magic.rox

Today I’ve been working on removing our old entry chandelier and replacing it with a new one, more suited to our tastes.  Our old one is on the right.

It is similar to our dining room chandelier, but much larger.  We purchased it months ago, but the height of our entry was too high for my ladder.  Our entry is only 6′ x 4′, but it’s about 15′ tall!  I left early to rent a ladder, but decided to stop and see if my neighbor Gary could help, and help he did.  I asked him if he had a ladder taller than mine, and his works!

After about 3 hours of interesting work, I finished, and the most important thing, it works!

Now I just need to finish the walls.  Our house is begging to look more like a home.

To help us determine ways to save energy costs and consumption, I have created spreadsheets of our utility bills and a spreadsheet for the fuel consumption of my truck.

From what I have entered thus far I have found some very surprising facts.

I believe there is something “fishy” going on at our water company, as the numbers just don’t add up.

Here’s an example:

In March, we were billed for using 1980 gallons of water, which we were charged $9.43.  A month later, we used 1990 gallons and were charged the same amount, $9.43.  Our sewer bill shows this same descrepancy as we were charged $46.00 each month.

What’s 100 gallons of water and sewage when you’re only being charged 1/2 cent per gallon for water and 2 cents per gallon of sewage?

Here’s the amazing thing.  The installation of our new heat pump has significantly reduced our electric use.  Here’s the numbers:

Billing Date     Total KWH Used     Avg. KWH/Day     Total Charges
   3/5/07                   3023                     107.96                $261.94    
   4/4/07                   1379                       44.48                $138.55

The first set of numbers are consumption prior to installation.

Our home is powered completely by electricty.  We are using more and more energy conservation methods, and when something needs replaced we always look at how much it consumes before purchasing.

Hopefully we will get that new solar attic fan I wrote about before sometime soon.  We are even discussing purchasing a tankless hot water heater, when the time comes.  Electric models require much more infastructure than gas ones, but are still just as good.

How does your household rate?  I read somewhere that the “average” US household uses 1000 KWH per month.  If we could drop the average by 1%, we would be doing the world more than we know.

It’s been a long time since I last posted.  Part of me feels bad for leaving it abandoned for so long, I wouldn’t even have this if it weren’t for the kindness of Editor B.

Since starting my new job, I have felt “disconnected.”  My life has been connected to computers and technology since I was a teenager and I haven’t had the time to enjoy my computer much lately.  I cannot access computers while at work

Many things have happened since then, so I will update.  Hang on, cause there is much to say.

My daughter has officially graduated 1st grade, and left the state.  She took my heart with her.  With the help of my wife (thanks Rach) we made her a goodbye present.  A DVD filled with a slideshow with pictures of her and everyone who loves her.  It also included video of many of her loved ones saying goodbye and giving some life lessons.

I’ll miss you sweetheart!

My video business has suddenly picked up.  I am now more busy than not with projects people are wanting me to do for them.  I am going to advertise for the first time as well.  It also helps out high schoolers so I say why not?  I have also added a new service:  Cassette tape to CD or MP3 transfers! 

Work has been crazy.  I have been pushed to a point where I no longer think of it as a possible career anymore, just a job.  I am treated like scum, which is also what I clean.  With the heat and humidity, I can barely stand it.  Just like a few of my co-workers.

My little sister has moved in with us for a couple of weeks.  Her lease was up, and she has a new place lined up.  It’s just a matter of timing until she gets in.

We have picked up the pace on house projects.  Over the last few weekends we have removed the hideous wallpaper around our home.

Interestingly enough, underneath all of this were drawings.  These drawings were made by the children who lived here at the time.  We only have the kitchen and Taylor’s room to go.  Currently I am prepping the walls for paint.  We need them to be as perfect as possible for the deep, rich tones we have decided on for paint.

I also installed a new light fixture in our dining room.  We found a beautiful set for the dining room and foyer areas.  The one for the foyer has 2 tiers and is much larger.  Installation will be a different story though, as the ceiling is 1 1/2 stories high.

I cut down the dead tree in our backyard, that was fun!  I haven’t done that in over 10 years!  I have cleaned up much of it, but there is a lot more to go.  I am saving as much as possible for firewood, as I would like to use my fireplace sometime.

I wrecked my truck:(

The damage isn’t bad, just the bumper and a side piece to it.  I was returning from mowing at work, and while backing up jack-knifed my trailer.  It’s easy to do with a trailer that’s so small you can’t see it behind you.  And it just happens that my neighbors grandson just wrecked his truck which is essientially the same as mine.  It’s totalled, but the bumper is good!  I spoke with him today and I might get a new bumper on the cheap!

Hopefully once a few things settle down, I can start posting more often.

I finished installing the new door we have had for months now.  It didn’t turn out like I had wanted to, but the door is installed “correctly.”

The major problem is, 1.  I had never installed a pre-hung door before and 2.  I discovered our walls are not level, as they should be.

This created an “interesting” situation.  The new door jamb is flush with both sides of the wall at the ceiling, but stick out a little bit (1/2″ or so) at the base.

I haven’t installed trim yet, so I hope that it will hide this defect somewhat.  If not I might need to call in an expert.

On another note, I did some maintenance on my chainsaw and lawn mower.  Now I can finally cut up the broken limbs that fell from our pine tree.

Then I can start mowing again.  Many people have told me being a homeowner means constant repair and work to maintain.  It’s starting to kick in.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy these things, it’s just the amount that is bothering me.

After these items are done, I am hopefully going to start on my tedious garage/basement remodel.  I only have a year left (the wife told me so).

Thanks to Freecycle, we have been unloading gravel and sand by the truckload lately.  Almost all of our gravel is gone, and some of the sand has been taken.  If you live in B-town, and need sand, CONTACT ME!

I finished the trim and insulation on our new attic stairs.  I’m providing these pictures to show what a “proud papa” I am.

The trim isn’t perfect, as it was my first time doing “trim work.”  It was especially difficult due to it all being overhead work.  With the help of my father on the longer pieces, it came together though.

 

These new stairs are quite nice, as they are steel, fully adjustable and actually seal the ceiling.

The old ones were wood, and didn’t reach the floor.  Some of the treads were loose and you never knew if you were going to make it up there, or if you were going to fall.

We of course have much, much more work to do before we are even close to finished.

My next project:  New interior doors.  We have one, once I teach myself how to install it, the rest should fly by.

After becoming a homeowner, I have acquired many things I do not need or want.  All of these items were on my property at the time of purchase.

Rather than throwing away many of these items, which are mainly in decent shape.  I decided to try to give them to other deserving homes.  These items aren’t new, or fancy.  Their just items I don’t need or want.

The only outlets that I knew of, until now were the local newspaper and a “trading post” at the local trash site.  Yesterday I discovered an amazing way to relinquish these items, and make a larger audience aware of them.  It’s called Freecycle.

It was started with the old saying that “one mans trash is another mans treasure.”  Keeping unwanted items out of our landfills is a great way to help the enviroment, which is the main scope of freecycle.

I immediately signed up, and added some posts for items I have been tirelessly trying to eliminate from my land.  When we removed the hideous pool from our backyard, it left a big pit with sand and gravel in it.  I have placed free ads about it, and let my neighbors have all they want.  It hasn’t even put a dent in the sheer amount of material there.

2 hours after I posted this entry, I had over 20 responses asking about it, and when they could get it.  Hopefully we can get our yard back in some order now.

Check it out, if you have workable items you need to get rid of, you never know who might want them!

 www.freecycle.org

I spent all of my day replacing our attic stairs today, with the help of my wife and father.

Our existing one was in bad shape.  It was warped and wouldn’t allow the door to close completely, it was ugly and allowed our A/C or heat to simply “run away” as it was.  Some of the stairs were loose as well.

The first step was removal of the old unit, which was quite fun.  I enjoy anytime I get use my recprocating saw!  The unit was nailed in, and it was impossible to get them out.  I simply sawed around the frame of the unit and let it fall the 8 feet or so to the floor!

Poor Rachel seemed to get hurt everytime she lended a hand, as she hit her head a few times and even was shocked by an exposed switch.  This added tension to the situation, and we argued most of the day.  I’m sorry baby.

Installation was simple, but very drawn out due to the heat of the attic (which I was in most of the time).  I had to add some framing to the existing opening, as it was too large for the new stairs.

Everything but the finish work (trim and painting) was completed in roughly 5 hours.  I plan on completing this tomorrow.

I broke one tool, which was a cheap thing from big-lots, but it did bring up a possible new tool purchase.  My drill was pushed to it’s limits and may need to be replaced should I do anything as heavy as this in the future.

Our household and my business recieved some nice upgrades this week.

Our new heat pump was installed Wednesday, and took all day.  It was amazing to watch the guys rip the old POS out.  What was even more amazing is the technology that goes into this piece of HVAC equipment.

 
The difference is amazing, as we can’t even tell when it turns on.  The best part is that we are now saving a boatload on our home heating and cooling costs, thus saving the environment a little.
 

We will be receiving $650 in rebates, divided between a tax credit next year, and a rebate from our electric company.

I also purchased another hard drive to expand my capabilities for video transfers.  This brings me close to having a terabyte of storage space.  (For those of you who don’t know what a terabyte is, it’s 1,000 gigabytes, or 1,000,000 megabytes or 1,024,000,000 bytes.)  I am now at 900 gigabytes, divided into 4 hard drives.

This new hard drive is a SATA (Serial ATA), which I have had no experience with.  So far it seems to be much better, as the data transfer rates are almost double from the standard IDE connection.  This makes editing video, rendering video and burning DVD’s that much faster.

My only problem with the SATA connection is more of a windows problem.  When a “hot swappable” device is attached to a windows PC, an icon is automatically placed in your “tray.”  I am very anal about my computer and this icon bothers me because I don’t need it, or want it!

I have done some searching on this subject, and found some clues, but nothing that has erased this icon from my desktop thus far.

After deciding on replacing our energy hog of a heat pump, it has made me take a deeper look at what I can do (within my means) to make our home as energy efficient as possible.

I have been teaching myself about many “green” technologies.  The big ones, solar and wind turbine mainly.

Right now I am looking at the major energy users in our home, I have 2 in particular picked out.  Our attic fan and water heater.

I have found a great solution to ease the electrical drain of our attic fan, a solar replacement!
Many new homes have passive solutions for attic ventilation (just vents on the ridge of the roof).  This may seem ok, but isn’t reliable.  Ours, like many older homes have an active solution, a fan.  It runs constantly in the summer, as the heat builds up inside the attic.  It has a good sized motor, even though I am unsure of it’s exact energy use, I’m sure it’s not small.  Our current fan is in good shape, so we are not going to replace it immediately.  It’s days are numbered.

Typical “tank style” water heaters are just a waste of space and energy.  Why must we constantly heat water that we might not use for hours?  I understand the reasoning behind them, it’s in their simplicity.  New “tankless” or “on demand” water heaters are great, but there are no electric options with these.  They are all gas powered, and even though I like the prospects, I’ll just pass on the gas.

There are other options though.  Ever heard of solar water heating?  I hadn’t until a few days ago.  It’s quite interesting, but still mysterious to me.  There are many ways to set it up, and it seems very complex at this time.

If I can find a way to set up a solar system to power a hot water heater I would be on board in a minute.

So on with the research.  From what I currently know, to accomplish the results I desire I will need:  1 PV (photovoltaic) panel, a battery array, an inverter and then a way to feed the power into the circuit that feeds the water heater.  It can be accomplished, and at a decent price.

I have seen way too many articles lately about how the United States is falling way behind when it comes to energy use statstics.  I read one the other day stating that we haven’t even kept up with some standards WE created 10 years ago.

Never being a statstic, I would like to eventually live off the grid, but I cannot afford the initial 20k or so investment.  With baby steps we might eventually be able to.

 

After becoming a homeowner, one thing became very clear to me.  We all need to do what we can to save our energy use.  One reason we decided to purchase an all electric home.  Thus, no confusion or systems to worry about.  I have issues with gas appliances as one of my close family members was almost killed by a gas leak.  Most electric in this area is produced by coal or natural gas.  So I use natural gas, just differently than others.

With a 33 year old home most, if not all items need updated to todays standards for efficiency.  We have replaced many items which help, and are in the process of replacing the largest energy hog, our heat pump.  If you’re unfamiliar with a heat pump, it’s simply an air conditioner that also works in reverse.  Contrary to popular belief, there is heat in the coldest air.  Utilizing that heat is the trick.

Our first sign was our electric bill.  In a 2 month period, our bill increased by almost $100, no the rates didn’t increase, our usage did.  We installed an expensive programmable thermostat almost immediately after moving in, and I have to say it has helped.  We have it set very low.  For example during “day” hours it is set for 64 degrees, and we bump it up a little bit in the evening to 67.  This is the heat only mind you.  We have it set for the upper 70’s for cooling.

After deciding to “price” replacements, I also did some research on heat pumps.  As you would imagine, many advancements have been made in 30+ years.  To my surprise, the “upper end” heat pumps are actually energy star compliant!  A few even claim to use as much energy as a refrigerator.  Our estimates came in between $4000 and up to $12000!  Ouch…

Our old system isn’t broken, but on the verge.  It’s installation is a sham at best, and it uses more energy than needed.  Those are the only factors I need to say replace.

After weighing all of our options, we have decided to go with a Trane system.  We found out that our existing system is essentially a Trane, and the company has an excellent reputation.  They are also one of the leaders in heat pump technology.

Our unit, the XL14i is energy star compliant!  We will also be purchasing an air filtration system that rivals systems I have seen in the pharmaceutical industry (it filters out 99.98% of particles 3 microns and larger!)  The icing on the cake is the air handler, it has 12 speeds!  It is not the best, but it is what we can do.  Preliminary estimates say this unit is at least 50% more efficient than our current unit.

Due to it’s efficient use of energy, we will be recieving a tax credit and a credit from our electric company.  Thanks.

If you don’t know, you can receive tax credits for many things you might be doing to your home right now.  For instance, if you’re re-insulating your home, you can receive a tax credit for up to $300 for the cost of the insulation!  All of this information and much more is available at the Energy Star website.

We are also using compact florescent lights as much as possible, and other little things that help.

To quote Star Trek, “The Needs of The Many Outweigh The Needs of the Few.”  If we look at this when it comes to energy conservation, our world can become a much, much better place.

 

This week I rewired one circuit in the garage.  Now I only have one more to go.  After that I will just need to redo the plumbing, cover everything, and we will have a new garage!

One item that is a hard, very hard decision is regarding our heat pump.  It is original to the house (33 years).  It is not efficient and quite loud at startup (I think the bearings in the blower motor are going out.)  Most people I’ve spoken with are shocked that it has lasted this long.

After receiving out electric bill, we were quite flabbergasted!  We keep our thermostat very low (between 64º and 67º).  It was $50 more than last months bill.  This brought up the discussion that we might be throwing a lot of money away due to this old heat pump that hasn’t been maintained very well.

I have contacted a few HVAC contractors in the area regarding replacement.  All of them say they need a look at our home to “size it up.”  Which seems fishy to me, I’m just wanting a price range.  So I have 4 people coming next week.

One piece of good news is about the efficiency of newer heat pumps.  One contractor told me that certain models are energy star rated, which I love to hear.  He also told me that those models use the same energy as a refrigerator.  It seems crazy to me, but I like it.  He said depending on the model we purchase, we could save anywhere from $600 to $2700 a year on energy costs alone!!!

I want a geothermal system, but it seems as if regular systems have caught up to them in efficiency.  I was told they are generally double the cost, and use the same amount of energy.

When we bought the house, we were hoping it would just go out, so our home warrantee would cover the costs of replacing it.  I think it will be a good investment in the end.  I just know it will be very hard for Rachel to spend this kind of money on this.  I’ve been told of some great financing options, so we’ll see I guess.

Friday I removed our old dishwasher, pictured below.  It was an interesting exercise in reverse installation.

Sunday, Rachel, Taylor and I installed our new dishwasher.  It was a long time coming, as nobody would offer to do the dishes (including me).  Just look at the pile of dishes in the picture.  Luckily there were no major surprises installing the unit.  I had to change the route for the drain line, but nothing major.  I finished installation at 11:30 or so Sunday night.  As I finish writing this at 9:30am on Monday morning, those dishes are just a distant memory.

It is a nice “middle of the road” GE, Energy Star Compliant model :)  I was appalled at the lack of sound insulation on the unit.  Our 30 year old one had more, so we applied a nice layer of R-19 (left over from the garage renovation) to the top of it.  It made the fit perfect!  After running the unit, it’s actually quite silent for a dishwasher.  Was it our extra insulation, or pure design?  I guess we’ll never know.

There is only one major appliance left in the kitchen which was in the home when we purchased it 7 months ago.  As I previously wrote, the stove is probably on it’s last leg. The oven quit working for months then mysteriously started again after touching the display.

Future kitchen projects:  Countertops, Cabinet Facelift and Flooring.  We haven’t decided for sure yet, but I think we will be working on the cabinets soon.  After those are complete, we will have a new kitchen basically!

I have learned many things after buying this house.

1.  Expect the unexpected.
2.  That home repair class in High School has paid it self off and then some.
3.  When one crisis is finished, another one is sure to follow.

I came home the other day to hear the sound of running water.   I saw a glimmer of water downstairs as well.   Our infamous leak was back!  This time I could see exactly where it was coming from though.  It was leaking stronger than ever, I would guesstimate around 1-2 gallons per minute!

When the house was built, instead of using quick set concrete or mortar to seal the hole for the water line, caulking was used.  After 33 years, it has given out.

So I quickly went to Menards and purchased some items, one of which being “Dry-Lok Fast Plug,” a quick setting cement.  This stuff claimed to actually seal an active water leak, and it does!

After some trial and error, and much needed help from my “women,”the leak stopped.  But solving that problem, only created a new one.

It rained cats and dogs the next day, and the leak was back, more than ever.  There was no dripping sound, instead I found that water was “sweating” or coming directly through our concrete block foundation.  This is caused by hydrostatic pressure that builds up next to the house.

This is just an assumption, but I believe there are insufficient drainage systems in place around the house.  The rear of the home seems fine, and shows no signs of any water being there.  The front is a different story though.  I believe part of the problem lies in the topography immediately in front of the house.

But alas, it’s winter and no major excavation can be done.  Which means the problem cannot be fixed at this moment.  I hope my uncle Ted can help me out on this one. 

So I guess until spring comes, we will have to deal with the problem.

We have a new guest in our home.  He only comes out about once a week.  We like to call him our “roomie” but his real name is Roomba!

We are all very surprised at how well the roomba picks up dirt and debris.  We are even more surprised at how well he picks up pet hair.

The cats don’t know what to think of this new guest in “their” house, but we like him lots.  The operation of the roomba (model 4160) is simple enough a child could do it!  You press the power button, and then the clean button.  When the roomba is done with the area, it simply stops and plays a delightful tune!

Even better, when the battery is low, the roomba will even make it’s way to it’s charging base station and charge itself!  How cool?

A couple of years ago it was all about the dyson, and we tried a friends.  To be perfectly honest, it did not impress me at all.  The roomba does though, especially at half the cost of a dyson!

So much has happened since I last posted.  This will be a mish-mosh if you will, of thoughts, ideas and updates.

Personally this has been a trying week for me.  I had an interview at IU for a position, but due to the weird hours I currently work, I accidentally overslept and missed the interview.  It was a way out of this crazy lifestyle I am currently living.

We have a new problem with the house, flooding!¬† The last couple of weeks has been very rainy in Bloomington.¬† We knew the house had flooded when we purchased it, but thought it was a one time deal, we were wrong.¬† I called some “waterproofing” companies.¬†¬†That was¬†a joke.¬† The first company said that they would rip all of our concrete block walls out and replace them, plus they would sell me some backfill rock that is “patented and revolutionary” for only $5995.¬† I can understand this in extreme situations, but this isn’t major flooding.

I had my dad get a hold of my step-uncle (long story) to take a look at it.¬† He did, and told me he thought it was leaking at the point where the water line comes into the house, which is directly under our front door.¬† I ripped out everything in the vicinity and did not find any significant signs of a place for water to come in, but cleaned the area and sprayed some “stuff” on it.¬† I guess after tonight we’ll see the results, as it’s been raining all day.

I have met a kind spirit at work, something that is lacking majorly here.¬† His name is C.J., he’s a very interesting man, who happens to be the same age as my father.¬† He is into the same things I am, and we always have something to talk about.¬† The other day he gave me a video monitor he no longer used (an upgrade I needed badly).¬† I will miss him when I leave.¬† I will make sure to give him all of my info when that happens though.

I received a new client for my video business.¬† He told me over the phone he has over 80 tapes he wants transferred to DVD.¬† I received his first shipment last Tuesday and have been working constantly on them.¬† I sent him a shipment of 8 DVD’s today.¬† I hope he enjoys the care and hard work I put into his family’s memories.

I have learned that I do have some limitations when it comes to transferring video now, so I am hoping to correct these issues as soon as the funds become available.¬† The current plan is to build another computer, using some of the available parts I have on hand, and moving some from my current computer.¬† I don’t need a power machine, just a decent one.¬† So I’m checking out my options.

Yesterday I shut off my computer and did some wiring work, installed a new surge protector and my computer wouldn’t come back on.¬† Turns out my power supply had went bad.¬† I was somewhat scared because this was one thing I hadn’t done on a computer yet.¬† $42 later, I have a bigger power supply installed (by me).

I must say something about Editor B’s speech.¬† I was not there, and only saw a snippet from Anderson Cooper 360, but I’m sure it was amazing.¬† After watching almost every episode of ROX, I have a good idea of how he spoke.¬† I hope XY got it on video?¬† It’s still hard for me to understand how it is taking so long to recover.¬† All I have to say is Andrew, how long did it take Florida to rebuild and recover?¬† I know I’m merely speculating, but come on, without New Orleans, this country wouldn’t be anything like it is today.¬† What do you think made westward expansion possible?¬† We the people need to remember that.

The inevitable happened last night, our dishwasher finally gave out on us.¬† It still works, but water leaks everywhere!¬† After some in depth viewing, the leak is actually coming from inside the door.¬† It’s old, probably around 30+ years.¬† Luckily, we anticipated this, and asked that everyone purchase gift cards for us to help with this purchase.

Now every major appliance in the house has been replaced except the stove, and it’s on it’s last leg.¬† A few months ago the oven just quit working.¬† We tried and tried and tried to get someone to repair it.¬† Someone even came out, and told us what the problem was.¬† They said they would order the part and return to install.¬† That date has yet to come!¬† We have called, and even visited their shop, to no avail.¬† A couple of weeks ago, my mom came up from Louisville.¬† As I was explaining the stove situation, tada it started working again!

I guess the garage will have to wait a little while longer.  I want to just get it done, but have had little to no time due to my constant job search and the weird hours I am available to anyone now.

We have started a log of changes and repairs we have made to the house.  A great idea of my wife!

Hopefully the house will start to look different.¬† Rachel (and Taylor maybe) will start tearing the wallpaper off today.¬† Isn’t it hideous?¬† After some drywall patching we will paint, finally!¬† The original plan was to do it right after we moved in, 5 months ago.

I said goodbye to Big Red Liquors yesterday, and said hello to FirstLease today.

In some ways, this job at FirstLease is a dream.  I get to drive Tractor/Trailers, a.k.a Rigs.  In 2001 I went with a buddy of mine out on the road for 3 weeks, and loved every minute of it!  He let me drive a few times, not long, but enough to be addicted.  I cannot drive a rig due to my epilepsy, but I would if I could.

 

 

I must say I enjoyed today tremendously.¬† The only bad part was the weather, which in Indiana, changes like a womans mind.¬† The main tasks of this position are fueling the tractor and trailer, checking fluids, cleaning the inside of the trailer and parking them.¬† That’s it!

There is only one thing I don’t really like about this job, and that’s the hours.¬† After I am fully trained, I will move to 3rd shift, 12am to 8am.¬† I will work every weekend and have 2 days off during the week.¬† It’s¬†a decent paying job, so I can’t complain¬†that much.

Now a little update on my garage renovation.

My father called a “friend” who “knows his stuff” about electricity in to take a look.¬† He told me the best thing to do was to rip all the wiring out and start fresh.¬† So that’s what I did.

To quote J from episode 91, “we have some anal leakage.”¬† The main drain line for our upstairs bathrooms is leaking.¬† I called in the plumbers on this one, they recommended to replace a whole section of line.¬† I’m glad we got that home warrantee.

After we get the leakage stopped, I will start actually remodeling our garage.¬† Something I’ve always wanted, a nice garage.

I have almost everything picked out, or purchased for this renovation.  The only new things left to purchase are insulation, OSB and new light fixtures, I believe.

It all started with my wife. Not saying it’s her fault, she just wanted to park in our garage(I don’t blame her).¬† The key problem was our garage door openers and the lights.¬† The openers are as old as the house (1974), and the lights in the garage¬†are a very complex and complicated situation.

I found a really kewl website for all of you out there who enjoy making your home hi-tech.¬† It’s called Smart Home.¬† I found devices that made it possible for my loving wife to open the garage doors with a remote like all new openers, without buying a new one!¬† I also found something called an “occupancy sensor.”¬† In the short of it, it’s a motion detector that turns your lights on when it senses motion and/or heat.¬† I thought I would install these items and we would be on our way.

I thought wrong!  When I went to install the occupancy sensor, lets just say I got in WAY over my head.  I ended up disabling all of our lights in the garage, now our only means of light is daylight from opening the doors and plugging a fixture into an outlet.  The way the circuit was wired for the lights is very strange and I cannot figure it out.  I am probably calling an electrician in to fix this.  To help lower the cost, I am removing everything covering the wiring, so he can trace the wiring and I can be on my way.  My plans are to cover everything with OSB (Oriented Strand Board) aka Plywood or Chipboard.

Our homes’ previous owner did not maintain this place like he should of, and because of that, many things need 10 years worth of maintenance or replacement.¬† In this adventure I have discovered mold about knee high on the drywall backing.¬† Much of the insulation is moldy as well and needs to be replaced.¬† So in the end, it seems the first room we are renovating in the house is the garage.¬† A surprise to me, but it needed done.

As B is finishing? his basement, I am beginning on mine!

I’ve been so busy, tired and just plain confused to even think about writing for a while.¬† I have “some” free time, so I thought I would vent.

I had a chance at really making my mom & pop operation a real business!¬† Indiana University requested I give them a bid for a HUGE DVD transfer job.¬† It was going to be 250 or 500 DVD’s.¬† Luckily I had some inside information because my wife works there.¬† I tried to undercut everyone, which I think I did.¬† But in the end, the company who produced the video to be transferred received the job.¬† Better luck next time I suppose.¬† It’s nice to be considered though.¬† If I could only get my foot in the door.

Business has taken another one of it’s on again cycles.¬† My first customer had me transfer 19 VHS tapes, another co-worker wanted a tape transferred onto 2 DVDs, one in NTSC (American TV standard) and the other in PAL (a different TV standard).¬† It was a very interesting job.¬† Now the person who sits directly across from me wants me to transfer 12 VHS-C tapes into 3 DVD’s.¬† Something is better than nothing, I just hate this feast or famine stuff.

Then I had a slight computer melting problem.¬† For some unknown reason, a power connector to my video card sparked, and melted the connector.¬† Luckily a local computer shop gave me a pigtail to replace the connector and I’m back in black.¬† With as much DVD transfer and ROX work I’ve been doing, I’m seriously pondering replacing my case and upgrading to a dual-core processor.¬† From what I’ve read and researched, it would be a seamless upgrade.¬† The benefits would highly outweigh the costs.¬† For example right now it takes 2+ hours to render a ROX episode.¬† I could cut that time down to a little bit more than an hour with a dual-core processor.¬† So we’ll see I guess.

I got some interesting news today.¬† “ROXFAN” sent me an email saying he had copies of episodes 8&9 of ROX.¬† He said they are in decent shape.¬† Hopefully I will be getting a copy soon.¬† Maybe season one will get done before Christmas?

I’ve been having some connectivity problems lately with my PC.¬† It was built for speed and doesn’t like this “win” modem that I installed merely as a backup to broadband.¬† So I am not online like I used to be.

I have been doing a lot of work on our house lately.¬† Today my father, wife and I trimmed trees and moved them into a pile.¬† This took a lot of time.¬† The former homeowner did not maintain things as he should of.¬† The feng shui of my yard is starting to really flow.¬† I am starting to feel a positive vibe about it.¬† The only major¬†”to-do’s”¬†left with the yard are the remains of the pool and the trench in our yard from connecting to the sewer system.¬† They should be corrected by next year.

I am working on a 8mm to DVD job as well and found a nice feature of the software I use.¬† I can actually flip, rotate and reverse video!¬† It seems like something so small, but it’s huge.¬† I had a reel of film that was upside down and backwards, so it made it easy to fix.

I have changed e-mail addresses as well, all of you who know me got the email.¬† I am tired of juno, they seem to of sold out to “United Online.”¬† What happened to the good old dayz?

I will get to meet all of my neighbors in Sunrise Estates tomorrow for a neighborhood meeting.  A trailer park next to us wants to expand, and we are all meeting to discuss and try to supress this from happening.  I think it would be okay if this were a decent trailer park, but these trailers are not kept up, and are quite old.  Neither is the area the trailers are in.  There is no order to how they are placed.  One here, one there sort of thing.  Hopefully we can argue a happy medium. 

Until next time…..