they ask your help in searching streets for the gun that was stuck to your forehead, and your missing wallet. Incidentally, yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary, and while I went off to buy some buttons, Jason went for his evening walk and was held up five houses down from us. The kids, who did it on a dare and were wearing white!, were caught thanks to a very observant neighbor who called the police before Jason even made it to the phone. Thank you, neighborhood watch! It really does work!
Rather than reform homeowner's insurance, (or fund education or environmental cleanup) our developer-friendly state legislature is trying to lower/eliminate property taxes to help homeowners on fixed incomes and vacation home-owners without homesteader exemptions (which, incidentally bring in lots of money). The missing money cannot be replaced by new taxation and this is creating a crisis in fiscally responsible cities and towns like Jacksonville, where property taxes are our largest source of revenue, $50-$85 million worth. Thusly, the mayor has asked departments to cut 10% of their staff, eliminating public health care, and has instituted a hiring freeze which includes the Sheriff's Office, already low on patrolmen.
This makes neighborhood watches invaluable. I've noticed anytime anything happens in the park across the street, like young kids trying to build a cardboard box camp with a camp fire, or the guy screaming at his cell phone, the police show up in numbers. It is odd to feel people watching from their homes when you walk down the street, but that's the best way, I guess. I do it too but always thought I'm too nosy. We do live near a "home" and the intersection of heavy-traffic roads so odd things and people happen frequently.
I worry about retaliation even though the guy was probably 15 and the detective said he was no thug. I'm nervous to be near the windows at night and well, I never answer the door when I'm alone during the day anyway. I am happy, though, to pay my full property tax.
What I Have Learned but Kept Secret!
Looking through my google keyword log, I've noticed that the phrases directing people to Ralph's House are often phrases I mention but never follow up on. I'm sure this is true for many sites. I feel badly that people are directed here and waste .2 seconds of their time scanning my page to discover it has nothing to do with their issue. .2 seconds adds up! So, here is a list of keyword search phrases which I fear pointed uselessly at my blog, and then all the knowledge I know about anything. Actual information, better late than never?
"can I cover up an electrical socket with drywall"
No. Either cover the outlet with a flat plastic plate to block the outlet, from your local electrical parts aisle (this was done with my 220 wall AC outlet, which is still an active circuit although closed off in the 1980s) or remove the wiring and outlet, then patch.
"cauldron shop"
Try Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc., a great place for reenactment clothing. Also, Smoke and Fire.
"drilling in brick deck ledger" (common)
My bricks were too soft and fragile to attempt hammer drilling, so I dug for concrete-based posts right next to the foundation instead. However, you can rent a hammer drill from a local tool rental outfit. Sometimes they insist you rent a bit from them and pay bit insurance, sometimes they let you use your own drill bit. Either way, for us it would have been $60 for several hours' use. My mom recommends Red Head anchor bolts for concrete block. It involves pre-drilling holes in both the wall and your ledger board. The diameter depends on the type of material you are anchoring to. Maybe your hardware store personnel can help. Trying to hammer nails into your brick wall to make holes doesn't work well. This is a good link for general deck construction info: Hometime - they also have a video from the early 90s called, appropriately, "Decks".
"ralph houses"
Unless this is a fancy term for pub, I don't know of any houses where you can get away with this. Ralph does it weekly, and everyday when she ate that new cat food in the green bag with the commercial of the cat doing yoga. Its color didn't match our wood floor very well. I recommend buying food to match your flooring.
"attatching pergola to deck" (common)
Our plan of attachment is for the deck support posts to be the same posts supporting the pergola joists (see bottom of page). I think the latest Lowe's woodworking newsletter gives directions for a pergola (though a little more complicated than it needs to be, I think).
"decking" (common)
We used pressure-treated yellow pine from Lowe's and HD. Pine is plentiful around here. We couldn't afford to use redwood or spruce or composite. I didn't have a drawn plan, just went by measurements and sort of made it up. I say draw out a plan first.
"missing piece of popcorn ceiling"
Ugh, why would you want to replace a missing piece of popcorn? Take it all down!
"my brick home needs tuckpointed bad"
Tom Silva shows how to do this sometime in the 06-07 season of Ask This Old House. Although I'm fairly certain Kevin calls it "ass this old house".
Yes, you can put your water heater in the attic. It does just fine, and if it leaks, it was past time for you to buy a new one anyway! Naughty!
"can I cover up an electrical socket with drywall"
No. Either cover the outlet with a flat plastic plate to block the outlet, from your local electrical parts aisle (this was done with my 220 wall AC outlet, which is still an active circuit although closed off in the 1980s) or remove the wiring and outlet, then patch.
"cauldron shop"
Try Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc., a great place for reenactment clothing. Also, Smoke and Fire.
"drilling in brick deck ledger" (common)
My bricks were too soft and fragile to attempt hammer drilling, so I dug for concrete-based posts right next to the foundation instead. However, you can rent a hammer drill from a local tool rental outfit. Sometimes they insist you rent a bit from them and pay bit insurance, sometimes they let you use your own drill bit. Either way, for us it would have been $60 for several hours' use. My mom recommends Red Head anchor bolts for concrete block. It involves pre-drilling holes in both the wall and your ledger board. The diameter depends on the type of material you are anchoring to. Maybe your hardware store personnel can help. Trying to hammer nails into your brick wall to make holes doesn't work well. This is a good link for general deck construction info: Hometime - they also have a video from the early 90s called, appropriately, "Decks".
"ralph houses"
Unless this is a fancy term for pub, I don't know of any houses where you can get away with this. Ralph does it weekly, and everyday when she ate that new cat food in the green bag with the commercial of the cat doing yoga. Its color didn't match our wood floor very well. I recommend buying food to match your flooring.
"attatching pergola to deck" (common)
Our plan of attachment is for the deck support posts to be the same posts supporting the pergola joists (see bottom of page). I think the latest Lowe's woodworking newsletter gives directions for a pergola (though a little more complicated than it needs to be, I think).
"decking" (common)
We used pressure-treated yellow pine from Lowe's and HD. Pine is plentiful around here. We couldn't afford to use redwood or spruce or composite. I didn't have a drawn plan, just went by measurements and sort of made it up. I say draw out a plan first.
"missing piece of popcorn ceiling"
Ugh, why would you want to replace a missing piece of popcorn? Take it all down!
"my brick home needs tuckpointed bad"
Tom Silva shows how to do this sometime in the 06-07 season of Ask This Old House. Although I'm fairly certain Kevin calls it "ass this old house".
Yes, you can put your water heater in the attic. It does just fine, and if it leaks, it was past time for you to buy a new one anyway! Naughty!
Fort Clinch
Just to confuse my shiny, geometrically patterned Art Deco dreams, yesterday we went to one of our local coastal forts. Fort Clinch was begun in 1847 and never really finished, part of a 2nd tier series of fortifications built by Congress. It was used in the Civil War and WWII but never saw much action. On the first weekend of every month it's populated by men who talk about the place like they live, eat and work there and do not know the world from which visitors come. You think they're a little cracked in the head, but it's okay. It's fun, and their characters do seem to know about point-and-shoot cameras.The guy who kept the outdoor fire going was heating and straightening bent window pulleys just like ours, and over the fire in the very hot kitchen was a cauldron of bean and chicken stew. Most of the structures were reasonably cool despite it being 90+ degrees in the open sunlight. On staff yesterday were the jailer, pharmacist/doctor, guards, and cooks.
Shiny, gold!
This is the new light in the dining room. Labor was about 5 hours, doing touch-up paint on scratches, re-wiring (although I skipped re-wiring the little twist knob at the bottom), finding a plate to hang it from, and then hanging. And some more touch-up.
The gold paint was mixed from craft store liquid acrylic leftover from a medieval icon project in college. It has a metallic sheen. The light has 4-5 different shades of gold and amber, so I mixed in raw sienna and raw umber canvas paint to make the colors. It took an hour of patient mixing and painting in thin layers to match chipped and scratched areas to the lovely original brass, green and coppery color. Even though the original finish held up to a soft toothbrush and water, when I tried to gently flake off acrylic errors the first finish came with it in specks, exposing tiny bits of clean aluminum underneath. There was no going back. Then it was covered with two coats of Zinsser spray shellac with a yellowish tinge. The tinge was helpful because the acrylic paint touch-ups didn't have the same translucence of the original "brass" paint. I think there is no finish as beautiful as the aged original; it makes me angry to see the "Professionally Refinished" fixtures on Ebay covered in swaths of solid, bright colors that, at least on fixtures like mine, are nothing like the original, subtle polychroming.
There are companies online that carry replacement porcelain sockets and cloth-covered wire, like Sundial Wire and Savta, but I decided to try Lowe's first. Surprisingly they had the exact same porcelain sockets, and without the hard-wiring, but with a different bracket. Lowe's also had replacement candelabra sockets, for vintage wall sconcery. They didn't have the fake wax candles made of paper for the candelabra (just a note for my future project) or the cloth wire, but I went ahead and bought zip cord and twisted it into a similar look. One of the bulbs is an appliance bulb for now. The existing fan support -which was only attatched to the ceiling plaster, not to the box!- is now attatched to a new multi-use plate which is sandwiched between the light fixture's support and two metal rectangles included with the plate. I removed most of the chain after realizing that chaining it to a hook above the dining table (off-center in the room) looked silly.
Pretty!
The gold paint was mixed from craft store liquid acrylic leftover from a medieval icon project in college. It has a metallic sheen. The light has 4-5 different shades of gold and amber, so I mixed in raw sienna and raw umber canvas paint to make the colors. It took an hour of patient mixing and painting in thin layers to match chipped and scratched areas to the lovely original brass, green and coppery color. Even though the original finish held up to a soft toothbrush and water, when I tried to gently flake off acrylic errors the first finish came with it in specks, exposing tiny bits of clean aluminum underneath. There was no going back. Then it was covered with two coats of Zinsser spray shellac with a yellowish tinge. The tinge was helpful because the acrylic paint touch-ups didn't have the same translucence of the original "brass" paint. I think there is no finish as beautiful as the aged original; it makes me angry to see the "Professionally Refinished" fixtures on Ebay covered in swaths of solid, bright colors that, at least on fixtures like mine, are nothing like the original, subtle polychroming.
There are companies online that carry replacement porcelain sockets and cloth-covered wire, like Sundial Wire and Savta, but I decided to try Lowe's first. Surprisingly they had the exact same porcelain sockets, and without the hard-wiring, but with a different bracket. Lowe's also had replacement candelabra sockets, for vintage wall sconcery. They didn't have the fake wax candles made of paper for the candelabra (just a note for my future project) or the cloth wire, but I went ahead and bought zip cord and twisted it into a similar look. One of the bulbs is an appliance bulb for now. The existing fan support -which was only attatched to the ceiling plaster, not to the box!- is now attatched to a new multi-use plate which is sandwiched between the light fixture's support and two metal rectangles included with the plate. I removed most of the chain after realizing that chaining it to a hook above the dining table (off-center in the room) looked silly.
Pretty!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)