In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2) by SIGNYM

I'm already way beyond that phase.

Dude did a great job though.

I like the Yorkshire Tea as one of his "tools".

White trim and risers looks great. I love his taste.

My banisters are going to be free floating and not integrated into the wall like his, but I was thinking about making the newels out of good 4x4's that I round off with my router. It would look similar to his finished product, but without a wall attached to it and balusters in between the newels at the top and bottom instead. I have a whole bunch of really decorative ones that I've been keeping in my garage, but I think I'll wait until I can catch those oak closet rods on sale again and keep the same style from the overlook.

I want a simple and modern look to everything, so I really like the newel cap he made when he opened up that wall on the staircase. Nothing that I couldn't make pretty easily out in my shop.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 4:51 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Check the handrail built for the same attic stairs:

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 5:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
BRENDA: I will keep my fingers crossed that all the repairs go smoothly and I don't have to think about this again.

That would be best of all.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

Most definitely.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 5:02 PM

Back and done for today. Came back wishing I hadn't been wearing my winter coat but I am not putting it away yet as there is rain coming.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 6:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Check the handrail built for the same attic stairs:

That is some badass craftsmanship right there.

I didn't have any hand rails at any point in time, but after seeing his I thought about it. My stairs are wider than his are, so they'd certainly be warranted if it works in his case.

The funny thing is though, that "snakelike" part he's got at the 45 angle toward the bottom of the staircase was probably the hardest part for him to make and I don't care much for the look of it. I dunno... What do you think? I'm a fan of hard angles and tight edges and it just seems a bit too "chaotic" for me. It's strange he did that when the entire rest of his job is perfectly aligned with my tastes.

I love how it's rounded on both ends and how it even flares up at the top of the stairs, but it just looks funny to me when the stairs turn at the bottom. And the funny thing about it is that I think what he did looks great from the top of the stairs, but when you open the door at the bottom to go upstairs it looks really strange from the side.

At least if I decide to do handrails it's just a straight shot on both staircases, so nothing I'd have to worry about.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 7:31 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

At least if I decide to do handrails it's just a straight shot on both staircases, so nothing I'd have to worry about.

He has woodworking tools you don't have which is probably why he chose such a weird design that looks strange to you. I have seen similar overly complex handrails but done with welded stainless steel because, once again, they had the tools to make a weird/complex design showcasing their skills in attaching standard shapes into a unique twisty-turning whole.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 8:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

At least if I decide to do handrails it's just a straight shot on both staircases, so nothing I'd have to worry about.
He has woodworking tools you don't have which is probably why he chose such a weird design that looks strange to you. I have seen similar overly complex handrails but done with welded stainless steel because, once again, they had the tools to make a weird/complex design showcasing their skills in attaching standard shapes into a unique twisty-turning whole.

Well... Not only does he have tools that I don't have, but he's got high-level skills I don't have too. He didn't just buy those tools and magically start making things like that. He's been doing advanced woodworking jobs for years. He's no doubt got thousands of hours of practice at shaping wood to his imagination.

I'm not shitting on his work at all. I have a lot of respect for it. It's just that his choice to do what he did on that hand rail at the corner of the wall is strange and doesn't fit the rest of his design. Like I said, if you're at the top of the steps looking down it looks great, but if you're opening the door from the bottom floor and looking at it, it doesn't look great. I think it takes away from the job he did, which is unfortunate because otherwise that entire job was a masterclass of seriously impressive work, patience and perseverance. Most people would have cut a lot of corners there, and it's very apparent he didn't.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 9:12 PM

I started painting really late, and it was tedious work with an artist's paintbrush, so I had to wrap it up once I lost daylight. I did enough work sanding and wiping down those filthy stairs that I might have never cleaned once after "finishing" them over a decade ago.

But I did hit all the worst spots after sanding. Here's a few pics of the improvement...

Before pic from this morning before I'd sanded or wiped down anything. Honestly, at least from this angle and at this distance it didn't look all that bad for all these years. From the front you really could only see the spots where the painter's tape pulled off the paint on the risers.

Here's the pic with the overhead and kitchen lights on when I wrapped up the paint. At this point, beyond just sanding the crap off the white and touching up the worst parts of the top 2 steps I really haven't done much. Just sanding alone and painting over those spots where the tape ripped off paint already makes this look 1000% better.

Now, from the side.... yuck. That's a totally different story. You could see how on nearly every step the stain bled up behind the tape, with that second step from the top being by far the worst.

Like I said, not a lot of paint has even gone up yet except for that top riser and the trim around the step below it. But just taking the time to sand all that crap off makes it look so much better. Tomorrow I will be touching up everything else and cutting in everything with that artist brush at least once before painting the trim and risers with my big brush.

Here's a closeup of the worst spot. I can't believe I let it look like that for so long. Everything else around it looked so crappy before though that you didn't even notice it until recently.

Much better.

It ain't perfect, but you can't tell from a standing position even if you're staring at it. This is shot about 3 inches away from it, and nobody is ever going to be looking at it that close.

If I was crazy I'd sand everything down and make surfaces perfect before restaining and putting poly down a second time and having a perfectly smooth surface for that white paint, but I want to spend about 3 days doing this instead of 3 weeks. My skills have greatly improved since I did this originally, but this will be fine. I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 10:59 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I know I'm coming in late in the conversation, and I haven't seen the "handrail" video yet, but a few comments on the stairstep

It kind of reminded me of a room I renovated in what was a then -100 year old house. What I did was mostly cosmetic - repaired a water- damaged ceiling and mostly stripped the horrible paint jobs that had been done thru the years.
The window casings were lumpy- looking, and I dreaded finding rotten, termite eaten junk underneath. Turns out that the lumps were those light nail-in curtain rod holders, but instead of pulling them out someone just bent them over and painted over them. Once I stripped down to the original wood I found pristine, exquisitely detailed casings with still-sharp edges. Also, somebody had painted over ... painted over!!! ... lead crystal and brass doorknobs. What were they thinking?!?! I sanded the floor too, but not a whole lot bc I was going to cover most of it with a rug. It was a bright, hot south-facing room so I painted it sky blue, the ceiling, doors and trim were white, and I laid down an inexpensive blue and gold oriental rug and put up lace curtains.

*****
Anyway, about the video.

I noticed he was wearing what looked like an N95. Good for him! Because some time in the past 160 years, it was surely painted with lead paint. And he mostly scraped the paint off instead of sanding, which took it off in larger pieces.

BUT. If he intends to live in that house and not get lead poisoning, or have his family not get lead poisoning, unless he already tested and didn't find lead, he should have been MUCH more careful about cleanup, and not just dump the paint chips and let paint dust fly all over. We used to live in a student garden- apartment complex and there was a kid there, every time I saw him I kept thinking "There's some terribly wrong with that kid". Turns out, he had lead poisoning bc the apartments were painted with lead paint, which was chipping away everywhere. Poor kid.
I've also read about people renovating old homes who were poisoned with lead. (Also, people poisoned with arsenic working with treated lumber. But that's another story.)

I really wonder what wood those treads were made of. Definitely not any kind of oak or ash. Not quite like pine sirher. Beech, maybe?

He has a lot of faith in cyanoacrylate glue! I'm a big fan of JB Weld (epoxy).

Speaking of epoxy... that's what he used as filler (auto body)

He stained really dark. It hides a multitude of sins! I wonder what stain he used bc it went on really evenly. I've done some staining projects here and there, mostly to try to match repair pieces to original furniture, and some woods are an absolute bear to stain. I'll see if I can catch the name of the product he's using.

Hubby, who is an advanced non-profesional woodworker himself, thought it was interesting. Our intrepid staircase remodeler certainly has a lot of specialized tools!

****

SIX, looking at your treads they're either oak or ash, great wood for stair treads. They look great!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 11:16 PM

Call for a pick up game of mah jong tomorrow afternoon.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 4:44 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I know I'm coming in late in the conversation, and I haven't seen the "handrail" video yet, but a few comments on the stairstep

The staircase design is a hazard to the health of residents for the next 160 years.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 11:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I know I'm coming in late in the conversation, and I haven't seen the "handrail" video yet, but a few comments on the stairstep

I'd like to know your honest opinion on the handrail. Maybe I'm just being weird.

Quote:
It kind of reminded me of a room I renovated in what was a then -100 year old house. What I did was mostly cosmetic - repaired a water- damaged ceiling and mostly stripped the horrible paint jobs that had been done thru the years.
The window casings were lumpy- looking, and I dreaded finding rotten, termite eaten junk underneath. Turns out that the lumps were those light nail-in curtain rod holders, but instead of pulling them out someone just bent them over and painted over them. Once I stripped down to the original wood I found pristine, exquisitely detailed casings with still-sharp edges. Also, somebody had painted over ... painted over!!! ... lead crystal and brass doorknobs. What were they thinking?!?! I sanded the floor too, but not a whole lot bc I was going to cover most of it with a rug. It was a bright, hot south-facing room so I painted it sky blue, the ceiling, doors and trim were white, and I laid down an inexpensive blue and gold oriental rug and put up lace curtains.

*****

Those old houses are a lot of work. A LOT of work. Just what little I saw of that house in the video reminded me of my buddy's house that I'd spent so much time helping him fix after the pigs finally moved out. Poor guy is over there right now every night after work fixing things up again because just a single winter caused a lot of damage.

How long did you live there? I bet you're glad to be out of it even though I'm sure it looked beautiful when it was fixed up and you put a lot of work into it, huh?

Quote:
Anyway, about the video.

I noticed he was wearing what looked like an N95. Good for him! Because some time in the past 160 years, it was surely painted with lead paint. And he mostly scraped the paint off instead of sanding, which took it off in larger pieces.

BUT. If he intends to live in that house and not get lead poisoning, or have his family not get lead poisoning, unless he already tested and didn't find lead, he should have been MUCH more careful about cleanup, and not just dump the paint chips and let paint dust fly all over. We used to live in a student garden- apartment complex and there was a kid there, every time I saw him I kept thinking "There's some terribly wrong with that kid". Turns out, he had lead poisoning bc the apartments were painted with lead paint, which was chipping away everywhere. Poor kid.
I've also read about people renovating old homes who were poisoned with lead. (Also, people poisoned with arsenic working with treated lumber. But that's another story.)

He even made a joke in the video at one point when he was kind of meandering around that it might be because of lead poisoning.

Honestly, and I'd never tell my buddy my thoughts about this, I've thought several times that my diabetes diagnosis might have been sparked by the work I did in his house. I'm sure all the old paint was lead for one. I'm sure there was a lot of asbestos everywhere as well. And then there was the 3 or so weekends of literally shoveling mouse shit and dens out of the basement, which I think would have been the real culprit with an autoimmune issue. I also had lived with mouse shit in my own house I had to get rid of after I sobered up and dehoarded. Although it was less than 1% of what he had in his basement in my whole house, I was living among it for god only knows how long before I took care of it. Then, after clearing out his place I cleared out my grandma's basement that had mouse shit in it as well. I had a lot of exposure.

Quote:
I really wonder what wood those treads were made of. Definitely not any kind of oak or ash. Not quite like pine sirher. Beech, maybe?

That's above my paygrade.

I've only ever worked with pine and poplar, and now oak with those closet poles on the overlook.

Quote:
He has a lot of faith in cyanoacrylate glue! I'm a big fan of JB Weld (epoxy).

Speaking of epoxy... that's what he used as filler (auto body)

He stained really dark. It hides a multitude of sins! I wonder what stain he used bc it went on really evenly. I've done some staining projects here and there, mostly to try to match repair pieces to original furniture, and some woods are an absolute bear to stain. I'll see if I can catch the name of the product he's using.

It's more of a dye than a stain. I'm sure that it's what my buddy and his dad used to resurface the floors in his house. They were going to either sand them down and refinish it themselves or pay somebody else to do it because the pigs destroyed it with their pets (urine and crap), but they had several guys come out for quotes and nobody would do it. It had already been done at least once before and you only get so many chances before you can't sand it down anymore, and the spots that were ruined by the pig's animals were unsalvagable. But they used some product I'd never heard of to cover it and it came out just like this guys treads did. Will it last over time? Who knows? But it's one of the few things he doesn't have to go back and fix right now, so hopefully if it's going to be a problem it ends up being somebody else's problem after the sale.

Quote:
Hubby, who is an advanced non-profesional woodworker himself, thought it was interesting. Our intrepid staircase remodeler certainly has a lot of specialized tools!

****

Yeah. I enjoy watching the woodworking channels but haven't gotten into any of it yet beyond building basic modular shelving units for my garage and basement out of various reclaimed wood like pallets and hardwood flooring that was going to end up in a dump. I did buy a power planer a while back but it still sits in the box unopened. I think when I get my house where it needs to be I'd like to get into woodworking as a hobby.

Quote:
SIX, looking at your treads they're either oak or ash, great wood for stair treads. They look great!

Thank you.

They're definitely not the same wood as the floors are, but they're far higher quality than the stairs that went into the basement. I know I didn't mention it, but I don't know if you caught the fact that those basement treads were some plywood shit. It's all wood, but it was something around .25" veneer wrapped around what I can only assume is crappier wood for the core. Those steps going upstairs are solid. Probably Oak.

My step-dad who did furniture restoration told me he thought my hardwood floors were a mix of Ash and Hickory when he saw them and laughed when he said he now knew why I was having such a hard time sanding them down.

Anyhow, the stairs pretty muck look great as they are now in the daylight. I could probably get away without even repainting them at this point if I wanted to be lazy and nobody would even realize I hadn't finished them. But you know me. I'm not going to do that. I'll probably spend the better part of the next two days finishing them off.

I guess I'll decide if I want to poly the steps again at that point. I'd have to work more at wiping them down first though. I was only using water to do it because I don't want to add any foreign chemicals to the wood. I just went through about half a roll of paper towel with my water bucket and each wet rag would get decreasingly less soiled as I made my way down with several passes on each tread. I know that more grime can still come off them, but I didn't want to spend all day doing that and I wanted to get to painting the bad spots.

BTW... Could you ask your husband about that for me?

I never used furniture polish on those stairs, so that's not a problem. But that staircase has been super high traffic with shoes and socks for over a decade and probably didn't get enough poly the first go-around.

Would he attempt to put more poly down on them? Would he lightly scuff sand the existing poly first?

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 11:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I know I'm coming in late in the conversation, and I haven't seen the "handrail" video yet, but a few comments on the stairstep
The staircase design is a hazard to the health of residents for the next 160 years.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

LOL... boy...

I didn't even think about that when watching his video, but seeing those two pictures side to side
on that thumbnail makes his staircase look scary as hell.

I wonder how many accidents and deaths those staircases have caused over the years. Not good
to be a senior living in a house with stairs that are just about as dangerous to walk on as
Tony Hawk grinding his first rail was.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 1:16 PM

Umbrella kind of day as I head out in a bit to get things done before my pick up game.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 2:07 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yep, the design... definitely not to code. We were looking at that. IIRC there is a quick view of another set of stairs going down just as bad.

We're so used to the tread/ riser ratio that anything beyond that trips up our automatic tread. But with a house that old it's been designated an historic home, and depending on the building codes there may only be a limited number of things can be done.

SIX, we lived there a little over a year, just long enough to qualify our capital gains as long term. But it wasn't the building that scared us off, and not our immediate neighbors who were nice as could be. It was the neighborhood past our block that was scary. I enountered a robber in our dining room one early morning, and there was always something going on ... arrest made in front of our house, armed standoff just around the corner, police helicopters overhead 3 nights of the week, snatched purse found under our shrubs. I lived in a some scary neighborhoods before, but this one gave me a short term case of PTSD. We made $$ but it was a hard way of doing it.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 2:53 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yep, the design... definitely not to code. We were looking at that. IIRC there is a quick view of another set of stairs going down just as bad.

We're so used to the tread/ riser ratio that anything beyond that trips up our automatic tread. But with a house that old it's been designated an historic home, and depending on the building codes there may only be a limited number of things can be done.

They probably can't do anything about it now. Even if the home wasn't registered as a historic home the home buyers are usually protected by "grandfathered in" rules. It would have to be something seriously egregious for the government to come into your home and demand that you spend money you probably don't have to fix, and on top of that unless you're going around telling government people everything about your house who's going to know? They're pretty good about catching people installing DIY decks without pulling permits and paying the additional property taxes after they investigate the construction, but the only real way to do anything about stuff inside the house is if a city/town does a point-of-sale inspection and has the legal authority to add specific line-items into the contract that need to be addressed within 90 days of purchase or the house is deemed unlivable until they are addressed.

I'd imagine something like that would probably be pretty frequent in parts of California, but even in Illinois there was only one suburb of Chicago that did it when I was shopping around for houses there before we looked into Indiana. After that, I called the local building department of any town I was interested in looking at houses and nobody out here does that. In fact, when I talked to the head of a building department in one of the cities he didn't even know what I was asking and when I explained what happened in that Chicago suburb he laughed and said that if they did that there nobody would ever move into their town again.

Quote:
SIX, we lived there a little over a year, just long enough to qualify our capital gains as long term. But it wasn't the building that scared us off, and not our immediate neighbors who were nice as could be. It was the neighborhood past our block that was scary. I enountered a robber in our dining room one early morning, and there was always something going on ... arrest made in front of our house, armed standoff just around the corner, police helicopters overhead 3 nights of the week, snatched purse found under our shrubs. I lived in a some scary neighborhoods before, but this one gave me a short term case of PTSD. We made $$ but it was a hard way of doing it.

Yikes... Glad you're out of there.

I'm assuming that you must have had a good roof on the house though. That's one of my friend's problems. And it's not a standard roof either. His lowest quote was $90,000 for a new roof, with the most expensive quote being $120,000.

If only that were the only problem though... Those ancient wooden windows look beautiful from inside, but especially on one side of the house it's like he's got to repaint them every single year. Granted, he never listens to me and takes the time to properly prep the work first and that problem just keeps compounding itself, but the house has around 25 huge windows. It's practically a mansion, with a maid's quarter just like the guy in Second's staircase video. If you've ever seen the movie the Money Pit, you'd get a pretty good idea of what he's dealing with.

Just awful. I have to say that, selfishly, it put my own home problems into a better perspective. I've got a lot of issues and potential issues that he doesn't have to worry about with his property, but at least when I finally tackle something it either lasts a long time (mostly outside) or it will last longer than I do (mostly inside). I couldn't imagine having to go back and do maintenance and repairs on the same thing every year. And my house is by no means tiny, but he's got about 3 times the house with about 10 times the amount of problems per square foot.

I would never own a home that was built before the late 1950s. Even then, there'd have to have been some modernization done at some point like up-to-date windows for me to even consider it.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 3:42 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Our house was built 1955-ish. I forget the exact date but close enough. Since we moved in 30 years ago (hard to believe!) we had the roof replaced (complete tear-off, stringers replaced with plywood), repiped to copper, replaced most of the windows with top-drawer Andersen's (will be finishing the replacement this year), replaced the HVAC, replaced the drain lines with ABS most recently, and the main drain re-lined up to the curb (not to the saddle, that requires the city getting involved), had all of the floors except kitchen, bathrooms and laundry area) replaced with hardwood, etc. This year we hope to gut the hopeless bathrooms, all exce1pt one have been eyesores since we moved in. Also installed solar which has paid for itself and then some, and an on- demand water heater ("endless hot water").

Some of those fixes were done so long ago, it'll be about time for them to come around again!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 11:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Our house was built 1955-ish. I forget the exact date but close enough. Since we moved in 30 years ago (hard to believe!) we had the roof replaced (complete tear-off, stringers replaced with plywood), repiped to copper, replaced most of the windows with top-drawer Andersen's (will be finishing the replacement this year), replaced the HVAC, replaced the drain lines with ABS most recently, and the main drain re-lined up to the curb (not to the saddle, that requires the city getting involved), had all of the floors except kitchen, bathrooms and laundry area) replaced with hardwood, etc. This year we hope to gut the hopeless bathrooms, all exce1pt one have been eyesores since we moved in. Also installed solar which has paid for itself and then some, and an on- demand water heater ("endless hot water").

Some of those fixes were done so long ago, it'll be about time for them to come around again!

Sounds like you got all the real good stuff done. Especially when you wrap up all those Anderson windows.

My roof was pretty much brand new when I bought it and still looks to be in great shape. It was installed by morons though, so I have had to go up and do some minor repairs around pipes. I'm sure I mentioned that in here 4 or 5 years ago whenever I did it. There's probably a few ticking time bombs I'm sitting on right now, but the only one that really worries me at all is that roof because it's the one thing I'm not capable of doing on my own with the steep pitch on the front side of the house. Whenever I do have to replace the roof, I will do half of it myself and have somebody do the other half that I can't manage.

I still have to get up on my garage and fix the leak I've got in a pipe that I've never even figured out why it exists other than the electrical lines are tied into it first before going to the meter on my house. It's just a really tall 3" pipe with a metal cap on the top of it, so maybe the power company put it in at some point for that purpose? Any time it rains real hard it leaks. I (usually) have a 5 gallon bucket under there at all times so it hasn't really been anything more than an annoyance, but I really need to get up there and patch it. Every warm season just seems to come and go and I forget to do it. It's like a 10 minute job.

I piddled around with my artist paintbrush on the stairs today for about an hour earlier and didn't do much else. Had a nice nap in the middle of doing nothing at one point. Got the itch to go back to work, so I'm taking a little break after being at it for another hour or so. I can only paint with that artist brush with that high-gloss for a limited amount of time before it's so gunked up it's not usable, so I just washed it off and took a break.

If I stick with it, I think my plan tonight is to hit all the rest of the bad spots and put a coat of paint on the risers and trim with the big brush. The old Benjamin Moore enamel I had on there before was a lesser sheen (probably a semi-gloss) and it's just the slightest shade off white, so I will have to cut EVERYTHING in before it's finished. I figure once I hit all the bad spots and get a good solid coat on everything it should be a lot easier to see what I need to cut in before a final coat.

I think I have like 2 more steps to go at the bottom. Always fun laying on the floor to do work like this. /sarcasm. But at least it's not the cold tile floor in the basement this time around.

The cool thing though is I finally busted out one of my LED headlamps that I bought a few years back for a song after sale and rebate. These ones are WAY better than the ones two of my friends and my buddy's dad had. SUPER bright even with just the small light that I'm using now, but it's also got a much bigger light that would drain it quicker. I don't know why I haven't been using it while painting other things since it can really help cutting in on ceilings even in the middle of the day. I'm not using it on my head right now though because my neighbors would probably think somebody was robbing me if they saw a really bright torch like that waving all around my house at this hour of night.

You can just use it with the little stand that is built into it that will rotate it up to 90 degrees. Really a cool little tool, and I got a 3 pack of them for maybe 3 bucks. Rechargeable with a USB too, so super convenient not to have to buy batteries for them.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 11:38 PM

Got back after 5pm and I got my errands done before my pick up game. I won the first round but couldn't do anything the second.

Maybe tomorrow at my regular game.

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 12:39 AM

Good luck tomorrow Brenda.

I'm done working for the night. There's no way I was going to get what I wanted to get done unless I work until 4AM. I just need to get my ass in gear during the day tomorrow and keep at it. This work is just so tedious.

Still have 2 steps and 3 risers to fix. All I did after the last post was put a thick coat on the quarter round on top of the trim next to the wall. It needs at least 2 or 3 because that caulk cracked like it always seems to do. Everybody's always told me that Alex Plus from DAP is good caulk, but in my experience it's trash. In the future, if I need to spend $5 or $6 on a tube of caulk I'm just going to do it. My time is cheap, sure, but saving $2 or $3 on a tube of caulk is not worth this level of frustration.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 11:59 AM

Back to the tedious BS today...

Here's hoping I stick with it and actually finish it by tonight. I'll know how bad the job is really going to be after I finish hitting the bad spots on the remaining steps and put a full coat down with my big brush. The sides of the trim won't be a problem since I actually had to cut all of them in to fix the bad spots, and the sides and the tops of the risers will be easy too, but cutting in the bottom of the risers where they meet the treads will be very time consuming.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 2:59 PM

Nice. Finally cut in all the bad spots. I also hit the cracked caulk on the quarter round again. I'm thinking only one more coat on that will seal all of that in after this coat has a chance to dry. I wasn't filling much in this time.

In regular daylight or the overhead light above the stairs you can't really even tell a difference between the two paints, but when I have the LED headlamp shining on it it is VERY apparent.

So now I'm going to paint the risers and trim with my big brush and get as close to all the edges as I possibly can without risking painting the treads and I'll see just how much more tedium is ahead for me to cut all that in proper before a final coat.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 3:34 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Sounds like progress, SIX! I hope not too much tedium ahead!

*****

I had a big front yard cleanup done, but the guys put so much dirt in the bins they were too heavy for the greenwaste truck. Besides, I don't want to lose that good soul.

So I had to call the boss back and helped him rake the weeds out and leave the dirt from two of our three bins plus a 35-gal bin, and letting the weeds dry out today before binning up tomorrow.

We'll have to finish next week once two of the bins are emptied next trash day, and we'll have more room to bin up.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 5:17 PM

Back and done before 1pm. No luck at mah jong but I got the dishes done before my phone meeting with the poet who is helping me.

Established sending to another publisher in Saskatchewan. Just have to tweak my query letter and let her look at it then figure out how to download a PDF file into an email. This publisher wants everything in PDF form for email.

Will get letter tweaked in another day or so.

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 5:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Sounds like progress, SIX! I hope not too much tedium ahead!

*****

I don't think it will be that bad. I was able to cut in quite close with my big Purdy brush. It really looks pretty great right now. Unfortunately it was cloudy all day and it's going to be rainy tomorrow, so I won't be able to see it in daylight until Saturday. Tomorrow I should be able to wrap it up and hopefully when the sunlight is out it looks as good as I think it will without too much more tedious BS.

Right now I think I'm going to clean up and run some errands and call it a day on the painting. If I feel like it I might do a little more work tonight after I get back.

My poor artist brush has seen better days. This paint is really tough on brushes. In fact, I'm going to eventually have to get another Purdy too, and use this one only with the high-gloss paint. There's something about whatever chemicals that they put on this sheen that doesn't completely wash out of the brushes. Whatever it is, it's also what makes working with this paint so much more difficult than any other paint I've ever used. Sure looks nice when it's done though, and it's super easy to wipe anything off without worrying about stains.

There's no visible paint left on the brushes, but after using this paint too much with that high-gloss they're just never the same as they were when they were new. I've had that Purdy for 20 years now and never had problems with it before now.

Quote:
I had a big front yard cleanup done, but the guys put so much dirt in the bins they were too heavy for the greenwaste truck. Besides, I don't want to lose that good soul.

So I had to call the boss back and helped him rake the weeds out and leave the dirt from two of our three bins plus a 35-gal bin, and letting the weeds dry out today before binning up tomorrow.

We'll have to finish next week once two of the bins are emptied next trash day, and we'll have more room to bin up.

LOL. Give me back my land!

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, March 21, 2024 11:30 PM

testing, testing

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Friday, March 22, 2024 1:14 PM

I think I'm going to just do some paperwork and chores today. I don't really feel like working on those stairs, and it's dark and rainy outside anyhow. They look great in this light... Almost like I don't have to do anything else really. But I would like to get one more coat on there regardless.

My old man is dropping by tomorrow on the way back from my brother's place, but I don't think it will be a super long visit. He's usually looking forward to getting back home after that trip. So I don't think that should interfere with my work plans.

Ended up hanging out with my friend last night. He dropped by after work. I knew I had a lot to show him since I'm usually going over to his place but he never even saw the finished porch, so I couldn't believe how long it's been. I've really got to set my house up for some entertainment though. I'll never be able to fit a pool table anywhere in my house like his, but I should at least put a media server together with my music or something. Ended up just having a movie playing in the background for noise while we bullshitted.

It's too bad it got so freakin' cold again. Once it warms up I'm going to be able to open up those porch windows and have a TV out there with a new cheap soundbar I picked up online. I told him we had to go outside to smoke and it was frigid out there.

I'm never going to smoke in that room by myself again, but I'll allow it on occasion when friends are over in good weather when we can have the windows open and I have those two ceiling fans pulling it up and out of the room. I told him if you saw all the yellow shit I had to clean up off the windows and jambs before I painted the new window trim and finished off the room he'd understand. And that was just from one winter of smoking out there before I installed the vents and finished the room off.

He was super impressed with all the work though. I really just have to get some of that flood remediation stuff finished and off my mind and then maybe I can focus on getting some worthwhile entertainment for when I have guests over. I'm really easy to please and doing 99% of my entertainment from my all in one computer on my coffee table is just fine with me on any given day.

lol... It just occurred to me that my new soundbar is bluetooth and we could have linked up his spotify to it while he was here. I'm so out of touch with "new" technology these days. It's not that I'm not aware it exists, but I don't use it at all so I don't think about it.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, March 22, 2024 1:21 PM

Out for my walk in a bit. Taking my umbrella as there was talk of rain on the weather news last night. Might see more sun but of course on Sunday. The one day I don't go out.

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Friday, March 22, 2024 1:25 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I think I'm going to just do some paperwork and chores today. I don't really feel like working on those stairs, and it's dark and rainy outside anyhow. They look great in this light... Almost like I don't have to do anything else really. But I would like to get one more coat on there regardless.

My old man is dropping by tomorrow on the way back from my brother's place, but I don't think it will be a super long visit. He's usually looking forward to getting back home after that trip. So I don't think that should interfere with my work plans.

Ended up hanging out with my friend last night. He dropped by after work. I knew I had a lot to show him since I'm usually going over to his place but he never even saw the finished porch, so I couldn't believe how long it's been. I've really got to set my house up for some entertainment though. I'll never be able to fit a pool table anywhere in my house like his, but I should at least put a media server together with my music or something. Ended up just having a movie playing in the background for noise while we bullshitted.

It's too bad it got so freakin' cold again. Once it warms up I'm going to be able to open up those porch windows and have a TV out there with a new cheap soundbar I picked up online. I told him we had to go outside to smoke and it was frigid out there.

I'm never going to smoke in that room by myself again, but I'll allow it on occasion when friends are over in good weather when we can have the windows open and I have those two ceiling fans pulling it up and out of the room. I told him if you saw all the yellow shit I had to clean up off the windows and jambs before I painted the new window trim and finished off the room he'd understand. And that was just from one winter of smoking out there before I installed the vents and finished the room off.

He was super impressed with all the work though. I really just have to get some of that flood remediation stuff finished and off my mind and then maybe I can focus on getting some worthwhile entertainment for when I have guests over. I'm really easy to please and doing 99% of my entertainment from my all in one computer on my coffee table is just fine with me on any given day.

lol... It just occurred to me that my new soundbar is bluetooth and we could have linked up his spotify to it while he was here. I'm so out of touch with "new" technology these days. It's not that I'm not aware it exists, but I don't use it at all so I don't think about it.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

It's easy to forget how far you've gotten until someone comes over and you show them everything they missed.
I hope being able to show the improvement since "then" gave you a lift bc you should be proud of everything you've done.

I'm kind of the same way about entertainment. If it wasn't for family I probably wouldn't watch TV, I'd much rather bunny- trail my way thru the internet about topics that interest me, or things I ned to know about, or just read a good book. As it is, the only hardcopy reading I get done is the "women's magazine" I subscribe to, because everything in there is one or two pages long and a quick read.

I always play a few solitaire and sudoku games after I wake up and before I go to bed. And, believe it or not, I come here for entertainment. It's always fun to skim the latest DNC/ deep state talking points and it gets my adrenaline going a little bit so I start the day with a bang.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, March 22, 2024 2:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It's easy to forget how far you've gotten until someone comes over and you show them everything they missed.
I hope being able to show the improvement since "then" gave you a lift bc you should be proud of everything you've done.

Yeah. I'm glad he finally stopped by and got to check out all the work. Last night just really drove the point home that I enjoy going over to his house way more than having him here, and I'm sure he probably feels the same way and it's why I don't have a lot of guests.

My house is still just a half finished house. His house is a home. His family is great. There's always tons of snacks and high quality coffee on hand and they always give me shit for asking for coffee instead of just making some.

He's got the huge screen TVs with banging sound systems and the pool table. A pool out in the back of the house. A real nice patio with great furniture on it and a really nice fire pit.

I got like nothing here. My biggest TV screen is maybe 43 inches? I do have computers I have always intended to repurpose as media centers but never get around to doing. A few ancient video game consoles that I never use. He actually asked to fire one of them up but it turns out it wasn't even hooked up to the TV and it was already dark out and I wasn't going to puts around with all the cables back there. Plus, it's still really freakin' cold in my house compared to how most people live. He didn't complain about it, but he never took off his coat while he was here.

Our original plan was that I was going to hang out at his house last night, but he got off of work so late he only had time to drop by for a little while. Hopefully we get together in the next few days at their place.

Quote:
I'm kind of the same way about entertainment. If it wasn't for family I probably wouldn't watch TV, I'd much rather bunny- trail my way thru the internet about topics that interest me, or things I ned to know about, or just read a good book. As it is, the only hardcopy reading I get done is the "women's magazine" I subscribe to, because everything in there is one or two pages long and a quick read.

I always play a few solitaire and sudoku games after I wake up and before I go to bed. And, believe it or not, I come here for entertainment. It's always fun to skim the latest DNC/ deep state talking points and it gets my adrenaline going a little bit so I start the day with a bang.

Yeah. I dunno. Maybe my mood changes but I'm really getting tired of the constant arguing. I don't behave this way at all in real life with real people. Sure... it can get the adrenaline going and I've said this place is like my political toilet, but it's just so fucking toxic most of the time.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, March 22, 2024 4:12 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Toxic. That's the right word. I'm waiting to see if anyone reciprocates, and dials back the toxicity. I hope so!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, March 22, 2024 5:32 PM

Back and done for today. No rain so far.

Query letter looked at and now I just have to figure out how to put the middle and end of my book into 4 sentences, then rearrange the letter. After that email it to the poet and let her take a look at it then it will be ready for emailing to the publisher a long with the first 20 pages of my work.

I'll do that tomorrow after my walk.

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Saturday, March 23, 2024 7:55 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back and done for today. No rain so far.

Query letter looked at and now I just have to figure out how to put the middle and end of my book into 4 sentences, then rearrange the letter. After that email it to the poet and let her take a look at it then it will be ready for emailing to the publisher a long with the first 20 pages of my work.

I'll do that tomorrow after my walk.

Does each publisher require something a little different? Seems that way!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Saturday, March 23, 2024 8:17 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SIGNY: I had a big front yard cleanup done, but the guys put so much dirt in the bins they were too heavy for the greenwaste truck. Besides, I don't want to lose that good soul.

So I had to call the boss back and helped him rake the weeds out and leave the dirt from two of our three bins plus a 35-gal bin, and letting the weeds dry out today before binning up tomorrow.

We'll have to finish next week once two of the bins are emptied next trash day, and we'll have more room to bin up.

SIX: LOL. Give me back my land!

Got the weeds that I had drying binned up into 35- gal bins with legitimate lids since we're due for rain and I don't need soaking wet trash, and got more paper rolled outwith dear daughter's help, and cut up a couple star pine branches wuth hubbts4help, as well as general tidying up. Also found some nice lengths of irtigation PVC pipe that are still good that'll save me the trouble of having to buy a bunch.

Problem is we have a "surge" of greenwaste but can only get rid if it at 3* 65 gallons per week. I think it'll take us 3-4 weeks just to get rid of what we have so far, and meanwhile we'll be accumulating more. Ah, spring cleanup!

So, a little rain this weekend, I see indoor work in my immediate future! Then appts or meetings Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Won't they EVER end???) but one for sure is video conference and maybe the next one is by telephone so I hope we won't have to waste half a day driving around for two of them. Rain again the following weekend. It's weird, we rarely get rain this late in the season. But planning my time accordingly.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Saturday, March 23, 2024 1:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back and done for today. No rain so far.

Query letter looked at and now I just have to figure out how to put the middle and end of my book into 4 sentences, then rearrange the letter. After that email it to the poet and let her take a look at it then it will be ready for emailing to the publisher a long with the first 20 pages of my work.

I'll do that tomorrow after my walk.
Does each publisher require something a little different? Seems that way!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

Pretty well they do. They want the query letter a little different or some want the whole manuscript sent and not just pages. Or they just want to be told about the book.

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Saturday, March 23, 2024 1:20 PM

Out for my walk in the rain today. Need some weekend groceries.

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Saturday, March 23, 2024 4:26 PM

Got all my paperwork done and the house cleaned up. Old man dropped by for a short visit like I thought it would be. Just finished running my errands. Hoping that my friend is free to hang out tonight and shoot some pool.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, March 23, 2024 4:33 PM

Still got rain but I am in and done for today.

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Sunday, March 24, 2024 2:01 PM

Lazy Sunday around me. I got the rewritten query sent to the poet and now I wait to see what she says then off to the publisher it goes.

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Sunday, March 24, 2024 4:21 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

One Dr appt is via video and the agency mtg is by phone, so thank goodness they won't kill two days!

Meanwhile getting dear daughter's OT straightened out since so much is online or via apps. Need to purchase some stuff from Etsy ... never been THERE before! Which requires Google (sigh) or Facebook (ugh). Also need to pin a couple of videos to her phone so she can practice their exercises.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Sunday, March 24, 2024 7:54 PM

I am off to work tomorrow as I got an email on Friday.

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Monday, March 25, 2024 11:25 PM

Got back after 5pm. Tired now.

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Tuesday, March 26, 2024 12:46 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, did yardwork.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, March 26, 2024 1:09 AM

Didn't do much today. Took some photos of my setup outside of the house where I need to bust out the wall to put in the generator plug and did more research on what I'll need to buy.

Looks like I'll have to get myself a 30 to 35 foot extension cord for the thing. I thought they only made them 5 feet long and I'd have to lug the genny right up next to the house, but they make them at least 100 feet long. I was hoping I could get away with only 15 or 20 feet, but there's no way I can do it and keep the genny safely in the garage and out of the elements with less than 30 feet.

It also appears that I can't install a 50 amp inlet box to future proof things either, since I can't get any answers on if it would even be safe to use a 50 amp extension cord and a 50 amp inlet box with a 20 amp generator even if I was able to get somebody to confirm that the adapter I found would be the right one for the job.

Fortunately though, it's not the end of the world that I can't. Down the road I can always buy a 50 amp inlet box and cord and just swap out the innards of the current box and it will all be fine, so long as the wires I put to the circuit breaker from the inlet box now are 6 gauge wire.

I'd basically be throwing away the $150 or so I'm going to spend now on the 30 amp cord and box, and another $30 or so on the 20/30amp adapter I'm going to buy, but buying a 50 amp generator is going to cost a boatload if I ever decide to upgrade anyhow, so I'll just add that to the cost of upgrading if I ever decide to do it.

At least I know I can safely use a 20 amp to 30 amp adapter and I'll be able to install a 30 amp inlet box now that would allow me to do a less expensive generator upgrade in the future. 30 amps wouldn't power the whole house, but really I don't ever need to do that anyhow. But I know that 30 amps would easily power everything I want and need to power during an outage if my current 20 amp genny isn't up to the task.

All in all, I think the whole solution is going to run me around $220 right now. Cheaper than I thought it would have been a week ago, but about $50 more than I was thinking it would be last night before I measured for how long an extension cord I needed. Those things are NOT cheap per linear foot.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, March 26, 2024 1:32 PM

Out in the rain in a bit. Need some supper and get a couple of other things done.

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Tuesday, March 26, 2024 4:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
At least I know I can safely use a 20 amp to 30 amp adapter and I'll be able to install a 30 amp inlet box now that would allow me to do a less expensive generator upgrade in the future. 30 amps wouldn't power the whole house, but really I don't ever need to do that anyhow. But I know that 30 amps would easily power everything I want and need to power during an outage if my current 20 amp genny isn't up to the task.

Well... That's BS... lol.

Been learning some things today, and still got some figuring to do.

Actually, anybody trying to sell an adapter on Amazon that insinuates it would step up 20AMPs to 30AMPs is selling you snake oil, and that's how a lot of these stores word it.

Not only that, but I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a plug or adapter that would be of different amperage on either end at all. But again, a lot of Amazon stores make this claim.

The adapter part comes in when you need different style plugs on either end of the setup. For instance, my generator outlet is female needing a 3-prong male plug, but any of the 30amp inlet boxes I want to install are 4-prong males that require a 4-prong female end.

They have naming conventions for these...

My generator female 3-prong is named "L5-20P"

"L5" is the connection style (3-prong)
"20" is the amperage out of my generator (20 amps)
"P" (I assume) means "Plug"

The inlet box male 4-prong is named "L14-30R"

"L14" is the connection style (4-prong)
"30" is the amperage the inlet box was designed to handle (30 amps)
"R" (I assume) means "Receptacle"

So... can you see how claiming that a plug or adapter or plug extension is 20amps on one end and 30 amps on the other end is bullshit then? How exactly would they go about doing that? Having heavier gauge wire on one end and lighter gauge wire on the other end? Best case scenario (going from a 20amp generator to a 30amp inlet), that wouldn't accomplish anything. You're not going to get 10 more amps out of your generator just because you put heavier wire on the other end of the plug. Worst case scenario (going from a 30amp generator to a 20 amp inlet), it would be a huge fire hazard. Now you've got wire too small to handle the current in there.

So... what I believe to be the case now is that all I need to concern myself with is buying an adapter that is rated for at least 20 amps that converts a 4 prong down to a 3 prong that I'd need to plug into the generator to work with my intended install of a 30 amp inlet box.

The plan now is to buy a 30amp inlet box (4-prong L14-30R Male), a 30amp extension cord (4-prong L14-30P Male [generator side] to L14-30R Female [inlet box side]), and a L5-30P (Male; to Generator) to L5-14R adapter (Female; to Extension Cord).

The fact that all of this is 30amp, including the adapter, is inconsequential. All parts of this setup would be far more than enough to handle the current from a 20amp generator while allowing me to easily upgrade to a 30amp generator in the future and just ditching the adapter when I do.

True, the beefier than needed cord and inlet box would allow for me to draw more power than the generator is capable of, but even if I wasn't paying attention to how much load I was putting on it inside the house, I can rectify this with the correct breaker in the box that would trip if I tried drawing more than 20 amps. And even short of that, the generator itself comes with its own circuit protection that would cut it off if I somehow were to try drawing too much power from it.

The part that's going to be tricky for me now is the fact that my generator is only capable of 125v and not a 125/250v setup. What that adapter is doing is splicing my hot in two (hence the 3-prong insertion to the generator but the 4-prong insertion to the house).

I get a lot of mixed info online about this. I'm not concerned that there's any safety issues with this, but there is a chance that I may have to swap some circuits on various breakers in my box depending on how they're already set up. I don't think that's the case with this adapter, but there may be a chance that I can only power up stuff that's on a single bus in the breaker.

I think I'm just going to have to order everything and do some trial and error with single LED lightbulbs on the circuits I want to power up when it all comes here.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, March 26, 2024 5:04 PM

Back and done in the dry for today.

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 12:59 AM

I can't find any information to research this stuff anywhere. Google searches are practically useless with all the various number/letter sequences, even when using quotations and AND/OR statements. Either I get DIY forum posts about somewhat similar circumstances that are just far enough removed to help or I get an endless list of results for plugs and adapters that I don't need.

I realized after writing the last post that these adapters likely weren't doing what I thought they were insinuating at all. Maybe, just maybe the L5-30P and L5-20P designations ACTUALLY had nothing at all to do with the gauge wire that was going to be in the cable, and they were actually codes for the SIZE/SHAPE of the prongs.

I finally found my answer at HomeDepot's website of all places though... LOL

That's EXACTLY what those designations mean. I found DIY plug ends for making your own cables there. I had the L5-20P in one tab and the L5-30P in the other tab. From the little box on the side next to the number it shows an illustration of what the prongs would look like if you were looking directly at the end of the plug with the prongs facing you. Clear as day with that representation you can see that not only are the width of the prongs just slightly different, but the angle at which the ground prong hooks is a straight 90 degree angle on one of them and is a bit off 90 degrees on the other one. This actually makes a lot of sense. It would prevent somebody from using a 20 amp cord for a 30 amp power source and burning all their shit down.

So I need an adapter cord.

They're not exactly easy to come by. Amazon only has one still in stock and it's from a company that just builds their own adapters and upcharges ridiculously for them. I'll be getting this item from Home Depot itself since they have one known RV brand name in stock for around $15 less than that ripoff. The added benefit is that it's completely sealed up on both ends and weatherproof, where the ones that the company on Amazon are making are not weatherproof on the female end.

I bet there's not too many people today who still have a 20amp/125v generator anymore, and maybe that's the issue here. This thing is old, but my step-dad always took great care of his tools and it looks practically brand new.

I also figured out which interlock kit I needed for safety/code compliance, and the 20 amp dual pole breaker I'm going to need as well.

So I'm about $182 into this now with the inlet box, 40ft cable and 2ft adapter cable, interlock kit and breaker.

It turns out I can buy 8 gauge romex (3 wire and ground) at the local hardware store for about $6 per foot. It also turns out that I can put 8 gauge wire in the 20 amp dual pole breaker that I am going to install currently because that's the output of my generator. It also, also turns out that 8 gauge wire can support up to 55 amps, so I could still upgrade to a 50 amp generator one day if I wanted to.

6 gauge romex would have been better for that scenario and only cost a few bucks more per foot, but I can't tie 6 gauge wire into the 20 amp breaker unfortunately. The heaviest wire that can be put in that breaker is 8 gauge. I'm not going to buy a 30 amp breaker and rely only on the breaker in the generator just to put 6 gauge wire in the wall. I don't think I'll ever upgrade to a 50 amp generator anyhow, but if I do I'll remember not to light the whole damn house up at one time with it.

30 amps would actually probably be all that I'd ever need anyhow. It turns out my main breaker is only rated at 100 amps, and it's not as if I ever tripped the main since I've lived here. So 30 amps would power almost 1/3rd of my current maximum load when the power is on.

Really, at the end of the day, the most I'd ever care to power with this thing would be my sump well, my fridge, my furnace (during a rare winter outage) and maybe my internet and computer with a few LED lights. I have no desire to power A/C with it. The longest power outage I think I ever had was only around 4 or 5 hours anyhow. It's just a potential catastrophe for me because of that sump well, and now there's the additional worry about a fridge full of insulin in the event of a longer power outage.

So I think this is all going to work out and it will cost me under $200.

I learned a lot today. It didn't feel like I got a whole lot done despite the fact I've been working on this on again and off again since 9am this morning.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 12:04 PM