The Manic Mechanic

Finally. After postponing this for years due to health issues, money issues, time issues, timing issues or just plain procrastination, I finally ordered up a new front door for La Casa Mayhem, and I picked it up today. I had to convince the people at Homo Despot that I had a nice big truck, and the wonderful shipping pallet it was delivered to the store on was ideal for me to get it home with the least chance of additional damage. The material handlers, obviously walking around with "Loading..." graphics floating over their heads were having problems processing this. The forklift drivers were out to lunch, and the guys rolling the door around the store seemed to be colloquially in the same place. Both me and the cool gal in the millwork department I had been dealing with were basically saying the same thing. Finally one of the forklift operators returned and all of us humped the thing onto the truck, where I tied it all down and headed home. Jeff came home soon after I did, and the two of us wrangled it off the truck and onto the carport where it will sit safely until I begin work. I'm glad I had the pallet to keep the thing safe and upright, if anything were to knock it over before I installed it I would be fit to be tied. I took a couple quick shots of the thing still cloaked in plastic.



( Another one with glass detail )

In addition to taking out the original door/sidelight assembly, I might have to resize the rough opening slightly for best fit, plus reroute the doorbell wiring. I also plan to affix a hidden alarm switch as well as I am doing the work. This should complete the basic door installation. While I am focused on that part of the house, I will also take out a small section of an adjacent wall where the light switches are in order to consolidate some of the outdoor lighting controls as well as prep it all for ongoing home automation. ALso, for over 25 hears, my OCD has been bugging me because of a small electrical hack hidden in that wall. After the house was built and all the electric hooked up, I found there was no power to the outlets in the front part of the living room. Turns out the electricians who wired the house forgot to run a branch to the five outlets there. To fix it, they popped a hole in the one living room outlet box and the outside lightswitch box in the entryway, and connected the two with a piece of ratty UF cable. I discovered this when I changed a light switch in the entry years ago. It's been bugging me since, because the composite boxes have large pieces missing, and this also puts those outlets in a lighting circuit. While I have the wall apart I will replace the boxes, reroute the branch feeder to a different circuit, and put in a larger device box for added controls for the outside lighting along the walkways and the two post lights. All four of these circuits will have automation-/remote control-ready switches installed. My janky motion sensor setup for the outside front door light will be replaced with a setup that integrates with the lighting control system. I will also install the little dome camera in the ceiling outside the front door, part of an extended remote monitoring system I am putting together.

If my body survives the exertion and labor needed for these projects, I will hopefully be able to complete the living room skylight project that's going on four years now, and the sunroom, which, sad to say, been on hold for eight years. Neither of these are really backbreaking work, but involve working overhead for extended periods, something that was impossible for me for a long time. Not too long ago, I refitted several light fixtures in the Mayhem Lab with new ballasts and bulbs, and I found I didn't have a single problem or flash of pain during or after. The lighting project was a test for this, as I could've simply done one fixture at a time or dropped that project temporarily had it become an issue. Go me!

When I headed outside to snap the pics of the door, I discovered Jeff had quietly come home and was sitting in his new car, airconditioning on, grooving to Pink Floyd and answering messages on his phone. I realized I didn't take any pictures of the car for LJ, so I did, and also snapped one of Jeff in his work duds, hat, and his beard, which I remodeled a little while ago. :)

( More pictures and text behind the cut, since everyone seems to surf LJ on tiny things anymore )

A lot has been happening up at Jeff's dad's place, since the fire. He's got a new house.



Things are about 80% complete at this point, the basement stairs both inside and outside need to be made and installed, some final plumbing, and the electrical service needs to be connected, the latter being the only holdup at this point. If enough people can get the local utility supervisor to get off his ass and not needlessly delay the task for a few more weeks, we'll be golden. The walkways, front porch and landscaping/cleanup are all that will be left in order to be move-in ready. Eventually a deck will be built out back as well, in the meantime some temporary steps will be put in for egress. Not bad progress at all, from the fire to a new house in the same spot in less than two months time.

Talking with Jeff's dad today was nice. He's practically giddy with excitement. He can't wait to have his own place once again, and we'll have our travel trailer back in time for our trip to P-Town in July. There's still the question of having the minor heat damage repaired on the trailer. If the RV shop doesn't get the parts in before a certain time window, we'll forgo the repairs until after the vacation. We are not very pleased with this outfit that we tasked to do the repairs, and there's a good chance we'll be having some issues with them. They've been given the money from the insurance company to do the repairs, and if they stall or otherwise misbehave, we can have the insurance company itself breathing down their neck.

Dad has furniture already picked out and bought, once the green light is given, stuff will be delivered. I have a list of all the light bulbs needed in all the rooms, there are lots of built-in fixtures. Everything will be getting high-efficiency LED lighting. Couple this with the decent insulation and the high-efficiency heat pump, the electric bill should be enviable.

Oh, those big gable-end windows? This is what they overlook:



More pics, inside and out, are here.

I still have to get busy with some Photoshoppin'. I have a lot more surprise family pictures to restore and print, now that there is a place to hang and place them. I want another one of those hugs. ;-)