Continuing maintenance

[unixronin]

The painting continues.  We now have all the downstairs done, all the upstairs ceilings done except for our bedroom, the stairwell and landing is completely done, and the girls' room and the upstairs bethroom are just waiting for second coats on the walls.  All the trim painting remains to be done, too.  I still don't approve of our landlady's choice of "antique white", a color whose principal claim to note is its ability to look drab and dingy even when freshly painted.  Why they even call it a white, I don't know -- it's not white at all, it's a sort of pale grey with a nasty yellow-brown tinge to it.

Still, it's not our condo, and hopefully we won't be here too long.

Other progress for today includes getting our washer and dryer working.  The dryer and the outlet did indeed both turn out to be 240V, so all I had to do was replace the ungrounded three-pin outlet with a grounded four-pin one matching the plug on the dryer.  Plumbing in the washer only required extending the wastewater return hose about three feet using a piece of 1" OD copper pipe.  Next plumbing project is probably replacing the garbage disposal in the kitchen sink, which I had apart yesterday when looking into a back-flow problem from the sink into the dishwasher (Damn!  Forgot to look for a non-return valve for the dishwasher's wastewater line when I was in Home Depot buying the rest of today's stuff) and discovered that it was totally shot.  The entire grinder mechanism is a ball of rust -- the only thing I'm surprised at is that it still spins at all.  (It doesn't do anything except churn water, but it spins.)

Tomorrow we should get the rest of the upstairs wall-painting done, and get most of the furniture assembled and into place.  I can catch the trim later, a little at a time.  Then we can put the network together and start bringing the rest of the machines back online.  (Of course, I have my core switch torn apart right now to replace its cooling fans, which have badly worn bearings ... I now have a pair of magnetic-bearing replacement fans on order.)  I need to get my bike inspected tomorrow, too -- it'll be much more difficult to get it done next week.

Comments

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

damn dude, you've been busy ~hands you a beer~ take a break

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I can take a break now .... all the bedrooms are painted, and all the beds assembled. Getting a queen-size mattress set up these narrow stairs was entertaining.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

hehe, that's where waterbeds have an advantage!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I've never ever liked waterbeds, though. I don't like getting motion sickness every time my partner in the bed moves, I've never been in one that didn't bottom out, and my back can't tolerate the lack of support. Ditto air beds, with the added proviso that air beds are usually cold, clammy and lumpy.

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of waterbed frames. :) There's even space for my MiniVault in the headboard, in which my .45 lives.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i love waterbeds, but due to a situation beyond my control, i now have a regular queen sized matress in my frame.

[sunruner.livejournal.com]

Out of curiousity, why are you handling the painting and repairs and not the landlady? Just wondering. I know that I told my landlord that if I paint, I pick the colors. If he paints, he can pick the colors.

Congrats on making progress and getting settled in.
K

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Because we're getting a reduced rent in return for doing all the maintenance to get the place back into marketable condition after the previous tenant smoked like a chimney for 11 years. The filth that washed off the walls was truly astounding -- I was using two gallons of TSP at a time, and having to dump it and make a new batch about every five to six feet of wall. She wants us to steam clean the carpets, but I suspect they're a lost cause.

[sunruner.livejournal.com]

Ugh. There was a family I knew that the couple smoked for years. Husband died of lung cancer and while he was sick, neither of them even slowed down. When she moved into a home after he died, they basically had to gut the house and it still had that stale smoke air afterwards. There's a sealant that they use for a house where there's been a fire for walls and such but I've heard it's expensive and would probably only be advisable if you owned the place and planned on staying for years. As for the carpet, good luck.

K

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're having trouble killing the smoke smell....

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Mr Albino next door did say that the only thing he knew that works is an ionizer.