biggerboat's building boondoggle blog
I started this in H&F but this seems a better place for it. These are my H&F posts. A bit long-winded but hopefully entertaining. I'm sure more hilarity will ensue.
I've been debating about doing this, and I sort of thought it might qualify as health and/or fitness so I'm gonna do it.
A little background. I have a very old house that I started to remodel about 10 years ago, then ran out of money and WIM to finish it. I gutted it completely and moved walls and did a lot of interior work. But I never did anything with the exterior.
It is sort of falling apart now. The roof leaks and a lot of the wood siding is so rotten I can stick my finger through it. It needs to be completely replaced.
I just paid the house off so I can sort of afford to completely re-side and re-roof it..............if I do it myself. Another factor is I just got out of a serious relationship and now I have way too much time on my hands. I'm going a little stir crazy.
Now to the health tie-in. The last few years I just haven't been able to do things like this. I used to be able to work sunrise to sundown. But lately I'd be good for about 2 or 3 hours and my back would just tell me to stop. However, due to this forum, my back is really feeling strong again. I think I'm up for the challenge. The other health aspect is mental. I don't feel good unless I have some sort of challenge like this. It gives me something to look forward to. I'm really needing something like this about now.
So, I think I'll sort of log this activity as well as lifting. I'll have to cut back on lifting/running some. Mostly due to time considerations. I'll be working on the house on Saturday/Sunday so no lifting/running on those days.
I haven't committed to this quite yet, but I think I'm close.
On the house front. I went to the city website to see what permits I'll need. It was so confusing that I called, got an answering machine, and never got a call back. So, I went down to city hall to ask some very basic questions. Apparently the appropriate question answerers are only there MWF but a substitute question answerer was available. So, after waiting 1/2 hour the substitute question answerer informed me that he couldn't really answer my question so he told me to come back when the real question answerer was there.
I suspect this will not be healthy in any way.
I tweaked my back Wednesday doing deadlifts.
The back pain has nothing on the pain the city is inflicting on me, though.
Went back to talk to someone again. I at least got the right day. The girl was really friendly and helpful. However, she seemed to not really know what all I was supposed to do. Which, as you will see, nobody could.
The first thing she did was pull up my address.
Apparently, there were 3 expired permits associated with my house. About 10 (or more) years ago, I did a big remodel. I did it mostly myself. The first permit was for an interior remodel. I had to get electrical, plumbing, framing and probably more permits. I remember having each one signed off on. However, apparently there was a final inspection that I never got. This is just conjecture based on what she said and my hazy memory. The second was for a garage. I hired a contractor to pour the slab and I framed and finished it. Apparently the slab inspection failed but the framing inspection passed. I'm not sure how this happens. I really don't recall any of this. The third one was for a bedroom addition. I never did this. I do not recall even applying for this. But, it is there. More on this later.
So I asked a lot of questions and the girl was very polite when she had to repeatedly excuse herself to ask someone else that knew the answers. From what I gathered I can do most of the work on something they call an express permit. However, if I want add a small porch roof I will need site drawings, impervious cover documents, elevation drawings, detailed framing plans and flood plain people approval. At minimum.
Back to the old permits. The girl indicated that I could fill out a form to remove the permit for the addition since I never did it. She then sent me to someone named Tony on another floor to figure out what to do with the other ones. Tony, it seems, did not have his coffee this morning. Either that or he was just an *******. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He told me they couldn't do anything about any of them since he had no idea if I even did any work or not. Which is problematic since I can't get any new permits with these on their computer. After much discussion he agreed to go back downstairs and talk to the friendly girl. Tony then came up and informed me that I needed a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit. He informed me that I needed to go back where I started (the line that I waited over an hour in) to start this process.
So, I go back to the window and explain to them what Tony said. They seemed a bit confused on exactly what a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit was. So, they suggested that what I really need to do is re-submit all three permits and get inspections on the work I did over 10 years ago. Even if I didn't do the work. They then put my name in the computer to talk to someone. However, the number of people waiting had swelled considerably and I had already been there 2 1/2 hours so I think I'll tackle this another day.
Rehearsal dinner...
That seems like a lot...
Tell Mrs. Boat not to stress, it will be over soon.
Crazy Sister coming?
When you finish your novel, start in on your memoirs. Focus on the fam. Hold nothing back. Sugarcoat nothing.
Im at an inn right now. The women are all here getting their hair and stuff done by several hairdressers. The bride bought them all sone fancy pajamas to wear.
I have to say the food is great. They hired a chef for all the meals.
One little anecdote. My wife's mother got shitfaced and tried to drive back to where she's staying. Her significant other couldn't figure out how to drive the rental car so she insisted she drive because the car "is a computer" We got them home fine. She's staying at the same place we are. Anyway, my wife's ex is here too. Nobody likes him. Not even his children. Sooo, we spend some more time at the place we had the rehearsal dinner. Come back to the inn and find mom and ex drunk as skunks on the porch. Fun times.
There's about to be a revolution because they aren't allowing people to drink before the wedding.
And my wife REALLY needs a drink right now.
...
One little anecdote. My wife's mother got shitfaced and tried to drive back to where she's staying. ... Anyway, my wife's ex is here too. ... Come back to the inn and find mom and ex drunk as skunks on the porch. ...
Perhaps this event has sparked some ideas of how you can use the theme of an ex-husband becoming the father-in-law of the new husband and the stepfather of the ex-wife as a psychological thriller? Could be great. I'll buy it.
Wedding is over and I'm back home- yeah!
It was actually a lot of fun. There was a little crazy there (both grandmothers, aunt, friend of the bride), and some unlikeable folks, but everybody seemed to be on their best behavior. Tons of food, plenty of booze, and some good music. No disasters. Fun was had by all.
Wife is on cloud nine. Haven't seen her this happy in a while.
I don't really have any good stories. Flight home was delayed enough that we weren't going to make the connecting flight. Some crazy good karma happened and we ended up getting a direct flight that got us home earlier than we would have originally. That never happens.
Rental car situation was stupid. None of the kiosks worked. Everybody just kept trying and trying but they just didn't work. Super long line with only one person working. I had gotten an email to check in early so I gave that a shot on my phone. It actually worked. I went to pick the car up and told the girl about the kiosks and she said "yeah, they need to be rebooted." Sigh. Then i told her there was only one guy working the desk. "Yeah, the other guy is cleaning a car out." Sigh. Ended up getting a dodge ram pickup that I liked a lot more than mine (chevy silverado). Except......we got to an area where some road construction was going on and the truck decided I shouldn't be where I was and tried to steer me into another lane. Do not like that.
Wait, what? More details on "tried to steer me into another lane." Some kind of self-driving/lane correction thing?
Glad to hear Mrs. Boat is happy. Seems like she's been having a tough stretch with work and family, from your descriptions. Good to know she's doing well.
Wait, what? More details on "tried to steer me into another lane." Some kind of self-driving/lane correction thing?
Glad to hear Mrs. Boat is happy. Seems like she's been having a tough stretch with work and family, from your descriptions. Good to know she's doing well.
Thanks!
I'm not sure what it was. We were going around a curve where road construction was going on and it looked like they had temporarily striped it multiple times. The steering wheel didn't want me to curve. It felt like in the old days when power steering went out and it was hard as hell to turn. Caught me by surprise.
Well, at least you had a truck, and could run over any of the construction **** that got in your way.
I had the same thing happen to me in a rental car in DC. The highway was under construction and the old striping went straight but the road was curved to the right with temp concrete barriers. The car tried to follow the stripe and pulled pretty hard left when I was trying to go right. That was my first time in a car with the lane assistance, so I was pretty surprised at the time.
i turned that all that **** off in my car. you can override it with force but it is an accident waiting to happen. but it can help the drunk drivers.
Yes to turning it off. But with a rental ain't nobody got time to figure out all the different menus.
My truck is getting fixed and I have a loaner car. I was parked and had it in reverse to pull out of the space and a car was coming down the lane. My seat started vibrating. I wasn't sure that was the reason until a second car came and the seat vibrated again. Do not like.
In other wedding news, a friend's daughter just sent me a link to register for her upcoming wedding. Her parents are sort of friends. We don't really socialize. I've only met the bride-to-be once. Had no clue she was getting married. Wouldn't recognize her if I saw her on the street. Seems a bit much to be invited to her wedding. Maybe she's only inviting me to send a gift. Not sure.
I just got a text from my friend's daughter, admonishing me for not filling out her wedding form. Hmmmm......
[x] not attending, not sending gift. Barely know of you.
[x] did not attend your birth or baptism, and have no debt or obligation to your family
likewise you should have no doubt i do not intend to tithe your wedding or bridal party
There was no invite. Just an on-line cash grab.
