-wiring work to do as our home was constructed “pre-cable.”  It has plenty of flat antenna cable, but not RG6 (what is used for cable and satellite TV).  I am also re-wiring all of our phone outlets, as right now they are shoddy at best.  I had to re-wire them to make our DSL connection work.

Once all the backend work is done, I’m going to put the paneling back up.  I’m hoping to save as much of this as possible, but much of it is rotted or has big holes in it from 30+ years of living.  I’m going to call my “daughter’s mother’s step-dad” to put the trim back up.  He’s a master carpenter – someone needed for some of the complex angles this has.

After that’s done twice, we will paint the paneling to lighten up the area.  There is only 1 window for the entire downstairs and it can be a little creepy down there.  Then onto the floor.  The first step is repairing the surface.  There was carpet in there originally, and after removal of the tack strips it has caused little chips to be removed.  Shouldn’t be a hard problem to solve.  Then onto the finish, we have been discussing 2 viable options, concrete stain or epoxy coating.  I’m a fan of concrete stain, as it gives a very nice appearance.  Rachel is a fan of epoxy coating as it’s a bit cheaper.

After all this is over I then have a bedroom to re-do.  This bedroom is where I’m writing this right now.  It has a shelving unit that was crudely attached which I’m removing.  After repairing the drywall there isn’t much work to do except paint and a new closet door.

Those are the plans, but I’m sure there will be some bumps in the road.  I’ll be writing as often as I can to document the first “real” remodel of our home.  I can’t wait to see my Home Office / Man Cave become a reality!