One year ago today: July 30, 2015, only 32 people, ha!
Five years ago today: July 30, 2011, 500 arrests per year.
Nine years ago today: July 30, 2007, sacerdotal?
Random years ago today: July 30, 2004, mini-history lesson.
You get the old blog-style travelogue format today. Enjoy. We made it out to 509 in the now-standard 3.5 hours with one stop for cold drinks. New readers should be advised that although JZ and I have been chums for 15 years, we have never worked on a big project together and 99% of what we did before involved chasing women or activities totally concerned with chasing women. So no, I did not know he got his lactose intolerance from his mother’s side of the family. And I did not know he cannot stand canned peas, which I happen to prefer for making home-made pot pies.
The long orange item on the floor is a bubble level. Here is JZ, staring and gaping in wonderment how I got that floor perfectly level on the first try. He knows I’ve done nothing of the kind before and he had stated it could not even be done. There’s your proof, gang. And I did it for $108.56 in materials. Plus one 12-ton jack that cost about $30. When used right, the jack proved very adequate, although I discovered that JZ, who has perfect eyesight, could not spot the slight gaps the jack caused that had to be minimized.
But there’s your proof. That flooring he’s leaning on was part of the money spent. The joists will continue to settle for another 48 hours, so he is measuring the floor lengthwise. You see, he originally wanted to trim the joists from the top, a concept I rejected instantly. My plan was to custom notch every joist from the bottom. Then let it settle back into position when I removed the jack.
So here is the travelogue. I stress that you understand I just gave a glowing report of a success, but it is a far cry from finishing the building. I chose the back bedroom to begin, which was the easiest room. No plumbing in the way, well lit, dust-free, and as you see, once those subfloor sheets are laid loose across the joists, we have a super-comfortable indoor work environment.
7:31AM JZ arrives to find I only have one small truckload of tree limbs and leaves, which we haul to the dumpster toot sweet. The original plan was to move the scooter, but I nixed that because it would leave me without transportation before this place is sold. This delay throwing away trash that wasn’t mine delayed us an hour and we are already a day late.
8:31AM I pointed out the Little Ceasar’s Pizza on Hallandale, it is remarkable in being so long overdue. It is by far the most popular joint overnight, doing a booming business that doesn’t seem to be petering out. It certainly has caused a vacuum in the area, which almost never are working to capacity. We drove up I-95 to exit 87B since on weekends only, it trims 20 minutes off the trip.
9:31AM Passing through Okeechobee, the radio says it is going up to 96°. So hot we did not see a single bird on the trip. Over the years, I’ve got JZ to at least look at birds, something I always do on the motorcycle. We continued on to the crossroads, hoping to grab coffee in Lake Placid.
10:31AM Cancel coffee, the town was packed with no parking all the way back to the highway. We didn’t stop although both of us would normally visit anything like a festival. My guess is the annual caladium days or caladium exhibition. Remember caladium? I thought it was a mineral. We carried on north to the Zolfo Springs road in surprisingly light traffic.
11:31AM Naw, we could not make it all the way without a stop, so into Wachaula for cold drinks. Say what you want, auto air conditioning does not ever get cool enough even when you blast it so hard it makes your skin surface cold to the touch. This is Florida, so we stopped for twenty minutes in the cold McD’s interior. Look around, I told you months ago this Wachaula, which I’d never heard of before, is a booming little place.
12:31PM Arrive at 509 to find the house plastered with Zyklon B notices, or whatever gas they used, something sulphate. JZ is still stunned at how safe and quiet the neighborhood is. In Miami, those signs would merely have tipped the street gangs off the property was vacant. The signs were up for ten days before we arrived. Immediately upon entering the premises it was apparent this treatment also cleared up a slightly musty odor that I had taken to be part of an older building. You know, the old-people smell. It is completely gone.
1:31PM Once again, after arguing priorities, I informed JZ my intention was to immediately repair or replace that fridge. That’s the one that the freezer worked, but the bottom was not getting cold. While we both knew it was the fan, I refused to allow either of us to go in there and start it. Why? Because neither of us had experience and that fridge (which came with the house) is pretty darn new. I brought in an appliance repairman who confirmed it was the fan and zapped me $55 for the house call.
This is the typical point where JZ and I would argue. He says I wasted the $55, but I say I now have an excellent fridge that sells in the $800 range. I had a plan, that if the repair was over $80, I would junk it. So from my point of view, I save $25 by coming in under budget.
2:31PM Again at my insistence, we went to the grocery and picked up $37 worth of cold drinks, including root beer, clamato juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, milk, Pepsi, and some energy drink JZ loves but I won’t touch. I refuse to work indoors in this heat without adequate hydration, even though the room is fully air conditioned and circulated by two large fans. Work is work. I had a hard time convincing him I only intended to cut one joist in case the work or my theory proved wrong.
Just behind the saw, you can make out the small bottle jack under a piece of 2x4. It raised that joist, the worst one of the lot, up 1/8th of an inch, just enough to stop the saw blade from binding. At this point, we, or at least I, began to notice the termites had attached only the top edge of the joists. Is this normal?
4:31PM Success. The beam moaned a little but sank to the level of a chalk line I had stipulated earlier. JZ had never seen the dozen nights I was up to 3:00AM working over every aspect of the problem, for instance why I wanted to start on the worst joist instead of at one side and work along. Because, the worst joist will be the one contributing the least support to the structure. And yes, I realized this meant every joist would have to be custom cut. This was more work, but it was a better foretoken that the floor would be level the first time.
At this point most of our old Ryobi 18V batteries failed. Rather than waste time trying to charge them, we drove all the way across town to the Home Depot on Mulberry road. Will somebody please dispell the old rumor that you can buy Ryobi parts anywhere except Home Depot? It took me twenty minutes and a wasted trip to Lowe's convince JZ of this fact. Ryobi is a Home Depot brand.
5:31PM The joist did not sink all the way, but it was plainly so workable solution that I cut the remaining five notches in about an hour. It was eerie to hear the beams returning to shape from the pylon pressure. I would liken the sound to a very rusty door hinge. The only surprise was that in a few spots, the pylons rose up a little. That usually doesn’t happen to something buried in the ground.
7:31PM If you are really sharp-eyed, you can see the same bad joist, with the top layer falling off from termite damage. There will be a sister joist placed along each, but for now, the floor is wonderfully level east to west. It is still settling north to south. We placed around a thousand pounds of weight to help it along. Make no mistake about it, if this works, I have creating my own little mini-mansion cottage in Florida that most people only dream about.
8:31PM We reviewed the day and all I gotta say is that the photos are misleading because it looks like JZ is the one doing the all the work. Wrong, it only shows that JZ is not any good at taking photos of me at work. Let’s be very clear I am not working JZ to death under any theory. Sadly, some people have formed that wrong impression. I do about 70% of the work myself, including all that is shown in these pictures and including most of the heavy lifting. The one major project JZ undertook on his own was trimming the tree limbs away from the roof, and he insisted on that. Said it would take 20 minutes, took nearly two hours.
Other than cutting the limbs away from the roof, JZ has not worked on his own on this project. What’s more, I have provided a nearly ideal work environment. That includes the thousand-dollar fumigation, JZ has not been bitten at all this time around. I was bitten once, on the shin. Fumigation seems to work, let's see how long that holds true.
9:31PM You’ve got two dusty but not very tired crew members heading downtown for some well-earned libation. We arrived to a completely empty pub. I told you this was not a party town, you have to drive to the north part of town for that. I did haul out the mini-guitar and play a set to the empty room. Later, another guy came along and played a few tunes. But gee, he didn’t offer to buy the mini-guitar. I would gladly have sold it to him, you know.
10:31PM Everybody is tired, me mostly from what was today a pretty good workout. JZ wanted some Circle K cuisine. I offered a full meal, but it was late and we did put in a fairly long day. As soon as we got in, JZ got into the room and jumped on the joists. Pretty solid. But I was so damn tired I took his word for it and slept seven hours. For the first time in years, I felt those slight aches and pains that let you know you ain't getting any younger.
Last Laugh
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