Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[spiritbass]

I'll say this about the Mercury program - those original seven astronauts had brass testes (or great faith) to even think about letting themselves be lifted by those Atlas booster rockets. They had a terrible tendency to explode!!!

 

[spiritbass]

A bit of GOF humor...

 

[beans-on-toast]

I'll say this about the Mercury program - those original seven astronauts had brass testes (or great faith) to even think about letting themselves be lifted by those Atlas booster rockets. They had a terrible tendency to explode!!!

They clearly didn't do it for the money.

 

[mikeoso]

I'll say this about the Mercury program - those original seven astronauts had brass testes (or great faith) to even think about letting themselves be lifted by those Atlas booster rockets. They had a terrible tendency to explode!!!

"What are you thinking about during the countdown?"
"That I'm sitting on hundreds of thousands parts all built by the lowest bidder."

 

[Jeff Scott]

How far back do they have records from past sales of property? How about old town records? There maybe old surveys/maps showing the old driveway.

I haven't checked with the county, but in 1980 City Hall had a flood, fire, something, that eliminated anything (most of it, anyway) previous to that date. I was hoping to find info on stuff done around 1940 when the second owners lived in the house. During our own renovation work I discovered a few things that led to that timeframe for some major renovation they did, such as dates on the bathroom mirror and on the underside of our bathtub (see below). The county records (online) don't show any transfer data at our property previous to 1975, but the SO's parents bought the house in 1956. We do know who the first owner was, but not the second, the one who did the earlier renovation work.

Also, here are photos of the kinds of things one may find in an old home that is lurking behind closed walls and ceilings.

Notice how one of the ceiling joists got knocked away from a stud because the plumber who installed the original 102 year old main stack and lines to the bathroom decided he need that exact same space to run his line!

Needless to say we had to call the plumber in to deal with this mess.

These photos show some of the new wiring that we were already installing.

Old houses are so much fun!!!

 

[buldog5151bass]

I haven't checked with the county, but in 1980 City Hall had a flood, fire, something, that eliminated anything (most of it, anyway) previous to that date. I was hoping to find info on stuff done around 1940 when the second owners lived in the house. During our own renovation work I discovered a few things that led to that timeframe for some major renovation they did, such as dates on the bathroom mirror and on the underside of our bathtub (see below). The county records (online) don't show any transfer data at our property previous to 1975, but the SO's parents bought the house in 1956. We do know who the first owner was, but not the second, the one who did the earlier renovation work.

View attachment 3532592

View attachment 3532593

Also, here are photos of the kinds of things one may find in an old home that is lurking behind closed walls and ceilings.

View attachment 3532597

View attachment 3532594

Notice how one of the ceiling joists got knocked away from a stud because the plumber who installed the original 102 year old main stack and lines to the bathroom decided he need that exact same space to run his line!

Another thought. Are there any local historical photographers? There are a few people here who have unofficial "archives" of many of the older town homes, including early Arial photos.

View attachment 3532595

Needless to say we had to call the plumber in to deal with this mess.

View attachment 3532596

These photos show some of the new wiring that we were already installing.

Old houses are so much fun!!!

 

[GonePlaid]

I haven't checked with the county, but in 1980 City Hall had a flood, fire, something, that eliminated anything (most of it, anyway) previous to that date. I was hoping to find info on stuff done around 1940 when the second owners lived in the house. During our own renovation work I discovered a few things that led to that timeframe for some major renovation they did, such as dates on the bathroom mirror and on the underside of our bathtub (see below). The county records (online) don't show any transfer data at our property previous to 1975, but the SO's parents bought the house in 1956. We do know who the first owner was, but not the second, the one who did the earlier renovation work.

View attachment 3532592

View attachment 3532593

Also, here are photos of the kinds of things one may find in an old home that is lurking behind closed walls and ceilings.
View attachment 3532597

View attachment 3532594

Notice how one of the ceiling joists got knocked away from a stud because the plumber who installed the original 102 year old main stack and lines to the bathroom decided he need that exact same space to run his line!

View attachment 3532595

Needless to say we had to call the plumber in to deal with this mess.

View attachment 3532596

These photos show some of the new wiring that we were already installing.

Old houses are so much fun!!!

I've watched a lotta HGTV old house reno's. Seen a lot of those situations come up, especially up north where houses can be 150-200 y/o. Having to 'sister' I-beams to existing joists so the place doesn't cave in. Yikes!(and $$$$$)<ETA>"But it has 'character'". Uh,huh. And small rooms, and no closet space, and the bathroom's tiny, and, and, and........

 

[beans-on-toast]

I've watched a lotta HGTV old house reno's. Seen a lot of those situations come up, especially up north where houses can be 150-200 y/o. Having to 'sister' I-beams to existing joists so the place doesn't cave in. Yikes!(and $$$$$)"But it has 'character'". Uh,huh. And small rooms, and no closet space, and the bathroom's tiny, and, and, and........

When you buy an old house, you never know what was done behind the walls. There’s a lot of hacks and ways to cut corners to save money. Even worse are contractors that are being paid to do it right and they cut corners to maximize their profits.

People that flip houses make me worry. They want to get every cent they can out of the sale. Corners are cut, low grade materials are used. Often it looks nice in the short term but doesn’t stand up.

They were building a house across the lane. The builders were laying plywood on the top floor. The plywood was being glued and nailed onto the beams. I would have preferred to see it glued and screwed. They ran out of glue so finished the job by just nailing. Now, I’ll bet that the floors squeak. All because the workers were lazy. It would cost a lot to fix.

 

[SoulReflection]

Happy Soulful (blues) Sunday...

 

[GwenOnBass]

In my case, when a company has a technical problem, they might ask me to take a look and see if I can recommend a better approach, or undertake to solve the problem. It's relatively small scale.

When a company or government entity has a major project, they will contract a large consulting company to supply workers to implement it. They keep the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is big money. It can be frustrating dealing with these workers. Lying. Missed deadlines. Submitting poor quality work that does not meet the specs when tested. Using every trick in the book to get away with whatever they can. People being assigned to a group, spending months in training, then going on sick leave or being unable to perform the job in the end. More delays.

I won't go into detail. As an example, one project that I'm aware of had a total budget of $75 million. With cost overruns and missed deadlines, that has climbed to $1.1 billion. It was a mess when it went live causing serious damage to databases. Another major project with thousands of workers was needed just to fix that problem, another budget. Those in charge now want to scrap the entire system, start over, and replace it with another one. It's taxpayer money.

Oh for sure. A big consulting outfit like EDS (personal experience) is to embed its contract support staff. Being assigned to a big account, e.g. General Motors, might mean a years, maybe decades, of steady work. From a slogger's POV, these are far better assignments than being shoved from team to team. If management wants someone out, they just assign the poor slob to lost cause projects.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Betcha the contractors were raking off though.

Nothing like war spoils to pay for big projects. Thutmose saw war as a profitable enterprise. It's unclear how long that went on before Megiddo, but it hasn't stopped since.

 

[GwenOnBass]

When you buy an old house, you never know what was done behind the walls. There’s a lot of hacks and ways to cut corners to save money. Even worse are contractors that are being paid to do it right and they cut corners to maximize their profits.

People that flip houses make me worry. They want to get every cent they can out of the sale. Corners are cut, low grade materials are used. Often it looks nice in the short term but doesn’t stand up.

They were building a house across the lane. The builders were laying plywood on the top floor. The plywood was being glued and nailed onto the beams. I would have preferred to see it glued and screwed. They ran out of glue so finished the job by just nailing. Now, I’ll bet that the floors squeak. All because the workers were lazy. It would cost a lot to fix.

This is your words in pictures

McMansions 101

 

[GwenOnBass]

I've watched a lotta HGTV old house reno's. Seen a lot of those situations come up, especially up north where houses can be 150-200 y/o. Having to 'sister' I-beams to existing joists so the place doesn't cave in. Yikes!(and $$$$$)<ETA>"But it has 'character'". Uh,huh. And small rooms, and no closet space, and the bathroom's tiny, and, and, and........

Some old homes without indoor plumbing are fine as is

Isola Bella (Lago Maggiore) - Wikipedia

 

[GwenOnBass]

There I was, minding my own business when

​

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Five years ago we had our snow roof ripped off because of a 'willy-wah' or something like that. It was pretty devastating. We had good insurance and they approved the roof replacement plus a new cover over our deck, and some repairs to the shed. The mini-tornado did that much damage.

We hired an expensive contractor with a very good reputation. Turns out he took the job but later we overheard he was upset because our job caused him to miss a government contract. His heart wasn't in it, and Carey could tell. She started watching with her eagle eye and found carpentry mistakes-- sloppy work. She made him redo it and eventually our relationship with him was somewhat strained. He just wanted to get out and Carey made sure it got done right.

Contractors... Sheesh.... that's not even REALLY how mad I got about it either!

 

[LBS-bass]

Five years ago we had our snow roof ripped off because of a 'willy-wah' or something like that. It was pretty devastating. We had good insurance and they approved the roof replacement plus a new cover over our deck, and some repairs to the shed. The mini-tornado did that much damage.

We hired an expensive contractor with a very good reputation. Turns out he took the job but later we overheard he was upset because our job caused him to miss a government contract. His heart wasn't in it, and Carey could tell. She started watching with her eagle eye and found carpentry mistakes-- sloppy work. She made him redo it and eventually our relationship with him was somewhat strained. He just wanted to get out and Carey made sure it got done right.

Contractors... Sheesh.... that's not even REALLY how mad I got about it either!

Don't even get me started on contractors.

Boat gig went pretty well. Two nights playing the same three sets; I have to admit I was happier and less tired the first night, but it was nice to have a decent gig for a change. Didn't take many pictures but here are a couple.

The group last night (sans yours truly), which expanded from Friday to include my husband on congas (second from left). The guy to the far right was someone who just liked the music, everyone else seated at the bar was in the band.

And here's my #1 in its natural habitat.

Since this was a sub gig, I did something I rarely do: I used a tablet. I played with these guys for about a year but due to exhaustion and stress, I reorganized my life a year ago, and this was one of the projects I let go of, because they weren't doing much paid work and I had more interesting projects to focus on. So I was familiar with most of the originals we did, and the covers were low-hanging fruit. It was fun to get together with them again, and it was nice that they invited my husband out to join us last night. He did a great job.

The woman at far left in the first photo is a phenomenal lead player, and she and I harmonize well together. She's invited me to to sub in one of her other projects because their usual lead singer can only do a couple shows a month. They also play on this boat, so decent pay. I'm going to think about picking up those gigs. Paid work is nice.

Today, though.... man. Today, I have a day off, which is rare. Unfortunately, I'm dealing with a weird problem. I ate some tortilla chips a few days ago and injured the roof of my mouth. It's been sore since then, but yesterday it got bad, and it's clear now that the injury is infected. I'm unable to eat anything that isn't practically liquid, and even that hurts. Made an appointment with the doctor for a phone consult tomorrow, just doing mouth rinses with hydrogen peroxide and salt water in the meantime. Going to go out to stock up on soup and yogurt. Might be a good time to try to lose some weight... other than the pain, I'm not doing too badly. I may do a little private jam thing that I sometimes do on Sundays later this afternoon. We'll see if those guys are up to it. If not, I'll probably just hang out in the woodshed here.

 

[El Güero]

Happy Soulful (blues) Sunday...

Ditto

 

[GwenOnBass]

And in the wave having committed a minor fox paw <wink> in posting a non-soulful offering on Sunday now bring up these guys. And see that Joe Bonamassa uses a flying V for this tune, too. Man alive, Junior Walker.

Soulful (blues) Sunday

​

 

[SoulReflection]

And in the wave having committed a minor fox paw <wink> in posting a non-soulful offering on Sunday now bring up these guys. And see that Joe Bonamassa uses a flying V for this tune, too. Man alive, Junior Walker.

Soulful (blues) Sunday

​

Your selection was much better...thanks for posting .

 

[Stumbo]

Don't even get me started on contractors.

Boat gig went pretty well. Two nights playing the same three sets; I have to admit I was happier and less tired the first night, but it was nice to have a decent gig for a change. Didn't take many pictures but here are a couple.

The group last night (sans yours truly), which expanded from Friday to include my husband on congas (second from left). The guy to the far right was someone who just liked the music, everyone else seated at the bar was in the band.

View attachment 3532862

And here's my #1 in its natural habitat.

View attachment 3532865

Since this was a sub gig, I did something I rarely do: I used a tablet. I played with these guys for about a year but due to exhaustion and stress, I reorganized my life a year ago, and this was one of the projects I let go of, because they weren't doing much paid work and I had more interesting projects to focus on. So I was familiar with most of the originals we did, and the covers were low-hanging fruit. It was fun to get together with them again, and it was nice that they invited my husband out to join us last night. He did a great job.

The woman at far left in the first photo is a phenomenal lead player, and she and I harmonize well together. She's invited me to to sub in one of her other projects because their usual lead singer can only do a couple shows a month. They also play on this boat, so decent pay. I'm going to think about picking up those gigs. Paid work is nice.

Today, though.... man. Today, I have a day off, which is rare. Unfortunately, I'm dealing with a weird problem. I ate some tortilla chips a few days ago and injured the roof of my mouth. It's been sore since then, but yesterday it got bad, and it's clear now that the injury is infected. I'm unable to eat anything that isn't practically liquid, and even that hurts. Made an appointment with the doctor for a phone consult tomorrow, just doing mouth rinses with hydrogen peroxide and salt water in the meantime. Going to go out to stock up on soup and yogurt. Might be a good time to try to lose some weight... other than the pain, I'm not doing too badly. I may do a little private jam thing that I sometimes do on Sundays later this afternoon. We'll see if those guys are up to it. If not, I'll probably just hang out in the woodshed here.

I guess you missed the warning label on the chip bag.