Strouty
Well-known member
It should look like that on Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, the. It should stay in the mountains.
Killing time in a small "2 car" garage
- Thread starter BoilermakerFan
- Start date
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
By 9am it was 36 degrees. It's up to 39 degrees now so it's already half melted away.
Snow doesn't last long here.
Snow doesn't last long here.
Grumblebum
Well-known member
That's a nice photo BMF, near 100F here yesterday.
GB
GB
xtremek
Well-known member
But no snow in my part of Michigan 
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
That's too hot! I hate to be hot. I don't like freezing rain either, but 50degF to about 85degF is my ideal range. Maybe low 90s with a nice breeze at a pool or lake, but much over 90deg and I just sweat too much.
But no snow in my part of Michigan
Wow! My daughter said Purdue got about 7-1/2" and my buddy in Grand Haven was going ice fishing today. But he didn't mention snow either.
The snow is essentially gone now and my yard is a soggy mess.
Yeah I live only a few mins north of Grand Haven and its been cold but no snow here
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
In Like a Lamb, Out Like a Lion... it's coming... Late February, March, and early April are going to ****.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
I did discover a really cool thing this weekend.
I haven't been able to fully give up my old 2011 MacBook Pro because of one program in particular.
I use PhotoScape X to resize, crop, and edit my pics on DropBox. It's very easy for me to use and I just hadn't found anything I liked on the Windows platform.
Well guess what? PhotoScape X is available for Windows 10! YES!
I installed it and tested it tonight. It's not quite the same as the Mac version, but once I figured out how to open my pics, getting to the edit screen was easy and looked exactly the same.
There are still a couple of audio programs on the Mac I'll use, but now I can at least back up all my files off the MacBook and give it to my son.
I haven't been able to fully give up my old 2011 MacBook Pro because of one program in particular.
I use PhotoScape X to resize, crop, and edit my pics on DropBox. It's very easy for me to use and I just hadn't found anything I liked on the Windows platform.
Well guess what? PhotoScape X is available for Windows 10! YES!
I installed it and tested it tonight. It's not quite the same as the Mac version, but once I figured out how to open my pics, getting to the edit screen was easy and looked exactly the same.
There are still a couple of audio programs on the Mac I'll use, but now I can at least back up all my files off the MacBook and give it to my son.
xtremek
Well-known member
To me, the beginning of January sucked, nothing but cold rain.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Yeah, I can handle the cold and I love rain in the warmer months, but I hate cold rain.
My buddy said he had to drive 100 miles north of GH to go ice fishing. That's kind of crazy for MI in January.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
This weekend was a strange one... my son was a party animal this weekend! 
My wife has been sick with laryngitis since Tues. or Wed. My son had a stomach bug Tues. night and Wed. So they were both home sick on Wed. Both went back to school on Thur. Sat. mornings my son has Box Lacrosse at 7am until 8:30am. It was raining but it was going to switch over to snow at some point (and it did around 5pm). My son had a sleep over party at a friend's house at 3pm Sat. until 11am Sun. Then he had another bday party to go to at 1pm on Sun.
And I have Monday off from work as a company holiday! I haven't had MLK day off from work in at least 19 years, so that's really cool. Plus it helps explain why I'm up at 2am on a Sunday night.
One of my best friends is a journeyman electrician so I called him with an electrical question about my garage sub-panel. Specifically I wanted know how much wire I could stuff into my conduit from the house to the garage to see if i had any headroom to pull new wire to increase the amperage of my garage sub panel. It's a 60A sub right now and I really need 100A. When I rewired the house in 2000, I exceeded the NEC requirements pretty much everywhere. I ran 1-1/2" conduit to the garage. Which is actually big enough for a 125A run.
So that's great news. All I will have to do this spring or summer is buy the 50' or 50' of wire and the two 100A breakers to upgrade the garage service. I am already planning to buy a new CH MLO panel for the garage to add a few more circuits. I have a 16 pole out there now, but I'm going to pick up a 24 pole panel. I need the space for the welder circuit, a couple vent fans, and another receptacles circuit. I'm going to just install the new panel and rough in the new receptacles for now so I can finish the walls, then I'll do the power upgrade later. I'm just glad it will be an easy upgrade.
With all of my "free" time this weekend, but crappy weather, I didn't get out in the garage. Instead I spent a lot of time researching other 3D printers and upgrades for them. I discovered a model that I hadn't really been considering will fit in the steel electrical box I have. All of that is being posted in the 3D printer thread.
I did go to the public skating session at the rink Saturday night. It was pretty dead because of the bad weather, but there were just enough idiot kids there to annoy me and make it really hard to get into a good groove speed skating. I've definitely been fight off the cold/laryngitis that's in the house too so I wasn't really that stable on the new skates. I called it a night after an hour or so of skating, but that was an hour of aerobic exercise. I'm sore today.
Oh, I've also been keeping up with my push-up challenge, but I've realized I need to make some days really light days so I can push it on others. Friday I was up to 50. Saturday I knew I was going skating so I only did 20. Today (Sunday)... my back was sore as hell so I made it a "rest" day and only did 10.
My wife has been sick with laryngitis since Tues. or Wed. My son had a stomach bug Tues. night and Wed. So they were both home sick on Wed. Both went back to school on Thur. Sat. mornings my son has Box Lacrosse at 7am until 8:30am. It was raining but it was going to switch over to snow at some point (and it did around 5pm). My son had a sleep over party at a friend's house at 3pm Sat. until 11am Sun. Then he had another bday party to go to at 1pm on Sun.
And I have Monday off from work as a company holiday! I haven't had MLK day off from work in at least 19 years, so that's really cool. Plus it helps explain why I'm up at 2am on a Sunday night.
One of my best friends is a journeyman electrician so I called him with an electrical question about my garage sub-panel. Specifically I wanted know how much wire I could stuff into my conduit from the house to the garage to see if i had any headroom to pull new wire to increase the amperage of my garage sub panel. It's a 60A sub right now and I really need 100A. When I rewired the house in 2000, I exceeded the NEC requirements pretty much everywhere. I ran 1-1/2" conduit to the garage. Which is actually big enough for a 125A run.
So that's great news. All I will have to do this spring or summer is buy the 50' or 50' of wire and the two 100A breakers to upgrade the garage service. I am already planning to buy a new CH MLO panel for the garage to add a few more circuits. I have a 16 pole out there now, but I'm going to pick up a 24 pole panel. I need the space for the welder circuit, a couple vent fans, and another receptacles circuit. I'm going to just install the new panel and rough in the new receptacles for now so I can finish the walls, then I'll do the power upgrade later. I'm just glad it will be an easy upgrade. With all of my "free" time this weekend, but crappy weather, I didn't get out in the garage. Instead I spent a lot of time researching other 3D printers and upgrades for them. I discovered a model that I hadn't really been considering will fit in the steel electrical box I have. All of that is being posted in the 3D printer thread.
I did go to the public skating session at the rink Saturday night. It was pretty dead because of the bad weather, but there were just enough idiot kids there to annoy me and make it really hard to get into a good groove speed skating. I've definitely been fight off the cold/laryngitis that's in the house too so I wasn't really that stable on the new skates. I called it a night after an hour or so of skating, but that was an hour of aerobic exercise. I'm sore today.
Oh, I've also been keeping up with my push-up challenge, but I've realized I need to make some days really light days so I can push it on others. Friday I was up to 50. Saturday I knew I was going skating so I only did 20. Today (Sunday)... my back was sore as hell so I made it a "rest" day and only did 10.
xtremek
Well-known member
You've got to give your body a chance to rest and recover after a good workout. ANd good news on the conduit.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Normal workout plans only work one muscle group twice a week with one day off a week, but my goal is to do pushups every day for a year. So I am modifying it to be a high rep day, medium rep day, light rep day, light rep day. On my heavy day I do as many reps as I can the first set, then knock a few reps off each set until I get down to just 3 reps in the set. Light rep days I move my hand positions to try to work different areas of the muscles. I discovered that women's style pushups on the knees with my hands close and forward really works out my upper chest and shoulders. It was easy to do high rep sets, but I'm feeling it today in my shoulders. That's a great thing.
I'm happy about the conduit too.
I'm a little pissed Eastwood jacked up the price on their scroll air compressor 50%. I was waiting for a bigger model, but I fear it will be close to $3K if they ever release it.
I'm happy about the conduit too.
I'm a little pissed Eastwood jacked up the price on their scroll air compressor 50%. I was waiting for a bigger model, but I fear it will be close to $3K if they ever release it.
xtremek
Well-known member
The workout sounds like a decent compromise. $3K for a compressor? How big would that have been? I paid $400 for my 5hp, 2 stage, 80 gal. compressor, used.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
The $3K is just my educated guess on the cost if Eastwood ever introduces a higher capacity version of their QST compressor. I'll attach the specs for you...
The current model is 12cfm with a 30gal tank and 3.3HP. Contrary to their marketing statement, 12cfm is not enough to run every tool in my shop. A quality HVLP spray gun needs over 15cfm. I'm hoping Eastwood offers a true 5HP version that would produce 18-19cfm. What is great about the design is that it is quiet AND most importantly, rated for 100% duty cycle.
Regular piston compressors are usually rated for 50%-70% duty cycle, but more than 6 starts on the motor an hour puts a significantly higher load on the motor and greatly shortens its life. That said, I have abused my 16-17 year old cheap Porter-Cable 60gal single stage compressor and it's still going.
With the huge price jump on the Eastwood QSTs, the Quincy, or DeWalt clone, on a 120gal tank is my top choice for a replacement when it fails. They run $1K-$1200 and are rated for 17cfm IIRC.
I sold Ingersoll-Rand industrial air compressors for 2 years in a previous life so I know how to spec them and set them up correctly. When I finally get to move to a new location and build my dream outbuilding, I will put in an OTT air system with plenty of storage capacity, automatic drains, an air dryer, and closed loop distribution lines.
Edit: You can overcome the 6/7 starts an hour limit by implementing a VFD with soft starting ramp functions... and a VFD is the perfect way to implement a heavier duty 3phase motor in a 240Vac single phase system. That will he my plan for the next compressor. Either a 5HP or 7-1/2HP 3phase motor...
Attachments
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OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
BMF...I just got caught up on your thread.
Air compressors are like anything else I guess, you get what you pay for! Mine was a Lowe's special when my best friend worked at his local store as a department manager. Ended up with a 60 gal Kobalt unit for $175 shipped to my door with the 5 year extended warranty...300 miles away. It's not the best, and I'd love to replace the actual air pump, but has done its job for 3+ years now.
I'd really like to move the compressor outside the shop to a shack built on the side...someday maybe.
Air compressors are like anything else I guess, you get what you pay for! Mine was a Lowe's special when my best friend worked at his local store as a department manager. Ended up with a 60 gal Kobalt unit for $175 shipped to my door with the 5 year extended warranty...300 miles away. It's not the best, and I'd love to replace the actual air pump, but has done its job for 3+ years now.
I'd really like to move the compressor outside the shop to a shack built on the side...someday maybe.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Hey OD. I haven't really been on GJ in almost 6 weeks I guess. My crappy DeVilbiss built Porter-Cable is going on 15 years or so. The last 10 have been with the case patched with Magnum Steel putty and JB Weld! But it hasn't quit yet.
Work has been keeping me really busy, which is great, but by the time 9pm rolls around, I'm usually wiped out, which for me is pretty rare... as you can see since I'm posting at almost 1am.
I'm still keeping up with my push-up challenge. In the first 60 days, I only missed 3 days because I was just too sick to even try for 10...
Been skating every Saturday night at the local rink when I can too. My son goes almost every Friday night, but there are WAY too many middle school kids there for me on Fridays. It's usually packed. Saturdays are much less crowded and an older crowd of high school, college, and adults, then a few middle school kids. My son goes every Saturday that I go so some weeks he's skating twice a week.
Oh yeah, lacrosse practice officially started at the first of March, so that's kept me busy 3-4 days a week too.
Only cool news I have is that my wife signed up for the ABATE Basic Rider Course in August. So that's super cool.
Nothing else going on... weather has been better during the week, but then it turns to **** on the weekends when I REALLY need it to be nice, warm, and not raining. So far it's either been warmer and raining, or cold & windy, or even cold & rainy. I have not been amused by Mother Nature's sense of humor as of late. To add insult to injury; on days when it's been beautifully warm & sunny, I've either been out of town or tied to my desk on conference calls.
Work has been keeping me really busy, which is great, but by the time 9pm rolls around, I'm usually wiped out, which for me is pretty rare... as you can see since I'm posting at almost 1am.
I'm still keeping up with my push-up challenge. In the first 60 days, I only missed 3 days because I was just too sick to even try for 10...
Been skating every Saturday night at the local rink when I can too. My son goes almost every Friday night, but there are WAY too many middle school kids there for me on Fridays. It's usually packed. Saturdays are much less crowded and an older crowd of high school, college, and adults, then a few middle school kids. My son goes every Saturday that I go so some weeks he's skating twice a week.
Oh yeah, lacrosse practice officially started at the first of March, so that's kept me busy 3-4 days a week too.
Only cool news I have is that my wife signed up for the ABATE Basic Rider Course in August. So that's super cool.
Nothing else going on... weather has been better during the week, but then it turns to **** on the weekends when I REALLY need it to be nice, warm, and not raining. So far it's either been warmer and raining, or cold & windy, or even cold & rainy. I have not been amused by Mother Nature's sense of humor as of late. To add insult to injury; on days when it's been beautifully warm & sunny, I've either been out of town or tied to my desk on conference calls.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
What's up guys?
I think that in the last 9 weeks I have been out of town 5 or 6 of them. I was supposed to be out in the L.A. area next week, but I postponed that trip. Couldn't get enough clients committed to justify the trip cost. I was out in S.F. and Sonoma County two weeks ago. Great visits with clients, but man that is a long flight from Atlanta. I'm home this upcoming week, but my son has 3 lacrosse games during the week so that kills evenings.
I have to be back up in Western MI in a couple weeks. When I got home Friday night my wife asked if moving to MI would make my job easier. Uh, yeah. My 3 largest clients are in Holland/Grand Rapids. But, for now, think we're still planning to stay here a bit longer, at least until my daughter graduates from Purdue. I want to see if work will offer to pay for the move too.
Today we had a lacrosse game at 10am so we had to leave the house at 8:30. Then I had to get my rental car returned after the game before noon. My Forester is over due for an oil change and it's ready for new tires, plus I hadn't received my new registration sticker for my plate yet. Not a big deal here in IN, the LE know that it takes a bit of time for the state to mail the new registration/stickers. I have the receipt that shows they were renewed and the LE can see that when they run the plate, but I didn't want to be hassled by Michigan's finest so I just rented a car.
This late spring or summer we're going to replace the gravel for the back half of our driveway with concrete. My wife actually loves the idea. We have been planning to change the fence so that the driveway to the garage was usable again for vehicles larger than motorcycles. We need to have the backyard box graded and prepped for new grass anyway so it will be easier to get everything done over the summer. Take care of the back yard, put in the new driveway, then replace the fence. The new fence would follow the new driveway so only the half closest to the house would be fenced in for the dogs. I have to expand the chicken run in the back part of the yard so they have better space other than the area right behind the garage. I've been letting them have free range of the whole back yard and they are trashing the landscaping I did last year. The lava rock doesn't even phase them. When the tractor is here to grade the front half of the back yard, I'll have them drag the area behind the garage to clean it up so grass can grow back there as well.
All of this means that I have a lot of clean up to do, in and out of the garage. I will need to purge a bunch of ****. I think I'm going to sell the Gravely 2-wheel tractor. I just don't have the time to restore/upgrade it and it takes up a ton of space. Then I'm thinning the herd of project motorcycles and motorcycle parts stash significantly. The only bikes I'll keep long term are the KZ650, CB350, and KZ440. I will keep the critical parts I have for my future CB650 build, but the rest of the parts will be sold off or traded off. The only bike I'm waffling on is the GL1100. I love the bike, but it's huge, or rather, very long. It just takes up too much space.
The thing that I lack even more than space right now is time. I'm just too busy and travel too much for work. The good news is I'm having a very good year so far and if it keeps up, I will have a nice bonus to reflect that work. Nice enough that I think I can convince my wife to let me buy a new Kawasaki Z900RS. The new bike will allow us to just go for a ride whenever we want and with standard ABS, it's safer too. I already know that getting rid of the other motorcycles will be a stipulation to getting the new bike if my wife agrees with the new purchase. I'm ok with that and I plan to have the purge done before I even ask (assuming I do have a great year).
Ooops. I hit post before I was done... But I'm tired so i'm heading to bed.
I think that in the last 9 weeks I have been out of town 5 or 6 of them. I was supposed to be out in the L.A. area next week, but I postponed that trip. Couldn't get enough clients committed to justify the trip cost. I was out in S.F. and Sonoma County two weeks ago. Great visits with clients, but man that is a long flight from Atlanta. I'm home this upcoming week, but my son has 3 lacrosse games during the week so that kills evenings.
I have to be back up in Western MI in a couple weeks. When I got home Friday night my wife asked if moving to MI would make my job easier. Uh, yeah. My 3 largest clients are in Holland/Grand Rapids. But, for now, think we're still planning to stay here a bit longer, at least until my daughter graduates from Purdue. I want to see if work will offer to pay for the move too.
Today we had a lacrosse game at 10am so we had to leave the house at 8:30. Then I had to get my rental car returned after the game before noon. My Forester is over due for an oil change and it's ready for new tires, plus I hadn't received my new registration sticker for my plate yet. Not a big deal here in IN, the LE know that it takes a bit of time for the state to mail the new registration/stickers. I have the receipt that shows they were renewed and the LE can see that when they run the plate, but I didn't want to be hassled by Michigan's finest so I just rented a car.
This late spring or summer we're going to replace the gravel for the back half of our driveway with concrete. My wife actually loves the idea. We have been planning to change the fence so that the driveway to the garage was usable again for vehicles larger than motorcycles. We need to have the backyard box graded and prepped for new grass anyway so it will be easier to get everything done over the summer. Take care of the back yard, put in the new driveway, then replace the fence. The new fence would follow the new driveway so only the half closest to the house would be fenced in for the dogs. I have to expand the chicken run in the back part of the yard so they have better space other than the area right behind the garage. I've been letting them have free range of the whole back yard and they are trashing the landscaping I did last year. The lava rock doesn't even phase them. When the tractor is here to grade the front half of the back yard, I'll have them drag the area behind the garage to clean it up so grass can grow back there as well.
All of this means that I have a lot of clean up to do, in and out of the garage. I will need to purge a bunch of ****. I think I'm going to sell the Gravely 2-wheel tractor. I just don't have the time to restore/upgrade it and it takes up a ton of space. Then I'm thinning the herd of project motorcycles and motorcycle parts stash significantly. The only bikes I'll keep long term are the KZ650, CB350, and KZ440. I will keep the critical parts I have for my future CB650 build, but the rest of the parts will be sold off or traded off. The only bike I'm waffling on is the GL1100. I love the bike, but it's huge, or rather, very long. It just takes up too much space.
The thing that I lack even more than space right now is time. I'm just too busy and travel too much for work. The good news is I'm having a very good year so far and if it keeps up, I will have a nice bonus to reflect that work. Nice enough that I think I can convince my wife to let me buy a new Kawasaki Z900RS. The new bike will allow us to just go for a ride whenever we want and with standard ABS, it's safer too. I already know that getting rid of the other motorcycles will be a stipulation to getting the new bike if my wife agrees with the new purchase. I'm ok with that and I plan to have the purge done before I even ask (assuming I do have a great year).
Ooops. I hit post before I was done... But I'm tired so i'm heading to bed.
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xtremek
Well-known member
You can keep all of that flying stuff. Just thinking about it wears me out. good luck with selling the bikes, and all of the yard work.
Strouty
Well-known member
Sounds like you have a full plate.
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Traveling for work is a tough gig. I worked for an AG manufacturer covering 3 states and put over 1 million miles driving in 7 years. Sounds like you've got a busy summer planned!
Kevkx125
Well-known member
If you do buy the new kawa please give us a ride report, the Z900RS looks like a fun bike to ride.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Thanks man. Usually I don't mind flying, and when I was 10-14 years younger I loved it. Nowadays it's more annoying because the flights are full, but I should be Gold on Delta Skymiles by the third quarter this year. So that will help. I already get Group 1 boarding with our negotiated corporate rates on AA and Delta so that helps. And my local airport agents for Delta all used to be NWA folks and they still remember me from when I was flying all the time so they upgrade me to Exit row seats whenever they can. I try to fly Delta now over AA. It seems like AA's customer service has just dropped off a cliff... I was Platinum with AA and Gold with NWA many years ago. Now I plan to stick with Delta unless I absolutely have to fly AA. I gave AA a shot twice when I started my new gig. Both trips resulted in cancelled flights or missed connections and they acted like they didn't really care when they got me to my destination or home.
I drive up to Holland, MI. It's about 7 hours for me so it's not worth the hassle of flying since it would take me about 5 hours to fly in to GR between the flights and airport layovers. Add in the hour plus that I have to get to the airport early and it's a wash. Driving I can stop by Purdue and see my daughter if I need to, plus get some great grub for lunch in either Bloomington or Indy.
Always a full plate, but I'm definitely busier than I have been in a long time.
Damn, that's a lot of windshield time!
My last job I had was pretty much just driving within a 2 hour radius of where I live, but I still racked up 25K-30K miles on my car a year. In the 7 years in that job I think I only had to fly for work 4 times, maybe 5. I was excused from a lot of trainings at the corporate office over the years because I was already technically competent in the subjects or products. The head support engineer knew it would be a waste of my time to come in for the trainings.
Now I cover 17 or 18 states scattered across all 4 CONUS time zones. Basically IN, MI, the rest of the upper Midwest west of those states, most of the Mountain Time zone, and all of the Pacific Time zone. Plus all of Mexico for all Environment & Sustainability service offerings. In the US I'm just focused on commercial furniture and commercial displays. I don't have CO or WI. My counter-part has those. He covers the rest of the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and South including TX. He also has Canada, Australia, and NZ.
Fortunately for me, most of my business is grouped in the major cities and really concentrated further to about 8-10 major metro areas. There are a few outliers, but I don't have to drive miles between clients when I visit the different areas.
Oh, I will be getting a Z900RS Cafe, I just don't know the timing of when. It might be 2 years out. I have yet to read or watch a review of the Z900RS where anyone didn't like the bike. I have to get the Cafe version to get the black wheels and the seat is a little different and better for more sporty riding. The little headlight fairing is nice too. Of course, I will have to mod it. It needs a black exhaust; passenger grab bar; smaller, round turn signals; a rear fender delete; and eventually a rear shock upgrade/upgraded fork internals.
Today we started on the backyard. My son and I got the post holes dug for the expansion of the chicken run. My wife and I also put our plan for the backyard on paper and made the list of everything that needs to be done in the order they need to be completed. She wants to get it all done this spring and summer so we can enjoy it this fall and for the remaining years we live here. I took a few pics, but haven't had a chance to upload them to DropBox and edit them yet.
I still need to lay the corrugated flex pipe out on the back edge of where the new driveway will be in order to mark where I need to trench it down to dump it into the old cistern. I filled the cistern in with #7 rock years ago and I know roughly where it is in the driveway. I want to have a few of the long 4"x24" surface drains put in at the edge of the driveway to give the water somewhere to go when we get downpours. The back yard slopes down slightly towards the house. The houses behind us are on higher ground. So I want the driveway to slope away from the house towards the back property line to these drains so the water can make it's way to the old cistern. When I put the new roof on the garage, I'll have gutters installed and the backside of the garage roof downspout will be tied into the corrugated pipe that will go to the cistern. I have to get that pipe put in before the rest of the ground excavation work and driveway is put in.
My wife already hinted at wanting the new driveway so she can park in the garage in the winter.
So I'll lose 60% of my space in the garage in winter. BUT, that at least makes it easier to justify insulating and finishing off the walls in the garage so it can be heated 'for her" without costing us a fortune. I'll just have to back the Pilot out of the garage on the weekends when I want to work out there. I also don't think she remembers that I tore out the old, broken garage door opener. That's a bigger problem since my access point to the attic storage is where a normal garage door opener track would be. I don't have room for a jackshaft opener and the garage door itself will need to be replaced if she plans to use it daily. It's a cheap door and regularly comes out of the track even when opening it slowly by hand. It's not something that can just be adjusted. It needs to be replaced. I can change up the attic layout/finished ceiling plan and move my 4'x4' opening to the back of the garage so the garage door opener track won't block it... it's just more work I have to do to keep her happy. I will have to move all of my motorcycle parts to the back half of the garage attic. I will also 'lose" my planned cathedral ceiling that I was going to do in the middle section of the garage. Now it will just be a boring, solid finished ceiling across the entire garage.
Have I mentioned lately that I can't wait to move? Our next house will have a boring 2-car attached/finished garage and I will have my own detached garage in the backyard. No Girl's Cars Allowed!
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Today I am SO sore...
I pushed it a little too much yesterday I guess.
But I still got my pushups in last night. In the first month of using the Lose It! app with the pushups I've lost 9 pounds.
I pushed it a little too much yesterday I guess.
But I still got my pushups in last night. In the first month of using the Lose It! app with the pushups I've lost 9 pounds.
Strouty
Well-known member
I had one of those days yesterday, the weather was so nice, but I had to stop at about 4:30, I was afraid I would take my back out. Glad I did, today ended up being productive and my back felt a lot better.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
I helped friends of ours with their son'd Eagle Scout project in the morning laying a brick patio. They really didn't know what they were doing. That was about 3 hours, mostly bent over or using a 10lb sledge on a solid oak 2x4 to level out the pavers. Then we came home and I started the holes for the posts for the chicken run expansion. I dug 3 of them and my son finished 2 after I started them. The ground was like perfect pottery clay from the rain. Great for pottery, sucked for digging holes.
I'm mostly sore because it is different muscles than I usually use everyday. The bending over and looking down just tired my back out. I started to feel it pull a little last night, stopped just in time to reposition and stretch it out. then took Alieve to make sure it settled down overnight.
I wanted to get some time in the garage last night, but I knew that would have done me in. I need to get my workbench cleared off so i can actually finish the thing and get it moved in to the basement.
I'm mostly sore because it is different muscles than I usually use everyday. The bending over and looking down just tired my back out. I started to feel it pull a little last night, stopped just in time to reposition and stretch it out. then took Alieve to make sure it settled down overnight.
I wanted to get some time in the garage last night, but I knew that would have done me in. I need to get my workbench cleared off so i can actually finish the thing and get it moved in to the basement.
Strouty
Well-known member
That was essentially what I did, I was hunched over cutting copper tube with the chop saw, everything was done leaning over while on my knees (using a foam pad though). Fingers crossed you can get some stuff done, I know how you feel, I have been busy dealing with my Dad's business, shop time has been very erratic.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Still haven't uploaded my pics...
The last few weeks have been spent working on the landscape beds in the backyard on the weekends. I've filled both of our 75gal trashcans with yard debris two weeks in a row and probably have another two weeks worth of yard debris to clean up still. Without yard waste, we could probably go 5-6 weeks before just one of the 75gal cans would be filled. We average 1-2 13gal trash bags a week from the house, but fill our 75gal recycling can every two weeks... so today I had three 75gal cans at the curb. Two trash and the one recycling can.
We've had several things to do on the weekends besides yard work too. Moving my daughter home from Purdue killed one Saturday, then last Saturday was our friends open house for two of their kids graduations. One from college and one from high school. Their third kid is one of my son's best friends.
Had a lot of work travel during the week this month too, but I did get the two main beds in the back done this week. The posts and cross framing is done on the chicken run. Tomorrow I can start stapling up the chicken wire if the weather cooperates. I still need to build the gates to close up the run.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow, then be clear Friday and Saturday. Then rain and storms Sunday and Memorial day. My plan is to clean up the garage Saturday so I can work out there Saturday and Sunday night getting stuff sorted and frame up the last section of the loft before I start putting up the plywood paneling.
Sunday and Memorial day will be spent in the basement getting that cleaned up and purging ****.
I picked up the two fittings I needed to make the connections on my whole house water filter and the main water line valve. That should allow me to start running the new PEX in the basement before I need to shut off the water to tie it in. I should be able to make the swap over happen in a half day or so on a weekend after that. I suspect it will take a day and a half to just cut out all of the galv steel pipe after the house is switched over to the PEX. There is so much unnecessary galv pipe in the house. The trickiest part will be minimizing the amount of water spilled out of the old pipe as I remove it. I'm NOT looking forward to that part of the project, but luckily most of the water will be isolated to the basement. I only have about 14 feet total of horizontal pipe upstairs under the second floor bathroom.
The last few weeks have been spent working on the landscape beds in the backyard on the weekends. I've filled both of our 75gal trashcans with yard debris two weeks in a row and probably have another two weeks worth of yard debris to clean up still. Without yard waste, we could probably go 5-6 weeks before just one of the 75gal cans would be filled. We average 1-2 13gal trash bags a week from the house, but fill our 75gal recycling can every two weeks... so today I had three 75gal cans at the curb. Two trash and the one recycling can.
We've had several things to do on the weekends besides yard work too. Moving my daughter home from Purdue killed one Saturday, then last Saturday was our friends open house for two of their kids graduations. One from college and one from high school. Their third kid is one of my son's best friends.
Had a lot of work travel during the week this month too, but I did get the two main beds in the back done this week. The posts and cross framing is done on the chicken run. Tomorrow I can start stapling up the chicken wire if the weather cooperates. I still need to build the gates to close up the run.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow, then be clear Friday and Saturday. Then rain and storms Sunday and Memorial day. My plan is to clean up the garage Saturday so I can work out there Saturday and Sunday night getting stuff sorted and frame up the last section of the loft before I start putting up the plywood paneling.
Sunday and Memorial day will be spent in the basement getting that cleaned up and purging ****.
I picked up the two fittings I needed to make the connections on my whole house water filter and the main water line valve. That should allow me to start running the new PEX in the basement before I need to shut off the water to tie it in. I should be able to make the swap over happen in a half day or so on a weekend after that. I suspect it will take a day and a half to just cut out all of the galv steel pipe after the house is switched over to the PEX. There is so much unnecessary galv pipe in the house. The trickiest part will be minimizing the amount of water spilled out of the old pipe as I remove it. I'm NOT looking forward to that part of the project, but luckily most of the water will be isolated to the basement. I only have about 14 feet total of horizontal pipe upstairs under the second floor bathroom.
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Can you cut the run in the basement and use compressed air to force the water out?
xtremek
Well-known member
Sounds like my coming weekend. Work, work, and um, more work.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
I could run an airline into the house, but I'm not sure how well that would work. It make a much bigger mess. There is a spot in the piping where there is a plug in each line that is on the bottom so that would drain most of the water out of the vertical run to the second story. The problem is that there are tons of 90deg pipe fittings in the spaghetti mess of the piping so I can't really even pull a section down to get the water to drain out and it would be even harder to "catch" it in a bucket if I used air pressure in the line.
Are you working at work or at home?
It was hot, humid, and windy today. We didn't even get the thunderstorms we were forecast to get today. I wasn't feeling up to messing with the chicken run, so all I did today was weed the little patio by my garage door and torch the rest of it with the weed burner. then I grilled out a couple rib eyes and veggies.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Finally getting around to posting the pics...
This pic cracks me up. Our little dog was sitting in the big hole (it's where our former garden was, so that dirt is really nice - I used it to fill in low spots and such in the rest of the yard and landscape beds...) watching while my son was digging the post holes:
After we set the posts and put up the first span of cross bars:
I realized I didn't take any more pics of the progress on the chicken run.
And the refurbished, weeded, weed blocked, and lava rocked beds in the back. I also had weeded and torched the patio...
I still need to recaulk and paint the basement window, then paint the AC compressor. I might paint the conduit and service entrance on the house too. We haven't decided if we're going to replace the basement windows or not. The stupid things are not a standard size so we would have to custom order them and they are as expensive as the rest of the windows in the house!
Then my wife has to buy some flowers for the 3 pots and pick out a new bird bath to finish everything off.
The wood fence will be coming out and will be replaced by a 4' black metal fence after the new driveway is done.
This pic cracks me up. Our little dog was sitting in the big hole (it's where our former garden was, so that dirt is really nice - I used it to fill in low spots and such in the rest of the yard and landscape beds...) watching while my son was digging the post holes:
After we set the posts and put up the first span of cross bars:
I realized I didn't take any more pics of the progress on the chicken run.
And the refurbished, weeded, weed blocked, and lava rocked beds in the back. I also had weeded and torched the patio...
I still need to recaulk and paint the basement window, then paint the AC compressor. I might paint the conduit and service entrance on the house too. We haven't decided if we're going to replace the basement windows or not. The stupid things are not a standard size so we would have to custom order them and they are as expensive as the rest of the windows in the house!
Then my wife has to buy some flowers for the 3 pots and pick out a new bird bath to finish everything off.
The wood fence will be coming out and will be replaced by a 4' black metal fence after the new driveway is done.
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OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
After months of not having the weather cooperate or too many other things taking a higher priority, I finally got some QGT today!
And the garage was a DISASTER! **** scattered everywhere, dirt, dust, and pieces of 3D printed cubes that were destroyed for my son's science fair project were everywhere in the garage.
I got a late start, but headed out at 11am and basically pulled everything I could out of the garage and put it in the back yard or back driveway. Then swept and blew out as much of the dust and **** as I could. I moved the long "motorcycle" work table towards the overhead door as much as I could. Then my son helped me lift a few engines onto it so we can tear them down during the evenings.
After that it was just more cleaning and sorting. Then I had my neighbor help me move the height adjustable workbench in front of the overhead door opening too. This opened up the middle of the garage floor and will allow me to better control the dust when I route the grooves for the T-Track.
Once those big items were moved and everything was as clean as I could get it; I started bringing everything back inside the garage. My wife's only demand was that the kids and her bike be easy to access and get out of the garage. They're taking up a lot of floor space right now, but this meets her requirements. I called it a day at 7pm.
I still have a lot of other stuff to sort through, get rid of, clean, or put up in the attic loft storage area. For now, I can walk around the garage, I have enough room to work on tearing down the engines, I can get the CX500 in/out, and the kids/SWMBO can get to their bikes easily.
And the garage was a DISASTER! **** scattered everywhere, dirt, dust, and pieces of 3D printed cubes that were destroyed for my son's science fair project were everywhere in the garage.
I got a late start, but headed out at 11am and basically pulled everything I could out of the garage and put it in the back yard or back driveway. Then swept and blew out as much of the dust and **** as I could. I moved the long "motorcycle" work table towards the overhead door as much as I could. Then my son helped me lift a few engines onto it so we can tear them down during the evenings.
After that it was just more cleaning and sorting. Then I had my neighbor help me move the height adjustable workbench in front of the overhead door opening too. This opened up the middle of the garage floor and will allow me to better control the dust when I route the grooves for the T-Track.
Once those big items were moved and everything was as clean as I could get it; I started bringing everything back inside the garage. My wife's only demand was that the kids and her bike be easy to access and get out of the garage. They're taking up a lot of floor space right now, but this meets her requirements. I called it a day at 7pm.
I still have a lot of other stuff to sort through, get rid of, clean, or put up in the attic loft storage area. For now, I can walk around the garage, I have enough room to work on tearing down the engines, I can get the CX500 in/out, and the kids/SWMBO can get to their bikes easily.
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Any progress is good progress!
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Thanks OD... it's definitely an improvement.
I just want more floor space freed up. And I really need to purge more **** so I can hang a few wall cabinets then have room for a tool chest.
I can't get those until I have floor space to move everything off the walls so I can install the plywood.
I just want more floor space freed up. And I really need to purge more **** so I can hang a few wall cabinets then have room for a tool chest.
I can't get those until I have floor space to move everything off the walls so I can install the plywood.
jon72vega
Well-known member
Good progress!
xtremek
Well-known member
Garage tetris usually means slow progress, but progress is progress.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
Thanks guys.
My son and I spent about an hour out there last night working on tearing down the CB650 engine.
I originally planned to work on my big, vintage Westinghouse fan, but it's not as easy to wire in a new switch as I thought. A normal fan speed switch won't work. I have to get a 6A rated DPDT ON-OFF-ON toggle switch and drill a mounting hole for it. I think I have one or two of the switches in my DIY project boxes in the basement. So I shelved that project for now.
I need to focus on jobs/projects I can get done easily that move the progression in the garage along.
xtremek
Well-known member
Sounds like you have the makings of a decent plan. And to answer your question, it was a weekend of work around the house.
OP
BoilermakerFan
Well-known member
I guess I forgot to mention that yesterday my good buddy fired up his smoker, so my son and I brought over 5 racks of baby back ribs and a couple packages of bratwurst. Then I hard boiled a dozen eggs in the InstaPot so my wife could make deviled eggs. Invited my folks over for dinner yesterday. My mom made macaroni salad and my wife roasted up some potatoes.
If anyone is familiar with Lafayette, IN, there is an iconic place there called Frozen Custard. They have a fruit drink that is different than most other fruit drinks or fruit punches around the country. My dad is a fanatic for it. My uncle, my wife, my daughter, and I are fans; but we're more restrained. I have bought a gallon of it and brought it home for my dad on more than one occasion. Well, I decided to Google for a clone recipe and I found one that seemed like it would be pretty close. The recipe said it made 1-1/2 to 2 gallons. By the time I added more pineapple juice and some grapefruit juice that was not in the recipe I used as my base (but highly recommended in the comments), I was close to 3 gallons of Fruit Drink! But I got it really damn close. I am going to have to buy a gallon of the real stuff in August and take it home to do side-by-side taste testing to dial in my clone recipe.
Anyway, I knew that it was going to make about 2 gallons and I needed a jug to keep it in, so I bought a 2-1/2 gallon jug of spring water. I used the spring water in my recipe and to make iced tea to empty the jug. Then I used a funnel to pour the Fruit Drink into the jug and put it in the fridge.
Behold! 2-1/2 gallons of Frozen Custard's Fruit Drink clone:
And yes, it is REALLY good with a double shot of rum in it.
Today was really hot and muggy, but I had a lot of stuff on my to do list. First was getting the chicken run expansion closer to completion. I had to cut off the tops of the remaining posts, then run the chicken wire. I got it finished with 21 staples to spare! 979 staples to get it all attached securely.
After that I had to help my son mow the yard. I moved **** and threw away yard debris while he mowed. I moved the pile of leftover 2x4s that were on the ground onto the gravel right in front of the garage. I'm still weighing out my options for building the double gate that will close in the chicken run. I'll get the gates built this week after I pick up more gate hinges and the other gate hardware, plus more staples to attach the wire mesh to the gates. Using much heavier gauge wire fence material on the lower halves of the gates instead of chicken wire since I've managed to knock a few holes in the chicken wire on the existing gate.
Then I realized my gutters needed to be cleaned out on the front of the house. Got eaten alive by mosquitoes since the gutters were full of leaf debris and maple tree seeds. The ideal conditions for breeding mosquitoes.
After that I started hacking down the laurel bush in the front bed by our front door. It had become very overgrown and was actually hiding our house number from view at the street. I had planned to cut it back really hard, to about half the size it was. Unfortunately, there were hardly any leaves on the branches on the lower half so my wife decided that I needed to trim it back, but leave the carrot top for now. It looks silly, but the plant was starting to sprout new growth in the lower half. This pruning will encourage it to leaf out on the bottom half so later this fall when it's filled back in, I can finish the job and hack off the top height to get it back down where it needs to be.
All that pruning left a huge mess on the ground so my son and I ended up filling one of the 75gal trash cans and 4 or 5 of the big paper yard waste/leaf bags with all of the trimmed branches/limbs.
The work and clean up of the laurel bush is what I am calling phase one of the cleanup of the front landscape beds. The next phase will be cleaning out all of the weeds and remaining mulch, hacking back a few bushes that need to be reshaped, and getting rid of a bunch of irises that have overgrown their area of the bed. After the new weed block is put down, I'll replant the irises we want to keep and give away the rest. Once the bed cleanup is done, the fun of putting down yet more lava rock happens again.
I just realized that I forgot to get a picture of the model number of the pump on our pressure washer too. I need to order a new one so that it goes to pressure again so I can clean the siding on the house and garage, then pressure wash the driveway and sidewalks. I need to get that pump ordered at the end of the week. i tried all of the tricks I had read online to try to get the pump back to building pressure, but none of them worked...
If anyone is familiar with Lafayette, IN, there is an iconic place there called Frozen Custard. They have a fruit drink that is different than most other fruit drinks or fruit punches around the country. My dad is a fanatic for it. My uncle, my wife, my daughter, and I are fans; but we're more restrained. I have bought a gallon of it and brought it home for my dad on more than one occasion. Well, I decided to Google for a clone recipe and I found one that seemed like it would be pretty close. The recipe said it made 1-1/2 to 2 gallons. By the time I added more pineapple juice and some grapefruit juice that was not in the recipe I used as my base (but highly recommended in the comments), I was close to 3 gallons of Fruit Drink! But I got it really damn close. I am going to have to buy a gallon of the real stuff in August and take it home to do side-by-side taste testing to dial in my clone recipe.
Anyway, I knew that it was going to make about 2 gallons and I needed a jug to keep it in, so I bought a 2-1/2 gallon jug of spring water. I used the spring water in my recipe and to make iced tea to empty the jug. Then I used a funnel to pour the Fruit Drink into the jug and put it in the fridge.
Behold! 2-1/2 gallons of Frozen Custard's Fruit Drink clone:
And yes, it is REALLY good with a double shot of rum in it.
Today was really hot and muggy, but I had a lot of stuff on my to do list. First was getting the chicken run expansion closer to completion. I had to cut off the tops of the remaining posts, then run the chicken wire. I got it finished with 21 staples to spare! 979 staples to get it all attached securely.
After that I had to help my son mow the yard. I moved **** and threw away yard debris while he mowed. I moved the pile of leftover 2x4s that were on the ground onto the gravel right in front of the garage. I'm still weighing out my options for building the double gate that will close in the chicken run. I'll get the gates built this week after I pick up more gate hinges and the other gate hardware, plus more staples to attach the wire mesh to the gates. Using much heavier gauge wire fence material on the lower halves of the gates instead of chicken wire since I've managed to knock a few holes in the chicken wire on the existing gate.
Then I realized my gutters needed to be cleaned out on the front of the house. Got eaten alive by mosquitoes since the gutters were full of leaf debris and maple tree seeds. The ideal conditions for breeding mosquitoes.
After that I started hacking down the laurel bush in the front bed by our front door. It had become very overgrown and was actually hiding our house number from view at the street. I had planned to cut it back really hard, to about half the size it was. Unfortunately, there were hardly any leaves on the branches on the lower half so my wife decided that I needed to trim it back, but leave the carrot top for now. It looks silly, but the plant was starting to sprout new growth in the lower half. This pruning will encourage it to leaf out on the bottom half so later this fall when it's filled back in, I can finish the job and hack off the top height to get it back down where it needs to be.
All that pruning left a huge mess on the ground so my son and I ended up filling one of the 75gal trash cans and 4 or 5 of the big paper yard waste/leaf bags with all of the trimmed branches/limbs.
The work and clean up of the laurel bush is what I am calling phase one of the cleanup of the front landscape beds. The next phase will be cleaning out all of the weeds and remaining mulch, hacking back a few bushes that need to be reshaped, and getting rid of a bunch of irises that have overgrown their area of the bed. After the new weed block is put down, I'll replant the irises we want to keep and give away the rest. Once the bed cleanup is done, the fun of putting down yet more lava rock happens again.
I just realized that I forgot to get a picture of the model number of the pump on our pressure washer too. I need to order a new one so that it goes to pressure again so I can clean the siding on the house and garage, then pressure wash the driveway and sidewalks. I need to get that pump ordered at the end of the week. i tried all of the tricks I had read online to try to get the pump back to building pressure, but none of them worked...