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Dead cat farm

M-technik-3

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Stink bugs....much like the asian long horned beetle they have no predators so nothing eats those dreaded things.

Oh I agree,my guy is good and worked with and we barter work for goods. He was just trying to save me money that was. We were upside down with the house and had a horrible mortgage company (BoA) and no matter what would not negotiate so we waited and when rates came down and dust settled refinanced with a local bank and they were happy to have the business.

Having a GC and trades that are willing to work with customer/home owner is huge. We have had a few good and a few bad. Live and learn. Short cuts I don't like.
 
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jb3

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Stink bugs....much like the asian long horned beetle they have no predators so nothing eats those dreaded things.

Oh I agree,my guy is good and worked with and we barter work for goods. He was just trying to save me money that was. We were upside down with the house and had a horrible mortgage company (BoA) and no matter what would not negotiate so we waited and when rates came down and dust settled refinanced with a local bank and they were happy to have the business.

Having a GC and trades that are willing to work with customer/home owner is huge. We have had a few good and a few bad. Live and learn. Short cuts I don't like.

Totally agree

My scheme to make this affordable is to do all the demo, and all the finish work if possible, drywall, flooring, mudding and paint, probably insulation. So far im making it work with my day job and other business activities but it took almost two days to clear out that one room and hes catching up with my demolition, so i have to burn the midnight oil this week
 

simpler=better

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Bees are 3 plagues ago! :lol:

Got rid of the 70k bees and 300+ lbs of honey comb in the soffit, only to be beset by a fresh plague of lady bugs.

The current plague is stink bugs. There does seem to be a qualitive drop off in the types of bugs. First it was bugs that are annoying but produced some of the most delicious honey with sort of a floral flavor. Next it was bugs that are sort of cute, but now its full on nasty little beetles.

Probably end up with dung beetles eventually

I've got a theory that the lady bugs are eating stink bug larvae. I've seen them take down flies violently.

We have ladybugs in every room, pretty much all year. No stink bugs, and only the occasional fly.
 
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jb3

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some more demo updates. Its taking some time to rip stuff out, but a few other issues discovered to work around

first, the laundry closet and coat closet in the garage are up



measuring this 300 times it ultimately made the most sense to bust out the stone foundation to fit this door from the bathroom into the house. finally there is room for it. Otherwise a post needed to be moved and no one wants to get into that pandoras box



next more demo. This is the room where the new 2nd floor bathroom will be sectioned off of.




ceiling, outer wall, and lath ripped out



board wall had to come down, there is a real problem on how to route plumbing, a new 2x4 or full 2x6 wall will go into the same place for venting and pipes. Knocking down the board wall yielded some interesting wood for a later project. This picture shows what will become the top of the staircase, and what will be the master bedroom door on the left. The right side door frame will either be pulled or covered to make a solid wall




the next big issue on the horizon-

the two story rectangle that consists of the original bathrooms is JUST wide enough for 3 foot wide stair flights. This is with almost no extra room. The problem is this beam is located where one flight will be going down to a landing, and it has to be cut, and a post put in under it so we have the 3 feet needed.



almost ready to build the bathroom. the southern yellow pine floor came out, as it would be wasted under tile and can be used to build the stair landings. We needed to get to the joists so we can build a level surface for this bath as they are sistered. Nothing is level or square anywhere and the tub especially will not drain properly unless we build up the floor flat.




this cat below has been having the time of its life. Knocking down all these walls and ceilings has disrupted a lot of mice that were very happy and comfortable, now they are dying daily as the cats catch them trying to run to other closed walls

 

theoldwizard1

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Something I discovered when help my son remodel his master bathroom (I'm sure all carpenters know this).

When roughing in the walls for the bathtub, add at least 2" to space for the length of the tub. This will allow you to maneuver the tub into place ! Yes, you will have to fir out all the studs on one of the walls if you want a flat wall, or you can step in back in juts past the tub.
 

madoc1

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lotsa work! those are neat boards you pulled out and those yellow pine boards are like gold to buy these days-if you can find them.

jim
 

jbmatth

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When you have this place done after LOTS more hard work you will know deep down you've really earned this place and will be very proud of what you were able to accomplish! Congrats on taking this bull by the horns and wrestling it into submission.
JB
 
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jb3

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Something I discovered when help my son remodel his master bathroom (I'm sure all carpenters know this).

When roughing in the walls for the bathtub, add at least 2" to space for the length of the tub. This will allow you to maneuver the tub into place ! Yes, you will have to fir out all the studs on one of the walls if you want a flat wall, or you can step in back in juts past the tub.

good point!
I think in this situation it should be fairly easy to install the tub (famous last words), as the back and sides of new tub locations will be new framing I can reach through.

I am trying to reuse the current usable tub and toilet. Toilet should be simple, but getting the tub out without damaging it might be a chore.
 
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jb3

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Keep the pics coming, awesome work!! Hard work!!

thanks!

lotsa work! those are neat boards you pulled out and those yellow pine boards are like gold to buy these days-if you can find them.

jim

thanks! I was hoping to use them for stair treads but they are just a little too thin unfortunately at 3/4 inch thick. Ive been searching for other yellow pine stuff similar and its not happening, so ill do probably a 12 inch board made up of 3 4 inch boards in 1 inch for the treads, then stain to match

When you have this place done after LOTS more hard work you will know deep down you've really earned this place and will be very proud of what you were able to accomplish! Congrats on taking this bull by the horns and wrestling it into submission.
JB

Thanks! I will be very happy when this is done. Other than painting the house (which I am NOT looking forward to), everything after this is garage improvements im really looking forward to, and minor stuff, individual room jobs. 80% of our plumbing will be new and I won't have to worry about it and can stop making 2am emergency patch repairs :lol:
 

theoldwizard1

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good point!
I think in this situation it should be fairly easy to install the tub (famous last words), as the back and sides of new tub locations will be new framing I can reach through.

I am trying to reuse the current usable tub and toilet. Toilet should be simple, but getting the tub out without damaging it might be a chore.

That is not the point ! Typically you have to stand the tub up to get it through the framed doorway. You need the extra space to maneuver it in to place.

Of course, you could install it first and then frame the walls ! ;)
 
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jb3

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That is not the point ! Typically you have to stand the tub up to get it through the framed doorway. You need the extra space to maneuver it in to place.

Of course, you could install it first and then frame the walls ! ;)


Wont be a problem, doors and door framing will be one of the last things done so openings are plenty big enough. Rough openings are framed now, but im trying to do original doors everywhere i can for continuity, which means the frames will have to be custom made or a very careful removal of an original frame which is easier said than done.

The original doors are 1 inch thick with external latches
 
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jb3

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minor update, more done but no pictures yet.

floor under new bathroom has been sistered with 2x12s, every heavy beam was double sistered.

What was done here was a center line was snapped across the room, and each 2x12 was pivoted off the center line along the boards of the floor to make the bathroom level, and just fall where they may on the other side underneath the original floor. Worked out pretty decent. on the exterior wall side the joists are almost 2 inches higher than the original joists

using the 2x12s gives us some depth to drill through for plumbing underneath, and enough of a drop ceiling to hide it. The floor was strong, but now its REALLY strong, so im very happy.

some progress pics-




next we have been dealing with door design. the original doors are super thin, and the original frames are actually planed wall studs. You can't just remove them easily, and a lot of work has to go into adapting the original frame to a 2x4 wall at more than double the thickness all said and done.

we made the choice to use the doors, and either encapsulate frames where we were keeping original wall, or remove and save them for repair parts. We will use the original doors, but make new frames for every one that adapts them to newer construction

here is a door way-



here is the current state of whats left of the original bathrooms, still usable, but a bit awkward.

 

madoc1

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thx for the pics and info. love how you are doing this. now we need some more pics and info. amazing work and i bet you must appreciate having a good builder to help.

jim
 

xtremek

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Don't lean to far to the back of the shower, you might get a few splinters. Actually, it's looking good so far.
 
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jb3

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:thumbup:

Good to see the cat is still on the clock.

hes the only one that actually seems to do any work around here looking for rodents and bugs. There are three of them that share this assignment. Here he is discussing the labor imbalance with his indolent co-workers.

funny how everyone shows up for tuna fridays though

 
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jb3

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Don't lean to far to the back of the shower, you might get a few splinters. Actually, it's looking good so far.

in addition to splinters that wall has many thousands of small 1 inch nails in it still sticking out from the removed lath, really looking forward to covering that situation up. I covered the wall sides of the shower out of trash bags, so at least its sort of water proof for now.
 
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jb3

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thx for the pics and info. love how you are doing this. now we need some more pics and info. amazing work and i bet you must appreciate having a good builder to help.

jim

thanks! the contractor is great, but its one guy so things take some time. While this has been good stretching out our paper thin budget and making things more manageable, it also prolongs the process by quite a bit. The wife would really like a sealed bathroom again. I am coming around to that desire as well, its the little things like not being able to shave over a sink that start to make you aware of modern lifes little amenities that are so enjoyable
some more pictures-

here is the plywood down and plates for the bathroom walls, you can see the floor plan here better, rectangle in the middle is a linen closet, far rectangle is the closet for a bedroom we have to cut a door into



walls up, the opening to the staircase in the middle will get one of the original wider frames so it doesnt look too weird. Its not as narrow as it appears, the ceiling is about 10 feet-




the staircase area needed a 2x3 padded wall for wiring and to make it possible to install blueboard. that whole cavity is a more than usual torqued rectangle with no square corners. the ceiling is also getting dropped to level it out, and the former door frame into the upstairs bathroom will be left in place and sealed into the wall



I found this elsewhere, so kind of the same idea to seal up that door-




later on I will fill out this side and make one flat wall, or make a shallow cabinet or shelf possibly

 
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jb3

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one thing I forgot to add. to meet code for exterior wall insulation depth we have to pad the outer studs with some strapping-



one huge thing on my radar is to meet fire codes, the garage needs the entire ceiling enclosed, and I need a fire door from the future loft landing down into the house. This means all my mountains of **** I compressed need to be removed entirely

One thing this renovation is doing for me is forcing me to really decided what bits from cars I need to keep.
 
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jb3

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That is not the point ! Typically you have to stand the tub up to get it through the framed doorway. You need the extra space to maneuver it in to place.

Of course, you could install it first and then frame the walls ! ;)

funny you should bring this up earlier as we are having a problem even getting the tub upstairs. :lol:

I may have to hoist it up through a window or wait until the new staircase is complete enough to use. the original staircase is just too steep and narrow. If I could get the thing into the house, it will fit into the bath!
 
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jb3

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more updates-

Finally moved the 2 story iron vent pipe and the plumber roughed in a working upstairs bathroom!

pipe was holding up the building of a staircase-



the drop ceiling worked out well-




only problem was tub placement turned out to be directly above one of the big beams, so we went with a push on and off tub drain instead of a more traditional setup to get around the beam. I have read complaints about these push button drains, but so far in use Im pretty pleased with it. I will see what happens long term. There is room for a traditional linkage setup if I hollow out a bit of the beam, so it can be changed if need be in the future.




the new functional upstairs bathroom-



iron pipe removed after new vent installed-




upstairs is just about ready for blue board and plaster, here is my recessed ceiling exposed beams setup. about 4 inchs of the beams will end up exposed. Hopefully after the work I did framing these out it will look nice, I hope so

bedroom-



and room with the new bath the exposed beam concept had to be integrated with the new stud wall, looks a little weird at moment



we made a closet space for the upstairs bedroom, so a door had to be cut, but before that, the wall has to be padded to allow space for a door frame and wiring like light switches.
Im getting burned by a local code saying a plug for every 12 feet of wall. This is a huge pain in the rear on the solid board walls, hopefully the inspector can let us get away with less interior wall plugs via grandfathering or something. A modern electrical box is twice the thickness of the interior walls in this place.

bedroom interior wall facing bath with cutout. I found a great closet door with a full length heavy mirror on the back at the salvage yard that also matched our door designs, so thats what will go in here-




other side stripped and ready to be padded for power. There are actually 2 plugs already in this wall, but they are dead and turn out to be using illegal boxes. I am hoping the electrician can adapt new wiring to the existing cavity that was already created-



the one original door frame we are reusing is going at the top of the staircase. there will be no door here as the frame is actually pretty dramatically twisted mating a new plum wall with the old wall, but thats not apparent unless you get out a level.



to cover up the ice cold foundation wall in the first floor bathroom, the contractor had a great idea for what will be a unique window seat that tapers to the door along the entire wall. this will be stuffed with insulation and a little heat in front of it-



with the bathroom finally moved, the landing has been constructed. I managed to save the downstairs tub which will now go into the new location downstairs bathroom. It turns out to be maybe 20 times heavier than our new tub. The toilet did not survive the dropping of the iron vent pipe-



more weirdness as to build a level 2 story wall for the staircase rectangle, a 2x4 wall that tapers down to a 2x2 wall is on the first floor, going up to a 2x3 wall that tapers to a 2x1 wall on the second floor




some garage related info-

Im being whacked by a fire code, meaning the ceiling and walls of the garage may all need to be 5/8ths drywall or plaster so fire can't get up into the loft and down into living space. This means my reduced but still impressive pile of **** needs further culling-



meanwhile the electrician has started up, and the plan is we are upgrading the house to a 200amp service, but putting in a subpanel in the garage next to the door. Hes going to do most of his wiring out of this box which is more convenient than the basement panel. This makes it easier later to run another subpanel out to the shed eventually. He has to rewire the garage and add heat detectors and whatnot as well, another reason for it having to be empty.

 
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jb3

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ok, time to cut some original beams

half the staircase is built-



this beam, and this beam now need to be cut. One is in the way of the new door out to the loft, and the second is in the way of the second flight of stairs




before we do anything though the beams have to be braced top and bottom to compensate for any potential pop. This scientific drawing shows the problem, this section of the house sank almost 3 inches on the exterior wall when the sill rotted, but the cross beams were actually holding the post up. The center and outside corner did not move.

Basically the concern is that these two beams could have some considerable spring built in from all that weight over the years hanging off the ends. The contractor doesn't want to cut the peg off with a sawsall and have the beam fly up.



monday hopefully we get these cut and no one loses any fingers or teeth.
 

madoc1

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i think the progress is amazing, but still don't understand how you will access the basement now that you have the new downstairs bathroom. maybe i should go back and refresh my memory as to the plans? :headscrat

jim
 
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jb3

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i think the progress is amazing, but still don't understand how you will access the basement now that you have the new downstairs bathroom. maybe i should go back and refresh my memory as to the plans? :headscrat

jim

We lost the bulkhead entrance from the garage area, but there is still an inner staircase that is directly to the left of the new staircase on the other side of that wall.

Since there is no living space down there according to the architect I can get away with only one exit from the basement.

I may have mentioned earlier that I failed to realize that now our laundry machines are trapped down there unless I take them apart though, as the remaining staircase is too narrow
 
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jb3

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Beam was removed without loss of life! No pressure on it which was nice.

floor joists and wood removed that were there for wiring. There was no hardware holding these joists in at all, which was pretty neat.





staircase complete, we will be adding another small closet at the top landing, otherwise that will be sort of wasted space





outside the reverse dormer is gone. The contractor had some good ideas on this and said we should find the same material and build it the same way, so he found some 1 inch rough cut board to match the rest of the garage structure. Otherwise we would have had to pad plywood to make it work. Bonus is he was able to move over one of the existing rafters and use some other older material on hand to do this.
Now that cutout for the window and source of leaks and rot is massively simplified, and we have the head room for the door from the stair landing into the loft.









2 doors need to be cut in, and 2 windows and framing should be complete hopefully!
 
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jb3

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Amazing!!

The cat pics are funny!!

obligatory progress cat picture. 2 of them discovered they can climb straight up the raw wood without difficulty and crawl everywhere in the new construction.

One of them is much too fat and lazy for that nonsense though, and gained some weight during this stage of construction instead. The black one is the most adventurous



here is what the other one had to say about climbing-

 
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jbmatth

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Great progress, and a ton of work that ya'll have knocked out, I'm eager to see the outcome from all of the work.
JB
 
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jb3

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thanks! Getting excited now to get this project done and resume a non dust covered life with a bathroom that has walls. :lol:

more progress-

door to loft from middle stair landing cut in-





kind of a neat cross section of the post and beam construction. The really weakened this beam with all these holes right in the same place



the wiring is ready for a rough inspection
how the padding turned out, still pretty tight. The bedroom finally has such modern conveniences as outlets and a light switch!



we had to pad one other wall in the bedroom part of this renovation for the single plug. There was no other way to get it to code. This also allowed us to simplify how that other former door that I found in the wall during demo gets covered up. I will probably put some foam insulation here, this is the only wall between 2 bedrooms and its very thin even padded




Underneath the staircase landing this opening is cut into the new construction through the former side of the house. This will allow plumbing service to the downstairs bath and washing machine if need be, plus add some extra space in the under stairs closet



Some new awning windows up high in the mud room, plan is to put some storage in here, but this way we still get light in this room and maximium wall usage




and finally I have to bust out this wall at the base of the new stairs as it won't pass inspection, which I eventually planned to do, but it needs to be done for the final. Partial rough was done today on framing and there were about 5 things needing changes, but he is giving us some leeway based on "structural handicaps". The local guy is pretty reasonable, understanding we are trying to fit 10 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket with this renovation.

 

madoc1

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that shot of the house stairs ,landing and loft stairs explains a lot. looking nice. why do you have to remove the wall?

jim
 

54earl

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I feel your pain on the bathroom. My wife decided to remodel our one bathroom 8.5 months pregnant. Keep the progress photos coming.
 
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jb3

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Thanks everyone! Project is picking up speed as the end is in sight, the final product of a functional 3bed house is visible
 
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jb3

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that shot of the house stairs ,landing and loft stairs explains a lot. looking nice. why do you have to remove the wall?

jim

The hall is too narrow to serve as an official "landing". Spec is i think 36 inch and the hall is about 32. Inspector wants it open for staircase access. He also wants us to raise the floor above the staircase and put in some lag bolts in a few headers.

He can let us fudge some other stuff, but the stair and landing stuff is a hard code requirement for emergency service access. More work but makes sense, the hall is narrow enough that ive had trouble getting 10 foot lumber around the bend, let alone someone on a stretcher
 
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jb3

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spent much of the weekend trying to get the attached garage ready for drywall with strapping and insulation

Its a bit randomly but heavily constructed, 2 sides are 4x6 posts, and one is 4x4 post. I had to pad out the one wall to use the same insulation I had available




also had to add a few blocks to hold the strapping-



this code requirement also forced me to take apart the wood stove that was present in the garage, fortunately it will live on with a friend



all the wiring had to come off the support beam also, it needs to be encased in 5/8ths drywall also. I will be doing surface mounted wiring eventually



Im about 60% done strapping and insulating, I left 4 bays open for the electrician on the walls, but next I want to put up plywood before the drywall. I had hoped to get this done this weekend, but had not anticipated having to pad so much of the outer walls to have something to staple to


 
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jb3

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this morning made the decision to completely de-wire the garage as is and let the electrician start fresh with a blank slate from the panel now located within the garage.

formerly the garage was a single circuit operating 4 outlets, and 6 lights. I thought this was all, but then I finally traced this wire heading down from the box-




This is powering the 3 outbuildings. That one single circuit is actually powering 14 outlets, and 12 lights in 4 separate structures.

Im still on the fence as to leave the 4 wall bays open and do plugs to code within the wall as I had planned, or just plywood and drywall the whole garage and do everything on the surface since I see myself adding more later anyway, and possibly cabinets meaning I would have to move plugs.

Writing this out is useful in convincing me of the correct direction to go.
 
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