Posts Tagged ‘renovation’

Basement renovation progress

I finally got around to leveling the kitchen floor.  I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to do it, other than wanting to make sure I did it right.  The floor is sloped down a bit into the bathroom area, and the place where the kitchen sink cabinet would go is about an inch and three-eighths below the surrounding area on one side.  So what I began doing yesterday was leveling the floor an inch on that side, and allowing it to gently fill the slope to a flat, level surface. 

I’m using leveling cement to do the job.  I’ve placed painted pieces of wood all around the edges of the area I’m going to fill, to make it easier to remove the pieces once I’m done.  The wood pieces are from three-eighths to a half an inch thick, to allow plenty of expansion room between the leveling cement area and the wall studs.  I’ve already primed the area using the recommended latex floor primer, and the next step was to mix up the cement and pour it out.

While waiting for the primer to dry, I also did some water system maintenance yesterday by changing out the carbon filter.  I do that about every three months, and it was about time.  I would have done it the other day with changing out the sediment filter, except that we had run out of carbon filters and therefore I had to go to the store to get some.  So that’s another project done. Read more…

My first trip to Durham Tech’s main campus

More than enough excitement for the day

Today was the most tiring day in a while. I woke up at 6:35, left around 7:15, and took 25 minutes to get to Durham Tech’s main campus in a drive that just fell short of harrowing at times. The traffic was not any heavier than usual, but what made it so difficult was having to adjust to the changing light conditions at first. Then came the full blazing sun, shining right in my eyes for long stretches of time while I was traveling 55 mph on Highway 147.

I could barely see ahead of me, not to mention the cars coming in from the side, or the lines marking which lane I was in. I had maybe about 1 second of visibility in front of me at any one time while I was facing the sun directly. It’s quite a demand to place on my poorly functioning processors so early in the morning. Needless to say, afterwards I was quite run down. I didn’t regain my energy until 11:30 this morning, well after I had gotten back from Durham Tech and stopped to run a few errands.

Still looking on the bright side

Although I was wiped out by my early morning drive, it has not greatly impacted my excitement at being able to take my Basic Wiring class. I will just have to leave earlier in the morning (about half an hour earlier, I’m thinking) so the sun won’t have risen above the horizon yet. Then I will be one of the first cars on campus, and can claim my parking space right beside the front door. Read more…