Very true. I was moving some rolls of cable around to make some more space and was quite surprised to notice that at current prices I've got more than $1,000 worth of the stuff. Part of me is almost inclined to sell it and turn a profit, I just don't know if the prices will return to normality by the time I'd need to buy it back again.
Notches are fine if you're doing stuff within the same room. I've got areas where I need to be able to run pipes from one room to the next and where the ceiling joists in the next room run the other way. At present I've got a nasty setup where the corner of a basement door is nocked to make room for a pipe, and the woodwork over the top of a door frame has been cut away to run a pipe through it, but I really want to get away from that sort of thing. Partly because it's ugly and partly because it's using the spaces that my head needs to use if I walk around the area.
I got a load of stuff in the basement shuffled around and freed up a bunch of space. Along the way I found at that one of the rolls of cable I thought was 14/2 was actually 14/3. Although it means I only have one spare roll of 14/2 where I thought I had two, it also means that what I thought was a $100 roll is actually a $200 roll. I'm not sure how much 14/3 I'm going to need to finish my rewiring project - there's some stuff coming that will use a lot of it as I want switches controlling lights and fans in all sorts of places, so it's good to know I've got a stack of the stuff. The 14/2 is mainly for upstairs (mostly done now) and for getting power from one point to the next which will hopefully be pretty simple. It's handy when I run two 14/3 cables because it means I can rig the wiring such that one carries an always live wire and one carries a neutral wire, which means I don't also need to run 14/2 from one point to the next. I imagine my electrician friend is going to find his head hurts again when I get going then. His job is to wire stuff rather than explore the limits of what's allowable under the electrical code, and he doesn't think the same way I do.
The plumbing job may be more complex than I thought. Our primary water feed is a 1/2" pipe and I don't see anywhere in the street that looks like a mains-level shutoff. From what I gather a new build this size would have a 3/4" if not a 1" primary feed, which could explain why we have issues like water pressure loss and temperature problems if we're running a shower and washing machine at the same time. I'm not sure what would be involved in getting the primary feed upgraded, but for now at least I think I'm going to put that project on hold until I can get a handle on it. In the meantime I've cleaned up some more of the basement so I don't have stuff all over the floor any more. I've cleared out an entire wall, so perhaps now I can install some wall studs and hang some units and/or shelving there. It will be good to have a decent work space that doesn't take up a chunk of the main living space. It will also help me organise my assorted bags of tools more easily - I've managed to get to a point where most of my battery powered tools have their own bag that contain the tool and anything specific to that tool (blades, bits etc) so if I need a tool all I need to do is grab the appropriate bag and a battery and have everything I need. I just need somewhere suitable to put all the bags. For good measure I found one of the window frames in the basement has largely rotted. It's not a surprise - it's at ground level, it's 100 years old and it gets just about all of the rain. I'm thinking I might look to get a window frame made up so I can put different panels in each half. For now the dryer vent goes out of one panel and it would be nice to be able to have the other panel set up so I can swap between a window pane, an extractor fan with bug screen, and anything else that seems appropriate later on. It would be good to be able to suck air in through one side of the house and out through the other, I'd just need to make sure I don't also suck the entire cast of A Bug's Life through in the process.
I got a couple more bits sorted in the basement. Because all the pipes that used to be at head height are removed I don't have to walk with my head hunched over. That meant I was prone to bang my head on my hedge trimmer, which was awkwardly hung on a strap of wood across some joists. It was easy enough to cobble together a makeshift shelf to support it in the corner, and I also used an angled baton of wood to hang a 50' heavy duty extension cord. So that's something else up off the floor. It feels really weird walking around in that room knowing I'm not going to smack my head hard on anything.
Now the nasty pipes are gone I can look at upgrading some of the ceiling joists in the basement where the house was extended. And having bought parts to replcae them all I found I only actually needed to replace two of them. One is a 2x4 and the other isn't in great shape. The rest are 2x6 which, although not as big as is ideal, is as big as I can use given the beam at one end of them. Since they only span about three feet 2x6 will have to be enough. What's there has lasted for decades so should be OK, but for most of that time they haven't had any meaningful weight put on them. I got the 2x4 removed, and a new piece cut to size to replace it. I had hoped to use a joist hanger at one end and construction screws at the other but sadly my ability to levitate over the oil tanks to drive in the screws is lacking, so I used two joist hangers. Sixteen nails later I'd only managed to hit my fingers once with the hammer. Here's a tip. If you're using a hammer don't hit your fingers. It's not a lot of fun. I got two fingernails at once and may have said a few not-nice words in the immediate aftermath.
Although I am aware of the prohibition of using hammer to hit fingers, alas, I find my hand-eye coordination so lacking that I inevitably violate the prohibition. usually after I've make thirteen solid hammer-nail contacts without error and decide to really whack it. P.S. When I get to heaven, I'm going to ask Jesus what He says when HE misses the nail and hits his fingers with the hammer.
I got my finger between a 10 lb sledge and a piece of wood (not at full speed or anything). I may have broken it. I should probably get it looked at.
OK, you win. My best effort was a 1lb hammer and a piece of wood. Seriously, I hope your finger is OK.
Heat wave for Western Canada. We were up to 34 today. 37 to 38 for the next couple days. That's hot for here my sister is expecting low to mid 40's on South Central BC.
I spent several hours in the woods yesterday. There was a work day to help clear overhanging branches and overgrown brush from one of the trails in the woods just over the mountain. It's not a trail I regularly use - it's a bit of a trek from my house - but figured it doesn't hurt to help clear trails over and above the ones I personally use a lot. In the process I met some people from the local friends group, and it sounds like they have plans for more work days. It would be nice to get more trails in a big loop opened up - there's a chance the trail we worked on yesterday might become part of a long loop that would start and finish at my local park. That would be really nice, for the days I feel like hiking 20-25 miles in a day. I don't suppose that will be a regular feature but you never know.
After much partial work I finally got a big cabinet I bought for the basement sanded. I'd been working on it a bit at a time - if I'd known how much work it was going to take I think I'd have just let it pass and not bought it at all. But I finally got all the nasty tired paint off it, ran over it with a finer belt on the belt sander and then gave it a quick once-over with my random orbital sander and a 120-grit sanding disk. For anything that needed to be prettier I'd go over it more and then finish off with 220 grit but this is going into the basement so it doesn't need to be pretty. Today's task was to put a first coat of lacquer onto it. I considered staining it but figured that was just effort with minimal reward. I wasn't even sure whether I wanted to bother putting lacquer on it but decided I wanted to protect it from the elements, such as they are in my basement. When it's finished I plan to put a work surface over the top of it and an LED floodlight above it. I'll probably put a small piece of wood along the back to make sure things don't roll off the back and onto the basement floor, never to be seen again. Then I just need to figure out how to raise it up. If I can figure everything out I'll make some legs from offcuts. If that doens't work I'll need to hang wall studs, which means going through the fat end of $50 worth of lumber. I'd rather not do that....
VBS at church this evening. Tonight was an evening I wasn't sure if I'd be needed but the organiser's husband needed some time to prepare an upcoming sermon and I'd agreed to be on standby in case I was needed. So I tagged along to run the sound board and help eat the snacks. Before heading out I got a second coat of lacquer on my cabinet. The instructions say to give it 3-4 hours to dry but it's so hot outside it didn't take very long. Maybe tomorrow I can get it down to my basement and out of my garage. That will be nice, it will mean I can park my car in the garage again.
Watching the rain this morning, wishing I'd moved my cabinet last night even in the fading light. I'm certain I'm going to need to take it around the front of the house and don't want to wheel my cart through the puddles in the driveway and then across the dining room floor. I had hoped to get my car back in the garage today but it looks like that probably won't happen now. I might attempt to take it directly from the garage to the house through the tight corners, I'd just need to figure out how to turn it without wrecking it or the floor.
I'd still need to get it over one door sill and up three steps. That was the process that was a fail this morning, although thankfully not an epic fail. When it finally stopped raining I took it around the house on a hand cart, across the porch and in through another door. Getting it down the stairs to the basement was interesting, in the same way that sharing a bath with a bucketful of electric eels is interesting. But now it's in the room where it needs to be, and I just need to figure out how to raise it and level it so it can be a useful work surface. I think I can do what I need with offcuts, which is handy especially given the price of lumber just lately.
My cabinet is now on legs, with a strip LED light over the top of it. I want to rejig some electrics, to move one light and replace it with a socket, and then add a new socket. That will mean I can power both lights from the light switch at the entrance to the room. It would be nice to have the light over the work surface come on when I turn the switch on, and it would also be useful to have everything turned off when I flick the switch. At present I've got a light socket with an extended in it that adds two outlets. What I plan to do is recover the back box and the light holder, replace it with a small back box that takes a dual receptacle, and then add another small back box with a dual receptacle. Then the two lights can plug in to their own sockets. It also means that, at a push, I've got a couple of spare sockets in case I do need to plug something else in and it won't reach the primary sockets.
Successfully replaced a speaker in my truck. Thank goodness for Youtube videos. The only wrinkle was that I had to fashion my own tool to access one bolt.