Decisions. Do I get started now or wait for Wallace to arrive? One thing I know he’ll want is that full second bathroom (accomplished by adding a shower in the old living room closet). I don’t have the tools or expertise myself, but I could get 90% of it done. That kitchen area is a poor design but that would be a full undertaking because of the way the cupboards are laid out. Most of the available counter space is needed for modern appliances. And while it would not be that easy, nor would it be that difficult to move or improve that exterior door in the utility room. It is just stick framed in place. And for some reason, the washer is on a pedestal a foot off the floor.According to Eric, the former owner had a fully equipped shop in the utility room. If so, he was no carpenter. Quite a few parts are slapped together out of spliced 2x4s fragments, including the wall I’d like to move back two feet. Another priority is a new wall in the second bedroom which creates a hallway to the utility room and emphasizes that the second bathroom is shared. I’d have to hang a door, probably a sliding door. I may know where there are some spares ones kicking around.
Whereas all this might cause parking congestion later, nothing would take more than a day or two (if pursued), the work would be indoors (away from prying neighbors) and I’ve got all the time in the world. Time to buy a wheelbarrow. I can build anything out of wood and drywall screws. Maybe later today I’ll crawl under the building and see what we’ve got for plumbing. There is a discernable “overwiring” of the electrical I now see. Possibly this place only has 100 amp service. The computer speakers click when the fans turn on and the dining room chandelier flickers for no apparent reason every once in a while. Could be a bad dimmer switch.
There is finally a little organization appearing over at the new place. Pudding-Tat is into “explore” mode (at full speed) and has discovered a new impediment that hinders her romping—glass doors. Pudding-Tats boyfriend, the tailless one, has appeared here and is a fleabag. The kitchen, although twice the size of the last one, is still cramped. And I love that brand new dishwasher. It is amazing how well it works on the right computer parts. Plus I’m giving all my accumulated chef gear the acid test. Run it through on the highest temperature and throw out anything that doesn’t survive. Life is too short for non-dishwasher safe apparatus.
I went into the shop today and I have to report I may have ghosts in my CD player. Is the world ready for this? A Hungarian lady came in with, ahem, quite a few disks of music that she wants put into a format for her car player. No problem, I instantly made exact read-only backup copies and went to work on those. Start at the top of the list and work down, since I don’t read any Hungarian, I had use a system. When I went back to verify the burns, I have a disk of music that is not on the originals. The bit-counts match perfectly, yet I’ve got 18 unaccounted for pieces of Euro rock (similar to 1970s American rock but with even less talent and more disco, which in itself is unbelievable). I call it “Leontina”. If I have an imported ghost, it might as well be female.
The big screen TV. I calculate that if I can learn to watch one, and it keeps me at home, it will pay for itself given enough time. Here we are again, a situation where there is nobody to ask about all the different formats and programming. Everybody seems to have whatever they used to have. What is HDTV? What is satellite? What is digital? JP’s dad has that thing with 200 channels but many a time we couldn’t find anything more exciting than golf tournaments. Don’t we all love that bald guy whose raspy voice tells us about the houses we can buy for $489? Or that toothy couple who make meals in seconds provided somebody else hands them the ingredients already peeled, chopped and measured?
