Scroogie Boy's blog

Damn, this is annoying!

I just spent a good hour or so chasing my tail after a short, but clearly powerful, electrical disturbance here at the house. The power went out very briefly following what must have been a lightning strike fairly close by.

You'd think that everything would be just fine since the computers are on UPSes but for some weird reason, the drive in the file server that serves media to the Squeezeboxes got in a weird state that required a full sever powerdown to clear. After fixing that, I had to troubleshoot why the Squeezebox in the living room would play but no audio would come out of the speakers... Finally, after shutting down the whole audio chain (Squeezebox in the living room, DAC and amplifier in the server room) and restarting it, things finally got back to normal. Clearly, I should have thought about a remote reset mechanism for this (or set up a system with fewer moving parts).

Well, that wasn't fun.

Cats: 1, Carl: 0 (updated)

When I remodeled Paula's closet, I installed a rather spiffy pocket door track that makes opening the closet door a single-finger operation: the heavy-duty track and bearings practically glide for a wonderful experience... Well, that was the good news. The bad news is that we can't keep the cats out of the closet!

Samuel is an expert at opening doors and taught his friends how to pull the door open (probably out of spite for being forced to wear this outfit) so we now have to keep closing the closet door and making sure nobody is trapped inside. My current strategy is to make the door stay closed by embedding neodymium (super-strong) magnets in the door and frame but, so far, they are still getting it open! I just added another set of magnets this morning... Maybe that will be enough force to keep them out. I hope so. Darned little cat burglars!

UPDATE: Yeah, well, they still manage to pop the door open from time to time -- with the extra practice, they now are opening the other closet pocket door (which is on a far rougher-running track) as well. So, I may not have stopped the cats from getting in the closet but I have helped improve their door-opening skills. That's got to count for something, right?

Mattress-in-a-box

We ordered a mattress from Costco to go with our new bed. It was delivered (via UPS ground) yesterday evening. Can't say much about it since I haven't unpacked it yet.

But what I can say is that a king-size mattress crammed into a 147lb box the size of a large cooler is quite an achievement. I'm not sure whether I am actually looking forward to the actual box opening!

Bathroom remodel day 16

The insulation was inspected uneventfully in the morning and drywall work started in the afternoon. The drywall guys kinda hosed themselves with the window surround by trimming a little too much off -- so they will have to fiddle with it to make it fit right (I've done that in the past -- I'm glad it isn't my problem to deal with this time :-) They may do a little more drywall in the closet but they are pretty close to all that they can do -- the shower pan is the next big thing on the agenda. It needs to be built and lined before the tile backer can go up... Which will determine how far the drywall goes in the bathroom. The other nice thing with the drywall being partially up is that they can think about measuring for the cabinets, so more possibilities for progress... Pictures in the usual place...

Bathroom remodel days 14 and 15: more inspections and insulation

Day 14 was just another inspection (framing this time). Day 15 was insulation. I'm not all that thrilled with their attention to detail, so we probably will have a chat about that when we meet before the next step (drywall). Still, it is progress after all these days of just doing inspections. Pictures on the albums site, as usual.

Bathroom remodel 12 and 13: inspections only

Friday and Monday were both slow days -- no work for either, just the HVAC and electrical rough-in inspections. I did wire in the window alarm sensors over the weekend, so that's also out of the way.

Bathroom remodel day 11: block party!

A quiet day on the remodel front: the HVAC boxes went in, the bottom of the walls were blocked and the rough plumbing was inspected. Pictures on the albums site.

Bathroom remodel day 10: plumbing rough-in

The plumber was here until 9:45pm finishing the plumbing rough-in and completing the vent stacks. We'll see how the inspection goes tomorrow. Pictures in the album, as usual.

Bathroom remodel day 9: Electrical rough-in

Today was the electrical rough-in. Nothing fancy, although maybe the electrician and plumber should have a chat... Pictures on the albums site...

Bathroom remodel day 8: concrete all purdy again

Yesterday -- Day 8 of remodeling (I'm just counting the business days) -- was under-slab inspection time followed by filling in the holes and patching the slab. Electrical rough-in should be next. Pictures are on the albums site.