Pyrrhus meets Theseus: a ten year odyssey in turd polishing

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Pyrrhus meets Theseus: a ten year odyssey in turd polishing

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

dreesemonkey posted:

If you want to speed that up get one of those standing work light sets, the heat they put off helps dry the mud out, and the immense light helps you when you're sanding and looking for imperfections as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Designers-Edg...8656c7064757-20

Having used these (and similar) I now cannot bear the thought of filling/sanding a wall without one. The amount of stuff you miss without strong light sources right next to the wall is unbe-loving-lievable.

And when you notice it two months down the line, it's also unbelievable depressing.

Your house makes me want to tear down walls in my flat, so badly.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2012 21:35

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# ¿ May 1, 2024 07:57

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

Electrical!

Count the kinds of wire. Count the electrical boxes. Count the kinds of wire rated for in-wall 120V service. Count the splices.

knob and tube to romex (no junction box) to unrated speaker wire (no junction box)

These are just a few examples... a lot of things are like this. At least till I chop them out and redo it properly.

This makes me :stare:

I've seen some iffy wiring before but nothing -- nothing -- that compares with that. I'm just kind of amazed the whole thing didn't burn down.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2012 21:46

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

Mickey-moused ~~disaster~~ floating house, more like!

What did you use to cut the notch, out of interest? I'm guessing since the sill is the consistency of fresh snowfall it wasn't too difficult?

# ¿ Jan 20, 2013 20:28

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

pseudonordic posted:

Judging from the condition of the sill plate material, I think he exhaled sharply through a drinking straw to make such a clean, precise cut.

I was thinking cake slice, but your idea works.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2013 20:58

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

Just means it will come down with less persuading.

An excellent feeling. Doing a renovation of a terraced house a few years ago, we had an old (and badly built, and rotten) extension to take down. We simply chainsawed it off the main wall of the house and pushed it over. Felt good.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2013 18:03

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

Those videos made me so absurdly happy :3:

It wasn't until the end of the last one, though, that I could appreciate that yes, gently caress, there really was nothing holding that bad boy up. Very satisfying when it just slid out.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2013 13:42

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

Every time I read this thread I remember that you are not actually that much older than I am, and I get the urge to finish the ripping-my-apartment-apart job that I've started. Shame it's always gone midnight when I think that.

This thread rocks.

# ¿ May 5, 2014 01:16

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

Stonemasonry is kinda like tetris, except there are no right answers, a lot of wrong ones, and none of the pieces have any square corners.

When I did a little stonemasonry on my gap year (worked on a building site of a gently caress-off nightmare terraced house renovation/partial rebuild etc) the stonemason said to me that the principle rule in teaching an apprentice was as follows: once you've picked a stone up, you can't put it down � it has to go in the wall somehow. Moral of the story: think before you pick things up.

He was right, too. Building things with stone is fun. Drystone dyke building is even more fun.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 12:21

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

Nah. He's deep in the engine bay. By the core, where it's still warm.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2014 00:19

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

I have serious drainage issues on 5 walls.

I"m just going to tell myself you have a four-sided house, because the idea of you having drainage issues on five of your four available walls seems entirely fitting, somehow.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2015 11:05

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

I am considered, amongst my friends, to be pretty hands-on and adept at DIY. While they worry about the best way to paint a wall, renovating my place has taught me plumbing, wiring, construction, and plastering, as well as beefing up my carpentry, general drywalling, tiling, and so forth.

Kastein, I think we're the same age, or very close�28, right? I'm loving in awe of your skills. You're insane and brilliant and this thread is glorious.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2015 12:37

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

Geirskogul posted:

Ken Stein waited. The lights above him blinked and sparked out of the air. There was shorts in the house. He didn�t see all of it, but had expected it now for years. His warnings to SSS were not listenend to and now it was too late. Far too late for now, anyway.
Ken was a electrician for fourteen years. When he was young he watched the company vans and he said to dad �I want to be on the vans daddy.�
Dad said �No! You will BE KILL BY LECTRIC�
There was a time when he believed him. Then as he got oldered he stopped. But now in the cold northern base of the PAN he knew there were shorts.
�This is Adiabatic� the radio crackered. �You must fixed the shorts!�
So Ken gotted his multi meter and poked holes up the wall.
�HE GOING TO FIX US� said the shorts
�I will zap at him� said the knob and tube and he crackled the old wires. Ken measuremented at him and tried to fix him up. But then the ceiling fell and they were trapped and not able to fix.
�No! I must fix the faults� he shouted
The radio said �No, Ken. You are the faults�
And then Ken was a spark

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 12:11

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

My apologies for the blurry as hell pictures, the new cellphone I got long ago is awful at focusing, even compared to a 3 year old motorola droid 3. I may have to actually buy a camera.

Hopefully doing the remainder of the large pieces of subflooring tonight when I get home.

It would lose a certain something if it wasn't poorly lit and blurry.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 09:37

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

I throw it in a Bagster and it becomes trash/C&D waste.

I could probably toss it in the woods behind my house but it's all full of nails and poo poo and I don't want it back there. I've sent off maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of a bagster worth of ash and nails when it would have easily filled a 20 yard dumpster before being burned. Worth it.

If I really wanted to reduce things to their bare minimum volume, I would use a magnet to separate out the nails and water to sort the ash (mixes with water, sinks to bottom) and bits of charcoal (floats), then re-burn the charcoal, repeat until it's all ash. But at that point it's already reduced 10 to 20 times in volume so I just take the hit and pay to dispose of it rather than spending a bunch of time separating things.

The only hassle is sorting out the pressure treated, nasty painted wood, knocking off bits of plastic trim, etc before burning. That stuff still has to be thrown out the normal way because I like my lungs.

The ash could probably be spread evenly across the lawn as fertilizer (it's high in potassium and calcium carbonate) but again, I'd have to sift it out from the nails and charcoal and it's not worth the time.

Frankly, I'm amazed you haven't taken the opportunity to rig up a giant ghetto electromagnet to hang off the ghetto pickup crane you've got going on, just to pick the nails out.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2015 14:33

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

I know right? I'd given up entirely on dating until I finished the house, and then accidentally met The One. She's one in a trillion and every day I wake up wondering how the hell I got so lucky.

You have found the Unicorn.

(I also found one; when dithering on the dilemma of 'do I find out what's behind this hollow bit of way, or do I save myself hell in refinishing and replastering,' she's the one handing me the wrecking bar.)

# ¿ Feb 26, 2016 01:30

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

kastein posted:

It was in the corner behind the brick pile with a huge amount of scrapmetal stacked up next to it

I don't know if any quality pictures exist of it. It was "built" using fenceposts and non pressure treated 2x6s, not a single post or beam was straight, level, or square. It rested on 4 post-base cement blocks, with no floor. It was poorly triangulated with haphazardly nailed on 2x4s and the roof joists (flat roof) were random chunks of 2x6 and 2x4 patched together into a sort of grid. The roof was 3/4 plywood and they never even put all of it on, and the walls were T1-11 siding, nailed, stapled, and drywall screwed onto the posts and beams, bulging over the crossbracing. In some places the siding went 3 inches into the ground, in other places it was 6" above ground at one end of a wall and 18" above ground at the other end. The back wall was never even sided at all because they realized they built it against a tree only after finishing the rest, so it was more of a 3 wall shanty with half a roof.

I always planned on knocking it down when the house was done, but we ended up killing it yesterday.

Shame it didn't have stairs.

So you could insulate them.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2016 10:34

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

I have nightmares about lovely cut nails. They're absolutely everywhere.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2016 12:49

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# ¿ May 1, 2024 07:57

Jeherrin: Jun 7, 2012

everdave posted:

it is obviously so he can plug in his laptop while on the throne

Git pull while he git pushes

# ¿ Aug 17, 2021 20:29

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