2023 News Archives
This page contains the news updates from 2023, in order to keep the Welcome page from getting too big as I continue to add updates to the renovation project and web site on that page.
One of the more substantial projects completed in 2023 (1 photo).
2023 Projects
The House: 2023 was a very productive year for interior renovation work. After the living room ceiling was leveled in 2022,
I was able to finally take care of all the carpentry work in the attic to raise the attic floor for more insulation. That also made room to build
the attic truss supports for the bedroom and closet/laundry room ceiling joists. I could then re-locate and build a new bearing wall between
the bedroom and closet/laundry room, and take care of the carpentry work to level the ceiling joists for both those rooms — which took
care of all remaining rough carpentry work for the interior. The completed attic re-build also enabled us to go through essentially all
of our "stuff" that's been stored in plastic bins and boxes all over the house and in the attic for many years, and decide what we actually
need. Many trash bags and boxes of clothes, household items, and books were donated to get rid of a lot of "stuff", and everything that
remained was re-organized into new, properly labeled storage bins and put back into the attic. With the living room, bedroom, and closet/laundry
room mostly cleared out and everything in the attic, we now have the space to get after all the wall and ceiling finish work for the interior
throughout 2024.
Other news for 2023 was the fate of my '89 VW Vanagon Synchro. It was taken to the shop in late 2023 for assessment of the undercarriage rot, and
it was determined it couldn't be saved. After lots of searching we were able to find a replacement '91 Vanagon Synchro in very good shape (but
with no engine), so the motor and many other parts from my old VW began getting transfered into the new Vanagon. Hopefully I'll have a vehicle
again in 2024.
The Site: I managed to stay farily consistent with getting updates posted at least once a month, and I'm doing my best to
keep doing that as we move into 2024.
2008 News Archives.
2009 News Archives.
2010 News Archives.
2011 News Archives.
2012 News Archives.
2013 News Archives.
2014 News Archives.
2015 News Archives.
2016 News Archives.
2017 News Archives.
2018-21 News Archives.
2022 News Archives.
Old News Updates
2023.12.31
The House: We've made it through another relaxing Christmas, and are ready for more fun in 2024! Since the last update,
I've made some very good progress on the house, and I'm satisified with what was accomplished on the place in 2023. I spent a fair amount of time
"flying solo" in early December, as the lovely bride had an opportunity to head off to Hawaii right after Thanksgiving for about a three week
volunteer job with Samaritan's
Purse
, doing clean up work in Lahaina on Maui
(which is where her father is from, and she has a lot of family there that were affected by the wild fires). While she was away I managed to
take care of the last of the rough carpentry work for the house interior as I completed the remainder of the new attic floor installation for the
rest of the house. I'm glad she's back, and once we get the Christmas decorations put away in the attic, the last thing to do up there will be to add
the final layer of insulation. The space will then be available to put back all the boxes and bins of stuff we've been tripping over for the last few
months, so we can start on interior finish work next year.
I also managed to send the '89 VW Vanagon off to the shop in early December to finally deal with the rusted rear control arms, and see if I could
get that thing back on the road by Spring. Unfortunately, my mechanic friend reported that it's just too far gone to be saved — there's basically
not enough solid stuff left of the undercarriage for attaching new sheet metal and suspension parts. It's gone for good, but we're going to save a lot
of it to get "transplanted" into a fresh vehicle. The good news is that we already found a '92 Vanagon Synchro in Maine that had the
engine removed (apparantly it was going to have an electric conversion preformed by some college students, but then the project never happened).
It's been sitting for a few years with a very clean interior and no rust at all. I've got a good running engine (with re-built heads,
stainless-steel exhaust, all new fuel lines, air-flow meter, fuel injectors, and all new hoses & stainless steel coolant pipes), so that will
get installed in the '92 to get me a new vehicle. There's lots of other parts that will get swapped in from my old one (new steering rack, tires
& wheels, the South African 4-headlight grill, and lots of other electronics), then it will get a few new goodies (it's going to need new
bumpers – either from GoWesty or Van Cafe) to finally make it complete. It'll cost a few grand, and I probably won't get it until Spring, but
it should end up as the last vehicle I'll ever own.
The Site: The rest of the attic floor work info is once again on the Energy Efficiency page
within the Mechanical section, as it started with getting down More Attic
Insulation into the bedroom and closet/laundry room raised attic floor framing. Once that was taken care of, I then got the
Remainder of the New Attic Flooring installed. All the new information has also been added to
the Project Timeline, and of course I also updated the search index. That's it for 2023 — have
a Happy New Year!
2023.11.12
The House: We've been enjoying some fairly mild weather lately (and no snow yet), so after I took care of the final
lawn mowing for the year and got the lawn mower put away, I then managed to grab a picture of our Japanese 'Waterfall' Maple in full fall
color. Other than one afternoon outside for lawn mowing however, the last couple weeks have been spent building the raised attic floor supports for
above the bedroom and closet/laundry room. That project was completed a couple days ago, and I'm happy to report that the attic is now ready for
the remainder of the insulation work. I also fabricated an "insulation shredder" for the AttiCat® stuff, so
I won't need to rent the rather cumbersome machine to deal with that material when the time comes.
The Site: This update for the bedroom and closet/laundry room attic work ended up on the Energy Efficiency
page within the Mechanical section, just as I'd done when working on the living room attic earlier this year (the reason to
raise the attic floor is to allow more insulation up there after all, so it makes sense to me to put all this project information in the
insulation section of the site). So, a few details of the insulation shredder build start off the new Bedroom
& Closet Attic Work section on that page, followed by the text and photos covering the Raising
the Bedroom & Closet/Laundry Room Attic Floor work. The new stuff has been added to the Project
Timeline and also updated in the search index, as usual.
2023.10.23
The House: Well, it took an extra week, but by the middle of the month I managed connect with my friend with the truck to
get in a supply run to Lowe's for a load of 1/4" plywood, 7/16" OSB, and a few sheets of 1/2" drywall. That allowed me to get
the new vapor barrier and first layer of the bedroom ceiling stapled up, and then get the vapor barrier and drywall up for the closet/laundry room
ceiling. With those ceilings in place, I can finally get back into the attic to get the remainder of the attic floor supports built and then insulate
the rest of the attic before Winter.
The Site: Just a brief update to the Bedroom page within the
Interior section with text and a few pictures of the Bedroom Ceiling Underlayment
and the Closet/Laundry Room Ceiling work. As usual, the latest update has been added to the
Project Timeline along with an update to the search index.
2023.09.29
The House: The last couple weeks have been spent taking care of a few details regarding the bedroom and closet
renovation — the closet ceiling has been leveled, and with that carpentry work done I set about getting the last of the household wiring work
completed. The remainder of the wall outlets were installed for the bedroom and closet along with the last few light switches, and then the smoke alarm
wire runs in the attic were taken care of. I still need to get that 1/4-inch thick plywood for the bedroom ceiling, along with a couple sheets of
drywall for the closet ceiling (hopefully this weekend), then it's back to attic work.
The Site: I added a couple new paragraphs to the Wiring page within the
Mechanical section, which address the updated Wiring Plans and the
last of the Household Wiring work. I also added more information regarding the final few
Lutron® Caséta® switches we installed to wrap up the
Wiring Upgrades section of that page. Getting the wiring finished also got me to take the time to
double-check the Specifications page listing of Receptacles, Switches & Wall Plates and
ensure it has the correct information to match what's been recently removed and replaced. As always, this stuff has been put on the
Project Timeline along with an update to the search index.
2023.09.12
The House: Still bangin' away on the bedroom & walk-in closet/laundry room, although the bedroom is mostly
wrapped up for the moment. The new partition walls are up and the attic access hatch has been framed, which also allowed me to take care of
the wiring for the bedroom lighting and light switches. Next for that space is to get a load of 1/4-inch thick plywood to apply as the
ceiling "underlayment", which will let me get back to the attic to finish the rest of the raised floor and attic insulation work. In the
mean time I've decided to go ahead and get the ceiling leveled for the walk-in closet/laundry room (I was going to skip the leveling work
for that little room, but it's just too wonky to leave as is so I'm dealing with it now).
The Site: The Bedroom page of the Interior section got
another round of updates with details of re-arranging the Laundry Equipment Connections in case we decide to
replace those appliances at some point (which also got me to finally update the 30 pages of wiring circuit plans on the
Specifications main page). I've also added more text and photos regarding the construction of the
new Bedroom Partition Walls and the Attic Access Hatch Framing work.
All this stuff has also been added to the Project Timeline along with an updated the search index, as usual.
2023.08.20
The House: Work continues at a good pace on the bedroom and closet/laundry room. After most of the new
truss boards were installed (the couple that are left will need to wait until I get the new hatch opening cut in
the ceiling joists… which has to wait until the new walls are up), I also dealt with getting a couple new recessed light fixtures in place,
along with the other couple ceiling electrical boxes (and those goofy things in the photo). Next, the old "hardware store"
was completely emptied, so I could remove the last of the old flooring and ceiling tiles, then get the final couple sheets of new OSB underlayment
installed. So more good progress, if I do say so myself!
The Site: The Bedroom page of the Interior section got
more updates with details of the Bedroom Ceiling Extras that were worked on since there's no way
to get at the front of the space from above, and I've also added more text and photos regarding the removal of the old flooring and installation
of the last of the New OSB Underlayment. As usual, I added the latest work to the
Project Timeline, and updated the search index once more.
2023.08.09
The House: As mentioned in the last update, we dedicated a fair amount of time to getting all the stuff from the attic,
bedroom, and closet re-organized into bins so I can re-arrange it easily while doing work on those areas of the house. With that done, the last
few weeks I've been quite busy working on the bedroom and attic over the bedroom. I've removed almost all of the remaining original framing and
surface finishes from the bedroom and closet (there's a few ceiling tiles and a couple sheets of linoleum flooring in the closet, but
that's it), then got a fresh set of plans ready for the bedroom framing work for the new wall and attic hatch. That allowed me to make some
good progress on bedroom carpentry work, including getting the bedroom ceiling joists level, like I'd done in the living room earlier this year.
I've got a little more work to do in the bedroom attic, then we can take care of the closet and get the new bedroom wall built. Progress!
The Site: The Bedroom page of the Interior section got
a major update to include the New Plans, document all the work on Leveling
the Ceiling, as well as a section regarding the installation of some of the New Attic Truss Boards
to keep the ceiling where it's supposed to be. I also added all the latest work to the Project
Timeline, and then updated the search index to include all this new stuff.
2023.07.22
The House: Apologies for the slightly delayed update, but there hasn't been too much to share so far this Summer. We have been very busy
with the "clean-up & clear out" project since May, but it's not real exciting stuff. As I mentioned below, once the attic floor was re-built over the living room,
that area of the attic was filled with bins of Christmas decorations, some outdoor recreation gear, puzzles & games, and lots of kitchen "extras" that we rarely use.
All the remaining bins from the attic came down, along with eight file boxes of old paperwork (bank statements, paid bills, tax returns, etc.). The first thing we
tackled were the bins of clothes we never wear anymore, so all those went into nine trash bags for a pick-up from
SimpleRecycling.com,
which freed up a load of bins. They also took a handful of dishes and kitchen stuff we don't need, and I confirmed they'll even take our exercise equipment with our next
pick-up (likely another two or three bags of bedding and towels). I also managed to dis-assemble an old bookshelf, and we filled seven totes with books which were
donated to the local library. Another chore was to go through all those boxes of paperwork and feed nearly everything into a shredder to put out with the recycling for pick-up each
week.
The final chore was to deal with the "hardware store", which is what we call the laundry room. That space has been accumulating building materials, paints & stains,
hardware & fasteners, and all manner of tools for years. It's all going to have to be moved to make any progress on building out the bedroom ceiling and the rest of the
attic, so I figured I'd put everything in plastic bins so I can move it around when doing demolition and carpentry work in there. The space had three, cheap metal, 5-foot high
shelf units, and another pair of 3-foot high units that were absolutely packed with supplies. I started by filling the bins we'd emptied from the attic, but that only took care
of a single shelf units worth of stuff. I then made a Home Depot run for a bunch of their "HDX" black & yellow stacking bins, and kept emptying shelves and attempting
to organize everything into new bins. After a few weeks of that and 19 new bins (along with another 10 we'd emptying of other stuff) the "hardware store" shelves were
empty, and everything can be easily moved as needed. The goal was to separate supplies that cannot freeze from everything else, so everything else can go into the attic when it
comes time to build the laundry room/walk-in closet. At this point, the only stuff that will end up in the attic again is the single box of paperwork (tax returns, house
purchase documentation, and a handful of other records we basically should keep forever), and a bin or two of off season clothes that won't stay in the closet or bedroom dressers.
Everything else from the "hardware store" will live in the garage loft someday. It's quite satisfying to make all that un-used "stuff" go-away, and a bit of a relief
to know we won't burden our family with all of it when we're gone.
We also made a little progress on the yard work, and got the pond up and running. I still need to take care of repairing the pull starter on the leaf machine, otherwise regular
mowing and pruning is happening when the weather is good. I also managed to get my old Porter-Cable® Job Boss™ 4.5gal. oil-lubricated air
compressor working again! I'd been tripping over that thing in the tent garage for nearly a year, and decided to open it up to see if the motor could be replaced, or if it was
scrap metal. It turns out the power cord connector inside the end of the motor had gotten wet at some point and was badly corroded. I trimmed back the wire, crimped on a new
connector, and the thing ran perfectly! After a decent cleaning of the whole thing and fresh lube, I've now got an extra compressor available!
The Site: Like last time, none of what's been going on here for the last few weeks really warrants a site update. I did sort out
this news page and get all the 2022 stuff over to its own 2022 News Archive page, but that's all for now.
2023.05.31
The House: Most of April was spent crawling around in the attic, playing with the 7/16" OSB to get the half of the attic floor
over the living room installed. That work was completed after a few weeks, and then it was time to go through all the boxes and bins we'd moved to make room for floor work, and
try to consolidate everything we are keeping over to the new floor to open up the area over the bedroom. There's a lot more space over the bedroom (because there are
none of those "sorta-truss" boards between the ceiling joists and the rafters), so we only managed to get about half of the bins stashed over the living room.
Everything else up there will need to go away, or get stacked in the bedroom and living room to open up the attic for the remaining work to be done over the bedroom.
It's pretty slow going, but we're making progress. Now it's just a matter of finding time to work up there when it's not too hot (usually on rainy days when we can't do yard work).
I did receive that used motherboard and got my system up and running again, so that's good (although because of the new hardware, I couldn't re-activate my old version of
MS Office so I had to upgrade all that stuff). That allowed me to get the taxes done on time, which is also a good thing.
Most of May has been dedicated to continued attic clean up, and starting to take care of the yard. Both the lawn mower and the leaf picker-upper needed some repairs to get
working again this year, so that took a while. I also needed to do a few repairs to the deck (a couple boards popped up, and a few screw plugs had gone missing), so I ended
up cleaning the whole deck and re-staining the thing. Still lots of leaves to collect from last year, then I'll need to get the pond cleaned up and running in the next week or two.
It also appears that we may have lost all of the bamboo, due to a few days of consistent below zero temperatures last Winter. After all those years to finally finish a proper
bamboo barrier, it will be a bummer if the stuff doesn't recover.
The Site: Not a lot of what's been going on here for the last few weeks warrants a site update, although I did get a couple
more paragraphs and a handful of photos in to the Energy Efficiency page of the Mechanical
section to describe the second layer of Attic Insulation and the Floor Installation
work. As usual, I also updated the Project Timeline to include the recent work, and once more was able to
refresh the search index.
2023.04.02
The House: The last little task for the living room ceiling, getting the openings cut for the in-ceiling speakers, was taken care of in
early March. Installing all the gypsum wall board in there is next, but that will have to wait until a friend with a pick-up truck has time to assist with getting
it over here. In the mean time there's plenty of work to take care of in the attic above the living room and kitchen, so I've been working up there quite a bit. The
first project up there was to get the remaining HRV supply and exhaust ductwork installed, then balance the HRV air flows (which is a project I had started
back in 2005!). Next I worked on raising the attic floor to make room for more insulation, and then get the first layer of R-19 insulation down over that half of the house.
I also decided to re-locate the doorbell bell to the boiler room (since it was much quieter with the living room ceiling and insulation in place). I also took care of
getting the speaker wires for all the surround speakers routed properly across the living room ceiling, as well as run the next bit of wiring to connect the genkan
smoke detector with the one in the kitchen, then over to the one that goes outside the bathroom near the bedroom.
So lots of progress on the house is the good news, but there's also bad news… On the evening of March 30th our power blinked on and off a couple
times before it finally went out for a few hours. No wind or storms happening, it just went out. Not a big deal though — all the computers are connected to
nice APC uninterruptible power supplies so those things just started beepin' and I simply shut down all the systems without issues. The next morning I powered up everything, starting
with the servers and networking stuff, then tried my workstation once everything else was up and running. No joy. No POST beep, no nothin'. It seemed to be completely
dead. I tried unhooking all the peripherals, removed the graphics card and connected the monitor directly to the motherboard, and even replaced the CMOS battery.
Nope. I've ordered a used replacement motherboard to see if I can resurrect the thing, but I suspect it may be gone for good. I kinda figured it was about time for a
new PC this year, but I'd like to get this thing running again to take care of the taxes, then gradually migrate everything to a new system in a few months. Damn.
The Site: With no workstation available (and no ability for gaming to waste time), I managed to take care of getting a few
updates done for all the recent work by working on one of the servers. These include photos and descriptions for the last of the work (for now)
for the Living Room page of the Interior section with the installation of the
Ceiling "Underlayment" Plywood. The Energy Efficiency page
of the Mechanical section got a new addition regarding new Attic Insulation
work, as well as the Attic Floor support work. I also took care of the update for the
HRV Exhaust Ductwork which wraps up the HRV installation work at long last. Lastly, I updated the
Project Timeline to include the recent work, but won't be able to refresh the search index until I get
the old system up and running again. That'll do for now.
2023.02.17
The House: All of the living room rough carpentry and wiring work is completed, so we're ready to get the new vapor barrier installed and
move forward with finished ceiling installation. I also sent a note along earlier this week to our town's Building Department to ask what the next step is to
"renew" that 14 year old building permit we got when we started the interior renovation work. The Administrative Assistant for the Building Department has changed
from the old days, as have all the inspectors, so I figured this was going to be a somewhat detailed and fairly expensive undertaking to make everything right again. I was
rather surprised to get a response almost immediately that my message had been forwarded to the new Building Inspector, and I should expect a phone call soon... a couple
hours later I got the call, and started to explain a bit of the project history as well as the reasons for all the delays in progress. I was a bit shocked when he told me
it wasn't a problem at all, and that they generally don't worry too much about the length of time required for work completion that homeowners are doing themselves
(as opposed to work that contractors are doing, which must get some manner of inspection for the various stages of the work at least once a year). He said if I have
the original permit with the signatures from previous "partial rough-in" and electrical inspections (I do), we could just keep that one going — no
new permit paperwork and no new fees. Unbelievable!
He offered to come by soon to have a look at the latest rough-in work that was completed, and to familiarize himself with the project. We set a time for yesterday morning,
and he even arrived a few minutes early. He looked over everything that was done so far, and also explained that the new Electric Inspector generally only bothers with
inspections for work that is being performed by electrical contractors on a specific electric work permit, so no need to have him look at anything (since I'm doing all
the wiring myself under the interior renovation permit). I had printed a couple extra copies of the old engineer approved floor plans for the wall we'll eventually have to
move that's between the bedroom and walk-in closet (available to view in the old Interior Floor Plans section of the main
Interior page). He mentioned that he knows the engineer I had work on those plans with me, and he took a copy to add to our file. So, the result of his visit is that
we are set to proceed with all work for the foreseeable future! He said I'll need to give him a call for the final "rough-in" inspection when the bedroom
bearing wall work is done, and that'll be it until the final interior finish inspection when all remaining work is completed.
The Site: Another bunch of text and a handful of photos of recent work have been added to the
Living Room page of the Interior section. I finished the plans and then took care of framing
the tokonoma (display alcove), as well as got started on the tokobashira (corner post)
for the toko. All this can be found in the new Building the Tokonoma
section on that page. As with any update, I also tweaked the Project Timeline, and refreshed the search index.
2023.01.25
The House: The new year has been busy so far, with lots of living room renovation work underway. Over the last few weeks we've gotten almost all
the living room light fixtures installed, worked out how the finished ceiling is going to look, and even made some progress in the attic on work up there that's easier to do when
the living room ceiling is open. I still need to head to town hall and deal with our building permit that expired in 2011 (so we can get the ceiling wiring inspected),
but in the mean time I've got more rough carpentry to take care of in the attic and the living room.
The Site: More text and photos of the recent work have been added to the Living Room page
of the Interior section, including Ceiling Lights Installation, a set
of New Plans to figure out the proper work order of projects, and then the carpentry work for the
Fusuma Door Header that runs the length of the room from the bathroom to the front wall.
The HVAC page of the Mechanical section also got an update with information and a few
photos of the HRV Ductwork Installation that runs above the living room and over to the boiler room.
Naturally this also led to an update to the Project Timeline page, along with the usual search index
refresh. Enjoy!
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