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"Want to use the gym?" -Me
"No, I have to work 8 hours later." -Katherine (17 yrs old)
"So?" -Me
"Plus I'm only running on 7 hours of sleep!" -Katherine
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" -Me (who thinks 7 hours of sleep is great.)

Wednesday, 9-30-15: I have too much going on. Time to reign it in.
I'm way too busy, and it sucks. It's time to put the brakes on the home renovation a bit so I can take care of some other things. Even though I only worked on the home remodel about 26 hours last week and 10 hours so far this week (I have been keeping track just for curiosity sake) I am still two days ahead of schedule. Nice! However, I was over a week ahead earlier this month, and the thing will be behind schedule by this time next week. I wanted to start sheetrocking the walls October 9th, but that looks less and less likely. What a bunch of crap!

Today is a total rainout. I did work for 5.5 hours yesterday installing roof shingles so at least the roof will mostly be waterproof. Unfortunately, with literally 3-5" of rain in today's forecast a lot of water will find its way in, especially as wind pushes the water in from the parts of the walls that are not finished, window openings, etc. I could do a little framing today on the interior where it is dry, but screw that I have too much else going on.

^Damn it rained all night, and the worst is just now arriving. What a bunch of crap!

Def Leppard, Too Late for Love. Great tune. If you disagree then I hate you. I probably already hate you, but I'll hate you a little more.

I feel like I have no time lately. Even now at 0745 I feel partly guilty for updating this bootleg site when I could be using the gym, working on the house, hanging out with my awesome wife, etc. It's bowhunting season and my bow has been up at Old Town Archery for a tun-up for nearly 4 weeks. I'd get it today, but I will run out of time. I have to post an ad for an apartment, take care of some paperwork, go home and change so I can go to the USPS for a 1030 interview this morning. Then this afternoon we have some errands to run before we take the puppies to a training class from 1700-1800. I also need to go to Home Depot to place another large order for the house. I need to order 93 more pieces of sheetrock (have 18 there now), the tub/shower, toilet, vanity, and a list of other things.

I had my old apartment listed for rent, and I did many showings last week. I actually had approved applicants, they said they'd love to have the place, but then they ended up renting elsewhere. What a bunch of crap! Dealing with an upcoming vacancy is a time-suck, too. It doesn't take a full 8-hour day all at once, but a couple hours here, a couple there, and dozens of phone calls and emails use up my precious... precious time. I'm not upset that I will have upcoming tenant turnover because that happens a few times a year, give or take. It's part of the job. I just wish it didn't happen now when I have so much else going on.

Yesterday I did find tenants for the place, my current tenants over at Kenduskeag Ave and my own family. Debbie, Dillon, and their friend, Mandy, are going to switch apartments and move from Bangor over to Brewer. I think having them there will be a perfect fit because my old apartment is literally my best apartment. Plus it's closer to us and it's right across the street from where Katherine babysits so she will have her brother within literally eyesight. That will be handy for her when she gets out late, especially in the winter when getting her home will be harder.

^The only one of my rentals that has a bar. A bar! Awesome.

Having them move into my old apartment is great, but now I have another time-suck and a much larger one at that. I have to find tenants for their 3-bedroom over in Bangor, and that apartment will need some work. It's not a ghetto now, but I think I will end up replacing the kitchen and doing a few other things. I actually might fix it up some and haul on the entire building so that is something else I need to do today. I need to figure out whether or not it makes any financial sense to try and just dump the entire building once they leave. Two years ago I put it on the market, but it didn't fetch any serious offers.

^Photo from spring 2004 when I was buying it. Will another FOR SALE sign go out front soon?

I paid $103,500 for that building on May 26, 2004 (plus some closing costs), I listed it for $115,900 two years ago, and I only had one half-baked informal offer for mid 90s that I scoffed at. However, I did have the back apartment torn up at the time because I was doing a remodel of that unit. Now I can put some work into the front unit and maybe fetch over $100k for the building. I will definitely have to spend some time thinking on it today and tomorrow so I can look at the numbers closely and then decide what I want to do. Maybe no harm in having Jody slap a FOR SALE sign up and see what ends up happening? I definitely don't want to sell if for any less than around the $105-106k that I paid when closing costs are considered. F that!

I need to get off this bootleg thing so I can do other things. 2.5 hours until my USPS "interview." I expect that to be pretty easy since I worked there last year and since they sent me a letter already that asked me to come back. However, I still will take it very seriously because I want to go back. The pay is good despite the shit hours, and the money will definitely come in handy.

Oh, some Jackson Hewitt receptionist whose name I have never heard before called and left me a voicemail yesterday. They are putting together a list of people who are going to get invited back for this coming season, and my name is on it. Oh Jesus, hell ya! However, Kat didn't get that same call so all I wanna know is why? Why not? If they don't want her back then I don't wanna go back gods damn it!

The end.

Friday, 9-25-15: Ahead of schedule, but for how much longer?
I'm still a bit ahead of schedule on the house renovation, but I fear before too long I will falling a little behind. I have a lot to do between now and mid-late November when I presumably go back to work for the USPS. A lot! I've only worked on the house for about 20 total hours so far this week. What a bunch of crap! I've had to mow some lawns (might only have to mow one more time for the season), I've had some apartment showings to do, and I've had other things on the list like taking my piss test for the USPS. I feel pretty confident that my ass is getting hired back again there, especially since they sent me a letter last month that invited me back. I already did my online stuff, the drug test, and now all that remains is my "interview" next Wednesday at 1030. Hopefully the interview is just a formality.

^They want me again. I think. Maybe?

This week I did a lot of framing upstairs, I installed a lot more exterior sheathing, and I finished the roof trim and actually started installing drip edge, ice/water shield, and yesterday some of the roof shingles. Here is what things looked like as of a few days ago from ground level:

^Since then I've installed most of the right side Zip panels (green sheating), all of the rear, and the trim along the top.

^The front still needs sheating; I hope to finish that this coming week. I can finally park in the driveway again! I had that side totally blocked with piles of lumber over the last month. It's getting colder every day so I need to get the exterior buttoned up ASAP.

Tomorrow at 0800 Bruce plans to show up to do some plumbing, and I hope he gets a lot done. I'm hoping Ben calls me in a couple days to set up a time to start working on my electrical rough-in, too. If I can get my electrical all roughed-in within the next week or two then I can start installing some of the sheetrock. I want to finish the laundry room, the bathroom, and Kat's studio first. Kat's studio is a top priority now that colder weather is coming because hauling gear in and out of the house can be a pain. In theory it will be a lot easier to transfer gear from her new studio to the vehicle and back because there will be more storage space, and there will be no stairs at all to go up and down. If all goes as planned I will have the studio done in early or mid November. (Let's just hope it all goes as planned!)

I definitely will need heat out in the new addition before I can start mudding and taping the sheetrock. Bruce supposedly knows a guy who can hook me up; I'm hoping he shows up tomorrow or Sunday so I can meet him and explore some options. Gary, my "old" heating guy, is retiring and moving to Florida so he's out like a fat chick in dodge ball. What a bunch of crap! Not unexpected, though. He told me a couple years ago that his days as a working stiff were numbered.

I would say I need heat in there by mid October at the latest or else I will be stuck. Space heaters would be a temporary solution, but not a good one. We also have a kerosene heater that would help some. However, it's a large amount of space so I'm hoping the furnace will be ready to use by then. Tonight it will drop down to 38-40, a tad chilly but not totally ridiculous for this time of year. It's almost October already so soon we will get our first frost. Maybe tonight or tomorrow night...

I have applicants approved for my old apartment, the one I've done showings at a few times this week. The first applicants were a family with 4 kids and 2 dogs. OMG. That's a lot for a 1000 square foot 3BR apartment so I had to decline them. Too bad because they really wanted it and I think they'd be decent enough, but 4 kids is way too much for that place. They were gonna stuff their 3 boys (ages from about 3-8) in one 12x9 bedroom. F that! Plus the kids were all over the damn place when we did the tour. Not cool. DENIED.

I had other applicants who have two rottweilers (did I spell that right?) Right on my Bootleg Properties page it says certain dogs denied like rottweilers. I think? I haven't looked at it in a while so I dunno. Guy checks... "and for insurance purposes certain dogs (such as Rottweilers and Pit Bulls) are not allowed." Yeah, I thought so. I probably should know my own policies. Hehehe. I do have tenants here now in a different apartment who own a pit bull. Oops. Ah well, I don't think State Farm cares. I hope! I made that blurb around 10 years ago so saying it is obsolete is a serious understatement.

My approved applicants are two girls who seem like they might not totally suck. Two people > six people. I called them and said APPROVED so hopefully one of them calls me back tonight or no later than tomorrow to say "Oh jesus, hell ya!" If not then I have a list of other people to call and I will be doing more showings next week.

^The apartment has a bar. A BAR. Who would not want to rent it? Hehehehe. It's a bit surreal giving tours of the apartment that I lived in for about 14.5 years. I had so many great memories there, but no part of me misses it and wants to go back. Living there again would lead to my demise. My life there is ancient history, even though it has 'only" been 3.5 years since I officially hit the road. It seems like I've been out of there forever now. It is a nice apartment, but it's definitely in my rear view for good.

It will be a VERY busy weekend. Kat and I have a wedding to do in Northeast Harbor tomorrow; we leave for that around 1300. Before that Bruce will be busy working on the plumbing for the new addition to the house, and we will go to bed late tonight because of the Jester's karaoke gig. I tried to take a nap, I was almost asleep, but then the dogs heard a pot rattle in the kitchen and all barked. What a bunch of crap! These dogs, god damn sometimes I love them and sometimes I hate them. Not Chessa, just the puppies. They do cute things like this that make me love them:

^Tug of war with the toy alligator today. They both paused and looked at me like they were busted for some kind of wrong-doing. Hahahaha.

Then they piss on the floor and try to molest the cats so I want to throttle them. Grrrrrrrr. I can't wait for them to grow up and become adult dogs who don't fail at the basics. They ate the bath mat, and they chewed up the corner of the bed box spring in the last two weeks. What a bunch of crap!

Tuesday, 9-22-15: What a damn frustrating day.
I have been all over the place today, and I feel like I can't get anything substantial done. What a bunch of crap! I have a lot of little things wasting all my precious... precious time, and I don't even really have time to update this bootleg site right now because I have to go mow the lawn here then show my old apt to some people within the hour. Gods damn it I don't even have time to use the gym. Epic fail.

Hopefully at least this drug test paper printed. I can't even make pdf reader work worth a fuck on this fucking worthless Windows 8 computer screen so I had to click "Print Screen", open Photoshop, crop and save it as a .jpg, and then open the file and print. It's not the first time I've had to waste my life doing this bullshit and it won't be the last. I don't even want to fuck with this shit at all, but if I want a job at the USPS for a few weeks before Christmas then I need to do this fast. If I don't do the piss test within 3 days then I don't think I can get hired.

Jesus Christ I have to call these turds and make an appointment. Oh well, at least I don't have to drive down to Auburn like I did last year. All I wanna know is why? Why do I even need to do a piss test? I worked for them last year and was just fine. Plus I'm not going to do any driving so why do they care? I am grateful that the HR lady changed my piss test to Bangor because I might not have driven down to Auburn, I might have just said thanks but no thanks I ain't working there. However, we could use the money so of course I would have done it.

I don't have enough fucking time anymore. Oh great, Pop sent me a trail cam photo of some deer out back behind their house. I don't think I will be doing much or any hunting this fall. A lot of the deer died thanks to a shit-show winter earlier this year. What a bunch of crap! No doe tag for either Pop, Jason, or I this rodeo. I think that's a first in many years, perhaps since they started issuing doe permits a couple or three decades ago. I don't even have my bow right now because it's up at Old Town Archery for a tuning. I dropped it off there 2.5 weeks ago so I should go get the thing, eh? Maybe later this week...

Friday, 9-18-15: In my bootleg office on a Friday night.
I lifted weights for about a half hour, I called and said hello to Mom and Pop, I uploaded last night's bootleg update, and now I have a couple minutes to write a bit before I head back home to check on the puppies before I head on down to Jester's to drink a couple $2.25 Rolling Rock beers and run up an epic $4.50 bar tab. Sometimes I splurge and buy three, and sometimes I buy a friend or two a drink so my tab gets up closer to $10. Hehehehe. Every now and then my tab is more if Kat has some shots that we actually have to pay for, but lately that's not the case because the bartender is nice to us, unlike the last price-Nazi bartender who worked there earlier this year. Kat barely drinks anyway.

I'm ripping out 80s hair rock on Pandora Internet Radio, and Def Leppard just rocked it out (my all-time favorite band.) Now it's time for some Dio Holy Diver. Good tune but not really arena rock, more like classic rock. No complaints, thumbs-up guy. In other news I am wearing a shirt that looks like a Nintento Game Boy. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

All I wanna know is why? Why did the background turn purple? Will it look purple when I upload this crap to the Interweb? It's a .png instead of a .jpg. What the hell is the difference between the two? I used to get scared when I saw .png becaue I thought it was a virus, but these days I guess a .png is standard. Hell I dunno, but I am like Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon and I am too old for this shit. Hopefully I never try to take a crap and then find a bomb under my ass. That would be a bunch of crap!

^Hi My name is Murthogh and I am about to get my ass blown up, but it's fucking hilarious so thanks for the awesomeness director Richard Donner. He directed the best movie of all time, The Goonies, so he can do no wrong. Lethal Weapon = mostly makes no sense but is awesome anyway.

This bootleg update makes no sense. Good thing no one reads it. What am I even talking about right now? I normally write about the major addition that is getting put onto our precious... precious house, but today I didn't work on it because I had other things to do. However, I guess I did work on it because I work on it every day. I swept the upstairs and took a few measurements, and then I scooted over to Marden's to purchase this 54,000 BTU furnace for $479.99 plus tax:

Hang on, Van Halen is singing Dreams. Great tune. Sammy Haggar Van Halen > David Lee Roth Van Halen, but that's no insult to Roth. It's like Saying a cheeseburger > a hamburger. Both are fucking awesome, but one is a little bit better.

So that furnace pictured above is listed on Home Depot's site for $1796.35. OMG. As far as I can tell it's the exact same thing. Hopefully 54k BTU is badass enough to heat a ~1000 square foot area with 500 downstairs and 500 upstairs. The duplex that I manage is two apartments, each about the same size with two floors, so the space comparison is apples to apples. I had a 30,000 BTU monitor style heater installed a couple years ago in each apartment that works like a boss. If 30k BTU can heat 1000 square feet then I assume 54k BTU can do that and then some extra.

I think that furnace is forced hot air? I dunno for sure, but for around $500 I was all in. I saw the thing a few days ago, but I had to think about it some before I went for it. I assume I need duct work installed, and that will cost me some extra, but I was looking at a $1500 Rinnai 30k BTU heater on Amazon so I saved $1000 and got more BTU. Plus now I can snake vents to each individial room. I'm sure having all the ducts installed will be several hundred, but in the end I will come out at or slightly below my $1500 heating system budget even when I pay someone to run vents for me. I hope!

Dokken rocks. In My Dreams, Under Lock and Key, 1986. The end.

Thursday, 9-17-15: Roof = sheathed and mostly water tight.
Yesterday morning I finished installing the last 10 roof rafters of the home addition, and by midafternoon I had finished 100% of the roof sheathing. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Check it out:

Now when it rains there won't be a lake in the soon-to-be entryway. The roof is about 99% waterproof; I ran out of Zip Tape at the peak so a couple spots are exposed. However, a few drips won't cause any real problems, and once I shingle the thing (hopefully next week) it will be 100% good to go. Thankfully it has been a relatively dry month with only two sizeable rain events so I have been able to get a lot done. The extended forecast looks pretty sweet, too:

PERFECT. It's actually hot again; the last two days have been in the mid 80s. I haven't even needed to turn on the furnaces at the bootleg apartments, and I probably won't need to for another week as long as the forecast doesn't change too much. The great weather should give me an opportunity to completely sheath all the exterior walls and shingle the roof by the end of next week. Hopefully I can also install the windows and frame all the interior walls so I am ready for my electrician and plumber. Both of those guys plan to start in about 1.5 weeks, which will be perfect for my schedule. Unfortunately, my heating guy (Gary) is retiring and moving to Florida in two weeks so he is out like a fat kid in dodge ball. I like Gary and wish he would stick around, but he told me at least a year ago that his days here were numbered. Good for him; I hope he enjoys his retirement.

^Two weeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkksssssssssssssssssssssssssss.... Excuse to use a Total Recall reference for the win.

I do have a plan B for my heating needs so I'm not totally pwned. Bruce, my plumber, knows a guy who can hopefully hook me up. I don't need heat just yet in the new addition, but by mid October at the latest I will be screwed without heat. It is impossible to mud and tape when the temp falls too low because the mud gets all chunky and nothing dries properly. Trust me on that one, I know from personal experience. Back in 2009 it was early or mid October when I was doing a major remodel of a house that I bought on Holyoke St, a complete fixer-upper, and it got cold before I had the new furnace installed. I remember Jeremy tried to do some mudding and it was impossible so I had to have him do something else for a day or two until RH Foster finished installing the furnace. What a bunch of crap! I got that house on August 26th of 2009, and it wasn't ready for tenants until January. That was a 4.5-month, ~$30,000 remodel. The house needed all new sheetrock on the inside, ceilings, flooring, electrical, plumbing, cabinets, appliances, etc. I even replaced a dozen or so windows. I did a lot of the work myself, but I did pay Jeremy, Eddie, and Kevin to help with paint, mud/tape, and some demolition. Thankfully that house had a newer roof and siding so exterior work was minimal.

^My framing back then was a joke. What a bunch of crap that is! (Bathroom framing above.) There are no jack studs for the door, there is no header, and I don't know what the hell is going on on the rear wall there. Looks like lattice for a fucking garden. Pathetic!

That house took 4.5 months to finish for ~$30k, and I expect the home addition to take 3 months at a cost of around $25k. The Holyoke house was a lot bigger, roughly 2000 or more square feet with a full kitchen, two bathrooms, 5 bedrooms, and a dining room and living room. The addition that I am doing now is closer to 1000 suare feet. However, I need exterior walls and a roof, something I didn't need at Holyoke. I also had to do a lot of earth and foundation work here at the house and I didn't need to do that at Holyoke. However, I worked at FedEx when I did Holyoke so I had less free time to work on the place. It's really apples to oranges when comparing these two projects, but there are enoug parallels to make projections. Also, I have learned a lot over the past 6 years so I am more efficient and faster now than I was back in 2009. I might not get this one 100% done by mid November before I start my seasonal work at the USPS, but it will be damn close.

This afternoon I sheathed most of the hardest exterior wall, the west-facing side. It was hard going at first flying solo and getting the 7/16" Zip panels 8-12 feet in the air, but after a couple fails, several swear words, and some smarter thinking I got a system in place that worked. It will take the rest of the week and perhaps into next Tuesday to 100% sheath all the exterior since I won't work full 8-hr days from now until then. I might not work on it at all tomorrow since Phil is in town and wants to visit in the AM. I will be exhausted in the PM and might snooze for a bit since it's a late night tonight at Tag's here in Ellsworth and tomorrow night will be last as we shut down Jester's. On Sunday I want to watch the Greatriots play the Bills in Buffalo so that will be a short day as well. If I can get all the sheathing done by Tuesday PM then great, that leaves a few more days to do interior wall framing and start shingling the roof.

It's time to scoot off the bootleg site that no one reads. It's actually already Friday the 18th now, and we have about a half hour left of karaoke here at the bar. Then it's a 30-minute drive home after 20 or so minutes of breaking down gear. If we're lucky we will be in bed by 0145-0200, and reveille is 0645 so I can take Katherine to school. Sometimes there just isn't enough time for everything. What a bunch of crap!

Monday, 9-14-15: Upstairs walls and rafters.
I'm in my office at 0800, I just dropped Katherine off at school, and I have Castiel with me. He's snoozing at my feet right now. He is pretty good solo, but often times when he and his brother are together he misbehaves. Two 5-month old dogs together = epic energy and potential for trouble. Lately they've taken to eating the bath mat. What a bunch of crap! After I update this bootleg site I need to pay a couple bills and then lift a few weights here in the gym. Having a gym right at my office was a great life decision, although I have hardly used the gym lately. I went about 6 weeks without using the gym at all from July 25-last week. What a bunch of crap! I'm still in shape, though. Blueberry raking and all the construction at the house have kept me very active.

After I exercise it's time to head back home, give my sexy wife a hug and a kiss (She was still in bed when Katherine and I left), and keep working on the house addition. I got a lot done over the weekend! I now have upstairs walls and half of the roof rafters installed. I took a few photos yesterday before I started the rafters. Check it out:

The walls are level and straight, too. Nice! I got lucky on that one, eh? I still need to frame in a few window openings, but that won't take long and I left them open for now so I can haul the 2x8x16 boards up for the rafters. I need 36 rafters, and so far I have 18 installed so I'm at the halfway point.

It took a while to get the beam for the raftes in place, level, and at the right height. Also, getting the first rafter measured and cut to perfection (or nearly so) took a while. Installing the rafters solo was difficult at first until, after the first few, I smartened up and installed more temporary bracing at the edges so they don't slide down. I only dropped one and no damage was done. Dropping a 13-foot beam = what a bunch of crap. (16-foot boards with about 3 feet cut off.)

Soon we will get most of the driveway back. Half of the driveway has been a lumber yard for the past few weeks:

^What a bunch of crap! There actually was twice as much lumber there a couple weeks ago. Under that tarp is a pile of Zip System panels that will go on the roof and walls. Today the weather is iffy but tomorrow through Saturday should be mostly sunny and highs around 80. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Right now I am about a week ahead of schedule. A week! If nothing major comes up this week then I hope to get the roof 100% water tight so I can focus on the interior starting next week.

I need to scoot off thos bootleg thing so I can post an ad for my old apartment. The guy who lives there now gave his 30-day notice yesterday. He's going to rent an entire house so I will have a sweet 3BR apartment available mid-October. It's a nice apartment so I don't think I will have too much trouble finding someone who wants it. I hope!

Saturday, 9-12-15: How the dogs entertain themselves at 0650.
These puppies have a lot of energy this morning. A lot. Thankfully they did sleep the night through, though. I got 8+ hours of sleep last night, and it felt great. Normally Kat and I stay up until around 0200 Friday night/early Saturday AM because she has the Jester's karaoke gig, but she wasn't feeling well so we skipped it last night and went to bed early. Revielle for me was just after 0600, and I ate some Frosted Toast Crunch, a yogurt, and most of a donut that expired on the 8th. The donut was about as hard as a lump of coal, but 12 seconds in the microwave made it mostly edible. I just didn't have it in my soul to throw it out. I hate throwing out unused food. Wasting food = what a bunch of crap! Oh, the Frosted Toast Crunch came from the Marden's clearance bin so it's probably defective. Nice meal for me!

I took a couple pictures of the pups just now. They've been "sharing" one of the chew toys so all I have been hearing is the squeaking sound. (They never really share anything, they just both chew it and sorta tug at it.) They've actually ripped open a lot of their toys already and eaten the little plastic squeakers right out of them. What a bunch of crap! Kat found two squeakers in one pile of dog poop a couple weeks ago. Two! Thankfully they haven't gotten stuck on the way through the bowels. We try to make sure they don't eat things like that, but these dogs will put literally anything into their mouths and try to eat it.

After they played tug of war with the toy they started playing tug of war with each other's fur and then Crowley decided to do this:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! OMG GUYS YOU ARE BROTHERS SO YOU SHOULD NOT DO DAT. I think it's hilarious even though it is wrong. They don't literally rape each other, but they do look like they are at times. Sometimes Crowley is the molestor and sometimes Castiel is the molestor. In a few short weeks they will be 6 months old and ready for the trip to the vet for a snippy-snip and maybe after they get neutered they won't try to rape each other anymore. Thankfully they don't actually molest each other now, they just pretend.

In other news the Patriots won their season opener against the Steelers Thursday night. Tom (GOD) Brady was able to play because his 4-game suspension was overturned in the court of law. The Deflategate scandal from the playoffs last season led the assface NFL commissioner to blame Brady for using underinflated footballs. What a bunch of crap!

Yesterday we got a lot of rain so I didn't work on the house renovation. There were epic puddles all over the place and a small pond here:

OMG. I had to shop vacuum most of that up; if all goes as planned I should have the upstairs walls built today and all the roof rafters up by midweek. Hopefully by this time next week I have the roof watertight and can start installing eaves trim, drip edge, ice-water shield, and shingles. I'm ahead of schedule and I plan to stay ahead at least until I get a roof on the thing.

Wednesday, 9-09-15: Most of a floor.
I just fed the puppies, and they did great this morning. No fighting over the food, no bullshit, and no need to hook them outside on their leaders. After about 3 weeks I finally have the future laundry room closed off at the bottom so the dogs can't just run through and out into the front yard/street. I have 40 sheets of the Zip System panels, and I hope they don't suck. Gav is using them at his place for his massive renovation project (the one that started last spring!) and they look pretty good. Supposedly you tape the seams and they can be exposed to the elements for 500 days. Oh Jesus, hell ya! That eliminates the need for house wrap, and I will be able to button up the outside with the Zip system and then finish the siding next spring. It might not look too pretty, but the interior work will be a priority in the advance of winter once I get the upstairs framed and a roof installed.

^Tons of dirt still under those tarps needs to GTFO. (Is it wrong of me at nearly age 40 to use things like WTF and GTFO on this bootleg site? What a bunch of crap!)

Today I should be able to finish 100% of the 3/4" Advantex subfloor on the second floor. It's 90% done now, take a look:

^Epic floor is... epic. It seems quite rugged.

I just need to install a small section near the stairs, but first I have to finish the small framing area that allows for head room at the base of the stairs and leading into the main part of the house. That will hopefully be done by lunch, and in the afternoon I can mow a couple lawns and *maybe* start a little of the second floor framing. I'll also make time to take the puppies to the park and do some 1 on 1 training with them. I've been working with Castiel and leaving Crowley for Katherine to train since he is her dog, but that is an epic fail because she doesn't care enough to teach him the basics. Maybe she thinks he will just learn by osmosis? He does know sit and come, but yesterday stay was a disaster. he has no idea what that word means. What a bunch of crap! Neither one of these dogs are great with commands so we will probably put them into an obedience class.

Speaking of dogs, Kat and I went down to the midcoast on Sunday to visit Mom and Pop and to celebrate Mom's 59th birthday. Her birthday was actually the 1st, but Sunday the 6th was best for us all due to work, etc. We brought Castiel with us, and he was great. Even better, he was great with their new 9-week old puppy, Amos. Look at him:

He's so cute! Mom and Pop have only had him for a week, and he already knows some basic commands. Plus he can swim. Way to pwn our stooge dogs! They paid $1500 for him from a real breeder, and we paid $1300 for these two clowns from a hack "breeder" who had goats on an elliptical and the puppies in a sty. Seriously. What a bunch of crap! We don't have horrible dogs, but they do suck sometimes.

Saturday, 9-05-15: Stairway to heaven.
I am killing a few minutes while I wait for my lovely wife to return; she is getting us food after she drops off Daniel at a friend's house. I'm getting a sub from City Side, and she is getting Chinese food from the place right in the same plaza. I like Chinese food, but only on occasion and tonight I plan to wolf down every bite of my sub because my ass is hungry. It's already 1745 so most of the day is all gone.

I finished installing the steps to the second floor today for the renovation. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Now it will be so much easier to bring the Advantex 3/4" subfloor sheets up to the second floor for installation. I won't work on the project too much tomorrow because we have to go down to the midcoast to see Mom and Pop. They glot a new dog last Saturday, an 8-week old little black lab male whose name is going to be Amos. I laughed at the name and told them to reconsider, maybe choose something badass like RAMBO, but my idea was DENIED. Amos isn't a bad name, but if you say it quickly it sounds a lot like anus. What a bunch of crap!

I really have no desire to go down to the midcoast; I'd rather stay up here and work on the house and relax for a bit. I do want to see their new puppy so that gets me a little excited for the trip down. We will bring Castiel and see how the two young dogs play together. Mom and Pop have had a black lab for most of their 40+ years together as husband and wife. Anus will be their 5th black lab. They lost Nitro around the same time that we lost Dende in the spring.

So my stairs go up to nothing at all, hence Kat's facetious name of the stairway to heaven. Great Led Zepplen tune! There are some joists and I did throw a sheet of advantex down just for a temporary platform, but it is nowhere near ready to be walked on up there. I should finish my second floor joists and have all the Advantex flooring nailed down by mideweek if all goes well. Then I can start framing the walls for the second floor. It definitely takes extra time doing the stairs because I have height considerations, but my plan is in place and now all I need to do is execute it. Hopefully I don't screw it up too much.

^I screwed up the window framing a little, but I don't think it's a huge problem. Should have had jack studs on the interior of the framing, not the exterior.

My sexy wife should be home shortly so I am out of here like a fat kid in dodge ball. It's a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Goonies never say die!

Friday, 9-04-15: Great weather!
Summer is like a turd that will not flush, and I love it. It's been dry for the last 8 days, too. Score! The weather is about perfect for a major renovation project. Framing and foundation work = gets done lots and lots. My only small complaint is the fact we've had a few pretty hot days. Wednesday was 88 and very humid. A couple weeks ago we hit 90, and I passed out for a bit after sweating buckets and stabbing my forearm with a finish nail that stuck out of some flying debris. What a bunch of crap! There is no rain in the forecast at all for the next several days so I hope to keep pushing hard on this project. It's in the mid 70s today before we warm back up to close to 90 again on Labor Day and into midweek next week. Again, about 10 degrees too hot but definitely 10000000 times better than freezing weather in winter. I hope it stays warm all fall.

^OMG 90 again Tuesday. I better not pass out!

I should pay the IRS. I owe them around $1700 still, give or take. I've been paying them about $500 a month for the last few months. Owing the IRS = what a bunch of crap! My bad blowing off the tax bill for other things like a wedding and honeymoon. In my last warning letter from them they said all my interest and penalties add up to just over $40. That's nothing considering the due date was April 15. Gotta love low interest rates! I will pay the bill off ASAP because I don't want to have my stuff get levied and seized. The last letter came certified mail so they are getting more serious, and I suppose I will pay it off this month. Maybe.

Tonight is Kat's 2-year anniversary at Jester's as the karaoke DJ. I normally hate staying at Jester's for her whole show, but I would love to stay tonight since it is a special occasion. Unfortunately, these puppies require much management. Frigging Crowley will piss all over himself if he is left alone for too long, even in his crate. We need to get him to the vet because Kat and I agree it is not normal for a dog to piss so much. Hopefully it's nothing too serious, maybe a urinary tract infection? He can hold it at night, but during the day not so much. Sometimes he even pissed when he is napping and, even worse, he has pissed WHILE EATING HIS SUPPER. OMG WTF, OVER?!

We have been good about getting the puppies their exercise lately. We've taken them to the park twice a day several days this week. I've been getting my own exercise working on the house remodel, but I haven't lifted weights in the gym since the end of July. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, blueberry raking and the house work has kept me in shape and then some. I have started jogging again after taking some time off from that, too.

Thursday, 9-03-15: Job application fail.
A couple weeks ago I got a letter from the USPS inviting me to come back again as a seasonal PSE (Postal Support Employee) for their busy Christmas season. Sweet! They wanted to keep me year-round after last Christmas, but I respectfully declined because seasonal work is boss right now in my life. If I had a full time job all year then I would be pwned and have no free time for anything at all. I don't even have a "real" job right now and I am busier than ever. What a bunch of crap!

^My next seasonal gig. I think. I hope!

All I have to do to get this USPS ball rolling is hop onto their e-career webpage and log in. Unfortunately, I don't know my username or my password so I clicked "forgot unsername." Gods damn me! I might have written it down somewhere last year. Maybe? I was too busy being lovestruck to have my shit together last fall, and I am still too busy being lovestruck to have my shit 100% together like I used to. I'm close, but I'm not quite there. Open enrollment is from Sept 3-10th so I still have a week to make it happen, but I would like to get it done right now so I can check it off the list. I definitely want to go back, and I already called them and left a voicemail saying so. I just got an email from them now that hopefully contains my username so that will be a start. Guy checks now...

Ok sweet, I was able to log in and now I see the PSE job for Hampden, but when I click on the link nothing happens. GODS DAMN YOUZ. It will not let me apply because the link does not work. I have Winders 7 on this thing so all I wanna know is why? Why is it defective? I know they want me back so why can I not click it? Oh well, I give up. I will try it tomorrow. This gods damned thing. Maybe it is not my computer? I can try it on Kat's new badass Windows 27, Pentium 520, 19000000MB of RAM, 2500000000000TB work laptop PC or else in my office tomorrow. I wish I could skip all this crap and just show up around mid-Nov and start working. Throw me on the DBCS 32 or whatever in automation and let me have at it! My SSN and direct deposit info hasn't changed since last year.

I still have about 11-12 weeks before the USPS job would begin, but I know those weeks will fly by so I feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do. The house renovation will chew up most of my precious... precious free time from now until then. Thankfully my foundation work is all done, 100%. Bob finished the floor yesterday afternoon, I paid his ass, and I am very pleased with the outcome. I got a very fair price because he owed me from not finishing removing the debris from Chamberlain St last year, and he proved himself by doing a good job this time. I did a lot of the work, but his expertise and experience were invaluable. He pointed out several little things that I was doing wrong, and those little mistakes can lead to big problems in the future. I wonder what little mistakes I have already made and will make along the way that won't get noticed my a professional? Hehehehe.

^Such a huge relief to have the foundation pours all done.

I framed in the exterior "laundry room" walls today, and yesterday while Bob was finishing the floor in the photo above I finished the last of the garage prep and installed some joists for the second floor. I put the term "laundry room" in quotations because I am still not 100% sure I can put the laundry room there. I'm about 95% sure that I can, but I need to have my plumber stop by and tell me what I can and can't do. I know I can do anything with the right amount of money, but if it's too costly then it won't be happening this year. Hopefully it won't invlove too much chaos to connect to the main sewer line. The water should be a piece of cake (PEX RULES), but the main sewer line is all the way on the other side of the frigging house. What a bunch of crap!

^Under those tarps is a mountain of dirt that I still need to haul away. If all goes as planned that corner will be a laundry rom, and the second floor above (not yet built) will be a bathroom.

I need to look at my plans again and make a few modifications before Kat ends her show here at Tag's. Bringing my laptop to this gig has allowed me to get some work done, but it will be a late night. We won't get home until well after midnight, if not closer to 0145. This gig has been 2000-midnight, but just about no one wants to sing at 2000 because they are not drunk enough yet so we pushed it back to 2100-0100 (to last call) because people sing more once they get drunk. On the rare occasion that I sing butcher songs it's after I'm all liquored up at Jesters.

I am all done for the night. I gotta work on these plans more and figure up my latest supply needs. I'll hit up Lowe's on Saturday after I make a stop nearby at the landfill. I have a few things to toss, things I piled up since Evergreen Waste took away this:

We put 2.76 TONS of crap into that dumpster. OMG. That's over 5500 pounds of trash, mostly debris from the old parts of the garage and "cat room" that got hauled on. I thought about taking the heavier old roof shingles to the dump in my trailer for $25, but F that it would have taken forever to separate it all and load/unload it. Better to rip that shit right off and throw it from above right into the huge dumpster. At $90 a ton I'm sure the shingles were a half a ton so it cost a bit more than if I had taken them to the dump myself, but damn it was convenient. My budget for trash removal was $500, and the total cost of the dumpster was $403 ($155 base cost of the dumpster even if you don't put anything into it.) so not too shabby. I also came in under budget for the foundation work, $2168 when I planned for $2400. Oh Jesus, hell ya! If I can stay under budget for the whole project that will be a huge win.

Tuesday, 9-01-15: Foundation and earth work.
The home renovation is coming along nicely. The frost walls came out looking great, and yesterday I had 4 yards of 3/4" gravel delivered so I could back-fill and prep for the floor. Here are the walls as of last Friday:

Unfortunately, the driver of the concrete truck fucked it away last Thursday during the frost wall pour when he let too much concrete into the chute at once. The negative side effect was concrete spilling over the top and going all over the place. What a bunch of crap! Some of the concrete spilled in behind two of the forms so there was no rescuing those two; I had to cut the top half of them off and leave the bottoms in there forever. Not really a huge problem in the grand scheme but still annoying. Oh well, shit happens.

On Sunday morning I removed most of the old garage roof; all that remains right now are a few rafters:

I had to throw up a temporary brace with a couple of my 2x8x16 floor joists so it's easier to remove the last few rafters. I removed one, thought I could grab it before it fell, but my bad there because it fell and landed right on top of my precious... precious toolbox and bashed it up a bit. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, that was a cheap toolbox that I bought nearly a decade ago so I got my money's worth from it. Kat bought me a new badass toolbox yesterday because she is awesome.

Today I plan to finish prepping this area for the floor:

I need to install a 2x2-foot grid of rebar and mark my level lines so I can get the concrete truck here hopefully tomorrow for the last pour. It's Katherine's first day of school today, her senior year, so after I drop her off I will swing by Home Depot to pick up more rebar and a few other supplies. I'm on schedule so far and I hope to get slightly ahead of schedule over the next week because there is no rain at all in the forecast so it's a great opportunity to try and get the first floor all framed up, get the joists and subfloor down for the second floor, and hopefully start framing the second floor itself.

I'm gonna hop off this bootleg thing because my right arm keeps going numb and it's hard to type. What a bunch of crap! I did epic earth work yesterday so now my arm is paying for it. I think it's a pinched nerve because the same thing has happened to it over the past 3 or so years when I work it hard. (Lots of shovelling, blueberry raking, etc.) I need to get it right gods damn it. The friggin' thing woke me up early today and I could not go back to sleep. Epic fail.