What did you do today?

[highup]

They closed the liquor stores in Pa. but left beer distributors open. People jam liquor stores in times of crisis. I guess that’s their reasoning. Paper products are coming back in stock. Got 12 rolls of TP and 6 rolls of paper towels. And I got white bread. The advantages of shopping on Thursday. Blue skies here finally. Gray and rainy doesn’t really help the spirits when you’re cooped up. Been getting HelloFresh meals for the last month. I would never bother to make these meals if I had to go buy so many ingredients. But damn are these recipes delicious! I’m eating roasted carrots, poblanos, parsnips, and an occasional salad. That’s not me! Anyway, remember, the virus wins by making you think you are alone. Nobody is alone if you’re on a forum. Keep the conversation going. Newtons law: a body in motion tends to remain in motion. Life is like that!

stay safe everyone.

Never heard of those meals.
Sunny today and tomorrow, the a bit of rain for a couple of days....... and the maybe then cool weather will go up 5 to 8 degrees so it will become it's normal average. Morning lows for the past few weeks has been 34 to 37. Should be 40 to low 40s.
I went to Staples to buy some dividers. Walked by a pallet of toilet paper.
Never thought to look there.

 

[Floorist]

Never heard of those meals.
Sunny today and tomorrow, the a bit of rain for a couple of days....... and the maybe then cool weather will go up 5 to 8 degrees so it will become it's normal average. Morning lows for the past few weeks has been 34 to 37. Should be 40 to low 40s.
I went to Staples to buy some dividers. Walked by a pallet of toilet paper.
Never thought to look there.

Hope you bought some TP. May not be any next week.

 

[zannej]

I had trouble getting restful sleep last night. Kept having to shift positions to get comfortable and then allergies hit. I started sneezing & nose started running. I took some meds for it & tried to get back to sleep. Eyes started crudding over (particularly my right eye). Tried to sleep after that, still tossed & turned & woke up with my eyes drippy & cruddy. Nose is still stuffed up & eyes are still red & irritated. I had to sleep with a tissue under my right eye to catch the dripping & it's aggravating. Gonna have to buy more cough drops bc I'm on my last one. Will have to see what they have for sore throat in the store today. I'm going to wrap a scarf around my face so I won't be coughing/sneezing on people if that starts up again when I'm out. It will also help keep me from touching my face.

 

[highup]

Gee Zan, my worst fear right now would be being in a store and having to cough or sneeze. I bet the store would be empty in 30 seconds.

 

[highup]

New high for me. $58 per sq yd to install vinyl in a bathroom.
It's new construction in the upper level of a new shop. Gonna be nice guest quarters.
The bathroom is small, less than 6 by 13. Floor is 1 1/4" plywood. They installed the plumbing after the fact, meaning they had to cut open the plywood to run the plumbing. Dead center in the room were two narrow strips of wobbly plywood sandwiched between two 24 inch pieces of plywood. They had cut three openings and had to sister on new 2 by 6's to reinstall the plywood. The new 2 bys we're obviously green lumber because they shrunk a lot and made a dip in the section they cut out. I wanted one nicely attached patch. Theirs was a wobbly hack job.
I ripped out the two narrow strips then set up my router to make the top side of 2x materials an even height. I straightened the plywood edges and made a rabbit joint in the 1 1/4" plywood and fit and glued in two layers of 3/4 inch to fill the void.
I re screwed all the other joints, sanded and filled the seams then covered it all with 3/8" plywood. The job was really all repairs and prep with a couple hours of patterning, cutting and gluing the vinyl...... So my rediculous $ per yard # isn't really honest.
Fun job. I have the bedroom carpet left to do. I'm installing wood transitions instead of metal.... we want it to look pretty, right?

 

[zannej]

I felt a little bit better before going to the store, but just in case I put tissues against my face, wrapped my lower face/head in a thick scarf, washed my hands thoroughly, & headed to the post office. I started coughing in the post office but was coughing in to my elbow & one of the employees got mad. I wasn't anywhere near anyone or any object and my entire lower face was wrapped up but people are paranoid. They are so paranoid they are no longer passing stuff over the counter. The employee sniped at a woman who asked for some tape to seal her letter because she didn't want to lick the adhesive to seal it.
My packages were stuffed in to a larger postal box & the key was put in my box. One of the packages was stuck so I had to put everything down and then spend a few minutes prying it out. They put it in the very bottom box so I had to crouch down & it gave me some trouble. The door kept trying to swing shut on me, but I managed to get everything out and to the truck.

Went to Walmart to pick up some more medicine & food. There were a couple guys who chuckled about my scarf. I explained it was to keep me from touching my face. I mentioned I watched a video talking about safety measures and not to touch your face & that I touched my face 5 times while watching the video. The good thing was, I could still scratch my nose with my arm & there was protection from the scarf. The guys were from the woods out east of town & they were looking for allergy meds bc of the pollen. One of them helped me find the right eye drops. They told me that 19 people at the federal prison have tested positive for Covid-19 (in addition to the 4 people that died).

Walmart had some stupid system where they put yellow tape over the fronts of the posts in front of the sidewalk to force people to walk around to the sides & they had carts in the middle to separate people who were entering & people who were leaving. People often go in the exit door. But the thing is, there is a bay just inside where there is no separation & it's where the shopping carts are brought in. They didn't have that cordoned off so it was a bit pointless. The guys I talked to asked me what the point was. I told them it was just stupidity. They had employees (who weren't wearing masks or gloves) standing outside the store to direct people & to wipe down carts with disinfectant spray. They were all friendly though.

A bus full of elderly people was parked right at the front to let people out so I walked around it on the outside to avoid getting close to any of them in case I started coughing. I didn't cough very much though & my eyes are already feeling a little better. I forgot to get some things, but I'll wait until next week to go back.

Highup, is the plywood usually pre-cut for plumbing rough-ins in new construction?

I'm tempted to get some vinyl transitions instead of metal-- that way they will be waterproof, but I will have to see what sort of transitions I need. I want something soft to go from carpet to sheet vinyl in my mother's bathroom/bedroom doorway. Right now there is no transition & the sheet vinyl tucks under the carpet, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get that to work. I'm afraid to pull up the carpet to try to put it over the new sheet vinyl when I install it. Same with my bathroom-- my carpet was actually cut too far back, but I want a soft transition that won't hurt bare feet to walk on & won't stub a toe on.

 

[highup]

One thing about the post office, Zan. They can see hundreds of people per day. They are at risk like the people at the grocery store. I would be getting a bit edgy if I was in that much a public job.
If you aren't feeling well, it's best to stay at home. No need to worry people even if you know it's allergy related...... they don't.

 

[highup]

Zan, the plywood is supposed to be in place after the plumbing, or on a case like this, installed from below before the sheetrock is installed.
Not sure why...... Maybe the bathroom was an afterthought?
Looks pretty nice now. Even tho the guest room won't be used often, I wanted it to be my typical bulletproof installation.
The guest room is heated as is the shop below....... It's got to be over 90 feet from the house. Customer is spending a pretty penny fixing up this new shop plus adding a 10 foot covered walkway as you walk past the 5 or 6 storage and shop sections of this neat looking building.
It is layed out like it was once 5 or 6 horse stalls at one time, each section is like a small garage, 20 feet deep by 15 feet wide. The floors are all concrete and no horsie smell, so I really don't know.
There are probably 6 guys and me working on the place right now. They are all doing exterior finish carpentry. They also have the roofing to install plus painting. Probably another week or so.
I'm going to finish the carpet tomorrow and be out of there. They might want me to install a room of carpet in their main house.... I told em it arrived, just not sure if they want me to do it yet.
Just a fabulous place and layout. Middle of town and you wouldn't even know it was there. Two lamas and an alpaca... a chicken that will hop in your truck, a few cows and a friend's children are in 4H, so they added fencing for a couple goats.

 

[Tom Picciani]

I called in my carpenter friend who had a power hammer to chisel out the cinder block they had put in the hole in the basement, apparently to plug up the hole they were going to use to plumb the shower. I thought it as a sump pit but apparently not. Even with it having just rained, it was dry. So I figured to make it into a sump pit for peace of mind. After the blocks were removed, we found a 2 inch sewer pipe that was duct taped closed. Unfortunately the tape had ripped as they filled the hole with stone. I knew I was smelling sewer gas downstairs! Anyway, it was at that point that the sump pit would be more annoyance than peace of mind. We capped the pipe properly, filled the hole with the broken pieces of cinder block to take up some room, and poured in a bag of concrete. Mike had already brought over a bucket of finishing concrete. He troweled it so smooth you would not even realize there was a hole.

Going across the room is where the beam sits. We built a 2x6 load bearing wall under the beam. Because the span was virtually unsupported originally, that was what caused me headaches laying the floor in the living room. We had to shim the joists. We got it close enough and the 1/8 inch dip in the floor is where I put the 300 lb couch. I would assume that one day in the distant future when the couch goes, the Coretec will have developed a memory and hug the floor, even after the couch goes away.

I attached an image.

I'm going to drywall the side of the all showing, plumb that pipe to run inside the wall, and leave a pipe for later attaching of a utility sink on the other side. I need to add some outlets and a light switch for later. I'll build a workbench to hid the pipes and put underneath cabinets using MDF and 2x4's. I can run the cabinet all the way across and the bulkhead too. I'll put pot lights in the bulkhead or something like that to light the workbench.

It's all going to be for model building when I retire in 3 years. I want to build the big models like the Trumpeter Titanic ($300 for the kit!) and stuff like that. Needs lots of room to work. Maybe work on a wooden ship at some point. But out of 4 kits I only completed one. They are tedious.

Anyway, I was bored so I figured to say hi rather than play computer games.

Take care!

 

[zannej]

The particular postal worker who got mad has been cranky with people since before the pandemic. She's been a bit rude to me in the past-- I think she doesn't like me for some reason. I might remind her of someone she dislikes, I dunno. I smile & her and try to be friendly, but she always gives me a an annoyed look. The other employees are much nicer. I can understand her being worried right now, but that doesn't explain or excuse her rudeness in the past.

I wish that I could stay home but it's not safe for my mother or brother to go out to the post office and store & the post office won't deliver to our house. I have stuff I'm waiting on that I need & I have to get groceries. I wanted to get cat food but they were out again. Can't seem to find it in stock online to order either.

Yesterday I mostly stayed in bed & used some eye drops (which only helped a little). My eyes keep crudding over and getting blurry. It's worse at night for some reason. I'm going to need more medicine soon because we are going through the stuff to stop runny/stuffy noses. I'm hoping this will be cleared up more by the time my friend is ready to work on his bathroom. It got postponed because he needed to wait for stuff to arrive in the mail.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Z it must be a female postal worker thing. I got one that is nasty as all get out. My regular carrier is the head honcho of the union here and when he is working he always stops and talks and even gives my dog a treat which she looks forward and talks to her through the fence. If it is someone else and she don't get her treat she barks at them until she can't see them anymore. I told her that and she said in a snotty tone "Well don't expect that from me." Coco gave her hell for it.

 

[highup]

Does anyone know how long toilet paper lasts if you freeze it?

 

[highup]

I called in my carpenter friend who had a power hammer to chisel out the cinder block they had put in the hole in the basement, apparently to plug up the hole they were going to use to plumb the shower. I thought it as a sump pit but apparently not. Even with it having just rained, it was dry. So I figured to make it into a sump pit for peace of mind. After the blocks were removed, we found a 2 inch sewer pipe that was duct taped closed. Unfortunately the tape had ripped as they filled the hole with stone. I knew I was smelling sewer gas downstairs! Anyway, it was at that point that the sump pit would be more annoyance than peace of mind. We capped the pipe properly, filled the hole with the broken pieces of cinder block to take up some room, and poured in a bag of concrete. Mike had already brought over a bucket of finishing concrete. He troweled it so smooth you would not even realize there was a hole.

Going across the room is where the beam sits. We built a 2x6 load bearing wall under the beam. Because the span was virtually unsupported originally, that was what caused me headaches laying the floor in the living room. We had to shim the joists. We got it close enough and the 1/8 inch dip in the floor is where I put the 300 lb couch. I would assume that one day in the distant future when the couch goes, the Coretec will have developed a memory and hug the floor, even after the couch goes away.

I attached an image.

I'm going to drywall the side of the all showing, plumb that pipe to run inside the wall, and leave a pipe for later attaching of a utility sink on the other side. I need to add some outlets and a light switch for later. I'll build a workbench to hid the pipes and put underneath cabinets using MDF and 2x4's. I can run the cabinet all the way across and the bulkhead too. I'll put pot lights in the bulkhead or something like that to light the workbench.

It's all going to be for model building when I retire in 3 years. I want to build the big models like the Trumpeter Titanic ($300 for the kit!) and stuff like that. Needs lots of room to work. Maybe work on a wooden ship at some point. But out of 4 kits I only completed one. They are tedious.

Anyway, I was bored so I figured to say hi rather than play computer games.

Take care!

Did that 2x6 wall replace the jack's you used to level the upstairs?

 

[zannej]

@DarisMulkin There were a couple rude male employees there before. One was giving me attitude because I complained they wouldn't link my physical address to my post office box so stuff was getting sent back & I was having trouble getting mail. He sniped at me "At least you get a free box!" I told him "No I don't! I pay for my box!" He then told me that I wasn't supposed to be paying if I couldn't get delivery at home. He changed his attitude a bit and gave me the paperwork to file for a free box. Another male employee was angry that I got the free box & said that I was paying a reduced fee & shouldn't get a free box (I looked at the prices & found he was lying). He was nasty to me after that. Neither of them work there anymore though. I do have a favorite employee there, her name is Ebony & she's always polite & patient with people. When she sees me walk in, she will go and get my packages ready for me before I get to the window if she's not too busy.

My eyes are still crudding over but I've ordered some stuff to put on them. It's probably some sort of eye infection. My mother has it now too-- she touched my eyelid to help me put drops in my eyes-- I was holding my eye open but she didn't like how I was doing it. She then touched her eyes without thinking about it. I have trouble getting the drops in because I keep missing my eye. LOL. Took me 5 tries to hit the target this morning.

I'm still tired, but feeling better. Mucus is more under control with the allergy meds. I did some cleaning yesterday and somehow managed to pull a muscle in my shoulder/neck area. It tensed up at the wrong time. My dog stole my blanket & pulled it to the foot of the bed, bundled it up, and crawled under it. The meds I took have me a bit lightheaded so I'm trying to see if I'm up to doing anything productive today. I'm waiting on some stuff I ordered to come in & am waiting until then to make a trip to the store & post office.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Did that 2x6 wall replace the jack's you used to level the upstairs?

The floor was above that wall. However we used shims between the beam and the joists. At first it made it worst. Then we pulled quite a few out and got it close enough. Before, there was no wall there. There was only a pair of 2x4's nailed together "strongback" style. And the makeshift post wasn't nailed to anything. It was semented 3 inches into the ground and the beam just sat on top of it. Wasn't even attached at the top. In the garage, there were 2 posts the same way. There I put steel posts.

 

[highup]

Thought it looked familiar.

 

[highup]

All I did today is look at a floor, chat with a good friend for an hour and go get a check deposited. I worked Saturday and noticed my lower back wasn't working like it's supposed to. Took Sunday and today off to let Mr. Ibu Profen assist me.

 

[Floorist]

Dr, said no restrictions.

 

[zannej]

My brother is no longer sick so I drove him into town so he could pick up stuff at the post office, do some shopping for me (I gave him a list) and pick up some in-store pickup stuff give the stuff along just in case they refused to give the stuff to him & insisted that I be there, but he told them I was sick so they gave it to him (plus he had my credit card & order number). Picked up beef stew from the local quick stop.

Back home with my cat climbing on me & sitting on my arms while I type.

 

[highup]

Dr, said no restrictions.

Meaning your arteries are flowing like a fire hose... or you're tall enough to go on the rides without mom and dad.
Good news.