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Post by petrushka on Nov 11, 2016 17:08:57 GMT -5
It's really mind-boggling. The walls will get steel rods screwed into them at the bottom, and those rods (and the binding with the concrete floor) will hold the walls up once the floor's poured. The slab gets very thick around the edges, like about 12" or more, you can see a grey area at the inside lower edge of some panels that is indicative of the final floor level.
For some earthquake-experience based reasons they have gone away from welding the panels together. Seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it?
In the middle of the floor are piles of crushed rock as base for the floor, which will 'only' be 4" thick in the centre of each room. So they'll level that before the concrete trucks come in, put in whatever ducts and the steel ...
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Post by petrushka on Nov 11, 2016 1:13:42 GMT -5
Here's a short .avi of Fritz the Cat. I shot a nuissance bird out some 50m in the paddock behind the house because he was terrorizing his family (and us). Now Fritz knows the sound of my .22. A couple of minutes later, THIS happened. www.dropbox.com/s/po7psp9bds0uu2w/golden_retriever.AVI?dl=0It is a complete mystery to me how he found it, Fritz was nowhere to be seen when that bird had his 'accident'. All I can say: he is resourceful. WARNING: this is not for very soft hearted folk, possibly. Cats have neither conscience nor mercy.
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Post by petrushka on Nov 11, 2016 1:06:09 GMT -5
And here are the pretty pictures. No floor yet, nor a roof, but ... it was a trip watching the building go up in a single day.
sorry that link has expired.
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Post by petrushka on Nov 11, 2016 1:04:40 GMT -5
Nice Car, Tiger. We have the VW twin to it, the Passat Alltrack diesel. Fantastic cars to drive, and, make no mistake, these handle a ton better than the Volvos, I speak from experience here. Love the Volvos (we had several) but they still don't handle as well. The 850 was fine, but the XC70 was back to 'brick on a rollerskate' feel. Spongy steering. We actually dropped the marque because the local franchise holder is a mercenary who took us (read: talked my wife into) for several thousand with unnecessary repairs and then stuffed up a gearbox ...
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Post by petrushka on Nov 8, 2016 1:10:51 GMT -5
The cat in the sink reminds me of our cat (42 years ago) named "Kito". He was often found sitting in the toilet bowl, angling for fish. I kid you not. Of course there were no fish, but he was firmly convinced that maybe, one day, a fish might show up.
You'd go and sit on the throne, and the throne would go 'miaow!'. Oops, narrow escape there, Kito!
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Post by petrushka on Nov 2, 2016 5:20:37 GMT -5
Welcome, catonapillow ... and my condolences. I have to be completely honest here and say your post scared the bejeezus out of me. The thought of traveling this road again in a new relationship and being denied and neglected again is frightening. I feel your pain. My fear is the converse: not that that I will fall in to another relationship with another refuser... rather I sometimes fear that being in the SM for SO LONG and suppressing my natural, sexual side will have crippled ME. I wonder if I will be able to be the partner I want to be... and I know I could have been, even a few years ago. While I was actively outsourcing -- throughout most of my forties -- I was at the top of my game. Now I'm not actively seeking to outsource... and feeling, well, more than a bit rusty. Maybe I can find romance again and it will be like "riding a bike". But what if it the other way around: what if I'm not seeking to outsource now because at the core my libido is flagging? Age, minor health stuff, and just losing confidence that the type of relationship I crave is "out there"... each are doing a number on my psyche. Ha! Gods yes. I'm 62. I haven't used "the equipment" in the way it's meant to be used for .... 13 years now. Would it still work? I am almost afraid to try, should the opportunity offer itself. Yeesh.
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Post by petrushka on Oct 22, 2016 8:29:41 GMT -5
I have a disturbing relationship with our plasma cutter. Is it hotter than your wife?
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Post by petrushka on Oct 20, 2016 14:52:21 GMT -5
I figured the reason for building the shop first is so you could use it to build parts of the house. That should be awesome. But concrete precast walls? That's even more industrial grade than I'd consider, and that's saying something. You might be raising the bar on me here. Why not wood frame, or even steel frame, construction? I've had a nice woodshop for decades, but lately getting into metalworking. That's a much more expensive game and the tools are crazy heavy for rigidity (and because they're all-metal construction). Fortunately, I can use someone else's shop for that. Are you sticking with strictly woodworking, and just for hobby? There are several reasons for the concrete: 1 - to match the house, which will also be "tilt slab construction" for insulation in summer and winter and thermal mass; 2- for sound insulation, because I don't want to piss the neighbours off; 3 was to be 'speed' but speed has been that of a snail as it turns out, due to hoops, the jumping of, and snails are never very good at THAT. I used to do utilitarian metal work - mostly welding up things for the farm, building and repairing trailers, gates, stock-cages, whatever. I brought my welding gear, but I am doubtful if I'll find much use for it. So yes, it will be mostly woodwork for a hobby, once the house is done. Who knows, I may get to build a few more commissioned pieces if word gets around. I also used to build a lot of custom computers for people, do data recovery and keep all the old ladies' computers in the district running but I'll not build another computer workbench into my den. Technology has overtaken that, I feel. It will probably end up being woodwork all the way.
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Post by petrushka on Oct 19, 2016 19:59:30 GMT -5
Holy cow, you guys make me cringe. Seriously - how can I be in a relationship with someone who cannot be trusted to be responsible with our money? That is just not on my event horizon. One of the main reasons I separated from my first wife was that she saw me as a source of cash to be spent on others. (One other reason was that she didn't stick to agreements and compromises negotiated on fiscal affairs -- for instance she trashed my car, we negotiated that we'd take the insurance money and her car, pool the lot and buy a new car -- then, after the new car was bought it turned out she'd given her car to her brother). If I can't trust my s.o. implicitly, there is no relationship. Fuck. That. That's not a line in the sand, that's the Suez Canal. She can go and fuck someone else, she can go and spend 100 grand on a Porsche, but if she's not open about it, if she's doing it surreptitiously and hiding it from me, I'll take that as a lesson paid for and end the game. Well that's my take. If I can't trust them to be responsible I'd just not even entertain having them as more than a friend across town. I'm kind of 'all in, or not at all' in that way. Of course, I've never shared my life with a feckless spendthrift - on the other hand, I'd probably never do that in the first place. "Fuckless Spendthrift"- you just described the last 23 years of my life. Finally I'm free and at peace. Oh wait! Fuckless Irresponsible Spendthrift! Freudian slip while reading? <grins> feckless==irresponsible, useless, inept, clueless. But I agree entirely: a fuck-less feckless spendthrift would be The Pits !!!
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Post by petrushka on Oct 19, 2016 6:24:19 GMT -5
Hey it's already Thursday ... I can barely remember the weekend .... but, actually, it was lovely. Went back to our old district, had dinner with friends, and boardgames -- we used to get together with those guys every two weeks for dinner and boardgames -- spent the night, came home and had a very productive meeting with the guy who's building our house for us on the Sunday afternoon.
Yupp, a very nice weekend indeed.
I hope yours was good too?
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Post by petrushka on Oct 18, 2016 14:46:41 GMT -5
Building is stressful! So many detailed decisions to make - and to get right on the first try! 3-phase power... I wish! Would that be 480v in your geography? Oh, the manly tools one could power! ;-) Will you be pouring an extra thick pad for a lathe? Micro-inverters... consider that when sections of your field are obscured or fail, only part of the production stops (as opposed to a central inverter where it's binary). Also, I believe they'll give more granular info on the production level of each panel. Suggestions for the shop... you can never have too many power outlets (on alternating breakers) or compressed air hookups (and ceiling-mounted reels for both). Dust collection ducting isn't a bad idea either. And strategically-placed high-power outlets for welders, compressors, plasma cutters, a powder-coating oven... ;-) We're 230/400 V here. Since in my previous location we could only have single or (simulated via a 400V tap on the transformer) two phase, all my woodworking machinery only has single phase motors, unfortunately. And I hear what you're saying about power points. Can never have too many in the shop (just like the kitchen!). Loads of concrete ... including 6" precast walls. I'm housing the dust extraction and compressor in a little room of their own, to keep the air cleaner and the noise down. But probably not another lathe. I left the old one behind, because the registers were off at the bowl turning end. And it's not what I am passionate about ... it's not at all clear if I will ever feel inclined to replace it. But I still have all the gouges and chisels. Building the furniture for the workshop will keep me busy for a while, until I can start on the built-in furniture for the house. I am looking forward to that. It will keep me busy and out of the tiny flat we're in.
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Post by petrushka on Oct 18, 2016 8:39:56 GMT -5
Holy cow, you guys make me cringe. Seriously - how can I be in a relationship with someone who cannot be trusted to be responsible with our money? That is just not on my event horizon.
One of the main reasons I separated from my first wife was that she saw me as a source of cash to be spent on others. (One other reason was that she didn't stick to agreements and compromises negotiated on fiscal affairs -- for instance she trashed my car, we negotiated that we'd take the insurance money and her car, pool the lot and buy a new car -- then, after the new car was bought it turned out she'd given her car to her brother).
If I can't trust my s.o. implicitly, there is no relationship. Fuck. That. That's not a line in the sand, that's the Suez Canal. She can go and fuck someone else, she can go and spend 100 grand on a Porsche, but if she's not open about it, if she's doing it surreptitiously and hiding it from me, I'll take that as a lesson paid for and end the game.
Well that's my take. If I can't trust them to be responsible I'd just not even entertain having them as more than a friend across town. I'm kind of 'all in, or not at all' in that way. Of course, I've never shared my life with a feckless spendthrift - on the other hand, I'd probably never do that in the first place.
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Post by petrushka on Oct 17, 2016 17:43:37 GMT -5
I've been sitting here for days, if not weeks .... well for starters it was learning how to use SketchUp. So I can design my kitchen for our new house (and yes, my kitchen because I'm the one who cooks 29 days out of the month - because I love doing it) ... and of course, design after design needed to be changed, because of other changes, and I'm in for yet another one. Well, maybe later. After all, the house will not be started on until March or so.
But now, they are actually starting to build our workshop/garage building! 26th is the magic date. And, while I am in no way prepared to go off-grid (not with 3 phase power at the gate!) I will put a big solar array on the roof of the workshop - so we need to do this right, and straight away, because the power needs to be laid, and laid out ... and here I am, I am sure, my eyes must look like some bug-eyes by now, segmented into little squares, just from looking at pictures and reviews of solar panels .... not to mention that there is the big decision to be made between string-inverter vs. micro-inverters.
My head is spinning, my eyes feel like I've been rubbing them with sand.
I think I just need to step back and take a day or two off, even though we really need to get moving on this.
eep.
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Post by petrushka on Oct 17, 2016 2:33:45 GMT -5
But I haven't read all the stories, and some may not have shared theirs. So I'm just curious, for those of you who have read that book as a couple or talked about love languages with a counselor, did any of your refusing spouses have a love language other than acts of service? I guess I swim against the current here, then. Mine actually seems to resent 'acts of service'. Doesn't know what to do with it. Doesn't know how to do it, either, it's very much a recently learned behaviour for her (to, say, bring me a cup of coffee at my desk) and it's clearly not deeply ingrained. It's pretty clear that 'acts of service' didn't happen in her fucked up home, just like expression of emotions or declarations of affection, and it's all like someone talking in Urdu to her. If anything, she reacts as though it was an intrusion on her autonomy, or something. Search me ....
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Post by petrushka on Oct 5, 2016 22:40:23 GMT -5
All my best wishes to all of you in the affected areas out there.
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