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Further basement work...

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ChadTower:

There is a reason when someone says "I'm from Jersey" the next question is "which exit".

I look at it like this... when my wife was in a bad car accident right in front of our house, the whole neighborhood came out to gawk at her being strapped to a board and put in the ambulance.  Not one of those people ever asked about her after that.  One person came by later but only to ask if she had any extra painkillers. 

Where I grew up half of those people would have followed her to the hospital and the other half would have been home waiting for those ones to call.

myntik1:
In my case it's her family and not a Mass thing.  I've never met a bigger group of self-centered people.  Every now and then she reverts back to her upbringing even though she realizes that's a shortcoming of her clan.  A couple of years ago for X-Mas her sister bought their 5 yr niece a mini fender guitar (not a knockoff), an amp, and sprung for a years worth of guitar lessons.  A couple of months later when she found out her niece stopped taking lessons she flipped and started yelling at the child during Easter dinner.  She's 5, when I was 5 I wanted a pony, I'm sure glad I didn't have a relative with deep pockets to get me one.

Anyway the old lady is visiting some friends for a couple of days in the middle of the month.  I seize the opportunity to request some vacation time and post an ad on craigslist for a general laborer.  I'm not looking for Bob Villa, just someone I can pay some cash to give me a hand 1 -2 nights a week and then 2 full days while they're gone..  I have a bunch of buddy's who can help me out here and there but I feel bad asking them to do a project this time consuming.  We're all in the same boat with crazy jobs and kids at home.  So I tell the old lady I posted an ad to get someone to come over. Once again I'm in the dog house because I'm willing to pay someone and not use her brother's help.  Someone coming over for an hour or 2 here and there aren't that much a help.  If I know I can count on someone to come over then I know some real progress can be made.

ChadTower:

--- Quote from: myntik1 on January 02, 2008, 09:03:24 am ---If I know I can count on someone to come over then I know some real progress can be made.

--- End quote ---

That's the key... you need someone that can fit to your limited schedule and is going to show up and do more than complain about the temperature of the coffee.  You are willing to pay for it.  Nothing wrong with that.

I'm totally psyched to have a real electronics workbench setup now... I had all the equipment before but had so little access to good outlets that I had to constantly plug and unplug and jury rig stuff to get it powered.  Yesterday I spent two hours organizing and setting up logically grouped power strips so I could flick certain groups of equipment on and off with one button... so much better. 

No more making sure my feet are off the concrete floor before touching a device under power!   :laugh2:

myntik1:
The sad thing is I'm not getting the home arcade/slash mantown I want.  I would kill to have an electronics workbench or even a place to work on my games besides my grungy basement. When all is said and done I might be able to eek out a spot for 4 games, the juke and a kegerator. 

If the basement work looks good I might tackle my screened in porch with the person I hire.  If I can put up some walls,windows, siding and heat  in there we can use that for an office and free up some basement space.  When looking for a house I've seen way too many half-arsed jobs.  I would rather pay someone to do a good/great job then save a few bucks and do it sloppy.  My basement is my big project.  I'm not adding plumbing or anything, just sectioning off a couple of rooms, drywalling them and putting down a carpet.  If this goes well then I may tackle the porch.

ChadTower:

If you're willing to be patient about it, once you learn the skills, you should be able to bang out that basement without a lot of trouble.  It took me months of one hour sessions to get stick framing down.  Now that I have some reasonable speed techniques down I can get stuff done pretty efficiently.  That framing around the windows I did saturday would have taken me three days before because I just didn't have the techniques down.  I should say I do have the advantage of a bone dry basement.  It's actually dusty down there now that I've sealed half the walls.

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