And He Not Busy Being Born

Maybe three years ago we had a slab leak that flooded our living room and destroyed the carpet.  With the insurance money we got a new carpet and repainted the living area to include an "accent wall."  I had never heard of such a thing and wasn't entirely in favor of it.  But overtime the idea has grown on me.

Below the old accent wall with the old fake fireplace:

Old accent wall, now demolished, dry wall ready for new paint.

Further prep for paint.

 

Paint on accent wall.

Accent wall with granite trim,

Pretty cool. We have yet to fire up the fake fire place.  We need to read the instructions.

 

Posted by Nick Tingle at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As previously noted, we got a new phony gas powered fireplace that might served to heat the place.

Below: craftsman at work:

 

 

Posted by Nick Tingle at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We have been camping out in our neighbor's condo for 11 days.

But I see progress,

Below, one room is nearing completion: painting done, window sill and trim in.  New carpet still to come.

 

 

 

Posted by Nick Tingle at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We are 12 days now out of our little condo.  Lord knows when we will get back in.

But the counter tops were set with no problems, yesterday...let's see, that would be Monday.

Below: the old tile previously on the counter top.  These tiles were described to us by a person who does tile as "distressed." Probably a polite way of saying "really crappy."

The new granite counter top below.
Not yet distressed.

 

Continue reading "Remodel 3: Countertops" »

Posted by Nick Tingle at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The most immediate cause for the remodel was this last winter. We were cold. Not East Cold, but California cold. Bad enough. These places weren't built for any sort of weather.

One might ask, why didn't you turn up the heat. Well, basically, we don't have any; just a little gas fireplace made mostly for decorative purposes.

And then in the ceiling an electrical grid of some kind, put in back in the day when the supply of electricity (1973) was supposed to be infinite according to the nuclear industry.

We never could get that grid to work; or let's say the only way to get it to work was to turn it on full blast. Then the heat, radiating down from the ceiling was intolerable; one felt like a cupcake baking in an oven.

So that left us with the decorative gas fireplace and multiple layers of shirts and sweaters.

After that winter, we knew we had to replace the windows. They are single paned and framed with aluminum. If you put your hand on one, you could feel the cold.

 

So we got Milgard windows (the only kind approved by the condo association for retrofitting). We got super-duper ones, dual panes, and with a tint that cuts down on the sort of sun light that fades things. They are so energy efficient that we will qualify for a 1500 dollar tax rebate from the federal government.

They are in now. They look pretty cool. We have a number of neighbors ask, where did you get those? Turns out we were not the only ones who felt the cold this last winter.

Also we are getting the decorative heater replaced with a heater that heats. It has a fan and can you believe a remote control thermostat. So we can sit on our asses on the sofa and turn the heater up and down. Or off.

 

Posted by Nick Tingle at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

On this date, June 20, Carol and I have been for the last three years (2006, 2007, 2008) back in South Carolina. Each occasion marked a kind of transition--the burial of a father, then a mother, and then a family reunion. They weren't of course all the same kind of transition. Had we been back there this year at our regular time, we might have experienced the big windstorm that hit Laurens County and knocked down trees right and left near Addie and Ed, and Janet and Bobbo, and also near Emily. They got hit pretty hard and I think the juice was out for three days.

The bi costal Tingle clan has been hit by fire in the west, winds in the east. What's next?

This year, while we are in CA and not SC, Carol and I are going through a different kind of transition.

We are remodeling our condo. We have lived in it since 1993 and none nothing by way of upgrade, except what was forced upon us by a slab leak that destroyed the living room rug and provided the pretext, as well as some insurance money, towards getting a new carpet and some new paint.

This time we are going whole hog. The whole place will get a new coat of paint and the kitchen is being redone.

We have had to move out completely. Everything is stacked in the garage or piled on the back deck under plastic tarp.

I doubt we would have decided to do all we have decided to do had neighbors not said we could camp out on their condo while they take a two week vacation.

So that's where we are now. Camped out in another condo. I can't find anything and the cat is going nuts.

I miss South Carolina and all the folks back there.

 

Posted by Nick Tingle at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I blame it on Homer Simpson. He was the "iconic" (God, I hate that word) archetype of the turn of the 21st century, and Homer never had a comfortable relationship with his brain.

But he was the tip of the iceberg of ads featuring dumb guys. The classic was of course the idiot trying to make guacamole by throwing a whole avocado into a blender and watching vacant eyed as the thing bounced about.

Since guys run the show I figured this "guys is dum" thing marked some sort of ideological shift or new tactic in the ongoing war between the sexes, as in don't blame me for being cruel, insensitive, or simply brutal because I am too DUM to know better.

But now it appears the ad guys have bought their own line.

Coors is touting as a major breakthrough in beer drinking science a can that tells the booze hound when his beer is sufficiently cold. Talk about DUM. Whatever happened--I don't know--to grabbing the beer in your hand to see if it was cold enough. I have got to believe experienced beer drinkers have no trouble doing that and if they are really experience they really don't care if it's cold enough. I mean are guys going to sit around peering into the frig waiting for the beer to tell them it is cold enough.

And just as idiotic, or even more so, is a razor that has some sort of strip on it that tells the guy using the razor when he needs to replace it with a new razor. Whatever happened--I don't know--to applying the razor to your face and if it feels as if you are shaving your face with sandpaper, well, maybe you ought to get a new one. That's how I have always decided that I needed another razor and I have had no problems doing it.

Guys are now so DUM that they can't even trust their own senses.

One guy writing on the consumer society argued that it (and its diverse forms of advertising) tends to make people dependent and doubtful about their own intuition. This new beer can and this new razor would appear instances of that claim.

And there's something going on here too about the nature of the decision making process--probably too complicated to go into here. But signs on cans and razors that tell you when the can is cold enough or the razor is worn out save a person the trouble, I guess it is, of deciding on the basis of experience and the sense of touch whether the beer is cold enough or the razor is worn out. It's better, I guess, and less painful just to have your razor tell you it is worn out rather than make that painful decision all on one's own.

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