Day #49

OK, have two coats of mud all around every joint now, two finishing coats to go all around. Was hoping to be finished with all drywall before I left for MO on Thursday, but that isn't going to happen.

Neither will the delivery of my (new-to-me) iPod Nano (1st generation, black - hee) - or so I'm assuming - so I'll (gasp, fate worse than death) have to travel sans music. That will really suck.

Oh well.

And for the record - no idea what to paint the living room .... but isn't colour just so much fun?

And Julian's bedroom (already painted way earlier in the year) ....

And my bedroom ...

And as long as I'm creating fun little swatches in Photoshop, here's the colour I'll be painting the outside of the house next year ...

So tonight it hit me, all of a sudden. I've been mulling over the kitchen paint colour for weeks, stuck between blue - and basically the same blue that I used to paint Julian's bedroom, which I absolutely love - and a gold. I like the idea of a blue kitchen, but not the fact the kitchen then would be basically the same colour as J's room.

So then it hit me, and I remembered I've seen a couple different remodeling kitchens that were red. And really red. Now, I've always like this particular Benjamin Moore colour from the Historic Collections palette called Georgian Brick - a really rich, semi-dark-orangish red. It's just a fantastic colour. And it goes really well with Revere Pewter (which will be the cabinet colour), the countertop, the floor and the hardware.

Wow, a red kitchen. I think it will be really cool.

Day #45

Yea, probably the dirtiest, disgustingest job of the kitchen remodel is finished - putting all the insulation that fell down when I ripped out the lath and plaster ceiling back up in the attic. Had to cram it through the access in Julian's closet, which meant emptying his entire closet beforehand. Then throwing it over the new furnace to the other side of the attic and fitting all of the pieces in between the frames like a big fiberglass puzzle.

I am so glad that is finished. The rest of the afternoon will be spent taping of course. The goal for this weekend is to finish all the second coat of mud, cut and install a new windowsill and strip the cabinets (the outside). Oh, and get up to Lowe's to order the countertop, which I'm just going to order enough to do the back bathroom, too.

OK - so that's it - going to St. Louis in a week to see The Veils play - the countdown begins ...

So just doing my check-in on the veils and realized - omg - that they played here in Seattle sometime this summer and I never actually realized this. So I see they're playing a small club in St. Louis, where my sister and parents live next Friday. May be making an unplanned trip over the Labor Day weekend if I can confirm tickets are still available.

Details are sketchy ....

So I'm creating playlists in iTunes from the various posts I've made on my profile on Flickr - the lists of ten most-played songs. Typing in and filtering each song and putting it in the appropriate list, and came across this bit of irony -



Nothing like the comparison of Erasure and The Tears for a bit of a kick. For a bit more of the irony, check out the lyrics here.

:)

Bother. So I think my iPod is toast. As in fried. Tried restoring and I can hear the hard disk spinning around and a repetitive clicking sound. Not good. So it was over to Ebay to see just what my iPod is going for and came across this one -



Ah, this dude actually still listens to Bon Jovi. And not only that, but Bad Medicine. Holy cow ... flashbacks of flippin' high school are upon me!

OK, so I've griped a ton about the lame, low-rent practices of the RIAA. So when reading my brother Jeff's blog tonight, he mentioned something about the RIAA finally being sued in a class-action lawsuit. About flippin' time. So I Googled 'riaa lawsuit' and came up with this quite amusing yarn from back in November ot-5 -

***

Holy litigation, Batman! The National Law Journal reports that the RIAA has launched 14,800 lawsuits in the last two years in an attempt to clamp down on file swapping. But what's striking about the RIAA's tactics is that out of all 14,800 lawsuits, not a single one has gone to trial. That's about to change.

Patricia Santangelo, a divorced mother of five living in Wappingers Falls, New York, is taking her case to trial. She recently found herself the target of an RIAA lawsuit and vowed to contest it, claiming that she knows nothing about downloading music online. The RIAA, however, is quite sure that she does. As they put it in their complaint,

"Plaintiffs are informed and believe that Defendant, without the permission or consent of Plaintiffs, has used, and continues to use, an online media distribution system to download the Copyrighted Recordings, to distribute the Copyrighted Recordings to the public, and/or to make the Copyrighted Recordings available for distribution to others. In doing so, Defendant has violated Plaintiffs’ exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution. Defendant’s actions constitute infringement of Plaintiff’s copyrights and exclusive rights under copyright."

When the lawyerspeak is stripped away, what this means is that Santangelo is accused of downloading the following fine pieces of pop music:

Lit "Happy"
Incubus "Nowhere fast"
Third Eye Blind "Semi-Charmed Life"
UB40 "Can't Help Falling in Love"
Godsmack "Whatever"
Foo Fighters "Breakout"

Uh, what classy pop that is. Boy, the labels have really developed some amazing talent these past few years, haven't they? Where ever do their dwindling profits go?

Santangelo and her lawyers moved to dismiss the case but the judge has rejected their efforts, meaning that discovery will soon begin and a full trial appears likely. We haven't seen a trial on this issue yet because the RIAA has generously offered to settle the suits for amounts in the US$3000-4000 range, rather than the tens of thousands they would demand if they prevailed in court. To date, more than three thousand people have coughed up. Santangelo vows to fight on, though, claiming that the likely culprit is not her but a friend's child who used her computer.

The RIAA disagrees. They argue that their methodology for tracking down the "bad guys" is more or less error-free.

"The chances of it not being the right person or someone in that household are slim," said Stanley Pierre-Louis, senior vice president for legal affairs at the RIAA. "Let's face it, what we're doing is on the right side here. What these users are doing is violating the copyright laws."

And get this: But the RIAA has been wrong before, as it was in its 2003 suit against Sarah Seabury Ward, a sixty-something sculptor who was accused of downloading gangsta rap. The suit was eventually withdrawn, but the case (and others like it, including one against a dead grandmother) does shed some doubt on the RIAA's ability to correctly identify the infringing party. With Santangelo's case now headed for trial, a judge's ruling may provide more clarity about what the RIAA can and cannot do in its war on musical piracy.

***

The current, class-action suit Jeff was blogging alleges, among other things, that the RIAA used low and downright illegal tactics to pry information out of people. Hmmm, haven't heard that one before! It also claims that the RIAA knows they are using illegal tactics and have flawed investigations.

On top of that, the suit also claims the company as a whole uses fraud, trespasses and invades the privacy of individuals all to forward their goal of maintaining a music monopoly. A lot of people have come to that conclusion without being sued or suing the RIAA, though clearly we are seeing more and more people standing up not only for themselves, but for any potential future targets of the RIAA.

Oooh, boy - you just gotta love the RIAA!

OK, combing through the junk mail and this one goes along with that point -

Welcome Member,

Here is your membership info for Dog Lovers.

User Number: 746532259
Your Login ID: user4730
Your Password ID: or304

Please Change your login and change your Login Information.

Click here to enter our secure server: http://84.10.245.10/

Welcome,
Membership Support Department
Dog Lovers

Um, so 1) the sender is Dog Lovers (iamspiderhorse@wardsmasonry.com), but the address is some masonry company. 2) They say it's a secure server that I should click to enter but, mysteriously, there's no 's' in the 'http://.' Should I click the hyperlink? Should I??? I'm sure they'd then want me to change my login to my social security number or something fun like that.

Boy, now wouldn't that be a hoot!

OK, so I feel pretty lucky that I really don't get a ton of spam. As in, hardly any at all. And junk email filters these days are really pretty darn good. But every once in a while something just makes me bust up laughing, like Jesus Christ selling something or - like the one I got today -

My EX-boyfriend took these of me in bed. Do you think he misses me. http://68.200.37.66/

Now, see - the thing about spam and viruses - from what I know about them (and granted, I'm on a Mac) - is that they take, well, basically a complete moron to actually put them into effect. Like the email above. The subject was re: (blank). Hmmm .... And the http:// was of course a hyperlink. Now, maybe a moron would click on it. Me = not a moron (I don't think so, anyways).

So sorry, medien@vicunha.com.br, not really interested. Sheesh.

Day #39

Yesterday, finally finished hanging the rest of the drywall to cover up the holes I had made in the drywall to run the cables for the undercabinet halogens, the walls I took down that had wallpaper glued on them for eternity and the other parts that were never drywalled above the drop ceiling that I conveniently used for access while doing the electrical work.

That was cool, and then today I got to start the taping process.

It really wasn't bad at all - not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It'll be fine - probably will take at least a week to finish, but then all of the dirty, rough work will be done and I'll get to do some stuff that will actually start impacting the way the kitchen looks, like installing new countertops, painting the cabinets and the walls, etc.

So go figure .. walking from my car into work I passed by - get this - a white '01 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner for sale. Good grief. The temptation!

Day #35

So, turned out it was the suspected GFI tripping the circuit, so fixed that, moved the recessed lights closer to the cabinets and further from the sink to make room for a light I'm going to hang above the sink and wired them on 3-way switches, and finished up wiring the final GFI's to complete this section of the kitchen.

Schwew! That was a lot more wiring than I ever planned on doing, I think - but without the pendants installed, I still really like where the recessed lights are and how the undercabinet lights help light up the countertops. It's got a ways to go, but at least I can put the electrical work behind me and now seal up the rest of the walls and begin taping the drywall.

I'm really looking forward to moving on to the next phase, which will be the drywall but after that I'll get to strip the cabinets and prime them and install the new countertop and sink/faucet/disposal/dishwasher. It'll all come together ...

Um, found this sort of interesting ... an interview w/ Dick back in 1994 (oh, I'm sorry, did I forget to include his last name, opting just to call him 'Dick?') about invading Iraq when, oh, a Dem was President ...

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost accidentally (or, probably more accurately, without thinking) took my neon tester to the line wires coming into the box where I had spliced the switch and another outlet onto that earlier I had tested for continuity. There wasn't any continuity, but when I went to turn the breaker back on and then - without really thinking about - touched the neon tester to the hot and neutral wires ... there was power!!! So there is power in my kitchen, at least up to that point. So it's in that box or beyond that it dies.

This I can handle much better than having to rewire an entire circuit. Hungry, so going to get something to eat and then get back to testing where the problem is. But this is good. This is very good.

I'm betting large sums of money it has something to do with the GFI outlet in that box ...

OK, so I've almost admittedly turned into a total contractor-freak with all of this remodeling, and find myself, um, surprisingly lusting after a 2001 (the body style from '01-'04 is my preferred one, and I picked the '01 cos it'd be the cheapest) Toyota Tacoma (in white would be good). And of course, no truck would be really useful without a 4' overhead rack to crate sheetrock and other large things, so I'd have to outfit it with one of those, too - like this -



Of course, this comes in a size that fits a double-cab, '01 Tacoma for about 200 clams. Then I'd be set!

Day #29

So last night, I was wrapping up the electrical. Finished wiring the disposal circuit through armored cable under the countertop through the cabinets, up the wall to where a switch will be placed and back down to under the sink. Final steps. The undercabinet lights worked. The recessed cans were in. Oh, just one more wire to run up the wall to where the over-the-sink pendant will be placed. And that would be it. Then I could sheetrock the rest of the walls and start mudding/taping and getting on with it.

Until about 11:30pm when I left the kitchen to go turn off the sprinklers. Went outside everything was fine. Came back inside and all the lights were out. The entire circuit - with the lights and three receptacles - was out. Dark. Nothing. So off I went to the breaker box wondering what the h**l would have tripped the breaker since the load that was running was exactly 250W on a 20A circuit that could support 2400W (120v X 20A = 2400W).

Well, that was it ... the breaker wasn't tripped. So for whatever reason the circuit just decided to give up the ghost. There's no way 12G wire just 'overheated' with 250W running through it. And just as unlikely was the possibility that with no intervention whatsoever a splice just decided to come loose and cut the connection.

So, yippee - now I get to start testing continuity to try to figure out where the circuit dies. Oh - did I forget to mention there's power at the breaker. But a light on that circuit 2' from the box doesn't light up. I'm assuming it's the first point of contact for that circuit, then it runs to another overhead light (both in the basement), then I know where it runs up to the kitchen overhead and from there to the receptacles and the overhead lights.

I'm basically figuring I'll never find out where or what went wrong and instead I'll be spending the weekend wiring a new branch circuit from the breaker up to the kitchen. Yea, that'll be a blast. I really wanted to do that. To spend the better part of a weekend cutting holes in my basement ceiling and fishing wires out of walls and up in the attic.

Ooh boy.

Day #26

Moving along a bit slower than anticipated, but I never anticipated actually doing as much wiring as I'm doing. To date, I've got the recessed cans mounted and wired, the over-the-table pendant electrical wired (haven't ordered the pendant yet), the undercabinet halogen lights wired (see pic below) and 3 of the 4 GFI outlets wired.

I have to relocate the two recessed cans, then install the overhead box for a pendant to hang above the sink in the space between the cabinets and the 9' ceiling. Once that's done, I'm going to rewire the recessed lights with 3-way cables and drop a dimmer for them over by the switch in a 4-gang box which will include that, a GFI outlet, the switch for the over-the-sink pendant and a switch for the disposal. The box that's there is a bloody nightmare so I'm hoping my wiring diagram works - it has one line coming in, two loads going out, a 3-cable wire with a 3-way running to the exterior of the house and a switch/outlet combo where there were some low-voltage lamps wired in the lawn that I removed a while back (to a 3-way switch, nonetheless). So I have to splice a ton of stuff together - luckily the 4-gang box is huge so it should all fit.

But I'm also removing the existing 3-way switch from the circuit and wiring a GFI outside. Crossing my fingers when I restore power after attacking this tomorrow night everything comes back online ...

Oh, and I forgot - just so it doesn't seem like I haven't been doing anything ... I did splice the cable for the disposal onto the dishwasher circuit and ran it through the cabinets and also took care of the plumbing for the Bosch® - i.e. new faucet supply line for the hot water and new 7/8" drain hose which will attach to the disposal once it's installed (after I install the new countertops and along with them the new sink) - sans air gap, opting instead to just loop it up about 3' off the ground under the cabinets and behind the dishwasher (el cheapo/easy method when air gap isn't required by code, which it isn't here).