Category: Rachel

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!

Dad-da

I’ve got some mighty big news to share.  I’m going to be a father for the second time in my life.

We found this out several weeks ago, but wanted to wait until the first appointment.  We didn’t want to tell the world, just to tell them that there are problems and so on.

The news has been both shocking and exciting.  It means I have many things to do around the house in preparation for the new child.

I have to remodel our downstairs to move my office down there.  I then have to remodel the new nursery to make it hospitable for a child.

There’s much to be done, and the clock is now officially ticking.  The due date is October 6th – I believe.

Another Mish-Mosh

There have been many things going on lately.  With the holiday season and new years over, I’m reflecting on all the activities we’ve been pre-occupied with.

Christmas, as always is a very complicated time for us.  We went to 3 family events, my grandma Lawmaster’s on the 23rd, my in-law’s on the 24th and my memma’s on Christmas day.  We then had “after” Christmas get togethers for my daughter, who spent her Christmas with her mother.

Rachel and I finally stopped schmoozing off of my mother for our cell phone service and got our own plan.  We decided to switch back to AT&T, due to a 12% IU discount, and cheaper plan.  I finally got a smart-phone, a Samsung Blackjack II while Rachel decided she liked a red LG Shine.  It was very interesting to go through this process again.  We haven’t been officially on a cell phone plan for 4 years.  While researching how much this would cost us upfront, the difference in how much and where was astounding.

On the AT&T Premier website (dedicated to business & enterprise):  For the mentioned phones, we were looking at about $325.00 in up front costs.  We would receive a $50 mail in rebate in the form of a debit card.

For the same phones at Best Buy, $50!  I’m not kidding.  I was blown away.  The only difference is that we had to set up our IU discount separately, which just took a phone call.

We painted our bedroom finally, it’s a nice yellow hue.  When mentioning it to people I tell them that the color is what you would get if you mixed yellow and brown mustard.  It looks real nice, now onto the curtains.  Hopefully they will be nice.

I will be starting school next week.  I am entering the CIT (computer information technology) program at Ivy Tech.  Within a few years, I should have a degree in a field I love, which can hopefully help me attain some real employment.

Down and Out, For Now

Sunday as Rachel, Taylor and I were heading to my grandma’s for some delicious vegetable soup, my truck died.  I was able to get it re-started to get it turned around and on the way back to our home.  It stopped about 50 feet shy of our driveway, and in the middle of our road.  We tried to push, but it wouldn’t budge.

An argument ensued, and I decided we leave it there for the moment and enjoy some soup to warm our souls.  We would return to move the truck soon enough.

When we returned, we couldn’t get the truck out of Park.  It just wouldn’t budge.  I don’t believe it’s my ignition switch again, cause we can crank the truck and the steering wheel isn’t locked up.

All in all, there are 2 problems affecting my truck that if taken to a shop will cost around $1,000 to fix.  My fuel pump has bit the dust, and some safety device which prevents the transmission from coming out of Park.

With the help of my neighbor Bill, I removed the drive shaft and we pulled my truck with Rachel’s Kia.

I can save myself about $600 by installing the fuel pump myself.  There are many “ifs” in this situation though.  I’ve never replaced one before, the weather is not conducive to working in the cold, did I mention it’s cold?

Rachel wants to just get rid of the truck, but it’s imperitive that we have a second mode of transportation.  Should I get a job somewhere not on the IU campus, I will need a way to get there.

With the trucks’ current condition, we would have to give it away.  Something I’m not willing to do.

I hope the truck isn’t still broken down by the time we need it, such as 6+ inches of snow.

Happy 200th! Not.

On a weird statistical note, this is my 200th post to this blog.  I really thought I had written more than that, but not.

The troubling part is the reason why I’m writing this entry.  Rachel and I have been trying to be closer, as we’ve been going through a spell where we are more like roomies than spouses.  It’s really bugged me, and I think it has bugged her too.  We have made some strides in our relationship, but as my dad famously says “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

I’ve been having some serious problems in the intimate department of our relationship.  It’s not that I don’t desire my wife anymore, I just can’t perform.  Basically at all.  It makes it hard to be close (in that way) when you know you don’t even have a chance to perform the duties you were designed to do.

I had my yearly appointment with my neurologist this week and I asked him several questions about possible side effects of the two anti-convulsant medications I take, Keppra and Carbatrol.  He told me that those two medications do indeed have sexual side effects and almost instantly offered to prescribe me my pick of something for “ED.”

It was almost like a knee-jerk reaction, and it kind of scared me.  I guess his adrenaline levels finally got in check and he ordered some labs for me.  Mainly my testosterone and thyroid levels.

I found out today that my testosterone levels are, “extremely low for a person of my age” according to my neurologist.  This has put me into a tailspin of feelings and emotions regarding my health.

Should a otherwise healthy 28 year old be taking Viagra?  It’s excluded by my insurance, which makes it almost non reachable financially.  I called the pharmacy to see what the cost of this would be, $144 for 12 pills.  With all of lifes’ expenses, this is one we can do without.

I then called to make an appointment with my General Physician, Dr. Bannec.  He’s a great guy, and I’ve seen him since I was 17.  Hopefully he knows of or can find a better financially suited treatment for me than these $12 a shot “happy pills.”

I’m not complaining about my neurologist as this isn’t really his field.  I’m actually happy he ordered the lab work so we could find the root of the problem.

I just hope life, especially my intimate life can get back to normal as soon as possible.

Squeeky Clean

This weekend Rachel and I cleaned our vehicles.  The weather was beautiful, and the vehicles were begging for it.

As a teenager I detailed various automobiles professionally for Royal on the Eastside.  The highlight of my career was when I detailed Bobby Knight’s car.  The exciting part was delivering the keys to him.  I had to interrupt an IU basketball practice session.

Back to the point.  Neither of us had waxed our vehicles for at least 3 years, and it was really showing.  I used to be very anal about the amount of wax (minimum of 2 coats).  I would spend a few hours every weekend maintaining the appearance of my ride.

As you can see, my truck has a big problem on the hood.  It’s a common problem with GM vehicles actually.  All in all I think it still shines pretty good for an 11 year old vehicle.

Rachel’s little Rio is clean and happy.  This car takes the brunt of our transportation needs.  Since we carpool, we take her car.  It gets great gas mileage, and you can put that car just about anywhere!  We’ve been talking recently about trading the Rio in on something more suited for our needs.

I plan on keeping my truck until it’s wheels fall off.  It’s good to have “the old standby” around, just in case you need a second vehicle.  Plus it helps with some of the hauling tasks required of a homeowner.

While my truck isn’t the most eco-friendly vehicle, it is only driven an average of 8k miles a year.  It also helps with getting around in the sometimes treacherous winters.

Deflated

Today the RCA Dome, better known to all as the Hoosier Dome was deflated.

This was done to assist in demolition, as it has been replaced by Lucas Oil Stadium (In the background).  The space occupied by the RCA dome will become yet another expansion of the Indiana Convention Center.

Many memories were made in the dome, but no more will be made there.  Rachel and I purchased a piece of that roof as a keepsake.  I highly recommend to buy one yourself if you have any fond memories of the dome.

I took this panorama picture the last time we visited the dome during ISSMA marching band finals.  We were there to see my niece Sabrina play the clarinet for Forest Park.

To get a better grasp of the scale, look at the 1/2 size version here.  I had to make the picture that much smaller just to fit within flickr’s size limitation.

Back in the day, J&B on the ROX did an episode based on the changing of the dome’s name.  It’s called “The RCA State” and definitely good viewing.

These are the changes I don’t really like to see.  I still miss Market Square Arena.

In these times, I’m really starting to hate corporate sponsorship of whats seems to be everything under the sun.  Can you believe that the Verizon Wireless Music Center’s (formerly Deer Creek) box office is sponsored by Taco Bell? 

My Neurotic Tendencies

I have a problem, which showed itself in a bad way last night.  I can’t help tinkering with computers.  I need help.

Rachel had a meeting with My Sisters Closet after work, so I was home by myself until about 8:30.  Because of the current issues with our main computer, we only have the laptop right now.  When we purchased the laptop it came with Windows Vista Home Basic pre-installed.  Neither of us had any experience with this new (at the time) operating system.

After a day or so of tinkering and trying to figure it out, Rachel decided that she wanted XP on it.  I was fine with this, as she was going to be the main user of the computer anyway.  I wiped the hard drive and put a clean install of XP Pro on it.  Not til later would I realize that doing this would void the warranty on the machine.

I went on a hunt for drivers for the many devices a new laptop has and came up short.  When I contacted dell for help, that is when I found out about a interesting clause.  If you downgrade the OS on a machine purchased from them, all support is rendered void.

At first I didn’t care at all.  Since issues have occurred with my other machine, I’ve become somewhat paranoid.  I wanted to get the computer reverted to it’s original state.  I contacted Dell again, and they sent me a set of discs that actually re-imaged the machine to it’s original factory state.

Rachel and I had talked about this, she was very hesitant about the change.  Since I have some experience with Vista under my belt now, I feel much more comfortable with it, if  you didn’t know it’s just XP of a different color.

When Rachel arrived home last night, I was about an hour away from finishing this changeover.  She was furious and actually made me think for a minute that she was packing up to move out or something.  Over the years I have done several things to computers that have hurt her.  I deleted (on accident) a majority of her papers for her masters degree and other various files that were important to her.

The sad part is that I do this with out even thinking about it, like it’s just a everyday sort of thing.  The whole time I was doing this, I thought she would be happy when she got home.

I was wrong.

Fit For a Princess, Almost

Over the weekend Rachel and I painted Taylor’s room “Pink Gingham.”  We also installed a new 6 panel door to her room.  Her door was the only one in the house that would not latch.

I wanted to do some other things to her room, but we really did not have the time.  Hopefully we can get this done soon.

I will have some pictures as soon as I get my  main computer back from the shop.

Phase II of her room includes painting her trim and door “whipped white,” and installing new baseboard trim and a new bi-fold closet door.

Next home project on the list:  Basement remodel.

The only task that really worries me is the wiring work I want done.  I need to hire someone to pull some cable and cat-5e wire from the attic to the basement.

We plan on gutting it to the block walls, and starting fresh.  I need  to re-wire some outlets and switches.  We are also going to rework our old and tired brick fireplace.

I hope to have this done by next spring.  Hopefully my wife will release her kung-fu grip on our checkbook so we can finally utilize our entire home.  Since we’ve moved in our basement area has been only used for storage.