biggerboat's building boondoggle blog

You're still on the first draft, right? After you finish it you can write an outline and see where you stand.

money well spent if you go to the college or find someone to do the editing for you. doesnt cost too much especially if you recognize them in the forward area
dont use the internet for that as you should know.

I actually stopped and worked on an outline. So far it has helped me with the timeline.

Good to hear from you, ray.

I also wouldn't mind a fact checker. Seems expensive though. I'm probably easily a year away from needing an official editor so I have time to work on that.

I googled how long a novel should be. Consensus seems to be 80,000 to 100,000 words. I'm at 103,000 and still have a bit to write. I doubt I could pare much done and be happy with it. Oh well.

No. No googling. Tell your story and when you are done you're done.

Re: fact checking. Got home from a short trip to the tournament. In the mail was (for reasons I can't explain) a copy of the Epoch Times.

Apparently, fact checking not required to be a 'professional' writer.

I feel a little out of touch. I had to Google this. But yikes!

This shows up every now and then. I think they just send them randomly to all addresses in a zip code. Isn't it also owned by the Chinese government?

Length of a novel - To me, 100k words barely gets it into the interesting range. But I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy where it seems the good ones are just warming up at 150k and make it a million-word series.

I remember reading about a well-known author that was having trouble cutting down a book to what he thought was a reasonable length. He gave it to his editor who told him the story was too big. The author said he didn't know where to cut any more. The editor said that he meant the story was too big for the current length. The take away was that the story goes on as long as it takes. Finish the story and then see if anything can be cut.

Favorites?

I don't want to clog up the thread, but this may be of interest to biggerboat.

Most of what I read now I get from Kindle Unlimited. It's a pretty good mix of: entertaining but nothing special, mind candy, bad enough that I don't feel bad dumping it because I pay by the month, and really good stuff that just never made the big-time. There's also occasionally NYT best seller stuff. Like Hugo Award winner Arkady Martine's - A Memory Called Empire (this one is great).

I'm not sure how these authors get paid. But it must be worth it for so many to be in the program and keep putting out books.

As for what I currently look for, anything by: Will Wight, Philip C Quaintrell, AC Cobble, Glynn Stewart, Skyler Ramirez, Rachel Aaron. It's pretty eclectic group as far as content and style.

In books I pay for - Brandon Sanderson is probably top of the list.

epoch times is owned by the fa lun gong cult who believe they can fly, cure cancer with their minds, transport themselves to the astral plane, and communicate with aliens

also watch out for Washington times, that one is owned by the moonie church

asian cults own a good dozen or so print publications in America, it's embarrassing we do nothing to regulate it

Thanks. Sanderson's one of my favorites too. Never heard of any of those other authors. If you don't use the Libby app, that's a good source too, assuming you have a library card somewhere.

I might have another building boondoggle coming.

We found moisture along our island cabinets. We traced it to the dishwasher. I pulled the dishwasher and there was about 1/8 inch of standing water and a ton of mold.

The plastic drain line of the dishwasher is connected to a copper pipe? That seems odd to me - copper drain line. But it is definitely the drain line.

I pulled as much pieces of the cabinets I can and I can't see what the copper pipe is connected to.

Also, we can't get to all of the mold.

I'm not sure how to tackle this. To get all of the existing mold I believe I'll have to pull the cabinets, which means I'll have to take off the granite countertop.

My suspicion is that the connection between the plastic dishwasher drain and the copper pipe is leaking OR the copper pipe is clogged. Not sure yet.

We are going to dry everything up and I'll re-assess tomorrow.

Not sure if this is a job I want to tackle myself.

Gonna have a few beers to think about it.

Oh yeah.

My allergies have been killing me for quite some time. I noticed they get worse when I sit in a chair right next to where we found the mold. Go figure.

i think your next housing should be in a hermetically sealed pod that is sound proof

Seal cabinets. Move chair. Drink beer. Problem solved.

Wouldn't that be nice.

If it were only that easy.

There is no way to see what is going on from the front of the cabinets so I decided to remove the back wall. I "thought" there would be a panel covering open space. I thought wrong. There was a panel. Underneath that was rotten wet sheetrock. I took that off only to find more sheetrock on the other side of the framing. I thought I would just cut through that to make a hole where I can see what was going on, but dammit - there is cement board on the other side of the sheetrock. I have a really bad feeling the kitchen is coming out before all is said and done.

I decided to get a plumber out here for a second opinion.

Call a professional and get it done right; it will be money well spent. Plus they should give some kind of guarantee/warrantee for the work. Better in the long run.

You don't know me very well.

Yeah, the actual plumbing I might get done. The rest I think I'll do myself.

Sounds like you and Mrs. Boat oughta be thinking about how you'd redesign the kitchen, as you'll be a significant part of the way there anyway.

Yeah, we have to think about some things. Now would be the time.

Plumber gave about the worst news possible. He's pretty sure it's leaking around the stack. Most likely the old copper lines are the problem.

At minimum, I have to tear out the corner of the kitchen. I'm going to try to salvage as much as possible, like the granite countertop. The cabinets might be ok too. Not sure until I start.

The ballpark for just the plumbing is $2300, which I definitely won't be doing.

Hopefully I can do the demo and reconstruction myself. We'll be out a kitchen sink for a while.

what stack there is no stack behind the dishwater. the stack for vents come out the roof. then that stack at the roof would need a new roof vent boot. you can check that out.

they use copper because galvanized rusts out in the florida weather. my outside faucets have copper coming out the walls.

dishwasher empties into the sink drain. or should . look under and see so it either leaks at the dishwasher connection, or the washer to sink drain connection or the sink drain is leaking as well. or the connection of water to dishwasher
not there to see so that is my guess.

boraxo(borax) is what is used to kill mold. mold is living so chlorine justs drives it deeper into what it is growing in but kills the surface mold.

if mold is deeper than surface then take out the wall part if wall part is porous.

you likely dont need a plumber. i dont know what he can do other than you.
and maybe your dishwasher is leaking itself. but first you have to find out what is leaking. experiment.

easy to fix broken copper. pex and connectors push together easy peezy. all kind s of no solder connectors nowadays.

I was able to carve away the sheetrock on the other side of the counter from where the picture shows. It appears as if water "boils" up from the floor where that corner pillar is. I've pulled some more from around the pillar and it seems as if the pillar is made of concrete :( , or at least concrete surrounds maybe a pipe that goes down? I don't know yet.

My original plan was to try to pull off the countertop in the corner but that is a huge can of worms. I would have to pull all the backsplash and then I have the sink to contend with.

The corner cabinet consists of that drawer piece but it goes all the way to the wall on the right of the pillar. It is cut to accommodate the pillar. My wife said "just cut that corner piece away with the sawzall." I thought this was a pretty bad idea, but I think it might not be so horrible. It is useless space and if I remove anything to the right of the drawer portion I think I can get to the leak. I got some 2xs to make sure the corner of the countertop remains braced.

Wish me luck!

This is what the plumber wrote, without actually seeing the issue.