What did you do today?

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Today I'm living up to the acronym that the tv set crew put on some of the pipes on Star Trek: GNDN (Goes Nowhere Does Nothing). Ok, that was technically yesterday. I stayed home, but I did do some cooking & cleaning. Changed AC filters and cleaned the grille as best as I could. I need to get some sort of electrical outlet installed in that hallway so I can plug in a vacuum.

I messed around in Sketchup and started drawing my bathroom and Mom's bathroom. Focused mainly on Mom's. I decided to draw the vanity at the height it will end up being after adding some 2x4s and 1x2 furring strips to raise the countertop up (it's only about 30-3/4" high) and Mom complains it hurts her back to bend. Frodo said I can pop the countertop up (need to take it off to re-laminate it anyway-- and cut for a new sink (before the laminate). Might even just try to replace it entirely if I can figure out what to replace it with. The fugly green faux marble laminate must go! I also drew the shower alcove to the size it will be once we cut about 1" into the hall closet. I also drew in the shelves that are in the bathroom.
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The countertop is a color I wish I could find in laminate. Not sure what color she will want the cabinets to be, but right now they are a fugly green.
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I have cleaned up since this pic but I have no idea what half of the stuff on the counter is. I think it's mostly my brother's stuff. I have a tooth care kit, an extra toothbrush, prescription mouthwash, and prescription toothpaste up there (and a few of those things are on top of a wall mount soap dish).

Right now I'm sitting here under cats again. Rupert was sitting and purring but he just passed out. Ever see videos of kittens that just flop down asleep? His head just dropped on to my shoulder. LOL.
 
Well boy's, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Wrapping up car freshener tomorrow. A couple more rows of lvp, some calk & some millwork base....

That millwork base is a bitch!! I have been using my chop saw to do corners and it's going slow and painful. The friction from the blade melts the base and it's hard to get good looking outside corners.

Any tips for it????
 
Thanks man.
I seen the cutter but don't do enough of it to justify dropping $400 on it.
I'll grab a new blade in the AM and give that a go. I also seen on johnsonite website they recommend cutting laying flat on the saw deck & tilting your saw rather than mitering it like traditional wood base. That seems to be the ticket.
I had a bunch of wood scraps I tried to Jerry rig a jig... But it's too floppy to do standing up. I monkeyed around with it the last half hour I was there before deciding it's tomorrow's problem.
Got a plan now to knock it out tomorrow...
 
Super gluing your corners makes them amazing too!!

Definitely lay it down flat, it hates to be stood up, if memory serves me correctly I was cutting it all from the face the last time I did it with a 140 tooth 12 inch blade. I also do not do enough of it to justify spending 400 dollars on the cutter, but I do have a buddy that owns one. Can't say he does enough to make it worth owing either, but he has one none the less.
 
Well boy's, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Wrapping up car freshener tomorrow. A couple more rows of lvp, some calk & some millwork base....

That millwork base is a bitch!! I have been using my chop saw to do corners and it's going slow and painful. The friction from the blade melts the base and it's hard to get good looking outside corners.

Any tips for it????
What the hell is millwork base?
 
They didn't mention the tooth profile of the blade.
I got a couple of blades at the Habitat resale store a year and a half or so ago. I'd never seen that tooth profile before. The blades teeth alternate from a flat cut to a kind of pointy shape. They're called a tri-chip blade and I think I have also have heard them called a California tri-cut or tri-chip.
Though these were used blades the cuts are amazing. The pointed part of the tooth takes out a portion of the cut and the flat blade chips out what's left on the edges of the cut. I believe this type of blade is ideal for plastics.
Great video here. His is always good stuff.
 
CJ, that looks beautiful. Good to know courser blades will melt the plastic. I wonder how well it will go with a hand saw and a miter box when I need to cut plastic. LOL.

So, yesterday I felt like absolute garbage. I got dizzy bending down the night before and woke up feeling awful. Sinus headache, stuffy nose, etc. Took meds and slept. Mild cough (mucus coming up) and I had to go to the post office and drop in to see my friend to exchange some tools. While at my friend's house some jerk was speeding and ran over the dog. Didn't even slow down or stop afterward and the poor dog got tumbled and dragged under the truck about 30ft. It's in an area with a lot of kids. The stupid dog did run right out in front of the truck because he wanted to go see some kids across the street. The thud and dog yelping were loud enough the driver should have heard it but he just kept going. The mother of the kids across the street took off after him to chase him down and chew him out. Somehow the dog survived and didn't even have a mark on him but he was absolutely terrified. Wouldn't stop shaking. He ran completely around the house in a full circle before climbing on the porch and hiding under the porch swing. I was petting him trying to calm him down but he was not a happy camper. I hope he didn't get brain trauma from it. My friend just said he's outside barking so he seems to be ok.

The guy who ran the dog over speeds through there all the time and it's not the first time he's run over a dog or cat on that road.

I wore a mask while around people and then had my brother go in to the post office just in case I've got something viral.

Trying to figure out a plumbing code interpretation involving low heel inlet 1/4 bends. Got a bit of a sinus headache and feel nauseous now. I woke up close to midnight after a long nap & started cleaning. Mom got these new sponge sheet things that don't seem to rip like the "magic eraser" crap, they can fit in smaller crevices (like the rim of the electric pressure cooker) and don't collapse like cloth rags. So, I scrubbed the pressure cookers inside & out. Cleaned the counters, and even wiped dust and grime off the cabinets.

Trying to get back to sleep so I can be awake during the day.
 
I'll grab some pics of the dump when I'm done later. Lol
Just kidding. This place is actually very nice inside & out. It's probably the biggest company in my area. They make the little tree car fresheners almost everyone has in their ride. They also own silly string! I do a ton of work in this building and it always gets me looking sideways when I see a group of straight faced chemist's in a group spraying silly string in their lab coats, lol.
I did some sheet vinyl in the testing area about 7 years ago. The way they picked the material is they had about 10 samples leaning on the wall. They then blasted them with silly string. The one that cleaned off the best got picked. 😆

It's mostly suits and chemist's that are in the building so they really don't fuss about paying. They want it nice and they are willing to pay. They also have an amazing maintenance team that is nothing but great to me and the guys.
It doesn't hurt that they send me home with a stack of all the new scents of car fresheners before they hit the Market either!
 
I have the most wonderful aunt in the world. She lives down in Arizona. She my uncle spent their careers in Sitka Alaska, both working at a paper mill. After retirement they moved to Washington, and then later down to Arizona. She always types out a Christmas letter to pass around to family. This year it came with a big fat check in it. It takes a big load off my shoulders this time of year when sometimes people don't want you to mess up their house around Christmas time.
I had a laminate floor repair to do yesterday for the local Carpet One store. A plank had started separating where the long hallway meets the large entryway.
Because of my busy year with larger jobs this job has just been put off and off and off. I guess the lady originally complained almost 2 years ago and I've known about this for almost 1 year.
I took my ratchet straps, two tapping bars and Multi Master, hoping the tongue and groove hadn't broken and that it would be repairable. If not then Carpet One would have to replace the living room, kitchen, dining room, hallway and bathroom.
I took some carpet thread and taped it to the floor in the dining room and then pulled it to the far end of the hallway. I wanted to find out why the floor separated. Halfway down the hallway the planks had bowed 3/8 of an inch. I started tapping and tapping and tapping up and down the hallway slowly getting it to move back into alignment. The separation started moving closer together at the entryway / hallway junction but it would not totally close up. There was a stair nose in that area that I could not tap against. I had a couple pieces of trim with me that I'd used for shims on a wood floor installation a year ago. I put an 1/8 inch bead of hot glue down the center of each piece and stuck them to the floor as tapping blocks. I just keep tapping each one of them over and over and over again and the joint totally closed back up. The locking joint was not broken. Before reinstalling the base in the hallway I put a shim between the planks and the wall so the hallway cannot migrate again. It's locked in place on one side now.
Remember way back in the first chapter where I told you I had this wonderful aunt. I'm getting to that.😁
Since I took the base off the walls to see how big the gap was, I had to reinstall it. I didn't lug my monster compressor over to the job because I didn't know if I could even fix the problem. I live about 4 miles away, so once the floor was fixed, I went home to get my monster Makita compressor and brad nailer. For kicks and giggles I stopped at the tool store. They had an old Makita mini compressor there, still in the box and I asked about why it was discounted. He said it's an old version. The new model was about $40 more. He said actually the discounted one is better than the updated version. They've actually had to send a couple of them back for repairs.
So I bought the discounted one for $179 buckaroos. When I plugged it in you could hardly hear it running. It just purrs. It weighs 25 lb. Oh man, this thing is fantastic.
Merry Christmas to me. 😁
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/MAC100Q
 
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I don't know how well this shows up but in less than 15 ft here's how far my string was off from the planks being bowed.
Here's some other pictures showing the gap and with the tapping blocks and a photo I took of the hallway where it had separated from the large entry.
 

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Christmas was always a lean time of year. You knew there would be few whole house jobs. After the tree was up, no living rooms.
That's a lot of the problem. Even with my brother helping a house would be disrupted longer than I'd prefer. In a way it's good because I can get back to doing these smaller jobs. Over the years my aunt has sent me a couple of other checks. It just takes a huge weight off my shoulders with work being so unpredictable and with me not putting in long hours when I do work.
I also went over to Walmart and bought a Motorola /Straight Talk phone for my brother and I might get a Year's worth of service all at once so I don't have to buy a card every month for it. He's had one of those Obama phones for the last couple years but it's on T-Mobile and he's literally got to walk a mile away from the house to get a teeny, tiny bit of cell coverage. he can't receive or make calls from the house. We're only a mile and a half from town. The Obama phones are kind of like a cell phone you might get in a box of cereal. It's pretty useless. I also ordered some new knee pads, and a pair of timberland work boots to replace the ones I have now. They're the most comfortable and longest lasting shoes I've ever had for work. I'm tempted to buy a new water heater too cuz mine's approaching 20 years old.
 
Highup, it sounds like your aunt is very sweet. My mom had a very sweet aunt who left money to all the nieces and nephews. My mom never did get her portion because of not being able to open some file format on her computer to figure out how to access it. Been well over 15 years now so I don't think she can get it anymore. I actually met that aunt of hers a few time and adored her. She had a great sense of humor.

I barely see or hear from my extended family so I know I won't be getting any sort of $ from any of them if I outlive them. Money is tight for most of them anyway. My father wasn't close to his extended family & his brother is the only surviving relative I know on that side. He's got grandkids so any $ he leaves will go to them. My mom has three sisters and a ton of cousins. One of her aunts, Eileen, had 9 children. But they all live in California area. As an aside, there's an author named John Grinder who writes about neuralinguistics. He's one of the 9 kids. I believe his brother Mark does work for charities for the deaf community & is involved in developing technology to aid them. One of their sisters is deaf so the boys learned about nonverbal communication from an early age.
I need to get off my butt and go pick up my prescriptions. I'm feeling better today. Mostly allergies crudding up my eyes and such.
 

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