Let there be...

 

...light.  Power Tower has been working on the wiring.  In just two afternoons, he was able to get all of the old wiring removed and install new temporary wires in each room.  Right now there is just one ceiling light in each room, but it's more than we had before.  Lights mean we can work in the evenings. 

 

Power Tower will be back to put in the permanent wiring, additional receptacles and switches after we have some more structural issues resolved.   

 

With the time change, this is a big step that is really going to help.

 

Here is some of the old wires.  My job this weekend will be removing all of the sheathing from the wires before it goes to recycling.

 



 

 

I like this photo.  I caught this bulb the moment it was turned on and not warmed up yet.  I also like how these new bulbs glow greenish-blue for a moment after you turn them off.

 

 
We got another jack post installed in the basement.  The jack post is straight.  The chimney is not.
That's ok. It won't be standing long.

 
Walt Kowalski and his sledge hammer made short work of the chimney. 

One chimney down.  One chimney to go.

It takes a LOT less time to remove a chimney when you can let the bricks fall where they may on a cement floor.

You can see the other wooden support post here.  It's still supporting, but not for long.  Why did they paint everything green back then?  Was green paint cheap?

My co-workers

I have always said I work with a bunch of characters.

This is the window in our work area.  It looks out into the drop-off window "fishbowl."

 
I work next to the education department. 

 

 

You never know what you are going to see down the hallway or in this case the drop-off window. Art supplies, poster paint, and puppets are the norm.

 

These two hand puppets probably did more work today than most of my co-workers.

$3.51

Chimney #1 in House #1 is still coming down brick by brick by brick by brick by brick.  We have the first chimney removed all the way to the ceiling of the basement.  The front porch, however, is covered in a pile of bricks waiting to be hauled to the rip rap at the Cat Ranch tonight.

Big Red is a 1/2-ton pick-up truck and we don't want to overload it.  We've figured that each story of the chimney inside the house is two truck-loads of bricks. 

If there is 2000 pounds in a ton.  Each brick weighs about 5 pounds.  That's 400 bricks per ton.  Big Red can carry 1000 pounds.  That's about 200 bricks. 

Sorry, I didn't mean to make a math word problem. It was an easy one.  No trains heading east or west were involved. 

Our first load this past weekend was 161 bricks.  We always leave room on the end of the bed for 6 buckets of plaster, mortar, and brick dust.  Plus the two tired passengers. 

If we take more bricks in a load, I might have to walk home. 

At least we are through to the basement.  Now we can back the truck up to the back door and haul the bricks out without climbing steps!  At least for this chimney.

Last week when the guys were away hunting I ran a few errands in the morning and indulged myself in a quick stop at the thrift store.  I'm always looking for work jeans and I refuse to pay $20 for jeans to rake leaves and haul bricks.  I can get Walt Kowalski new (NEW) work jeans for $10, but good luck finding that in the women's section.

I am also always looking for long sleeve t-shirts that are in a color that matches the color of hard work.  In other words, something other than white. I found a couple of pair of jeans.  They were WAY longer than my legs, but for cutting trees and hauling bricks, and the price of $3.51 I can roll them up.  I also got a new gray and red fleece to wear for clean-up, maybe even to work. 

I love fleece.  It's soft, it's warm, and it hides layers of clothes and bulges from too many beers.  Today was a good day for a fleece. Tomorrow will be another.

I also love fleece when it matches a pair of pants that have been hanging in my closet, with the tags on, since 2006.  I know they have been hanging in my closet since 2006 because I know I bought them (and 2 other pair like them) at Kaufmann's.  Yes, Kaufmann's.  It closed in 2006.

I miss Kaufmann's. 

I bought them when it was closing and everything was on clearance and I'm certain I had a coupon, too. 

So for $3.51 I got a new outfit to wear to work this winter.  I'm not even counting the price of the pants because I bought them so long ago that I wrote it off the books already.  Now they are like free pants. 

For the record, the pants are a little tight, but they still fit.  :)

How many years?

My 20th high school reunion was this past Saturday night.  20 years.  I have to let that sink in for a moment.  It doesn't seem like 20 years. Heck, wasn't summer just a few days ago?

There are a few people from high school I have "friended" on social media.  We were friends 20 years ago.  They live in the area.  Some even live close to the Cat Ranch.  I have even seen some at the market or out having dinner and always say hello.  I enjoy their posts about work and kids, but they aren't "friends."  They aren't the people I would call if I was bleeding from the head. 

Because the invitations went out on social media, I can see everybody who attended and all the photos that were shared from the evening.  Everybody looks happy and smiling with their capped teeth and dyed hair.  Cocktails and beers will do that to you.  I joke. It looked like a very nice evening. 

I recognized many of them.   Some I have never seen in my life.  (Really, I went to school with you? Could have fooled me.) Some people didn't change at all.  If other weren't wearing their name tags in the photo, I wouldn't have known them. 

It was mostly the 'in' crowd that attended the reunion.  The clique.  The cool kids.  I knew them all.  Had classes with them.  Taught some of them how to do calculus (don't ask me to do it now.)  I could have gone and made small talk with everybody in the room.  Maybe the clique has dissolved. 

The interesting part of the photos is that everybody grew up.  They aren't kids anymore.  They are middle-agers!  (Crap, that means I am one, too.)  The size 0 girls are now the size 10 women.  The boys are now men beer bellies.  This is what we can see on the outside!  Think about all of those knees that snap, crackle, and pop getting out of bed in the morning. 

You can also see the faces of those that never left high school.  They are basking in these memories of glory.  This was the prime of their life.  Back when they were cool and popular and still a size 0.  They peaked years ago.  20 years later at a restaurant in the city they are still trying to impress the cool kids.  Me, personally, I am still working on my stride and don't need to impress anybody but Walt Kowalski.

Here's the other thing about high school.  It doesn't matter.  It didn't matter back then.  It doesn't matter now.  It was an end to a beginning.  High school doesn't matter 20 years later. (Yes, I know there have been countless articles written about this.)

But you can't see that when you are IN the midst of the social anxieties of high school because it is your entire life.  Your entire world.  Good luck convincing a current junior high or high school student of that, too.  It was hard enough back then, I can't imagine it now with social media and the internet.

I sent Walt Kowalski this quote yesterday:

No idea who Steven Furtick was.  Had to look him up.  He's a pastor.  That's all I remember.  It's a good quote nevertheless.

There is truth to that quote.  Nobody brings their behind-the-scenes to reunions.  Heck, not many people bring their behind-the-scenes to social media.  Maybe that is a good thing, but it's hard to remember at times when you feel like nothing is going correctly.  The times the basement is flooding and there is mud in your shoes and the furnace doesn't work and the cats are starving because you stopped forgot to buy them food and you burnt the buns for dinner.  You don't see these struggles on social media.  But everybody has them.

Want to know what Walt Kowalski and I did Saturday night?  We stayed at home, in our sweatpants, sat at the bar we built, next to the fireplace we built, in the game room we remodeled and ate a delicious dinner of slow cooked pork and smashed potatoes after a full day of work at the Cat Ranch.  He was impressed.  Mostly by the sweatpants. 

Maybe we'll go to  the 25th year reunion.  First I need to lose 20 pounds, become successful, and find a cure for stink bugs.  Once I do those things, then I'll consider it. 

Maybe I better plan on the 30th year reunion.

Tricks or Treats or Bricks

After a night of tricks and treats or the adult version, pizza, appetizers, and drinks at our favorite local, friendly bistro, we were awakened very early by wind, rain, and lightening.  No damage at the Cat Ranch, although we were hoping a few pine trees on the front hill would voluntarily snap in the wind.  Had it not been soooo early, it would have been a fun storm to watch. 

We spent all day Halloween working at House #1.  Oh the things we can accomplish on a vacation day. 

There are two chimneys in House #1.  One of them already had the top half removed and currently only goes as high as the ceiling of the first floor.  The other chimney was still through the roof and not looking very healthy. 

Once again, it was a squinty kinda day.  Also, we are going to replace the siding and gutters. 
 

This is the view when you walk in the front door. 

The view from the dining room.

 The view from the attic.

There was a cement patio stone on top of the chimney.  I don't have a picture of Walt Kowalski taking it off, because as soon as he lifted the stone, the chimney started crumbling.  He had to hold the patio stone and use his knees to keep the bricks from falling down the roof. Luckily, I was behind the ladder and the bricks that did fall were stopped by the ladder or went on either side.

 

Walt Kowalski did an amazing job of not falling off the roof, not letting bricks fall off the roof, and working quickly as the storm clouds rolled in.  Here is holding back the bricks with his knees again.

Walt Kowalski threw the bricks and mortar from the top portion of the chimney down into the chimney.  Although the chimney took up a considerable scape in the room, the inside diameter inside wasn't very large and it filled up quickly.  (You can see here where the bricks are missing. There were so many holes in the chimney, you could see to the inside from the outside. The previous family was fortunate that there were so many air leaks between the roof and chimney, otherwise the carbon monoxide fumes from the furnace would have killed them.)

While Walt Kowalski was on the roof, I was in the attic handing him tools and taking bricks.  Looking back on this situation, I'm certain that if anybody walked by the house that afternoon they had to think he was nuts for standing on the roof talking to himself. 

 

My co-worker suggested we put an ad online and sell the bricks to make some profit. 

(Two summers ago he bought some used bricks online to make a mailbox.  A quick online search tells me that a 4" X 8" brick paver is 45 cents.  I remember him saying he had to make several trips each over an hour away to get these bricks.  Adding the cost of gas...buying used bricks couldn't have saved him much money. How big was this mailbox? Maybe it was a specific color that was difficult to find.  )

The bricks below are what normal bricks look like:

These were the bricks we got from the chimney: 

They crumbled the moment you picked them up.  We are lucky if we got a dozen full sized bricks. The attic portion of the chimney crumbled as soon as I touched it.  Nobody would have spent money on these bricks.

Besides, we had a plan for these bricks.  We are building a rip rap.  A rip rap?  I had never heard this term either.  Once I looked it up I knew what it was.  You would be most familiar with a rip rap if you've ever been to Twin Lakes.  The entire edge of the lake where water meets land is covered with rocks.  This is a rip rap.  In this case it is to prevent erosion.  We are using our rip rap as a foundation on soft ground for our gray water.

We are still working in the attic at this point.  Walt is still on the roof doing some repairs.  I was on brick removal.  He boarded over the hole, added tar paper, and shingles that were a very close match to the current roof.  The roof was replaced not too long ago, so that's one less thing we need to worry about right now.

 

We brought buckets to haul the bricks down the stairs.  However, once I loaded up the buckets, I couldn't carry them down the stairs.  It was easier for me to carry 5 bricks down in my arms and pile in them around the room. 

 

There is a flight of steps on to the front porch.

There is a flight of steps up to the second floor.

There is a flight of steps up to the attic.

(Not to mention, the ladder I had to climb to get to the top of the chimney on the second floor.)

 

To think before we got started for the day I said to Walt Kowalski 'Do you want to go to the gym before we go out to dinner?' HA!

 

 

 

Finally, we're through from the attic into the bedroom. The chimney was a little more stable inside the house because it was covered with plaster, paint, and wall paper. 

 

Here is an inside view.  It's not a very large chimney inside. 

Our first load I counted 161 bricks.  That was only one story of one chimney. I didn't count on the second and third loads. 

We are down (up) to the ceiling on the first floor.  Two stories left on one chimney. Two stories left on the other chimney. Only one flight of steps to get to the truck. 

Autumn visions

It has been a lovely fall. 

 It's not over yet.  Such a nice day.  Even with a few raindrops, it was just right. However, hiding in this photo is a mastermind at work.

He's planning.  Darn it, he's too cute.  He's lucky he's so cute.  Just look at those furry fingers.

Walt Kowalski filled the bird feeder and then a few minutes later, as I was getting dressed, I heard him shout 'Come quick, there is a squirrel at the feeder!  No wait, there are two squirrels at the feeder. Holy crap, there are three squirrels at the feeder!! Here comes another one, there are FOUR squirrels at the bird feeder! Four squirrels! Look Fluffy, four squirrels! I think we are feeding the entire forest.'

Walt Kowalski says he looks like the evil squirrel.  Although I think that's just because Walt Kowalski has to keep filling the bird feeder.

Weekend plans

Walt Kowalski and I have a big weekend planned.  A long weekend. A four-day weekend.  Four entire days away from work.  Away from working at work, that is.  We'll be working for us this weekend and we've got a long list planned. 

Grass mowing
Garden cleaning
Chimney removing
Floor fixing
Roof repairing
Sweeper running
Leaf raking
Stick burning
Pizza
Wings

Ok, those last two aren't exactly work but they are part our weekend plans. 

We'll be tired come Monday morning, but it will be a good tired.  Rain is in the forecast, but we've never let that stop us in the past. 

Stay tuned for pictures.  Even if we do half of what is on that list, there are sure to be photos.

Happy Autumn!