BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

The continuing saga of inherited rental property which sucks the very life from you…

For more background on the story, see Week 1 entry HERE.

And so, since I am exhausted, AND I’m already into the week 3 at Hell House, here are some pics with short explanations…

Monday – We started week 2 with knocking out a section of foundation where a crack had formed. Fortunately, it was for the most part superficial. On the left is a picture of Scuba Steve, my contractor buddy, hammer drilling so we can set rebar to pin the repair concrete to the foundation proper.

After planting the rebar into the holes, Scuba went to the “Happy Van” as we like to call it, pulled out some plywood, and anchored it to the foundation to build a form.

Then we mixed up a bunch of concrete, as if we hadn’t been mixing enough of that already for the stairs and such.

Here on the right is a picture of the concrete poured in place with plywood forms anchored in place.

We literally created a chute from a piece of cardboard so that we could pour the wet concrete directly in behind the form.

Once the soupier mix had started to set up, we took a slightly drier version of it and troweled in along the top edge of the form.

When we pulled the plywood off the foundation the next day, other than a slight color variation, you’d almost never even know there had been a crack there.

Monday – Tuesday – Wednesday: In addition to the front sump and back sump, the basement had a low spot issue. This meant it was necessary for us to jackhammer a trench into the floor in order to install a secondary floor drain. The trench was a bit over 25 feet long and terminated at the original floor drain so we could tie in.

You can see the standing water around the old water heater and the base of the furnace. When the basement flooded it completely destroyed the water heater, however the workings of the furnace were up and out of harm’s way, fortunately for us.

Scuba with the jackhammer. He ended up with several bruises AND a huge blister on his hand after two weeks of driving this thing.

The blue thing around his head is one of the coolest inventions of all time. When we were doing all of this it was fairly hot and we were sweating like the proverbial stuck pigs. The blue thing is a sponge on a rubberband. It works even better than your average headband at keeping the sweat out of your eyes. Scuba happened to have an entire bag of them and he gave me a few. I now swear by them when it comes to any work where I’ll be doing some sweating.

And, here we have the Grand Canyon…

After jackhammering and sledghammering, we had to dig the trench down to the proper depth for the pipes and the trap on the floor drain, which is why you see piles of dirt everywhere. Scuba is doing the Scuba Steve dance in the background…

I took this picture shortly after we finished the digging and had laid out all of the PVC pipes and fittings along the side of the trench for a dry fit. Fortunately, the dry fit was a success and we were able to glue it and start back filling very quickly.

The new secondary floor drain…

Ain’t it purdy?

We positioned this in the low spot near the furnace and hot water heater. Prior to this it had been necessary to run the condensation drain hose from the Air Conditioner across the floor to the center of the basement so that it could empty into the main floor drain.

Now, instead of having something to trip over, the drain hose is only a few feet long and resides in the back storage area of the basement.

Sometimes it’s the little things…

The tie in to the main…

When we originally tore out the floor, we had intended to tie in to the drain for the bar sink, however when we arrived at that point we discovered a bit of a problem, that being a footing for one of the structural piers. Therefore we had to continue several more feet to the main line.

The second line is from the aforementioned sink that used to be in the kitchenette prior to the basement flood requiring a total gut.

We left it intact complete with vent pipe, but capped it off. That way if the basement is ever redone, the plumbing is already installed.

The trench 14 bags of concrete later…

As with the pad, stairs, and foundation, we mixed and poured all of the concrete by hand using a wheelbarrow. You can’t really see it in this picture, but there is also a form with a square pad poured where the old water heater used to reside (it is moved in this pic.) The pad is where the new water heater has a perch now.

All told, between the stairs, pads, foundation, and the trench, Scuba and I (and Duane) poured something on the order of 32 bags of concrete, all mixed by hand.

Thursday – Friday: These two days saw the installation of the new hot water heater, which included an enormous amount of plumbing since the old copper was too small to meet code and specs. I didn’t photograph any of the pipe cutting, joint sweating, etc. However, it took two days to redo the plumbing, gas pipes, and venting for the water heater and furnace. Just so we have something to look at, here is the new hot water heater sitting pretty on the nice, raised pad I mentioned earlier.

All of the venting is shiny and new. When we were carrying it in, Scuba had slipped several of the fittings onto my arms. Before we ever reached the back door we had both broken into a chorus of, “Oz never did give nothin’ to the Tin Man…” Yeah, I know. We aren’t right in the head. But, we know that so it’s all good.

And, of course, each day at 5:00 PM, it was “Beer Thirty”, whereupon we would take a break for a can or two of the brew…

Scuba Steve

Swervin’ Murvin’

And finally, when Saturday rolled around, it was time to paint. All of our friends showed up to slop antique white on the upstairs walls that were ready for paint. As promised, here is a picture of The Evil Redhead on stilts, doing the cut in work in one of the back bedrooms.

The Giantess Evil Kat

This brings us to Week 3 at Hell House, and hopefully the last hell week since the tenants should be moving in this coming weekend. For a taste of just one of the things I had to tackle, courtesy of the former tenant…

More to come…

Murv

So… What would make a man who is on a gear down, VFR approach to 50 “squeee” like a little kid on Christmas morning? Especially when he is a guy who is completely taken aback whenever a fan “squeees” at him during a book signing?  (I even had one poor lady break down into a trembling, crying fit when she met me at a bookstore… I wasn’t sure what to make of that at all.)

Well, let me see if I can explain exactly what it takes to turn me into an instant “fan boy” without even adding water…

Those of you who read Brainpan Leakage on a regular basis are well aware of my involvement with the “Back To Frank Black” campaign, whereby we die-hard fans of the television show Millennium are trying to cajole the studio into making a movie to wrap up the series (at the very least). Because of this I have had the good fortune to be invited onto the “Millennium Group Sessions Podcast” on several occasions. First to be interviewed about my work and how my Rowan Gant novels are similar in genre to the show, and since then to be a part of the “on air” cast who discuss episodes and all things “Millennium.”

Troy Foreman and James Mclean host the show and have actually become good friends – albeit long-distance, what with one of them living on the East coast and the other in the U. K.

I know, I know, get on with it Murv… What’s up with the “squeee”?

Well, you see, in just a few hours we will be recording another episode of the Millennium Group Sessions, and I have once again been invited to be a part of this particular show. Ostensibly my invite had been to participate in a Millennium Trivia survey, which just last night I discovered to be a cunning ruse cooked up by the hosts. The only reason I found out is because I was begging off this go around due to the plethora of problems we are having over at the rental house we are rehabbing (look for another blog on that subject very soon)… However, when I sent the email Troy replied with a note telling me he had to fess up – they actually wanted me to come on the show to help them interview one of the actors from Millennium, and they had wanted it to be a surprise.

Yes, folks. In just a few short hours I will be making a big ol’  check mark on my personal “bucket list”… I am going to be chatting with Megan Gallagher.

Insert Man Squeee here…

Aww hell, I’m not proud, insert two squeees and a happy dance around my office…

In case you have been living under a rock, Ms. Gallagher portrayed Catherine Black – Frank Black’s wife – on the series. I have been a fan of her work ever since seeing her on such shows as Hill Street Blues and China Beach.

When she showed up on Millennium I was almost ecstatic.

And, as those of you who are on Myspace already know, she is listed prominently under the heading “People I’d Like To Meet” – Of course, it also states that I would probably vapor lock and babble unintelligible drivel if that ever happened. It’s probably a good thing this interview will all be done via Skype, otherwise I would most likely frighten the poor woman away.

Now, some of you may wonder why I am so smitten with Ms. Gallagher. Well, I think her photos make that obvious. However, beside the fact that she is absolutely gorgeous she is an incredible actress. The range of expression she conveys without uttering a single word simply amazes me.

And to those of you who are regular readers here, I am sure you are wondering what The Evil Redhead thinks about all of this. Well, she actually finds it amusing. Truth is, there has been a running joke between us for the 20+ years we’ve been married – If we ever parted ways, she was going to go hook up with Pierce Brosnan, and I was going to go hook up with Megan Gallagher.

For the record – E K and I are NOT parting ways – I’m way too smitten with my wife, and she doesn’t want to train another lackey –  furthermore, as noted above the bit about hooking up with celebs was a joke. We are NOT obsessed stalker types. I personally have had to deal with a couple of my own fans who have crossed that line and it’s… it’s just… well, creepy and scary.

At any rate, thanks to Troy and James I will be chatting with Megan Gallagher today…

Insert another Man Squeee here…

…So, my apologies in advance for any broken glass my incessant squeeeing may cause throughout the day.

Now, if I can just manage to get through the interview without sounding like a completely tongue-tied idiot or scaring the poor woman…

More to come…

Murv