Cheryl had this cold / virus / flu / whatever thing for a few weeks, hacking and coughing so bad that it was difficult for her to get any sleep, and it was a complete mystery why I didn't get it, too, considering our close physical proximity (we breathe each other's air!). But I'm grateful it avoided me. There was a lot of things that needed to be done around here and I couldn't really afford to be sick.
Not that I can afford to be sick now, but the cold / virus / flu thing that I've got now isn't nearly as potent or disruptive as the one she had. I'm not doing a lot of coughing. Just a lot of stuffy head, sneezy / drippy / body-ache kind of action, the kind that are taken care of with all these colorful medicines we have sitting in our pantry.
And it's fun trying to get things done around here when my head is floating in the clouds and my limbs feel like they weigh a million pounds and there is a very strong urge to just lie down and close my eyes...
The weather warmed up for a couple days, all the way up to 50 degrees, so it was time to go outside and enjoy it. The snow melted away, the wind started to blow, the old dry autumn leaves whirled around in the air and tried to hide in my garage (but I chased them out with a broom) and it was time to take a look at the Pontiac.
Brake problems.
Thought it was a classic case of bad brake booster. Press on the pedal, hear the wheezing sound of air escaping. Brake pedal hard to push, no assist when the car starts up. I was hoping it was just the check valve, but a quick test with my hand-pump proved that was not the case. Check valve working A-OK. Attached my pump directly to the booster and pulled a 20" vacuum. It held. Pressed the pedal, and it dropped to 10". OK, that worked. Pressed it again, dropped to 5". Hmmm. That's what it's supposed to do. Played around with it a bit more and it seemed to be working. Odd.
Well, enough playing with that, I have other things to do -- and now that Deb is driving her own car, Adam is driving the red Subaru, so I have some buffer time. Which is good. Because the basement is calling!
I'm going crazy trying to get the framing to the point where it feels ready for the inspection. I completed the headers, after going back and re-doing half of them because they weren't as well done as I had thought. The framing around the small bedroom door was whacky, with the opening at the bottom a whole inch wider than at the top. Took me a bit to figure out that the entire wall was slightly off-kilter, so had to go back all the way to the beginning of the wall to straighten it out. Then there was some trouble with the header above the library door not lining up properly. Found out one of the boards was an eighth of an inch off, and that threw everything off, so had to redo it.
The worst was the suite bedroom closet header because the side framing was mostly toe-nailed in, owing to the fact that the wall it was attached to had gaps. Found out while I was trying to mount it properly that the original framing wasn't level, either, so had to redo it completely. Took me about three hours to get it all straightened out and rebuilt. But now it looks great and feels good and solid.
The suite bedroom header was the easiest: just a single 32" two-by-four stuck between the top of the pre-hung door frame and the HVAC ventilation shaft. That took all of five minutes.
Still gotta finish up the header over the mechanical room door.
Not that I can afford to be sick now, but the cold / virus / flu thing that I've got now isn't nearly as potent or disruptive as the one she had. I'm not doing a lot of coughing. Just a lot of stuffy head, sneezy / drippy / body-ache kind of action, the kind that are taken care of with all these colorful medicines we have sitting in our pantry.
And it's fun trying to get things done around here when my head is floating in the clouds and my limbs feel like they weigh a million pounds and there is a very strong urge to just lie down and close my eyes...
The weather warmed up for a couple days, all the way up to 50 degrees, so it was time to go outside and enjoy it. The snow melted away, the wind started to blow, the old dry autumn leaves whirled around in the air and tried to hide in my garage (but I chased them out with a broom) and it was time to take a look at the Pontiac.
Brake problems.
Thought it was a classic case of bad brake booster. Press on the pedal, hear the wheezing sound of air escaping. Brake pedal hard to push, no assist when the car starts up. I was hoping it was just the check valve, but a quick test with my hand-pump proved that was not the case. Check valve working A-OK. Attached my pump directly to the booster and pulled a 20" vacuum. It held. Pressed the pedal, and it dropped to 10". OK, that worked. Pressed it again, dropped to 5". Hmmm. That's what it's supposed to do. Played around with it a bit more and it seemed to be working. Odd.
Well, enough playing with that, I have other things to do -- and now that Deb is driving her own car, Adam is driving the red Subaru, so I have some buffer time. Which is good. Because the basement is calling!
I'm going crazy trying to get the framing to the point where it feels ready for the inspection. I completed the headers, after going back and re-doing half of them because they weren't as well done as I had thought. The framing around the small bedroom door was whacky, with the opening at the bottom a whole inch wider than at the top. Took me a bit to figure out that the entire wall was slightly off-kilter, so had to go back all the way to the beginning of the wall to straighten it out. Then there was some trouble with the header above the library door not lining up properly. Found out one of the boards was an eighth of an inch off, and that threw everything off, so had to redo it.The worst was the suite bedroom closet header because the side framing was mostly toe-nailed in, owing to the fact that the wall it was attached to had gaps. Found out while I was trying to mount it properly that the original framing wasn't level, either, so had to redo it completely. Took me about three hours to get it all straightened out and rebuilt. But now it looks great and feels good and solid.
The suite bedroom header was the easiest: just a single 32" two-by-four stuck between the top of the pre-hung door frame and the HVAC ventilation shaft. That took all of five minutes.
Still gotta finish up the header over the mechanical room door.
1 comment:
Bro. You are one handy man. <3
Post a Comment