I gave out in the basement!

I started in the basement again finishing up a light under the stairs where you go down.  We turned this into another storage area, and it will be dark once the dry wall is on.

But I had trouble hammering the staples in, because my wrists were so sore.  I perservered.  Then I went on to adding another duplex recepticle on the East wall, and managed to get it in as well.

But then I started to add another duplex in the office room, and this is where I ran into the hard wood studs that again stopped the drill dead.  I kept at it and finally got the wood drilled.  By now, my left wrist was really hurting, because each time the drill stalled it twisted my arms against the torque.

I managed to pull the wire and finish the staples but I knew I could go no farther until I could heal up some on my arms.  I just walked away and went back upstairs.

I spent the afternoon getting a lock that was replaced last week by my son re keyed.  When I arrived at the lock smith, he showed me that the lock could be re keyed by inserting a little clip into the face and putting in the correct key.   He didn't even charge me anything!  I came home and re read the instructions, and there was nothing there about re keying, honest!!

We had our youngest grand daughter over here this afternoon and I spent the rest of the day playing with her.  That is more fun than wiring a bunch of bare wood studs any day!

Retired Rod

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

More wiring and bad reviews on the dehumidifier!

We broke the heat overnight with rain at 3 AM, and so today was steamy but not as hot.  The heat we did have cooked the moisture out of the ground and the humidity was astonishing.

Yesterday I purchased a dehumidifier from Lowes.  I was advertised as a 50 pint machine, and overnight, it filled the water tank clear full in about 10 hours.  Guessing that it holds about 2 gallons, it would require that you empty it three times a day, so something has to change about that procedure.

The machine has a screw on cap on the back that looks like a hose cover, and removing it revealed that you can indeed screw on a garden hose fitting.  So it was back over to Lowes to purchase some kind of hose.

I got a short garden hose that is designed to hook up a hose reel, and it seems to be working.  The catch to all of this is that the reviews of this product are terrible.  Loyce our consumate trash tosser, immediately threw away the box, so now I can't take it back.  Oh well, we'll see how long it will last.  Most folks report about a year and they are done.

So I spent another day working on the electrical rough in wiring in the basement.  There really isn't that much wiring, but I am fairly slow doing it , so it will take me several days.  I put the main run of recepticles in using 12 gauge wiring.  This will alow for 20 amps to be drawn at once.  I did this because when it becomes winter, we will be using space heaters.

But pulling the heavy wire back to the electrical box thru the overhead holes drilled in the floor joist prove difficult.  That took about half of the day.  So the rest of the job will be done in 14 guage.  It is a lot easier to work with!

And to top it off, the job requires a lot of hammering of the wire staples, and my hands are not used to this pounding.  After all day, I seem to be terribly sore in my hands and arms.   It is tough to get old........ no wonder we have to retire!

Retired Rod

Inside project!

The weather here has taken a turn for the Hot!  It happens every year, when field day gets here and lasts until the middle of July.  We will hit the century mark before it is over.

Today we were at 95 in the middle of the afternoon, but that only tells us it is time to stay inside in the AC.  And Loyce has that project that she rekindled last week.  Remember I ducked the project by leaving for Red Bay?

A number of years ago, I started to do some framing for finishing the basement.  But I lost interest, when housing began to drop in value.  Spending more money on something that was becoming worth less and less, did not seem to make sense.

Loyce doesn't care what makes financial sense, she wants to use the finished basement to entertain the grand kids.  They aren't here all that much, but its on her hot list.  So she found a carpenter to help us get started again.

So he framed most of the walls while I was away, and also did it much faster than I could ever do it.  He had an assistant, to help carry all the wood in and hold up the walls while he leveled them and that is a big time saver.

But with all the new studs in the basement, it is time for me to get into gear and do the electrical work.  So that is what I was doing all day while it was hot outside.  And of course I had the proverbial runs to Lowes.

And finally we decided that it was way too damp and humid in the basement, so I went over a purchased a dehumidifier.  We haven't owned one of those in years, and they usually just rust out, but the one I got today is mostly plastic so perhaps it will last longer.

And I must report that I am not used to working all day climbing up and down ladders and drilling big holes in boards, so I am a tad sore tonight, mostly in my hands from running the half inch drill with the long three quarter inch screw bit in it.  Drilling the new wood is quite easy, but the old wood has dried out and almost refuses to give way.  It stops the drill completely, even thou it is a hammer style drill and very powerful.

So my arms took the brunt of that torque, and I am only partially done.  But at least when the guy comes back this week, it will look like I am making some progress.  However I am sure it will not be as fast as he wants me to go.

Retired Rod