This Old Grouse

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

2007-12-12T10:28:00.000-08:00

With the recent undertaking of my most ambitious house project ever, I've decided to resurrect the blog to document the effort....

In a nutshell, we're adding 400 square feet on to the back of the house and then gutting the two bathrooms at the back of the house and turning them into a larger master bathroom and laundry room. A few weeks ago, we had the foundation for the addition poured and I've been slowly working on regrading the ground around the addition and digging out the old brick sidewalk that we discovered in our backyard.

This past weekend, we had a dump trailer delivered and it will be with us for a week. Half of the trailer has already been filled with the remains of the old brick stairs from the back of the house and the left overs of the dirt dug up during the grading process. The same fellow who delivered my trailer already hauled away six cubic yards of dirt that were dug up to pour the foundation.

I have until next Monday to fill the rest of the 24 cubic yard trailer with whatever (lighter) materials I can. So yesterday afternoon, I stripped the old aluminum siding from the back of the house where the addition will go. I'm not throwing the siding away since I can get a few bucks for it from a scrap yard but next I plan on stripping off the very old cypress siding that was underneath it. This old siding is in frighteningly bad shape and I'm trying not to think about the fact that the rest of the house probably looks just as bad under the siding.

About the Inspection...

2006-08-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

From a thank you note from Emmy, the directory of Abeona house:

Picture this: A George Jefferson look-alike grabbing onto both handrails, and jumping up and down on the ramp hollering, "This is the most beautiful wooden ramp I have ever inspected! Thank you!!!!"

Ramping up to Opening Day

2006-08-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I received a call from Emmy, the director of the pre-school we're helping found. Habitat for Humanity was building a massive handicap ramp that the school had to have before it could open. Unfortunately, the Habitat For Humanity work crew ran out of time in their schedule and they needed to turn the project over to the school. They had managed to set all of the posts for the ramp, frame it out, and install about half of the decking. That left installing the remainder of the decking, all of the railings, and a set of stairs adjacent to the ramp.

Because of my remodeling experience with our home, I volunteered to head up the effort to complete the ramp along with a bunch of other volunteers - some parents of kids in the school, some parents of kids hoping to get in the school, and some just friends of the school. This past week I spent every waking moment I could at the school with the exception of the time I was working my real job (and one vacation day I took from that job). While it was a long, tiring week of sweating it out in the Lousiana heat and humidity, it was also a huge strain on Holly who had to watch both kids at home and at the school at times so that she could help watch other volunteers' children.

Somehow, we managed to get the ramp and stairs done in the week if only barely. I spent the last two days setting the stair posts in concrete and framing out the stairs in the brief intervals between thunderstorms. Late last night after I did the last work on the rails some more parents wrapped up the spindles and the project was finally done. Typing the ramp into the porch and building the adjoining stairs has been the most challenging project I've ever completed. I don't think I have ever worked as hard as I have this past week but it feels really good to be done. And even better is that I've just learned that we passed the inspection this morning so we're in the home stretch of getting all the sign-offs we need to open.

The first half of the railing has gone up. Emmy's husband Kevin and I spent two days installing the railings while other volunteers installed all of the spindles. It was a crash course in complicated angle cuts with compond mitre saws that paid off by the time I got to the stairs.

Here I'm installing the last bit of railing on the handicap ramp with the exception of the railing pieces that tie the ramp into the old porch. I put those off until after the stair posts were in place so that I could figure everything out at once.

A shot of the completed ramp looking up to where it turns the corner to head to the back porch of the school. All told, this section is almost 40 feet long.

Here is the section of ramp off of the back porch and the adjoining stairs that the kids will use to down to the play area in back of the house. This section of ramp is a good 18 feet long.

Like Building a Ship in a Bottle

2006-07-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Two days and three trips to Home Depot later, the rail is back in the wall and completely fixed - and I didn't have to punch any holes in the drywall/plaster!!! I've not rehung the panel doors since I want the termite guys to be able to see into the wall cavity. And I also want to give the other door some time to unwarp (its laying flat on the ground with the good door on top, pressing it flat).
Fortunately, the destroyed header was not anchored inside the wall cavity (or the termites ate the anchors out). I was able to remove it completely.
Here is a shot of the old plate, now anchored to two cross-headers that sit on 4 x 4's that were on either side of the destroyed header. These parallel headers are actually beefier than the original one so I'm not worried about their ability to handle the load.

Here is a three foot section of threaded rod attached to the iron rail. I drilled a 4 inch hole in the attic over the void in the wall that I poked the rod through. It went in suprisingly easy given that the rod was 4 feet into the wall and the rail weighs a good 40 pounds. The hardest part was getting all the measurements right for drilling the hole.
Here's the second section of threaded rod joined to the first and then anchored on two cross headers in the attic. The end of the rail now hangs on the rod instead of being slid into a hook hanging from a header. Once the door is hung, there will be a bit of fiddling to get everything level and centered. Then I can toenail in the cross-joists to prevent things from moving. The monster joist behind is one of the two that takes the load of the great room's ceiling since the center wall was removed to make it one big room.
Finally, a shot of the rail in the door frame. It's really solid and I can't wait to put the door back in after the termite guys look at things on Wednesday. I just hope the other door has straightened out.

I Love the Smell of Saws-All in the Morning

2006-07-30T05:16:00.000-07:00

I was up at the crack of dawn today thanks to the alarm cat from hell. So before I hit the shower I decided to cut out more of the beam. I almost made it all the way through it before I ran out of battery power. I should be able to wrap it up this morning.

Just a small bit of the beam left!

A shot of the side of the opening where you can see one of the other beams I hope to rest the cross-beams on.

Pieces of the termite buffet everywhere!

Panel Doors, Round Three

2006-07-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

Since Holly took Will and Kate to Mobile this weekend, I decided to resume work on the second set of panel doors in our house. One of the doors is badly warped after dipping it to remove the paint. I've laid that out on the floor and set the other door on top of it (along with some 5 gallon water containers) in an attempt to flatten it out. The other, more serious problem is that one side of the rail the doors hang from is attached to a wood beam that has been completely eaten away by termites. It is old damage - there is no evidence of active termites in the wood and from what I can tell, the previous people who worked on the house just framed around the dammage when they made our double into a single residence. Just to be safe, I have our termite company coming next week to confirm my diagnosis.

Tonight, I came up with a plan which I hope will let me rehang the rails in the door opening without having to open up the drywall and plaster lathe. I'm using a saws-all to cut out the damage section of the beam through the narrow door opening. It's sort of like playing an incredible filthy version of that kids game named Operation. I have a three inch gap to work through. If I can get enough of the beam out, I hope I can set several pieces of 2 x 4 on top of the beams that run parallel to one that is destroyed. I then plan on reattaching the rail's mounting plate to these new cross beams. This will give me two of the three rail mounting points back - and that should be enough to rehang the doors.

My backup plan is to rehang the rail on 3 foot lengths of threaded rod anchored in the attic. I may even have to do this for just the third mounting point if the first two aren't enough to hold the 150+ pounds of a door. This would involve cutting small access holes in the wall and the difficult task of getting the rod position properly from the attic. So I'm hoping that the third times the charm when it comes to fixing these panel doors.

This is the saws-all next to a four foot section of the destroyed beam that literal fell out of the door frame when I started cutting out the bad section. It's one "face" of the beam and you can see how the termites ate away everything inside of the beam.

This is the bottom of the small section of beam that I cut out - you can see the main hole for the rail's mounting bolt and the two holes on either side for the screws. I removed the iron mounting plate before I cut it out to make sure I did not damage it.

This is a shot up into the door frame that shows the destroyed beam that the doors hang from. The blue tape is marking the exact position of the bolt hole for hanging the rail from. This gives you a bit of idea how small the opening I have to work with (I would hate to have to remove the door trim). I still need to cut out about another 3 inches of depth from the destroyed beam. Unfortunately, my rechargable saws-all battery ran out after the first cuts. I'm going to recharge it (and its spare) tonight and resume the demolition tomorrow morning.

Silly Monkey!

2006-07-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that Will is one of the silliest kids I've ever known. He must get it from his mom...

Signs You Might Be A Geek

2006-07-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

When your desk looks like this...

And your closet looks like this...

Bookshelves Done!

2006-07-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

The bookshelves were actually completed about a week ago but I've been too busy relaxing to post anything on the blog. The week before that I managed to wire the bookshelves with a cable and newtwork connection (for a network printer that we'll eventually get). After that, it was just a matter of priming them, caulking them, and then painting them with two coats. After they dried, Holly and I were able to remove a lot of the clutter from my office by stocking the shelves with our books and supplies.

I'm really pleased with how they came out. I'm now toying with ideas for how I can build a matching desk with more shelves for the other end of the office.

More Progress.....Finally

2006-07-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Holly took the kids to a music class at what will be their new school once it opens. I took advantage of that hour by myself to break out the chop saw and nail gun and install all of the trim on the shelves in my study. I was also able to wire up the outlet in the shelves and install the box for the network hookup. I haven't pulled those wires yet but since the shelves are right next to the wiring closet, it should not be a problem at all. Today I hope to find the time to reinstall the baseboard and door frame.

It is hard to feel sorry for New Orleans....

2006-07-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

....when this is business as usual around here.

I am amazed that the article was even published in the newspaper. Not that anything more will happen to hold these people accountable for their actions.

Shelves Are In!

2006-06-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was able top build and install the third and final section for the bookshelves in my study. Because of how unsquare the walls are and the difficulty in getting the upper sections in around the door frame, I'm not going to try to build them to the ceiling. In the long run, I may build in more storage on top of the shelves, but I'll do it in place like I did over the shower in the front bath.

The next step for the shelves will be to trim them out and install bracing underneath the main bookshelves so they don't bow under the weight of the books. The trimming out of the shelves will have to wait until we get back from the 4th of July in Mobile. The Lowe's in Mobile has a much better stock of select poplar trim boards. So I've been purchasing all of that trim when I can.

Tomorrow Holly and the kids go to Mobile for the long weekend and I'll be joining them late Sunday. In the meantime, I'll be installing colonial moulding and shoe moulding in the kitchen, play room, and hallway. Today I picked up 280 linear feet of the colonial moulding which entailed tieing 20 fourteen foot boards wrapped in blankets to the roof of our station wagon. Fortunately, the lumber yard is only about 4 blocks from our home. I probably would have been better off just walking home with the wood if it had not weighed so much.

Part Two Installed

2006-06-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Exciting post titles, eh? Holly had a friend from high school visit this afternoon so that slowed me down since I was on Will duty. I did manage to do the final coat of paint on the second panel door frame. Right before dinner I also talked one of my unsuspecting neighbors into helping me carry in the second piece of the office shelves. Tonight I took the night off but tomorrow I should be able to build the next set of shelves to go on top.

Part One Installed, Part Two on Deck

2006-06-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

After I wrapped up work for the day, I was able to install the lower shelf unit in my study. This was a major undertaking since I had to remove the baseboards, door, and doorjamb in order to be able to slide the shelves into place. I wanted a tight fit that would make it appear like the shelves were built right in. The door jamb extended over an inch into the room and that would have meant some awkward trimming of the shelves to make them look built in.

After a quick dip in our neighbors pool (they're still not back from Katrina and have invited us to use it when we want) and dinner, I retired to my lair in the outbuilding. There, in the not quite stifling evening heat, I built the second section of the shelves. This section will be for holding books so the shelves aren't quite as deep but will have extra reinforcement to deal with the extra weight. In order to keep the weight managable, I made them not quite as tall as I had originally planned. So at this point it looks like I might need to make two more individual units for what will eventually be the upper cabinets.

Return of the Shelves

2006-06-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the late afternoon in our next door neighbors pool with Will (and Kate sleeping in her car seat on the pool deck), so everyone was bathed before dinner. So after dinner I left Holly to put Will to bed and went to work in our out building our back. Two hours later I had built the bottom unit of what will be built in shelves in my study. We have a nook behind the door and next to the closet in that room that we want shelves in. These are going to be substantially wider than the last shelves I built so I decided to do them in three sections as opposed to two. So tonight I built the bottom section and cut all the shelves for all of the sections along with the sides of the next section. If its not too hot tomorrow or Sunday I hope to build the next section and get started on the third if I can.

And the hard work continues...

2006-06-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Now that Holly and the kids are back home, I've slowed down on the house and am helping out with the kids where I can. Fortunately, I've found that after you've had one kid you're so good that you can take care of the next one even in your sleep.

Getting Up And Dirty

2006-06-12T16:33:00.001-07:00

After basking in the glory of my so-called completed room for the whole morning, today after work I turned my attention to the entrance to what is the kids play room (and what would normally have been the formal dining room). About a month and half ago I pulled out the panel doors and had them stripped. In order to do so, I had to remove the trim around the doors which left a very uneven section of paint where the badly applied oil paint pulled off with the trim.

I had learned from the first set of panel doors just how messy this operation was. Then I spent 3 hours sanding and another 6 hours cleaning dust up from the entire front of the house. So this time I did my best to use plastic sheating to create a little tent to trap the dust.

It actually worked extremely well, except for the small detail that it trapped all the dust and heat right where I was working. So it was like an exfoliating sauna, only not particularly relaxing.

Done! *

2006-06-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

* For some arbitrary definition of done.

Yesterday I wrapped up the painting in the front room and moved all the furniture back in. So the room is essentially done. I still need to hang some window treatments on our second front door. And this afternoon, I need to sand down the other panel door opening so that I can rehang the panel doors once we get the rollers back from the machine shop. It is going to be a really dusty process so Holly and the kids are staying away until tomorrow. I'm hoping that I can use tape and plastic sheating to create a tent to contain the dust. I'll definitely take pictures of whatever I come up with since I'm sure it will be crazy.

Must See TV

2006-06-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

While painting last night, I watched the Stanley Cup. After that was over, I was flipping channels for something else to watch. As luck would have it, I came across some of the best television I have ever seen. It was Great Performances on our local public broadcasting station and in particular, an episode called Operatunity.

Given our country's (myself included) ongoing obsession for American Idol, I found Operatunity to be incredibly more than just a singing competition. It a little bit of Brassed Off and Little Voice, only it was real and so much more moving.

I don't know if or when PBS plans on rebroadcasting the episode, but it is worth looking out for.

Cream De La Cream

2006-06-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

Over the last two days, I've completed the two coats of trim paint and the first of two coats of wall paint. So tomorrow all I have left is a second coat of wall paint (cut-in and rolling). I tried to push on and start the second cut-in coat tonight but quickly ran out of steam.

A few people have e-mailed me asking about my painting technique so here's a quick overview. Basically, I don't tape the edges nor do I put down drop clothes. Particularly in our old house with lots of "interesting" drywall joints along the baseboard, I've found that I get a cleaner edge doing the cut-in by hand. After the trim is all painted, I do the cut-in freehand. Once it dries, I then tape up newspaper to cover the baseboards from any incidental splatter from rolling the walls.

Since these pictures were taken late at night with the flash, its hard to see how creamy the color really is. One of my neighbords described it a luscious - it really has some nice depth to it. The flash also emphasizes that the white of our vinyl shutters doesn't match the trim paint but thats not very obvious by normal light. We haven't painted the two front doors yet since we're hoping to be able to dip them and reveal the cyprus wood like we did for the panel doors.

Things Have To Get Worse....

2006-06-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

...before they can get better. After working a short day today, I moved all of the furniture in the great room off of the walls and into the center of the room. I then completed the shoe moulding in the front room. It took me 30+ minutes to get out all of the tools (nail gun, chop saw, coping saw, etc.), about 10 minutes to do the actual work, and 20 more minutes to put all the tools away. After that I primed the spots that weren't primed before and now I'm taking a break for the primer to dry. Then I can caulk the shoe moulding and start painting the trim.

Score Two for Holly

2006-06-09T06:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Holly made two awesome finds on Craig's List. The first was a lightly used set of Pottery Barn crib linens for free - the very same pattern we're using for Kate's crib. The second was a great art easel along with paper, paint jars, and brushes for a really great price. Holly found them both yesterday, bought them, and had me pick them up in the late afternoon. Awesome finds from my awesome wife!

Creamed...

2006-06-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

After painting the shelves in the kids' room, I moved on to the front room. There I did the second and final coat of trim paint on the front wall and did the first coat of cut-in on two of the walls. After that I emptied out the entertainment center (except for the TV) and the bookshelves that go with it. Today I get to move those pieces and install the shoe moulding behind them. Then I can prime that last few sections of the walls and start painting the trim.

One thing off the list, finally...

2006-06-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work I completed the last coat of paint on the monster shelves. They're finally done and they look great. Well, they're done until I finally get around to putting a door on the upper two openings. All that is left for that room is moving in some furniture and scraping paint off of the transom window. And the lower closet doors - we're either going to paint them or replace them with a curtain.

Home Again, Home Again

2006-06-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

I'm back in New Orleans without Holly and the children in order to wrap up some of the rennovations I was working on before going to Mobile prior to Kate's birth. It feels good to be back in the city but there are a lot of mixed signals I'm seeing in regards to the recovery.

In the month or so I've been gone, our yard has gotten out of control again (despite the best efforts of our boarder Alex). I'm doing my best to ignore it and focus on the work that needs to be done inside since it will be next to impossible to do once we have the kids in the house. So today after work I did the first of two coats of paint on the shelves in the kids room and then painted a couple of walls' worth of trim in the great room. Alex also helped me move the piano and some other pieces of furniture so if all goes well, I'll be able to starting rolling paint on at least one of the walls tomorrow after work.

Introducing Kate...

2006-05-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

First pictures for everyone who has been asking. The birth story and many more pictures will be coming soon from Holly. After we sleep. :-)

Afternoons with Will

2006-05-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm relaxing in Mobile, I've been able to spent the late afternoons with Will. We usually go outside so he can ride his bike and I can try to ride my unicycle. We also invariably spend some time juggling and mowing the grass with his new bubble-mower.

Rumours of my demise...

2006-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

...are greatly exagerated. After reaching my limit of painting, I did manage to wrap things up and complete the ceiling in the great room. I also put together the kids room - all that is left is to move some more furniture and do a final coat of paint on the shelves (and paint the lower closet doors if we don't put up curtains).

Hitting the Wall

2006-04-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

So I hit the wall this evening - and not with paint. After dinner I managed to do the first coat of trim paint on the kids' bedroom window, transom, and closet doors. I then moved on to the first coast of trim paint on the great room trim. The first sign that I had enough was that I just couldn't stomach the thought of painting another window. So skipped the inside of the window and just painted the frame since that was all I needed done in order to do the cut-in of the wall paint.

But 5 minutes later as I was starting on the first of our two doors, I realized that I had hit my limit. It wasn't that I was physically worn out - I'm sore, but in the good "I've had a good workout" kind of way. It was that mentally I'd had all that I could take and no amount of good music to listen to or hockey on the TV could keep me going. I managed to push myself through the door, one front window and the baseboard in that half of the room and then called it a night.

So I'm at the point where I'm going to wrap up my big push. Before I leave for Mobile, I need to at least get the last coat of ceiling paint done in the great room. And I should try to do the final coat of trim paint in the kids' room (leaving the shelves unpainted though). That's all I'm going to try and accomplish tomorrow. The rest of the time I'll focus on work, packing up, and taming the yard. With those few things done, I can at least return the house to a semi-normal state for our boarder Alex while we're gone.

After the kid arrives and we've started to adjust to our new two kid reality, I can consider a weekend trip back to N.O. to wrap up some of the projects. There really isn't that much work left but its definitely too much for me to take on right now.

The Ceiling Is The Limit

2006-04-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

This morning my body was one giant ache so I took the morning off and worked my regular job. This afternoon I primed the walls of the great room and then did the cut in and first coat of paint on the ceiling.

I also took a bit of time and started cleaning up all the tools and construction supplies I won't be using before I go to Mobile. One thing I had to deal with was the many sections of 16 foot quarter round I had painted. It was sitting in the middle of the kitchen and making it hard to use the kitchen. Since its so long, it will only fit in the kitchen or living room of the house. I didn't want to store it in our out building since it would get dirty of there. So I finally ended up putting it up on top of a couple of our kitchen cabinets. It looks funny but at least it is out of the way until I can get back to installing it.

Prime Opportunity

2006-04-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

I realize these aren't the most exciting posts in the world. I'm making them to keep Holly abreast of all the work I'm doing while she and Will are in Mobile. Unfortunately, it means that I also have the camera so you're not getting the regular pictures of our cute kid. Instead you get an endless progression of shots of paint drying. Exciting, eh?

Tonight I primed the ceiling and all of the doors and windows. It took a lot out of me to get it done but it means that I can do the first coat on the ceiling tomorrow morning and then start on the two coats of trim paint I need to do before I can do the cut in on the walls.

At some point in the middle of all that, I'm going to switch gears to putting together the kids' room - I have a crib and bed to put together and then I can move in a bunch of furniture. I also need to complete the painting in there if I can. I'm hoping I can do that painting at the same time I paint the trim in the great room.

A Change of Scenery

2006-04-23T16:07:00.001-07:00

Today I did the final coat of green in the kids' room and touched up the ceiling. I still need to do more coats of trim paint on the shelves, window, and transom but I can do that as I have time over the next few days.

This afternoon, I moved on to the living room where I moved out as much furniture as I could and I did the cut-in on the walls and baseboard using the primer. Tonight I roll the primer on the walls and ceiling as well as prime the windows and door frames.

Tomorrow morning, I can then do the first coat of paint on the ceiling (we're using the same color paint as the walls) and paint the trim. Tomorrow night or Tuesday morning I'll then be able to do the final coat on the ceiling and first coat on the walls.

Rub A Dub Dub

2006-04-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

We had our clawfoot tub in the master bathroom refinished over the last few weeks. When we bought the house from the bank, they had done the bare minimum to make things look systematically ok. In the case of the tub, this meant that it was painted with a high gloss household paint. This obviously would not have held up to any kind of use so we wanted a more durable finish. Holly found a local fellow who does a spray on silica based coating.

So two weeks ago, I went ahead and stripped the paint off of the tub - and prompty discovered that the bank had patched the dings with wood filler! Todd, our tub guy came in a properly patched up the holes and completed the spraying this afternoon. The results are tremendous and I can't wait to finally get to use the tub.

Let The Green Times Roll

2006-04-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

Second coat of the cut-in and first coat of the wall paint. And I only have two green spots on the ceiling to touch up so far.

It's Not Easy Painting Green

2006-04-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning doing the final coat of trim paint on everything except the interior of the shelves (I'm going to paint those tonight). I also installed the recessed light trim and re-installed the smoke alarm and vent cover. After lunch I did the first coat of cut in of the wall paint. It was a very tedious process and took me almost 4 hours to do everything but I'm very happy with how it came out. It's hard to see how clean the lines are in the picture since the reflections from the camera flash on the white trim obscure things.

Tonight I'm going to work on painting the shelves, the window, and the transom over the door (and maybe the upper closet doors). Tomorrow morning I'll do the second cut in of the wall color - it will go much more quickly since I don't have to paint right up to the edge. Then I'll tape newspaper up to protected the baseboards from paint splatter and roll the first coat of wall paint. Sunday morning I'll be do the final coat of wall paint and final shelf painting. In between all that, I'm going to try and sneak in as much work in the great room as I can.

More Room Pictures

2006-04-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

Going Off Half Caulked

2006-04-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

So it was a long day, and I'm having trouble coming up with catchy titles day after day. Other than my work's weekly status call this afternoon, I spent the entire day working on the kids' bedroom. First thing in the morning, I did the second (and last) coat on the ceiling. I then cut all the monster quarter round for the baseboards and painted the cut ends of it. While waiting for that to dry, I did the first coat of trim paint cut in on the shelving unit. Then I installed the quarter round, filled the nail gun holes, and caulked everything that needed it. Finally, this evening I did the first coat of white trim paint on everything.

Tomorrow morning my plans are to do the second coat of trim paint in the room and while I'm waiting for that to dry, I will start installing the quarter round in the front room. Tomorrow afternoon and evening I should be able to do the first cut in of the walls in green. I may even get to roll the first coat of paint. I'll just be happy to be painting something other that white for a change.

White is the New Beige

2006-04-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

After working my real job all morning, I had a productive afternoon. After lunch I ran out and picked up enough colonial moulding for the kids' room. After that I managed to paint the ceiling and paint the first coat of trim paint on the quarter round (which I primed last night). Once the sun started to go down and it cooled off a bit outside, I installed the moulding in the room.

I had hoped to paint the second coat on the ceiling tonight but in the evening the recessed lights make it too difficult to see where you're painting. So I'll complete the ceiling first thing tomorrow morning. Which leaves me spending the rest of the evening filling the nailgun holes in the trim and caulking where needed. If I have time, I'll do the second coat on the quarter round so I can install it tomorrow morning.

Oh yeah, I also did the cut in with the white trim paint on the uppermost shelf (just to use up the paint I had already poured into a cup). If you look closely at the picture, you see the edges already look much whiter.

One Last Thing Tonight

2006-04-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

After wrapping up the trim in the great room this evening, I decided not to push myself and work on the ceiling in the bedroom. Instead I took care of mundane things - laundry, dishes, putting tools away, etc. After that, I spent an hour or so priming all the quarter round moulding for the bedroom and great room. Now I'll be able to paint it with the trim paint at the same time I do the bedroom.

The only downside to this is that I'll now be sleeping on Will's mattress in the kitchen. So no falling asleep to the warm glow of the television tonight.

Before and After, Colonial Style

2006-04-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

When we purchased our house, all of the trim around the doors and windows was simple boards with no details. While it was a nice clean look, it was missing that something extra you would expect in a historic home. As we visited other homes in New Orleans, I noticed that many of the nicer ones had an edge detail on the door and window frames. I soon learned that this was called "colonial" moulding and was available at our local lumber yard.

I picked some up today while I had my neighbor's truck and originally intended to just store it in the out building until I had a chance to install it. However, since I'm getting ready to prime and paint all of the trim for the kids' bedroom, I decided to go ahead and install it so that I could paint it at the same time.

The before and after pictures don't really do it justice - the little extra detail the edge trim gives the framing around our doors and windows really makes the room much more elegant looking.

Odds and Ends

2006-04-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

This morning when I woke up, my body told me in no uncertain terms that I need to take it easy or I would end up sick. So I made a deal with it - it got me through the early morning chores of picking up two panel doors from the strippers and a bunch of trim from the lumber yard. In return, I took the late morning and afternoon off and worked my real job. I'm now feeling much better and I am planning on a productive evening of working on priming the quarter round for our floors and also painting the ceiling in the kids' room.

In the Nick of Prime

2006-04-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

This morning I did all the cut in on the walls and doors for the primer. I took the afternoon off to clean up the house and start packing up what I'll need for my stay in Mobile. I even snuck in a 1 hour nap since I was up so late last night.

This evening I then rolled all the primer onto the shelves, ceiling, and walls. The lighter color makes the room look much larger so I can't wait to get the final color up on the walls. I've arranged to borrow a neighbors truck tomorrow morning so I'll spend the early morning picking up two of our panels doors from the paint strippers and, if time allows, also getting the shoe and colonial moulding for the bedroom and front room.

Tomorrow afternoon I hope to be able to install some of the molding and start painting the shelves and trim with the first coat of the white trim paint. If time allows, I'll also do the first coat of white ceiling paint as well.

Prime Time

2006-04-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is what three and a half tedious hours of priming gives you. I did all of the cut in on the shelves and the ceiling. Tomorrow morning I will roll primer on to both the shelves and ceiling. After that I'll move on to priming the window, door frames, and the walls.

Y.A.S.P. (Yet Another Shelf Post)

2006-04-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

Day 5 of working on the shelves and they're finally ready for paint. This morning I installed the baseboards around them. I then caulked and filled in the nail gun holes. I followed that with lots of sanding and even more vacuuming and damp wiping to get rid of all the dust. This evening I've just now off the area and hope to apply the first coat of primer tonight.

I did at least take the afternoon off to play some unicyle polo since it was Alex's last game before he heads up to work at Hershey Park (as a professional juggler/dancer/entertainer) for the summer. After that I spent the early evening getting our master bedroom and bath cleaned up for the other Alex (our boarder) since he'll be using that room while I rennovate the kids' bedroom (I'm sleeping in the front room for a few days).

Shelves, Day 4

2006-04-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

I took a few days off of my woodworking towards the end of this last week to help watch Will in the afternoons so Holly had more of a chance to rest and pack for her transition to Mobile until the baby is born. After driving back from Mobile this morning, I finally got back to the shelves after lunch today. I completed the siding and trimmed out the front with poplar 1" x 2" boards. Now all that is left is to reinstall the 12" baseboards and the 1 1/4" quarter round toe moulding.

You can also see the paint colors we were considering for the room. We're going with the darker of the two green colors and white trim. The shelves themselves will be white as well.

Day Three of the Monolith

2006-04-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

Will had a late nap today so I only had a small window of time between his nap and dinner (and I actually woke him up from his nap when I tried to get an earlier start). I managed to anchor the shelves to the wall and put on the lower sheet of 1/2" MDF to cover up the screw holes and carry the side of the shelves all the way to the back wall (hiding the fireplace bumpout). It was a lot of tedious work but I'm pleased with the fit to the wall - I should be able to caulk the remaining gap and paint over it with no problems.

Tomorrow I hope to find time to complete the siding. After that I'll probably hold off on the trim work until the weekend when our boarder, Alex, is out of town. The detail work will involve a bunch of sanding so I'll want to take the bed out of the room first.

Woodworking, Phase 2

2006-04-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday I talked an innocent neighbor into helping me carry the bookshelf into the kid's bedroom. It was almost too much for the two of us to carry. After it was over, Holly thanked him with some Black Moons (chocolate cake cookies with marshmellowy filling) so hopefully he'll still talk to us after the experience.

Sunday morning I built the upper unit which will eventually have a set of cabinet doors on it and be used for longer term storage. Both units have been moved into the corner and I'll be working on fastening them to the wall tonight. This afternoon my father-in-law was in town (came along for Holly's baby shower) and he helped me pick up the sheets of wood I'll need for the facing and also the set of bookshelves to go in my new study.

The fit into the corner in the bedroom has been fun. Nothing in this old house is square so I've designed the exposed side of the shelves to actually cover up the little bumpout for the fireplace. The wall slopes so far back over its twelve foot height that the top shelf unit is actually 1 1/2 inches deeper than the bottom one. On the left side, the closet wall was so off of square at the back that I had to cut out a huge chunk of drywall for the upper unit to fit into place.

Despite all the fun issues fitting the shelves, I'm still incredibly pleased with how they're turning out. Hopefully I'll be just as happy after installing the side panel (which needs to be scribed to a very wavy wall).

Mardi Gras

2006-04-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

Holly and I like to say that Mardi Gras in New Orleans is not what you see on "Cops" (the TV show). This is what it is. And more importantly, this is what it is to have lived in New Orleans this past year.

Basic Woodworking

2006-04-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

As part of our mad scramble to get some of the rooms of the house together before Kate arrives, I've agreed to have a go at some basic wood-working projects. The first one is a monster shelf unit for what will be the kid's bedroom. The room has a funny little corner where a bumpout for the back of a fireplace meets the closet. This space has always been dead space in the room and Holly had the great idea of building shelves into it so that it could be used for something.

So this morning I armed myself with my newly purchased table-saw and a ton of advice from my boss and friend (an avid wood-worker, and also named Paul as a cool person should be :-) and I built an 8ft tall bookshelf unit for the corner out of two 4' x 8' sheets of MDF plus 8 precut 16" x 48" MDF shelves.

I must have had some serious beginner's luck working in my favor, since I am thrilled with the way they turned out. The build was not too complex - since the unit is going to be built in to the room I didn't have to worry about visible screws on the sides. The hardest part has been dealing with the weight - all told, it probably weighs around 200 pounds.

Tonight we're hoping to conscript a couple of our neighbors to help me carry the unit inside and slide it into the corner. Once it is anchored there, I will add a sheet of MDF on the visible side to hide the screws and have it flush to the wall (hiding the weird edge from the fireplace bumpout). Then all that will be left to do will be trimming out the face edges with some 1" x 2" poplar to give it a more finished look. And painting of course.

More pictures to come one the unit is inside.

Lights In for the House, Lights Out for Me

2006-04-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks of long work hours and non-stop work on the house finally caught up with me Saturday night. I crashed hard and ended up sleeping away most of Sunday. I still crummy today but I'm at least well enough to sit in front of a computer for the moment.

The last thing I did Saturday night before passing out in my bed was install the last of the recessed lights in what is now going to be the kid's playroom. That makes a total of 31 recessed lights that I've installed (along with two speaker cutouts). And I hope I never have to do any more.

Our home's ceilings are drywall over plaster backed with lathe so cutting the 6" hole for each light is an ordeal that can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours per light, depending on what's behind it in the attic. Our master bedroom's four lights were the worst - there was a 2"x8" in between the rafters and it took me a whole weekend to drill out the holes. My cordless drill battery is only good for 20 minutes of constant use and swapping to the spare battery got me another 20 minutes. The batteries would get so hot that I'd have to put them in the freezer before I could recharge them.

And drilling the holes was half the battle - after the lighting cans were installed in the ceiling, I then had to wire everything up in the attic. That generally meant spending an hour or so (per room) on my stomach in 100 years worth of dust and cellulose (thank goodness it wasn't fiberglass) insulation. Wearing a dust mask helped a bit with the dust but nothing could help with the heat in our attic (over 110+ in the summer/fall).

So now all that is left, is the two-person job of permanently securing the cans into the ceiling. The clips they come with are designed for 1/2" drywall, not the 1 1/2" of ceiling materials we have. So instead I have to screw through the cans into wooden blocks and assistant holds up in the cieling. In the past Holly's dad was been the (un)willing assistant but I'm hoping to press our boarder, Alex, into service this time.

Hopefully I'll dig up some pictures of the process shortly though I'm sure you've heard more than you ever wanted to hear about installing recessed lights.

Some Before Pictures...

2006-03-26T20:07:00.000-08:00

Cleaning up my computer this evening, I found some pictures taken right after we purchased the house and before we moved in. Hard to believe how much its changed in the 18 months we've lived here.

Urban Archeology

2006-03-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

One of my recent projects has been to finally clean up our backyard. When we bought our home, the yard in back of the house had a wheelchair ramp and two massive planter boxes surrounded by overgrown grass. Since then, we've mostly ignored the yard except for fixing the fence destroyed by Katrina and removing the two pine trees knocked over as well.

This past week I finally got around to removing the planter boxes and using the treated lumber along side the house. When the new house was built in the empty lot next door to us, they created a bunch of runoff problems which jeopardized our foundation piers. So I've been constructing boxes along the side of our home and filling them with earth to create what is essentially a miniature levee to redirect our neighbors runoff away from our home.

Once the boxes were removed, we decided to move the really great soil from them to the side of the yard and create a little garden in front of our new neighbors tall fence. However, when I started digging out the grass for where the garden was going to go, I hit bricks about 4 inches down in the dirt.

It turns out that at least 1/3 of our backyard contains a buried brick sidewalk that dates back to when the homes were first constructed (between 1890 and 1900). We're not sure why the bricks are where there are in our yard but our best guess is that the house that was originally in the empty lot (first one built on the block) was probably built at the back and the bricks in our yard were part of an alley or street used to make deliveries to the home.

So we've changed our plans and are now exposing all the bricks and we're going to use that area as a patio. There is a small strip of space between them and the fence and we're going to make that the garden. To section that area off, I've been making a brick wall out of the bricks leftover from the ones I dug up from the other side of the house when we're salvaging bricks for the front steps we had to build.

Mardi Gras Photos

2006-03-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

Things have been absolutely crazy at work recently leaving me without much free time for the blog. And what little time I've taken off has been for Mardi Gras. Here are a bunch photos from a few of this year's parades.

Back in the States

2006-02-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

We're back in Mobile, Alabama after our overnight flight via Houston. Overall, the trip home went relatively smoothly - Will was an absolute champ compared to the whiney brat who spent six hours kicking the backs of our seat on the flight from Lima. Holly is coming down with something so she showered and has crawled into bed for a nap before our appointment with the midwife this afternoon.

I'm fresh out of the shower myself too and trying to figure out how to deal with our latest computer crisis - the power supply to Holly's laptop has gone missing. We're sure we packed it and I vaguely remember seeing it when the security guy in the Lima airport went through the bag it was in (to verify that my electric razor wouldn't turn on in mid-flight). When we got to Mobile and starting unpacking, we discovered a TSA inspection notice in the bag and now we can't find the power supply. Coincidence? I think not.

Since Holly's laptop is now my one lifeline to my work stuff (since my laptop died), I'm scrambling to find a replacement for it. We can't afford wait to get one from eBay so I've been doing some sleuthing and think I can get a generic power adapter from BestBuy. Either way, it looks like I'll probably be driving back to New Orleans tonight or first thing tomorrow morning just so I can back on my main work machine and not have to use up the vacation time we're trying to save for when Katherine is born.

All in all, its good to be home but we're also really sad at having to leave all the wonderful new friends we've made in Lima. Coming home to New Orleans is bittersweet since we don't think we'll be there much longer at all.

YAMM (Yet Another Monkey Moment)

2006-02-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Just Like His Old Man

2006-02-10T18:09:00.001-08:00

Will shows he has a future in home improvement too.

No Escaping Household Projects

2006-02-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I ended up replacing the doorbell unit in the house we're staying in. The owner of the house offered to have an electrician come by and do it but it was just easier to take care of it myself. It also gave me a chance to check out the local hardware store.

Trivial Peru-suit

2006-02-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

Some odds and ends about life in Lima, Peru:

Household power is 220 volts (i.e. twice that of the U.S.) and the local plugs are round pegs. However most of the receptacles are cleverly designed to allow U.S. style plugs to be used as well. The few electronics we brought with us (laptops, camera charger, my razor, etc.) all work on 220 volts with no adapters required.
Almost all construction is done with concrete and bricks. The main building structure is concrete with rebar and bricks are used for the walls, floors, and ceilings. A plaster-like mortar is then used to finish coat everything. Details like crown molding and trim are done with this mortar. Wood is pretty much only used for door frames and the occasional rooftop structure in the more affluent homes.
Wrought iron is everywhere - gates, fences, windows, and security doors. The quality of it is not to the standard of the historic stuff we have in front of our home in New Orleans, but it lasts well in this incredibly dry climate.
In the middle to upper-class homes and apartments we've been in, flooring materials are almost always tile or wood (parquet). We've seen ads for places for rent that have carpeting but I can't imagine keeping it clean in this dusty environment. Carpeting is probably almost only in the most upscale places that feature air conditioning.
Trash service in our neighborhood is every day of the week except Sunday. You put your trash out on the curb after 8:30 PM and a truck usually comes by no later than 11:00 PM. Supposedly you can get fined for putting out your trash earlier but I routinely see bags out after 6:00 PM.
People sweep our street every two or three days. Our neighborhood is swarming with street sweepers in orange safety vests and dust masks. They do an excellent job of keeping things generally clean (much more so than in New Orleans, even pre-Katrina). Again, we're in a really nice neighborhood so I'm sure it gets more attention than many of the others.
We have a gas stove that is fueled via a propane tank, not unlike a grill. In an earthquake prone area, this makes a lot of sense particularly since there is no need for gas heating like there is in the U.S. Our house has electric space heaters in every room for the cool winter days. You can get propane tanks delivered just by calling a company - we haven't had to call yet so I don't know the price.
Our water heater is electric and very small (about half the size of a U.S. water heater). From what I can tell, it may be an instant heat one where it just heats up the water as it comes through (rather than maintaining a bunch of water at a hot temperature like the water heaters we use). To augment the water heaters, most places have huge black tanks on their roofs that take advantage of solar heating to preheat the water.
We have yet to see a dishwasher here - even in the few upscale places we've seen in person and online. I don't know if its because of their excessive water usage or energy requirements. Most clothes washers I've seen are front loaders which are much more efficient in terms of water usage. We also have a dryer but many people in our neighborhood just rely on clotheslines.
I have a theory that you can tell the age of a house/apartment by the type of conspicuous security measures it has. The really old places do not have much more than iron bars on the first floor windows and doors (and sometimes on the uppers floors too). Places from the years of a lot of violence will have fences with sharp stakes and/or electricified fences). Modern construction tends to just have tall fences without the threatening embellishments. I have done any research to confirm this theory - its just my general impression from walking around.

Las Islas Ballestas

2006-02-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

There really aren't words that can describe the experience of boating around these little islands. The sites, the sounds, and even the smells (of guano) are all incredible. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Will Trips Out

2006-02-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

As Holly promised you, here are some pictures of Will "watching music" as he puts it. He loves it when I fire up iTunes and play a podcast with the visualizations (i.e. trippy graphics) turned on.

It's the small things that get you....

2006-02-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry for not posting any updates recently. Work has been incredibly busy for me - I'm deep into a bunch of really cool software development so its been hard to switch gears back to writing English instead of code (not to mention speaking Spanish). But my time has also been wasted trying to resolve a bunch of little things - it's been like death by a thousand paper cuts. Some of these have included:

Our last purchase of Skype minutes for calling out to people didn't go through. Our credit card was charged by the Skype's processing company (MoneyBookers) but the credit never showed up in our Skype account. Skype's customer service claimed it wasn't their problem and that I needed to contact MoneyBookers. MoneyBookers never answered my e-mails to their customer service department and for some reason, Skype has their customer service numbers blocked so I couldn't call them. And even if I could have called them, I didn't have the credits in Skype to do so. This finally got resolved today after I had to spend much time making a royal pain in the ass of myself in Skype's customer forums.
It took me two days to get the final installment of the rent on our house in Peru wired. Between a dodgy network connection and USAA Federal Savings Bank's customer service hours not really being what the claim on their web site, it took two days of calling to get this resolved. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I'm now certain to be on some watch list for some shadowy U.S. intelligence agency. I am now a U.S. citizen that called from Peru to wire money from a U.S. bank to an account in a Indonesia that belongs to an English citizen.
Finally, I'm still in an ongoing struggle to get reimbursed for Will's daycare post-Katrina from our dependent care flexible spending account (FSA). We had started the account when my company merged with SAIC to cover his costs at Newcomb this fall. Once the storm hit and Newcomb was flooded, we requested that our contributions to this account be stopped since we were not sure if we'd have a change to even use the money already in the account. When we returned to New Orleans two months later, we were fortunate enough to find another pre-school for Will and we submitted their bill for reimbursement from our FSA. It was rejected because stopping our contributions resulted in us being considered to be no longer enrolled in the FSA. Even though the FSA is supposed to cover any expense in the calendar year, we're now finding we're being denied access to our own money. Fortunately, I have an awesome HR representative from my company batting for me on this one so there is hope yet.

Taken singly, none of these is all that major (except maybe for the last one) but dealing with them all together has just been a royal pain. I'm looking forward to getting away for a long weekend this coming weekend and doing my best to not thing about all the work stacking up.

The Straw That Broke Our Backs

2006-01-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

To add insult to injury, it now looks like tax millages are going to go way up because of the unfair and uneven way tax assessments have been adjusted post-Katrina. Which means our tax burden is likely to grow considerably. Earlier we were on the fence about what do with our home in New Orleans but now it is clear that it is time to sell and leave the city. This makes us incredibly sad since we'll miss our absolutely tremendous neighbors and the great culture and urban living. The only question is now is whether or not we sell immediately or try and hold out until August when we'll have been in the home two years and don't have to worry about the taxes on our home appreciation.

I am slowly starting to understand the federal government's lack of desire to help Louisiana. It seems like everything in this state is being done ass-backwards and while everyone knows it, absolutely no one is willing or able to work towards fixing it (in fact, there are many who take pride in it.) I too would be reluctant to give to a city begging for money with one hand while the other hand actively works to make is tax structure even more uneven, unfair, and biased towards the wealthiest few.

I wish I could say it is a battle we could stay and fight but at this point, I feel like the only true vote we have is with our feet. We are incredibly lucky that we are in both an economic aland logistical positions where we can chose to leave the city. Not that city has made it so that we could afford to stay if we really wanted...

Larcomar at Night

2006-01-27T05:18:00.000-08:00

Last night we went out to a Mangos cafe in Larcomar with Gwen and both kids in tow. We had an excellent dinner - my risotto with mushrooms and blue cheese was tremendous. On the way back home I stopped to take several shots of the city in the early evening. For some reason I always seem to have more luck with night time photography. In the last two pictures, the cluster of white umbrellas on the cliff edge is where we had dinner.

Because My Mom Asked...

2006-01-23T14:10:00.000-08:00

Here are more pictures of Will to satisfy his adoring fans (I'm not deluding myself with any thoughts that anyone actually reads this blog to see pictures of me). This afternoon, I was able to wrap up work a little early and spend some time playing on the rooftop terrace with Will. Here are some of the best shots from that session. And you'll note that while I was able to get him to wear a helmet while riding his tricycle, I was not able to convince him of the necessity of pants.

A Few From The Zoo

2006-01-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

Holly has already blogged about our trip to the zoo so I won't say much more than "these are a few of my favorite pictures from the zoo."

Walk Around Miraflores

2006-01-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

Friday afternoon Will and I had a little stroll around Miraflores while Holly cooked dinner. We went up the coast a bit to Lover's Park and then came back through the neighborhood. Here are some shots I took along the way.

Taxes, Revisited.....

2006-01-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

This has me thinking that maybe I need to run for office so that I too can get my home way undervalued and my property taxes reduced. We pay over $400/month in property taxes on our home now which is about what we were paying in Ann Arbor. But at least in Ann Arbor we had a great school system, great public services, and some faith that everyone's property value assessment was fair. Its a very interesting exercise to look at the properties for sale in New Orleans and check out their tax assessments. Granted, once the houses are sold they'll be taxed at their sale value. However, its amazing the number of homes that are selling for way more than our house is worth but whose current tax assessment is just a fraction of ours.

Some examples:

Our home is on Jospeh St (you can look it up by my last name but I don't want to give the address on the public blog). We purchased it for $329,000 and its appraised value post-Katrina is now $284,000. This translates roughly into $4,800 a year in taxes depending on what the millage rates are set at (and includes our homestead exemption).

1923 Octavia Street is selling for $775,000. It's appraised value is $158,600 which means that (assuming the owners live there and get a homestead exemption), they are paying roughly 3 times less taxes this year than we will be but their house is worth twice what ours is.

1935 Octavia Street is selling for $999,000. It's appraised value is now $240,000 which means they are paying about 2/3 the taxes we are (assuming homestead exemption again). What's even worse, is that last year the house was appraised at $400,000 which is what it sold for in 2003. So somehow their assessor saw fit to say that the home was impacted enough by Katrina that its value is only 60% of what it was before (and it definitely did not flood). If this was truly the case, how is that its now on the market at just under a million dollars? For reference, our appraised value came down around 12% due to the storm.

427 Arabella is selling for $495,000 though, to be fair, it has been on the market a long time and is not selling at this price. It's appraised value is now $110,400 (it was $125,600 before Katrina) which means the owners are paying roughly one fifth the taxes we're paying.

I really do love New Orleans, but its looking less and less likely we'll be there any longer than we have to be for Holly to get her degree. I'm blessed with the ability to work from almost anywhere I want and that makes it hard to rationalize paying $400/month in taxes plus $400/month in insurance (property & car), and still have to shell out at least $8,000 a year for my child to go to a decent school.

Night Time In The City

2006-01-17T20:08:00.000-08:00

Late evening in the city is my favorite time. The air is cool and the city has settled into a noisy yet peaceful slumber in the soft glow of its own light. Tonight there is an almost full moon peeking through the low clouds that roll in from the ocean. I can hear snatches of Spanish and German drifting up from the patio of one of the nearby homes.

Wynton Marsalis for Mayor of New Orleans

2006-01-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

This is the speech that our illustrious mayor should have given.

Juggling Practice

2006-01-17T13:14:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for the new year and for this trip in particular has been to make more time to practice my juggling. Here are a few shots of me fooling around on the roof top of our house on a nice afternoon this past weekend. And yes, I know I make funny faces when I juggle...

Pictures From Our Three Day Weekend

2006-01-17T05:30:00.000-08:00

We spent a great extended weekend exploring the city a bit more. On Saturday, we had a great lunch with Holly's professor and several other students here in the beautiful neighborhood of Barranco. Afterwords, we wandered around the neighborhood and let Will play in some of the parks. Here are some pictures we took of the area. It is a strong candidate for where we want to live when we return here.

My Home Away From Home

2006-01-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a shot of the office I'm using in the house were renting in Lima, Peru. It's a little room about 6' x 8' tucked off of the master bedroom. It has doors into the master bedroom and another out to the patio where we hang our laundry to dry (and where the stairs to the rooftop terrace are). Its a wonderful, private location for getting work done. Though if this were my house, I'd build an office up on the roof (attached to the extra full bathroom that is already up there) so that I'd have a nice view and get more of the wonderful ocean breeze.

2006-01-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

By virtue of having the card reader on her laptop, Holly always gets first dibs on the pictures we've been taking in Peru. However, I'm going to put up one of my favorites I like to call "I can't believe you're making me do this". This is a picture of Holly holding up the travel bug we picked up while geocaching before we left the states. The travel bug is known as B's Bunny and you can follow his adventures here.

What ever happened to that 80's music?

2006-01-13T11:10:00.000-08:00

It's alive and well in central and south America. During our two trips to Honduras, it seemed like we couldn't go a day without hearing Lady in Red at least once, if not two or three times. It seemed like every other house, bus, or car had a radio on and it would invariably be playing something by one those 80's super-groups likes Kansas, Chicago, or Boston. During our first trip there, I event spent an hour or so sitting out under the stars in Arena Blanca, listening to Rush's Exit Stage Left album blasting up the mountainside from a nearby house.

Since we've arrived in Peru, we've mostly heard the latest America pop playing in Larcomar and surrounding areas. However, last night we were in a very upscale Ripley's department store and I slowly realized that the song playing was Genesis' (It's No Fun Being An) Illegal Alien (everything else being played was recent pop hits). I couldn't figure out if it was just a poor choice of musak or part of a subtle anti-immigration campain on the part of the U.S.

Telecommuting From Halfway Around The World

2006-01-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

I have been a full time telecommuter for over two years now (plus a 7 month gig a few years before that) but this is the first time I've really tried to take my show on the road, let alone to another country. I'm not counting our temporary moves to Mobile, Alabama when we moved from Michigan and more recently evacuated due to Katrina. Those times I was able to pack up my development machine and take it with me. For this trip to Peru, moving my monster box and its two 20" flat panel monitors was not an option.

The first thing I did was pick up a laptop. Since I rarely ever need a laptop when I am at home, I could not rationalize picking up a high end (expensive) one for the six weeks we're going to be in Peru. Instead, I went for reliability and purchased a refurbished IBM Thinkpad R40 from Overstock.com. I've been a big fan of Thinkpads ever since I had one when I was a road warrior during my brief gig with Arthur Andersen. Holly has a Thinkpad T23 which I consider to be the perfect combination of weight, durability, and power for the average user. Unfortunately, I'm not the average user and I needed something a bit beefier in terms of processing power and disk size in order to accomodate my development environment.

So I went with the R40 which is a step down in the product line but was available with a faster processor, larger disk, and a DVD reader/CD burner on Overstock.com for $599. Using a combination of discounts includings Overstock's 12% off for a first time buyer, Fat Wallet's 4% cash back, and Discover Card's 5% off of online purchase promotion, I got the price down to right around $500 after all the discounts and kickbacks. Of course, the $100 I saved was promptly spent on maxing out the laptops memory at 1 gig.

Moving my development environment over to a new machine actually proved to be a welcome opportunity to clean up two years of cruft and a good chance to just reorganize my development directory structure. I'm actually looking forward to transferring my new environment back to my real development box when we return home.

In order to stay connected to my coworkers in the states (usually just for my weekly status calls), we brought along our Vonage internet phone with us. This just consists of a small box that you connect to your internet firewall and plug a phone in to. Fortunately, the power supply for it (like the laptop) handles the 220 volts/50hz that Peru uses. We've been Vonage customers for almost 4 years now and it been great to be able to take your home phone with you wherever you go.

So, in theory I now had everything I needed to work remotely. In practice, there's been a few kinks to work out. Fortunately, we spent the holidays in Mobile at Holly's parents and that let me test out my telecommuting rig before we were way far away from home. Now that we've been in Peru for almost a week, here are my thoughts on my long-distance telecommuting experience so far:

The laptop has worked suprisingly well for me in terms of having the oomph needed to build software. It's nowhere near as fast as my monster development machine at home but with enough memory, its done a decent job. The biggest issues is that its disk I/O is much slower so I have to be judicious about when I do things like clean rebuilds of our entire development base.
One thing that hasn't work so well is the laptop's limitted screen size. I've grown accustomed at home to having two identical 20" flat planels that run at 1600x1200. Since I bought a low end laptop, its display only does 1024x768 and thats painfully small. I anticipated this problem and before we came to Peru I confirmed that the I could hook my laptop up to the monitor for the computer that is in the house that we're renting. So I do have at least two displays to work on, albeit both of them are half the resolution of the ones I'm used to.
Our Vonage phone has also been a disappointment too. Even though we have a cable modem here in Lima, the bandwidth is not particularly good, particularly on the upstream end. Even at its lowest quality setting, we've had lots of dropouts, making it difficult for the people we call to hear us.
As a result of the problems with our Vonage line, we've moved over to Skype internet phone which does not involve any custom equipment as it runs on the computer and uses my laptop's microphone and speakers. This is working much better for us and most importantly, it provides me with call quality statistics so I can keep on the call and know if I'm likely to start having trouble communicating.

All in all, its been fairly easy to take my telecommuting show on the road. I think the small losses in efficiency I have on a laptop have been more than made up for by the wonderful support we have in Peru. Having someone who can watch Will all day and help out with meals, cleaning, and laundry makes a huge difference and as led to me working longer days as I don't have anyone else dictating when I need to stop work.

For any of our friends and family out there with a high speed internet connection, check out Skype - its free to call other Skype members (we pay 2 cents a minute to traditional phones). If you do install Skype and want to call us, just e-mail us for our id.

Veni, vedi, blogi...

2006-01-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

Well, if Millard can neglect a blog, I figure I can manage to neglect one too. I've been thinking of starting one for a few months now and our ongoing trip to Peru has provided me with the final incentive to do so. If you're looking for articulate, well-written posts please be sure and read my wife's blog. If you're looking for the random musings of a man trying to be a curmudgeon before his time, you've found the right place...