Mowing and basement work.

For my friends in other parts of the country where temperatures never become unbearable, humidity is not an issue.  However here in the central Mid West, we are in the 90s almost every day.  And the humidity is usually in the 80 percent numbers as well.

But that is mostly taken out by the air conditioners we run constantly.  But what I was working on in the basement is the moisture in the ground.  It has rained almost all spring, and our ground is saturated with this moisture.  It seems to permeate the poured concrete of our basement and the air down there is almost swampy!

The basement is 8 feet into the ground so it is never overly hot, even if we turn the AC off.  But even in the low 70s down there, if you do almost any form of exertion, you begin to perspire.  The rough in carpenters almost instantly complained about the heavyness of the air down there.

So today, with the de humidifier running for the last couple of days, is was finally almost bearable to stay in the basement.  And stay in the basement is what I did after going out in the early morning and mowing the yard.

I try and wait untill most folks have left for work before cranking up the lawn boy two cycle mower and trimming all around the house and the fence line in back.  That kind of tests the water to see if the noise of the John Deere tractor mower is going to cause looks out of all of the neighbors windows.  I have one lady that comes out on her deck and stares at me!  I don't like the city too well.......

But after that job was complete, it was back into the basement for another go at the wiring.  I had another circuit almost wired in, except for the feed run back to the electrical panel.  But that seems to take forever, as you have to poke the wires thru all the holes in the floor joist, if you have holes where you need them.  But as usual, I had to drill a whole bunch of new holes in the 6 year old dried out wood.

Did you catch the dichotomy of my discussion of the damp basement but then complaining about the wood being all dried out?  You would think that wouldn't be the case, but the older wood from when this house was constructed in late 2005 has hardened like it was concrete.

The drill digs in and that stops the half inch drill right in its tracks.  Yes it is a cheap Harbor Freight Chinese drill, and perhaps I should go get a new Dewalt, but the call for half inch drills as an ordinary homeowner isn't often, so I have stuck to the Aisan model.

But ever so slowly, I am making progress, as I have recepticles all around the main room, and now I have the lighting circuit for the other side of the room where we are putting in a bathroom as well.  We built a small storage room behind the new bathroom, and the new walls will cut off all light back there, so I had to install a cieling light there as well.  I have put in switches by the doors also, not just the old pull chain thing we did years ago.

Tonight as I came back upstairs, I had new light bulbs burning brightly.  It will all need to be dry walled, so some of my work will have to come back out, but for now, I at least know the wiring is sound and not shorted out.

I just hate having to rip out finish work because something wasn't roughed in correctly......... especially if I was the one doing the rough in!

I know all of this isn't too exciting, but some days are alot like that........

Retired Rod