Laundry...Norfolk Ghetto Style

I think I've outdone myself this time. I have gone completly ghetto...but when you really need to do some laundry after disconnecting the sewage line, desperate times call for desperate measures. I had water supply which wasn't a problem, but I was having a difficult time trying to figure out where the drainage was going to go. I couldn't put the hose out the window, since the access to my crawl space was directly underneath. So I emptied out one of the trash cans into the mini landfill and brought it inside to act as a temporary water treatment facility.
Wow, a landfill and a water treatment facility. I think I'll put a mini generator on my bike and me and the roommates can take turns pedaling. Then we'll be completly off the utility grid!
Anyway, below are some plans if you ever find yourself in this situation along with somewhat detailed pictures. Another thing that helps is the energy efficient low water useage front load washer with a pause button for when you need to empty out the can mid-load. Make sure the can doesn't have any holes in it either, or else it can turn into a bad day.
And one more quick note. Jack said it was completely red neck what we were doing. Well, I'd like to clarify that what we are doing is completely "ghetto". It depends on the demographic region in which you live whether you're "ghetto" or "redneck" Now if we were a bit more south, or perhaps out in the country, then we would be considered "redneck". Well, that's my opinion anyway.

Last post for the nite

Well, I think I'm pretty much caught up on posts for now. I need to put this one in though.

Let me take you back to just before the kitchen was ripped apart.

We recently had our second class charlie fire. Lucky for us its always in the oven. Guys and ovens just don't seem to mix very well. Jack cooked his phone (see post below), The smoke alarm seems to constantly go off when we cook, but yet I still consider us to be good cooks...for the most part. The first fire was from someone (RAY) leaving a pizza box in the oven and Jack went to go preheat the oven...Then there's the tator tots as seen below, kind of a small fire but smoke alarm still went off. And Jack is still trying to master toasting bagels with the broiler...he always seems to leave the room for a few minutes forgetting about the bagels in turn they turn into charcoal. We'll learn one of these days...

Dinner...Ghetto Style

The skillet and sitting on the floor provides a traditional Japanese Steakhouse atmoshpere

So you ask...

Where does one put all the walls that you've torn down?

A: In the backyard of course!

When its full I'm going to make an ecologically friendly park and call it Mt Trashmore Jr.

For now kids, stay off the landfill unless you've had your tetnus shots.

El Garaje

Project 24 (the garage) is 99% complete, just need some touch ups. Doesn't look too bad. It's amazing how the "popcorn" texture can cover up so many discrepencies. Next time I'll have Jack clean up before taking pictures...

I had a kitchen...

I almost killed myself bringing this cabinet down. It was hanging by one screw that was stripped and wouldn't come out. After several attempts of putting all 160lb of weight into pulling this thing down, it finally gave way unexpectingly. I never knew I could bend backwards so far...I'm taking Yoga now so I can become even more flexible during these intense home improvement sessions.
Reason #147 to turn off an electrical breaker: When you're hanging from a cabinet and it falls and on the way down it smashes the shit out of an outlet.

I think the funnest part of this whole project is coming home after a long day of putting up with B.S. at work and beating the crap out of a wall to relieve your stress. Swing away Jack, Swing Away...

And we swung away some more...


And More...

And then we shoveled...

And shoveled some more...

So now the end of this post. This is my winter project...so much for snowboarding.

Testing the Electrical

I think the pic says it all, but just for those that may not see how this happened> ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS turn off the breaker before attempting to remove a wire from a switch, socket, etc.! Don't worry, I'm still alive. It actually didn't even shock me, but made a hell of mark in the screwdriver.

But let me go back to the begining on this project real quick:
So I was done wiring the garage and needed to test it out...

Step one: Turn on breaker to garage
Step two: Turn on breaker in garage (all systems are go)
Step three: Flip light switch to "on" position
Step Four: Try to figure out why there was a loud pop and all the lights went out in the garage...and my house...and the other houses on my street. Ok, so I didn't kill the whole street, just my house. It was basically some mis-wiring that I looped like 240V back into itself somehow. Remember...I'm not a professional.

Back by popular demand!

...I've been so busy on the house and the Navy that I haven't had anytime to get anything on the blog. But due to several requests, I'm getting back up. A lot has happened since we found our new roommate Bubbles, who as of right now, I fear of meeting up with again everytime I go down to the crawl space. I'm starting with some plumbing and electrical work which means going down more often.
So here's some quick updates:

- The garage is 99% complete, just need to put up an attic access door and do some minor touchups. Jack is now living in there and as soon as he cleans up I'll do a virtual tour. Since it's not really a garage anymore, it's now called El Garaje ( Pronounced "L Ga-Ra-Hey")
- Jonesy left us and went out to sea, he should be back in June or so. Don't worry Jonesy, I'll have plenty of work for ya, I'm raising the roof next summer...I hope.
- I went to open up the kitchen a little bit, but it has just turned into the largest project yet, all because of the electrical. I'm not sure who wired this place, but the kitchen, dining room, living room and a bedroom are all on one 15 amp circuit. Not exactly the wisest thing to do. This in turn led to replacing the electrical. So I figured, hell, the easiest way to do that is to take down the walls. Well one thing led to another and here's where I'm at:
> The kitchen no longer exists in one central place, as the way it does in most homes. The stove is in the living room, cabinets and fridge are in the dining room, the kitchen sink is in the backyard, but not connected so I'm using one of the bathroom sinks. Speaking of the bathroom/kitchen, I was sitting there doing my duty the other day and looked over at the dishrack on the floor with a variety of utensils, plates, etc. and it occured to me that most people would consider it pretty damn gross to wash your dishes in the same room which you deficate in. But what other choice other than the water hose outside do we have?
> The dining room is...well half torn apart, you'd have to see it.
> The living room is actually coming together. I have one more wall to tear down and put some sheetrock up. Much easier to put up the sheetrock in the house, the studs are straighter and more evenly spaced than the ones in the garage. And we were sober putting it up this time.
> I left the bedrooms alone for now.
So anyway, I'll go on to a couple detailed posts with some pictures to amuse you all...

New Roommate

We found a new roommate living under a blanket on the driveway. He doesn't eat much and is pretty quiet but he's got a bit of a temper. I keep my distance because I think he's on crack but Jonesy gets along pretty good with him. I'm going to nickname him "Bubbles". He took off under the house, just hope he's not around when I have to go down to the crawl space to fix a pipe.

Driveway Art

The latest trend is developing here in Norfolk > Driveway Art
The pictures say it all. Jack did sacrifice his toe to save a gallon of the white paint.

Proverb of The Day:

"Failure to check what is leaning against door after Home Depot run can lead to hurt toe and messy driveway"

Want a little Thunder? How bout a little Lightning?

So there I was chilling out under my carport making a few calls and enjoying the thunderstorm that was overhead. Just as I was leaving a message for a friend there was a flash of light and an intense BOOM. For a split moment I thought my phone blew up and my life flashed before my eyes. When I realized I was still alive I started cursing...badly. I think the message that ended up on my buddies phone sounded something like "What the F*ck was that? Holy Sh!t! Damn"...and much more and I told him I'd call him back later.
I looked down the street and didn't see anything, but I knew lightning struck close...very close. About 10 minutes later we found out how close...two doors down on the other side of the street. It appearently hit a tree and still unkown as to how but the house under the tree caught on fire. Welcome to the neighborhood...

I Spy...

This is the last post of the nite. I had some catching up to do. Thought I would end it with a game...

I SPY A Soccer Shoe...

All 2x4s are not alike

The red line represents how an ideal stud should be, you know, straight. The green line represents what many of the studs were really like. So a couple of the walls have several useless screws in them...or they're penetrating the electrical wiring which I'll find out this weekend. I thought my $15 stud sensor was a piece of crap...well actually today I found out it was operator error.

"We're Not Professionals"

Word of The Day

O.R.M. "Operational Risk Management"

The garage is almost complete and so far no incidents...

The following wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done:

There was a 2x6 board sticking out of where the garage door used to be and it needed to be trimmed down in order to get the siding flush. The smart thing would have been to replace the 2x6 before putting up the framing.
So I tried about every type of saw in order to trim this down as much as possible. Every time I pulled the trigger I was waiting for the saw to kick back and fall on my head. Battery powered tools don't have the balls of 120V so I didn't have too much to worry about. Jack did try the 120V circular saw which kicked back instantly...we decided it could turn into a really bad day to try and continue using it. 18V it is.
Many unrequired hours later the board still hung over about an inch and the siding bumps out a little but hey, we're not professionals.

Waiting for the kickback...

"Make My Day"

Jack puts on the last piece of siding

Done!

How not to dry off a Cell Phone

This was the genius idea of one of my new roommates who will remain nameless until I have permission to post his name.
Phone in pocket, he went for an unexpected swim in our pool and rather than wait for his phone to air dry, he decided to bake it in the oven.
Here's the recipe for anyone willing to try it:

> Preheat oven to 350 degrees
> Take one slightly damp cell phone, place in 9x12 pan
> Cook until popping sound and grey smoke occurs

"We're not professionals"

Bananas and Blogs

Here I am waiting for some banana bread to finish and figured, what better time to finally get my blog going. I haven't figured out what I'm going to be doing here yet, I'll just be playing it as it goes. Hopefully I'll keep some interesting stuff up here and not bore anyone to death.




Chinese Proverb of the day:
"Touching hot pan with wet oven mit will yield 2nd degree burns to skin"